Monthly Archives: April 2017

"How a person speaks depends upon the practices of the verbal community of which he is a member . . . Different verbal communities shape and maintain different languages in…

"[Verbal behavior] has a special character only because it is reinforced by the effects on people—at first other people, but eventually the speaker himself. As a result, it is free…

"The words and sentences of which a language is composed are said to be tools used to express meanings, thoughts, ideas, propositions, emotions, needs, desires, and many other things in…

"Relatively late in its history, the human species underwent a remarkable change: its vocal musculature came under operant control. Like other species, it had up to that point displayed warning…

"The thirsty man does not reach for the fantasied glass of water, but the dreamer does not know that what he is seeing is “not really there,” and he responds…

"There are many ways of getting a person to see when there is nothing to be seen, and they can all be analyzed as the arrangement of contingencies which strengthen…

"A person is changed by the contingencies of reinforcement under which he behaves; he does not store the contingencies . . . he has no “cognitive map” of the world…

"After hearing a piece of music several times, a person may hear it when it is not being played, though probably not as richly or as clearly. So far as…

". . . as a modern authority has pointed out, it is as difficult to explain how we see a picture in the occipital cortex of the brain as to…

"The brain is said to use data, make hypotheses, make choices, and so on, as the mind was once said to have done. In a behavioristic account it is the…

"In the traditional view, a person responds to the world around him in the sense of acting upon it . . . The opposing view—common, I believe to all versions…

"Happiness is a feeling, a by-product of operant reinforcement. The things which make us happy are the things which reinforce us, but it is the things, not the feelings, which…

"All gambling systems are based on variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement, although their effects are usually attributed to feelings . . . The same variable-ratio schedule affects those who explore, prospect,…

"When the ratio of responses to reinforcements is favorable, the behavior is commonly attributed to (1) diligence, industry, or ambition, (2) determination, stubbornness, staying power, or perseverance (continuing to respond…

"The behavior of the homesick, forlorn, lovelorn, or lonely is commonly attributed to the feelings experienced rather than to the absence of a familiar environment." (p. 65)   Subscribe to…

". . . a person is said to be unable to go to work because he is discouraged or depressed, although his not going, together with what he feels, is…

"People can usually say what they are looking for and why they are looking in a given place, but like other species they also may not be able to do…

"Seeking or looking for something seems to have a particularly strong orientation toward the future. We learn to look for an object when we acquire behavior which commonly has the…

"​Purpose" was once commonly used as a verb, as we now use "propose."  " I propose to go" is similar to "I intend to go." If instead we speak of…

"​Possibly no charge is more often leveled against behaviorism or a science of behavior than that it cannot deal with purpose or intention. A stimulus—response formula has no answer, but…