The Role of the Listener in Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior is the kind of topic that looks straightforward until it collides with the speed, ambiguity, and competing demands of language assessment, teaching sessions, caregiver coaching, and natural communication routines. In The Role of the Listener in Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior, for this course, the practical stakes show up in clearer case conceptualization, better instructional targets, and stronger generalization, not in abstract discussion alone.
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Join Free →In Chapter 4 of Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior (Skinner, 1989), titled "The Listener," Skinner described several effects on the (behavior of the) listener "which shape and maintain the behavior of the speaker" (p. 37). Each of the chapter headings include everyday terms, such as The Listener Is Told, The Listener is Taught, The Listener is Advised, and so on. Of course, Skinner attempted to interpret these everyday terms behaviorally. Skinner wrote this at a time in his career when he was especially concerned with the etymology of traditional, cognitive, terms, and this chapter is a prime example. In my presentation, I take a different tack. I simplify the role of the listener by placing the listener's behavior squarely and parsimoniously within the four-term contingency. Thus, the listener's behavior is no different functionally than any other behavior. First, and foremost, the mature listener behaves both as a listener and a speaker. In fact, speaking along with a speaker (i.e., listening) is one type of listener behavior. Second, the listener's behavior is evoked by EOs and SDs some of whose evocative functions were established by a speaker's instruction (as a verbal function-altering operation); that is, the listener's behavior is conditioned. Third, stimuli arising from the listener's behavior have motivative and discriminative (i.e., evocative) and reinforcing (i.e., function-altering) effects on other listeners' behavior including the listener him- or herself. The presentation will address such issues as listening, rule-governance, and instructing or conditioning the behavior of the listener.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1.5 | General |
| COA | 0 | — |
Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger Jr. received his Ph.D. in psychology (applied behavior analysis) from Western Michigan University (WMU) under the supervision of Jack Michael. He then completed a two-year National Institutes of Health-funded post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology also at WMU with Alan Poling. Dr. Schlinger was a full tenured professor of psychology at Western New England University in Springfield, MA, before moving to Los Angeles in 1998. He is now professor of psychology and current director of the ABA Specialization Option and BCaBA course sequence, and former director of the M. S. Program in Applied Behavior Analysis in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlinger has published approximately 100 scholarly articles, chapters, commentaries, and book reviews in more than 35 different journals and books. He also has authored or co-authored four books, Psychology: A Behavioral Overview (1990), A Behavior Analytic View of Child Development (1995/2024) (which has been translated into Japanese), Introduction to Scientific Psychology (1998), and, most recently, How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children (2021) (which has been translated into Italian). He is past editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and The Behavior Analyst (now Perspectives on Behavior Science) and sits on the editorial boards of several other journals. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and on the Advisory Board of The B. F. Skinner Foundation and The Venus Project (https://www.resourcebasedeconomy.org/advisory-board/). Dr. Schlinger received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University in 2012, and the Jack Michael Award for Outstanding Contributions in Verbal Behavior from the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in 2015.Hank is also an accomplished song writer and guitarist, whose album, One More Invention, can be found on Spotify. He is also a reviewer of classical music concerts and recordings, and his reviews can be found at Culturespotla.com
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252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.