Developing Correspondence between Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior: Switching Sequences

Abstract

Preschool children in a free-play situation experienced two training situations where verbal and nonverbal behaviors were reinforced: doing then saying and saying then doing. The effects of these two sequences on the training of correspondence was examined. Correspondence was defined as the presence of both the verbal and nonverbal target behaviors. Children experienced two doing-saying sequences followed by one saying-doing sequence. Initially, reinforcement of both verbal and nonverbal behavior produced significantly higher rates of correspondence than reinforcement of verbal behavior alone. However, during the second activity reinforcement of verbal behavior alone was sufficient to produce higher levels of correspondence. Switching the sequences of behaviors to saying-doing during the third activity, produced results similar to those obtained for the first activity. The results are discussed in terms of training “generalized” correspondence; specifically, the effect learning a doing-saying sequence had upon the subsequent introduction to a saying-doing sequence.