The Role of Rehearsal in Joint Control

Behavior analysts have offered accounts of the behavior involved in matching to sample and delayed matching to sample. But until recently have not offered a behavioral analysis of generalized matching-to-sample. The concept of joint control, however, seems especially suited to such an analysis The present study used a joint-control procedure to train five adult women to acquire a generalized sequencing behavior using an unfamiliar language. After joint-control training the participants were able to produce untrained picture sequences, and blocking the mediating response during the sequencing task resulted in a reduction in the number of accurate sequences. These results clearly support response mediation as a precurrent to various kinds of complex human behavior.