Erratum to: Effects of mands on instructional control: A laboratory simulation

Erratum to: The Analysis of Verbal Behavior 30, 100–112

DOI: 10.1007/s40616-014-0015-x

Miller, J. R., Hirst, J. M., Kaplan, B. A., DiGennaro Reed, F. D., & Reed, D. D. (2014). Effects of mands on instructional control: A laboratory simulation. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 30, 100–112.

In the second paragraph on page 110, an extra word (“best”) was erroneously included in the quotation attributed to Hackenberg and Joker (1994). The paragraph should now read as follows.

Incorporating verbal operants in the interpretation of the present results adds depth to the evaluation of rule governance. A large portion of research on instructional versus-schedule control has focused on manipulating reinforcement contingencies, but applying the conceptual framework of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior allows a systematic approach to addressing the influence of various instructions. The instruction used by Hackenberg and Joker (1994) may have had the same effect on the participant as a tact given the phrasing of the instruction (“The way to earn the most points is to select…”), whereas participants in the present study responded to the instructions as mands (“You must select…” vs. “You might consider selecting…”). To the extent that the two studies are comparable and their results generalizable, commands appear to produce greater instructional control than tacts, and advice produces greater schedule control than tacts. Future experiments should directly compare instructions in the forms of mands and tacts to more directly address this relation.