Behavioral Determinants of Accurate Verbal Communication: An Operant Behavior-Analytic Approach
Abstract
An analysis of interpersonal communication was performed in terms of the operant paradigm's controlling variables, Skinner's taxonomy of verbal behavior, and the relationships between these. In contrast to formal syntactic and lexical analyses, these functional models emphasize why people speak as they do, rather than how and what. Deviating slightly from Skinner's terminology, the key operant variables, interacting through multiple contingencies, are effector (response), consequator (positive or negative reinforcer and aversive consequence), potentiator (deprivation and aversive stimulation), and discriminator (discriminative stimulus). The verbal taxonomy's four major categories are mand and tact (which relate verbal to nonverbal behavior prescriptively or descriptively) and interverbal and autoclitic (in which components of verbal behavior are related to each other by recurrence or organization).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA338736
Entities
People
- H. M. Parsons
Organizations
- Human Resources Research Organization