Skinners Analysis of Verbal Behavior Beyond the Elementary
Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior: Beyond the Elementary Verbal Operants Mark L. Sundberg and David C. Palmer
Workshop Outline • • • Any given verbal exchange between speakers and listeners contains a multitude of functional relations between antecedents, behavior, and consequences The functional units of echoic, mand, tact, intraverbal, textual, and audience relations form the foundation of a verbal behavior analysis Beyond the elementary operants….
Workshop Outline • • • “But this is only the beginning. Once a repertoire of verbal behavior has been set up, a host of new problems arise from the interaction of its parts. Verbal behavior is usually the effect of multiple causes. Separate variables combine to extend their functional control, and new forms of behavior emerge from the recombination of old fragments. ” (p. 10) “A speaker is normally also a listener. He reacts to his own be havior in several important ways. Part of what he says is under the control of other parts of his verbal behavior. ” (p. 10) “We refer to this interaction when we say that the speaker qualifies, orders, or elaborates his behavior at the moment it is produced. ” (p. 10)
Workshop Outline • • “As another consequence of the fact that the speaker is also a listener, some of the behavior of listening resembles the behavior of speaking, particularly when the listener ‘understands’ what is said. ” (pp. 10 11) “The speaker and listener within the same skin engage in activities which are traditionally described as “thinking. ” (p. 11) “The speaker manipulates his behavior; he reviews it, and may reject it or emit it in modified form. ” (p. 11) “The skillful speaker learns to tease out weak behavior and to manipulate variables which will generate and strengthen new re sponses in his repertoire…An analysis of these activities, together with their effects upon the listener, leads us in the end to the role of verbal behavior in the problem of knowledge. ” (p. 11)
Workshop Outline • • • Main topics beyond the elementary operants, and necessary for the analysis of complex verbal behavior Private events Thinking Multiple control Verbal extensions Autoclitics Automatic contingencies Rule governed behavior Self editing Conditioning the behavior of the listener
Workshop Outline • • Interpretive analyses…. Memory Problem solving Joint control A behavioral analysis of response form (structure, sentences) Novel and emerging behavior Multiple exemplar training/instruction Derived relations:
Private Events (Jack Michael, 2004) • • B. F. Skinner's philosophical view, Radical Behaviorism, concerns the treatment of private stimuli. Six points, as in S&HB, pp. 257 258 (which I (Jack) modify slightly) as follows: 1. Behavior is a function of the environment–any event in the universe capable of affecting the organism (stimuli, motivative operations, response–consequence relations) 2. But part of the universe is enclosed within the organism's own skin. (some stimuli originate within the organism’s own skin) 3. Some stimuli, motivation, etc. , may therefore be related to behavior in a unique way. The individual’s response to an inflamed tooth, for example, is unlike the response that anyone else can make to that particular tooth, since no one else can establish the same kind of contact with it. These are private events
Private Events (Jack Michael, 2004) • • • The following human sense modes can generally be considered public: vision, audition, olfaction, gestation, surface touch, and surface temperature (exteroceptive stimuli) The following can be considered private: deep touch, deep temperature, and deep pain (interoceptive and proprioceptive stimuli) There are three whose status in this respect is unclear: kinesthesis, vestibular, surface pain (interoceptive and proprioceptive stimuli)
Private Events (Jack Michael, 2004) 4. But we need not suppose that private events have special properties because no one else can establish the same kind of contact with it. They may be distinguished by their limited accessibility but not, so far as we know, by any special structure or nature. • • 5. We acquire VB under control of public stimuli by the reactions of others to our behavior in the presence of those stimuli. We also acquire VB controlled by private stimuli where others cannot make direct contact with those stimuli. We tact itches, pains, nausea, etc. How is it accomplished? 6. Four ways
