Listener Repertoires Research Articles

Efficiency in Teaching Speaker and Listener Repertoires: Comparing Three Instructional Sequences in Autistic Children

Efficiency in Teaching Speaker and Listener Repertoires: Comparing Three Instructional Sequences in Autistic Children

Observação de pareamento de estímulos e instrução com múltiplos exemplares: efeitos sobre respostas de ouvinte e falante de crianças com TEA

Dois procedimentos têm sido propostos como alternativas para induzir repertórios não ensinados diretamente: 1) instrução com múltiplos exemplares (MEI); e 2) observação de pareamento de estímulos (SPOP). O MEI implica a rotação do ensino de diferentes respostas a um estímulo (ex. tato e resposta de ouvinte), o que favorece a aprendizagem incidental dessas respostas para novos estímulos a partir do ensino de apenas um dos tipos. No SPOP é exigida apenas a observação de estímulos apresentados contíguos, sem reforçamento diferencial para qualquer resposta. Os resultados de alguns estudos sugerem que uma maior frequência de pareamentos poderia levar a emergência de respostas de tato e ouvinte não ensinadas diretamente e que o pareamento de estímulos pode afetar o procedimento de MEI. O presente estudo avaliou o efeito de SPOP com uma frequência maior de pareamentos por tentativas sobre a emergência de respostas de tato e ouvinte em três crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista, e o efeito do SPOP no ensino dessas respostas por meio de MEI. Para dois participantes, o SPOP com mais pareamentos a cada tentativa favoreceu a emergência do repertório de ouvinte. Estes participantes somente aprenderam respostas de tato após o MEI. O SPOP teve um efeito facilitador no treino de MEI. Discute-se o papel do MEI e de treino de tato intensivo na emergência de repertórios de tato e ouvinte, assim como os tipos de controle de estímulo que o SPOP parece favorecer, e a possibilidade de investigar o SPOP em ambientes menos estruturados.

Ensino de Tatos, Respostas de Ouvinte e Efeitos sobre Intraverbais em Autistas

Efeitos de metodologias de intervenção em Análise do Comportamento são investigados sobre a aprendizagemde intraverbais, que costumam ser deficientes em crianças autistas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi medir efeitosdo ensino de repertórios de tato e ouvinte, organizado em dois diferentes pacotes de intervenções para duasduplas de crianças autistas, sobre a emergência de intraverbais de relatar membros de categorias. Para duascrianças da condição tato, foi implementado o ensino de tatos simples, tatos simples com feedback instrutivoe tatos de categorias; para duas crianças da condição ouvinte, ensino de respostas de ouvinte simples, respostascom feedback instrutivo e identificação de categorias como ouvinte. Não foi demonstrado qualquer efeito deemergência de intraverbais, e seu ensino direto demandou o uso de muitas pistas (tato e ecoico), sendo queimplicou evolução com variabilidade para um participante e dependência do tato como pista. São discutidaspossibilidades de adaptações metodológicas para pesquisas futuras.

Emergência de nomeação bidirecional em criança com implante coclear via Instrução com Múltiplos Exemplares (MEI)

Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar o número de exposições necessárias ao procedimento de Instrução com Múltiplos exemplares (MEI) para a emergência do repertório de nomeação bidirecional em uma menina de 13 anos com implante coclear há 1 ano. O estudo foi delineado com três conjuntos de cinco figuras como estímulos visuais e seus respectivos nomes como estímulos auditivos em quatro fases: 1) avaliação dos repertórios de falante e ouvinte; 2) treino de ouvinte e teste de nomeação bidirecional; 3) treino de MEI; 4) novo teste de nomeação bidirecional. Com os conjuntos de estímulos 1 e 2, o treino de ouvinte não garantiu a emergência de tato; o tato somente foi obtido após o MEI, que, ao longo de sucessivas sessões, sobrepôs as porcentagens de acertos de ouvinte (mais altas) com as de tato (mais baixas) após duas exposições. O treino de ouvinte foi suficiente para a emergência de tato com o conjunto 3 após a exposição ao MEI com dois conjuntos de estímulos. Discute-se que o MEI favoreceu o controle compartilhado de estímulos e a emergência da nomeação bidirecional (ouvir e apontar figura; nomear a figura com topografia vocal com correspondência pontual à ouvida).

The Effects of an Auditory Matching iPad App on Three Preschoolers' Echoic and Listener Responses.

