Author: B. F. Skinner Foundation

It is the function of an explanatory fiction to allay curiosity and to bring inquiry to an end. (p. 6)

When we say that a remark is confusing because the idea is unclear, we seem to be talking about two levels of observation although there is, in fact, only one.…

There is obviously something suspicious in the ease with which we discover in a set of ideas precisely those properties needed to account for the behavior which expresses them. We…

[An idea] is, in fact, often defined as something common to two or more expressions. But we shall not arrive at this “something” even though we express an idea in…

... the ideas for which sounds are said to stand as signs cannot be independently observed. If we ask for evidence of their existence, we are likely to be given…

It has generally been assumed that to explain behavior, or any aspect of it, one must attribute it to events taking place inside the organism. In the field of verbal…

Together with other disciplines concerned with verbal behavior, psychology has collected facts and sometimes put them in convenient order, but in this welter of material it has failed to demonstrate…

What happens when a man speaks or responds to speech is clearly a question about human behavior and hence a question to be answered with the concepts and techniques of…

A science of behavior does not arrive at this special field to find it unoccupied. Elaborate systems of terms describing verbal behavior have been developed. The lay vocabulary abounds in…

The extent to which we understand verbal behavior in a “causal” analysis is to be assessed from the extent to which we can predict the occurrence of specific instances and,…

The basic processes and relations which give verbal behavior its special characteristics are now fairly well understood. Much of the experimental work responsible for this advance has been carried out…

It would be foolish to underestimate the difficulty of this subject matter, but recent advances in the analysis of behavior permit us to approach it with a certain optimism. (p.…

The behaviors of speaker and listener taken together compose what may be called a total verbal episode. There is nothing in such an episode which is more than the combined…

[The behavior of the listener] cannot, in fact, be distinguished from behavior in general, and an adequate account of verbal behavior need cover only as much of the behavior of…

A definition of verbal behavior as behavior reinforced through the mediation of other persons needs, as we shall see, certain refinements. (p. 2)

The term “verbal behavior” has much to recommend it. Its etymological sanction is not too powerful, but it emphasizes the individual speaker and, whether recognized by the user or not,…

“Language” is now satisfactorily remote from its original commitment to vocal behavior, but it has come to refer to the practices of a linguistic community rather than the behavior of…

Unfortunately, the term “speech” emphasizes vocal behavior and is only awkwardly applied to instances in which the mediating person is affected visually, as in writing a note. (p. 2)

Behavior which is effective only through the mediation of other persons has so many distinguishing dynamic and topographical properties that a special treatment is justified and, indeed, demanded. (p. 2)

Behavior alters the environment through mechanical action, and its properties or dimensions are often related in a simple way to the effects produced ... Much of the time, however, a…

Men act upon the world, and change it, and are changed in turn by the consequences of their action. (p. 1)

A better understanding of variation and selection will mean a more successful profession, but whether behavior analysis will be called psychology is a matter for the future to decide. (p.…

Because of its similarity to the vernacular, cognitive psychology was easy to understand and the so-called cognitive revolution was for a time successful. That may have accelerated the speed with…

Cognitive science is the creation science of psychology, as it struggles to maintain the position of a mind or self. (p. 672)

Intelligence, never introspectible, is clearly an inference from the behavior sampled in intelligence tests, and an analysis of different kinds of intelligence is an analysis of different kinds of behavior.…

What, then, are we to make of the fact that for 100 years psychologists have tried to build just such a science of mind? What about the brilliant analyses that…

H. G. Wells wrote an article for, I believe, the Sunday New York Times. In it he compared Pavlov and George Bernard Shaw. They looked rather alike, with their great…

Raising or lowering the temperature by more than a degree or two produces a surprising change in the baby’s condition and behavior. This response is so sensitive that we wonder…

Teaching, it is often said, is an art, but we have increasing reason to hope that it may eventually become a science. (p. 605)

The generic nature of stimulus and response is in no sense a justification for the broader terms of the popular vocabulary. We may lay it down as a general rule…

I intend to raise the question of whether I am responsible for what I am saying, whether I am actually originating anything, and to what extent I deserve credit or…

Facts and theories do not stand in opposition to each other. The relation, rather, is this: theories are based upon facts; they are statements about organizations of facts. (p. 348)

There is no more pathetic figure in psychology today than the mere collector of facts, who operates, or thinks he operates, with no basis for selecting one fact as against…

It is not true that human behavior is not controlled. At least we cannot proceed very far as scientists on that assumption. To have a science of psychology at all,…

It is a familiar complaint that the kind of control possible in the laboratory is impossible in the world at large . . . This position is bound to grow…

Correlational techniques have been extensively used in pure research, and the reason they have dominated the science of psychology in its application to education, industry, public affairs, and elsewhere is…

The two approaches represent different scientific plans and lead to different results. It is curious that our definition should single out the kind of result which has been traditionally accepted…

One interesting consequence of defining experimental psychology as a branch of the science in which we control the variables which govern behavior is that we thus exclude most investigations using…

In more formal terms we manipulate certain “independent variables” and observe the effect upon a “dependent variable.” In psychology the dependent variable, to which we look for an effect, is…

In psychology, as in any science, the heart of the experimental method is the direct control of the thing studied. When we say, “Let us try an experiment,” we mean,…

To simplify the material of a science is one of the purposes of a laboratory, and simplification is worthwhile whenever it does not actually falsify. But the experimental psychologist has…