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The instructional function of verbal behavior is a topic that was gradually developed by Skinner throughout his work, and which was boosted with empirical research beginning in the late 1970s [...], The stimulus equivalence paradigm is a behavioral model to study meaning. This study extends work that has used the equivalence paradigm to study the meaning of instructions. Our goal was to teach two sets of conditional discriminations to preschoolers, one including verbs and the other including nouns, and evaluate the formation of equivalence classes and instruction-following. Four preschool children participated. Initially, an instructional control pretest (simple instructions, verb-object type) was presented visually or orally (dictated or visual stimuli). Next, children learned AB and AC conditional relations between familiar objects (A), representative pictures (B), and abstract pictures (C). BC and CB equivalence tests checked for equivalence class formation. Finally, the children learned DE and DF conditional discriminations among verbs (D), action videos (E), and abstract pictures (F), and were tested in EF and FE relations. All children formed equivalence classes. In the instructional control pretest, all children followed most of the oral instructions, but not the visual instructions. In the posttest, two participants correctly followed all the visual instructions. After a remedial training, the other two participants also followed the visual instructions. This finding is a demonstration of the transfer of the instructional function exerted by the dictated words (verb-noun) to abstract pictures through the formation of the two independent equivalence classes. Keywords Instructional control * Stimulus equivalence * Symbolic function ? Preschoolers

Sidman (2000) analyzed stimulus equivalence as the establishment of functional equivalence among stimuli that participated in contingencies. According to him, the contingencies established in discriminations determine the formation of equivalence [...], We explored the emergence of relations between stimuli learned as discriminative, responses, and consequences with intraverbals. In Experiment 1, five 9- and 10-year-old children learned intraverbals that related a country (A) with a city (B)--e.g., "Name a city of Switzerland"; "Davos"--and that country with a predator animal (C). Correct responses were followed by saying the name of a feature of the city (T) or saying an animal preyed by the predator (U), respectively. The emergence of BC and CB intraverbals that relate the cities and the predators and that of intraverbals that relate the specific consequences to the cities (T-B and U-B) and to the prey animals (T-C and U-C) was probed with no differential consequences. All five children demonstrated the emergence of BC, CB, U-B, and U-C and four children also demonstrated the emergence of T-B and T-C. In Experiment 2, a simpler procedure that controlled a possible extraneous factor, was used with seven 7- and 8-year old children and they also demonstrated emergence. Thus, the emergence of verbal relations with elements taught as discriminative stimuli, responses, and consequences was demonstrated. Keywords emergent relations * stimulus equivalence * intraverbals * verbal behavior * reasoning

Conditional discriminations are typically established via the matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure, in which reinforcement is delivered contingent on a response in the presence of a discriminative stimulus ([S.sup.D]), conditional upon a [...], The current study evaluated whether college students' performance on visual-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks were differentially affected by learning to verbally relate the names of visual stimuli. During Experiment 1, eight college students learned to tact arbitrary stimuli, followed by intraverbal training that either related the names of these stimuli (e.g., A1B1C1; class-consistent), or related irrelevant names. Participants were subsequently exposed to baseline training, and equivalence tests. During Experiment 2, eight participants received intraverbal training that included names that were either consistent or inconsistent with the to-be-trained visual stimulus classes. During Experiment 3, eight participants received consistent and inconsistent intraverbal training prior to tact training. In all experiments, class-consistent intraverbal training yielded fewer trials to criterion, and fewer errors during MTS baseline training. Class inconsistent intraverbal training led to most errors during MTS training with corresponding low yields in equivalence tests, whereas the tact and intraverbal training sequence did not seem to differentially affect training and testing performances. These results suggest that participants' history of verbally relating stimuli together influences outcomes on MTS training and performance on tests for emergent relations. Keywords bidirectional naming * emergent relations * equivalence * problem solving * verbal behavior