Private Events (Skinner, 1957) • • • “(1) A common public accompaniment of the private stimulus which eventually controls the response may be used. ” (p. 131) “(2) A commoner practice is to use some collateral response to the private stimulus. ” (p. 131) “(3) A third possibility is that the community may not need to appeal to private stimuli at all; it may reinforce a response in connection with a public stimulus, only to have the response transferred to a private event by virtue of common properties, as in metaphorical and metonymical extension. ” ( p. 132)
Private Events (Skinner, 1957) • • “(4) The original contingency may be based upon the externally observable behavior of the organism, even though this stimulates the speaker and the community in different ways. If the behavior is now reduced in magnitude or scale, a point will be reached at which the private stimuli survive although the public stimuli vanish. ” (p. 133) “In other words, behavior may be executed so weakly or so incompletely that it fails to be seen by another person, although it is still strong enough to stimulate the behaver himself. ” (p. 133)
Additional remarks on privacy n n No “privacy-in-principle” (cf. Rachlin) Circumstantial: Privacy depends on tools of the observer and is not an essential property of behavior. Definition of behavior: Any activity of the organism that interacts in orderly ways with antecedents and consequences. Principles derived from overt behavior and extrapolated to covert (never the other way around)
An appeal to private events is constrained. They must n n n Have a plausible history Take time Be strong in current context Change in strength according to behavioral principles Compete with other behavior That is, they are not “representations” and cannot have ad hoc properties
Response magnitude n n n Behavior is not special by virtue of its privacy. However, behavior (public or private) may be special by virtue of its magnitude. (That is, its role as an independent variable may vary with its magnitude. ) Many of the distinctive things about private behavior are a function of its magnitude, not its privacy. (Speed, effort, effectiveness)
Private events and causation n Private events must take their place in any interpretive account, for their status is as real as any other variable. Our ability to observe behavior does not change the causation of behavior. They can be ignored only to the extent that observable variables are sufficient to account for all of the variance in the phenomenon under study. (Caveat to those studying complex behavior. )
Thinking • • • Speaker as his own listener (speaker and listener within the same skin) First, Skinner considers the possibility that thinking is just covert verbal behavior (pp. 434 438) However, Skinner rejects this formulation of thinking as simple covert verbal behavior. “The theory that thinking was merely subaudible speech had at least the favorable effect of identifying thinking with behaving. But speech is only a special case of behavior and subaudible speech a further subdivision” (p. 438). Next, Skinner considers the possibility that thinking can occur at the overt as well as the covet level (pp. 438 446).
Thinking • • “A better case can be made for identifying thinking with behaving which automatically affects the behaver and is reinforcing because it does so. This can be either covert or overt. . When a man talks to himself, aloud or silently, he is an excellent listener” (p. 438) However, Skinner rejects the view that thinking is just self verbal behavior because “all the important properties of the behavior are to be found in verbal systems composed of separate speakers and listeners” (p. 445).
Thinking • • The third possible interpretation of thinking is that thinking is verbal behavior in general (pp. 446 449). “Are we to be content with the rest of Plato’s phrase: ‘thought is the same as speech’? Disregarding the distinction between overt and covert and the possibility that verbal behavior may be especially effective upon the speaker himself, are we to conclude that thinking is simply verbal behavior? ” However, Skinner again rejects this and concludes with, “The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt”
Thinking • A better case can be made for identifying thinking with behaving which automatically affects the behaver and is reinforcing because it does so. This can be either covert or overt. . When a man talks to himself, aloud or silently, he is an excellent listener
Verbal Extensions • • Generalization “If a response is reinforced upon a given occasion or class of occasions, any feature of that occasion or common to that class appears to gain some measure of control” (p. 91) A novel stimulus possessing one such feature may evoke a response (p. 91) There are several ways in which a novel stimulus may resemble a stimulus previously present when a response was reinforced, and hence there are several types of what we may call “extended tacts” (p. 91).
