Publication trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1982-1998

The impact of Verbal Behavior on the scholarly literature from 2005 to 2016

B. F. Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior had a limited influence on empirical research in the first few decades following its publication, but an increase in empirical activity has been evident in recent years. The purpose of this article is to update previous analyses that have quantified the influence of Verbal Behavior on the scholarly literature, with an emphasis on its impact on empirical research. Study 1 was a citation analysis that showed an increase in citations to Verbal Behavior from 2005 to 2016 relative to earlier time periods. In particular, there was a large increase in citations from empirical articles. Study 2 identified empirical studies in which a verbal operant was manipulated or measured, regardless of whether or not Verbal Behavior was cited, and demonstrated a large increase in publication rate, with an increasing trend in the publication of both basic and applied experimental analyses throughout the review period. A majority of the studies were concerned with teaching verbal behavior to children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities, but a variety of other basic and applied research topics were also represented. The results suggest a clearly increasing impact of Verbal Behavior on the experimental analysis of behavior on the 60th anniversary of the book's publication.

Authorship Trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1982-2016

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) is the only journal focused on theoretical and empirical research in verbal behavior. An assessment of authorship trends can provide a critical perspective on practices in verbal behavior analysis (e.g., participation by non-US institutions, contributions by female authors). The present study examines authorship trends in all articles published in TAVB since its inception (between 1982 and 2016). All authors and their affiliations were listed and the first authors denoted as such. Authors were characterized as follows: prolificacy, new vs. frequent contributor status, number of co-authors, editor status, fellow status in a professional organization, and gender. Institutional affiliations were characterized as follows: academic vs. nonacademic institutions, prolificacy, and location (country). The review included 383 articles by 487 authors from 200 institutions. Our findings revealed areas in which TAVB is reaching maturity (e.g., author gender) and areas in which further action by contributors and editors is needed (e.g., international participation).

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: a Status Update

We analyzed past volumes of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) to provide a comprehensive status update after 30 years of publication. Data on TAVB's content, frequent contributors, and scholarly impact suggest a healthy state of the journal.

Neither dark age nor renaissance: Research and authorship trends in the experimental analysis of human behavior (1980-1999)

The anniversary of several milestones in the experimental analysis of human behavior (EAHB) provides a prompt for updating previous surveys of EAHB publication trends, which portrayed the field's overall health as good but raised questions about its breadth and trajectory. For the years 1980 through 1999, we examined trends in annual frequency of data-based EAHB articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB); in the topical emphasis of those EAHB articles; in the geographic region of origin of EAHB articles; and in the relative contributions of new and veteran authors. Our findings show continued productivity in the field, but contradict an earlier report by showing little sustained growth in EAHB over roughly the past 15 years. In terms of authorship, an increasing proportion of EAHB articles are authored by veteran investigators, although the field also benefits from a steady infusion of new authors. International participation in EAHB is limited, with most EAHB research originating in North America. In terms of content, our findings replicate those of previous reports in showing stimulus control and reinforcement and punishment to be the field's most commonly addressed research topics, although content emphases apparently differ across regions of origin. Overall, the data depict EAHB at the close of the 20th century as a multifaceted enterprise, one that is neither bankrupt nor at its full potential for contributing to the overall analysis of behavior. We close with some observations on the value of this type of archival research and some suggestions for improving the archival characterization of the field.

Whither the muse: What influences empirical research on verbal behavior?

To identify some of the published works that have helped to inspire empirical verbal behavior research, we searched for patterns in the sources cited in empirical studies published in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior between 1990 and 1999. Not unexpectedly, Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior was the most cited source, although a variety of more recent sources explicating verbal relations as conceptualized by Skinner also were frequently cited. About one third of the most frequently cited sources were fairly recent primary empirical papers. These outcomes suggest that scholars who are interested in a behavior-analytic approach to studying verbal behavior are beginning to generate a critical mass of work that renders Verbal Behavior no longer monolithic in its influence. Nevertheless, some aspects of the citation data could be interpreted as evidence of insularity, and we argue for the importance of a broad-based analysis of verbal behavior that can have substantial impact outside of behavior analysis.

