Teaching a small foreign language vocabulary to children using tact and listener instruction with a prompt delay

This study consisted of a systematic replication of previous research examining the effects of tact and listener instruction on the emergence of native-to-foreign (NF) and foreign-to-native (FN) intraverbals in children who had experienced difficulties learning to read and write. We assigned different sets of stimuli to tact and listener conditions, and taught 4 children to tact or respond as listeners in a foreign language using a progressive prompt delay with differential reinforcement. All participants mastered tacts and listener responses in the foreign language. For all participants, tact instruction yielded greater emergence of intraverbals compared to listener instruction. Tact instruction also produced all possible bidirectional (NF and FN) intraverbals relations for 3 of 4 participants, but listener instruction never resulted in the emergence of all possible relations. These results replicate previous findings suggesting that tact instruction is a more efficient way to teach a foreign language and extend them to progressive prompt-delay procedures.

Equivalence relations do exist before they are tested: Confirmatory evidence revealed by EEG measurements

We examined equivalence-based N400 effects by comparing EEG data from participants with different experiences with equivalence testing. Before a priming task used in EEG measurement, Group 1 was given only matching-to-sample training trials whereas Group 2 was exposed to matching-to-sample training and equivalence probe trials. We asked whether exposure to the reinforcement contingency was sufficient to bring about an N400 outcome that might indicate potentially emergent equivalence relations or if such a response depended on experience with equivalence tests. Results showed robust N400 in both groups. Experience with equivalence tests did not further increase the N400 effects. Our findings add confirmatory evidence that equivalence relations may originate via the reinforcement contingency alone. Furthermore, complementary EEG data collected from priming tasks involving words from natural language showed functional overlap between laboratory-defined equivalence and natural word-based N400 effects.

Electrophysiological analysis of stimulus variables in equivalence relations

Recently, electrophysiological measures have been used to evaluate the functional overlap between semantic relations and laboratory-defined equivalence relations with abstract stimuli. Several studies using semantic judgment procedures have shown that accompanying EEG-measured neural activity for stimulus pairs from equivalence classes is very similar to that of word pairs from participants' native language. However, those studies often included pronounceable elements (e.g., written nonsense syllables) as at least one member of the experimentally defined classes. The present study conducted EEG studies that contrasted classes with and without such elements. Two groups of undergraduate students completed a matching-to-sample procedure to establish 3 4-member equivalence classes. For Group 1, samples and comparisons were pronounceable pseudowords and abstract figures. For Group 2, the matching-to-sample stimuli were abstract figures only. EEG data recorded during the semantic judgment tasks showed waveform patterns compatible with prior studies of semantic relations in Group 1 but not in Group 2.

Effects of preliminary class membership on subsequent stimulus equivalence class formation

The present study examined the effects of including stimuli previously trained as members of functional classes or equivalence classes on subsequent equivalence class formation, and isolated the effects of preliminary training from those of the acquired function stimuli. Fifty-six adults were assigned to 1 of 5 conditions. The control group (CONT) received no preliminary training prior to the terminal phase. Participants in the other 4 groups learned two 3-member functional classes and two 3-member equivalence classes during the preliminary phase. The terminal equivalence phase trained two 5-member classes (A → B → C → D → E) comprising abstract forms; the C stimuli in the terminal phase were (a) from the preliminary functional classes for 1 group (ACQ-F), (b) from the preliminary equivalence classes for the second experimental group (ACQ-E), (c) pictures of everyday objects for the picture control group (PIC), and (d) novel, unfamiliar stimuli for the preliminary training control group (PRE-CONT). Class formation yields were 100% in the PIC condition and 11% in the CONT condition; however, low yields in the PRE-CONT, ACQ-F, and ACQ-E conditions were unexpected, suggesting that procedural variables in preliminary training account for more of the subsequent effects on class formation than the stimulus control properties of the acquired function stimuli.

Mastery of Echoics in Chinese Establishes Bidirectional Naming in Chinese for Preschoolers with Naming in English

The onset of the verbal behavior developmental cusp of bidirectional naming (BiN) in a second language makes it possible for monolingual English-speaking children to learn names of things in a second language incidentally. We conducted 2 experiments to identify why monolingual English-speaking children cannot demonstrate BiN in another language when they demonstrated BiN in their native language. In Experiment I, using a group design (n = 32 preschoolers), we identified Chinese speech sounds that monolingual English-speaking children with BiN in English for familiar stimuli could not echo. In Experiment II, using a multiple-probe design, we investigated if mastery of echoics with the speech sounds identified in Experiment I would result in BiN in Chinese with 6 participants from Experiment I. The dependent variable was untaught responses to the probe stimuli presented following the naming experience based on the echoic stimuli from Experiment I. The results showed that echoic training was functionally related to the establishment of BiN in the second language. It appeared that the emission of accurate echoics might be the key to second-language BiN and that emergent correspondence between producing and hearing that occurs with the mastery of the echoic responding may be the source of reinforcement.

Effects of orientation and differential reinforcement II: transitivity and transfer across five-member sets

A recent report by Amd et al. (2017) demonstrated that orienting towards successively presented stimulus-stimulus pairs yielded significantly more transitive relations then when those same pairs were differentially reinforced following training for three, 3-member stimulus sets. We build on that work in four important ways. First, transitivity yields produced by Pavlovian and instrumental procedures were compared following training for three 5-member sets (A1-B1-C1-D1-E1, A2-B2-C2-D2-E2, A3-B3-C3-D3-E3), where the 'A' stimuli were emotional faces and all remaining stimuli were nonsense words. Second, our instrumental task here required two orienting/observing responses per trial. Third, we compared differences in multi-nodal transfer following Pavlovian and instrumental relational learning procedures. Finally, we tested whether functioning as 'end terms' in a relational series can mitigate transfer following instrumental conditioning. Transitivity, as measured by sorting tests, was significantly more pronounced following Pavlovian training. Transfer, assessed before and after relational training with two visual analog scales corresponding to valence and arousal dimensions, appeared marginally more robust observed for participants exposed to the Pavlovian condition. Transfer magnitude was positively related with demonstrations of transitivity, regardless of type of conditioning.

Meaningful Stimuli and the Enhancement of Equivalence Class Formation

Stimulus meaningfulness has been defined by its hedonic valence, denotative (definitional) and connotative (evaluative) properties, and its influence on forming categories called equivalence classes. Positive or negative hedonic value of a meaningful stimulus transfers to the other members of an equivalence class that contains such a stimulus, and also influences likelihood of class formation. The denotative and connotative properties of meaningful stimuli are instantiated by the responses they produced (simple discriminative functions) and by the selection of other related words (conditional discriminative functions). If a meaningless cue acquires one such stimulus control function, and is included in a set of otherwise meaningless stimuli, its inclusion enhances the formation of an equivalence class. These results suggest ways to enhance equivalence class formation in applied settings. When degree of enhancement matches that produced by the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus in a class, class enhancement can be accounted for by the stimulus control functions it serves, as well as its hedonic, denotative, and connotative properties. We also linked equivalence class formation and meaningfulness to semantic networks, relational frame theory, verbal behavior, and naming.