Abstract
The exchange of thought, messages, and ideas is the hallmark of communication. In everyday life, a running dialogue of verbal or nonverbal communication is exchanged among all people. We select, evaluate, and categorize certain words or phrases as the salient information of a verbal exchange in order to guide our behavior. From the beginnings of life, words and their definitions are a means of maintaining order in the vast array of stimuli present in the environment of every individual. Words are classification: a sound or a combination of sounds or its representation in writing or printing symbolizes or communicates meaning (Davies, 1970). Humans must make sense of a vast area of incoming stimuli, and the method that they use is classification of events, a discrimination of stimuli into categories that allows them to process, store, and act on more organized information.
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Adams, H.E., Haber, J.D. (1984). The Classification of Abnormal Behavior. In: Adams, H.E., Sutker, P.B. (eds) Comprehensive Handbook of Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6681-6_1
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