Identificação de operantes verbais constituintes da leitura por meio da análise dos movimentos dos olhos

Os movimentos dos olhos produzem estímulos discriminativos para o comportamento de ler. O presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar os movimentos dos olhos de dois participantes durante a leitura de anagramas e identificar os operantes verbais envolvidos. A tarefa consistia em vocalizar uma palavra utilizando cinco letras. Na Fase 1, as letras formavam apenas uma palavra, sempre que observadas em uma mesma sequência espacial. Na Fase 2, formavam duas ou mais a partir de diferentes sequências. Na Fase 2, apesar da possibilidade de múltipla formação de palavras, as palavras vocalizadas foram aquelas formadas pela mesma sequência reforçada na fase anterior. Com base nos movimentos dos olhos, as vocalizações foram analisadas à luz dos conceitos de comportamento textual, auto-correção e intraverbal.

Publication trends in the analysis of verbal behavior: 1999-2008

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) publishes experimental and theoretical papers relevant to a behavioral analysis of language. Normand, Fossa, and Poling (2000) reviewed the published studies in TAVB across several dimensions and found that despite the growth of the journal, most articles published in TAVB from 1982 to 1998 were nonexperimental. The current study extends this review by analyzing articles published in TAVB from 1999 through 2008. Results showed that 48% of the articles published between 1999 and 2008 were experimental (65% in the last 4 years), 93% of them used within-subject experimental designs, and most of them (54%) included children with developmental disabilities. This suggests an increased interest in the experimental analysis of verbal behavior with a focus on teaching language to individuals with disabilities.

Self-Editing: On the Relation Between behavioral and Psycholinguistic Approaches

In Skinner's (1957) conceptual analysis, the process of self-editing is integral to the dynamic complexities of multiply determined verbal behavior, but the analysis has generated little in the way of an experimental analysis. The majority of scientific work on self-editing has taken place within linguistics and cognitive psycholinguistics. Here we compare and contrast behavioral and cognitive psycholinguistic approaches to self-editing, highlighting points of contact that can be identified despite fundamental differences in theoretical styles. We conclude that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive on all dimensions, and suggest that a consideration of cognitive psycholinguistic research may help to spur an experimental analysis of self-editing from a behavioral perspective.

The effects of multiple-tact and receptive-discrimination training on the acquisition of intraverbal behavior

The purpose of this study was to determine whether multiple-tact training and receptive-discrimination training could be used to teach thematically related vocal intraverbals to typically developing preschool children. Multiple-tact training involved teaching a child to name both the item and the category to which the item belonged. Receptive-discrimination training consisted of teaching a child to select a picture card in the presence of a question from the experimenter regarding the item or its category. When neither of these strategies resulted in substantial increases in intraverbal responses, a typical intraverbal training protocol using tact prompts was implemented. Six typically developing children participated in the study. A multiple-baseline design across word categories was used to evaluate the effects of the three training procedures. Results indicated that both multiple-tact and receptive-discrimination training had minimal effects on the strength of the intraverbal repertoire, whereas direct intraverbal training had a more substantial effect. The results provide some evidence of the functional independence of verbal operants, as well as the independence of listener and speaker repertoires. Receptive-discrimination and multiple-tact training may have facilitated acquisition of intraverbals; however, further research is needed to assess how these repertoires might interact with each other.

Staffing the empirical analysis of verbal behavior

Empirical articles in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior were inspected to evaluate the contributions of new and repeat investigators. The journal has attracted a steady stream of new empirical authors from early in its history. In recent years, repeat authors have begun to have a substantial impact on the journal. These outcomes suggest a maturing research community and provide cause for optimism about the future of empirical verbal behavior research.