Stimulus Clarity and the Emission of Descriptive Autoclitics

Abstract

The autoclitic is among the least studied and most complex verbal operant named and described by Skinner. The descriptive autoclitic is one subtype, which among other functions can describe the strength of the response. If the clarity of the stimulus is one source of response strength for tacts, manipulating stimulus clarity should evoke different frequencies of descriptive autoclitics. In an experiment with adults, digitally distorting pictures of common objects predicted the relative frequency of descriptive autoclitics that accompanied tacts. The most distorted images evoked twice as many autoclitics as moderately distorted images, and low-distortion images evoked no autoclitics. We encourage other researchers to interpret Skinner's conceptualization of the autoclitic and its various forms and test them empirically to evaluate how their functional definitions can be clarified, refined, or altered.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-023-00184-1.

Keywords: Autoclitic tacts; Autoclitics; Descriptive autoclitic; Stimulus clarity; Verbal behavior.

Fig. 1

Example stimuli (mailbox, balloon) shown at each distortion level

Fig. 2

Individual data

Fig. 3

Averages and ranges across all participants who emitted autoclitics. Note. The eight participants who never emitted an autoclitic are not included in these summary data. The dotted line within the box is the mean, and the solid line is the median