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| Generative Verbal Behavior |
| Tuesday, June 1, 2004 |
| 9:00 AM–10:20 AM |
| Beacon B |
| Area: EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Dolleen-Day Keohane (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: . |
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| Kids Say the"Darn(d)’est" Things |
| LYNN YUAN (Teachers College, Columbia University), R. Douglas Greer (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: The experiment tested the effects of certain instructional histories on students’ novel responses to irregular verbs. Two participants with developmental disabilities participated in this study. Prior to the experiment, probe sessions were conducted to assess the students’ correct responses to regular verbs and irregular verbs. None of the students had the regular and irregular verbs in their repertoire prior to the instruction. The instructional package in the treatment phase consisted of learning the contingency between “today” and pictures that showed daytime, and the contingency between “last night” and pictures that showed nighttime. As the students met criterion on the regular verbs, probe sessions were conducted to assess the emergence of novel responding for the irregular verbs. Results showed that the students generalized the acquired regular verbs to irregular verbs responses; however, none of the students emitted any correct response with the irregular verbs. Interobserver agreement was between 90% and 100% across sessions. |
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| The Effect of Multiple Exemplar Instruction Across Match, Point, Tact, and Intraverbal Responses in Naming |
| LAUREN M. STOLFI (Teachers College, Columbia University), R. Douglas Greer (Teachers College, Columbia University), Mapy Chavez Brown (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: This study tested the effect of multiple exemplar instruction on the transfer of stimulus function from matching to pointing, tact and intraverbal responses. The participants in this study were four students with developmental disabilities who attended CABAS® preschool classrooms. Three sets of stimuli, not in the participant’s repertoires, were selected for instruction. The dependent variable was the number of correct responses in the point to, tact and intraverbal repertoires when not directly taught. The independent variable was multiple exemplar instruction. Each participant was first taught the matching repertoire for the first set of stimuli. After each participant met criterion, the untaught repertoires for that same set were probed. Following these multiple exemplar instruction was conducted for the second set of stimuli. Once criterion was met, the participants were probed again on the untaught repertoires for Set 1 stimuli. In the final phase, the match repertoire was taught for Set 3 stimuli and participants were then probed on the untaught repertoires. The results showed that stimulus function transferred to untaught repertoires after multiple exemplar instruction; however, the number of untaught repertoires that emerged differed among participants. The results are discussed in terms of generative behavior, and the role of multiple exemplar instruction in the transfer of stimulus function. Interobserver agreement was between 90% and 100% across observed sessions. |
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| Novel Use of Words as a Function of a Multiple Exemplar Instructional History |
| KATHERINE MEINCKE (Teachers College, Columbia University), Dolleen-Day Keohane (Teachers College, Columbia University), R. Douglas Greer (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: Often words are used in everyday language that originates from an individual’s unique experiences. For example, individuals that say, “Pain is sharp” have a history of experiences with the private event of “pain” and the outside experience of “sharpness”. To examine this further, this study tested whether the novel use of words could be produced through a multiple exemplar instructional history. Participants were taught metaphoric extensions contextually and then tested on whether they could emit similar behaviors with untaught word sets. A multiple probe design was used to test whether multiple exemplar instruction across specific vocabulary words presented in intraverbal sentences in sets of similes would produce generative verbal behavior to untaught functions. The participants were middle school students with emotional disabilities and deficits in the generative use of language. Results will be discussed in terms of multiple exemplar histories and generative verbal behavior. |
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| Multiple Exemplar Instruction and Transformation of Stimulus Function of Autoclitic Fames |
| JEANNE MARIE SPECKMAN (Teachers College, Columbia University), R. Douglas Greer (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: The present study was conducted to test the effects of multiple exemplar instruction on the transformation of stimulus function of autoclitic frames for 3 preschool students with disabilities. The students ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old and all attended a center-based special education preschool program. The study was conducted in a CABAS school outside a major metropolitan area. Students were taught to tact pictures exemplifying qualifying autoclitics in the form of descriptive adjectives. Included with these pictures were four created pictures which were provided with nonsense names. They were then tested for their responses to the comparative forms of the adjectives (e.g. rainy- rainier). One regular comparative form was then taught for the single exemplar instruction condition (a form that forms the comparative via the addition of the –er autoclitic frame.) Students were then probed for responses to all other comparative forms across four sets of stimuli which each contained four forms (2 sets of regular comparatives, 1 set of irregular comparatives, 1 set of nonsense comparatives). Multiple exemplar instruction was then presented for one set of stimuli. Sets were counterbalanced across students and treatment was delivered in a multiple baseline design with multiple probes. Probes were conducted following multiple exemplar instruction to test for transformation of the autoclitic frame -er to the three other sets of stimuli (1 set of regular comparatives, 1 set of irregular comparatives, 1 set of nonsense comparatives). No teacher feedback was given during the probe trials and learn units (Albers and Greer, 1991) were delivered during the instructional phases. Data were collected on all student responses to instruction and probes. Results will follow. |
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