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| Int'l Symposium - Basic and Applied Research on Verbal Behavior and Emergent Relations |
| Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
| 1:00 PM–2:20 PM |
| Stevens 3 (Lower Level) |
| Area: VBC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Caio F. Miguel (New England Center for Children) |
| Discussant: Carol Pilgrim (University of North Carolina, Wilmington) |
| CE Instructor: Caio F. Miguel, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: Although verbal behavior and stimulus equivalence have evolved as separate areas within behavior analysis, attempts have been made to combine research traditions from these two areas in order to explain emergent (verbal) relations. In the study by Miguel, Petursdottir, Carr, & Michael a category-sort test with pictures was used to assess emergent conditional relations. These relations were indirectly taught via the independent manipulation of children’s tact and receptive discrimination repertoires. Perez-Gonzales, Asenjo, and Williams evaluated a teaching procedure to produce the emergence of “opposite” intraverbal relations by a boy with autism. The procedure involved multiple exemplar training of the intraverbal relations until the novel behavior was observed. Finally, Rosales and Rehfeldt, used a stimulus equivalence procedure involving the relation among pictures, their dictated names and their corresponding text to teach adults with developmental disabilities to use written words to mand for items required to complete a chain. |
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| The Role of Verbal Behavior in Stimulus Categorization by Preschool Children |
| CAIO F. MIGUEL (New England Center for Children), Anna I. Petursdottir (Western Michigan University), James E. Carr (Western Michigan University), John L. Michael (Western Michigan University) |
| Abstract: The purpose of the current study was to assess whether children would categorize unfamiliar pictures when taught the listener and speaker behaviors separately. A category-sort test was used to assess emergent conditional relations. Category-sort trials consisted of looking at (Test 1) or tacting (Test 2) a sample and selecting the remaining comparisons. In Experiment 1, four children (3-5 yrs.) were taught to tact the category (i.e., north and south) of pictures of six U.S. state maps, and were assessed to see whether they would (1) categorize and (2) select them when hearing their category names (listener behavior). Two of the children categorized the pictures during Test 1 after pairwise tact training. The other two categorized after receiving additional tact training with all pictures grouped together. However, one of them only categorized during Test 2. When children failed to categorize, they also performed poorly on stimulus selection. In Experiment 2, four children (3-5 yrs.) were taught to select pictures when hearing their category names and were assessed to see whether they would (1) categorize and (2) tact them (speaker behavior). One child categorized the pictures during Test 1, and two during Test 2. The other child required additional training with all pictures grouped together. When participants failed to categorize, they also failed to tact the pictures accurately. Taken together, results from Experiment 1 and 2 show that both speaker and listener behaviors have to be present for categorization to occur. Thus, naming seemed to play an important, role in the development of categorizations. |
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| Teaching and Emergence of Antonyms in One Child Diagnosed with Autism |
| LUIS ANTONIO PEREZ-GONZALEZ (University of Oviedo, Spain), Lorena Garcia-Asenjo Asenjo (University of Oviedo, Spain), Gladys Williams (Applied Behavioral Consultant Services, NY) |
| Abstract: Children with autism and special needs have difficulties to learn antonyms. Often, antonyms are learned during intraverbal training. A type of intraverbal of this sort consists of saying the opposite of a word. Intraverbals of this type are related to one another given that one intraverbal response (i.e., “Hot” in response to “Name the opposite of cold”) may serve as the stimulus for the other intraverbal response (i.e., “Cold” in response to “Name the opposite of hot”) and vice versa. Moreover, the contextual cue “Name …” is the same in the two intraverbals. The purpose of the present research was to explore the emergence of intraverbals of this type. One child with autism learned pairs of intraverbals with different stimuli. Thereafter, he was tested for the emergence of the intraverbals with the elements in the reverse stimulus-response functions. The child did not show the emergence of the intraverbals with the first pairs of intraverbals. Then, we directly taught the inversed relation. After successive cycles of probing and teaching successive pairs of intraverbals the child showed the emergence. Thereafter, he continued to show the emergence with novel pairs of stimuli. These results suggest that repeating cycles of probing and teaching may play an important role in the emergence of intraverbals with the same contextual cue as the taught ones and the elements in the reversed stimulus-response function. Moreover, the procedure serves to promote emergent skills in children with autism. |
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| Contriving Transitive Conditioned Establishing Operations to Establish Derived Manding Skills in Adults with Severe Developmental Disabilities |
| ROCIO ROSALES (Southern Illinois University), Ruth Anne Rehfeldt (Southern Illinois University) |
| Abstract: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate derived manding skills and derived relations in three adults with severe developmental disabilities by contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations. The researchers evaluated whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived mands for items needed to complete a chained task. Participants were first trained to mand for preferred items using pictures. Participants were then trained to request for items needed to complete a chained task by using pictures. Afterwards, they were taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and dictated names and their corresponding text. Finally, the researchers evaluated mands for preferred items using the corresponding text. Preliminary results suggest that this procedure is sufficient for demonstrating derived mands in adults with severe language impairments and developmental disabilities. |
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