Skinner’s Quote of the Day

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…

In explaining the behavior of the speaker we assume a listener who will reinforce his behavior in certain ways. In accounting for the behavior of the listener we assume a…

We need separate but interlocking accounts of the behaviors of both speaker and listener if our explanation of verbal behavior is to be complete. (p. 34)

A child acquires verbal behavior when relatively unpatterned vocalizations, selectively reinforced, gradually assume forms which produce appropriate consequences in a given verbal community. (p. 31)

Reinforcing consequences continue to be important after verbal behavior has been acquired. Their principal function is then to maintain the response in strength . . . If reinforcements cease altogether…

In teaching the young child to talk, the formal specifications upon which reinforcement is contingent are at first greatly relaxed. Any response which vaguely resembles the standard behavior of the…

Any operant, verbal or otherwise, acquires strength and continues to be maintained in strength when responses are frequently followed by the event called “reinforcement.” (p. 29)

The probability that a verbal response of given form will occur at a given time is the basic datum to be predicted and controlled. It is the “dependent variable” in…

Our basic datum is not the occurrence of a given response as such, but the probability that it will occur at a given time. Every verbal operant may be conceived…

To ask where a verbal operant is when a response is not in the course of being emitted is like asking where one’s knee-jerk is when the physician is not…

We observe that a speaker possesses a verbal repertoire in the sense that responses of various forms appear in his behavior from time to time in relation to identifiable conditions.…

A long-standing problem in the analysis of verbal behavior is the size of the unit. Standard linguistic units are of various sizes. Below the level of the word lie roots…

In traditional terms we might say that we need a unit of behavior defined in terms of both “form and meaning.” The analysis of nonverbal behavior has clarified the nature…

We distinguish between an instance of a response and a class of responses ... when we are concerned with the prediction of future behavior it may be either impossible to…

In the case of any medium, the behavior is both verbal and nonverbal at once—nonverbal in the effect upon the medium—verbal in the ultimate effect upon the observer. (p. 14)

Pointing to words is verbal—as, indeed, is all pointing, since it is effective only when it alters the behavior of someone. (p. 14)

Audible behavior which is not vocal (for example, clapping the hands for a servant, or blowing a bugle) and gestures are verbal, although they may not compose an organized language.…

In defining verbal behavior as behavior reinforced through the mediation of other persons we do not, and cannot, specify any one form, mode, or medium. Any movement capable of affecting…

When someone says that he can see the meaning of a response, he means that he can infer some of the variables of which the response is usually a function.…

Technically, meanings are to be found among the independent variables in a functional account, rather than as properties of the dependent variable. (p.14)

Any effort to deal with behavior as a movement of the parts of an organism meets at once the objection that it cannot be mere movement which is important but…

Although the emphasis is not upon experimental or statistical facts, the book [Verbal Behavior] is not theoretical in the usual sense. It makes no appeal to hypothetical explanatory entities. The…

The formulation [in Verbal Behavior] is inherently practical and suggests immediate technological applications at almost every step. (p. 12)

The emphasis is upon an orderly arrangement of well-known facts, in accordance with a formulation of behavior derived from an experimental analysis of a more rigorous sort. The present extension…

One important feature of the analysis is that it is directed to the behavior of the individual speaker and listener; no appeal is made to statistical concepts based upon data…

No assumption is made of any uniquely verbal characteristic, and the principles and methods employed are adapted to the study of human behavior as a whole. An extensive treatment of…

The speaker and listener within the same skin engage in activities which are traditionally described as “thinking.” The speaker manipulates his behavior; he reviews it, and may reject it or…

... some of the behavior of listening resembles the behavior of speaking, particularly when the listener “understands” what is said. (p. 11)

... a speaker is normally also a listener. He reacts to his own behavior in several important ways. Part of what he says is under the control of other parts…

Once a repertoire of verbal behavior has been set up, a host of new problems arise from the interaction of its parts. Verbal behavior is usually the effect of multiple…

Our first responsibility is simple description: what is the topography of this subdivision of human behavior? Once that question has been answered in at least a preliminary fashion we may…

We seek “causes” of behavior which have an acceptable scientific status and which, with luck, will be susceptible to measurement and manipulation ... The only solution is to reject the…

The impulse to explicate a meaning is easily understood. We ask, “What do you mean?” because the answer is frequently helpful ... But the explication of verbal behavior should not…

... dictionaries do not give meanings; at best they give words having the same meanings (p. 9)