An Analog Study of First Language Dominance and Interference over Second Language

A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Procedures and Analyses Used in Basic and Preclinical Studies of Resurgence, 1970-2020

Resurgence is the return of a previously reinforced response as conditions worsen for an alternative response, such as the introduction of extinction, reductions in reinforcement, or punishment. As a procedure, resurgence has been used to model behavioral treatments and understand behavioral processes contributing both to relapse of problem behavior and flexibility during problem-solving. Identifying existing procedural and analytic methods arranged in basic/preclinical research could be used by basic and preclinical researchers to develop novel approaches to study resurgence, whereas translational and clinical researchers could identify potential approaches to combating relapse during behavioral interventions. Despite the study of resurgence for over half a century, there have been no systematic reviews of the basic/preclinical research on resurgence. To characterize the procedural and analytic methods used in basic/preclinical research on resurgence, we performed a systematic review consistent with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). We identified 120 articles consisting of 200 experiments that presented novel empirical research, examined operant behavior, and included standard elements of a resurgence procedure. We reported prevalence and trends in over 60 categories, including participant characteristics (e.g., species, sample size, disability), designs (e.g., single subject, group), procedural characteristics (e.g., responses, reinforcer types, control conditions), criteria defining resurgence (e.g., single test, multiple tests, relative to control), and analytic strategies (e.g., inferential statistics, quantitative analysis, visual inspection). We make some recommendations for future basic, preclinical, and clinical research based on our findings of this expanding literature.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40614-022-00361-y.

The Future of Verbal Behavior: Together Is Better

Prior editorials have addressed the question "Where do we go from here?" This is a reasonable query as an incoming editorial team considers new perspectives and initiatives that may further benefit the journal. I will address two important highlights of the revised mission statement of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior aimed at actively encouraging diversity of thought in publications and focusing on narrowing the gap between applied research and practice.

Empirical Investigations of the Intraverbal: 2005-2015

Several papers have reviewed the literature based on Skinner's conceptual framework presented in his 1957 book, Verbal Behavior. These reviews have called for more research on the topic of verbal behavior generally and often for more research on particular verbal operants. For example, Sautter and LeBlanc (2006) urged the behavior-analytic community to conduct more research on the intraverbal because of the scant existing literature base at that time. In the current review, we replicate the procedures used by Sautter and LeBlanc focusing specifically on the intraverbal relation and on the literature published in the 10 years since their call for research. We summarize the publication themes, provide graphs of the trends and types of published articles, and offer ideas for future research specific to the intraverbal.

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Recent Verbal Behavior Research on Individuals with Disabilities: a Review and Implications for Research and Practice

The number of individuals from various culture and language backgrounds who are receiving behavior-analytic services is growing. Therefore, a behavioral understanding of the role of cultural and linguistic diversity (CLD) in language acquisition may be warranted. We searched recent editions of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis to determine the degree to which researchers report the CLD of individuals with disabilities who participate in verbal behavior research. Our results indicate that researchers in these journals rarely report the culture and language background of their participants. Given these results, we provide a conceptual analysis and describe implications for research and clinical practice. A further understanding of the role of CLD may aid in the development of better behavioral interventions and culturally sensitive treatments. Finally, research that explores the role of CLD in language acquisition may add to the generality of behavior-analytic research and practice.

Role of contextual control in second language performance

Transfer of training from an instructional environment to a natural environment may bring about ineffective language performance by bilingual individuals. In that regard, this study was designed to demonstrate the effect of such a transition on individuals' language performance. A series of Japanese and English words were used as sample and comparisons in a matching procedure. Differential conditioning was implemented in the presence two types of contextual stimuli. After three sets of relations were established, the physical configuration of the contextual stimuli was changed to more subtle appearances, and the number of variations in the contextual stimuli was increased. Measures of percent correct and response latency were used to show the negative influence on second language performance. Percent correct responses decreased with the subtle contextual stimuli for 11 out of 14 participants, and average response latency increased with the increased number of variations in the last phase. These findings indicate that the change in environmental stimuli will be a significant participatory factor in training of second languages.

Stimulus equivalence, generalization, and contextual stimulus control in verbal classes

Stimulus generalization and contextual control affect the development of equivalence classes. Experiment 1 demonstrated primary stimulus generalization from the members of trained equivalence classes. Adults were taught to match six spoken Icelandic nouns and corresponding printed words and pictures to one another in computerized three-choice matching-to-sample tasks. Tests confirmed that six equivalence classes had formed. Without further training, plural forms of the stimuli were presented in tests for all matching performances. All participants demonstrated virtually errorless performances. In Experiment 2, classifications of the nouns used in Experiment 1 were brought under contextual control. Three nouns were feminine and three were masculine. The match-to-sample training taught participants to select a comparison of the same number as the sample (i.e., singular or plural) in the presence of contextual stimulus A regardless of noun gender. Concurrently, in the presence of contextual stimulus B, participants were taught to select a comparison of the same gender as the sample (i.e., feminine or masculine), regardless of number. Generalization was assessed using a card-sorting test. All participants eventually sorted the cards correctly into gender and number stimulus classes. When printed words used in training were replaced by their picture equivalents, participants demonstrated almost errorless performances.

Effects of multiple exemplar training on the emergence of derived relations in preschool children learning a second language

We evaluated the facilitative effects of multiple exemplar training (MET) on the establishment of derived tact relations in typically developing children. A multiple-probe design across stimulus sets was implemented to introduce MET. Participants were first taught to conditionally relate dictated names in English to their corresponding objects (listener behavior; A-B relations), followed by tests for derived tacts (B-A relations). If participants failed these tests, MET was implemented whereby tact relations were explicitly taught with novel stimulus sets, followed by test probes with the original training set. MET continued with novel stimuli until participants met criterion for the emergence of derived tact relations or after exposure to three MET sets. Results indicated failed tests for tact relations following direct training in listener relations, and marked improvements in derived tact relations following MET across all participants.

A quarter century of the analysis of verbal behavior: an analysis of impact

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) has been published since 1982, and during this time, interest in verbal behavior research appears to have increased substantially within behavior analysis. The purpose of the present analysis was to assess the influence of TAVB on the field by (a) counting citations of TAVB articles in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) from 1983 through 2007, (b) examining which other journals cite TAVB, and (c) calculating impact-factor estimates for 2003 through 2007. Citations of TAVB articles began to appear in JEAB and JABA in the late 1980s to early 1990s, and by the end of 2007, almost a third of all articles published in TAVB had been cited in either JEAB or JABA. Other journals that cite TAVB include The Behavior Analyst and The Psychological Record. The estimated impact factor ranged from 0.267 to 0.600. Strategies for increasing the impact of TAVB are discussed.