Effects of conditioning voices as reinforcers for listener responses on rate of learning, awareness, and preferences for listening to stories in preschoolers with autism

Verbal behavior development theory and relational frame theory: Reflecting on similarities and differences

Relational frame theory and verbal behavior development theory are two behavior-analytic perspectives on human language and cognition. Despite sharing reliance on Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, relational frame theory and verbal behavior development theory have largely been developed independently, with initial applications in clinical psychology and education/development, respectively. The overarching goal of the current paper is to provide an overview of both theories and explore points of contact that have been highlighted by conceptual developments in both fields. Verbal behavior development theory research has identified how behavioral developmental cusps make it possible for children to learn language incidentally. Recent developments in relational frame theory have outlined the dynamic variables involved across the levels and dimensions of arbitrarily applicable relational responding, and we argue for the concept of mutually entailed orienting as an act of human cooperation that drives arbitrarily applicable relational responding. Together these theories address early language development and children's incidental learning of names. We present broad similarities between the two approaches in the types of functional analyses they generate and discuss areas for future research.

Integrative Review of Developmental Behavior-Analytic Concepts

We reviewed five behavior-analytic concepts related to development: behavioral trap, cumulative-hierarchical learning (CHL), basic behavioral repertoire (BBR), pivotal behavior, and behavioral cusp. We searched for terminological variations of the concepts in the CAPES Journals Portal and selected for analysis 31 peer-reviewed articles written in English or Portuguese, published between 1967 and 2021, that contained the search terms in the title, abstract, or keywords and contextualized in the main text. We analysed the conventional usage of the concepts, their conceptual limitations, and the relationships among them, declared or implied, and proposed a conceptual integration of the concepts under a CHL framework, following a path indicated by other authors. We considered BBR, pivotal behavior, and behavioral cusp nonsynonymous concepts of the same logical category, referring to prerequisites for important developmental outcomes and targets of CHL-inspired interventions but defined by different effects on subsequent behavioral development. The three concepts can be conflated in a superset-subset fashion, based on the specificity of their effects: BBR consists of a broad class of behaviors that may affect subsequent learning; the subclass of BBRs characterized by far-reaching collateral effects are classified as pivotal behavior, and the subclass of pivotal behaviors whose potential effects include contact with unprecedented environmental contingencies are classified as behavioral cusps. We propose that behavioral traps be explicitly incorporated in the CHL framework, to emphasize the environmental component of the cumulative-hierarchical learning process. Our formulation seems to organize the conceptual field in a way that respects the conventional use of concepts, preserving their strengths. Regardless of the specific formulation, we believe that integrating the various development-related concepts within a cumulative-hierarchical learning framework can encourage a more proactive integration of findings, questions, and practices informed by each concept, which could lead to the mutual refinement of the corresponding conceptual and methodological frameworks, as well as new research questions and practical applications. In particular, we expect that explicitly incorporating behavioral traps within the CHL framework will provide a useful heuristic model to guide research on how natural environmental contingencies influence the systematic transformation of behavior across the lifespan.

Assessing the Effects of Observational Conditioning and Response-Contingent Pairing on the Vocalizations of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impairments in communication, such as limited echoic behavior, few vocal-verbal responses, and a lack of functional communication. One potential way to foster the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with disabilities is by conditioning vocalizations as reinforcers. Conditioning procedures include stimulus-stimulus pairing, response-contingent pairing (RCP), operant discrimination training, and observational conditioning (OC). However, previous research has not evaluated whether OC can be used to condition vocalizations as reinforcers. The current study assessed whether two conditioning procedures, RCP and OC, were effective in conditioning vocalizations as a reinforcer and also evaluated their effect on the rate of vocalizations. Participants included three children with ASD, ages 5-10 years old. During the conditioning phase, rates of vocalizations during the RCP and OC conditions and a control condition were compared within an adapted alternating-treatments design. Reinforcer assessments were completed in a multielement design, pre- and postconditioning, to assess whether the target vocalizations acquired reinforcing properties. A conditioning effect and an increase in the rate of vocalizations were observed for two of the three participants; however, the conditioning effect was minor for one participant. Overall, the results of this study indicate both the RCP and OC procedures may be beneficial in increasing vocalizations for some children and could be incorporated into clinical programs and further explored in future research.

