Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 5: The Tact. Quote 9

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Post published:January 29, 2025
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The practical behavior of the listener with respect to the verbal stimulus produced by a tact follows the same three-term relation which has already been used in analyzing the behavior of the speaker. (p. 87)

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Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 5: The Tact. Quote 10
A given object does not remain the inevitable occasion for the reinforcement of an appropriate response, and the probability of response therefore comes to vary with the occasion. The listener may help by saying What is that? or by manding behavior in the form of a tact in other ways. Another property may be the novelty of the occasion. Familiar objects lose their control because the community eventually withholds reinforcement except under special conditions. Only objects which are unusual in some respect, or which occur in unusual surroundings, are important to the listener and hence provide the occasion for reinforcing the speaker. (pp. 89-90)
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