Comparing topography-based verbal behavior with stimulus selection-based verbal behavior

Michael (1985) distinguished between two types of verbal behavior: topography-based and stimulus selection-based verbal behavior. The current research was designed to empirically examine these two types of verbal behavior while addressing the frequently debated question, Which augmentative communication system should be used with the nonverbal developmentally disabled person? Four mentally retarded adults served as subjects. Each subject was taught to tact an object by either pointing to its corresponding symbol (selection-based verbal behavior), or making the corresponding sign (topography-based verbal behavior). They were then taught an intraverbal relation, and were tested for the emergence of stimulus equivalence relations. The results showed that signed responses were acquired more readily than pointing responses as measured by the acquisition of tacts and intraverbals, and the formation of equivalence classes. These results support Michael’s (1985) analysis, and have important implications for the design of language intervention programs for the developmentally disabled.

     

The effects of tact training on stereotypic vocalizations in children with autism

This study was a systematic extension of Karmali, Greer, Nuzzulo-Gomez, Ross, and Rivera-Valdes (2005) and Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, and Chung (2007). We investigated the effects of a tact correction procedure on stereotypic vocalizations in 4 children diagnosed with autism who ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. Participants had limited vocal verbal repertoires and were primarily dependent on prompts for the emission of appropriate vocalizations. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used. Data were collected on instances of stereotypic vocalizations and independent tacts during baseline conditions and on instances of stereotypic vocalizations, independent tacts, and echoic-tacts during intervention. Procedural integrity and social validity data were also obtained. The results indicated a decrease in stereotypic vocalizations for 3 of the 4 participants and a slight increase in appropriate vocal verbal behavior (i.e., tacting) for all participants. The study provides support for the use of tact correction procedures to decrease stereotypic vocalizations and increase appropriate vocalizations in children with autism.     

A Review of Training Intraverbal Repertoires: Can Precision Teaching Help?

Intraverbal behavior is common in conversation and academic and professional settings. Many individuals with disabilities fail to acquire intraverbal repertoires. Some individuals who do acquire intraverbal behavior fail to acquire responses that are functional and complete. Research has examined procedures to establish or increase intraverbal repertoires of individuals with impaired verbal repertoires. Several of these studies integrate a precision teaching methodology with Skinner''s (1957) conceptual framework. This paper reviews the literature on the most commonly examined methods of establishing or increasing intraverbal repertoires. Articles that incorporate precision teaching are emphasized. The review highlights the strengths (including the effectiveness) and limitations of each procedure. The review concludes with a discussion of the implications of using precision teaching to establish or increase an intraverbal repertoire and with suggestions for future research.     

Extending the Assessment of Functions of Vocalizations in Children with Limited Verbal Repertoires

The current study examined the effectiveness of an experimental functional analysis for assessing the functions of emergent vocal-verbal behavior in children with developmental disabilities. Experiment 1 consisted of a systematic replication of Lerman et al. (2005). Participants were 3 children with developmental disabilities, between the ages of 2 and 5 years, with limited vocal-verbal repertoires, who could emit at least two clear vocalizations. Results indicated that for all participants, targeted vocalizations functioned as mands, tacts, or both. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to address some of the limitations of Experiment 1 while using a different experimental design. Results of Experiment 2 suggested that participants'' targeted vocalizations served as tacts, echoics, or both. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of this methodology for the selection and development of effective language interventions as well as implications for our current knowledge of verbal behavior.     

Emergence of Mands and Tacts of Novel Objects among Preschool Children

According to Skinner''s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the mand and the tact are functionally independent verbal operants, each of which is acquired through a unique history of reinforcement. The present study attempted to replicate the findings of Lamarre and Holland (1985), who empirically demonstrated functional independence of mands and tacts in typically developing preschool children. Five children participated. All were initially trained to complete two 4-piece assembly tasks. Four children were then trained to tact the four pieces that comprised one of the assembly tasks, and to mand for the four pieces that comprised the other task, using arbitrary vocal response forms. The remaining child received tact training only, and only on one task. The effects of training on the untrained operant were evaluated in a multiple-probe design across tasks. Following mand training, 4 out of 4 children reliably emitted tacts under testing conditions, while the effects of tact training differed across participants. The results differ from those of Lamarre and Holland, but are not necessarily surprising from the point of view of either Skinner''s analysis or more recent behavioral accounts of language. Future research should attempt to identify variables that affect transfer between mand and tact relations.     

