Verbal behaviour and operant conditioning Flashcards
Verbal behaviour
Interaction between the speaker and his/her environment.
Reinforcement depends on the mediation of consequences from the listener.
Skinner (1957) defined verbal behaviour as…
the behaviour of the speaker which occurs as a function of the history of consequences provided by a listener (verbal community).
Verbal NOT vocal!!
Verbal behaviour can involve behaviour that isn’t speech. eg. sign language, pecks
Verbal behaviour is defined by…
the presence of a listener
Verbal operants
The vocal utterance is the same, it is the antecedent and consequent conditions under which the speech occurs that vary.
Under the functional control of motivating operations and specific reinforcement provided by a listener.
Mand
Under the control of a non-verbal stimulus and it produces generalized conditioned reinforcement (praise/ attention).
Tact
Under the control of verbal discriminative stimuli and have point to point correspondence and formal similarity with the response.
Echoic
Under the control of a verbal discriminative stimulus which does not have point to point correspondence with the response.
Intraverbal
Involves reading. Under the control of a verbal stimulus (text), which has point to point correspondence but no formal similarity.
Textual
Involves writing and spelling spoken words. There is point to point correspondence but no formal similarity.
Transcription
A speaker utters ‘water’ when in a state of water deprivation, where the water is not present, in the presence of a listener who mediates the delivery of water.
Mand
A speaker utters ‘water’ where the presence of water is an antecedent stimulus, and reinforcement is generalized.
Tact
A speaker utters ‘water’ after hearing someone else say ‘water’.
Echoic
A speaker utters ‘water’ when asked ‘what comes out of a tap’.
Intraverbal