A tact is a verbal operant under discriminative control of 'a particular object or event or property of an object or event' (Skinner, 1957, pp. 81-82). The verbal community establishes [...], This article describes a procedure to investigate metaphorical extension of tacts, and reports preliminary data. Six college students learned to choose between four pseudo-words to tact four species (classes) of creature-like pictures. The defining properties controlling the tacts (selections) were color and shape, but two of the species--Clai and Trax--had experimentally manipulated adventitious properties (e.g., wings, hair) whereas the other species, Fite and Dag did not have these properties. In subsequent phases, these adventitious properties were added either to the Fite or to the Dag, and standard tacts were punished with negative feedback. Extension of the tacts "Clai" and "Trax" was observed to Fite and Dag pictures that appeared with the adventitious properties previously associated with Clai or Trax pictures. These metaphorical extensions continued to occur in test phases without differential consequences. These preliminary data show that the procedure has potential to simulate metaphorical extension in the lab and to allow the experimental investigation of variables that affect this phenomenon. Keywords Verbal behavior * Metaphorical extension * Metaphor * Tacts * Punishment

Bijou and Baer (1961) first began to examine child development from a behavior-analytic perspective by viewing psychological development from a natural science perspective. To do so, they first defined psychological [...], Researchers have identified protocols to induce verbal behavior cusps and capabilities that put an individual's repertoires in contact with new contingencies and allows the individual to learn in new ways; however, little is known about the relationship between different intensities (i.e., doses) of the protocols and inducing important repertoires. The Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) has been found to reliably induce Bidirectional Naming (BiN), a capability whereby an individual is able to function simultaneously as a speaker and a listener, to acquire language incidentally after exposure to word-object relations in the environment. We matched eight participants into four dyads and participants in dyads experienced different intensities of the ITI protocol. The full intensity protocol included 100 additional tact learning opportunities each day and the accelerated intensity included 50 daily learning opportunities. We found varied results dependent on a participant's degree of BiN at the onset of the intervention. Participants with Unidirectional Naming (UniN) acquired BiN under both intensities, but participants in the accelerated condition did so with fewer learning opportunities, suggesting the efficiency of the accelerated protocol. Students that demonstrated Noincidental Naming (NiN) demonstrated mixed results from the intervention, regardless of intervention intensity. The outcomes are discussed in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness. Keywords Bidirectional Naming * intensive tact instruction * parametric analysis * treatment intensity ? verbal behavior

Introduction Musical performance and interpretation constitute minimally explored areas of research in behavior analysis, and a paucity of adequate accounts of these behaviors may deprive the field of a potential [...], The study of music in behavior analytic accounts constitutes a poorly addressed area of application due to conceptual incongruities in the field and a general lack of common ground between the disciplines of music and behavior analysis. This paper will examine the suitability of Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior in describing various musical behaviors and propose clarifications of verbal behavior constructs to account for the conceptual similarities and differences between musical and verbal behaviors. The musical concepts of mimicry, relative pitch, and absolute pitch are also discussed from the perspective of a verbal behavior analysis. These are presented as examples of how presumably innate musical abilities remain subject to operant principles of behavior modification and how certain conventions of music may suggest novel functional relations that could expand the existing categorization of operants. Keywords Verbal behavior ? Music theory * Pitch discrimination

In this study, we examined young African American English-speaking children's use of auxiliaries. This system of verbs is interesting because of the various linguistic properties that are related to it, [...], Purpose: This study examined African American English-speaking children's use of BE, DO, and modal auxiliaries. Method: The data were based on language samples obtained from 48 three-year-olds. Analyses examined rates of marking by auxiliary type, auxiliary surface form, succeeding element, and syntactic construction and by a number of child variables. Results: The children produced 3 different types of marking (mainstream overt, nonmainstream overt, zero) for auxiliaries, and the distribution of these markings varied by auxiliary type. The children's nonmainstream dialect densities were related to their marking of BE and DO but not modals. Marking of BE was influenced by its surface form and the succeeding verbal element, and marking of BE and DO was influenced by syntactic construction. Conclusions: Results extend previous studies by showing dialect-specific effects for children's use of auxiliaries and by showing these effects to vary by auxiliary type and children's nonmainstream dialect densities. Some aspects of the children's auxiliary systems (i.e., pattern of marking across auxiliaries and effects of syntactic construction) were also consistent with what has been documented for children who speak other dialects of English. These findings show dialect-specific and dialect-universal aspects of African American English to be present early in children's acquisition of auxiliaries. Key Words: auxiliaries, AAE, young children

