Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes 
Credits: 2 Learning BACB CEs

Presenter: Henry D. Schlinger Jr., Ph.D., BCBA-D

Course Description: Outlines Skinner’s role in the discussion of rule-governed behavior in behavior analysis, how other behavior analysts took up the mantle and how Skinner’s discussion of instruction and conditioning the behavior of the listener in his book, Verbal Behavior (1957), should have laid the foundation for his view on rules, but didn’t. Then suggests that if the term rules should be retained, it should be for the function-altering effects of verbal stimuli that Skinner described when the listener’s behavior is conditioned. Alternatively, behavior analysts should simply abandon the term in favor of a functional analysis of the effects of verbal stimuli.

Objectives:

• Describe what prompted Skinner to begin talking about rules and rule-governed behavior and how cognitive psychologists viewed them.
• State how Skinner defined a rule.
• Explain how other behavior analysts talked about (i.e., defined) rules.
• Describe how Skinner (1957) said the behavior of the listener is conditioned both respondently and operantly and what term he used.
• State how Blakely and Schlinger (1987a, 1987b) used the term function altering.
• Explain how Pavlovian and operant conditioning illustrate function-altering effects of environmental events.
• Describe some implications of a function-altering view of conditioning.
• Describe how verbal stimuli can be function altering.
• Describe how function-altering verbal stimuli might be analogues of conditioning.
• Describe how “any salient verbalization can condition a listener’s behavior.”
• Explain how Skinner talked about relational frames.
• Explain whether such verbal conditioning is analogue or literal conditioning.
• Describe the implications of a function-altering analysis of verbal events for rules and rule-governed behavior.

Keywords: Rule-governed behavior, verbal behavior, conditioning, listener

Rating: This course is recommended for certified practitioners in the field of behavior analysis (BCBAs and BCaBAs) and professionals with background knowledge of the concepts and principles of behavior analysis. 

Access: 60 days from the date and time of registration

Important notes:  Your access begins at the time of purchase, not the time of log in.  Effective July 1, 2022, Florida Tech no longer offers extensions for CE courses; if you do not finish your course and need to repurchase, please contact us.  If you are taking this course to maintain your BACB certification, you will need to write your certification number on your certificate of completion, as the BACB requires that your certificate of completion includes your certification number.

For more information, if you experience problems when registering, or if you need to repurchase a CE please email us at ceu@fit.edu

Refund Policy

No refunds are provided once the course is accessed.

These workshops are presented in partnership between the Florida Tech ABA Online program and ABA Technologies, Inc. ABA Technologies, Inc., is a BACB-approved provider of type-2 continuing education hours (provider number: OP-02-0023)