PARENTAL TRAINING OF THE PLURAL MORPHEME IN NORMAL TODDLERS1

Experimental studies with young normal children can provide useful strategy for the functional analysis of language. Research by Whitehurst (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1972, 13 , 502–515) exemplifies this approach, in which 2-yr-old children were exposed to a training procedure that involved imitation and differential reinforcement for a two-word productive sequence of the adjective-noun form. Results indicated that these young children could be trained to produce rudimentary novel utterances that were grammatically appropriate. More recently, Hursh and Sherman (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1973, 15 , 328–339) reported the existence of a functional relationship between parental modelling and reinforcement of vocalizations, and increased instances of these vocalizations in young (15- to 20-month-old) children. These demonstrations relate to a summary of findings with linguistically deviant populations discussed by Sherman (Advances in Child Development, 1971). The present study attempts to extend these “generative” investigations to normal children and to provide useful information for those interested in teaching speech forms to them. Modelling and differential reinforcement were used by three mothers to establish the use of the plural morpheme in the speech of their 19- to 25-month-old children. During training trials, verbal praise was presented contingent on correct labelling of singular and plural items, while correct labelling was modelled if the child responded incorrectly. Children learned to label specifically trained sets of singular and plural items and also exhibited correct labelling when asked to label never-trained singular and plural items. After establishing correct usage, the same training procedures were used to train reversed labelling (plural responses to single items and singular responses to plural items). This produced a corresponding reversal of responding (both trained and untrained items) by each child for the plural items but not for singular items. Correct singular and plural labelling was recovered by returning to the initial procedures.     

An experimental analysis of linguistic development: the productive use of the plural morpheme

Operant conditioning procedures were used to establish a generative use of the plural morpheme in the speech of a severely retarded girl. During training trials, reinforcement was presented contingent upon correct imitation of singular and plural verbalizations by the experimenter, in response to objects presented to the subject singly and in pairs. A generative productive plural usage resulted, the girl correctly labeling new objects in the singular or plural without further direct training relevant to those objects. After establishing the singular/plural usage, the contingencies were reversed (reinforcement of plural responses to single objects, and vice-versa). This produced a corresponding reversal of response by the child. The original usage was then recovered by returning to the previous contingencies. A second experiment analyzed certain error responses occurring during the first experiment, and further probed the generative nature of the subject's plural usage. It was found that errors were somewhat more likely to occur in the pluralization of words ending in vowels than of words ending in consonants. Furthermore, several words whose plurals had been learned according to the reversed plural rule, when examined later during reinforcement of normal plural usage, were found then to exemplify the normal rule being reinforced, yet without direct training.     

TEACHING GENERATIVE USE OF SENTENCE ANSWERS TO THREE FORMS OF QUESTIONS1

Three retarded and four economically disadvantaged children were taught, through modelling and reinforcement procedures, to produce complete sentences in response to three types of questions involving changes in verb inflections. To evaluate generalization of training, new but similar questions were periodically asked, answers to which were never modelled or reinforced. Modelling and reinforcement effectively taught correct sentence answers to training questions and produced new sentence answers to questions for which no specific training had been given.     

Training generative verb usage by imitation and reinforcement procedures

Three retarded children were trained, using imitation and reinforcement procedures, to produce past and present tense forms of verbs in response to verbal requests. Two types of experimental sessions were arranged: training sessions and probe sessions. During training sessions, a child was trained to produce one verb in both the past and the present tense. Then, in a probe session, the generalization of this training was tested by presenting to the child a series of untrained verbs interspersed with previously trained verbs. Responses to untrained verbs were never reinforced. Training sessions alternated with probe sessions throughout a multiple baseline design involving four classes of verb inflections as the baselines. The results showed that, as past and present tense forms of verbs within an inflectional class were trained, the children correctly produced past and present tense forms of untrained verbs within this class. When verbs from two or more classes were trained, the children correctly produced the verb tenses from each of these classes. Thus, the imitation and reinforcement procedures were effective in teaching generative use of verb inflections.     