The Effect of the Establishment of Conditioned Reinforcement for Reading Content on Second-Graders' Reading Achievement

There remains a gap in the current literature as to how to reliably measure and increase students' "voluntary reading," based on research suggesting a relation between reading amount and reading achievement. We tested the effect of the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for reading via a collaborative shared reading (CSR) conditioning procedure on eight 2nd-grade students with and without learning disabilities and developmental disorders. This conditioning procedure was composed of opportunities for reciprocal reading and collaboration on comprehension and vocabulary tasks related to the reading content, such that partners (teacher-participant or participant-participant) were required to work together. We utilized a combined small-n experimental-control simultaneous-treatment design with a single-case multiple-probe design nested within each small group in order to compare within- and between-group differences for participants in the CSR procedure with a teacher or peer. All participants for whom conditioned reinforcement for reading was established (n = 7) demonstrated gains in reading achievement after a maximum of nine sessions (412 min), with grade-level increases between 0.2 and 2.5 on measures of reading comprehension and between 0.3 and 3.1 on measures of vocabulary. The students in the teacher-yoked condition (n = 3) demonstrated more significant gains in their average increases in achievement, although the peer-yoked procedure was also effective and possibly more viable in a classroom setting. These results suggest that a CSR procedure with a teacher or peer should be considered as a means of increasing the reading achievement of early elementary students via increases in the reinforcement value of reading.

Education for Children With ASD in South Korea: A Case Study

In South Korea, there is currently a massive gap between the demand and the supply of quality applied behavior analysis (ABA) services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. However, the literature on the implementation and effectiveness of ABA intervention mainly comes from Western countries, and the voices of Asian countries are scarcely heard. The present article reports data collected from the KAVBA Center in Seoul, South Korea, as a direct replication of the CABAS educational model. Eleven 3- to 4-year-old children with ASD were the participants in the study and attended the center for 1 year. Our pre- and postintervention data show that the CABAS model provided an effective and cost-efficient service for children with ASD in South Korea.

The Emergence of Bidirectional Naming Through Sequential Operant Instruction Following the Establishment of Conditioned Social Reinforcers

Bidirectional naming (BiN) is the integration of speaker and listener responses, reinforced by social consequences. Unfortunately, these consequences often do not function as reinforcers for behavior in children with autism. Accordingly, the repertoire of BiN is also often limited in these children. Previous research has suggested that so-called multiple-exemplar instruction, a rotation between different speaker and listener operants, may be necessary to establish BiN. The present experiment aimed to investigate whether sequential operant instruction might also work as a successful intervention to improve BiN skills after the establishment of standard social reinforcers. Standard social reinforcers were identified and established through an operant-discrimination training procedure in 4 participating children with an autism spectrum diagnosis. In the present experiment, all participants showed increased BiN after sequential operant instruction with conditioned social reinforcers contingent on relevant operants. Two of 4 participants acquired BiN skills. Moreover, the remaining 2 participants scored within the mastery criterion on listener responses, and 1 of them also met the criterion on the tact probes. Essential characteristics of an intervention, as well as the role of the echoic in the emission of BiN, are discussed.

Verbal Development, Behavioral Metamorphosis, and the Evolution of Language

Building on Skinner's theory of verbal behavior, research over the last few decades confirmed verbal speaker operants, added the role of the listener, added the identification of speaker and listener interaction between and within individuals, and identified verbal behavior developmental cusps. Meanwhile, comparative biology focused on how and why language evolved in Homo sapiens. Findings about differences in behavior that neurotypical children demonstrated in their verbal development, and even more so in research that identified and established missing verbal behavior cusps, suggested changes analogous to metamorphosis. These striking changes in stimulus control found in the onset of cusps from the preverbal to the fully verbal child led us to an expansion of the concept of metamorphosis from morphology to the domain of behavior. The major findings of this comparative perspective are presented here as they have led us from experimental analyses of verbal development to metamorphosis as complex verbal behavior transformation and finally to a novel hypothesis about the evolution of language based on the concepts and research described here. To our knowledge, this is the first formulation of verbal development as behavioral metamorphosis in the context of evolutionary developmental biology.

Translations in Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing: Autoshaping of Learner Vocalizations

Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) is a procedure used by behavior analysis practitioners that capitalizes on respondent conditioning processes to elicit vocalizations. These procedures usually are implemented only after other, more customary methods (e.g., standard echoic training via modeling) have been exhausted. Unfortunately, SSP itself has mixed research support, probably because certain as-yet-unidentified procedural variations are more effective than others. Even when SSP produces (or increases) vocalizations, its effects can be short-lived. Although specific features of SSP differ across published accounts, fundamental characteristics include presentation of a vocal stimulus proximal with presentation of a preferred item. In the present article, we draw parallels between SSP procedures and autoshaping, review factors shown to affect autoshaping, and interpret autoshaping research for suggested SSP tests and applications. We then call for extended use and reporting of SSP in behavior-analytic treatments. Finally, three bridges created by this article are identified: basic-applied, respondent-operant, and behavior analysis with other sciences.

