Raymond Wheeler, "Some Problems of Meaning," The American Journal of Psychology,1923

SCHEME SHOWING RELATION OF MEANING TO BEHAVIOR IN GENERAL

Our last problem deals with a theory of meaning. We propose the behavioristic view that meaning bears the same relation to acquired human behavior as do instinct and modified instinct to animal behavior. Instinctive or modified instinctive motor response in animal behavior are its ways of "labelling" or of "defining" its environment and its own bodily conditions.... The accompanying diagram illustrates our point.