THE TRAINING AND GENERALIZATION OF A CONVERSATIONAL SPEECH FORM IN NONVERBAL RETARDATES1

Differential reinforcement and imitation were used with two retarded children to train three sequential verbal responses associated with the display of a picture and questions related to that picture. Each response consisted of a three-word chain in sentence form; combined with verbal responses from the experimenter, this trained sequence formed a short conversational unit. Three experimenters measured the use of each sentence in settings different than the one in which training took place, and with pictures different than those used during training. Two types of generalization sessions were used: (1) General sessions, during which 10 pictures never used during training were displayed to the subject with reinforcement delivered on a noncontingent basis, and (2) Intermixed sessions, during which 10 pictures never used during training were displayed to the subject, but a picture having received training was also displayed, and correct responses to this picture were reinforced on a variable schedule. Both subjects learned the sentences being trained. However, little generalization was evident from this training when all experimenters conducted General probe sessions. Generalization occurred with one experimenter only after that experimenter conducted Intermixed probe sessions. Generalization to a third experimenter was then observed (i.e., after the first two experimenters had conducted Intermixed probe sessions) without the use of Intermixed probe sessions by this third experimenter.     

A functional analysis of receptive language and productive speech: acquisition of the plural morpheme

Operant conditioning procedures were applied to two retardates to establish receptive auditory plurals: correct pointing to single or paired objects was reinforced after hearing singular or plural labels. This training proceeded until an errorless (generative) criterion of correct performance was achieved. Unreinforced probes measuring expressive use of singulars and plurals were interspersed in this receptive training. Neither subject generalized from this receptive training to expressive plurals, in that each used singulars when labeling pairs. Then, both subjects were directly trained in conventional expressive plurals to an errorless (generative) criterion. The previous design was then repeated, but the receptive repertoire was reversed: pointing at pairs in response to singular labels was reinforced, and vice-versa. Unreinforced probes of expressive plural usage again showed its independence of the current receptive repertoire in that conventional (unreversed) plural usage was displayed. Thus, the independence of the expressive repertoire (even when unreinforced) from the reinforced patterns of the receptive repertoire was demonstrated.     

An analysis of individual differences in generalization between receptive and productive language in retarded children

Retarded subjects were taught generative pluralization rules concurrently in both the receptive and productive modalities of language. Receptive training established correct pointing to either one or a pair of objects, in response to a spoken singular or plural label of the object(s); productive training established correct spoken labels of one or a pair of objects presented visually. However, these pluralization rules were established in each modality only for a specific class of plurals: those ending in -s for one modality, those ending in -es for the other modality. This training was successful in establishing generative, or rule-governed behaviors, such that untrained examples of singulars and plurals were usually responded to correctly. Nevertheless, despite this concurrent, generative behavior, probes revealed little generalization between modalities: three of four subjects did not generalize clearly from receptive training with one class of plurals to correct productive use of that class, nor did they generalize from productive training of the other class of plurals to correct receptive response to that class. The fourth subject, however, did show strong generalization of both these types. It was concluded that automatic generalization between receptive and productive language is not necessarily an inevitable result of language training in such subjects, and therefore may require explicit, if temporary, programming, such as by direct reinforcement.     

Development of syntax in a retarded girl using procedures of imitation, reinforcement, and modelling

Three experiments demonstrated the development and generalized use of a singular and plural declarative sentence in a child initially lacking sentence form responses. In each experiment, an adult(s) served as a language model(s), and consequences (sweets) were provided for imitation of the model. During training trials, an item(s) was displayed first to the model(s) then to the subject; these displays were accompanied by requests to label the item(s). Generalization was assessed by a number of probe trials that were periodically interspersed among training trials. During these trials, the subject was requested to label the displayed item(s) without any preceding labelling response from the model. Using these procedures, generalized use of a singular sentence ("That is one-") resulted in Experiment I, and generalized use of a plural sentence ("These are two-") resulted in Experiment II. In Experiment III, two models (a singular and a plural sentence model) were made available to the subject but imitation of only one model was reinforced during any one condition. Results indicated the subject labelled probe (generalization) items with the same sentence form that was modelled and reinforced during training trials.     

