Any and all of the verbal relations that the last several columns covered—mands, tacts, intraverbals, codics, duplics—occur in normal interactions between and among people. Each of these verbal relations constitutes a different kind of behavior repertoire. What does that mean? Your everyday conversational experience provides you with nearly unlimited examples.
In classifying elementary verbal relations, the first of our four questions leads either to mands, or to a second question. This second question leads either to tacts, or to a third question. The third question leads either to intraverbals, or to a fourth and last question.
In classifying verbal relations, the first of four questions that we ask concerns whether or not any evocative stimulus controls the response. A “No” answer leads to mands, while a “Yes” answer leads to a second question.
In classifying verbal relations, the first of four questions that we ask—as in the last column—concerned whether or not any evocative stimulus, verbal or non–verbal, controls the response. If the answer is “No,” then the response is a mand, as the last column discussed. But if the answer is “Yes, an evocative stimulus controls the response,” then we must ask another question, which leads us to tacts.
“Elementary Verbal Operant Relationships” would make a technically more accurate title for this and the next three columns. The basic verbal operants are relationships between independent variables and verbal responses.