Verbal Extensions • • • Skinner distinguished between four types of extended tacts generic, metaphoric, metonymic, and solistic The distinction is based on the degree to which a novel stimulus shares the relevant or irrelevant features of the original stimulus In generic extension, the novel stimulus shares all of the relevant or defining features of the original stimulus In metaphorical extension the novel stimulus shares some, but not all of the relevant features of the original stimulus Metonymical extensions involve responses to novel stimuli that have none of the relevant features of the original stimulus configuration, but some irrelevant but related feature has acquired stimulus control
Verbal Extensions • • • Finally, a solistic extension occurs when “ The property which gains control of the response is only distantly related to the defining properties upon which standard reinforcements are contingent or is similar to that property for irrelevant reasons. . Most verbal communities not only fail to respond effectively to such extensions but provide some sort of punishment for them” (p. 102) Mand extensions “The probability of emission of a (mand) response is greatest when the stimulating conditions closely resemble those which have previously prevailed before reinforcement” (p. 46) (e. g. , the “magical mand”)
Multiple Control • • • “Two facts emerge from our survey of the basic functional relations: (1) the strength of a single response may be, and usually is, a function of more than one variable and (2) a single variable usually affects more than one response” (1957, p. 227) The conditions where the strength of a single verbal response is a function more than one variable can be identified as “convergent multiple control. ” The conditions where a single variable affects the strength of more than just one response can be identified as “divergent multiple control”
Multiple Control • • • Convergent multiple control SD SD MO R
Multiple Control • • • Convergent multiple control can be observed in almost all instances of verbal behavior. MOs, nonverbal stimuli, the audience, and verbal stimuli frequently share antecedent control over verbal behavior “Just as a given stimulus word will evoke a large number of different responses from a sample of the population at large, it increases the probability of emission of many responses in a single speaker” (p. 227) Empirical support from priming studies. Note implication that most such effects are sub threshold. Michael, Palmer, & Sundberg (2011)
Multiple Control • Divergent multiple control • • SD/MO • • R 1 R 2 R 3 R 4 R 5
Multiple control and algebraic summation of response strength n n n [It is likely that] any sample of verbal behavior will be a function of many variables operating at the same time. …It is a well established principle in nonverbal behavior that separate sources of strength are additive. (Since some variables reduce the strength of verbal behavior, the addition must be algebraic. ) – (p. 228) Behavior is thus not a linear sequence of discrete billiard ball responses; the strength of a response may accumulate over time as the function of a number of variables acting together or in sequence. Problem solving and recall both exploit this feature of behavior.
Multiple control and response competition n Within any response system (effector), only one response at a time can be emitted, although many competing responses may be strong. Thus emitted behavior masks many of the actual behavioral effects of a variable. Strong but unemitted behavior may play a role in our interpretive accounts (e. g. , tip-of-thetongue phenomenon).
The Autoclitic • • • In the autoclitic relation “Part of the behavior of an organism becomes in turn one of the variables controlling another part. There at least two systems of responses, one based upon the other. The upper level can only be understood in terms of its relation to the lower level” (Skinner, 1957, p. 313) A theme throughout Verbal Behavior is that a speaker can, and often does, function as his or her own listener “Converting the speaker into an interested bystander is certainly the direction in which an analysis of behavior will first move” (p. 311)
The Autoclitic • • The term ‘autoclitic’ is intended to suggest (verbal) behavior which is based upon or depends upon other verbal behavior” (Skinner, 1957, p. 315) In common sense terms the autoclitic is verbal behavior about a speaker’s own verbal behavior and its controlling variables “Autoclitic behavior is concerned with practical action or with responses on the part of the listener” (p. 344) Autoclitic behavior increases the probability that the listener will behave appropriately
The Autoclitic • • • There always two related, but separate three term contingencies to analyze in autoclitic relations Skinner identified these two levels of verbal behavior as a “standard relation” and “an autoclitic relation” Michael (1992) suggested that these two levels of verbal behavior be identified as primary verbal operants (standard relation) and secondary verbal operants (autoclitic relations)
The Autoclitic • • The primary verbal operants are Mand Tact Echoic (Copying a text) Intraverbal Textual Transcription
A Primary Tact • Nonverbal SD “Mommy” Social reinforcement
The Autoclitic Mand Tact • • • Peterson (1978) suggested that secondary verbal behavior be identified (or sub divided) as either “autoclitic tacts” or “autoclitic mands” depending on the source of control relevant to the specific autoclitic to be analyzed The autoclitic tact “informs the listener” with respect to some nonverbal aspect of the primary response (including its controlling variables) and is therefore controlled by nonverbal stimuli The autoclitic mand “enjoins the listener” to behave is some way with respect to the primary response and is controlled by MOs
