Emergence of Intraverbals with Antonyms Derived From Relations with Verbal and Nonverbal Stimuli

Abstract

The present research studied the emergence of intraverbals with antonyms (e.g., “Name the opposite of empty”–“Full”) derived from learning skills with verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Five 3-year-old children learned to select the nonverbal comparison identical to a sample stimulus or of an opposite category from the sample, with a conditional discrimination procedure (e.g., selecting an empty cup in the presence of an empty cup when the contextual stimulus was “same” and selecting a full cup when the contextual stimulus was “opposite”). Then, an intraverbal probe related to these concepts was presented (e.g., “Name the opposite of empty”–“Full”). If the participant failed in the intraverbal probe, additional skills were taught or probed, and the intraverbal probe was repeated, which included conditional discriminations with more verbal stimuli than the initial conditional discrimination (e.g., selecting a full cup when told, “Point to the opposite of ‘empty’”). All 5 children demonstrated the emergence of most or all intraverbals. Two children received the sequence with a second stimulus set; they showed the emergence of intraverbals quicker than with the first stimulus set. Thus, the emergence of intraverbals after learning relations with nonverbal stimuli was demonstrated in young children. The identification of the skills present when the intraverbals emerged suggests that learning some of these skills is required for emergence, and they may be important to understand the emergence of verbal skills.