- Verbal Behavior - Annotated Bibliography Example

Verbal Behavior: An Annotated Bibliography Barnes-Holmes, D. & Barnes-Holmes, Y. (2000). Relational frame theory and Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: A possible synthesis. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 69 – 84. This article applies the relational frame theory, RFT to the verbal operants given by Skinner (1957) as a contribution towards the development of a modern language and cognition behavior-analytic research. The mand, echoic behavior, textual behavior, transcription and dictation taking, the intraverbal, tact, extended tact and autoclitics were integrated to RTF to compensate for their verbal behavior weaknesses. This depicts verbal behavior postulate as a growing area of study, with the capability of integrating with modern theories to make it relevant in the modern context. As such, when teaching a child to talk, it would be critical for me to integrate both verbal and non-verbal operants so as to cause the target child to learn to communicate even in the absence of the verbal operant. Other educators should include both the verbal and non-verbal correspondences in a behavioral unit to make up for the challenges of non-behavioral approaches so as to foster a modern coherent and functional-analytic cognition and language development among children. Future research could seek how this could be applied to understanding metaphors. Dixon, M. R., Small, S. L. & Rosales, R. (2007). Extended analysis of empirical citations with Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: 1984 – 2004. The Behavior Analyst, 30 (2), 197 – 209. This paper seeks to comment on and further extend the analysis given by Dymond, O’Hora, Whelan and O’Donovan (2006) on verbal operant publications borrowing from Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior. The findings attribute empirical research in the field of verbal behavior majorly to younger populations with developmental disabilities. The article recommends a shift from experimental studies on verbal operants as given by Skinner (1957) to developing innovative approaches for conducting the same. This is a useful resource in arousing the need for research among educationalists in the field of behavioral development. It encourages future research studies to compare competing behavioral theories of verbal behavior conceptually and empirically. Dougher, M. J. (1993). Clinical behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst, 16 (2), 269 – 270. This article seeks to evaluate the conceptual issues regarding behavior analysis in a clinical setting. According to the article, myriad verbal interventions are used in the treatment of various disorders like anxiety, depression and interpersonal stress and have been identified as behavior therapy. Though an old source, the author acknowledges the hardly satisfactory literature on behavior therapy as applied in behavior analysis. Thus, this article encourages me and other educationalists to put more effort in research in verbal interventions as used in behavior therapy. Such future research studies could explore the impact of contemporary behavior-analytic research particularly with regard to verbal behavior. Dougher, M. J. (1994). Clinical behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst, 17 (2), 287. This article aims at illustrating the application of clinical behavior-analytic procedures. The article appreciates the application of functional analytic psychotherapy, FAP in analyzing depression so as to comprehensively define major symptoms of depressive disorders. Furthermore, clinical behavior analysis aims at developing, maintaining and modifying clinically relevant behavior. It is also applied in AIDS prevention with actual control of behavior through analyzing the context within which such behavior occurs. This is a critical source in articulating the applications of verbal behavior in a clinical setting. It would therefore be a critical source in appreciating behavior evaluation capabilities of verbal behavior analysis. Hence, this should form the basis of further research on developments realized in clinical behavior analysis. Fletcher, L. & Hayes, S. C. (2005). Relational frame theory, acceptance and commitment therapy, and a functional analytic definition of mindfulness. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 23 (4), 315 - 336. doi: 0.1007/s10942-005-0017-7-7 In this article, researchers evaluate mindfulness from the perspective of how it influences cognition and language on human action and how human suffering results from Relational Frame Theory, RFT entangling with cognitive networks. The results from a critical literature review postulate that mindfulness, a combination of defusion, acceptance, transcendent sense of self and the contact with present moment referred to as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT, as a critical aspect in causing therapeutic change. Thus, ACT fosters psychological flexibility, promoting the contact of present moment and psychological reactions to produce a conscious person. Therefore, this article educates on the need to adopt a wholesome approach when seeking to impart behavioral change in an individual as such a change would only be achieved with appropriate manipulation of the six processes making up ACT. For this reason, educationalists should seek to understand how to adjust each of these six factors in a learner to cause the desired behavioral change. Glenn, S. S. (1983). Maladaptive functional relations in client verbal behavior. The Behavior Analyst, 6 (1), 47 – 56. From the perspective of Skinner’s investigation of verbal behavior, this paper evaluates the various maladaptive behaviors that