The Analysis of Verbal Behavior

The study of memory has traditionally been the province of cognitive psychology, which has postulated different memory systems that store memory traces to explain remembering. Behavioral psychologists have been unsuccessful at empirically identifying the behavior that occurs during remembering because so much of it occurs rapidly and covertly. In addition, behavior analysts have generally been disinterested in studying transient phenomena such as memory. As a result, the cognitive interpretation has been the only one that has made and tested useful predictions. Recent experimental evidence acquired while having participants “think aloud” suggests that a behavioral approach to memory may provide a superior account of memory performance and allow applied scientists to observe and modify memory-related behavior with well-known applied behavior-analytic techniques. We review evidence supporting and extending the interpretation of memory provided by Palmer (1991), who described memory in terms of precurrent behavior that occurs at the time of acquisition in preparation for problem solving that occurs at the time of remembering.

Rules / verbal behavior governing applied behavior scientists since Skinner have achieved great success resolving challenges experienced by individuals with severe developmental and intellectual disabilities. We extend prior work by Dixon, Belisle, Rehfeldt, and Root (2018, “Why We Are Still Not Acting to Save the World: The Upward Challenge of a Post-Skinnerian Behavior Science,” Perspectives on Behavior Science, 41, 241–267) by suggesting that many of these rules, applied inflexibly, are unlikely to resolve significant problems experienced by humans without these same intellectual challenges (i.e., most humans). Particularly, methodological models of human behavior that ignore both private events and advances in relational frame theory and that favor a bottom-up inductive theorizing have not, and we argue cannot, address uniquely human challenges. Instead, we propose alternative rules developed in part within contextual behavior science that are more consistent with Skinner’s radical behaviorism than are current approaches and that may expand the scope of applied behavior science. Only by adapting our own public and private verbal behavior as applied scientists can we move toward solving the wide range of challenges within the human condition.

The present study evaluated the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) as described in the PEAK-E curriculum (Dixon, 2015) for promoting the emergence of derived geometry skills in two children with high-functioning autism. The results suggested that direct training of shape name (A) to shape property (B) (i.e., A-B relations) was effective for both participants. Following A-B training, both participants demonstrated emergent relations that are consistent with symmetry (B-A), as well as emergent shape name (A) to shape picture (C) relations that are consistent with transitivity (A-C). The results expand on existing literature by demonstrating the emergence of an A-C relation when neither A nor B stimuli were ever trained to C stimuli and illustrate the efficacy of EBI for training geometry skills.

The functions of an American Sign Language response were experimentally evaluated with a young boy diagnosed with autism. A functional analysis procedure based on that reported by Lerman et al. (2005) was used to evaluate whether the target sign response would occur under mand, tact, mimetic, or control conditions. The target sign was observed most often in the mand and mimetic test conditions, very seldom in the tact test condition, and never in the control condition. These results support those reported by Lerman et al. and extend previous research by evaluating a non-vocal verbal response using a brief multi-element arrangement with a single control condition. The implications for language assessment and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Recently, there has been a proliferation of research on the functional independence of two of Skinner’s (1957) verbal operants, the mand, and the tact. This research has produced highly variable results. In this article, we provide a critical review of the literature on mand–tact independence, a literature that has implications for both theory and practice. Included in the review are 17 studies with a total of 66 participants who were tested for mand emergence following tact training, tact emergence following mand training, or both, and 11 additional studies that systematically manipulated variables expected to affect the outcomes of such tests. A primary finding is that most studies to date suffer from problems with construct validity. However, it may be justifiable to conclude that the literature provides at least weak support for the functional independence of mands and tacts. Future investigators should avoid the major construct validity pitfalls described in this article, describe participant characteristics more thoroughly, and consider alternative approaches to studying mand–tact independence.

Ten subjects responded under a tandem fixed-ratio 1 not-responding-greater-than-t schedule of point delivery during one 75-min session in which the delay was either 10 or 20 s. Subjects were asked to describe the contingencies throughout the session. Although studies with nonhumans have demonstrated response acquisition under similar delayed-consequence procedures, a minority of subjects in the current study demonstrated sensitivity to delayed consequences convincingly. All subjects exhibited inefficient patterns of responding and descriptions of nonexistent contingencies. Subjects who demonstrated learning were more likely to verbalize the actual contingencies, but this was not true in all cases. Furthermore, some subjects who demonstrated learning did not describe the delay contingency. Results suggest that learning may occur in the absence of a person’s ability to describe environment-behavior relations.

This study evaluated the effects of four instructional variants on instruction following under changing reinforcement schedules using an operant task based on Hackenberg and Joker’s Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 367–383 (1994) experimental preparation. Sixteen college-aged adults served as participants and were randomly assigned to one of four instruction conditions (directive, generic, non-directive, and control). Results suggest textual verbal behavior modulated instruction following. Specifically, directive and generic instructions produced greater levels of instructional control and relatively lower levels of schedule control compared to non-directive instructions. Thus, participants in the directive and generic groups responded in accordance with the instructions even when schedules of reinforcement favored deviation from the instructed pattern. In contrast, participants in the non-directive group responded toward the optimal pattern. In the control condition, participant responding was variable but toward the optimal pattern. Findings are interpreted within the framework of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior and formulation of rule governance.