Categories of Verbal Operants
Using the textbooks and other scholarly sources to help guide you, define each of the elementary verbal operants; identify whether each operant has point to point correspondence and/or formal similarity, along with the kind of reinforcement that will function to maintain that verbal behavior. Finally, provide a real-life example of each operant from your own personal experience, identifying the specific SD that may evoke each verbal operant and the contingencies that occur as a result of that verbal behavior.
Elementary Verbal Operants
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Elementary Verbal Operants
Verbal operants serve as fundamental language components, constituting the underlying framework for effective communication. A prominent psychologist in the field, Skinner classified verbal operants into six distinct categories: mand, tact, echoic, intraverbal, textual, and transcription (How to ABA, 2023). Every operant has a distinct function and is reinforced via varying situations.
Firstly, requests are made using mand. For instance, youngsters use the mand operant when they say, “We want juice,” while pointing at their cups (Vinokurov, 2022). Delivery of the sought item or activity reinforces mand operants. Secondly, tact labels and describes environmental elements, activities, and occurrences. It helps people relate words to sensations. For example, youngsters use tact operants