Search Results

Understanding rules and rule-governed behavior has been a pervasive conceptual issue in behavior analysis since Skinner’s initial analysis in his book, Verbal Behavior (1957). Since then the exact function of rules and verbal stimuli has been a point of conjecture. In this course, Dr. Hank Schlinger, BCBA-D, provides a detailed overview of the history of the analysis of rules and provides a contemporary perspective on rule-governed behavior informed by Blakely and Schlinger (1987a, 1987b).

As behavior analysts, we constantly try to determine why people do what they do. Often this is in a clinical context. Why does Johnny tantrum? Why does Jane flop during transitions?

The distinction between contingency governed (or “shaped”) and rule-governed behavior is an old saw for most behavior analysts. Like most dichotomies, this one doesn’t hold up under careful analysis.

In this course, Dr. Eb Blakely and Dr. Hank Schlinger describe function-altering operations and detail how function-altering interpretations can be used to explain the effects of respondent and operant conditioning. Other examples of function-altering operations including observational learning and imprinting are then described. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the implications of taking a function-altering approach to explaining behavior in applied and conceptual contexts.

If you have ever worked with vocal-verbal humans, it would be no surprise to hear the differences in complexity between two speakers. B.F. Skinner developed and produced Verbal Behavior attempting to provide a thorough functional account of language that has proved to be imperative in teaching basic verbal operants. However, refinements for more complex behavior may be useful.

Rules often are derived to guide behavior under certain, often well-specified conditions.