Author: B. F. Skinner Foundation

Theories of meaning usually consider the behaviors of both speaker and listener at the same time. The practice is encouraged by the notion of the “use of words,” which appears…

In very general terms we may say that behavior in the form of the tact works for the benefit of the listener by extending his contact with the environment, and…

Verbal behavior in which the reinforcement is thoroughly generalized, and the control of which therefore rests almost exclusively with the environment, is developed by the methods of science. The reinforcing…

A tact which is established with a completely generalized reinforcement might be called “pure” or “objective”... A truly generalized reinforcement is, however, rare ... and pure objectivity in this sense…

Roughly speaking, the mand permits the listener to infer something about the condition of the speaker regardless of external circumstances, while the tact permits him to infer something about the…

It may be tempting to say that in a tact the response “refers to,” “mentions,” “announces,” “talks about,” “names,” “denotes,” or “describes” its stimulus. But the ... only useful functional…

The invented term “tact” will be used here. The term carries a mnemonic suggestion of behavior which “makes contact with” the physical world. A tact may be defined as a…

In all verbal behavior under stimulus control there are three important events to be taken into account: a stimulus, a response, and a reinforcement. These are contingent upon each other…

All verbal behavior is, of course, borrowed in the sense of being acquired from other people. (p. 73)

Most of the “facts” of history are acquired and retained as intraverbal responses. (p. 72)

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…

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…

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…

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…

In all kinds of self-echoic behavior we have to consider the possibility that the verbal stimulus may be covert. (p. 65)

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…

The degree of accuracy insisted upon by a given reinforcing community is important. In general, the speaker does no more than is demanded of him. (p. 63)

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)

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…

The development of a large echoic repertoire appropriate to a given language makes it harder to echo verbal stimuli which do not belong in the language. (p. 61)

Early echoic behavior in young children is often very wide of the mark; the parent must reinforce very imperfect matches to keep the behavior in strength at all. We might…

Echoic behavior, like all verbal behavior, is shaped and maintained by certain contingencies of reinforcement. The formal similarity between stimulus and response is part of these contingencies and can be…

The young child alone in the nursery may automatically reinforce his own exploratory vocal behavior when he produces sounds which he has heard in the speech of others ... The…

Echoic behavior is easily confused with responses which are self-reinforcing because they resemble the speech of others heard at some other time. When a sound pattern has been associated with…

Echoic responses are useful and reinforced when they serve as fill-ins. In answer to the question What will happen to the international situation during the next few weeks? the student…

There are .. many indirect sources of echoic reinforcement. For example, we are reinforced for echoing verbal forms emitted by others in a conversation because these forms are more likely…

An echoic repertoire is established in the child through “educational” reinforcement because it is useful to parents, teachers, and others. It makes possible a short-circuiting of the process of progressive…

A fragmentary echoic behavior is evident when one speaker adopts the accent or mannerisms of another in the course of a sustained conversation. If one member of a group whispers,…

In a conversation, for example, a slightly atypical response is often picked up and passed from speaker to speaker. The two halves of a dialogue will generally have more words…

A fragmentary self-echoic behavior ... may be shown in reduplicative forms like helter-skelter, razzle-dazzle, and willy-nilly. (p. 56)

Mands of the general form Say ‘X’ characteristically produce responses in the listener showing a point-to-point correspondence between the sound of the stimulus and the sound of the response. But…

In the simplest case in which verbal behavior is under the control of verbal stimuli, the response generates a sound pattern similar to that of the stimulus. For example, upon…

The slight threat which arises during any pause in a conversation is dispelled by executing almost any form of verbal behavior. (p. 55)

A question contains a mild generalized threat in the sense that, if we do not answer, censure will follow. (p. 55)

Conditioned aversive stimuli (stimuli which frequently precede or accompany aversive stimulation) are also reinforcing when their withdrawal is contingent upon behavior. The withdrawal of aversive stimulation may be generalized in…

In destroying the specificity of the control exercised over a given form of response by a given condition of deprivation or aversive stimulation, we appear to leave the form of…

Sometimes, ... [the generalized reinforcer] has a verbal form: Right! or Good! Because these “signs of approval” frequently precede specific reinforcements appropriate to many states of deprivation, the behavior they…

A common generalized conditioned reinforcer is “approval.” It is often difficult to specify its physical dimensions. It may be little more than a nod or a smile on the part…

A step in the direction of destroying the relation with a particular state of deprivation is taken by reinforcing a single form of response in ways appropriate to many different…

In a very large part of verbal behavior a given form of response does not yield a specific reinforcement and hence is relatively independent of any special state of deprivation…

Unable to imagine how the universe could have been created out of nothing, we conjecture that it was done with a verbal response. It was only necessary to say, with…

The special relation between response and consequence exemplified by the mand establishes a general pattern of control over the environment. In moments of sufficient stress, the speaker simply describes the…

The distinction between learned and unlearned response is much easier to make in terms of a history of reinforcement than in terms of meaning and conscious use. An important example…

In general, intention may be reduced to contingencies of reinforcement. (p. 41)

In this account of the speech episode, it should be noted that nothing is appealed to beyond the separate behaviors of speaker and listener . . . By putting the…

The mand ... works primarily for the benefit of the speaker ... (p. 36)

As a general rule, in order to identify any type of verbal operant we need to know the kind of variables of which the response is a function. In a…

A mand is a type of verbal operant singled out by its controlling variables. It is not a formal unit of analysis. No response can be said to be a…

A “mand” ... may be defined as a verbal operant in which the response is reinforced by a characteristic consequence and is therefore under the functional control of relevant conditions…