DABA 610 Verbal Behavior
The purpose of this doctoral course on verbal behavior is to advance the understanding and applications of the conceptual and empirical analyses of Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior. This includes examining critiques of Skinner’s analysis, such as by Chomsky and relational frame theorists, and providing defenses to those criticisms based on the analyses of joint control, bidirectional naming, and autoclitics. We explore additional contemporary research, including on multiple control, problem solving, instructive feedback, matrix training, and teaching conditional discriminations. The final topics are Skinner’s (1957) chapters on composition and self-editing, as well as an examination of how the analysis of verbal behavior can help approach anti-racism. Students write and present a research proposal on a practical topic in verbal behavior as well as a conceptual paper related to a topic in the course.
Prerequisite
None