CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING: AN EXAMPLE OF RULE-GOVERNED BEHAVIOR?

Two groups of six mentally retarded adults were exposed to either a “say/do” correspondence training program or a “do only” reinforcement procedure to evaluate the suggestion of Rogers-Warren and Baer (1976) that reinforcement of the nonverbal target behavior in the absence of the relevant verbal behavior may account for the behavior changes seen in correspondence training. The participants worked in an experimental setting on a variety of manipulatory responses leading to various auditory and visual consequences. Analysis of individual patterns of responding indicated no apparent differences between the groups during training; four individuals in each group appeared to develop generalized correspondence skills. We conclude that the outcome of correspondence training may not necessarily be verbal regulation of behavior as is assumed. Rather, we suggest that the notion of rule-governed behavior can best account for the type of behavior changes seen in correspondence studies.     

Saying and doing: A commentary on a contingency-space analysis

This article addresses the contingency-space analysis (Matthews, Shimoff, & Catania, 1987) of the verbal regulation of behavior. From an applied perspective, the conceptualization of the relationship between saying and doing Matthews et al. present may be more complex than is necessary. The central issue in correspondence investigations is a simple one: does correspondence between what people say and what they do occur? The focus of this paper is on the applied and clinical importance of the relationship between verbalizations and relevant behavior and the implications for future research.     

Tacting and manding in correspondence training: effects of child selection of verbalization.

We investigated correspondence between verbal and nonverbal behavior in preschool children in a play setting. Four children (4 years old) participated in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Children were asked what toy(s) they were going to play with during an immediately upcoming play period. When no contingencies were placed on either verbal or nonverbal behavior, children showed high rates of correspondence. When children were required to verbalize about a toy from a restricted range of infrequently used toys, but no contingencies were placed on correspondence, low rates of correspondence were observed. High rates of correspondence were noted when reinforcement was contingent on it. Results are discussed in terms of tacting and manding.     

Delayed reinforcement as an indiscriminable contingency in verbal/nonverbal correspondence training

We investigated the programming of generalization and maintenance of correspondence between verbal and nonverbal behavior in a preschool setting. Four children participated in a series of multiple-baseline designs. In Experiment 1, delayed reinforcement of verbal behavior effectively controlled maintenance of correspondence with previously trained responses and also resulted in generalization of correspondence to one untrained response. As the latter effect was limited, Experiment 2 was a further assessment of the effects of delayed reinforcement of generalization of correspondence to untrained responses, and consistent generalization was shown. Experiment 2 also showed that generalization, if lost, could be recovered through use of "booster training," in which the original contingencies were reinstated for a brief period. Experiment 3 provided replications, with two additional children, of the effects of delayed reinforcement on maintenance of correspondence. Results are discussed in terms of using delayed reinforcement as an indiscriminable contingency.     

IMPROVING CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN THROUGH CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING

Except for a few studies, most research investigating correspondence training procedures has been more analogue in nature. The purpose of the present set of studies was to examine whether a “say-do” correspondence training technique could be used with children in special education classes to improve classroom behavior. The specific behaviors targeted for change included: out-of-seat behavior (Experiment 1), sitting posture (Experiment 2), and on-task behavior (Experiment 3). The say-do procedure used in Experiment 1 resembled that of previous studies, whereas that in Experiment 2 was more elaborate in the specificity of verbal statements required from the children and the feedback given them. The training procedure in Experiment 3 used a format similar to the say-do approach, but stressed visual rather than verbal cuing because it was used with nonverbal children. All three studies used single-subject designs and examined maintenance and/or generalization questions. Experiments 2 and 3 also evaluated whether concomitant changes in performance on academic tasks occurred. The results of the three studies provide strong evidence that correspondence training can be effectively used with educationally handicapped children. Moreover, the successful modification of the “say-do” to a “show-do” procedure in Experiment 3 points out the flexibility of the correspondence training approach.     

