The Psychobiological Investigation of the Development of New

1. Preparing Institution: Institute for Behavioral Research, Inc. 2. Title of Report: The Psychobiological Investigation of the Development of New Verbal Behavior 3. Principal Investigator: C. B. Ferster 4. Number of pages, illustrations and date: 79; Figures 1-4; Tables 1-3; July 8, 1966 5. Contract Number: DA 49-193-ND-2577 6. Supported by: U. S. Army Medical Research and Development Command Department of the Army Washington 25, D. C. Experiments were carried out with verbal behavior which are extensions and adaptations of general laboratory principles developed with animals. The experiments have been in three areas. The first was an application of general principles of verbal behavior, largely based on Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, to the problems of teaching a second language. Actual teaching programs were developed in German and Vietnamese. The second area of research was a program of experiments designed to test the hypothesis that training as a listener and a reader would enhance the development of speaking and writing. The experiments were carried out, using a single Vietnamese phoneme, to trace the influence on pronunciation of the subject's skill as a listener. A third class of experiments concerned motivational variables. The automatic programming of the teaching machine materials made it possible to manipulate many of the relevant reinforcers. The experiments dealt particularly with the aspect of the teaching machine performances that was reinforced. In some experiments reinforcement occurred at the end of the session when the student demonstrated the new performance in the second language. In other experiments the reinforcement occurred card by card as the student went through the program, etc 7.