The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of an online stimulus equivalence procedure to that of an assigned reading when learning Skinner's taxonomy of verbal behavior. Twenty-six graduate students participated via an online learning management system. One group was exposed to an online stimulus equivalence procedure (equivalence group) that was designed to teach relations among the names, antecedents, consequences, and examples of each elementary verbal operant. A comparison group (reading group) read a chapter from a popular textbook. Tests for the emergence of selection-based and topography-based intraverbal responses were then conducted, as were tests for generalization and maintenance. Overall, results suggest that the online equivalence procedure was not significantly more effective in promoting topography-based responses than the assigned reading. However, performance on selection-based tests was enhanced by the online equivalence procedure as was performance on topography-based tests when participants were required to provide operant names in response to consequences or examples. On average, the equivalence group Analysis Verbal Behav (2015) 31:255-266
We examined the effects of baseline training sequence on the emergence of conditional discriminations in an intraverbal naming task. Thirty-two college students were randomly assigned to two groups. The tact-intraverbal (TI) group first learned to vocally tact eight visual stimuli using a unique verbal label for each stimulus, and then to intraverbally relate four pairs of verbal labels. The intraverbal-tact (IT) group received the same training but in the opposite sequence. Both groups then received a match-to-sample test involving the visual stimuli alone. On average, the TI group had significantly shorter reaction times than the IT group throughout all four test blocks, even when controlling for intraverbal retention, which was lower in the IT group. Accuracy on the MTS test did not differ significantly between groups when controlling for intraverbal retention. However, MTS accuracy and intraverbal retention were strongly correlated in the IT group but uncorrelated in the TI group. We suggest the effect of training sequence reflects different sources of stimulus control available to subjects in different groups when confronted with the novel MTS trials.
The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) is an assessment tool used with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and other language delays (Sundberg 2008). The milestones assessment section of the VB-MAPP is used to determine an individual's current skill level. The results of the milestones assessment can be used to identify instructional goals and objectives. The current study examined the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on the administration of the milestones assessment by two educational professionals. The BST intervention resulted in immediate increases in performance for both participants.Keywords Behavioral skills training . Staff training . Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement ProgramThe Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) is a five-component program designed to measure verbal behavior, guide individualized instruction needed to address deficits in verbal behavior, and evaluate progress over the course of a treatment program (Sundberg 2008). The assessment is used to evaluate performance on Skinner's (1957) verbal operants across a number of tasks. The milestones assessment is divided into three developmental levels (0-18, 18-30, and 30-48 months), based on the attainment of developmental milestones by typically developing children. The current study focused on levels 1 and 2 of the milestones assessment of the VB-MAPP only. Level 1 of the assessment includes the evaluation of early mand, tact, listener, social, visualperceptual and match-to-sample, independent play, motor imitation, and echoic skills, as well as spontaneous vocal behavior. Level 2 of the assessment includes continued evaluation of expanded level 1 skills (with the exception of spontaneous vocal behavior) as well as an evaluation of listener responding by function, feature, and class, intraverbals, classroom/group routines, and linguistic skills (see Sundberg 2008). Level 3 expands on the skills targeted in level 2 and assesses preacademic behaviors in reading, math, and writing. The VB-MAPP is a tool that can be used in a variety of settings with any number of clinical populations (Sundberg 2008). Many educational settings use the instrument to establish language goals and objectives for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities.As with all tools and protocols, the results of the VB-MAPP will only be meaningful if the assessment is conducted by professionals who are skilled in its Analysis Verbal Behav (2014) (Sundberg 2008). That is, administrators must be aware of the functional relationships between verbal behavior and the speaker's environment in order to correctly design the assessment environment and assess the verbal operants. Without an understanding of Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, an individual may mistake one operant for another based on formal similarity. Table 1 provides examples of verbal operants in which the response topography, saying "train," is the s...
The current research investigated whether intraverbals would emerge following auditory tact instruction. Participants were first taught to tact auditory stimuli by providing the name of the item or animal that produces the sound (e.g., saying "eagle" when presented with the recording of an eagle cawing). Following test probes for simple intraverbals as well as intraverbal categorization participants were taught to tact what each auditory stimulus is (e.g., saying "caw" when presented with the recording of an eagle cawing). Following both tact instructional phases, the effects of an auditory imagining instruction procedure on target intraverbals were examined. Results indicate that following both tact instructional phases, intraverbals increased for three of four participants. Auditory imagining instruction was sufficient for two of four participants to reach mastery criterion, and two of four participants needed some direct instruction. Low covariation between simple intraverbal and categorization was also observed. Functional interdependence between tacts and intraverbals and the possible role of a conditioned hearing response are discussed.
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