Association for Behavior Analysis International

Although there is little experimental research about verbal behavior as context or consequence to other behaviors, usually they are regarded as part of the "verbal regulation" area of research. This study aimed to replicate the experiments performed by Valdivia et al. (2006). The subjects were four participants aged between 6 and 7 years. The procedure consisted in the use of two experimental protocols, made of two stories, one about physical restraint and the other about itch, both contextualized and decontextualized. Both stories contained autoclitics. The results showed that both contextualized and decontextualized experimental protocols evoked, with few variations, verbal and nonverbal responses related to sensations of itch and physical restraint, respectively. These findings indicate that the different verbal contexts manipulated by Valdivia et al. (2006), and replicated here, did not produce difference in motivational states of the four participants across the two experimental sets. Thus, the responsible variable for producing changes in subjects' motivational states was the use of autoclitics, maintained on both experimental protocols.

Those studying perspective taking do so from several different theoretical frameworks, most of which view this skill as a function of biological or natural development (Howlin, Baron-Cohen, Hadwin, 1999; Selman, 1980; Yeates & Selman, 1989). Theory of Mind (ToM) is a construct researchers have been investigating since the 1970s which suggests that perspective taking is based on an ability to see oneself and others in terms of mental states of mind (e.g., desires, intentions, emotions, beliefs, etc.). Behavior analysts have developed protocols to train deictic relational frames to those who have deficits. Of these there are three studies that best demonstrate a behavioral account of perspective taking abilities (McHugh, Barnes-Holmes & Barnes-Holmes, 2004a; McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes & Stewart, 2006; Weil, Hayes & Capurro, 2011). At present, a number of studies have used computers to assess or train deictic relational responding (McHugh et al., 2004a; Rehfeldt, Dillen, Ziomek, & Kowalchuck, 2007). The goal of this research project is to systematically extending Weil et al. (2011) by investigating whether deictic relations can be trained via a computer, and secondarily the implications such training may have (e.g., developing a theory of mind).

The Tower of London (TOL) is a tool that involves moving a series of disks based on an initial model to end in a final state. This task was developed with the primary purpose of investigating different cognitive resources that people use to solve the task such as planning behavior and executive behavior. The objective of this research was to compare in adults and children, their verbal strategies through retrospective protocols and the executions to the task, using a computerized version of the Tower of London. Participants were exposed to a session of 24 trials of training in three levels of difficulty and continuous feedback, and two test sessions of 12 trials each. In test 1 performance was evaluated without feedback, in two difficulty levels not trained; while in the second one, transfer was tested to untrained figures. At the end of each session were asked the participants the following questions: 1. What was the best strategy used to reach the goal, 2. If he thought something before responding and, 3. How would you explain to another task. The results showed significant differences in the dependent variables as well as the quality of verbal report.