A number of studies have shown that stimulus equivalence represents an efficient way of teaching language to individuals with language delay and intellectual disabilities (i.e., Elias, Goyos, Saunders, & Saunders, [...], This study investigated the effect of matching-to-sample and mimetic-relations teaching on the emergence of signed tact and textual repertoire through a multiple-baseline design, across three groups of three words in children with and without hearing impairments and with no reading repertoire. Following mimetic-relations teaching and the establishment of nine three-member stimulus classes containing signs, pictures, and printed words via matching-to-sample procedure, including the mimetic relation as the differential observing response, tact (signing in the presence of a picture) and textual (signing in the presence of a printed word) emergent repertoires were tested. Results showed the emergence of signed tact and textual responses. The mimetic relation brought in under the contextual control of a matching-to-sample task may have allowed participants to simultaneously learn speaker and listener relations to the particular signs used. Key words: verbal behavior, stimulus equivalence, mimetic relation, signed tact, signed textual

The present paper explores the constructional composition of illocutionary meaning from the perspective of the Lexical Constructional Model or LCM propounded by Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza and Ricardo Mairal. In the LCM, illocutionary meaning is either the result of filling in constructional variables or of affording metonymic access to high-level situational cognitive models. In this study I examine the cognitive grounding of constructions carrying an advising value. It is my contention that the constructional realization of advising is based upon linguistic mechanisms that exhibit instantiation potential for relevant parts of the corresponding semantic structure in relation to the context of situation. The resulting account seeks to unveil the idiosyncrasies of the act of advising based on the interplay between different kinds of construal operations and general cultural conventions captured in the Cost-Benefit Cognitive Model. Keywords: illocutionary meaning; illocutionary constructions; Lexical-Constructional Model; advising; conventionalization; Cost-Benefit Cognitive Model El presente artículo examina la composición construccional del significado ilocutivo desde la perspectiva del Modelo Léxico Construccional o MLC desarrollado por Ruiz de Mendoza y Mairal. En el mlc, el significado ilocutivo deriva o bien de la realización de los elementos variables de las construcciones o bien de la activación metonímica de modelos cognitivos situacionales de alto nivel. Este estudio explora la motivación cognitiva de construcciones ilocutivas con valor de aconsejar. Es mi objetivo demostrar que la realización construccional de aconsejar está basada en procedimientos lingüísticos capaces de activar partes relevantes de su estructura semántica de acuerdo con el contexto de situación. Los resultados de este análisis tratan de desvelar las idiosincrasias propias del acto de habla de aconsejar que resultan de la interacción entre operaciones de construcción lingüística y convenciones culturales definidas en el Modelo Cognitivo de Coste-Beneficio. Palabras clave: ilocución; construcciones ilocutivas; Modelo Léxico Construccional; aconsejar; convencionalización; Modelo Cognitivo de Coste-Beneficio, A constructional account of advising: construal operations and social conventions 1. INTRODUCTION The study of illocution has deserved the attention of a significant number of researchers within the most diverse [...]

In 1957, B. F. Skinner published the first behavior analytic account of human language in his book Verbal Behavior. In that account, Skinner outlined several classes of verbal operants, each [...], This study examined the functional independence of mand and tact operants in normally developing children and evaluated the role of [S.sup.D]s in demonstrating emergent responding. In Experiment 1, 4 children aged 4 to 5 years, were trained to mand or tact using left/right relations, then were tested for the emergence of the untaught tact/mand operant. None of the participants demonstrated an emergence of the untaught operant under standard antecedent conditions. However, all of the participants demonstrated an emergence of the untaught operant when the [S.sup.D]s were modified. Experiment 2 replicated the work in Experiment 1, using 8 participants. The conditions were reversed according to ABAB reversal design methodology and counterbalanced across participants. The findings demonstrated the important role of antecedent variables in emergent responding. Key words: mand, tact, functional independence

This paper describes recent studies that have evaluated the functional independence of verbal operants. Procedures that facilitate the emergence of untrained verbal operants and important areas of future research to increase efficiency of language programs for children diagnosed with developmental disabilities are discussed. Key words: emergent relations, functional independence, language training, verbal behavior doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-775

