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We examined emergent tact control following stimulus pairing, using 2 different stimulus presentation arrangements. In the word-first condition, presentation of the auditory stimulus preceded the visual stimulus, and in the image-first condition, the visual stimulus preceded the auditory stimulus. Eight children (2-5 years old) participated. In Experiment 1, 4 children were exposed to 3 sessions in each condition with a new set of stimuli in each session. In Experiment 2, 2 of the same children received repeated exposure to the same stimulus sets. Experiment 3, with new participants, was identical to Experiment 1, except visual and auditory stimuli overlapped during the presentation. Postsession probes documented emergent stimulus control over 1 or more vocal responses for 7 of the 8 participants. Participants were more likely to make echoic responses with the visual stimulus present in the word-first condition; however, emergent tact control was unaffected by the order of the stimulus presentation. Additional research is needed on stimulus-pairing procedures and on the role of echoic responding in emergent tact control.

In laboratory symbolic matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks, acquisition commonly proceeds via trial and error, whereas in applied settings, MTS instruction typically includes prompting and prompt-fading strategies. We examined the effects of error-contingent prompts in symbolic MTS under sample-first and comparison-first presentation arrangements. Three children (4-6 years) participated in each of two experiments. Each participant received two instructional sessions in each of four conditions, with new stimuli in each session. Dependent measures included terminal accuracy, items mastered, and overall efficiency across participants. In Experiment 1, error-contingent prompts facilitated acquisition under the comparison-first but not under the sample-first arrangement. In Experiment 2, the temporal arrangement of error correction trials was altered such that prompts did not delay the presentation of comparison stimuli. With this change, error-contingent prompts facilitated acquisition under both stimulus presentation arrangements. The results suggest that in a sample-first presentation format, prompts may be ineffective if they delay comparison presentation.

Visual imagining has been proposed to play a role in the emergence of derived stimulus relations. We examined whether test‐relevant visual imagining during baseline training would, accordingly, facilitate emergent visual–visual conditional discriminations at test. Adult participants (n = 75) were randomly assigned to three groups. Baseline tact training established conditional discriminations among sets of image samples and textual comparisons (AC/BD), and baseline intraverbal training established conditional discriminations among pairs of textual stimuli (CD). Two groups received tact before intraverbal training, and one group received the reverse sequence. During intraverbal training, one of the former groups was instructed to visualize the images that went with the textual stimuli. These instructions did not affect participants' retrospective self‐reports of test‐relevant visual imagining during training. Nevertheless, they produced a large effect on correct responding in an image‐matching test (AB/BA) that followed intraverbal training. This effect was independent of baseline retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review recommendations for sequencing instruction in receptive and expressive language objectives in early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) programs. Several books recommend completing receptive protocols before introducing corresponding expressive protocols. However, this recommendation has little empirical support, and some evidence exists that the reverse sequence may be more efficient. Alternative recommendations include teaching receptive and expressive skills simultaneously (M. L. Sundberg & Partington, 1998) and building learning histories that lead to acquisition of receptive and expressive skills without direct instruction (Greer & Ross, 2008). Empirical support for these recommendations also is limited. Future research should assess the relative efficiency of receptive-before expressive, expressive-before-receptive, and simultaneous training with children who have diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders. In addition, further evaluation is needed of the potential benefits of multiple-exemplar training and other variables that may influence the efficiency of receptive and expressive instruction. (Contains 1 table.)

If the members of a functional response class occur in a predictable order, a response-class hierarchy is said to exist. Although this topic has received some attention in the applied literature, it remains relatively understudied. The purpose of the current investigation was to develop an analogue model of a response-class hierarchy. Children with and without developmental disabilities were first taught three responses in an attempt to develop a functional response class ordered along the dimension of response effort (Experiment 1). Following response-class development, an extinction analysis was used to determine whether the responses were hierarchically related (Experiment 2). Results of Experiment 1 indicated that a functional response class was developed, and that there was a relation between response rate and effort for the established response class. Results of Experiment 2 indicated that a response-class hierarchy existed within the previously developed response classes for 3 of 4 participants. (Contains 6 figures.)

The effects of vocal intraverbal training and listener training on the emergence of untrained categorization skills were evaluated. Five typically developing preschool children initially learned to name a number of previously unfamiliar visual stimuli. Each child then received one of two types of training. Intraverbal training involved reinforcing vocally emitted category names by the child in the presence of a spoken exemplar name. Listener training involved reinforcing the selection of visual stimuli by the child in the presence of a spoken category name. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of training on each child's intraverbal category naming and stimulus selection. Pre- and posttests were used to assess additional emergent relations. Four of 5 participants did not demonstrate the emergence of any untrained relations. The current findings suggest that additional research is needed to determine the optimal sequencing of conditions in programs designed to teach categorization skills. (Contains 4 figures, 1 table and 1 note.)

