Analysis of Verbal Behavior最新文献

The form of a verbal response allows for reinforcement mediation and language transmission across cultures. Reinforcement, in turn, plays a decisive role in learning verbal forms. The present work addresses methodological limitations of previous studies, providing further evidence of the role of automatic reinforcement in achieving parity with vocal models. In the first experiment, 4 preschool-age children heard the experimenter describe drawings of different actions in the passive voice. Participants were then asked to describe analogous drawings. They used the passive voice after the model was presented and continued to do so even when preferred explicit consequences followed diverging descriptions (i.e., in the active voice). To further investigate the effects of explicit reinforcement and of the passive-voice model, in Experiment 2, we altered the number of trials with explicit reinforcement and with the model. Three of four participants used the passive voice to describe the drawings, despite greater exposure to explicit consequences following descriptions diverging from the model.

We reviewed 12 studies in which the researcher taught problem-solving strategies, such as self-questioning and visual imagining, to children and adolescents with and without disabilities to facilitate the learning of math, spelling, play/social, and communication skills. We analyzed these studies in terms of types of problem-solving strategies, the multiple control involved in problem solving, the extent to which problem solving occurred at the overt or covert level. In addition to suggesting limitations of the literature, we recommend areas for future research and practice.

A lag schedule of reinforcement is one way to increase response variability; however, previous research has been mixed with regard to the necessary parameters to increase variability. For some individuals, low schedule requirements (e.g., Lag 1) are sufficient to increase variability. For other individuals, higher lag schedules (e.g., Lag 3) or a lag schedule in combination with prompting is needed to increase variability. We evaluated the efficiency of different within-session progressive lag schedules to increase response variability with 2 children with autism. Results showed that increasing the lag criterion across sessions increased variability to levels similar to beginning with a high lag schedule for one participant. When lag schedules did not increase variability for the second participant, we compared a variety of prompting procedures. Results of the prompting evaluation showed that a tact-priming procedure was effective to increase varied responding.

A large amount of learning occurs through the observation of stimulus-stimulus relations. One procedure that involves this sort of learning is the stimulus-pairing observation procedure (SPOP). The current study involves a systematic replication of Byrne, Rehfeldt, and Aguirre (2014). Tests for the emergence of tact and listener relations were conducted pre- and post-SPOP intervention, which consisted of a therapist presenting auditory-visual stimulus relations to participants. The SPOP intervention resulted in the establishment of tact and listener relations for all participants. The importance of assessing prerequisite skills is considered in the context of previous research.

Conceptually, the use of the technical term naming appears to be a broad term that describes several subtypes of emergent verbal behavior. Miguel (The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 32, 125-138, Miguel, 2016) introduces the concept of subtypes of naming, specifically common bidirectional naming and intraverbal bidirectional naming. He defines common bidirectional naming as "the process of different stimuli evoking the same speaker and listener behaviour and becoming members of the same class" (p. 130). A review of the literature on common bidirectional naming yielded some ambiguities related to differences in how researchers in the field defined naming. This article suggests that common bidirectional naming may be further dissected to yield six subtypes of naming. We aligned previous research on emergent verbal behavior with a unified taxonomy as part of a larger proposed classification framework on naming. The impact of identifying the subtypes of common bidirectional naming on skill acquisition and curriculum design is discussed. Finally, recommendations are made for future research based on this framework.

Most verbal behavior curricula for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focus on teaching multiple mands during the early stages of training (e.g., picture exchange communication system; Bondy & Frost, 1994). However, few, if any, of those curricula train children with ASD to differentially mand only for reinforcers that are reasonable for a caregiver to deliver in a given context (e.g., mands to cuddle at bedtime) and to refrain from manding for reinforcers that would be inappropriate to deliver in that context (e.g., mands to play outside at bedtime). In this study, we first taught a boy with ASD two initial mands. Immediately thereafter we brought those mands under the conditional discriminative control of a four-component multiple schedule with (a) S¹ correlated with one reinforcer available (i.e., edibles), (b) S² correlated with both reinforcers available (i.e., edibles or drink), (c) S³ correlated with another reinforcer available (i.e., drink), and (d) S^Δ correlated with no reinforcer available. Following treatment, the child displayed conditionally discriminated manding in accordance with each of the four components of the schedule. We discuss these findings relative to the potential benefits of bringing mands under both evocative and discriminative control.

