Verbal Conditioning and Behaviour

Verbal Conditioning and Behavior clarifies certain major issues in the area of verbal behavior, with emphasis on the problems that are continuous and those that are discontinuous with animal learning research. This book provides information pertinent to certain areas of complex verbal behavior. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of conditioning as an objective tool for the investigation of verbal behavior. This text then explains the relationship between the extent of verbal intervention and the degree of closeness of the conditioning task to a task of concept-learning. Other chapters consider the role of reinforcement in human learning needs. This book discusses as well how meaning is acquired and how it can be transferred once acquired. The final chapter deals with the individual differences in the development of a certain conditioned response. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, college students, teachers, and researcher workers.

Preface

Chapter 1 Classical and Verbal Conditioning

The Pavlovian Heritage

Role of Speech

Nonverbal Classical and Verbal Conditioning

Chapter 2 Acquisition, Extinction, and Awareness

Relation between Acquisition and Reversal

Experimental Findings

Examples of Classical and Operant

Methods of Conditioning Verbal Behavior

Is Awareness Essential?

Chapter 3 Reinforcement and Performance

Ratio of Reinforcement

Verbal and Nonverbal Reinforcement

Social Reinforcement

Chapter 4 Probability Learning

Description and Systematic Interpretation

Some Variables in Probability Learning

Chapter 5 Meaning: Some Basic Characteristics

Analysis of Meaning

The Semantic Differential

Persistence of Affective Meaning

The Primacy Effect

Chapter 6 Meaning Mediation and Transfer

The Mechanism of Mediation

Transfer of Meaning

Chapter 7 Semantic Satiation

Selective Reviews

Experiments

Theoretical Considerations

Measurement of Semantic Satiation through Orienting Response

Chapter 8 Hypnosis as a Verbal Conditioned Reflex

Conditioning and Hypnosis

Theory and Experiments

Chapter 9 Neurodynamics of Behavior and Verbal Conditioning

Physiologizing

Supportive Neurophysiological Evidence for Pavlov's Concepts

Effects of Environmental Manipulation

Verbal Deficit and Brain Pathology

Chapter 10 The Future

The Principles of Conditioning

Meaning

Emerging Research Problems

The Place of Theory

Bibliography

Author Index

Subject Index