Concept Definition: Intraverbal

Important characteristics of Skinner's (1957) definition a intraverbal:

General examples include: social formulae (How are you? / I am fine), word associations (cat / dog), and facts (two plus two equals? / four).

Illustrative Example/Nonexample Pair #1

(The response to be analyzed is in bold text.)

Nonexample

When Janice says "What is your name? to Sammy, he says "What is your name?" She responds "No, your name is Sammy!" As a result, Sammy is more likely to say the same thing under similar conditions in the future.

Example

When Janice says "What is your name?" to Sammy, he says "Sammy." She responds "Yes, your name is Sammy!" As a result, Sammy is more likely to say the same thing under similar conditions in the future.

Analysis

The first item is not an example of a intraverbal. The speaker is Sammy. He did something (said "What is your name?") and his behavior produced a reinforcing consequence (being told he is incorrect). We classify his behavior as verbal because its reinforcing consequence was mediated by a listener (Janice). Also, his behavior was likely under the control of a verbal SD (Janice's auditory stimulus "What is your name?"). However, the relation between the SD and the response is one of point-to-point correspondence; that is, subdivisions of the auditory stimulus ("What" / "is" / "your" / "name?") controlled subdivisions of the response (say "What" / say "is" / say "your" / say "name?").

The second item is an example of a intraverbal. Again, the speaker is Sammy. He did something (said "Sammy") and his behavior produced a reinforcing consequence (being told he is correct). We classify his behavior as verbal because its reinforcing consequence was mediated by a listener (Janice). In this case, his behavior was likely under the control of a verbal SD (auditory stimulus "What is your name?") that does not have point-to-point correspondence with the response (say "Sammy"); these are the two defining features of an intraverbal.