We investigated the effects of an auditory match-to-sample protocol on three preschoolers' accurate echoics to 100 English words and advanced listener responses. The protocol was presented by using an iPad app Sounds the same: an app to target listening and speaking clearly. We used a combination of a multiple probe design (for echoic responses) and a delayed multiple probe design (for advanced listener literacy responses) with a time-lagged baseline across participants to test the effectiveness of the protocol. The three participants ranged from 4 to 5years old and were all diagnosed as preschoolers with disabilities. They were taught to discriminate between positive and negative exemplars of progressively more difficult sounds, words, and phases by matching the sample stimulus to the matching exemplar. Our data show that the mastery of the intervention resulted in increases in the accuracy of the participants' articulation of their echoics, as well as their advanced listener repertoires as measured by the responses to spoken directions in the presence of visual distractors.

Evaluation of the efficiency of listener and tact instruction for children with autism.

Recent literature reviews have highlighted the need to better understand the relation between speaker and listener behavior when teaching learners with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The current study used a modified parallel-treatments design to compare directly the degree to which tact and listener behavior emerged during instruction in the opposite relation for 4 children with ASD. Results showed tact training to be either equally or more efficient than listener training for all participants. However, varied patterns of emergent responding across participants indicate a need for further research. Data on collateral responding during instruction did not suggest that the presence or absence of overt collateral behaviors were predictive of emergence. The results highlight the importance for clinicians and educators to assess emergent tact and listener repertoires periodically.

RELATIONAL LEARNING IN CHILDREN WITH DEAFNESS AND COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

This four-experiment series sought to evaluate the potential of children with neurosensory deafness and cochlear implants to exhibit auditory-visual and visual-visual stimulus equivalence relations within a matching-to-sample format. Twelve children who became deaf prior to acquiring language (prelingual) and four who became deaf afterwards (postlingual) were studied. All children learned auditory-visual conditional discriminations and nearly all showed emergent equivalence relations. Naming tests, conducted with a subset of the children, showed no consistent relationship to the equivalence-test outcomes. This study makes several contributions to the literature on stimulus equivalence. First, it demonstrates that both pre- and postlingually deaf children can acquire auditory-visual equivalence relations after cochlear implantation, thus demonstrating symbolic functioning. Second, it directs attention to a population that may be especially interesting for researchers seeking to analyze the relationship between speaker and listener repertoires. Third, it demonstrates the feasibility of conducting experimental studies of stimulus control processes within the limitations of a hospital, which these children must visit routinely for the maintenance of their cochlear implants.

The induction of naming in children with no prior tact responses as a function of multiple exemplar histories of instruction.

The phenomenon identified as naming is a key stage of language function that is missing in many children with autism and other language delay diagnoses. We identified four children with autism, who, prior to the implementation of this experiment, did not have the naming repertoire (either speaker to listener or listener to speaker) and who had no tact responses for two- or three-dimensional stimuli. Tact training alone did not result in a naming repertoire or echoic-to-tact responses for these students. We then provided multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across speaker and listener repertoires for a subset of stimuli (the teaching set) that resulted in untaught response components of naming and the capability to acquire naming after learning tacts for subsequent sets of stimuli. We used a delayed multiple-baseline probe design with stimuli counterbalanced across participants. The results showed that for all four students, mastery of tacts alone (the baseline or initial training condition) was not sufficient for the naming or echoic-to-tact repertoires to emerge. Following MEI the naming repertoire emerged for all four students for the initial set of stimuli. In addition, we tested for naming with novel stimuli that were probed prior to the MEI and naming also emerged following tact instruction alone for these sets. The results are discussed in terms of the role of naming in the incidental acquisition of verbal functions as part of the speaker-as-own-listener repertoire.

The effects of observational training on the acquisition of reinforcement for listening.