Behavior analysis has matured as a discipline such that there are now over a dozen peer-reviewed journals devoted exclusively to its subject matter. In recent years, researchers have published with increasing frequency a number of bibliometric analyses in which journal content has been quantified and used as an index of research and publication practices in the field. The purpose of the current article was to identify the most prolific authors and institutions in behavior analysis from 1992 to 2001 by reviewing 10 journals that well represented its basic, applied, and conceptual/theoretical areas. The authors and affiliations of each of the articles included in our database were recorded, summed, and ranked. Results identified leading researchers and institutions in the discipline and demonstrated the breadth of journal outlets in which behavior analysts publish.

Conflicting recommendations exist in the literature regarding the optimal order of stimulus presentation when teaching auditory-visual conditional discriminations. The present study examined the generality of a previously demonstrated advantage of presenting the auditory sample before visual comparisons (sample-first condition) over the reverse sequence (comparison-first condition). Participants were four typically developing 5- and 6-year-old boys. The procedures of Petursdottir and Aguilar (2016) were systematically replicated with the addition of a prompted error correction trial following each incorrect response. Overall, there were more instances of quicker mastery in the sample-first condition (four of seven evaluations) than in the comparison-first condition (two of seven evaluations). A comparison-first advantage was associated with slower acquisition in both conditions than in the remaining evaluations, and an analysis of stimulus and position bias yielded tentative evidence for unwanted sources of stimulus control.

B. F. Skinner's (1957) "Verbal Behavior" had a limited influence on empirical research in the first few decades following its publication, but an increase in empirical activity has been evident in recent years. The purpose of this article is to update previous analyses that have quantified the influence of "Verbal Behavior" on the scholarly literature, with an emphasis on its impact on empirical research. Study 1 was a citation analysis that showed an increase in citations to "Verbal Behavior" from 2005 to 2016 relative to earlier time periods. In particular, there was a large increase in citations from empirical articles. Study 2 identified empirical studies in which a verbal operant was manipulated or measured, regardless of whether or not "Verbal Behavior" was cited, and demonstrated a large increase in publication rate, with an increasing trend in the publication of both basic and applied experimental analyses throughout the review period. A majority of the studies were concerned with teaching verbal behavior to children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities, but a variety of other basic and applied research topics were also represented. The results suggest a clearly increasing impact of "Verbal Behavior" on the experimental analysis of behavior on the 60th anniversary of the book's publication.

Research on stimulus-stimulus pairing to induce novel vocalizations in nonverbal children has typically employed response-independent pairing (RIP) procedures to condition speech sounds as reinforcers. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a response-contingent pairing (RCP) procedure on the vocalizations of three nonverbal boys diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. During RCP, adult-delivered sounds that were either paired with a preferred item (target sounds) or not (nontarget sounds) were presented contingent on a button-press response. In Experiment 1, RCP was compared with an RIP procedure, in which the timing of sound presentations was yoked to the preceding RCP session. RCP produced a greater effect on all participants' target vocalizations than RIP. Experiment 2 demonstrated the effects of differential reinforcement of the vocalizations induced in Experiment 1. The results suggest that RCP may develop vocalizations more reliably than RIP procedures.

Effective intraverbal responding often requires control by multiple elements of a verbal stimulus. The purpose of this study was to examine the emergence of such intraverbal relations following tact instruction with compound stimuli and to analyze any resulting error patterns. Participants were seven typically developing children between 3 and 5 years of age. After being taught to tact four overlapping compound stimuli that differed along color and shape dimensions, participants were tested for emergent intraverbal responding. Three participants performed with high accuracy and four with intermediate accuracy when correct intraverbal responding required control by multiple elements (i.e., color names and shape names) of the verbal stimulus. Five participants performed with high accuracy when intraverbal responding required control by only a single stimulus element, and all participants showed emergence of reverse intraverbal relations when the response required naming only a single stimulus element (i.e., color or shape). There was an insufficient number of errors to perform detailed error analyses at the individual level, but overall, the first element of a verbal stimulus was more likely to exert control over the response than the second element, and color words were more likely to exert control than shape words. Results suggest that individual stimulus elements acquired independent control over the responses that had been established as tacts.

Receptive identification is usually taught in matching-to-sample format, which entails the presentation of an auditory sample stimulus and several visual comparison stimuli in each trial. Conflicting recommendations exist regarding the order of stimulus presentation in matching-to-sample trials. The purpose of this study was to compare acquisition in receptive identification tasks under 2 conditions: when the sample was presented before the comparisons (sample first) and when the comparisons were presented before the sample (comparison first). Participants included 4 typically developing kindergarten-age boys. Stimuli, which included birds and flags, were presented on a computer screen. Acquisition in the 2 conditions was compared in an adapted alternating-treatments design combined with a multiple baseline design across stimulus sets. All participants took fewer trials to meet the mastery criterion in the sample-first condition than in the comparison-first condition.

Recently, there has been a proliferation of research on the functional independence of two of Skinner's (1957) verbal operants, the mand, and the tact. This research has produced highly variable results. In this article, we provide a critical review of the literature on mand-tact independence, a literature that has implications for both theory and practice. Included in the review are 17 studies with a total of 66 participants who were tested for mand emergence following tact training, tact emergence following mand training, or both, and 11 additional studies that systematically manipulated variables expected to affect the outcomes of such tests. A primary finding is that most studies to date suffer from problems with construct validity. However, it may be justifiable to conclude that the literature provides at least weak support for the functional independence of mands and tacts. Future investigators should avoid the major construct validity pitfalls described in this article, describe participant characteristics more thoroughly, and consider alternative approaches to studying mand-tact independence.

