INFERENCES CONCERNING PRIVATE VERBAL PRECURRENT OPERANT CLASSES

Abstract

This study was designed to replicate systematically and expand the validity of Greenspoon’s (1955) analysis of behavioral processes considered “usage of language” as operant responses classes. In Experiment I, 16 university students were assigned to two groups, according to the performance of classifying, or not, random words ingrammatical classes without direct induction. Afterwards, participants were individually exposed to words of different grammatical classes, according to an ABA experimental design. In Training Condition (B), responses generated by touching on verbs were reinforced with “RIGHT” and responses to words of other classes were punished with “WRONG”. In both baseline sessions (A) the touch responses were neither reinforced or punished. The group that was able to classify words on grammatical classes displayed a better performance, which indicates the discriminative control underlying the private processes called precurrent behavior. In Experiment II, 4 illiterate participants were exposed to the same design of Experiment I. The results show that the consequences did not increase the frequency of touching responses to verbs; the response distribution was the same to all grammatical classes. Results seem to demonstrate the operant nature of certain properties of verbal behavior and that the control of the consequences is a function of the discriminative effects of private precurrent behaviors on public behaviors. Key-words: verbal behavior, precurrent behavior, private events, discriminative control