TOWARD A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PRIVATE VERBAL SELF-REGULATION

We developed a methodology, derived from the theoretical literatures on rule-governed behavior and private events, to experimentally investigate the relationship between covert verbal self-regulation and nonverbal behavior. The methodology was designed to assess whether (a) nonverbal behavior was under the control of covert rules and (b) verbal reports of these rules were functionally equivalent to the covert rules that control nonverbal behavior. The research was conducted in the context of teaching shopping skills to persons with mild intellectual disabilities using a self-instruction training format. In Phase 1, 4 participants were successfully taught to perform shopping skills using overt and covert self-instructions. The self-instructions were then blocked under overt and covert self-instruction conditions, which resulted in a reversal of shopping skills to baseline levels. This indicated that the overt and covert self-instructions might be controlling responding. In Phase 2, we demonstrated that the self-instructions, when used as external directives, produced successful shopping with 3 other participants. By demonstrating that self-rules can produce correct responding when used as external directives, we were more confident that it was the self-instructions and not other verbal or nonverbal behavior that controlled responding under overt, covert, and blocking conditions in Phase 1.     

Developing correspondence between the non-verbal and verbal behavior of preschool children

Correspondence was developed between children's non-verbal and verbal behavior such that their non-verbal behavior could be altered simply by reinforcing related verbal behavior. Two groups of six children each were given food snack at the end of the day: for reporting use of a specific preschool material during free play (procedure A); and then only for reports of use which corresponded to actual use of that material earlier that day (procedure B). Initially, procedure A alone had little or no effect on the children's use of materials. Procedure B resulted in all of the children in one group actually using a specific material, and after repeating procedures A and B with this group across a series of different materials, procedure A alone was sufficient to significantly increase use of a specific material. Correspondence between verbal and non-verbal behavior was produced such that, in this group of 4-yr-old disadvantaged Negro children, "saying" controlled "doing" 22 or more hours later. In the second group, procedure B initially did not increase the use of a specific material; rather, the children's reports decreased so as to correspond to the intermittent use of the material. It appeared from subsequent procedures with this group that maintenance of a high level of reporting was crucial to the saying-then-doing correspondence seen in the first group.     

B. F. Skinner: The Writer and His Definition of Verbal Behavior

Skinner's definition of verbal behavior, with its brief and refined versions, has recently become a point of controversy among behavior analysts. Some of the arguments presented in this controversy might be based on a misreading of Skinner's (1957a) writings. An examination of Skinner's correspondence with editors of scientific journals shows his sophisticated mastery of English and his knowledge of contemporary approaches of linguistics, and might help to settle the meaning of the passages involved in the controversy. A more precise definition of verbal behavior, deduced from Skinner's distinction between verbal and nonverbal operants, is suggested, and a possible reason why Skinner did not define verbal behavior in the terms proposed by this alternative definition is discussed. The alternative definition is more compatible with a functional approach to behavior and highlights what is specific to verbal behavior by pointing to the conventions of the verbal community. Some possible consequences of adopting this alternative definition are described.     

Training Correspondence by Reinforcing Intermediate and Verbal Behavior

Different procedures have been used in the past to control the correspondence between verbal and its related nonverbal behavior. This study proposes a variant of these procedures for controlling that correspondence. This variant caIls for reinforcement contingent on related intermediate behaviors. Intermediate behaviors are those that occur between verbal behavior and its related nonverbal behavior. Ten preschool chiIdren ranging in age from 3 to 5 years, served as subjects. In this study, reinforcement was applied either to promises to engage in a certain activity later or to a series of intermediate behaviors specified for each of four preschoo1 activities. Consistently higher levels of correspondence occurred after reinforcement of intermediate behaviors in comparison to reinforcement of promises.     