An assessment of self-echoic behavior in young children

In the behavioral literature, self-echoic behavior has been hypothesized to play an important role in, for example, emergent conditional discriminations (e.g., Lowenkron, 1991), emergent verbal operants (Horne & Lowe, 1996), and problem solving (Skinner, 1957). Although early behavioral intervention programs for children with autism emphasize the establishment of accurate echoic repertoires, the type of stimulus control that defines a self-echoic response is typically not addressed. We report the development of a self-echoic assessment procedure that was administered to children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Preliminary results indicated that a discrepancy between echoic and self-echoic repertoires was more likely to be present among participants with autism than among typically developing participants. Future research should evaluate the extent to which interventions to establish self-echoic responding might produce other collateral benefits.     

Conditional Discrimination in the Intraverbal Relation: A Review and Recommendations for Future Research

Conditional discrimination is inherent in the intraverbal relation when one verbal stimulus alters the evocative effect of another verbal stimulus and they collectively evoke an intraverbal response. Rarely in research on conditional discriminations have both conditional and discriminative stimuli been vocal verbal and rarely have the responses been topography-based. Making conditional discriminations in intraverbal behavior is a repertoire that is often delayed in children with autism and other developmental disabilities. Reviewed in this paper is research on teaching intraverbal behavior, auditory conditional discriminations, and restricted stimulus control. The purpose of these reviews is to identify the extent to which previous researchers examined conditional discriminations in the intraverbal relation and to recommend directions for research in this area.     

Increasing Vocal Variability in Children with Autism Using a Lag Schedule of Reinforcement

Variability has been demonstrated to be an operant dimension of behavior (Neuringer, 2002; Page & Neuringer, 1985). Recently, lag schedules have been used to demonstrate operant variability of verbal behavior in persons with a diagnosis of autism (e.g., Lee, McComas, & Jawor, 2002). The current study evaluated the effects of a Lag 1 schedule on the vocal variability of 2 nonverbal children with a diagnosis of autism. Results showed systematic increases in variability during the Lag 1 schedule. Implications of lag schedules for speech and language training are discussed.     

General Outcome Measures for Verbal Operants

A general outcome measure (GOM) can be used to show progress towards a long-term goal. GOMs should sample domains of behavior across ages, be sensitive to change over time, be inexpensive and easy to use, and facilitate decision making. Skinner''s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior may benefit from the development of GOM. To develop GOM, we conducted a review of the literature on mands, tacts, echoics, and intraverbals. The four areas reviewed included (a) an examination of the participant''s response form (i.e., vocal or nonvocal), (b) the type of prompt used, (c) types of materials used, and (d) timing of responses or sessions. Based on the review of the literature, we developed GOM for mands and tacts. This paper attempts to bridge the concept of GOMs with Skinner''s analysis of verbal behavior.     

Empirical Applications of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior with Humans

In Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) provided a conceptual framework and taxonomy for the controlling variables of language that defined independent verbal operants by their functional relations to antecedents and consequences (rather than by topography or meaning). Although professional interest in this area has recently increased within the behavior analytic community, Skinner''s conceptual framework may not yet have fully impacted the experimental literature. This quantitative review of the literature examined the studies on verbal behavior that were empirical in nature, concerned with human verbal behavior, and addressed at least one verbal operant (e.g., mand, tact, echoic, autoclitic, and/or intraverbal behavior) within the experiment. The results of this review suggest that a growing body of research exists to support many of the tenets of Skinner''s conceptualization and taxonomy but many areas of verbal behavior research have yet to be addressed. Continued research in this area is crucial for the development and implementation of effective verbal behavior interventions for people with disabilities.     