Reinforcement and generalization of productive plural allomorphs in two retarded children

Morphological dictates of English usage call for the unvoiced allomorph /-s/ to form the plural of singular nouns with unvoiced endings (e.g., cups). Conversely, the voiced allomorph /-z/ is required to form the plural of nouns with voiced endings (e.g., tree). The study sought to determine the extent to which differential reinforcement could control the acquisition of plural allomorphs in two retarded subjects. In Condition 1, one subject was trained with reinforcement procedures on a list of words calling for the /-s/ allomorph. She was then given unreinforced probe items to determine the extent of generalization to words calling for the /-z/ allomorph. In Condition 2, the procedures were reversed and this subject was trained on a /-z/ list and probed for generalization of /-z/ to words calling for /-s/. A second subject was exposed to the same conditions in the opposite order. The results for the two subjects lent unequivocal support for the hypothesis of generalized training effects. It was concluded that appropriate usage of the linguistic response class "plurals" is susceptible to generalized training effects of differential reinforcement.     

Mode-relations in language learning by language-deficient retarded subjects

The relationship between language comprehension and production was examined with two severely language-deficient retarded subjects who were taught the plural form /z/. Comprehension and production were trained concurrently with different words in each mode until correct plural use occurred in the untrained mode for each word. Subsequent training of reversed plural use in comprehension for one subject and production for the other failed to result in reversed plural use in the untrained modes for those words. This mode-independence contrasted with interdependence displayed by normal children in earlier study using similar procedures. The results are discussed in relation to the normal developmental process and the possible deviation from it.     

Oral cues improve subject‐verb agreement in written French

The aim of this study was to test the impact of an audible marker on the production of subject‐verb agreements. Earlier studies have shown that educated French‐speaking adults make subject‐verb agreement errors when writing as soon as a secondary task demands their attention. One hypothesis is that these errors occur primarily because in French many of the written inflections of the verbal plural are silent. However, errors of the same type have been reported in spoken English: in configurations such as “the dog of the neighbours arrive(s)”, arrive agrees with the noun closest to the verb rather than with the subject. The current experiment compares the production of subject‐verb agreements in written French depending on whether the singular/plural opposition is audible (finit/finissent) or not (chante/chantent). After having changed the tense of the verb, adult subjects had to recall, in writing, sentences which had been read aloud to them and which shared the same start (La flamme de la bougie = the flame of the candle) but contained different verbs matched for semantic plausibility and frequency, and either possessing (éblouir = to blind) or not possessing (éclairer = to illuminate) an audible singular/plural opposition. The results show that the presence of an audible marker reduces the error frequency and makes the agreement easier to manage. A chronometric study suggests that it is the competition between concurrent markers (e.g., ‐e, ‐s, ‐ent) that causes difficulties with regular verbs and that this competition is resolved at the very last moment, at the point when the marker is transcribed.     

THE ACQUISITION OF SIMPLE AND COMPOUND SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN AN AUTISTIC CHILD1

Contingent reinforcement and imitative prompts were used to teach an autistic child to use simple and compound sentences to describe a set of standard pictures. When imitative prompts and reinforcement were discontinued, correct use of simple sentences declined, but increased again when imitative prompts and reinforcement were re-instated. When imitative prompts and reinforcements were used to teach compound sentence structure, correct use of simple sentences declined and correct use of compound structure increased. At the end of training, the child also used novel compound sentences to describe a set of pictures on which he had received no direct training.     

Processing temporary syntactic ambiguity: The effect of contextual bias

This paper reports two experiments using sentences with a temporary ambiguity between a direct object and a sentence complement analysis that is resolved toward the normally preferred direct object analysis. Postverbal noun phrases in these sentences could be ambiguously attached as either a direct object or the subject of a sentence complement, whereas in unambiguous versions of the sentences the subcategorization of the verb forced the direct object interpretation. Participants read these sentences in relatively long paragraph contexts, where the context supported the direct object analysis (“preferred”), supported the sentence complement analysis (“unpreferred”), or provided conflicting evidence about both analyses (“conflicting”). Self-paced reading times for ambiguous postverbal noun phrases were almost equivalent to the reading times of their unambiguous counterparts, even in unpreferred and conflicted context conditions. However, time to read a following region, which forced the direct object interpretation, was affected by the interaction of verb subcategorization ambiguity and contextual support. The full pattern of results do not fit well with either an unelaborated single-analysis (“garden path”) model or a competitive constraint-satisfaction model, but are consistent with a race model in which multiple factors affect the speed of constructing a single initial analysis.     

