Language is an important cognitive function and its decline may represent demential syndrome in evolution. Verbal behavior theory, proposed by Skinner, analyzes language in terms of verbal operants. Objective: to compare the verbal behavior (verbal operants) in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and elderly without any cognitive impairment. Methods: The cross-sectional study included 69 sub...

Descriptive definitions in science are useful insofar as they identify natural phenomena that hang together in some distinctive way. In 1957, Skinner proposed an unusual definition of verbal behavior that has subsequently been criticized even by fellow behavior analysts. Although Skinner did not justify his definition at length in his published work, two unpublished manuscripts show that he put...

The article describes language development techniques used with a 5-year-old autistic boy to increase his verbal behavior. Intervention consisted of 1.5 hour sessions four times a week over an 8-month period. The intervention focused on increasing nonvocal imitation, vocal imitation, verbal labeling, and verbal discrimination. Development of nonvocal imitation required physical guidance and imm...

Skinner's book, Verbal Behavior, was published in 1957. Chomsky's review of it appeared in 1959. By the criterion of seminal influence in generating controversy and stimulating publication, both must be counted major successes, although the reputation and influence of the review are more widely acknowledged. It has been reprinted at least three times (The Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Soc...

OBJECTIVES Many adults mention past incidences of verbal abuse by the teacher as the most overwhelming negative experience in their lives. The present study examined (1) the course and stability of verbal abuse by the teacher from kindergarten through grade 4 and (2) the link between verbal abuse by the teacher and children's behavioral, emotional, and academic adjustment. DESIGN Participants...

2 studies used a laboratory measure of verbal aggressive behavior in which boys competed in pairs against one another in assembling a formboard. In Study I, 80 delinquent boys were subjected either to intense or mild verbal attack by a delinquent accomplice. Intense verbal aggression led to more retaliatory verbal aggression than did mild distraction. In Study II, 128 delinquent boys competed a...

Communication includes all the ways that human beings can influence others. This involves not only speaking or writing, but also all human behavior in various ways, so there are two types of communicational signs that human beings use: verbal and non-verbal signs. In communication science, special attention has been paid to how non-verbal signs influence message transmission. The research has s...

Approximately 5% of older adults have a dementia diagnosis, and language deterioration is commonly associated with this disorder (Kempler, 2005). Several instruments have been developed to diagnose dementia and assess language capabilities of elderly adults. However, none of these instruments take a functional approach to language assessment as described by Skinner (1957). The purpose of this s...

We propose a method to generate a verbal report on the trends of stock price. The trends of the stock price is observed by the behavior of numerical data expressed in a 2D chart. Since its behavior reflects the shape of a chart, in order to recognize the behavior in qualitative and quantitative ways, we use the least squares to mathematically recognize the shape and expressed it with words that...