Verbal Behavior: A Bridge Between Conceptual, Experimental, and Applied Areas of Behavior Analysis Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA-D (

Behavior Analysis Behavior analysis is comprised of three general fields Conceptual (e.g., Skinner’s About Behaviorism) Experimental (e.g., JEAB) Applied (e.g., JABA) It is not uncommon to see them treated separately in journals, at conferences, and in practice Behavior analysis can be more powerful in solving human problems if all three areas are integrated The complexities of verbal behavior forces us to bring these areas together, but also provides us with opportunities to make more substantial gains in clinical interventions

Verbal Behavior The most significant aspects of human behavior involve verbal behavior language acquisition education social behavior and relationships knowledge, thinking, and intellectual behavior literature, poetry, stories, novels understanding employment beliefs, views, & opinions international relations

Verbal Behavior Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior is a conceptual analysis of language “an exercise in interpretation rather than a quantitative extrapolation of rigorous experimental results” (Skinner 1957, p. 11) But, the conceptual analysis is based on data from the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) “The emphasis is on an orderly arrangement of well-known facts, in accordance with a formulation of behavior derived from an experimental analysis of a more rigorous sort.” (p. 11) “much of the experimental work responsible for this advance has been carried out with other species” (p. 3)

Verbal Behavior These first two give rise to a potential wealth of applications (ABA) “The formulation is inherently practical and suggests immediate technological applications at almost every step (p. 12) Today, I would like to present two examples of how these three areas of behavior analysis can be used to improve our understanding and treatment of the growing human problem of children who cannot communicate, or have significant language delays

Motivational Control vs. Stimulus Control A ubiquitous problem in the treatment of language delays for children with autism and other developmental disabilities is the neglect of motivation (MOs) as an antecedent controlling variable For example, children are often taught to ask for information when they really don’t care about the information provided: “What’s your name” “What’s that?” The response comes under stimulus control (S D ) not motivational control (MO), thus an impaired verbal operant (a rote response) There are many other examples of impaired mands (e.g., a child asking for things he doesn’t really want, negative behavior functioning as mands, excessive manding)

Motivational Control vs. Stimulus Control The three areas of behavior analysis come together nicely for providing direction for these types of verbal problems Conceptual analysis: The mand (Skinner, 1957); Motivational control is different from stimulus control (mand vs. tact) Experimental analysis: (Skinner 1938 “Drive not a stimulus” Keller & Schoenfeld, 1950: literature review) Applied analysis: (Sautter & LeBlanc, 2006: literature review) There must be an MO controlling the response form in order for the response to be classified as a mand A variety of procedures have been presented in the literature on contriving and capturing MOs for the purposes of mand training

Verbal Conditional Discriminations The applied problem: Many children with autism fail to acquire intraverbal behavior, despite strong mand, tact, and listener repertoires There often is some intraverbal stimulus control demonstrated, but the control is lost when verbal conditional discrimination are involved Verbal S D Response “Where is the refrigerator?” “Cold” “What grows on your head?”“Plants” “Who drives the car?”“Street” “Where are the trees?”“Leaves” “Where do you eat?”“Spoon” “What helps a flower grow?” “Up”

Conditional Discriminations Conditional discrimination: “When the nature or extent of operant control by a stimulus condition depends on some other stimulus condition” (Michael, 1993, p. 14) One discriminative stimulus (S D ) or motivational operation (MO) alters the evocative effect of a second stimulus, and establishes the second stimulus as a discriminative stimulus (S D )

Conditional Discriminations Extensive behavioral research on conditional discriminations (C D s) Most of it involves matching-to-sample tasks consisting of nonverbal C D s (e.g., Debert, Matos, & McIlvane, 2007) Some of it involves verbal stimuli and nonverbal response (receptive discriminations) (e.g., Kelly, Green, & Sidman, 1998) However, there is very little behavioral research on verbal conditional discriminations and verbal responses (intraverbal behavior) Catania (1998) provides some conceptual direction with his analysis of how a verbal context alters the evocative effect of other verbal stimuli via conditional discriminations

Verbal Conditional Discriminations (VC D ) What constitutes a verbal conditional discrimination and an intraverbal response? Two components of a verbal stimulus where one verbal stimulus alters the evocative effect of the second verbal stimulus, and collectively they evoke a differential intraverbal response Skinner (1957, p. 76) calls this a “compound verbal stimulus,” but does not use the term “conditional discrimination” or its definition AntecedentResponse Verbal S D 1 + Verbal S D 2 Intraverbal Response

Verbal Conditional Discriminations (VC D ) Examples... Antecedent ( Verbal S D 1 + Verbal S D 2 ) Intraverbal Response Define a mand A type of verbal behavior... Exemplify a mand Saying “car” as a function... Define a tact A type of verbal behavior... Exemplify a tact Saying “car” as a function... VC D =VS D 1 alters the evocative effect of VS D 2 or vice versa

Verbal Conditional Discriminations (VC D ) More complex examples... Antecedent ( VS D 1 + VS D 2 + VS D 3 ) Intraverbal Response Define a disguised mand A response controlled by... Define a magical mand A mand that cannot be... Define a self-mand A mand where the speaker... Define an autoclitic mand A type of secondary verbal... VS D 1 + VS D 2 + VS D 3 + VS D 4 Define a manipulative autoclitic mand A type of secondary... Exemplify a quantitative autoclitic tactA type of secondary…

Verbal Conditional Discriminations Back to our applied problem. What might the research on conditional discriminations tell us? Verbal S D Response “Where is the refrigerator?” “Cold” “What grows on your head?”“Plants” “Who drives the car?”“Street” “Where are the trees?”“Leaves” “Where do you eat?”“Spoon” “What helps a flower grow?” “Up” The individual components must first demonstrate stimulus control (e.g., “grows” and “head” “mand” and “tact”) These individual operants can then be systematically brought together in a conditional discrimination task using a variety of procedures (e.g., Saunders & Spradlin, 1989)

Conclusion Behavior analysis can be more powerful in solving human problems if the three elements of the field are respected The challenges of teaching individuals with autism can best be understood when behavior analysts look to the roots of the field, which are in the conceptual and experimental analyses of behavior Verbal behavior provides a valuable connection between the three areas of behavior analysis

Thank You! For an electronic version of this presentation visit: marksundberg.com/ABAI