In 2 experiments, we examined whether the stimulus equivalence instructional paradigm could be used to teach relations among names, definitions, causes, and common treatments for disabilities using a selection-based intraverbal training format. Participants were pre-and posttested on vocal intraverbal relations and were trained using multiple-choice worksheets in which selection-based intraverbal relations were taught and feedback was delivered until mastery. Most participants in Experiment 1 showed the emergence of vocal intraverbal relations, but responding did not generalize to final written intraverbal tests. Participants in Experiment 2 showed the emergence of not only vocal intraverbal relations but also written intraverbal relations on final tests. Results suggest that the stimulus equivalence paradigm can be effectively implemented using a selection-based intraverbal training format, the protocol may be an effective means of emphasizing important concepts in a college course, and emergent skills may generalize to novel response topographies. Key words: derived stimulus relations, generalization, higher education, stimulus equivalence, verbal behavior doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-615

Three 14-year-old boys with diagnoses of autism learned to mand for the delivery or removal of tokens by presenting nonsense syllables (A1-5, respectively). A match-to-sample procedure was used to establish conditional discriminations between the 5 A stimuli and 5 B stimuli and between the B stimuli and 5 C stimuli. Subsequently, each participant was able to use the C stimuli to mand, illustrating a transfer of function, although 1 participant first required multiple-exemplar training. Key words: autism, derived mands, emergent relations, language doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-537

One child with developmental disabilities was taught to mand for attention by saying 'excuse me.' Treatment effects were extended to multiple training contexts by teaching the participant to attend to naturally occurring discriminative stimuli through differential reinforcement of communication during periods of the experimenter's nonbusy activities (e.g., reading a magazine). Results are discussed in terms of future research on the generalization and maintenance of functional communication in the natural environment. Key words: functional communication, treatment generalization doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-525

The current study extends the literature on teaching mands for information by assessing whether mands generalize across different establishing operations (EOs). Three children with autism were taught to perform multiple behavior chains, 3 of which included a common response (e.g., 'Where is the spoon?') used for different purposes. An interrupted-behavior-chain procedure was used to contrive the EO for each mand. After teaching a mand for information under 1 EO, the remaining chains were interrupted to determine whether the mand had generalized to different EOs. For all participants, mands for information generalized across EOs. For 2 participants, a new mand-for-information topography emerged after training. Key words: behavior chains, establishing operations, mands doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-381

We analyzed the effects of verbal mediating responses on the acquisition and generalization of say--do correspondence and noncorrespondence. Participants were assigned to groups in which either reinforcers (feedback and tokens) were arranged for say--do correspondence and noncorrespondence, or no reinforcers were programmed. Participants in these groups were further subdivided into groups in which they were required to repeat what was said previously, were required to repeat random numbers, or no verbalizations were required. When correspondence was reinforced, repetition of what was said produced greater acquisition and generalization of correspondence. When noncorrespondence was reinforced, repetition of numbers facilitated acquisition and generalization of noncorrespondence. Verbal mediating responses interacted with contingencies of reinforcement in determining acquisition and generalization of correspondence and noncorrespondence. Key words: generalization, noncorrespondence, say--do correspondence, verbal mediating responses doi: 10.1901/jaba.2010.43-411

How instructors communicate with their students impacts their students' instructional attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. Verbal aggression in the classroom often leads to negative instructional and relational outcomes (Infante, 1995; Myers, [...]

Skinner's (1957) theory of verbal behavior categorized several classes of verbal operants according to the antecedent and consequential controlling variables unique to each operant. Since that time, two of these [...], This study examined the effects of a modified antecedent during probes for emergent mands following listener versus tact training for children with autism. Eight students, aged 7 to 11, were trained to respond to 3 sets of relational responses (front/back, left/right, on/under), each assigned a nonsense label. Three training types were evaluated: listener training, tact training, and listener-tact training combined. Following the experimental training, probes for emergent mands were conducted under modified antecedent conditions. Results showed that modified antecedent conditions were critical in demonstrating mand emergence for some participants. Key words: autism, expressive language, mand, receptive language, tact

We examined the effect of verbally describing a face on face memory as assessed in an old-new recognition task. Verbal facilitation, measured by a difference between verbalization and control conditions, was greater for upright than for inverted faces and greater for unfamiliar than for familiar faces. We propose that generating a verbal description enhances the processing of global visual information that differentiates an individual face from other faces that are encountered and also improves recognition through the association of visually derived semantic information. Verbalization enhances visual and semantic distinctiveness in memory.

