Using a Verbal Analysis of Lady Gaga’s Applause as a Classroom Exercise for Teaching Verbal Behavior

Learning Skinner’s (1957) verbal behavior taxonomy requires extensive study and practice. Thus, novel classroom exercises might serve this goal. The present manuscript describes a classroom exercise in which two students analyzed Lady Gaga’s song Applause in terms of its metaphorical arrangements. Through the exercise, students identified various verbal operants and their subtypes, including those seldom researched by the behavioral community (see Sautter and LeBlanc 2006, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 22, 35–48), which helped them conclude that Lady Gaga’s Applause is comprised of two themes: the artist taking control, and the artist-as-art