Quantified trends in the history of verbal behavior research

The history of scientific research about verbal behavior research, especially that based on Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957), can be assessed on the basis of a frequency and celeration analysis of the published and presented literature. In order to discover these quantified trends, a comprehensive bibliographical database was developed. Based on several literature searches, the bibliographic database included papers pertaining to verbal behavior that were published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behaviorism, The Behavior Analyst, and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior. A nonbehavioral journal, the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior was assessed as a nonexample comparison. The bibliographic database also included a listing of verbal behavior papers presented at the meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis. Papers were added to the database if they (a) were about verbal behavior, (b) referenced B.F. Skinner’s (1957) book Verbal Behavior, or (c) did both. Because the references indicated the year of publication or presentation, a count per year of them was measured. These yearly frequencies were plotted on Standard Celeration Charts. Once plotted, various celeration trends in the literature became visible, not the least of which was the greater quantity of verbal behavior research than is generally acknowledged. The data clearly show an acceleration of research across the past decade. The data also question the notion that a “paucity” of research based on Verbal Behavior currently exists. Explanations of the acceleration of verbal behavior research are suggested, and plausible reasons are offered as to why a relative lack of verbal behavior research extended through the mid 1960s to the latter 1970s.

     

Evaluating Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing and Direct Reinforcement in the Establishment of an Echoic Repertoire of Children Diagnosed with Autism

Many children with autism do not imitate adult vocalizations, an important skill in learning to talk. Pairing adult vocalizations with preferred stimuli has been shown to increase free-operant vocalizations but effects are temporary; thus, direct reinforcement may be necessary to establish durable vocal behaviors. In Experiment 1, directly reinforced echoic responses did not increase following stimulus-stimulus pairings in three children with autism. Similarly, pairings did not increase free-operant vocalizations in Experiment 2, a replication of Miguel et al. (2002). Experiment 3 demonstrated that shaping increased vowel frequency for one participant. Results suggest that variables are yet to be delineated that influence effectiveness of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure on vocalization frequency and acquisition of a verbal operant following such pairings.     

Evaluation of single and mixed verbal operant arrangements for teaching mands and tacts

The purpose of this series of experiments was to evaluate the effects of mixed mand-tact arrangements on the acquisition of mands and tacts in preschool-aged children. In Experiment 1, the effects of three training arrangements (mand-only training, tact-only training, and mand-tact training) were investigated with 3 typically developing children. Rates of acquisition in single (mand-only and tact-only) versus mixed (mand-tact) presentation were comparable, in contrast to earlier investigations. Experiment 2 attempted to clarify the equivocal findings of Experiment 1 by directly replicating the Carroll and Hesse (1987) investigation with 2 typically developing children. Results again demonstrated no clear benefit of mixed verbal operant training on tact acquisition. In Experiment 3, these same arrangements were evaluated with a boy with autism and included assessments to determine that a relevant establishing operation was in effect prior to each mand training session. Experiment 3 again failed to demonstrate the facilitative effects of mand-tact training on the acquisition of mands or tacts. Taken together, the data from these three experiments fail to support the improved efficiency of mand-tact training suggested by prior studies. Findings are discussed in the context of future research investigating mixed verbal operant arrangements.     

The effects of specific versus nonspecific reinforcement on verbal behavior

The current study is a systematic replication and extension of previous research on the differences between specific (mand) and nonspecific (tact) reinforcement. The focus was on the role that these different consequences played in the acquisition of verbal behavior. Using both a within-subject and a between-subjects design, the current researchers trained eight essentially nonverbal individuals to tact a variety of foods under two different reinforcement conditions. The results showed no significant differences between the four matched-pairs in rates of acquisition, or in the resistance to extinction. However, subjects in the specific reinforcement condition emitted more untrained mand-compliance responses, while subjects in the nonspecific group demonstrated increased generalization to multiply controlled mand conditions. The results supported previous findings which indicated that the two types of consequences were equally effective in the acquisition of tacting, but each had unique features and implications for language training with nonverbal populations.

     

Constructs and Events in Verbal Behavior

Skinner''s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior has been the subject of much controversy in recent years. While criticism has historically come from outside the field of behavior analysis, there are now well-articulated arguments against Skinner''s analysis of verbal behavior from within the field as well. Recently, advocates of Skinner''s analysis have attempted to respond to the critiques, particularly to those regarding Skinner''s definition of verbal behavior articulated by proponents of relational frame theory. Specifically, it has been suggested that talk about definitions equates to making the essentialist error. This paper provides an overview of these issues in the context of understanding the role of constructs in science more generally. It will be argued that definitions are central to scientific progress, and are not only relevant to a functional analysis, but a central prerequisite to the pursuit of such an analysis.     