The differences between spatial and verbal tasks and insight and non-insight tasks in problem solving are examined. Findings revealed strong relationships between verbal versus spatial factor and verbalization conditions. The 'business as usual' view and the 'special process view' of solving problems are also discussed.

In Experiment 1, more and less relations were trained for arbitrary Stimuli A1 and A2 with 3 children with autism. The following conditional discriminations were then trained: A1-B1, A2B2, B1-C1, B2-C2. In subsequent tests, participants showed derived more--less mands (mand with C1 for more and mand with C2 for less). A training procedure reversed the B-C conditional discriminations, and participants then showed derived reversed more--less mands (mand with C1 for less, C2 for more). Baseline B-C relations were retrained, and participants subsequently demonstrated a return to the original derived manding. A second experiment with 1 prior participant and 1 naive participant removed a possible confounding effect. Establishing derived manding may be an advantageous component when teaching a mand repertoire in applied settings. DESCRIPTORS: autism, children, derived mands, language, more--less relations

Contemporary accounts suggest that to be truly verbal, the speaker must also simultaneously behave as a listener (Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, & Cullinan, 2001; Greer & Ross, 2008; Home & Lowe, 1996). [...], We provide an empirically updated Skinnerian-based account of verbal behavior development, describing how the speaker-as-own-listener capability in children (the capability of children to behave as speaker and listener within their own skin) accrues and how it is pivotal to becoming verbal. The theory grew from (a) findings in experiments with children with and without language delays and (b) findings from research devoted to the identification of derived and emergent behavior (i.e., novel, creative, and spontaneous behavior). Experiments identified preverbal instructional histories leading to separate listener and speaker capabilities and experiences that joined the listener and the speaker. Once this learned intercept is present, children engage in conversational self-talk, engage in say-do correspondence, and acquire new vocabulary without direct instruction. These developmental capabilities make it possible for most complex behavior to be learned, including reading, writing, emission of novel tenses and suffixes, and the following of and construction of complex algorithms. 'We need separate but interlocking accounts of the behaviors of both speaker and listener if our explanation of verbal behavior is to be complete. ... In many important instances the listener is also behaving at the same time as a speaker' (Skinner, 1957, p. 34).

Preference for mand topography was evaluated for 2 individuals with developmental disabilities who exhibited problem behavior. The results of a functional analysis showed that each participant's problem behavior was maintained by social reinforcement. Participants were taught two novel mand topographies for the same functional reinforcer, and each proved to be effective in reducing problem behavior. Finally, preference for mand topography was assessed within a concurrent-schedules design. Results indicated that functional communication training was an effective treatment, regardless of the mand used, and that each participant demonstrated a preference for one mand topography relative to the other. DESCRIPTORS: functional analysis, functional communication training, problem behavior, mands

Participants were 2 typically developing children, aged 9 and 10 years, and I child, aged 4 years, with a reported severe speech delay. Five specific mand functions were trained such that participants learned to mand for the delivery or removal of tokens to the value of -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2, by presenting an arbitrary stimulus (A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5, respectively). The A stimuli were then incorporated into a series of interrelated conditional discriminations (A1-B1, B1-C1, A2-B2, B2-C2, A3-B3, B3-C3, A4-B4, B4 C4, A5-B5, B5-C5). Subsequent tests determined if participants derived 5 specific mands, presenting C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5 as mands for -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2 tokens. Three participants demonstrated derived manding, and derived manding altered in accordance with newly trained relations across two reversal procedures., Many researchers have suggested that the study of derived stimulus relations may help to provide a functional-analytic account of human language and higher cognition (Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, & Cullinan, 2000; Hayes, [...]

A study was conducted to present a 'modified gestural origins' theory, which charts a possible evolutionary course from brain mechanisms for manual praxis to those supporting language. The study argues against a direct evolutionary path from nonhuman primate vocalization to human speech.

