Association for Behavior Analysis International

In his book Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) presented a behavior-analytic view of language and cognition in humans. As such, he set the stage for an area of research focused on the explanation and the empirical evaluation of the conditions under which verbal behavior is emitted (Oah & Dickisnon, 1989). In 1991, Sundberg published the article 301 Research Topics from Skinner’s Book Verbal Behavior, calling for the experimental analysis of behavior processes involved in verbal behavior and suggesting a gap in the literature. The years that followed were marked by an increase in verbal behavior research across different topics and populations (De Souza et al., 2017; Sautter & LeBlanc, 2006). Despite the increasing number of verbal behavior studies, many topics are yet to be explored and several others need further investigation. In this panel, members of the ABAI Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (VB-SIG) will highlight advancements in the empirical literature and provide directions for future research towards the understanding of verbal behavior processes from a conceptual and applied perspective.

Behavior Analysts, Speech-Language Pathologists, Psychologists, students in behavior analysis, service providers.