Some [other “mental processes”] are exemplified when a speaker acquires or retains a response (the mental processes of “learning” and “memory”), responds differently to different stimuli (“discrimination”), reacts with one response-form rather than another (“differentiation”), responds in a given way to a new stimulus bearing some resemblance to the old (“generalization,” “metaphor,” or “analogical thinking”), responds under the control of a single property or a special set of properties of a stimulus (“abstraction”), arrives at a constructed response through a controlled intraverbal chain (“reasoning”), and so on. These are not behaviors, covert or overt. They are controlling relations or the changes in probability which result from changes in such relations. (pp. 437-438)
Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 19: Thinking. Quote 20
- Post author:B. F. Skinner Foundation
- Post published:March 30, 2026
- Post category:Skinner's Quote of the Day
