BEHAVIORAL ACCOUNTS OF SAY-DO CORRESPONDENCE

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate how the behavior-analytical literature accounts for the correspondence between verbal and nonverbal behavior. The term correspondence might be generically defined as a label that describes a specific relation between two response classes separated in time. Such “specific relation” is arbitrary and depends on the conventions that govern the speaker-listener interaction. We present seven different behavioral accounts for the correspondence. This phenomenon was considered as (1) a self-regulatory process, (2) a behavioral chain, (3) a case of rule-governed behavior, (4) conditional discrimination, (5) equivalence relations, (6) or a generalized response class; finally, we presented studies that applied the Skinnerian categories of tact and mand in the functional analysis of verbal reports. We discuss the need of experiments that evaluate the scope of each behavioral account of correspondence.Key words: correspondence, say-do, verbal behavior, non-verbal behavior, conceptual review.