VB Test 2 Flashcards
Know what educational reinforcement is
Generalized conditioned reinforcement supplied primarily because it establishes and maintains a particular form of behavior in the speaker
Two forms of education reinforcement
approval and escape from or avoidance of aversive stimulation
Know how echoic behavior has an advantage over shaping in generating new forms of behavior
Echoic repertoire makes possible a short-circuiting of the process of shaping because it can be used to evoke new units of response, which we can then reinforce. Echoic prompt is the procedure of saying “say _” and is used when the response is not in the individual’s repertoire, so then you can bring that response under the control of the stimulus.
Be able to distinguish between formal similarity and point-to-point correspondence
Formal similarity- occurs when controlling antecedent stimulus and the response or response product sound the same or look the same. (e.g., both stimulus and response are visual)
Point-to-point correspondence- the beginning, middle and end of the verbal stimulus is exactly the same as the beginning, middle and end of the verbal response.
what Skinner means by there is “no formal similarity between a pattern of sounds and the muscular responses which produce a similar pattern.”
The auditory stimuli has formal similarity to the vocal response but not the motor movement that produces sound. There doesn’t need to be formal similarity between pattern of sound and muscular response to evoke the response.
Know what is not instinctive about echoic behavior
There is no tendency or instinct of any organism to reproduce exactly behavior that they heard or seen, to engage in echoic behavior.
Know what is instinctive about echoic behavior
Organisms such as parrots and people do have an instinct to be automatically reinforced by making the sounds they heard a lot which is different
Know what feature of echoic behavior Skinner doesn’t include in the formal definition
We define an echoic as a response that produces a stimulus which has formal similarity to the echoic stimulus and the two stimuli have point to point correspondence.
What is not an echoic
- A response that resembles speech of others heard at some other time.
- A verbal stimulus of corresponding form that does not immediately preceed it, the stimuli must immediately precede response.
- The later reproduction of speech as a result of the “instruction”
What is “reading” according to Skinner and how be able to contrast it with textual behavior and be able to explain what Skinner means in the footnote on p. 66.
“Reading” usual refers to many verbal processes at the same time. In the textual operant, a vocal response is under the control of a visual printed stimulus. We engage in textual behavior without reading all the time. “Reading is not an ability or a capacity but a tendency.” Ability to read is circular explanation. What we are testing or assessing is the probability of engaging in vocal behavior given a visual stimulus.
Know and be able to provide your own examples of the difference between complex vs. simple intraverbal stimuli and the types of intraverbal responses they evoke.
A compound stimulus is a much more specific occasion than either one part individually. Therefore, the more complex the stimulus pattern the more specific the verbal occasion, and the stronger the control exerted over a single response. An example of a complex intraverbal stimuli may be me saying, “small domestic animal that barks”. A simple intraverbal stimulus might be, “a pet”. The more complex stimuli is more likely to evoke the response of, “dog” whereas the simple stimuli may evoke any number of responses including, “cat”, “rabbit”, or “snake”.
. Know the essential relation between the response and the controlling stimulus in the tact relation
The essential relation between the response and the controlling stimulus in the tact is the same as the other verbal operants which is the 4 term contingency.
and how some response forms function as tacts but contradict the notion that the tact refers to or names its stimulus.
The traditional terms such as “refers to”, “mentions”, “announces” etc. should not be applied to certain instances of the tact because examples such as (how do you do?) (thank you) appear to be a mand however they are a tact because the speaker does not (in most cases) care how you are doing or really mean “thank you” it is just something you say when you see someone. This means that it is a response of a given form that is evoked by an object or event or properties of an object or event.
Be able to contrast the mand and tact especially with respect to the respective roles of MOs and prior stimuli and what the listener can infer from each.
The first distinction- Mand—breaks down any connection with prior stimuli, thus leaving MOs in control of the response. Tact—the tact breaks down any connection with the MOs, which is a rare occurrence meaning in reality there are very few pure or objective tacts because we are biological organisms in which we have wants and needs that come through even when we appear to be tacting. The resulting control in reference to a tact is the stimulus and not the MO
Constrasting the mand and tact: Second distinction; what the mand and tact specify and infer
Second distinction— In a tact the response specifies a stimulus (example when you say that’s a water bottle your specifying a stimulus) in a mand a response specifies a characteristic consequence (example when you say I want some water you aren’t specifying your thirst (MO) but rather what you want and that’s water.
the mand permits the listener to infer something about the condition of the speaker regardless of the external circumstances (I want water—you infer that the speaker is thirsty) while the tact permits him to infer something about the circumstances regardless of the condition of the speaker( theres a water bottle—infers something about the circumstances).
