Abstract
The present article reviews studies on the experimental analysis of rule-governed behavior. The main results are as follows: (1) Although instructions are effective in establishing an efficient occurrence of responses, sensitivity to changes in the contingencies is reduced when instructions are used. (2) Contingencies that contact the instructions eliminate instruction-following responses. (3) A history of correspondence between instruc tions and reinforcement schedules promotes instruction-following responses. (4) Without certain programmed contingencies, self-rules correlate with nonverbal responses. (5) Nonverbal responses generally covariate with self-rules. When reinforcement schedules for nonverbal responses are strong and contradict the contingencies for verbal responses, however, the nonverbal responses do not co-vary with the self-rules. (6) When a chain of a self-rule and a nonverbal response was reinforced, the self-rule and nonverbal responses were correlated. Some future directions for research on rule-governed behavior were discussed from the viewpoint of social contingencies.
