December 14, 2018 / Last updated : December 11, 2018 B. F. Skinner Foundation Skinner's Quote of the Day Recent Issues. Chapter 4: The Listener. Quote 1 “In a behavioral account, the direction of action is exactly reversed. Speakers do not take in the world and put it into words; they respond to it in ways which have been shaped and maintained by special contingencies of reinforcement.” (p. 35) Subscribe to RSS feed here