How to Do Things With Texts: A Functional Account of Reading Comprehension
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How to Do Things With Texts: A Functional Account of Reading Comprehension Eileen Pfeiffer Flores 1,2 & Jorge Mendes de Oliveira-Castro 2 & Carlos Barbosa Alves de Souza 3 Published online: 7 December 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract We offer an account of reading comprehension that we believe will help clarify some common conceptual confusions in the relevant literature, as well as contribute to existing functional accounts. We argue that defining texts qua texts as stimulus classes, on the one hand, and equating “comprehension” with behavior (covert or otherwise), on the other, are not useful conceptual moves, especially when behavioral settings go beyond basic literacy skills acquisition. We then analyze the structure of the contingencies that usually evoke talk of “comprehension” using techniques from analytic philosophy. We show how keeping the results of this analysis in mind can help avoid the conceptual bafflement that often arises, even among behavior analysts, when defining or assessing behavioral phenomena related to reading comprehension. Using two contrasting cases (legal texts and stories), we argue that what counts as comprehension depends, not peripherally but crucially, on the shared social practices of which texts are a part. Finally, we propose a new framework for classifying reader–text contingencies by combining two dimensions: openness of setting and embeddedness of reinforcement. Keywords Comprehension . Legal texts . Narrative . Reading . Text
In this article, we offer a functional analysis of what can be broadly characterized as “reading comprehension,”1 which we believe will enrich existing theoretical accounts, as well as clarify some common conceptual confusions in the field. The outline of the article is as follows: First, we will defend that defining the text qua text as a class of 1
To avoid excessive scare quotes throughout the text, we will dispense with them when using vernacular terms related to comprehension and understanding. We are not adopting the terms but referring to the discourse that includes them (in other words, we are describing the contingencies and practices in vigor when they are employed).
* Eileen Pfeiffer Flores [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (2020) 36:273–294
stimuli (i.e., treating texts as fairly univocal in their effects upon readers) is not always useful when investigating comprehension (more on this in the course of our argument). As we will see, this is especially true when behavioral settings go beyond the simple one-to-one correspondence between text and behavior that is typical of basic literacy skills acquisition. A second, complementary argument is that, beyond textual repertoires, it may not be advantageous to define reading comprehension as a class of behaviors, private or otherwise. In order to support this claim, we carry out an analysis that uncovers the structure of the contingencies that usually lead u
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