Teaching tacting of private events based on public accompaniments: Public-private correspondence, contingencies, and audience control
Document Type
Conference Presentation
Department
Psychology
Conference Title
Association for Behavior Analysis
Location
Minneapolis, MN
Conference Dates
May 24-28, 2013
Date of Presentation
5-24-2013
Abstract
Our current understanding of the role of private events in a science of behavior is based largely on Skinners (1953) natural science interpretation of private events. Skinner (1945) described public accompaniments as one way that a verbal community might differentially reinforce verbal behavior regarding private events. In this study, we developed an experimental analogue to study variables influencing tacting of private events. The participant had exclusive access to one set of stimuli (the private stimuli) and the experimenter attempted to teach tacts for private stimuli based on their correspondence with public stimuli accessible to both the experimenter and participant. Accuracy of participant verbal reports of private symbols was shown to be a function of private-public correspondence, reinforcement contingency, and audience member. The orderly patterns of data obtained suggest that analogue arrangements might be a useful, and even necessary, starting point for experimental investigations of how private events may enter into the analysis of behavior.
Recommended Citation
Stocco, C. S.,
Thompson, R. H.,
&
Hart, J. M.
(2013).
Teaching tacting of private events based on public accompaniments: Public-private correspondence, contingencies, and audience control.
Paper presented at Association for Behavior Analysis in Minneapolis, MN.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cop-facpres/1027
