ABSTRACT
This chapter examines concept acquisition and modeling, and then it turns to verbal behavior itself which seems so intimately associated with many forms of complex human behavior. It seeks to identify complex human behavioral processes that contribute to complex human behavior that are shared with other species. Because behavioral science is a biological science our initial strategy should always be to seek to establish these commonalties. The chapter extends this strategy to verbal behavior, which has often been seen by philosophers, linguists, and psychologists of other orientations, as not being susceptible to this approach. It deals with a consideration of a simple animal discrimination learning paradigm, which shares certain important properties with human concept acquisition. Bandura and associates carried out a classic series of studies showing the powerful effects on children of short periods of observing adults or children modeling specific behaviors. Rule-formation and rule-following is a highly effective problem solving strategy for humans, and these studies illustrate the tactics adopted.
