On January 4, 2016, the B. F. Skinner Foundation launched a new project – Skinner’s Quote of the Day. Quotes from B. F. Skinner’s works, selected by renowned scientists, appear daily Monday-Friday in order, starting with Chapter 1 of each book and running all the way through the last chapter. We started with the Science and Human Behavior (January-December 2916), followed by About Behaviorism (January-November 2017), Contingencies of Reinforcement (January-October 2018), Recent Issues (October 2018-May 2019), Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (May 2019-February 2020), and now moving on to Upon Further Reflection (from February 10 2020).

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Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 30

In echoic behavior and in writing from copy there is a formal correspondence between stimulus and response-product. In textual behavior and in taking dictation there is a point-to-point correspondence between…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 30

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 29

In echoic behavior, the correspondence upon which reinforcement is based may serve as an automatic conditioned reinforcer. The speaker who is also an accomplished listener “knows when he has correctly…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 29

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 28

Why the family, the community, and educational agencies arrange ... [reinforcement of textual behavior] is to be explained in terms of the ultimate advantages gained from having an additional literate…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 28

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 27

Since the term “reading” usually refers to many processes at the same time, the narrower term “textual behavior” will be used here. In the textual operant, then, a vocal response…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 27

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 25

Since a speaker usually hears himself and thus stimulates himself verbally, he can also echo himself. Such behavior is potentially self-reinforcing if it strengthens stimulation used in the control of…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 25

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 23

We pick up a large part of our verbal repertoire by echoing the behavior of others under circumstances which eventually control the behavior non-echoically. (p. 62)

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 23

Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 22

The first echoic operants acquired by a child tend to be fairly large integral patterns, and they are of little help in permitting him to echo novel patterns. A unit…

Continue ReadingVerbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 4: Verbal Behavior under the Control of Verbal Stimuli. Quote 22