Generalized selection-based auditory matching and the emergence of the listener component of naming.

Abstract

Abstract We tested the effects of teaching an auditory match to sample repertoire on the emergence of the listener half of the verbal developmental cusp of Naming for 2-preschool students with language-based disabilities. The study was conducted in special education CABAS[R] preschool. Neither of the students had selection or discrimination responses, the listener component of Naming, following mastery of match to sample programs for two-dimensional visual stimuli while hearing the tact as they matched. We taught the students to match same sounds and same words using BIGMac[R] buttons, and tested the effects of mastery of these skills on the emergence of the listener component of Naming. A time-lagged multiple probe design across students was employed to determine if there was functional relation between the acquisition of auditory matching and the emergence of the listener component of naming. The results showed that for these two students, the acquisition of an auditory matching repertoire was functionally related to the emergence of the listener component of Naming. We also report data on the participants' echoic responses to stimuli as well as emergent tact responses (the speaker component of Naming). Keywords: Observational learning, naming, contingency learning, & emotional and behavioral disorders. ********** The productivity of human language is an area of interest for many who research language development (Skinner, 1957; Chomsky, 1959; Pinker, 1999; Horne and Lowe 1998; Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche 2001, Greer and Yuan, 2003, Speckman-Collins and Greer 2005, Lee-Park 2005.) Some linguists account for novel language production in terms of lexicon, lexical rules and an infinite number of combinations available to speaker (Pinker, 1999; Jackendoff, 2002.) Horne and Lowe's (1998) theory on Naming provides an operant explanation of productive verbal behavior. Naming is a circular relationship between classes of objects and events and the responses they occasion (Horne & Lowe, 1998, p.5.) According to the theory of Naming, speakers listen to their own speech. This orients the speaker back to the item of which they are speaking. This can be particular item or class of items in general. If the item or items evoke tact response from the speaker, the cycle may begin again. The individual can then hold the object in consciousness (Horne & Lowe, 1998, p.6) for as long as the cycle continues. Once an individual has an orienting response towards an item, or listener response, an echoic response may occur. Once listener and echoic response are in place, the conditions exist for the corresponding tact response (Horne & Lowe, 1998.) Once the listener response, the echoic response and the tact are in place, the Naming cycle is complete. Horne and Lowe (1998) claimed that Naming is the basic unit of verbal behavior, upon which all complexities of human language are founded. One experiment that tested the Naming theory showed that only 1 out of 5 children tacted items after being taught an echoic response not in the presence of the item and listener response, but 5 out of 5 children tacted items after being taught listener response and an echoic response in the presence of the item (Horne & Lowe, 1998). In other experiments, acquisition of Naming led to the emergence of discrimination responses to those stimuli (Horne & Lowe, 1998) and teaching tact response resulted in correct sorting behavior (Horne & Lowe, 1998) while teaching only listener response did not (Horne & Lowe, 1998). Another study showed that Naming in two to four year old children resulted in the establishment of arbitrary stimulus classes and that match to sample training resulted in categorization responses (Lowe, Horne, Harris & Randle, 2002). The emergence of Naming has been functionally linked to multiple exemplar instruction (Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown and Rivera-Valdes, 2005. …