clinicians deal with. As a result, the researcher observes denial, lying and poor observing skills as defective tacting repertoires in a clinical setting. Manipulative and demanding behaviors are mands which immediately get reinforced and disrupt interpersonal relations in the long term. Finally, obsessing, considered as a runaway intraverbal, is a behavior problem that indirectly disrupts interpersonal relations leading to a relatively dissatisfied and less productive client. Though an old source, this is a beneficial resource to clinicians, including parents, teachers and even spouses, as it enlightens them on how to analyze problems from the perspective of Skinner’s verbal behavior analysis. Thus, this would help me and other practitioners in education to choose the appropriate approach for adjusting contingencies so as to elicit behavior that would have long-lasting outcomes. Guerin, B. (1994). Attitudes and beliefs as verbal behavior, The Behavior Analyst, 17 (1), 155 – 163. The objective of this article is to analyze attitudes and beliefs as verbal behavior. Attitudes refer to affective responses to contexts and stimuli while beliefs refer to verbal knowledge on an issue. Here, Guerin (1994) observes attitudes and beliefs as tacts due to the role of verbal communities in shifting control from environmental events and as intraverbals due to control by other words. Verbal communities foster reporting of general as opposed to specific attitudes and beliefs, the presentation of intraverbals like tacts and presenting beliefs like attitudes. This article supports studying of attitudes and behaviors from social rather than individual cognitive processes, observing desires and drives in persons as alternatives for controlling beliefs, behavior and attitudes among verbal communities. Thus, this source would be crucial in educating the importance of considering social context when seeking to influence a person’s behavior in education context. Hayes, S. C., Bunting, K., Herbst, S., Bond, F. W. & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2006). Expanding the scope of organizational behavior management: Relational Frame Theory and the experimental analysis of complex human behavior. Acceptance and Mindfulness at Work, 26 (1), 1 - 23. doi: 10.1300/J075v26n01_01 This article explores Relational Frame Theory, RFT with regards to issues of Organizational Behavior Management, OBM. Through a review of various literature sources, the researchers observe that RFT utilizes behavior analytic research external to behavior analysis. It further links OBM to clinical behavior analytics in the context of humans with verbal capabilities. Thus, the research supports the fact that RFT enhances OBM. This gives practitioners the solution to handling complex human behaviors involving verbal processes. Future research that could be extended from this research should analyze how verbal behavior relates to OBM with regards to clinical behavior analytics for intervention among the verbally able. Lamarre, J. & Holland, J. G. (1985). The functional independence of mands and tacts. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 43 (1), 5 – 19. The aim of this study was to demonstrate functional independence in acquiring mands and tacts. This follows Skinner’s (1957) analysis of different verbal operants being acquired independently despite their similarities. The researchers tested 9 children. The results indicated the functional independence of mands and tacts during acquisition, thus the conclusion of independent acquisition of these operants. However, in a natural setting, acquisition of tact collaterally causes acquisition of corresponding mand. It was also observed that reversal training produces collateral reversal. Therefore, it should be appreciated from this study that when teaching languages, establishing a verbal operant would not automatically cause the other operant to appear despite their similarly in looks and sounding. Even though this research was conducted a long time ago, the missing of published experimental studies on this functional independence gives a research gap that future research studies should aim at filling. Langthorne, P. & McGill, P. (2009). A tutorial on the concept of motivating operation and its importance to application. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2 (2), 22 – 31. Acknowledging that motivating operations, MOs powerfully influence operant relations and makes critical sense to workers in applied settings, this article sought to give a description of MO, providing real world examples. Hence, the researchers define MOs as stimuli or events that alter the value in consequences acting as punishment or reinforcement and the probability of behaviors previously associated with similar consequences. They greatly influence operant contingencies thus a crucial component of complete human behavior. Further, it was observed that some events, referred to as conditioned motivating operations, CMOs, acquire value-shared effects from the learning history of a person. The CMOs could be surrogate, reflective or transitive. The CMO concept provides practitioners with an appropriate approach to identify effective interventions for people with limited adaptive behavior repertoires and those displaying problem behaviors. Thus, this relatively current source informs on the possible utilization of threats or promises and consequences as from past experiences to influence behavioral change. Lee, V. L. & Pegler, A. M. (1982). Effects of spelling on training children to read. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37 (2), 311 – 322. This article documents four experiments. The first experiment investigated the effects of training on loud reading of words on written spelling without any experimental consequences. Reading training and correct spelling had a weak positive correlation. Secondly, the researchers investigated the effect of overtraining in reading on spelling. This yielded a positive correlation up to the subject spelling all words right. The last two experiments evaluated the components of overtraining that caused this improved spelling. The results attribute this observation to repeated training in reading and looking at printed words. Therefore, these findings support Skinner’s verbal behavior theory and the correlation between speaking and following instructions among children. This enlightens educators on the importance of including reading exercises to foster language learning in learners. Michael, J., Palmer, D. C. & Sundberg, M. L. (2011). The multiple control of verbal behavior. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 27, 3 – 22. This article gives the application of Skinner’s multiple control analysis and its practical implications. It was found out that multiple control is an interpretive tool and at the same time an element of verbal behavior in natural context and should be incorporated in therapeutic interventions. These researchers argue for the usefulness of multiple control as an analytic tool in the interpretation of complex behavior. The use of multiple control is informed by the complexity of interpreting scientific interpretations. As such, this paper discusses convergent, divergent, formal and thematic multiple controls as solutions. It is useful in helping educators evaluate the behavior exhibited by various learners. Sautter, R. A. & LeBlanc, L. A. (2006). Empirical applications of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior with humans. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 22, 35 – 48. Appreciating that the framework given in Verbal Behavior by Skinner (1957) has not significantly impacted on experimental literature, this article sought to give its contribution by quantitatively reviewing literature to examine empirical studies on verbal behavior that articulated at least a verbal operant given by Skinner. The findings from literature retrieved from Psychological Information, PsycINFO indicate an increasing body of knowledge which argue that on acquisition of one verbal operant, other operants would spontaneously emerge. The operants reviewed include the mand, tact, echoic, intreverbal behavior and autoclitic. Teaching young learners, focusing on a particular distinct operant would provide me the opportunity to cause the acquisition of other operants in the learner. This is therefore a useful source in providing effective teaching strategies for educationalists. This research informs the need for future studies to develop and implement effective verbal behavior approaches for people having disabilities. Skinner, B. F. (1981). How to discover what you have to say – A talk to students. The Behavior Analysts, 4 (1), 1 – 7. Based on the 1957 Verbal Behavior, the author evaluates the behavior related to writing in behavior analysis. This relates to verbal behavior in that even before writing, it has to be spoken in a form of self dictation. It does not innately exist in a writer but rather appears. The author argues for good physical condition, environment that is conducive and money for acquisition of verbal behavior. The audience has a reinforcing role to play in instilling verbal behavior in an individual. On the other hand, punishment in the form of criticism deters acquisition of a verbal behavior. This provides practitioners with knowledge of developing the desired verbal behavior in learners through reinforcement and ensuring supportive factors are instilled. Further, it provides a solution to deterring undesirable behavior through punishment. Sundberg, M. L. (1991). 301 research topics from Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 9, 81 – 96. In this article, Sundberg (1991) subjects the topics of discussion in Skinner’s Verbal Behavior to experimental analysis so as to encourage its adoption in the behavioral community. The researcher proposes ten topics of research for each of the thirty research areas and one for education as a way of stimulating empirical research in the field of verbal behavior. From this article, I appreciate the diversity of fields of research in verbal behavior and therefore my need to engage in a field of interest to contribute to the body of practical knowledge. Those who have undertaken studies in any of the fields of verbal behavior should share so as to enable the behavioral community make informed decisions on their applications. Thus, this article arouses the need for extensive thematic research on various topics informed by Skinner in Verbal Behavior in a way that would benefit the behavioral community. Sundberg, M. L. (2006). I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth: Skinner’s analysis of self-editing. 18th Annual Conference of the International Society for Behaviorology. In this presentation, the author articulates self-editing as a form, in fact the highest, of verbal behavior. The argument is that punishment is the major independent variable attributed to self-editing. Other behavioral principles noted to also influence self-editing include reinforcement, stimulus control, Eos and intermittent reinforcement. This is a critical resource in enabling educational practitioners like me to analyze the behavioral changes exhibited by learners and adopt strategies that would foster the desired behavior. Resistance to a specific behavior could be attributed to previous punishment associated to verbal behavior while reinforcement would produce positive consequences. Read More