The Autoclitic Tact • • • Examples of autoclitic tacts… “I see…”: Child tacts that it is the visual SD of Mommy that is the source of control for the primary tact “Mommy” “I think…”: Child tacts the weakness of the nonverbal source of control and its relation to the primary tact “Mommy” “I hear…” Child tacts that it is an auditory SD of Mommy that is the source of control for the primary tact “Mommy” “I see Mommy” may contain the autoclitic tact “I see” if there are indeed two levels of responding, and the second level of verbal behavior is controlled by nonverbal stimuli related to the primary verbal operant
The Autoclitic Tact • • Autoclitic responding is shaped by listeners in several ways. For example, if a father is wrapping a gift for his child’s mother, and the child nearby says, “mommy, ” the father may mand to the child to identify the source of control for the response, “mommy” as in, “Did you see her? ” The father may differentially respond to “I see” indicating that clearly “mommy” is a tact and the gift should be hidden, rather than just a mand for mommy, in which case it is okay to keep wrapping the gift
The Autoclitic Tact • • It could also be that the source of control for the response “mommy” is the gift, as in “That is for Mommy. The autoclitic “That is for” informs the listener that the exact source of nonverbal control for the primary tact “mommy” is the gift, and the father can continue wrapping “An autoclitic affects the listener by indicating either a property of the speaker’s behavior or the circumstances responsible for that property” (p. 329)
The Autoclitic Mand • • • Autoclitic mands occur frequently to manipulate listener behavior in ways reinforcing to a particular speaker In the autoclitic mand there is some specific MO that is controlling the secondary response The response “I see Mommy” may contain an autoclitic mand if “I see” is not controlled by an SD related to a tact of the visual stimulus of mommy, but by an MO such as the same MO that might control the response “hurry up” Autoclitic mands are ubiquitous, but since the sources of control are private it is difficult for a listener to tact the fact that MOs are controlling the verbal behavior Hidden agendas
The Autoclitic • • • The distinction between what is, and what is not autoclitic behavior, is often difficult, but cannot be made on the basis of the response form alone (a major theme in the analysis of all verbal behavior) Skinner also presents several additional types of autoclitics (e. g. , manipulative, relational, quantifying, and qualifying), and analyzes hundreds of different examples The autoclitic function can be carried by the tone of voice, rate of speech, mannerisms, facial movements, etc.
What the Autoclitic is Not • • The response “I see” may not be autoclitic at all if it is actually a primary response acquired as a unit, as in “I see mommy. ” Or if it is an echoic, textual, or intraverbal,
A Primary Tact • Nonverbal SD “Mommy” Social reinforcement
A Primary Tact • Nonverbal SD “I see Mommy” Social reinforcement
What the Autoclitic is Not • • Skinner lists hundreds of examples of responses that could be autoclitic in Chapters 12 14. However, functional relations of any type cannot be identified by form alone. It is very easy to misread all of these examples as autoclitics. Skinner is assuming the appropriate autoclitic controlling variables are present Examples of form without function from the autoclitic chapters “Autoclitics describe the state of strength of a response. I guess, I estimate, I believe, I imagine, and I surmise” (p. 315) “Another group of autoclitics. . . are I agree, I confess, I expect, I concede, I infer, I predict, I dare say, I must say, I can say, I admit, I reply, I should say, and I mean to say” (p. 316)
Automatic Reinforcement • • Skinner did not directly define it He did not use it as a separate principle of behavior It does not appear in any of his indexes He uses the term over 100 times in his books He also uses “self reinforcement, ” and “self stimulation” as synonymous with automatic reinforcement, but not always The most frequent usage occurs in Verbal Behavior Skinner’s usage of “automatic” is simply to counteract “any tendency to restrict the concept of reinforcement to those occasions upon which it has been deliberately arranged by another person or group” (Vaughan & Michael, 1982, p. 218)
Automatic Reinforcement Automatic reinforcement has the same defining properties as reinforcement • • • Follows behavior Increases behavior Under the stimulus conditions it occurs Automatic reinforcement can be… • • • Unconditioned Conditioned Positive or negative Intermittent Increase verbal or nonverbal behavior
Automatic Reinforcement • • Can also have automatic punishment (e. g. , Skinner, 1957, p. 375) Can also have automatic extinction (e. g. , Skinner, 1957, p. 164) Perhaps “automatic consequences” is a better term (Skinner does use this term, e. g. , p. 442) What about automatic “stimulus control” and “motivational control? ” Behavior can also be shaped by consequences that are not deliberately arranged All behavioral principles and procedures can affect an organism without direct arrangement from other people Perhaps “automatic contingencies” is a better term
