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Skinner's verbal behavior: A reference list

Profile image of Mark SundbergMark Sundberg

1982, VB news

https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392793
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Abstract

The language literature contains many citations to Skinner's book Verbal Behavior (1957), however, most of them are negative and generally unsupportive. The current list of references was assembled to bring readers in contact with the growing body of literature which supports Skinner's work. A total of 136 references were found and divided into two categories, (1) conceptual, and (2) experimental and applied. These references are presented in an effort to stimulate additional research in this important aspect of behavior analysis.

Key takeaways
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  1. The text assembles 136 references supporting Skinner's Verbal Behavior, countering predominantly negative citations.
  2. References are divided into two categories: conceptual and experimental/applied research.
  3. Only 16 papers in 14 volumes of JABA cited Skinner's 1957 work; 8 utilized its analysis.
  4. Negative citations often stem from misunderstandings or superficial critiques of Skinner's concepts.
  5. The purpose is to stimulate further research in the behavioral analysis of language.

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The present study undertook an updated citation analysis of Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior. All articles that cited Verbal Behavior between 1984 and 2004 were recorded and content analyzed into one of five categories; four empirical and one nonempirical. Of the empirical categories, studies that employed a verbal operant from Skinner's analysis were assigned to either basic, applied, or observational categories. Empirical studies that did not employ a verbal operant were categorized as other-empirical. The total number of citations remained stable across the review period and averaged just over 52 per year. Of these, 80% were from nonempirical articles, 13.7% were from other-empirical articles, 4% were from applied articles, 1.4% were from basic articles, and 0.9% were from observational articles. An “obliteration” analysis was also conducted to identify articles that employed Skinner's verbal operant terms but did not cite Verbal Behavior. This analysis identified 44 additional articles, suggesting that a degree of obliteration had occurred in the half century since the publication of Verbal Behavior. In particular, the analysis suggests that the verbal operant of manding has sufficient presence in the applied empirical literature to render citation of Verbal Behavior redundant. Overall, Verbal Behavior continues to make an important contribution to the psychological literature.

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The present study undertook an updated citation analysis of Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior. All articles that cited Verbal Behavior between 1984 and 2004 were recorded and content analyzed into one of five categories; four empirical and one nonempirical. Of the empirical categories, studies that employed a verbal operant from Skinner's analysis were assigned to either basic, applied, or observational categories. Empirical studies that did not employ a verbal operant were categorized as other-empirical. The total number of citations remained stable across the review period and averaged just over 52 per year. Of these, 80% were from nonempirical articles, 13.7% were from other-empirical articles, 4% were from applied articles, 1.4% were from basic articles, and 0.9% were from observational articles. An ''obliteration'' analysis was also conducted to identify articles that employed Skinner's verbal operant terms but did not cite Verbal Behavior. This analysis identified 44 additional articles, suggesting that a degree of obliteration had occurred in the half century since the publication of Verbal Behavior. In particular, the analysis suggests that the verbal operant of manding has sufficient presence in the applied empirical literature to render citation of Verbal Behavior redundant. Overall, Verbal Behavior continues to make an important contribution to the psychological literature.

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Formal and functional analyses of verbal behavior have been often considered to be divergent and incompatible. Yet, an examination of the history of part of the analytical approach used in Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957/1992) for the identification and conceptualization of verbal operant units discloses that it corresponds well with formal analyses of languages. Formal analyses have been carried out since the invention of writing and fall within the scope of traditional grammar and structural linguistics, particularly in analyses made by the linguist Leonard Bloomfield. The relevance of analytical instruments originated from linguistic studies (which examine and describe the practices of verbal communities) to the analysis of verbal behavior, as proposed by Skinner, relates to the conception of a verbal community as a prerequisite for the acquisition of verbal behavior. A deliberately interdisciplinary approach is advocated in this paper, with the systematic adoption of linguistic analyses and descriptions adding relevant knowledge to the design of experimental research in verbal behavior.

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FAQs

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AI

What explains the prevalence of negative citations regarding Skinner's work?add

The literature overwhelmingly cites Skinner's Verbal Behavior negatively, largely due to Neisser's 1967 review dismissing behaviorism; Chomsky's critiques further reinforce misunderstandings.

Why do some researchers continue to support Skinner's Verbal Behavior concepts?add

Despite criticisms, many researchers find Skinner's analysis of language insightful, leading to ongoing empirical applications, as indicated by the 16 papers reviewed from JABA.

How has experimental research utilized Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior?add

Only 8 out of 16 papers cited in JABA actively integrated Skinner's principles, illustrating a gap between behavioral methods and traditional linguistic studies.

What methodological criteria were used for selecting references on Skinner's work?add

References were included if they had constructive discussions about Verbal Behavior or if they cited Skinner's work while investigating relevant features.

When was Skinner's Verbal Behavior published and what impact did it have?add

Published in 1957, Skinner's Verbal Behavior has influenced language research yet remains underexplored, with many scholars disregarding its core analyses.