Aquisição de intraverbais em crianças com autismo: efeitos do pareamento de estímulos e respostas ecoicas

Resumo O ensino de intraverbais para indivíduos com autismo tem sido realizado, principalmente, através de procedimentos que envolvem reforçamento diferencial. Recentemente, o procedimento de observação de pareamento de estímulos (SPOP) surgiu enquanto alternativa para verificar a emergência de repertórios verbais. O SPOP implica o pareamento de estímulos sem exigir outra resposta que a observação do pareamento. O ecoico tem sido apontado como facilitador na emergência de operantes verbais. O presente estudo comparou, com um delineamento de sondas múltiplas concorrentes com tratamento alternado adaptado, a eficácia do SPOP com um procedimento de apresentação contígua de estímulos com requisição de resposta ecoica na emergência de intraverbais em três crianças com autismo. Observou-se a eficácia do SPOP na indução de intraverbais e verificou-se o papel facilitador do ecoico. Discutem-se possíveis efeitos de interferência dos tratamentos, da extinção de respostas no contexto experimental e da utilização de reforçadores condicionados como parte do SPOP.

Instructional Demonstrations are More Efficient Than Consequences Alone for Children with Naming

Prior research found that without the naming cusp, children did not learn from instructional demonstrations presented before learn units (IDLUs) (i.e., modeling an expected response twice for a learner prior to delivering an instructional antecedent), however, following the establishment of naming, they could. The present study was designed to compare the rate of learning reading and mathematics objectives in children who showed naming using IDLUs compared to standard learn units (SLUs) alone (comparable to three-term contingency trials). In Phase 1, a pre-screening phase, we demonstrated that four typically developing males, 3 to 4 years of age, had naming within their repertoire, meaning they were able to master the names of novel 2-D stimuli as both a listener and a speaker without explicit instruction. Using the same participants in Phase 2, we compared rates of learning under two instructional methods using a series of repeated AB designs where conditions (IDLUs versus SLUs) were counterbalanced across dyads and replicated across participants. The participants learned more than twice as fast under IDLU conditions and showed between 30% and 50% accuracy on the first presentation of a stimulus following a model. The IDLU condition was more efficient (fewer trials to criterion) than the SLU condition. These findings, together with prior findings, suggest that the onset of naming allows children to learn faster when instructional demonstrations are incorporated into lessons.

Inducing Novel Vocalizations by Conditioning Speech Sounds as Reinforcers

Automatic reinforcement by response-produced auditory stimuli has long been hypothesized to play a role in the vocal development of infants. Clinicians and researchers have translated this idea into stimulus pairing interventions intended to increase novel vocalizations of nonverbal children with autism and other developmental disabilities by conditioning speech sounds as reinforcers. A number of studies have demonstrated positive effects of stimulus pairing procedures, but negative results have also been reported in the literature. This article provides a brief review of the existing literature on stimulus pairing procedures and a discussion of alternative procedures that may serve to establish speech sounds as reinforcers. Directions for future research are discussed and recommendations provided to clinicians.

Is the Source of Reinforcement for Naming Multiple Conditioned Reinforcers for Observing Responses?

Naming refers to the incidental acquisition of word-object relations as listener and speaker without explicit reinforcement. To investigate possible sources of reinforcement for naming, we examined the effects of a procedure for conditioning reinforcement for observing responses on the emergence of naming in children who previously lacked it. The participants were three 5- to 7-year-old children with and without diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder. During the intervention, either visual or auditory stimuli were first conditioned as reinforcers for observing responses. Then, neutral visual or auditory stimuli were paired with the conditioned visual or auditory stimuli until both visual and auditory stimuli acquired reinforcing properties for observing. Following this intervention, the participants demonstrated naming of stimuli that had been used in pretests for naming, as well as on a novel set of stimuli. We observed increases in echoic responding in conjunction with the emergence of naming and conditioned reinforcement for both observing responses. We interpret the data as suggesting that listener and speaker repertoires are joined for naming only when both visual and auditory stimuli reinforce the observing responses of looking and listening simultaneously.