Automatic Reinforcement Skinner presents two types of automatic reinforcement (1957, pp. 164 166; 438 446) • Practical: The reinforcement is provided by the physical environment (“the producing response operates on the surrounding world”) • Artistic/Autistic: The reinforcement is provided by the response product emanating from the behavior. (“The producing response operates on the behaver directly”)
Automatic Reinforcement • • • Nonverbal Practical: The producing nonverbal response operates on the surrounding world, and behavior is shaped and automatically comes under the relevant stimulus control Grab toy—have toy in hand Pull string toy moves Push door – it opens Turn on faucet water comes out Pull blind string—blinds go up Climb steps get to the top Place items in a form ball they successfully go inside Turn and look see things
Automatic Reinforcement Verbal Practical: The verbal response product operates on the speaker as listener, and behavior is shaped and automatically comes under the relevant antecedent control • Self mand (e. g. , “I need to get back on task”) • Self tact (e. g. , “Greg! That’s his name”) • Self echoic (e. g. , “ 454 8798, 454 8798”) • Self intraverbal (e. g. , Problem solving, thinking) • Self textual (e. g. , Harry Potter) (Skinner, 1957, pp. 440 446)
Automatic Reinforcement • • • Nonverbal Artistic/Autistic: The nonverbal response product operates on the behaver directly, and behavior is shaped and automatically comes under the relevant antecedent control Nonverbal behavior is directly reinforced by stimulation (e. g. , kinesthetic, auditory, visual) related to the response product (no pairing—phylogenic —unconditioned automatic reinforcement) Rocking, finger flicking/tapping, foot tapping, hair twirling, humming, visual patterns, hand ringing, exercise, masturbation, scratch to remove an itch (automatic negative reinforcement), SIB, aggression (e. g. , Iwata, et al. )
Automatic Reinforcement • • • Nonverbal Artistic/Autistic Nonverbal behavior is directly reinforced by stimulation (e. g. , kinesthetic, auditory, visual) related to the response product (due to pairing ontogenic conditioned automatic reinforcement) Mannerisms, posture, gestures, Rap singer movements, noise making, babbling, dress, jewelry, cars, hair style (Farrah Fawcett’s feathered hair) (Freud’s “Identification”)
Automatic Reinforcement • • • Verbal Artistic/Autistic: The verbal response product operates on the behaver directly, and behavior is shaped and automatically comes under the relevant antecedent control Verbal behavior is directly reinforced by stimulation (e. g. , kinesthetic, auditory, visual) related to the response product (due to pairing ontogenetic conditioned automatic reinforcement) Verbal response forms that match caretakers or others of value, including accents, intonation, prosody, syntax and grammar; also singing, fun words, verbal perseveration, delayed echolalia, verbal obsessions
Automatic Reinforcement • • • Summary: Behavior can be shaped, maintained, or eliminated by automatic contingencies that are not directly set up or mediated by other persons. These contingences can be very efficient and even more precise then those formally arranged “The exquisite subtlety of our verbal repertoires is shaped by contingencies of automatic reinforcement. . . one need not wait for the lumbering machinery of social reinforcement to swing into action” (Palmer, 1996, p. 290) “Money grades and honors must be husbanded carefully, but the automatic reinforcement of being right and moving forward are inexhaustible” (Skinner, 1968, p. 158)
Automatic Reinforcement • • Parity Language acquisition Babbling Accents Prosody Syntax Grammar
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • • Skinner devoted three chapters in Verbal Behavior to self editing (Chapters 15, 16, 17) “Verbal responses are described and manipulated by the speaker with appropriate autoclitics which augment and sharpen the effect upon the listener. They are also often examined for their effect upon the speaker or prospective listener, and then either rejected or released. This process of ‘editing’ is an additional activity of the speaker” (Skinner, 1957, p. 369)
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • • • “A response which has been emitted in overt form may be recalled or revoked by an additional response” (p. 369) “Subvocal behavior can, of course, be revoked before it has been emitted audibly” (p. 370) “Much of the self stimulation required in the autoclitic description and composition of verbal behavior seems to occur prior to even subaudible emission” (p. 371) “In both written and vocal behavior changes are made on the spur of the moment and so rapidly that we cannot reasonably attribute them to actual review of the covert forms” (p. 371) “The subject is a difficult one because it has all the disadvantages of private stimulation” (p. 371)
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • • • “A speaker usually rejects a response because it has been punished” (p. 371) “Verbal behavior may be objectionable to the listener simply as noise” (p. 373) “Verbal behavior is frequently punished because of deficient stimulus control” (p. 373) “Verbal behavior is usually punished if only by its ineffectiveness when it is under poor audience control” (p. 374) “Verbal behavior may be automatically self punishing” (p. 375)
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • • • Effects of punishment…. “Concealing the identity of the speaker” (p. 377). “Recession to the covert level” (p. 377). “Talking to one’s self” (p. 377). “Disguised speech” (pp. 377 378). “One form of editing which involves an obvious process of review and revision consists of emitting the response but qualifying it with an autoclitic which reduces the threat of punishment” (p. 377).
