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The Multiple Control of Verbal Behavior

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Abstract

Amid the novel terms and original analyses in Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, the importance of his discussion of multiple control is easily missed, but multiple control of verbal responses is the rule rather than the exception. In this paper we summarize and illustrate Skinner’s analysis of multiple control and introduce the terms convergent multiple control and divergent multiple control. We point out some implications for applied work and discuss examples of the role of multiple control in humor, poetry, problem solving, and recall. Joint control and conditional discrimination are discussed as special cases of multiple control. We suggest that multiple control is a useful analytic tool for interpreting virtually all complex behavior, and we consider the concepts of derived relations and naming as cases in point.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Western Michigan University, USA

    Jack Michael

  2. Smith College, USA

    David C. Palmer

  3. Sundberg and Associates, USA

    Mark L. Sundberg

Authors
  1. Jack Michael
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  2. David C. Palmer
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  3. Mark L. Sundberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jack Michael.

Additional information

Portions of this paper, including the new terms that are introduced here, were presented by the first author as an Invited Tutorial at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in 2003.

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Michael, J., Palmer, D.C. & Sundberg, M.L. The Multiple Control of Verbal Behavior. Analysis Verbal Behav 27, 3–22 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393089

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