Verbal Behavior Beyond Skinner

Speech is a natural event that comes down to sounds that affect the behavior of one’s verbal community. Skinner (1957) proposed to analyze verbal commerce by the same means as other behavior. A supposition of momentary stimuli, discrete behavior and contiguous consequences forms the base for his categorization of “mands”, “tacts”, “echoics” and other verbal operants. How can an analysis of speech go beyond this ontologically and epistemologically questionable abstraction of continuous speech into momentary events? A molar, selectionist approach to verbal behavior treats larger verbal episodes as wholes, induced by a context and correlating with consequences. The talk exemplifies experimental procedures treating verbal behavior as allocation of time. Specifically, the experiments investigate effects of the “listener’s” responses on more extended verbal episodes and matching in conversations.