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • • • “If all one’s verbal responses were invariably reinforced, one would be almost constantly occupied with verbal behavior” (p. 380) “The process of editing generated by punishment greatly increases the appropriateness of verbal behavior to all features of an occasion, including the audience” (p. 380) The role of reinforcement… “The automatic reinforcement of verbal behavior also plays a role in the process of editing” (p. 380). “Many other positive consequences come into play when verbal behavior is produced to satisfy specifications” (p. 381).
Skinner’s Analysis of Self Editing • “ The production of raw verbal behavior following the principles outlined in Parts II and III comes first. Autoclitic responses or activities (Part IV) then occur. The resulting behavior may not immediately reach the ultimate listener. Because of punishment of other behavior it may be held up for review by the speaker or writer. Changes occur in the act of review which lead to rejection, to emission in a qualified form, or full fledged emission. Often the process is not complete until the speaker has resorted to other activities to produce alternative forms of responses (Chapter 17)” (p. 382).
Special Conditions of Self Editing • • • “Verbal behavior is not always subject to the review discussed in the last chapter” (p. 384). “Defective feedback” (p. 384). “Defective self observation” (pp. 385 386). “Defective responses to controlling variables” (pp. 386 388). “Automatic verbal behavior” (pp. 388 390) “In the process of composition and editing the speaker arranges, qualifies, withholds, or releases verbal behavior which already exists in some strength in his repertoire” (p. 403).
Techniques • • “Manipulating stimuli” (p. 405 410). • Self prompts, self probes, change the audience “Changing the level of editing” (p. 410). “Mechanical production of verbal behavior” (p. 411) “Changing motivation and emotional variables” (p. 412). “Incubation” (p. 413). “Production and editing” (p. 414 415). “Building new verbal responses” (415 417).
Rule Governed Behavior (Skinner, 1969) • • Contingency shaped behavior and rule governed behavior Contingency shaped behavior: Direct contact with the contingences (e. g. , learning how to sail while in a boat, on a lake) Rule governed behavior: Verbal statements of the contingencies (reading a book on sailing. Skinner: “The point of science is to analyze the contingencies of reinforcement found in nature and to formulate rules or laws which make it unnecessary to be exposed to them in order to behave effectively (p. 166)
Shaping is a selection process n n n Behavior varies Some variants are scheduled for reinforcement Those variants become more frequent Behavior varies around this new variant The cycle repeats. Eventually very unusual behavior can emerge, unlike any baseline behavior.
Rule-governed behavior shortcircuits selection contingencies n n Press Ctrl-Alt-Del “Open Sesame” Dial 413 -658 -8819 Adaptive behavior occurs on a single trial
The role of atomic repertoires n n n Children acquire a repertoire of fine motor responses under control of verbal stimuli and reinforced by generalized social reinforcement: Simon says, ‘Do this…do that…’ When someone arranges a sequence of verbal stimuli, the behavior can emerge on a single trial. ‘Go north 20 paces, east 13 paces, and dig!’ n But the grain is not infinitely fine: n n n “Place palm on table, raise third finger 1. 72 inches. ” The scope of R-G behavior depends on the grain of our atomic repertoires. Example of the rule-governed rat.
Other kinds of atomic repertoires n n n Imitative behavior Echoic behavior Tacting behavior Playing a piano Painting by numbers Note that in every case a target response can be evoked in a single trial!
n n Once a set of atomic responses are emitted under control of their antecedent stimuli, they can enter into natural contingencies of reinforcement. Control transfers from the social environment to the natural environment Thus adaptive behavior can be transmitted extremely rapidly from one person to another. May account for many distinctive properties of human behavior, as well as much of the variance among autistic and typical children.
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener • • • The listener “takes additional action” “Verbal behavior would be pointless if a listener did nothing more than reinforce the speaker for emitting it” (p. 151) “The action which a listener takes with respect to the verbal response is often more important to the speaker than generalized reinforcement” (p. 151)
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener • • • “Relational autoclitics, especially when combined with assertion to compose predication, have a different and highly important effect…. Since it does not involve any immediate activity on the part of the listener…we detect the change only in his future behavior” (p. 357) “It is the function of predication to facilitate the transfer of response from one term to another or from one object to another. ” (p. 361) There are three types of conditioning Nonverbal respondent behavior Nonverbal operant behavior Verbal behavior
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener: CSs • • • “standard experiment on the conditioned reflex…bell…shock We can, of course, substitute a verbal stimulus—say, shock—for the bell The result will be more predictable if we supply an autoclitic amplification When I say "shock", you will feel this. The listener's future behavior with respect to the verbal stimulus shock will then be changed. Responses appropriate to an impending shock will be evoked by the verbal stimulus shock. When shock has become an effective conditioned stimulus, it may be paired with another verbal stimulus in a situation which is wholly verbal.
