The selective impact of Skinner's verbal behavior on empirical research: A reply to Schlinger (2008)

In a recent article, Schlinger (2008) marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957) by considering its impact on the field of behaviorism and research on verbal behavior. In the present article, we comment on Schlinger's conclusions regarding the impact of the book and highlight the extensions and alternatives to Skinner's account proposed by research on stimulus equivalence and derived relational responding. Moreover, we argue that Verbal Behavior has had a selective impact on empirical research and that only further basic and applied research will determine whether the next 50 years of behavior-analytic research on verbal behavior will live up to the promise that Skinner envisaged.