The purpose of the current study was to explore the use of overt and covert self-rules in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a chained task by adults with mild developmental disabilities. This research differed from previous research in that the experimenter did not deliver reinforcement for correct responses during training, and we examined the correspondence between each self-rule statement and each subsequent response on each trial. Results showed that the self-rules participated in control over participants' responding, in that the skill was acquired and shown to generalize in the absence of experimenter-delivered reinforcement. Moreover, performance was shown to deteriorate when the emission of overt, but not covert, self-rules was blocked. DESCRIPTORS: daily living skills, rule following, self-rules, verbal behavior

The current study investigated the role of propositional knowledge in human acquired equivalence effects. Across 5 experiments, human adults were trained to associate different visual stimuli. Subsequent procedures presented training that was either consistent or inconsistent with the previous associations. More accurate responding in the consistent versus inconsistent condition reflected an acquired equivalence effect. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that a previously reported divergence between verbal and associative processes was likely due to instructional control. Experiments 2-5 further examined the role of verbal processes and demonstrated that acquired equivalence may be produced with verbal instructions alone and critically through a combination of instructions and actual stimulus pairings. The current data not only challenge a purely associative account but actively support an interaction between verbal and associative processes in producing the acquired equivalence effect in humans. Keywords: acquired equivalence, contingency learning, humans, verbal processes

This study explored frequencies of everyday talk in stepfamilies and the extent to which such frequencies of talk differed according to family relationship type. Participants included a parent, stepparent, and stepchild from 114 stepfamilies. Across relationship types, stepfamily members reported catching up, joking around, and recapping the day's events most frequently and interrogating family members least frequently. Significant differences in frequencies of everyday talk across different relational dyads emerged for all three members of the stepfamily system. However, relatively few differences emerged in stepchildren's reported frequencies of everyday talk with their stepparents and their nonresidential parents. Keywords: Conflict; Everyday Talk; Nonresidential Parents; Stepfamilies; Stepparent-Stepchild Relationships, Over the last decade, communication scholars have shown an increased interest in the everyday interactions that create, maintain, and alter personal relationships (e.g., Baxter, 2004; Dainton & Stafford, 1993; Duck, [...]

The present study investigates the association between threats to requesters' and refusers' face needs and perceptions of refusal message effectiveness and appropriateness. Results suggest that perceived refusal effectiveness is negatively associated with threat to a requester's negative face but positively associated with threat to a refuser's positive face. Perceived refusal appropriateness was associated with interactions of multiple face threats. Overall, results support that judgments of appropriateness are influenced by the combination of face threats present. Specifically, low levels of one type of face threat are associated with perceptions that increasing other face threats is inappropriate. Keywords: Communication Competence; Competence; Politeness, Children refuse to perform chores. Patients fail to follow medical treatment guidelines. A friend declines a request for assistance. Requests are necessary to attain a variety of goals but refusals [...]

In 3 experiments, the authors compared duration judgments of filled stimuli (tones) with unfilled ones (intervals defined by clicks or gaps in tones). Temporal generalization procedures (Experiment 1) and verbal estimation procedures (Experiments 2 and 3) all showed that subjective durations of the tones were considerably longer than those of unfilled intervals defined either by clicks or gaps, with the unfilled intervals being judged as approximately 55%-65% of the duration of the filled ones when real duration was the same. Analyses derived from the pacemaker-switch-accumulator clock model incorporated into scalar timing theory suggested that the filled/unfilled difference in mean estimates was due to higher pacemaker speed in the former case, although conclusively ruling out alternative interpretations in terms of attention remains difficult. Keywords: time perception, temporal generalization, verbal estimation, filled duration illusion, click trains

This research is an extension of earlier studies that examined Assertiveness and Aggressiveness as potential moderators of verbal intentions. A sample of 127 women and 137 men participated in the survey which used random residential telephone numbers. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 71 years (M = 33.2, SD = 12.4), with men making up 51.9% of the total sample. Those respondents classified as having an Aggressive interaction style were least likely to have discussed their unsatisfactory service encounters. The nature of the verbal communications was negative for all four interaction styles investigated. Similar to previous findings, men and women were equally Assertive, but men were more likely to be Aggressive when engaging in marketplace interactions.