A rose by naming: how we may learn how to do it

Naming appears to be the source of the explosion in language development and involves the integration of the initially separate listener and speaker responses. This integration has a role in the development of reading, writing, and the following and construction of verbal algorithms that make types of complex human behavior possible. Considerable research has investigated the role of Naming in the emergence of derived relations. Recent research has also investigated the emergence of Naming itself. We describe these experiments and the experiences that function to induce Naming. We also describe evidence about preverbal developmental cusps that are foundational to the emergence of Naming and the evidence on its reinforcement sources. The isolation of the role of the environment in the emergence of Naming identifies stimuli that were said to be missing in accounts that were critical of Skinner's (1957) account of verbal behavior. These arguments purported that the phenomenon was not attributable to learning because of the "poverty of the stimulus." Some of the relevant stimuli now appear to be identified.     

The relationship between stimulus equivalence and verbal behavior

Despite the apparent similarity between stimulus equivalence and verbal behavior, these phenomena have been described in different terms. With different terminologies for each phenomenon, the precise nature of their relationship is difficult to determine. To explore this relationship, this paper first defines stimulus equivalence using a synthesis of the mathematical definition of the equivalence relation and Sidman and Tailby’s (1982) definition. Selected examples of stimulus equivalence are then described as verbal behavior using Skinner’s (1957) terminology. The paper then cites instances of verbal behavior that cannot be described as stimulus equivalence and considers whether there are instances of stimulus equivalence that cannot be described as verbal behavior.

     

Antecedents and Consequences of Words

As instances of behavior, words interact with environments. But they also interact with each other and with other kinds of behavior. Because of the interlocking nature of the contingencies into which words enter, their behavioral properties may become increasingly removed from nonverbal contingencies, and their relationship to those contingencies may become distorted by the social contingencies that maintain verbal behavior. Verbal behavior is an exceedingly efficient way in which one organism can change the behavior of another. All other functions of verbal behavior derive from this most basic function, sometimes called verbal governance. Functional verbal antecedents in verbal governance may be extended across time and space when individuals replicate the verbal behavior of others or their own verbal behavior. Differential contact with different verbal antecedents may follow from differential attention to verbal stimuli correlated with consequential events. Once in place, verbal behavior can be shaped by (usually social) consequences. Because these four verbal processes (verbal governance, replication, differential attention, and verbal shaping) share common stimulus and response terms, they produce interlocking contingencies in which extensive classes of behavior come to be dominated by verbal antecedents. Very different consequences follow from verbal behavior depending on whether it is anchored to environmental events, as in scientific verbal practices, or becomes independent of it, as in religious fundamentalism.     

Effects of differential reinforcement and rules with feedback on preference for choice and verbal reports

We evaluated the effects of differential reinforcement and accurate verbal rules with feedback on the preference for choice and the verbal reports of 6 adults. Participants earned points on a probabilistic schedule by completing the terminal links of a concurrent-chains arrangement in a computer-based game of chance. In free-choice terminal links, participants selected 3 numbers from an 8-number array; in restricted-choice terminal links participants selected the order of 3 numbers preselected by a computer program. A pop-up box then informed the participants if the numbers they selected or ordered matched or did not match numbers generated by the computer but not displayed; matching in a trial resulted in one point earned. In baseline sessions, schedules of reinforcement were equal across free- and restricted-choice arrangements and a running tally of points earned was shown each trial. The effects of differentially reinforcing restricted-choice selections were evaluated using a reversal design. For 4 participants, the effects of providing a running tally of points won by arrangement and verbal rules regarding the schedule of reinforcement were also evaluated using a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design. Results varied across participants but generally demonstrated that (a) preference for choice corresponded more closely to verbal reports of the odds of winning than to reinforcement schedules, (b) rules and feedback were correlated with more accurate verbal reports, and (c) preference for choice corresponded more highly to the relative number of reinforcements obtained across free- and restricted-choice arrangements in a session than to the obtained probability of reinforcement or to verbal reports of the odds of winning.