Evasion, private events, and pragmatism: A Reply to Moore's response to my review of Conceptual Foundations of Radical Behaviorism

Moore's screed in response to my review of his book uses several rhetorical tricks to counter criticism without actually addressing it: he tries to preempt the transparency of his own orthodoxy by groundlessly accusing me of orthodoxy; he caricatures my criticisms to make them appear obviously wrong; he professes lack of understanding so as to dodge having to attempt a genuine response; and he engages in pejorative labeling to dismiss the criticisms without analysis. From a scientific and pragmatic point of view, private events are a mistake, precisely because they are private. They cannot serve as independent variables, as Moore suggests, because they cannot be measured; “private independent variable” is a contradiction in terms. When we carefully examine locutions like “observe” and “report on,” we discover that they entail only public verbal and nonverbal behavior, not objects and not private events as objects. A person in pain is not reporting on anything, is engaging in public verbal and nonverbal pain‐behavior, and an infant or a dog may be considered to be in pain. The public behavior is all that matters, because determining whether a person is really in pain privately is impossible. The same is true of any private event, and the control of the public behavior on which the verbal community comments lies in the public environment. We cannot have two sets of principles, one for verbal behavior and one for nonverbal behavior or one for humans and one for other animals.     

Correspondence training, prior verbal training, and control of nonverbal behavior via control of verbal behavior

The role of prior verbal training in correspondence training and later verbal control of nonverbal behavior was examined in two groups of Head Start children. One group received correspondence training without prior verbal training, the other with. Essentially no differences were found between the two sequences; thus it seems appropriate to consider the content phases (reinforcement contingent on target verbalization alone) of previous research as control procedures and not a necessary precursor to correspondence training.     

USING INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT TO PROGRAM MAINTENANCE OF VERBAL/NONVERBAL CORRESPONDENCE

We investigated the effects of an intermittent reinforcement procedure on maintenance of verbal/nonverbal correspondence with nutritious snack choices in a day-care setting. Nutritious snack choices were first established using correspondence training procedures in a multiple baseline across three children. Withdrawal of the procedures with one subject led to loss of appropriate responding, suggesting the need for a maintenance strategy. The intermittent reinforcement procedure was implemented in a multiple baseline across subjects. Nutritious snack choices were observed consistently during the intermittent reinforcement condition and the subsequent extinction condition.     

Molecular contingencies: reinforcement probability

Pigeons obtained food by responding in a discrete-trials two-choice probability-learning experiment involving temporal stimuli. A given response alternative, a left- or right-key peck, had 11 associated reinforcement probabilities within each session. Reinforcement probability for a choice was an increasing or a decreasing function of the time interval immediately preceding the choice. The 11 equiprobable temporal stimuli ranged from 1 to 11 sec in 1-sec classes. Preference tended to deviate from probability matching in the direction of maximizing; i.e., the percentage of choices of the preferred response alternative tended to exceed the probability of reinforcement for that alternative. This result was qualitatively consistent with probability-learning experiments using visual stimuli. The result is consistent with a molecular analysis of operant behavior and poses a difficulty for molar theories holding that local variations in reinforcement probability may safely be disregarded in the analysis of behavior maintained by operant paradigms.     

Infants’ behaviours elicit different verbal,nonverbal, and multimodal responses from caregivers during early play

Caregivers use a range of verbal and nonverbal behaviours when responding to their infants. Previous studies have typically focused on the role of the caregiver in providing verbal responses, while communication is inherently multimodal (involving audio and visual information) and bidirectional (exchange of information between infant and caregiver). In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of caregivers’ verbal, nonverbal, and multimodal responses to 10-month-old infants’ vocalisations and gestures during free play. A new coding scheme was used to annotate 2036 infant vocalisations and gestures of which 87.1 % received a caregiver response. Most caregiver responses were verbal, but 39.7 % of all responses were multimodal. We also examined whether different infant behaviours elicited different responses from caregivers. Infant bimodal (i.e., vocal-gestural combination) behaviours elicited high rates of verbal responses and high rates of multimodal responses, while infant gestures elicited high rates of nonverbal responses. We also found that the types of verbal and nonverbal responses differed as a function of infant behaviour. The results indicate that infants influence the rates and types of responses they receive from caregivers. When examining caregiver-child interactions, analysing caregivers’ verbal responses alone undermines the multimodal richness and bidirectionality of early communication.     

