OPTIONAL—Study Questions Part VI: Ch. 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19
Name of Student: ___________________________
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review the material and study. It will also allow your instructor to more
easily confirm that you’ve answered each question.
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Chapter 15
What is the difference between the simple non-emission of a verbal response and the act
of withholding it? (pp. 369-370)
What is the effect of punishment on a verbal response? Give an example (pp. 371-372).
What are the effects of punishment on verbal behavior? (pp. 376)
Why is moderate, but not extensive, use of punishment probably necessary in developing
and maintaining desirable verbal behavior? (pp. 379-380)
Briefly list, in their order of occurrence, the steps leading to the emission of edited verbal
behavior. (p. 382)
Chapter 16
1. What is necessary in order for a speaker to edit his behavior? Explain (p. 384).
2. When overt verbal behavior is being executed with great speed, it cannot be edited before
it has been emitted. Why not? (p. 384)
3. Editing may fail to occur under the following conditions: (a) extremely strong verbal
behavior; (b) defective feed-back; (c) defective self-observation; (d) defective responses
to controlling variables; and (e) “automatic” verbal behavior. (pp. 384-390)
Retrospectively observe your own verbal behavior. Note instances in which you have
edited and in which you have failed to edit, and the consequences and possible
controlling conditions of each.
The rest of the chapter is interesting, particularly for those interested in literature.
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Chapter 17
What do people do in situations where verbal behavior is demanded (e.g., when silence is
aversive), but the form of the behavior is not specific? (That is, do they generate the
behavior from “within” themselves?) Give an example. (p. 403)
Why may the following types of responses be weak: (a) tact; (b) intraverbal; (c) echoic;
(d) textual? (pp. 406-405)
List and briefly explain the various techniques of self-strengthening. (pp. 405-412)
How are production, editing, and composition interrelated in the development of effective
verbal behavior (p. 414.1)
How can one build new verbal behavior? How can one develop or maintain verbal
behavior to stimuli that are no longer present (pp. 415.1-416.4)?
6. What is “attention”? How may a person be taught to “pay attention” to his environment?
Explain in behavioral terms (pp. 415-416).
Chapter 18
1. Give examples illustrating how and why the scientific community sharpens the precise
stimulus control of relevant aspects of a situation (p. 419)
2. Why does the scientific community tend to eliminate lay terms from its vocabulary? (p.
421)
3. How is arriving at the conclusion, “All mice are mammals,” is an example of
manipulating verbal behavior according to a set of rules? (p. 424)
4. How is the manner in which a theory such as evolution is confirmed differ from the
manner in which a theory describing the orbit of a planet is confirmed? (p. 426-427)
5. What do we mean when we say that a verbal response is “right” or “true” (p. 428)
6. What is the ultimate reinforcing contingency that maintains scientific/logical behavior?
(p. 429)
7. What three steps lead to a methodological inquiry into scientific verbal behavior? (p. 430)
Chapter 19
1. Briefly summarize contingencies that might give rise to and maintain verbal behavior in a
culture. (p. 432-433)
2. Why does verbal behavior become covert? (pp. 435-437)
3. Why is it that when people talk to themselves, either aloud or silently, they are excellent
listeners? (p. 438-439)
4. Cite some practical benefits of self-echoic, self-intraverbal, self-textual, self-mand, selftact, self-instruction. (p. 440-441)
5. Discuss, with examples, how (a) verbal self-stimulation is reinforced in problem solving
(p. 442) (b) verbal self-supplementation plays a role in decision making (p. 442-443)
6. What is a resolution and how can it be made more effective? (p. 444)
7. Why is covert verbal behavior more conspicuous than other covert behavior (p. 448)
8. What is the simplest view of thought? (p. 449)
Personal Epilogue
1. Briefly describe how Skinner arrived at his formulation. In one or two sentences, what
would you say is its most significant achievement (pp. 454-455)?
2. What effect was Skinner trying to have on the reader, and why (pp. 455-456)?