Teaching a complex verbal response to a hearing-impaired girl

A 3-yr-old hearing-impaired girl, who used neither the article "the" nor the auxiliary verb "is" was taught to use these words in describing a picture, initially through imitation and then in response to the command, "Tell me about this". As a result, she was able to use sentences in the present progressive form to describe a number of pictures on which she had received no training. This newly acquired behavior was subsequently extinguished and then reinstated.     

Operant training and generalization of a verbal response form in a speech-deficient child

A subject who spoke essentially in "telegraphic" English, leaving out most articles and auxiliary verbs, was trained to use a particular sentence form that included the articles and verbs to describe a set of standardized pictures. The subject used the trained sentence form to describe the trained pictures, and in addition, use of the sentence form generalized to sets of untrained and novel stimuli. When the trained sentence form was changed, the subject used the new form to describe both training and generalization stimuli. When the original correct form of response was retrained, the subject once again used the trained sentence form to respond to both training and generalization trials.     

The subject of “We intend”

This paper examines and compares the ways in which intentions of the singular kind (“I intend”) and the plural kind (“we intend”) are subjective. Are intentions of the plural kind ours in the same way intentions of the singular kind are mine? Starting with the singular case, it is argued that “I intend” is subjective in virtue of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is special in that it is self-identifying, self-validating, self-committing, and self-authorizing. Moving to the plural form, it is argued that in spite of apparent differences, attitudes of the form “we intend” are subjective in the same way. The self-knowledge at work here is plural rather than singular. This supports a plural subject account of collective intentionality. It is argued that the worries sometimes raised in the literature against the metaphysical “spookiness” of plural subjects are due to a fundamental misconception of the way in which attitudes of either kind –singular and plural – are subjective.     

Producing simple utterances: Details of the planning process

Subjects produced subject-verb sentences of prespecified structure, such asThe man is kicking, in response to pictures. The amount of information required to identify the pictured actor or action and to retrieve a name for the actor was varied. The following results, based on subject response latencies, were obtained. Experiment I demonstrated that only some initial amount of verb information processing occurs before and delays the initiation of such subject-verb sentences. Experiment II demonstrated that verb information processing is initiated only after the subject of the sentence has been identified. Finally, Experiment III demonstrated that verb information processing is initiated in parallel with the retrieval of the name for the subject of the sentence.This article is based on a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to New York University.     

The role of noun imagery in the speed of processing the grammaticality of adjective-noun phrases

This experiment investigated speed of processing the grammaticality of phrases consisting of the adjective “one” or “two” followed by a singular or plural noun. The subject’s task was to press one of two keys, depending upon whether the phrase was grammatically correct or incorrect. There were eight types of phrases, formed by the factorial combinations of singular or plural adjectives, singular or plural nouns, and high or low noun imageD’. These served as within-subjects variables. Between-subjects variables were the factorial combinations of sex of subject, duration of stimulus phrase (.2 or 2.5 sec), and hand assigned to the correct-grammar key. A fourth between-subjects variable was whether or not the subject reported using an artificial phrase-scanning strategy to determine grammaticality. Correct grammar, singular noun form, high noun imagery, and reported use of the strategy all produced highly significant reductions in reaction times. Only 1% of the interactions were significant. A multistage serial processing model that could be based upon Sternberg’s additive factor paradigm or even Donders’ subtraction method was found to be highly successful in describing the results.     

Syntactic agreement attraction reflects working memory processes

Does producing syntactic agreement rely on syntactic or memory-based retrieval processes? The present study investigated the extent to which syntactic processing deficits and working memory (WM) deficits predict susceptibility to agreement attraction [Bock, K., &; Miller, C. A. (1991). Broken agreement. Cognitive Psychology, 23, 45–93], where speakers tend to erroneously produce plural agreement for a singular subject when another noun in the sentence is grammatically plural. Four brain-injured patients with varying degrees of grammatical and WM deficits completed sentences with local nouns that matched or mismatched in number with the head noun, and that were plausible or implausible subjects. Both aspects of grammatical deficits and the extent of WM deficits predicted the extent of agreement attraction effects. These data are consistent with the proposal that producing an agreeing verb involves a cue-based search in WM for an appropriate controlling noun, which is subject to interference from other elements in memory with similar properties [cf. Badecker, W., &; Kuminiak, F. (2007). Morphology, agreement and working memory retrieval in sentence production: Evidence from gender and case in Slovak. Journal of Memory and Language, 56(1), 65–85. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2006.08.004].