Abstract
Learning Skinner’s (1957) verbal behavior taxonomy requires extensive study and practice. Thus, novel classroom exercises might serve this goal. The present manuscript describes a classroom exercise in which two students analyzed Lady Gaga’s song Applause in terms of its metaphorical arrangements. Through the exercise, students identified various verbal operants and their subtypes, including those seldom researched by the behavioral community (see Sautter and LeBlanc 2006, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 22, 35–48), which helped them conclude that Lady Gaga’s Applause is comprised of two themes: the artist taking control, and the artist-as-art.
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Notes
Meaning refers to the characteristic effect on listener responding identified through sonnet/song analysis.
Lyrics from www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ladagaga/applause.html accessed August 29, 2014
As we cannot identify conditions that resulted in each verbal operant’s production, we are at best able to guess what verbal operant might be in effect through this topographical analysis.
Technically, this is a synecdochical extension of the metonymical type, but we will refer to the metonymical extension throughout as the umbrella term (cf. Skinner 1957, pp. 99–100)
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We are thankful for the helpful comments provided by the verbal behavior summer seminar students during this manuscript’s conceptualization.
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Witts, B.N., Arief, I. & Hutter, E. Using a Verbal Analysis of Lady Gaga’s Applause as a Classroom Exercise for Teaching Verbal Behavior. Analysis Verbal Behav 32, 78–91 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-016-0050-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-016-0050-x