Competing viewpoints on the independency or interdependency of Skinner’s verbal operants have been discussed in the literature and with empirical support for both positions generated using single-case research methods. Our study provides support for the interdependency of the verbal operants using items contained in the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program as a measure of broader skill acquisition in each verbal operant category and across skill complexity levels. The result of an exploratory factor analysis conducted across 85 participants with autism suggested that items did yield factors consistent with the verbal operants, rather items appeared to cluster in terms of skill complexity producing a best-fit 2 factor model. Together with prior research showing untrained cross-operant transfers, results fail to support Skinner’s verbal behavior taxonomy distinguishing between the verbal operant categories as independent constructs, with implications for how behavior scientists and analysts describe language development and assess and treat language deficits of individuals with autism.

关于斯金纳言语操作者独立性或相互依赖性的竞争观点已在文献中进行了讨论，并为单例研究方法产生的两种立场提供了经验支持。我们的研究使用言语行为里程碑评估和安置计划中包含的项目，为言语操作者之间的相互依赖性提供支持，以此作为衡量每个言语操作者类别和跨技能复杂性水平的更广泛技能的一种方法。对85名自闭症参与者进行的探索性因素分析的结果表明，项目确实产生了与言语操作者一致的因素，而项目似乎在技能复杂性方面聚集在一起，从而产生了最佳拟合2因子模型。再加上先前的研究表明未经培训的跨运营商转移，