PSYCO282 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Observational Learning, Personal Rule
17 May 2016
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Module 13: observational learning and rule-governed behaviour (chapter 11) In learning the material on rule-governed behaviour, it might help to know a bit of the background to this concept. The concept of rule-governed behaviour was proposed by b. f. Skinner in his 1957 book, verbal behaviour (referenced below). In that book, skinner attempted to analyze language from a behavioural perspective. There were no cues or consequences (certainly no scorpions) nearby to account for its occurrence. Skinner"s book was therefore his attempt to explain how behavioural principles could account for such seemingly novel utterances. Skinner"s book also attempted to account for language use in general, a prime characteristic of which is the ability to refer to events in highly novel ways that can sometimes seem very disconnected from the present circumstances. Other approaches to language often focus on the structure of language (e. g. , subject, object, predicate, etc. ).
