Prepositional phrases spoken and heard

The relation between verbal and nonverbal behavior with common syntactic properties was investigated, using retarded and nonretarded children. Reinforcement was contingent on either verbal or nonverbal responses whereas responses of the other repertoire had no experimental consequences. Changes sometimes occurred in the unreinforced (collateral) repertoire, but they were always changes in the stimulus control of pre-existing topographies. A contingency involving responses of one repertoire never instated new topographies in the collateral repertoire. This suggested that the problem of “cross-modality generalization” should be reformulated to distinguish explicitly between instating new topographies and changing the stimulus control of pre-existing topographies. The result confirmed Skinner's hypothesis about “the same response spoken and heard” and clarified some anomalies in previous studies.     

Attentional demands and recall of verbal and color information in action events

Two experiments addressed the influence of secondary task performance at encoding on recall of different features of subject-performed tasks (SPTs) involving objects (e.g., turn the wallet). In Experiment 1, memory for verbs and colors of objects was assessed, with object names serving as cues. In Experiment 2, object and color memory were assessed, with verbs serving as cues. Results from both experiments indicated a greater deterioration of memory performance under divided attention for verbal features than for colors. In addition, intention to remember did not affect performance for any feature in either experiment. The overall pattern of outcome is discussed relative to the view that encoding of verbal features of SPTs is more attention-demanding than encoding of physical task features, such as color.     

Setting events controlling social verbal exchanges between students with developmental delays

The peer social verbal exchanges (social conversational units) between four developmentally delayed students were studied as a function of setting events. A single conversational unit consisted of a verbal exchange in which each individual functioned as both speaker and listener. Each unit included a three term verbal contingency. Data were collected by trained observers viewing videotapes of 20-minute sessions in which running times were burned onto the videotape. Frequencies of social conversational units were measured under two conditions. Comparisons were made between sessions in which the teacher responded only when spoken to and sessions in which the teacher was absent using a combined reversal and multiple schedule design. Results showed that peer conversational units emerged at high rates when the teacher was absent and at low or nonexistent rates when the teacher responded only when spoken to in the living room setting. The setting and audience control for peer verbal exchanges were discussed as functions possibly of either a punishing audience, establishing operations, or response deprivation.     

The transfer of specific and general consequential functions through simple and conditional equivalence relations

The purpose of this study was to examine the transfer of consequential (reinforcement and punishment) functions through equivalence relations. In Experiment 1, 9 subjects acquired three three-member equivalence classes through matching-to-sample training using arbitrary visual forms. Comparison stimuli were then given conditioned reinforcement or punishment functions by pairing them with verbal feedback during a sorting task. For 8 of the 9 subjects, trained consequential functions transferred through their respective equivalence classes without additional training. In Experiment 2, transfer of function was initially tested before equivalence testing per se. Three of 4 subjects showed the transfer without a formal equivalence test. In Experiment 3, 3 subjects were given training that gave rise to six new three-member conditional equivalence classes. For 2 of the subjects, the same stimulus could have either a reinforcement or punishment function on the basis of contextual cues that defined its class membership. Experiment 4 assessed whether equivalence training had established general or specific consequential functions primarily by adding novel stimuli in the transfer test. Subjects treated even novel feedback stimuli in the transfer test as consequences, but the direction of consequential effects depended upon the transfer of specific consequential functions through equivalence relations.     

Modality-general benefit of eye-closure on the retrieval of intentionally learned information

The beneficial effect of eye-closure during retrieval was demonstrated in many studies addressing eyewitness memory or memory of episodic events. Fewer studies examined the effect concerning the intentional learning of verbal information. Furthermore, the question of whether the eye-closure effect is modality-specific, boosting visual memory only, or modality-general, boosting also other forms of memory (e.g., auditory memory), is still open. These issues were addressed in the present study. Participants (N = 129) were asked to study aurally and visually presented lists of unrelated nouns (within-subjects). During free recall, participants either kept their eyes open or closed their eyes (between-subjects). Eye-closure resulted in better free recall than keeping the eyes open. Importantly, this effect emerged for both visually and aurally presented word lists, suggesting that the effect of closing the eyes is rather modality-general. The results are discussed with respect to limitations of previous studies and practical implications.     

In search of a measure to investigate mental performance among children: Development of the mental speed test

Processing speed is a component of general intelligence and an indicator of learning potential. There is a need for robust measures of mental speed based on contemporary theoretical developments. The current study addressed this need by proposing a mental speed test for children aged 60 to 96 months (5 to 8 years) and examining its psychometric properties. The test included indicators of perceptual speed, memory speed, reasoning speed, and fluency-flexibility speed presented through nonverbal items administered individually using touchscreen tablets. After establishing gender non-bias and concurrent validity with a contemporary intelligence test (i.e., ASIS, r = .59) with 107 children, the next administration included 373 children. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with subtest scores revealed a single-factor structure accounting for 45% of the total variance. Additional data from 212 children were used to assess structural validity and gender bias, which showed acceptable goodness of fit, providing evidence of the validity and reliability of the new measure for further use.     

Rarely Occurring Headaches and Rarely Occurring Blindness: Is Rarely=Rarely? The Meaning of Verbal Frequentistic Labels in Specific Medical Contexts

In three experimental studies, factors were examined which might influence the interpretation of verbal frequentistic labels in a specific context (i.e. side effects of medical drugs). In Study 1, we directly assessed subjects' numerical equivalents of three verbal labels (recommended for use by the German Federal Health Agency), which were embedded in stylized leaflets for medical drugs; we compared the estimates with those obtained in a context-free situation. The major findings were that (1) subjects' numerical equivalents for the verbal labels were clearly lower in the context condition than in the context-free situation, (2) subjects'; interpretations appeared to depend on the seriousness of the side effects, but (3) this dependency disappeared when explicit base rates were provided. In Studies 2 and 3, we indirectly examined the influence of the seriousness of the side effects, their frequency, and of the mode of expression (verbally versus numerically) by asking for risk judgments for and choices between drugs. Results of particular importance were that (1) seriousness and frequency of side effects had the same influence on judgments and choices but the mode of expression had no significant effect on either judgments or choices; (2) when subjects’ individual numerical equivalents of verbal labels were used in the leaflets, numerically described drugs were judged equally risky as verbally described drugs but were significantly preferred for consumption. These findings have theoretical relevance for research on the processing of verbal and numerical frequentistic expressions as well as a number of practical implications for the communication of medical information.