Developmental kinesics: How children acquire communicative and non-communicative nonverbal behavior

This article is a position paper concerning the major issues in the study of children's acquistion of nonverbal behavior. In linguistic theory non-verbal behavior may be considered irrelevant, it may be condsidered the precursor of verbal language, or it may be viewed as an integral part of human communication which is verbal and nonverbal. The author opts for the latter theory. Concerning the relationship between what is innate and what is learned, the paper discusses that nonverbal expression is innate, but culture determines its forms and its uses. The paper then presents a brief history of Developmental Kinesics, explaining its technical difficulties and its methodological complexities. It proceeds by documenting the function of maternal nonverbal behavior towards the neonate. Finally, the paper treats the levels of analysis. A distinction is drawn between communicative and non-communicative nonverbal behavior. Its affective, emotional function relates to ego state; its regulatory function governs face-to-face interaction; and its referential, informative function pertains to the message proper. The child also acquires the non-interactional aspects of body movements which distinguish different peoples. Expression and perception must be studied separately; and finally, nonverbal behavior has to be correlated with verbal behavior and particular attention has to be focused on the double bind.     

Nonverbal Behaviors and Perceptions of Sexual Intentions: Effects of Sexual Connotativeness,Verbal response,and Rape Outcome

Through the exchange of nonverbal and verbal behaviors, a man and a woman on a date negotiate situated identities. However, a woman's nonverbal and verbal behaviors may reflect an identity discrepant from the one she intended to project, leading to miscommunication between men and women regarding the woman's desire for sexual activity. In Experiment 1, subjects read scenarios in which a woman, Mary, engaged in behaviors that were low, moderate, or high in the degree to which they connotated a desire for sex. In addition, they learned that Mary responded to her date's sexual advances either by saying "no," or by slapping him, or they received no information regarding Mary's verbal response. Subjects were also informed that Mary's date either did or did not force her to have sexual intercourse. Subjects perceived Mary more sexually as her behaviors increased in sexual connotation. In addition, they perceived that Mary desired sex more when no information about her verbal response was provided than when she resisted her date's sexual advances. Subjects also rated the woman more negatively when her nonverbal behaviors were incongruent with her responses to her dale's sexual advances. Contrary to previous research, little evidence of victim derogation was obtained. Results from Experiment 2 showed that men and women agreed in their perceptions of a woman whose behaviors connoted a high interest in sex, but that men perceived behaviors low in sexual connotation ore sexually than women. Implications of the data for understanding sexual miscommunication between men and women as well as reactions to rape victims are examined.     

Tactical contingencies in the experimental analysis of reinforcement and operant classes

In his “Tactics of Scientific Research” (1960), his work on avoidance, his discovery of equivalence classes and his cautions on applications of coercion, Murray Sidman created high standards for behavior analytic research. I illustrate his influence in the context of three examples he might have characterized as pilot studies. Each examined trial N+1 response probabilities depending on whether trial N responding had produced a reinforcer. Differentially reinforced interresponse times, keys pecked in arbitrary matching, and two-key response sequences provided no robust evidence that reinforcing some response property on trial N raises the probability of responding with that property on trial N+1. These negative findings shed light on the nature of operant classes and on the relation of reinforcers to the responses that produced them. Through selection, reinforcers create operant classes and engender variations of the responses within those classes; operant classes are held together by common contingencies. Sidman extended our understanding of operant classes by expanding them to include equivalence relations.     

Distressed behavior and its context

Behavior that is commonly labeled as indicating distress may have an important function in certain clinical problems. Evidence suggests that "distressed" behavior is displayed more frequently by persons who are depressed or experiencing chronic pain. Such behavior includes nonverbal facial expressions and body postures which are typically labeled as "sad," and verbal responses involving self-denigration or complaints. Such behaviors appear to form a functional response class which has a unique impact on others. The behavior appears to be more likely among persons who are receiving aversive stimulation. Recipients of distressed behavior are more likely to experience negative emotion, yet be solicitous toward the person who displays distressed behavior. Under circumstances where distressed behavior is unsuccessful in reducing aversive stimulation, the behavior may be shaped and maintained by the fact that it temporarily reduces the probability of others behaving aggressively toward the person displaying distress. Thus, the development of a pattern of high rates of distressed behavior that characterizes clinically depressed persons and persons in chronic pain may be partly a result of the unique social contingencies that surround this behavior.