Related papers

Realizing the potential of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior
Mark Sundberg

The Analysis of verbal behavior, 1998

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The Long Good-Bye: Why B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior is Alive and Well on the 50Th Anniversary of Its Publication
Henry Schlinger

The Psychological Record, 2008

The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, a book that by Skinner's own account was his most important. The received view, however, is that a devastating review by a young linguist not only rendered Skinner's interpretation of language moot but was also a major factor in ending the hegemony of behaviorism in psychology and paving the way for a cognitive revolution. Nevertheless, in taking stock of Verbal Behavior and behaviorism, both appear to be thriving. This article suggests that Verbal Behavior and behaviorism remain vital partly because they have generated successful practical applications.

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The Impact of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: A Response to Dymond and Alonso-Álvarez
Henry Schlinger

The Psychological Record

I neglected to mention a controversial debate within behavior analysis about the consistency of Skinner's interpretation in Verbal Behavior (1957) and that I failed to acknowledge more recent accounts of verbal behavior, most notably, relational frame theory. Furthermore, these authors claim that Skinner's book has had very little impact on empirical research. In responding to their concerns, I reiterate that the interpretation in Verbal Behavior is consistent with the extant principles of behavior and that it has generated both practical applications and empirical research.

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Recollections of Jack Michael and the Application of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior
Mark Sundberg

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 2017

Jack Michael offered a course on verbal behavior almost every year throughout his teaching career. Jack was also interested in the application of Skinner's work and in 1976 began to offer a graduate course at Western Michigan University titled Verbal Behavior Applications. Jack and his students pursued the application of Skinner's work on verbal behavior with dozens of empirical studies during the 1970s. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the publication of Skinner's book Verbal Behavior, the current paper presents some of my recollections of Jack's work on verbal behavior as his student, graduate teaching assistant, and research collaborator during that time period.

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A Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior
asaad samara

1967

by Noam Chomsky Rereading this review after eight years, I find little of substance that I would change if I were to write it today. I am not aware of any theoretical or experimental work that challenges its conclusions; nor, so far as I know, has there been any attempt to meet the criticisms that are raised in the review or to show that they are erroneous or ill-founded. I had intended this review not specifically as a criticism of Skinner's speculations regarding language, but rather as a more general critique of behaviorist (I would now prefer to say "empiricist") speculation as to the nature of higher mental processes. My reason for discussing Skinner's book in such detail was that it was the most careful and thoroughgoing presentation of such speculations, an evaluation that I feel is still accurate. Therefore, if the conclusions I attempted to substantiate in the review are correct, as I believe they are, then Skinner's work can be regarded as, in effect, a reductio ad absurdum of behaviorist assumptions. My personal view is that it is a definite merit, not a defect, of Skinner's work that it can be used for this purpose, and it was for this reason that I tried to deal with it fairly exhaustively. I do not see how his proposals can be improved upon, aside from occasional details and oversights, within the framework of the general assumptions that he accepts. I do not, in other words, see any way in which his proposals can be substantially improved within the general framework of behaviorist or neobehaviorist, or, more generally, empiricist ideas that has dominated much of modern linguistics, psychology, and philosophy. The conclusion that I hoped to establish in the review, by discussing these speculations in their most explicit and detailed form, was that the general point of view was largely mythology, and that its widespread acceptance is not the result of empirical support, persuasive reasoning, or the absence of a plausible alternative. If I were writing today on the same topic, I would try to make it more clear than I did that I was discussing Skinner's proposals as a paradigm example of a futile tendency in modern speculation about language and mind. I would also be somewhat less apologetic and hesitant about proposing the alternative view sketched in Sections 5 and 11 --and also less ahistorical in proposing this alternative, since in fact it embodies assumptions that are not only plausible and relatively wellconfirmed, so it appears to me, but also deeply rooted in a rich and largely forgotten tradition of rationalist psychology and linguistics. I have tried to correct this imbalance in later publications see also Miller et al., 1960; Lenneberg, 1966). I think it would also have been valuable to try to sketch some of the reasons --and there were many --that have made the view I was criticizing seem plausible over a long period, and also to discuss the reasons for the decline of the alternative rationalist conception which, I was suggesting, should be rehabilitated. Such a discussion would, perhaps, have helped to place the specific critique of Skinner in a more meaningful context.

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Cited by

Recollections of Jack Michael and the Application of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior
Mark Sundberg

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 2017

Jack Michael offered a course on verbal behavior almost every year throughout his teaching career. Jack was also interested in the application of Skinner's work and in 1976 began to offer a graduate course at Western Michigan University titled Verbal Behavior Applications. Jack and his students pursued the application of Skinner's work on verbal behavior with dozens of empirical studies during the 1970s. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the publication of Skinner's book Verbal Behavior, the current paper presents some of my recollections of Jack's work on verbal behavior as his student, graduate teaching assistant, and research collaborator during that time period.

View PDFchevron_right
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