Association for Behavior Analysis International

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39th Annual Convention; Minneapolis, MN; 2013

Event Details


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Symposium #64
CE Offered: BACB
Teaching Tacts and Intraverbals
Saturday, May 25, 2013
3:00 PM–4:20 PM
200 H-I (Convention Center)
Area: VBC/AUT; Domain: Applied Research
Chair: Corey S. Stocco (Western New England University)
CE Instructor: Corey S Stocco, M.S.
Abstract:

A growing body of research has provided experimental support for Skinner’s (1957) account of Verbal Behavior and has led to the development of a technology for teaching verbal behavior. Three studies expand the literature by evaluating conditions under which verbal behavior can be brought under the control of complex stimuli, auditory and tactile stimuli, and stimuli accessible only to the learner (private stimuli). One study examined the emergence of intraverbals following listener training. Participants included both undergraduate students and children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Researchers employed a variety of teaching strategies including differential reinforcement, trial blocking, visual cues, and requiring a differential observing response. These studies identify teaching conditions under which verbal behavior was brought under control of target stimuli and those conditions that produced undesirable sources of control. Taken together these studies advance our understanding of the development of verbal behavior and contribute to our technology for teaching tacts and intraverbals.

Keyword(s): intraverbal, private events, tact, verbal behavior
 

Teaching Children With Autism to Tact Stimuli From Auditory and Tactile Sensory Modalities

NICOLE M. HANNEY (Auburn University), James E. Carr (Behavior Analyst Certification Board), Linda A. LeBlanc (Auburn University)
Abstract:

A number of contemporary investigations have examined tact-training procedures with a number of different populations, specifically with children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (e.g., Barbera & Kubina, 2005; Kelley, Shillingsburg, Castro, Addison, & LaRue, 2007; Stevens, Sidener, Reeves, & Sidener, 2005). All of the studies, however, have focused on teaching individuals to tact visual stimuli (2-D and 3-D), despite clinical recommendations to teach tacts of stimuli in other sensory modalities (Sundberg & Partington, 1998). In the current study, two children with autism were taught to tact auditory and tactile stimuli. The effectiveness of teaching the stimuli in isolation (e.g., auditory and tactile stimuli presented with no visual cues) and as compound stimuli (i.e., a toy that produced the auditory stimulus and an object covered in the tactile stimulus) was compared. Results indicate that while both teaching methods may be effective, using compound stimuli when teaching auditory and tactile tacts interfered with learners prior tact repertoires.

 

Teaching Tacting of Private Events Based on Public Accompaniments: Public-Private Correspondence, Contingencies, and Audience Control

COREY S. STOCCO (Western New England University), Rachel H. Thompson (Western New England University), John M. Hart (Western New England University)
Abstract:

Our current understanding of the role of private events in a science of behavior is based largely on Skinners (1953) natural science interpretation of private events. Skinner (1945) described public accompaniments as one way that a verbal community might differentially reinforce verbal behavior regarding private events. In this study, we developed an experimental analogue to study variables influencing tacting of private events. The participant had exclusive access to one set of stimuli (the private stimuli) and the experimenter attempted to teach tacts for private stimuli based on their correspondence with public stimuli accessible to both the experimenter and participant. Accuracy of participant verbal reports of private symbols was shown to be a function of private-public correspondence, reinforcement contingency, and audience member. The orderly patterns of data obtained suggest that analogue arrangements might be a useful, and even necessary, starting point for experimental investigations of how private events may enter into the analysis of behavior.

 

Listener Training and the Emergence of Novel Intraverbal Responses in Children With Autism

EINAR T. INGVARSSON (University of North Texas), Jesse Anderson (Child Study Center), Heather Macias (University of North Texas), Anna I. Petursdottir (Texas Christian University)
Abstract:

We evaluated the effects of teaching listener responses pertaining to functions of objects (e. g., point to what you sleep in) on the emergence of untrained intraverbal responses (e.g., you sleep in a). Prior to and during the study, the participants were able to tact and respond as listeners with respect to object names, but not object functions. The participants were two children with autism, who had relatively strong listener and tact repertoires, but limited intraverbal repertoires. With one participant, all intraverbal responses emerged after the listener responses had been taught to mastery. With a second participant, some untrained intraverbal responses emerged following listener training, but this result was not reliable. Direct intraverbal training was therefore conducted. Vocal prompting was necessary to teach the first intraverbal response in each set. However, we were able to teach the remaining intraverbal responses using a procedure in which the stimulus control over vocal responses (e.g., bed) was transferred quickly from nonverbal stimuli to verbal stimuli without the use of vocal prompts. Further evaluation with additional participants is planned.

 

Evaluating Procedures Derived From the Conditional Discrimination Literature to Teach Complex Intraverbals to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

APRIL N. KISAMORE (Caldwell College), Amanda Karsten (Western New England University), Charlotte Mann (New England Center for Children)
Abstract:

Reciprocal conversations, instructional activities, and other social interactions are replete with complex intraverbals, many instances of which involve conditional discriminations (Axe, 2008; Sundberg & Sundberg, 2011). Conditional discriminations have been examined extensively in the literature on stimulus equivalence and match-to-sample (MTS) performance (Green, 1991). However, it is unknown whether strategies from the conditional discrimination-MTS literature might be relevant for establishing intraverbal conditional discriminations with people who do not succeed under standard (i.e., trial-and-error) teaching conditions. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of trial-and-error teaching, a differential observing response (DOR) requirement, and a DOR plus trial-blocking procedure on acquisition of intraverbals with children with ASDs. Interobserver agreement was assessed for at least 34% of sessions for all participants and averaged 99% (range, 80-100). Results indicate that a) trial-and-error teaching was sufficient to increase accuracy of intraverbal performance for 3 of 7 participants, b) 4 of 7 participants required additional teaching procedures, and c) when additional procedures were necessary, at least 75% of errors were consistent with restricted stimulus control. Based on these findings, procedures from the conditional discrimination literature may be effective aids to complex intraverbal instruction for children with ASDs.

 

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