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Among the many behaviors of speakers and listeners, perhaps none is more interesting from a behavior analytic perspective than those that modify the future behavior of the listener. Skinner first mentioned this possibility in Verbal Behavior (1957) in a section titled, �Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener,� in which he described how certain relational autoclitics could produce changes in the future behavior of listeners separate from their more immediate and straightforward conditioned reflexive and discriminative effects. Oddly, Skinner never returned to this topic, even when he described problem solving and rule-governed behavior in the late 1960s. As behavior analysts celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Verbal Behavior, I believe that it is important to revisit this feature of verbal behavior. In the present article, I (a) describe how the behavior of the listener is �conditioned� by verbal stimuli, (b) address the question of whether these changes in the listener�s behavior represent actual operant conditioning or an analog of it, and (c) discuss some implications for rule-governed behavior.
