Editing Behaviorism (section)

==Relation to language==
As Skinner turned from experimental work to concentrate on the philosophical underpinnings of a science of behavior, his attention turned to human language with his 1957 book ''[[Verbal Behavior]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Skinner |first=Burrhus Frederick |title=Verbal Behavior |publisher=Copley Publishing Group |year=1957 |isbn=978-1-58390-021-5 |location=Acton, Massachusetts}}</ref> and other language-related publications;<ref name="Skinner1969 Contingencies of reinforcement">{{Cite book |last=Skinner |first=B. F. |title=Contingencies of reinforcement: a theoretical analysis |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=1969 |isbn=978-0-13-171728-2 |publication-place=Englewood Cliffs, N.J |pages=133–157 |chapter=An operant analysis of problem-solving |oclc=12726275}}</ref> ''Verbal Behavior'' laid out a vocabulary and theory for functional analysis of verbal behavior, and was strongly criticized in a review by [[Noam Chomsky]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chomsky, Noam |author-link1=Noam Chomsky |last2=Skinner, B.F. |year=1959 |title=A Review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior |url=http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1967----.htm |url-status=dead |journal=Language |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=26–58 |doi=10.2307/411334 |jstor=411334 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929070654/http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1967----.htm |archive-date=29 September 2015 |access-date=9 May 2008|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennison |first=Shelia M. |title=Introduction to language development |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2013 |isbn=9781483315324 |location=Los Angeles}}</ref>

Skinner did not respond in detail but claimed that Chomsky failed to understand his ideas,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skinner |first=B.F. |year=1972 |title=I Have Been Misunderstood. |journal=Center Magazine |issue=March–April |page=63}}</ref> and the disagreements between the two and the theories involved have been further discussed.<ref name="MacCorquodale1970">{{Cite journal |last=MacCorquodale |first=K. |year=1970 |title=On Chomsky's Review of Skinner's VERBAL BEHAVIOR |url=https://www.behavior.org/computer-modeling/maccorquodale/maccorquodale2.cfm |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=83–99 |doi=10.1901/jeab.1970.13-83 |pmc=1333660 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106061500/http://www.behavior.org/computer-modeling/maccorquodale/maccorquodale2.cfm |archive-date=2009-01-06 |access-date=2008-01-10}}</ref><ref name="pmid2103585">{{Cite journal |last=Stemmer |first=N. |year=1990 |title=Skinner's verbal behavior, Chomsky's review, and mentalism |journal=J Exp Anal Behav |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=307–15 |doi=10.1901/jeab.1990.54-307 |pmc=1323000 |pmid=2103585}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=David C |date=2006 |title=On Chomsky's Appraisal of Skinner's Verbal Behavior: A Half Century of Misunderstanding |journal=The Behavior Analyst |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=253–267 |doi=10.1007/BF03392134 |issn=0738-6729 |pmc=2223153 |pmid=22478467}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=David C. |date=2000 |title=Chomsky's nativism: A critical review |journal=The Analysis of Verbal Behavior |volume=17 |pages=39–50 |doi=10.1007/BF03392954 |issn=0889-9401 |pmc=2755455 |pmid=22477212}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Virués-Ortega |first=Javier |date=2006 |title=The Case Against B. F. Skinner 45 years Later: An Encounter with N. Chomsky |journal=The Behavior Analyst |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=243–251 |doi=10.1007/BF03392133 |issn=0738-6729 |pmc=2223151 |pmid=22478466}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adelman |first=Barry Eshkol |date=December 2007 |title=An Underdiscussed Aspect of Chomsky (1959) |journal=The Analysis of Verbal Behavior |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=29–34 |doi=10.1007/BF03393044 |issn=0889-9401 |pmc=2774611 |pmid=22477378}}</ref> [[Innateness hypothesis|Innateness theory]], which has been heavily critiqued,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chater |first1=Nick |last2=Christiansen |first2=Morten H. |date=October 2008 |title=Language as shaped by the brain |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=489–509 |citeseerx=10.1.1.379.3136 |doi=10.1017/S0140525X08004998 |issn=1469-1825 |pmid=18826669}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Levinson |first1=Stephen C. |last2=Evans |first2=Nicholas |date=October 2009 |title=The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=32 |issue=5 |pages=429–448 |doi=10.1017/S0140525X0999094X |issn=1469-1825 |pmid=19857320 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0012-C29E-4}}</ref> is opposed to behaviorist theory which claims that language is a set of habits that can be acquired by means of conditioning.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thornbury |first=Scott |title=An A-Z of ELT |date=2006 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1405070638 |location=Oxford |page=24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Douglas Brown |first=H |title=Principles of Language Learning and Teaching |date=2000 |publisher=Longman/Pearson Education |isbn=978-0-13-017816-9 |edition=Fourth |location=White Plains |pages=8–9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nicoladis |first1=Elena |last2=Sturdy |first2=Christopher B. |date=2017 |title=How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain? |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |language=en |volume=8 |pages=1918 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01918 |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=5671510 |pmid=29163295 |doi-access=free}}</ref> According to some, the behaviorist account is a process which would be too slow to explain a phenomenon as complicated as language learning. What was important for a behaviorist's analysis of human behavior was not [[language acquisition]] so much as the interaction between language and overt behavior. In an essay republished in his 1969 book ''Contingencies of Reinforcement'',<ref name="Skinner1969 Contingencies of reinforcement" /> Skinner took the view that humans could construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over their behavior in the same way that external stimuli could. The possibility of such "instructional control" over behavior meant that contingencies of reinforcement would not always produce the same effects on human behavior as they reliably do in other animals. The focus of a radical behaviorist analysis of human behavior therefore shifted to an attempt to understand the interaction between instructional control and contingency control, and also to understand the behavioral processes that determine what instructions are constructed and what control they acquire over behavior. Recently, a new line of behavioral research on language was started under the name of [[relational frame theory]].<ref name="Blackledge">Blackledge, J. T. (2003). An introduction to relational frame theory: Basics and applications. ''The Behavior Analyst Today, 3''(4), 421-433.[https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099997]</ref><ref name="Dymond-2010">{{Cite journal |last1=Dymond |first1=Simon |last2=May |first2=Richard J |last3=Munnelly |first3=Anita |last4=Hoon |first4=Alice E |date=2010 |title=Evaluating the Evidence Base for Relational Frame Theory: A Citation Analysis |journal=The Behavior Analyst |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=97–117 |doi=10.1007/BF03392206 |issn=0738-6729 |pmc=2867509 |pmid=22479129}}</ref><ref name="Rehfeldt-2011">{{Cite journal |last=Rehfeldt |first=Ruth Anne |date=2011 |title=Toward a Technology of Derived Stimulus Relations: An Analysis of Articles Published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1992–2009 |journal=Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=109–119 |doi=10.1901/jaba.2011.44-109 |issn=0021-8855 |pmc=3050465 |pmid=21541138}}</ref><ref>Martin O'Connor, Lynn Farrell, Anita Munnelly, Louise McHugh. (2017). Citation analysis of relational frame theory: 2009–2016. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, Volume 6, Issue 2, Pages 152-158.[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2017.04.009]</ref>