Although Skinner (1957) provided a behavioral account of verbal thinking, additional research is needed to evaluate stimuli that may influence covert verbal behavior that occurs between the onset of a verbal stimulus and the emission of a response during an episode of verbal thinking. The present investigation examined the effects of auditory distractors and/or textual stimuli during arithmetic problems and tangram puzzles on the participants' response latency and accuracy. In addition, we measured and categorized occurrences of vocal verbal behavior during the response interval. In Experiments 1 and 2, the experimenter played auditory distractors during a proportion of arithmetic problems. In Experiment 2, the experimenter also presented a textual stimulus of the arithmetic problem. In Experiment 3, the experimenter played auditory distractors during a proportion of tangram puzzles. Results showed that auditory distractors led to longer response latencies and reduced accuracy in Experiment 1. The addition of the textual stimulus during trials in Experiment 2 improved accuracy and reduced differences in response latency when the auditory distractors were and were not present during the response interval. The auditory distractors during tangram puzzles in Experiment 3 produced no differential effects on accuracy or latency to respond.

The language of behavior analysis is precise in the sense that it focuses attention on functional relations between behavior and the environment that are extended in time. However, to non-behavior analysts, behavior-analytic terms and explanations are difficult to understand and awkward sounding. Evidence suggests that this has had deleterious effects on the acceptance of the field of behavior analysis and its explanations of behavior. The goal of this article is to assert that verbal behavior that describes behavior is functionally related to subsequent explanatory verbal behavior. In addition, it is argued that technical language is not a requirement of precision and logical formulation. Suggestions are made regarding how behavior analysts can generate evidence to better understand explanatory preferences of individuals with various amounts of exposure to behavior analysis. In addition, methods are suggested for introducing behavior analysis to others with vernacular descriptions of behavior and its causes that do not obscure critical distinctions by introducing mental/mediational explanations.

Instructive feedback (IF) is a procedure in which secondary targets are presented to a learner during instruction for primary skills. Previous research has demonstrated that students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may acquire at least a portion of skills presented via IF. Although it is a promising instructional methodology for learners with ASD, few studies focus on learners who use an augmentative device for communication purposes. The purpose of the current investigation was to extend the IF literature related to students with ASD who use communication devices. Across all target skills, IF resulted in the acquisition of at least a portion of secondary targets without explicit teaching.

Prior research found that without the naming cusp, children did not learn from instructional demonstrations presented before learn units (IDLUs) (i.e., modeling an expected response twice for a learner prior to delivering an instructional antecedent), however, following the establishment of naming, they could. The present study was designed to compare the rate of learning reading and mathematics objectives in children who showed naming using IDLUs compared to standard learn units (SLUs) alone (comparable to three-term contingency trials). In Phase 1, a pre-screening phase, we demonstrated that four typically developing males, 3 to 4 years of age, had naming within their repertoire, meaning they were able to master the names of novel 2-D stimuli as both a listener and a speaker without explicit instruction. Using the same participants in Phase 2, we compared rates of learning under two instructional methods using a series of repeated AB designs where conditions (IDLUs versus SLUs) were counterbalanced across dyads and replicated across participants. The participants learned more than twice as fast under IDLU conditions and showed between 30% and 50% accuracy on the first presentation of a stimulus following a model. The IDLU condition was more efficient (fewer trials to criterion) than the SLU condition. These findings, together with prior findings, suggest that the onset of naming allows children to learn faster when instructional demonstrations are incorporated into lessons.