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener: CSs • • • By saying When I say "three", you will receive a shock, we change the future behavior of the listener with respect to the stimulus One, two, three. In another variation on this theme, the pairing of verbal stimuli may make a nonverbal stimulus subsequently effective. By saying When you hear a bell, you will feel a shock, we construct a future response to a bell. The new stimulus here is nonverbal, as in the original example of bell and shock, but a response to it has been set up without using either the bell or the shock in a conditioning situation. If X is someone who arouses a strong emotional reaction in us, then the remark X is going to telephone you shortly will alter our subsequent response to the sound of the telephone bell.
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener: SDs • • • “The verbal stimulus When I say "three", go! may have no immediate effect classifiable as a response, but it changes the subsequent behavior of the listener with respect to the stimulus Three. ” When the fire burns out, close the damper leads to subsequent behavior under the control of a nonverbal stimulus arising from the condition of the fire. Both of these examples are what might be called conditional mands—the behavior manded is brought under the control of a future stimulus
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener • Both of these examples are what might be called conditional mands—the behavior manded is brought under the control of a future stimulus. However, a tact may provide a discriminative stimulus for operant behavior. By saying When I say "soup's on", dinner will be ready, we give the verbal stimulus Soup's on the same discriminative function as Dinner is ready. The same control is imparted to a nonverbal stimulus by saying When the kettle whistles, tea will be ready.
Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener • • • “A purely verbal definition… An amphora is a Greek vase with two handles has at least three effects upon the listener. As a result of having heard this response he may (1) say amphora when asked What is a Greek vase with two handles called? (2) say A Greek vase having two handles when asked What is an amphora? (3) may point appropriately when asked Which of these is an amphora? Again, these are not results which occur spontaneously in the naive speaker but rather as the product of a long history of verbal conditioning. Education is largely concerned with setting up the behavior necessary to permit these changes to occur” (p. 360)
Examples What is the capital of Tajikistan?
n n n What was the cat doing? Who was reflected in Kermit’s mirror? For whom was my cat named? n n Behavior is continually being conditioned by our experiences. But where are the contingencies of reinforcement?
Stimulus presentation is not enough n n What time was Kermit tying his bow tie? What object in the mirror was out of place? Reinforcement is natural selection’s way of telling us, “Learn this! Don’t bother with that other stuff!” If we discard the assumption that behavior and reinforcement are necessary, then we are left with chaos.
n The conditioning of the behavior of the listener is a special case of behavior change in the apparent absence of contingencies.
Listening is echoic behavior n n Echoic behavior must have occurred if “Duchanbe” is uttered in response to “Capital of Tajikistan. In order for a complicated pattern of responding to have any strength at all, it must have been emitted at least once. (The chances of it being emitted at random are infinitesimal). Echoic behavior transduces a verbal stimulus into a verbal response and thus provides that crucial first instance. To “pay attention” to a speaker means to engage in echoic behavior. To pay attention in other contexts has an analogous interpretation.
n Echoic behavior supplies the second term of the three-term contingency
“Making sense” of a verbal utterance is reinforcing. n n Counterexample: “The horse raced past the barn collapsed. ” n n Confusion is (mildly) aversive; “Getting it” is mildly reinforcing.
What does it mean to “get” a verbal utterance? n n Responding with respect to the variables that controlled that utterance. (The meaning of an utterance is to be found, not in its structure, but in its controlling variables. )
n The following is a picture of an Oppenheimer switchbox, with it threnedy rising perpendicular to its orothax.
n n Nothing has been retained: The utterance is not “understood” with respect to the controlling variables of an utterance. In contrast…. The following is a picture from my back door, looking across my yard at the barn which had just collapsed under the weight of this winter’s heavy snow.
n n When we echo a verbal response while orienting to the controlling variables of that verbal response, it is reinforcing, provided that we already have some tendency to respond discriminatively to those controlling variables. That is, when a verbal response strengthens responding which would otherwise be weak, we find it reinforcing.
n n n Thus typical listener behavior includes all three terms of the three-term contingency. We can interpret the conditioning of the behavior of the listener in such ways. Such interpretations will remain tentative, but they suggest that we do not need to introduce new principles to understand such behavior.
