Joannes selftalk Just keep climbing is a verbal behavior that she produces herself making it selfgenerated It functions as a verbal prompt because it occasions or reminds her to engage in the target behavior continuing to climb Since this verbal behavior is produced by Joanne and directly affects her subsequent behavior without the involvement of another person it is automatically reinforced eg by the continued progress the eventual achievement of the summit or the reduction of feelings of fatiguegiving up This is a common form of selfmanagement where individuals use their own behavior in this case selftalk to influence their future actions Lets evaluate the other options An intraverbal maintained by socially mediated reinforcement is incorrect An intraverbal typically involves a verbal stimulus from another person evoking a verbal response and socially mediated reinforcement implies reinforcement provided by another person Joanne is talking to herself Listener behavior under the control of private events is incorrect While private events like fatigue might occasion her selftalk the selftalk itself is speaker behavior verbal behavior and its primary function here is to prompt action not to demonstrate understanding or compliance as a listener Generalized imitation involves copying the behavior of a model someone else and being reinforced for doing so Joanne is not imitating anyone in this scenario she is generating her own verbal behavior