Acquisition of verbal behavior is a major goal of interventions for children with developmental disabilities. We evaluated the effectiveness of manipulation of an establishing operation for functional discriminated mands. Four individuals with developmental disabilities participated in a training procedure designed to teach two separate mands for two separate preferred items. Participants were taught to mand using picture cards. Following training, the manipulation of the establishing operation was used to assess and establish discriminated manding. This manipulation involved providing free access to one of the preferred items, such that there should be no motivation to ask for it, while motivation to ask for the other item remained in place. Three of the 4 participants acquired discriminated manding using topographically similar responses (picture cards). One participant did not acquire a discriminated mand until topographically distinct mands were taught (vocal and picture card). Results suggest that discrimination training is not necessarily sufficient to teach discriminated manding when more than one picture card showing preferred items is used. In addition, manipulation of the establishing operation served as an appropriate assessment tool for the verification of discriminated manding as well as a possible training tool to establish discriminated manding. DESCRIPTORS: autism, picture cards, discrimination training

This study examined verbal aggressiveness of coaches as perceived by their athletes, 108 senior athletes (57 boys and 51 girls) ages 15-19 years. Participants were basketball players (56 athletes) and volleyball players (52 athletes) who completed questionnaires. The scale of verbal aggressiveness showed high internal consistency. A two-way analysis of variance, conducted using sex and sport as independent variables to examine interactions, yielded significant differences between adolescent volleyball and basketball athletes. Volleyball athletes had lower scores on the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale than basketball players. Research with larger samples and other sports is recommended.

The role of motivational conditions in selecting human behavior is a phenomenon widely accepted although poorly understood. Besides the basic nonverbal conditions of deprivation, satiation, and aversive stimulation, with motivational [...], The motivational function exerted by verbal antecedents has been extensively approached from a theoretical perspective and within the direct conditioning paradigm. However, there is little research concerning the alteration of the motivational function via verbal means. The current study presents 2 consecutive experiments in which the role of the verbal context in the alteration of different motivational states was examined. In the first experiment, a protocol consisting of a story about feeling hot and thirsty was administered individually to 5 children, 6 to 7 years old. After the implementation of the protocol, all children reported feeling thirstier than before the implementation and behaved in accordance with this report. In the second experiment with 5 other children, this effect was replicated with a different motivational state (physical restriction). More importantly, in a second phase with the same children, the effect was prevented when the thirst protocol was presented in a verbal context that was incoherent with feeling thirsty. Several verbal contexts in altering motivational functions, as well as some clinical implications, are discussed.

We examined some conditions under which a response acquired as a tact might facilitate the establishment of a mand. We taught 3 participants with developmental disabilities to tact the items ranked highest and lowest in a preference assessment and subsequently tested to see if the responses occurred as mands. Ml participants manded for the highly preferred item but rarely manded for the nonpreferred item. These results indicate that, although tact and mand functions are different, conditions can be created to facilitate transfer from the former to the latter. Implications for communication training are discussed. DESCRIPTORS: communication, preference, mand, tact, verbal behavior

A study on relationship between verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development is discussed.

People's evaluations of stimuli may change when they verbally attempt to communicate the reasons underlying their judgments. The reported experiments demonstrate the interactive influence of expertise, verbalizability (i.e., the ease with which stimulus features can be linguistically encoded), and appraisal mode in the verbalization bias phenomenon. In Experiment 1, art novices and experts rated their liking of artworks with compositional features that were easy (e.g., figurative-naturalistic) or difficult (e.g., abstract) to verbalize. When asked to verbalize the reasons underlying their judgments, novices assigned lower ratings to abstract but not figurative works. Experts, in contrast, were not influenced by the verbalization manipulation. Experiment 2 explored the possibility that verbalization bias is attributable to a componential appraisal mode that verbalization induces, rather than the specific reasons that people articulate. We found that verbalizing reasons for liking or disliking one abstract work influenced art novices' judgments of a second work for which they did not attempt to verbalize reasons. Moreover, those who merely attempted to verbalize their perceptual experiences also exhibited this contamination effect. The results of both studies suggest that verbalizing the attributes of complex stimuli can significantly alter the way we evaluate these stimuli.

