12.3 Copying a Text Example #1
Anytime you copy something that someone, including yourself, has written, that is called copying a text. If you see “test next Friday” written on the blackboard and then you write the same thing in your notebook, that is an example of copying a text. It does not matter whether the message was printed on the blackboard and you used cursive writing in your notes, as long as there is point-to-point correspondence between the stimulus and the response-product. It also doesn’t matter whether the letters in the stimulus are huge and the writing response is tiny or vice versa.
Copying a Text
A form of verbal behavior with the following features:
The response is writing or printing
The controlling variable is a response-product of someone’s previous writing behavior
There is point-to-point correspondence between the controlling variable and the response
There is formal similarity between the controlling variable and the response product
Formal and dynamic features of the response
Formal and dynamic features of the controlling variable
Whether or not the current response is reinforced
The “meaning” of either the stimulus or the response
