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| Theoretical Issues in Verbal Behavior |
| Sunday, May 27, 2007 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 PM |
| Elizabeth A |
| Area: VBC |
| Chair: Sam Leigland (Gonzaga University) |
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| Identifying Controlling and Mediating Verbal Units within Ongoing Conversation. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| GENAE HALL (Behavior Analysis & Intervention Services), Robert G. Vreeland (Behavior Analysis & Intervention Services) |
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| Abstract: Skinner (1957) proposed that mands benefit the speaker, whereas the other verbal operants primarily benefit the listener. This suggests a functional distinction between verbal operants achieving specific reinforcement (i.e., “controlling”) versus those reinforced by events occurring contingent on the reinforcement of controlling relations (i.e., "mediating"). Both Salzinger (1991) and Donahoe & Palmer (1994) noted the difficulty in identifying verbal units in a complex utterance. To assess whether controlling versus mediating functional categories could be reliably identified, two dyads of verbally fluent adults were videotaped discussing ethical dilemmas that may arise in behavioral consultation. The first five minutes from each session were transcribed from the videos and organized into one-minute segments. Utilizing both transcripts and videos, the first author acted as primary scorer and the second author as reliability scorer on randomly-selected sessions. Inter-observer agreement for verbal units per se was 96.7% for Dyad 1 and 91.7% for Dyad 2. For controlling versus mediating verbal relations, agreement was 94.9% for Dyad 1 and 83.3% for Dyad 2. These preliminary results are encouraging in that it was possible to obtain high reliability on complex verbal units as well as controlling and mediating functional categories. Theoretical implications of these findings will be discussed. |
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| Developing Verbal Units and the Verbal Operant: "Words and Rules" versus the Operant. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| JOHN H. MABRY (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) |
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| Abstract: In linguistics rules are applied to the arrangement of formal units, such as words. In Skinner's 1957 functional analysis units were seen as 'verbal operants' which included not only the physical behavior but also the circumstances of its 'emission'. In this functional analysis a physical unit could not be studied in isolation from its relation to its controlling variables.; the size of the unit was not important so long as it was: "… under independent control of a manipulable variable."
Since 1973, those studying the early development of children's speech have come to a similar position to the above through the following route:
It was noticed that the so-called 'first words' were often indistinct and only interpretable from the specific context; many utterances were large "unanalyzed" chunks having only a prosodic resemblance to speech.
Some chunks were specific to situations, and consequences like Skinner's 'elemental verbal operants'.
Segmentation into 'words' was often gradual and the child continued to emit earlier 'chunks' as observed in both 'dyadic' and isolate speech (crib-talk)
Finally they have proposed that adult grammar-syntax emerge from this continued 'buildup-breakdown'.
Analysis of adult intraverbals, to training units for autistic persons and second language acquisition will be presented. |
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| Fifty Years Later: Projected Areas of Development and Advancement in the Science of Verbal Behavior. |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| SAM LEIGLAND (Gonzaga University) |
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| Abstract: Fifty years after the publication of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, some possibilities for the future of Skinner’s “science of verbal behavior” are considered. Specifically, certain areas of development or advancement are examined which might be of special importance to the expansion and influence of the functional analysis of verbal behavior. One critical task for the influence of the field, for example, involves the removal of an obstacle; namely, the remarkably persistent and wholly inappropriate influence of Chomsky’s polemic of 1959. Strategies for neutralizing this influence will be discussed. In looking at the future advancement of the field, a case will be made (with illustrative examples) for broadening the domain of verbal behavior research to include a variety of complex verbal phenomena, the study of which is either dominated by other fields or has yet to begin. Skinner’s original work provides an important framework for the analysis of verbal behavior, but there is still room for, and a need for inductively oriented, empirically based research programs that transcend specific interpretive or theoretical treatments. Such programs, under the guidance of the practices of radical behaviorism and effective behavior-analytic methodology, might provide additional lines of development and progress for the analysis of verbal behavior. |
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