A structural modeling approach was used to examine the relationship between age, verbal working memory (vWM), and 3 types of language measures that are online syntactic processing, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension. The results indicated that the relationship among age, vWM, and comprehensive differs depending on the measure of language processing and support the view that individual differences in vWM do not affect individuals' online syntactic processing.

In a series of experiments, Alleman and Platt (1973) showed that different response rates can be generated by differentially reinforcing progressively longer or shorter interresponse times (IRTs). To this end, [...], The experiment reported herein was conducted to determine whether interresponse-time (IRT) shaping can produce different response rates in 2 components of a multiple schedule that are equated with respect to reinforcement rate. To this end, pigeons' key pecks were reinforced with food, if they terminated IRTs that were more extreme (shorter in 1 component and longer in the other) than 20 of the most recent 24 IRTs, and an average of 30 s had elapsed since the previous reinforcement. Large intercomponent differences in response rate occurred in all of the subjects, even though the intercomponent differences in reinforcement rate were negligible. The relevance of the present findings to prior research on IRT shaping is discussed.

Since the 1960s, a significant number of studies have analyzed the impact of verbal behavior on the performance of human subjects. Some research has focused on the role played by [...], The purpose of the current experiment was to investigate the role of private verbal behavior on the operant performances of human adults, using a protocol analysis procedure with additional methodological controls (the 'silent dog' method). Twelve subjects were exposed to fixed ratio 8 and differential reinforcement of low rate 3-s schedules. For 6 subjects, verbal self-reports were recorded concurrently during exposure to the reinforcement schedules. Results showed a significant relationship between certain types of rules and task performances, and especially between counting and schedule-sensitive performance. A detailed analysis also suggested that counting facilitated the discrimination of programmed contingencies in the current task. Suggestions are offered for further research involving the use of the protocol analysis methodology.

Variability has been shown to be a reinforceable dimension of behavior. One procedure that has been demonstrated to increase variability in basic research is the lag reinforcement schedule. On this type of schedule, a response is reinforced if it differs from a specified number of previous responses. Lag schedules are rarely used, however, for increasing response variability in applied settings. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a lag schedule of differential reinforcement on varied and appropriate verbal responding to social questions by 3 males with autism. A reversal design with a multiple baseline across subjects was used to evaluate the effects of the lag schedule. During baseline, differential reinforcement of appropriate responding (DRA) resulted in little or no varied responding. During the intervention, a Lag 1 requirement was added to the DRA (Lag 1/DRA) resulting in an increase in the percentage of trials with varied and appropriate verbal responding for 2 of the 3 participants. In addition, an increase in the cumulative number of novel verbal responses was also observed for the same 2 participants. These results are discussed in terms of reinforcement schedules that support variability, generalization, and potential stimulus control over varied responding. DESCRIPTORS: behavioral variability, lag reinforcement schedules, verbal responding

We report two naming experiments examining the effects of filler type on the size of regularity and frequency effects. Low-frequency exception words were used as one filler type in both experiments. Their effects were contrasted with the effects of nonword fillers (Experiment 1) and low-frequency regular word fillers (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the size of the regularity effect was unaffected by the filler type manipulation. In contrast, the frequency effect interacted with filler type such that relative to the low-frequency exception filler environment, the size of the frequency effect was reduced in the environment of low frequency regular word fillers, but not in the environment of nonword fillers. These results appear to be better explained in terms of Lupker, Brown, and Colombo's (1997) flexible time-criterion framework than in terms of a pathway control hypothesis (e.g., Zevin & Balota, 2000).

The authors investigate modes of communication to develop a means for analyzing modes of communication.

The authors report on an investigation of the effectiveness of nonverbal communications during account sequences.

The author investigates how a patient responded to questions about being sexually abused as a child to study verbal and non-verbal communication techniques by the patient and the health care provider.

The author investigated how patients respond to their doctors especially when describing conditions using gestures.

The author studied the use of the German word 'so', and the American English use of the word 'like'. This study includes a brief historical overview of their uses, and how they have changed, especially 'like'.

The authors studied the use of gaze by a person telling a close call story, and the use of gaze by the person listening to the story.

The authors examine a videotape of two women during a chance encounter in which they recognize each other and interact despite various distractions.