According to traditional linguistic accounts language, and its generative nature, cannot be taught. From a behavior analytic perspective, language is like any other behavior; it is learned and amenable to change. Based upon Skinner's radical behavioral analysis of verbal behavior, specific procedures have been designed to promote novel verbal…

In our everyday life, we often need to anticipate the potential occurrence of events and their consequences. In this context, the way we represent contingencies can determine our ability to adapt to the environment. However, it is not clear how agents encode and organize available knowledge about the future to react to possible states of the…

Undergraduates, trained to discriminate understanding from nonunderstanding statements, verbally reinforced each statement they felt to be understanding during counselor interviews. Ratings indicated that beginning counselors had increased their understanding statements, suggesting that such statements can be a function of the number of…

Children's behavior affected by model's acts but not his words. Children's judgment of model affected by both acts and words. Children fail to recall accurately conditions in which the model acted inconsistently. (MH)

A covert self-instructional program was used to reduce the frequency of a hospitalized chronic schizophrenic's inappropriate verbalizations. A marked reduction in the frequency of the target behavior accompanied the treatment intervention, and improved verbal behavior was directly responsible for the decision to discharge the subject from the…

This research is primarily concerned with discovering how children's behavior (in relation to altruistic giving) is affected by the verbal advice and behavioral example of a same-sex model on a television screen. The subjects were a group of 600 children drawn from first through fifth grade. They were placed in a situation in which they could give…

The results of this study suggest a practical alternative to increase the effectiveness of discipline in the home and school. Parents and teacher might well rehearse (reinstate) with the child the transgression sequence just prior to the discipline. (Author)

Studied the process of child psychotherapy by means of analyses of client verbal behaviors. Analyses of variables demonstrated the nature of each client's verbal responding as well as their pattern of change. Summarized the overall verbal response behavior of each client best through the factor analyses. (Author)