We evaluated the effects of operant discrimination training (ODT) on the vocalizations of 3 boys with autism. We compared ODT to a stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) condition and a control condition in an adapted alternating-treatments design. ODT increased the target vocalizations of all participants compared to the control condition, and its effects were similar to SSP. All participants preferred ODT to SSP.

We examined whether the results of a response-restriction analysis (RRA) could be predicted on the basis of response distribution in early sessions, when these sessions indicated interaction with multiple items. Four preschool-aged children participated. For 3 of the 4 participants, the results from sessions conducted prior to restriction of the first item corresponded closely with results of the full RRA. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Perez-Gonzalez, Herszlikowicz, and Williams (2008) demonstrated the emergence of novel intraverbal responses following the training of several intraverbals. The present study replicated and extended that study by separating two training conditions that were combined in the previous study. Nine typically developing children ages 6-7 years were first taught A-B and B-C verbal relations and then probed on 12 A-B, B-C, B-A, C-B, A-C, and C-A verbal relations. If novel intraverbal relations did not emerge, each participant received either category-name training or exemplar-name training. If novel intraverbals did not emerge after training in one of those conditions, the participant was exposed to the other training condition. Emergence of all novel intraverbals was observed for 4 of the 6 participants who received category- and exemplar-name training, but only after they had completed both training conditions. An error analysis suggested that errors following A-B and B-C training were attributable to lack of contextual control over the vocal responses. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

Several studies have demonstrated effects of stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) on children's vocalizations, but numerous treatment failures have also been reported. The present study attempted to isolate procedural variables related to failures of SSP to condition speech sounds as reinforcers. Three boys diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders participated. Phase 1 was designed to assess SSP effects on production of auditory stimuli via button pressing. When SSP failed to produce a preference for the target stimulus, we instituted a series of procedural manipulations intended to address potential reasons for failure. One participant preferred the target stimulus when given the opportunity to select preferred items for pairing prior to each session, but a subsequent reversal attempt produced ambiguous results. Two participants showed no consistent preference in Phase 1 and underwent a within-session reinforcer evaluation in Phase 2, in which alternative controlling variables were demonstrated by delivering preferred stimuli contingent on button pressing. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

An archival study was conducted to document (a) types of challenging behavior, and (b) functional assessment outcomes, for a sample of persons with developmental disabilities who were referred to community-practicing behavior analysts for assessment and treatment of challenging behavior. Functional assessment reports, prepared by 17 behavior analysts, were obtained on 174 individuals who presented with total of 536 challenging behaviors that were assessed separately. The most frequent topographical class of behavior was physical aggression, followed by verbal aggression, noncompliance, property destruction, inappropriate verbal and social behavior, and self-injury. Functional assessment yielded a single hypothesized function for 53.2% of all behaviors, but multiple functions for 41.0%. Attention was the most commonly hypothesized function for most topographies of behavior. This finding may be attributable to sample characteristics, or to the use of informant-based functional assessment methods for a majority of sample cases. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

We compared the effects of tact training, listener training, and two types of intraverbal training on 2 children's acquisition of foreign-language tact, listener, and intraverbal relations. The children received all four types of training simultaneously with different stimulus sets. Native-foreign intraverbal training presented the greatest difficulty with acquisition for both children. All types of training generated increases in correct responding on tests for emergent relations, and some emerged to criterion. However, no type of training resulted in criterion-level performance on all relations. (Contains 2 figures.)

We evaluated the effects of 2 types of training on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations with 4 typically developing children. Tact training involved reinforcing foreign-language vocalizations in the presence of visual stimuli, and listener training involved reinforcing selections of visual stimuli following vocal presentations of foreign-language words. Intraverbal relations were tested by instructing participants to vocalize native-language equivalents of foreign-language words or vice versa. Both types of training produced increases in intraverbal responding, but the emergent relations were not always bidirectional. (Contains 1 figure.)

This study examined the effects of intraverbal instruction with a fluency training component on the acquisition of divergent intraverbal responding and generalization to function, feature, and class (FFC) questions with two children (6 and 8 years old) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The instructional targets were chosen based on a conceptual analysis of prerequisite relations that were likely to be sufficient for intraverbal emergence to occur. It was expected that with these prerequisites in place, direct teaching of a subset of divergent intraverbal responses might generalize across FFC questions. In baseline, participants emitted three or fewer intraverbal responses to most questions. Instruction with tact prompts and transfer‐of‐control trials initially produced only small increases in intraverbal responding, whereas the addition of fluency training quickly produced criterion‐level performance. Further, both participants demonstrated generalization to untrained FFC questions. Pre‐ and post‐tests revealed concomitant increases in responses to reverse intraverbal FFC questions and FFC questions presented in an intraverbal webbing format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]