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

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).

Meaning and Verbal Behavior in Skinner's Work from 1934 to 1957

This paper explores the historical development of Skinner's treatment of meaning from 1930 to 1957. Twelve papers published between 1934 and 1957, and parts of The Behavior of Organisms and Science and Human Behavior related to verbal behavior, were analyzed. Before 1945 meaning was taken as a property of the verbal response, and from 1945 on, meaning was supposed to be found among the determiners of a verbal response. We argue that these different conceptions of meaning were related to distinct aspects of Skinner's explanatory system. Finally, the notion of meaning presented by Skinner in 1945 is related to the theoretical breakthrough represented by Skinner's assertion of the three-term contingency. This idea permitted verbal behavior to be analyzed in terms of its functions.