Document Type
Dissertation
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Degree
PhD in Behavior Analysis
Dissertation Defense Date
2013
First Committee Member
Thompson, Rachel H.
Second Committee Member
Ahearn, William H.
Third Committee Member
Karsten, Amanda M.
Additional Committee Member(s)
Palmer, David C.
Abstract
"Our current understanding of the role of private events in a science of behavior is based largely on Skinner's (1953) natural science interpretation of private events. Skinner (1945) described public accompaniments as one source of control for a verbal community to 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. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that reports of private stimuli were a function of degree of public-private correspondence, reinforcement contingency, and audience control. In some cases, we encountered reports controlled exclusively by public stimuli. Results of Experiment 3 showed that public control was less likely when public stimuli were more complex and the experimenter had a unique behavioral history with respect to those stimuli that was not shared by the learner. 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, Corey S., "Teaching tacting of private events based on public accompaniments : Effects of contingencies, audience control, and stimulus complexity" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations - College of Arts and Sciences. 57.
https://digitalcommons.law.wne.edu/casdissertations/57
