ERIC Number: EJ752386
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 19
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0738-6729
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Private Stimuli, Covert Responses, and Private Events: Conceptual Remarks
Tourinho, E. Z.
Behavior Analyst, v29 n1 p13-31 Spr 2006
In this article, I discuss the concepts of "private stimuli," "covert responses," and "private events," emphasizing three aspects: the conditions under which private stimuli may acquire discriminative functions to verbal responses, the conditions of unobservability of covert responses, and the complexity of events or phenomena described as private. I argue that the role of private stimuli in the control of self-descriptive verbal responses is dependent on a relation (correlation or equivalence relation) with public stimuli, and that responses vary along a continuum of observability. These remarks on private stimuli and covert responses are introductory to an examination of the varying complexity of phenomena described as private. I argue that "private events" is a verbal response emitted under the control of phenomena of different degrees of complexity, and I interpret these phenomena, based on the principle of selection by consequences. I introduce the notion of "inclusiveness" to suggest that some phenomena related to privacy are less or more complex as they include relations of a phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and cultural origin.
Descriptors: Stimuli, Epistemology, Responses, Problem Solving, Behavior, Discrimination Learning, Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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