Unit 3 Verbal behavior under control of verbal stimuli

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Unit 3Verbal behavior under control of verbal
stimuli
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Break from MO control

• Most VB does not produce specific rfmt.
• independent of MO
• How to break the VB from MO control?
• Reinforce a single form in the presence of
  different MOs
• Reinforce a single form with a generalized
  conditioned Sr.

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Break from MO control

• Why is it to the advantage of the verbal
  community to free some forms of vb (e.g. tacts,
  intraverbal) from control by MOs?
• The listener benefits from the speaker's tact
  because it permits the listener to react to
  stimuli that are not affecting him, but for this
  benefit to occur the speaker's tacts cannot be
  influenced by MOs. Otherwise it misleads the
  listener (53,1)
• Social interaction involves one person asking for
  information from another person. The obvious
  reinforcement for providing such information is
  the generalized conditioned reinforcement
  provided by the listener (e.g., "Thanks, etc.)

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Two Kinds of Generalized Conditioned
Reinforcement

1. Any event which characteristically precedes many
   different reinforcers becomes a generalized
   conditioned Sr (p.53)
2. Withdrawal of conditioned generalized aversive
   stimulation a threat may be correlated with
   different forms of aversive stimuli (p.55)

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Reinforcement for VB

• Question Assume that someone points at a student
  and asks you for his name. You then give the
  information requested, that is, you emit a tact
  consisting of the name of the student. One kind
  of reinforcement that you might receive for your
  tact is the generalized reinforcement consisting
  of the listener saying Thanks. What are the
  other two main kinds of reinforcement that you
  might receive for this tact behavior?
• Hint page 151, para 3

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Reinforcement for VB

• Sources of reinforcement
• Echoic 1) Educational, 2) Helps in the
  acquisition of other VB, 3)Rfmt from a 3rd
  person, 4) Effectiveness of VB (generate Sds)
  relevant to joint control
• Textual 1) Educational, 2) noneducational
  (reading to the blind), 3) automatic, 4) Helps
  the development of other VB (pic dictionay)

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Reinforcement for VB

• Intraverbal 1) Educational, 2) Contiguous
  usage/situational advantage
• Tact 1) Educational, 2) the listener is able to
  do something that could not have been done
  without the tact, 3) Situational advantage, 4)
  Automatic (of the practical type)

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Origins of Echoic

• Unconditioned reflex
• (unconditioned?) Automatic reinforcement plus
  operant shaping
• Conditioned automatic reinforcement plus operant
  shaping
• Reinforcing social reactions by the caregivers
  contingent upon echo

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Reacting as a listener Vs textual

• Skinner refers to "reacting as a listener" with
  respect to textual stimuli. This is the
  behavioral basis for "reading comprehension
• This could be behavior evoked by the text
  functioning as a conditioned (respondent)
  eliciting stimulus for (1) emotional or (2)
  perceptual responses or evoked by the text
  functioning as a discriminative stimulus for (3)
  intraverbal behavior or for (4) nonverbal
  behavior

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Reacting as a listener Vs textual

• Consider a written passage, for which textual
  behavior
• consists of reading the words
• (1) The text passage could be a story about
  something sad, and as a result of reading it we
  might cry. (2) The text might be a description of
  a beautiful sunset as seen from a sandy beach,
  and we might "see" such a scene in our "minds
  eye." (3) a text consisting of the word "lion"
  increasing the current frequency of our response
  "tiger." (4) A text that tells you where
  something that you already want is located (A
  note that says "The car keys are in the top
  drawer of the coffee table") which causes you to
  look there.
• How can the text function as CEOs?