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Toward a Description of Language Behavior: II. The Listening Action

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Abstract

Four listening functions (ways of listening) are identified and their characteristics examined. These functions are identified as: Statement-Recording, Statement-Directing, Statement-Modification, and Stroking. Conditions, such as the setting, the listener’s history of contact with the speaker, and his history of contact with the referent, as they determine the onset, maintenance, and termination of listening, are tentatively described. Variables associated with the speaker, referent, and listener are described in relation to their effect on the listener’s behavior; and some different ways of measuring listening be-havior are examined.

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Some of the early work on this problem and the preparation and publication of this paper were supported by a grant to S.C.R. from Michigan State University, All-University Research Grant.

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Rice, F.E., Ratner, S.C. Toward a Description of Language Behavior: II. The Listening Action. Psychol Rec 17, 493–502 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393723

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