R. Douglas Greer

Music Listening Preferences of Elementary School Children

Nonverbal tests using an episodic reinforcement device were conducted to ascertain the music preferences of children in elementary grade levels. The tests also provided data on listening attention span in these grades. Results indicated a growing preference for rock music over nonrock music with advancing grade level, with a critical change observable between third and fourth grade levels

The emergence of the listener to speaker component of naming in children as a function of multiple exemplar instruction.

We tested the effect of multiple exemplar instruction on the transfer of stimulus function for unfamiliar pictures across listener responses (i.e., matching and pointing) and speaker responses (i.e., pure tacts and impure tacts). Three preschool students, who were 3- and 4-year-old males and did not have the listener to speaker component of the naming repertoire, participated in the experiment. The dependent variable was numbers of correct responses to probe trials of both untaught listener responses (“point to__”) and speaker responses (tact and impure tacts) following mastery of matching responses for two sets of five unfamiliar pictures (Set 1 and Set 3). After each participant mastered matching (e.g., “match Labrador”) for Set 1 pictures they were probed on the three untaught responses to Set 1 words. That is, they were asked to point to Labrador, tact the picture of Labrador, and respond to the picture of a Labrador and the question “What is this?” Next, the participants were taught mastery of all four types of responses using MEI for a second set of five pictures (Set 2) and probed again on the 3 untaught Set 1 responses. Finally, matching responses were taught to mastery for a novel set of pictures (Set 3) and then probed on the three untaught responses. The results showed that untaught speaker responses emerged at 60% to 85% for two participants, and 40%- 70% for one participant. We discuss the role of instructional history in the development of the listener to speaker component of naming.

Generalized Imitation and the Mand: Inducing First Instances of Speech in Young Children with Autism.

It has been suggested that the use of a generalized motor imitation sequence before a vocal model may be an effective procedure for teaching nonvocal children with autism to speak. However, the tactic has rarely been empirically demonstrated. The purpose of this experiment was to test the effects of presenting a rapid generalized motor imitation sequence before an opportunity to imitate on the vocal speech of nonvocal children with autism. Participants emitted no vocal imitations during a mand training baseline. During the intervention, a rapid motor imitation sequence was presented before an opportunity to imitate a models vocalizations. The teachers presentation of the rapid motor imitation sequence was then faded by presenting an opportunity to vocally imitate without the sequence followed by an opportunity to independently mand. Results of the intervention phase indicated that all of the participants began to vocalize with the generalized motor imitation sequence and that mands were maintained during a follow-up phase and 3-month follow-up probes.

Is the learn unit a fundamental measure of pedagogy

We propose a measure of teaching, the learn unit, that explicitly describes the interaction between teachers and their students. The theoretical, educational research, and applied behavior analysis literatures all converge on the learn unit as a fundamental measure of teaching. The theoretical literature proposes the construct of the interlocking operant and embraces verbal behavior, social interaction, and translations of psychological constructs into complex theoretical respondent—operant interactions and behavior—behavior relations. Research findings in education and applied behavior analysis on engaged academic time, opportunity to respond, active student responding, teacher— student responding, student—teacher responding, tutor—tutee responding, tutee—tutor responding, and verbal episodes between individuals all support a measure of interlocking responses. More recently, research analyzing the components of both the students’ and teachers’ behavior suggests that the learn unit is the strongest predictor of effective teaching. Finally, we propose applications of the learn unit to other issues in pedagogy not yet researched and the relation of learn units to the verbal behavior of students.

THE INTEGRATION OF SPEAKER AND LISTENER RESPONSES: A THEORY OF VERBAL DEVELOPMENT

We provide an empirically updated Skinnerian-based account of verbal behavior development, describing how the speaker-as-own-listener capability in children (the capability of children to behave as speaker and listener within their own skin) accrues and how it is pivotal to becoming verbal. The theory grew from (a) findings in experiments with children with and without language delays and (b) findings from research devoted to the identification of derived and emergent behavior (i.e., novel, creative, and spontaneous behavior). Experiments identified preverbal instructional histories leading to separate listener and speaker capabilities and experiences that joined the listener and the speaker. Once this learned intercept is present, children engage in conversational self-talk, engage in say-do correspondence, and acquire new vocabulary without direct instruction. These developmental capabilities make it possible for most complex behavior to be learned, including reading, writing, emission of novel tenses and suffixes, and the following of and construction of complex algorithms.