Abstract Experiment 1 investigated the effects of observational training in a social listener reinforcement game on participants' conversational units in non-instructional settings. Experiment 2 tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction on the development of The participants who had reader/writer levels of verbal were selected because they emitted a low number of and listener exchanges with and did not have empathy as measured in the study. In Experiment 1, data were collected on the number of sequelics, conversational units, wh questions, vocal approvals and vocal disapprovals during 5 minute probe sessions after meeting criterion on each objective of the listener reinforcement game. During intervention, the participants were required to engage in a listener exchange through playing a yoked contingency game where they competed with the experimenter to teach several objectives including I Spy, peer tutoring, textually responding and group instruction. Data showed that the total number of verbal interactions in non-instructional settings significantly increased for both participants. In Experiment 2 multiple exemplar instruction across questions was implemented to teach the participants empathy. The participants responded to 3 questions: What happened? How does the person feel? and What could you do to help? The results showed a significant increase in correct responses to empathy questions. Keywords: autism, empathy, observational training, reinforcement for listening. ********** Many children with autism do not have a history of reinforcement for listening to others. Listening to is a critical component of social experiences that leads to more advanced listener repertoires such as emitting behaviors characterized as empathy. Skinner (1957) proposed a theory on the function of verbal based on operant research. was defined by Skinner as reinforced through the mediation of others (Skinner, 1957, p. 2). is categorized based on function into mands, tacts, intraverbals, autoclitics, echoics, and textual topographies. Skinner (1957) discussed verbal from the point of view of the as mediated by the contingencies of the listener. The listener provides reinforcement for verbal repertoires in the form of providing access to a preferred item or generalized reinforcement. is analyzed through the function of the and is emitted to affect the of a listener. Catania (1998) expanded on Skinner's views and stated that, Verbal involves both listener shaped by its effects on the speaker's behavior, and shaped by its effects on the listener's behavior (Catania, 1998, p. 262) Greer (2002) expands upon Skinner's verbal repertoires. Greer also includes naming, the conversational unit, the learn unit and joint stimulus control as extensions to the operants proposed by Skinner. A conversational unit is defined as one full exchange in which the student emits both a response that is reinforced by the verbal of another person responding as a listener and in turn a listener response by the initial speaker (Greer, 2002, p. 91). Conversational units are directly reinforced by the listener who responds in the role of the (Greer, 1989). Each member must respond as both and listener to complete the conversational unit. Truly social is measured by the presence or absence of conversational units. One emits conversational units because of the reinforcement obtained as both a and a listener (Donley & Greer, 1993; Lodhi & Greer, 1989). The key component of conversational units is the capacity of an individual to be reinforced by listening. If an individual is not reinforced by what another has to say, there will not be a listener exchange, only a sequelic. …

The benefits of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior for children with autism.

Behavior analysis has already contributed substantially to the treatment of children with autism, and further gains can result from more use of Skinner's analysis of language in Verbal Behavior (1957) and in the resulting conceptual and experimental work. The approach emphasizes a unit of analysis consisting of the relations between behavior, motivative and discriminative variables, and consequences. Skinner identifies seven types of verbal operants--echoic, mand, tact, intraverbal, textual, transcriptive, and copying a text--which function as components of more advanced forms of language. This approach focuses on the development of each verbal operant (rather than on words and their meanings) and on the independent training of speaker and listener repertoires. Five more specific contributions are described that relate to the importance of (a) an effective language assessment, (b) mand training in early intervention, (c) establishing operations, (d) an intraverbal repertoire, and (e) automatic reinforcement.

Natural language processing, pragmatics, and verbal behavior

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is that part of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerned with endowing computers with verbal and listener repertoires, so that people can interact with them more easily. Most attention has been given to accurately parsing and generating syntactic structures, although NLP researchers are finding ways of handling the semantic content of language as well. It is increasingly apparent that understanding the pragmatic (contextual and consequential) dimension of natural language is critical for producing effective NLP systems. While there are some techniques for applying pragmatics in computer systems, they are piecemeal, crude, and lack an integrated theoretical foundation. Unfortunately, there is little awareness that Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior provides an extensive, principled pragmatic analysis of language. The implications of Skinner's functional analysis for NLP and for verbal aspects of epistemology lead to a proposal for a "user expert"-a computer system whose area of expertise is the long-term computer user. The evolutionary nature of behavior suggests an AI technology known as genetic algorithms/programming for implementing such a system.

A review of empirical studies of verbal behavior

This paper reviews empirical research which has been directly influenced by Skinner's Verbal Behavior. Despite the importance of this subject matter, the book has generated relatively little empirical research. Most studies have focused on Skinner's mand and tact relations while research focused on the other elementary verbal operants has been limited. However, the results of empirical research that exist support Skinner's analysis of the distinction between elementary verbal operants and his distinction between the speaker's and listener's repertoires. Further, research suggests that language training programs may not be successful if they do not provide explicit training of each elementary verbal operant and independent training of speaker's and listener's repertoires.