Rule-Governed Behavior: Cognition, Contingencies, and Instructional Control

Behavior analytic research on rule-governed behavior was first gathered in this book in 1989. Shortly after that time, the area slowed, perhaps in part due to the difficulties in distinguishing verbal from non-verbal processes within behavior analysis. Recently, however, there has been a notable pick up in interest in the topic. This previously out of print volume has been reprinted by Context Press in order to provide a readily accessible resource to behavioral psychologists as they move ahead in their research and practical work. Still current in many ways, the volume includes:

B. F. Skinner on the behavior of the listener

Hayne W. Reese on cognitive and behavioristic views of rule-governed behavior

Margaret Vaughan on the history of the concept of rule-governed behavior in behavior analysis

Charles Catania, Eliot Shimoff, and Byron A. Matthews on the experimental analysis of rule-governed behavior

Steven C. Hayes and Linda J. Hayes on the verbal action of the listener as a basis of rule-governance

Steven C. Hayes, Robert D. Zettle, and Irwin Rosenfarb on functional units of rule-following

Philip N. Hineline and Barbara A. Wanchisen on the distinction between contingency-shaped and rule-governed behavior

Richard W. Malott on control by rules describing contingencies that are not direct acting

Roger L. Poppen on some clinical implications of rule-governed behavior

Steven C. Hayes, Barbara S. Kohlenberg, and Susan M. Melancon on avoiding and altering rule-control as a strategy of clinical intervention