Editing B. F. Skinner (section)

===''Verbal Behavior''===
{{Main|Verbal Behavior{{!}}''Verbal Behavior''}}
Challenged by [[Alfred North Whitehead]] during a casual discussion while at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behavior,<ref>B. F. Skinner, (1957) ''Verbal Behavior''. The account in the appendix is that he asked Skinner to explain why he said "No black scorpion is falling upon this table."</ref> Skinner set about attempting to extend his then-new functional, inductive approach to the complexity of human verbal behavior.<ref>{{cite web|title=Skinner, Burrhus Frederick(1904–1990).|url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/worldsocs/skinner_burrhus_frederic_1904_1990|work=Credo Reference, Gale|access-date=October 1, 2013}}</ref> Developed over two decades, his work appeared in the book ''[[Verbal Behavior]]''. Although [[Noam Chomsky]] was highly critical of ''Verbal Behavior'', he conceded that Skinner's "S-R psychology" was worth a review.<ref name="RVB">{{cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |author-link=Noam Chomsky |date=1967 |chapter-url=http://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/A%20Review%20of%20B%20%20F%20%20Skinner%27s%20Verbal%20Behavior%20by%20Noam%20Chomsky.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ugr.es/~fmanjon/A%20Review%20of%20B%20%20F%20%20Skinner%27s%20Verbal%20Behavior%20by%20Noam%20Chomsky.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |chapter=A Review of B. F. Skinner's ''Verbal Behavior'' |pages=48–63 |title=Readings in the Psychology of Language |editor-first1=L. A. |editor-last1=Jakobovits |editor-first2=M. S. |editor-last2=Miron |publisher=[[Prentice Hall|Prentice-Hall]] |access-date=July 29, 2021}}</ref> Behavior analysts reject Chomsky's appraisal of Skinner's work as merely "stimulus-response psychology," and some have argued that this mischaracterization highlights a poor understanding of Skinner's work and the field of behavior analysis as a whole.<ref name="RVB"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Palmer |first1=David C. |title=On Chomsky's appraisal of Skinner's Verbal Behavior: A half century of misunderstanding |journal=The Behavior Analyst |date=October 2006 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=253–267 |doi=10.1007/BF03392134|pmid=22478467 |pmc=2223153 }}</ref>

''Verbal Behavior'' had an uncharacteristically cool reception, partly as a result of Chomsky's review, partly because of Skinner's failure to address or rebut any of Chomsky's criticisms.<ref>Richelle, M. 1993. ''B. F. Skinner: A Reappraisal''. Hillsdale: [[Lawrence Erlbaum Associates]].</ref> Skinner's peers may have been slow to adopt the ideas presented in ''Verbal Behavior'' because of the absence of experimental evidence—unlike the empirical density that marked Skinner's experimental work.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Michael|first1=J.|year=1984|title=Verbal Behavior|journal=Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior |volume=42|issue=3|pages=363–376|doi=10.1901/jeab.1984.42-363|pmc=1348108|pmid=16812395}}</ref>