Association for Behavior Analysis International

The traditional teaching of music begins with the learning of a formal educational experience called solfeo. This type of teaching has generated high dropout rates, low levels of learning and inappropriate behaviors, among other problems. The purpose of the study was to identify episodic interactions in the first level of the Taxonomy of Functions proposed by Ribes (2018); it relationships is made possible by different complementary modes of musical language, reactive and active; at the first level, functional interaction, such as behavior, is identified as the individual´s psychological reactivity, with respect to pertinent stimulus objects, in this case, musical notes bases on three identification criteria. An intrasubject design with an Initial Test, an Intervention Phase and a Final Test was used. Six experimentally naïve children from a Musical Initiation School participated; they accredited an auditory and written discrimination test of musical notes. The results showed that the children discriminated the notal values of time and space and the western graphs in partichela, using the language modes: higher in the Solfaing-Transcribing, then listening-Vocalizing and then observing- pointing out modes. In the remaining complementary linguistic modes, the relationship identified was lower. The discussion is based on the Behavior Analysis Theory.

Skinner defines verbal behavior as, “behavior reinforced through the mediation of other persons,” (Skinner, 1957) and highlights the role of the speaker in his analysis. Skinner limits the discussion of the listener to that of mediating consequences for the speaker’s behavior, while emphasizing that the listener’s role is not necessarily “verbal” as previously defined. Through this analytic lens, Skinner describes the process of self-editing as occurring under conditions in which the speaker is functioning as his own listener in a total verbal episode. Self-editing is a circumstance in which a speaker engages (or almost engages), in verbal behavior and makes changes to the response prior to affording access to it on the part of an external listener. Alternative approaches to the role of the listener in a verbal episode (Kantor, 1977; Parrott, 1984; Hayes & Hayes, 1989) assert that listener behavior should also be defined and analyzed as verbal behavior. This would suggest that listeners also engage in self-editing behavior in the context of a total verbal episode. The current analysis aims to examine the role of the listener as outlined in these alternative approaches, as well as to describe the process of self-editing as listener behavior.

Recent research has demonstrated that simplified habit reversal (SHR) is effective in decreasing three, co-occurring speech disfluencies (filled pauses, inappropriate use of the word “like”, and tongue-clicking) for college students within public speaking scenarios. Past research evaluating the collateral effects of SHR on other, untargeted disfluencies and nervous habits has also produced mixed results. The current study aimed to decrease idiosyncratic disfluencies and distracting non-vocal speaker behaviors via traditional face-to-face SHR with one college student and via telehealth with two additional students while also measuring covariation between targeted and untargeted speaker behaviors. We identified at least one idiosyncratic disfluency for each participant and an excessive non-vocal target for one participant. SHR was generally effective in decreasing all targets. We also observed unique covariation patterns for certain disfluencies, which calls into question whether all excessive speaker behaviors share the same function. Potential clinical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The aim was to induce the deictic relational frame I-YOU in a 3.11-year-old child diagnosed with autism. In baseline the child was asked questions about I-YOU from a speaker and listener perspective. The experimenter and the child stood facing each other, each holding an object that rotated with 10 more objects. In the listener perspective probes, the child answered the questions “What do I-YOU have?” saying the name of the object. In the speaker perspective, the child was asked to say “I have it/you have it” when answering the question “Who has (name of the object)?” The procedure consisted of teaching the child to answer as a speaker and as a listener facing a mirror on which the child and the experimenter could be seen next to each other holding one object each. Learn units with social reinforcement and correction were presented after correct and incorrect responses, respectively. The baseline results showed that the bidirectional perspective of the deictic frame was absent in the repertoire. After being taught, the child answered “I-YOU” facing the mirror and stimulus control was transferred as a speaker and as a listener in the face-to-face perspective with the experimenter. These data provide evidence on how to teach the deictic bidirectional operant I-YOU.