Relational Autoclitic Frames, Emerging Responses, and Fragmentary Recombination • Something less than full fledged relational autoclitic behavior is involved when partially conditioned autoclitic "frames" combine with responses appropriate to a specific situation. Having responded to many pairs of objects with behavior such as the hat and the shoe and the gun and the hat, the speaker may make the response the boy and the bicycle on a novel occasion. If he has acquired a series of responses such as the boy's gun, the boy's shoe, and the boy's hat, we may suppose that the partial frame the boy's ______ is available for recombination with other responses. The first time the boy acquires a bicycle, the speaker can compose a new unit the boy's bicycle. This is not simply the emission of two responses separately acquired. The process resembles the multiple causation of Chapter 9. The relational aspects of the situation strengthen a frame, and specific features of the situation strengthen the responses fitted into it. (p. 336)
Problem Solving n n n Problem defined: A response is scheduled for reinforcement but is not currently prepotent. Problem solving: a set of activities by which supplementary stimulation is provided. Can be stereotyped or variable (standard problems or novel problems)
Supplementary control n n n Additional variables are brought to bear Competing variables are removed Self-prompts Self-probes Each change in variables alters the probability of a constellation of responses (cf. multiple control)
Problem Solving cont’d. n n n In effective problem solving, the target response becomes successively stronger until it is emitted (e. g. , √ 841) If supplementary stimulation evokes an alternative response in greater strength the problem will remain unsolved. Termination of problem solving: “Recognizing” that the response is correct.
Memory n n Not a technical term in behavior analysis. Two senses n The endurance of stimulus control: n n An SD is present at the time of learning and again at the time of recall Memory as problem solving n The SD is present at the time of learning but is absent at the time of recall.
The endurance of stimulus control n n n No limit in principle to such endurance (Skinner, 1950; among others) Forgetting mainly the outcome of competing responses “Decay” with time presumably occurs but is not a systematic behavioral process.
Recall as problem solving n Acquisition strategies: Creating a larger “behavioral target” n n Rehearsal Elaboration Mnemonics Imagery
Recall strategies n n n Self-probes Role of conditioned perceptions Cascading effects of self-probes
Origin of strategies n n n Modeling Shaping by verbal community Outcome variable
Joint control n Defined: n n n Lowenkron: Two independent variables controlling a common response Example Modified definition: A discriminable jump in response strength when two (or more) variables evoke a common response. Skinner anecdote (1978) Descriptive autoclitic: Tacting response strength
Joint control: Complications n n Stimuli need not be simultaneous Example
Matching-to-sample n n n Role of joint control in judgments of identity Identity in a common effect, not in the stimulus (cf. “familiar” stimuli) Delayed matching
Autoclitic frames and grammar n The autoclitic frame: verbal operants consisting of alternating fixed and variable elements controlled by some feature common to all cases. The fixed parts are intraverbally controlled, the variable terms are controlled by the context, and the transition between elements is controlled, in part, by prosody. n “And on that farm, he had an X, E-I-O. ” n n n n Sing X again! May I have an X? The X gave the Y to Z. (or: The X gave Z Y. ) X donated the Y to Z. (but not: The X donated Z Y. ) If X then Y. X promised Y that Z. Where X, Y, and Z have characteristic roles.
“Verbs” generally entail frames n n n 88% in one sample. “Nouns” tend to serve as variables. Although there are indefinitely many combinations of elements, the number of frames is limited. n “Linguistic productivity” arises from autoclitic frames.
Autoclitic frames underlie relational behavior The X is painting the Y. n The X is pushing the Y. n The X is tickling the Y. “Mutual entailment” & the passive voice: n The Y is being painted by the X. n The Y is being pushed by the X. n The Y is being tickled by the X. n
Different autoclitic frames are acquired in specific contexts through modeling n n n Derived relations follow as a consequence of learning different autoclitic frames relative to terms in different roles. In such cases, verbal behavior underlies and explains derived relations. (But nonverbal mediation may be possible too. )
Other origins of derived relations n Derived relations as problem solving n Mediated behavior, sensitive to n n n n Distractor tasks Type of stimulus presentation Response latency requirements Phonological properties of modal names Training of explicit mediators Heterogeneous phenomenon Role of Joint Control Examples in which mediation is required
Necessity of considering mediating behavior Example - Complete the series: 1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 ?
n n In both cases, the behavior cannot be understood without appealing to covert mediating behavior, namely, covert echoic behavior in the first case and covert tacting of “prime number” in the second. The relational behavior emerges from such unrecorded events.
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