Privacy and Behavior Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Propositions

Since Skinner introduced private events as constructs in radical behaviorism the proposal received much theoretical and little empirical attention. We propose a conceptual review based on the analysis of new theoretical contributions, mainly the multi-scaled analysis and the interbehaviorist view of privacy., I our privacy is: (1) functionally defined; (2) always momentary; (3) differentiated from “internal”; and (4) measurable on a private-public continuum. In order to enlighten the impact of this view on basic research, we propose an empirical model for the analysis of momentary private verbal responses. This model is based on other empirical works that tested Skinner’s interpretation of how the verbal community establishes the conditions for a speaker to learn how to report private stimuli. In two experiments, based on this model, we investigated variables that affect the probability of correct inferences about private verbal responses. In the first experiment, we tested the functional relation between this probability and the access to stimuli related to the private verbal response. In the second experiment, we manipulated the shared history of conditioning, a necessary condition for the occurrence of correct inferences about private verbal responses.