摘要:The purpose of the current experiment was to investigate therole of private verbal behavior on the operant performances ofhuman adults, using a protocol analysis procedure with additionalmethodological controls (the "silent dog" method). Twelve subjectswere exposed to fixed ratio 8 and differential reinforcement of lowrate 3-s schedules. For 6 subjects, verbal self-reports wererecorded concurrently during exposure to the reinforcementschedules. Results showed a significant relationship betweencertain types of rules and task performances, and especiallybetween counting and schedule-sensitive performance. A detailedanalysis also suggested that counting facilitated the discriminationof programmed contingencies in the current task. Suggestions areoffered for further research involving the use of the protocolanalysis methodology.