Teaching Children with Autism to Prefer Books or Toys Over Stereotypy or Passivity

Two experiments were conducted with 4 students with autism to test the relationship between either toys or books as conditioned reinforcers for observing or playing and their effect on stereotypy and passivity. Experiment 1 consisted of a single preschool student who emitted frequent intervals of passive behavior and infrequent intervals of looking at books in a free play setting. After systematic training sessions involving pairings of reinforcers with looking at books, he engaged in looking at books significantly more than in his baseline in free play and decreased intervals of passivity. Experiment 2 involved a multiple baseline across 3 students. Baseline data were followed by toy-play conditioning sessions run concurrently with free-play observations. The 2 students who emitted frequent rates of stereotypy in baseline had significantly fewer intervals of stereotypy after toys were conditioned as reinforcers and toy play increased for all 3 students.

Emergence of Untaught Mands or Tacts of Novel Adjective-Object Pairs as a Function of Instructional History

We tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) on the emergence of untaught mands or tacts of adjective-object pairs in a multiple-probe design across four students with autism/developmental disabilities. None of the students emitted either mands or tacts for three sets of three adjective-object pairs (word sets counterbalanced across students and conditions) in pre-experimental probe trials. In the baseline phase, either mands or tacts were taught for the first adjective-object pairs to each student who then received probe trials for the untaught verbal operants. None of the students emitted the verbal operant that was not directly taught. In the MEI condition, a second set of adjective-object pairs was taught under alternating mand and tact conditions until both operants were mastered. Following mastery of the second set in the MEI condition, students were again probed for the untaught mands or tacts for the adjectiveobject pairs that were not in their repertoires when a single verbal operant was taught in baseline (the first set). All students emitted the untaught mands or tacts for the first set. Finally, a third set of adjective-object pairs was taught as tacts or mands and the untaught mands or tacts emerged. The data are discussed in terms of generative verbal behavior, abstraction of establishing operation control, and multiple exemplar instruction.

Emergence of Naming in Preschoolers: A Comparison of Multiple and Single Exemplar Instruction

Several reports have demonstrated the emergence of the Naming capability as a function of multiple exemplar instructions (MEI). We compared singular exemplar instruction (SEI) and (MEI) on emergence of untaught listener and speaker responses (Naming) by preschool children who were missing Naming using combined experimental-control group and nested single-case multiple probe designs. We taught training sets of pictures using MEI to 4-participants and the same sets using SEI to another 4-participants with numbers of instructional presentations for SEI participants matched to the MEI participants. Naming emerged for the MEI group but did not for the SEI group. Subsequently, the SEI participants received MEI and Naming emerged. Instructional histories that involve the rotation of speaker listener responding appear to predict the emergence of Naming. We discuss the findings in terms of the relation of the MEI as the source of Naming as a higher order operant and whether or not Naming is a relational frame.

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.

Conditioning histories and setting stimuli controlling engagement in stereotypy or toy play

Abstract Two experiments were performed with five developmentally disabled individuals to test the relationship between toys as conditioned reinforces and stereotypy. Data consisted of the number of 5 second intervals containing toy play and stereotypy in 10 minute sessions. Experiment 1 was done with two students who were selected because they had a history of playing with preferred toys and were not noted for stereotypy. They were observed under phases with and without toys to determine whether the removal of the toy would occasion increases in stereotypy. Probes were done 5 and 6 months after the third phase. Results showed that removal of the toys occasioned stereotypy and reinstatement of the toys eliminated stereotypy. Experiment 2 was done with three young adults who were selected because they had low or nonexistent toy play and high rates of stereotypy. After the baseline, they were conditioned to play with toys during training sessions and observed in separate free operant sessions (baseline conditions). A multiple baseline across subjects was used. Five probe sessions with the toys were conducted with each participant after 6 months without access to the toys. Results showed that the training sessions affected the free operant behavior of each subject in variable degrees. The participants engaged in substantially less stereotypy and substantially more toy play. Six months later when the toys were reinstated without additional training, stereotypy was low and toy play high. Conditioning reinforcers for play, such as toys, may result in a durable and possibly more cost effective procedure for dealing with stereotypy.