ABSTRACT
As with all other behavior, a contingency analysis clarifies how verbal behavior works. This chapter shows Skinner’s analysis. It provides a new understanding of communication between individuals. His contingency analysis shows why and how students say, gesture, or write what they do. The chapter lets to better understand and solve classroom problems, teach reading with understanding, and enable students to better express their ideas. Verbal Behavior analyzes the emitting of verbal behavior – speaking, writing, or gesturing. Skinner divided verbal behavior under control of verbal stimuli into subcategories. They are defined by how the form of what is said or written corresponds to the form of the antecedent verbal stimulus. Verbal behavior typically occurs under more than one source of control. In Verbal Behavior Skinner looks at why people write what they do, instead of only what words people write. Worrying over structural details while writing interferes with capitalizing on weak intraverbal behavior.
