Association for Behavior Analysis International

Early literacy and language skills have consistently been an indicator of future academic and life success. Research (Greer & Han, 2015; Buttigieg, Greer, & Pedrero-Davila, 2024) has shown that conditioning two-dimensional stimuli leads to faster rates of acquisition for educational objectives. In the first experiment, respondent and operant conditioning were used to condition books and two-dimensional stimuli and replace interfering stereotypy. The rate of acquisition of early literacy objectives was then compared. The second experiment found that there was a significant group difference in reading outcomes in different demographics, but these differences were no longer significant once the experimenters controlled for the degree of conditioned reinforcement for reading. In the third experiment, the experimenters tested the effects of the establishment and subsequent increase in strength of stimulus control of incidental uni- or bi-directional Naming on the number of correct listener comprehension questions, conditioned seeing selection responses, and preference for listening to story. In the fourth experiment, experimenters evaluated the strength of stimulus control for uni- or bi-directional Naming and the emergence of untaught object function intraverbal relations. We discuss the importance of establishing learned reinforcers, maximizing strategy and efficiency, and making instruction equitable and accessible for all learners.

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We tested the effects of conditioning books as learned reinforcers on the rate of acquisition of pre-literacy objectives for toddlers and preschoolers with developmental delays, and with and without interfering stereotypy. Nested in this, we tested the efficacy of operant and respondent conditioning in conditioning book stimuli as learned reinforcers. Other dependent variables included visual match-to-sample, partial interval recording for emission of interfering stereotypy, and two-dimensional observing responses. Results thus far indicate that operant conditioning was not effective in conditioning books to criterion level, but respondent conditioning was effective in conditioning books and replacing stereotypy for 4 participants. Additionally, participants who did not observe or match two-dimensional stimuli at the onset of the experiment did so after books were conditioned as learned reinforcers. Results are discussed in terms of reinforcement value, early literacy skills, and the correlation between cusps and effective methods of conditioning new reinforcers.

Previous research has highlighted the reading achievement gap for students with disabilities, as well as the correlation between the reading preference, or conditioned reinforcement for reading (CR+ Reading) and reading outcomes. However, how CR+ Reading affects the reading outcome for students in different demographic groups differently remains a gap in our literature. The current brief report investigated how CR+ Reading affected the reading outcomes for 48 elementary school students in 4th and 5th grade inclusion classrooms. Consistent with existing literature, we found a significant group difference for the reading outcomes between students with or without disabilities and those who did or did not receive free/reduced lunch. However, when we controlled for the students’ degree of CR+ Reading, the differences were no longer significant. The results suggested that teaching the ‘love’ for reading might be a way for us to bridge the gap in reading outcomes between students from different demographic groups. Future research should collect more data to investigate how CR+ Reading affects the reading outcomes for other marginalized groups and establish effective interventions to teach CR+ Reading.

Young readers are often encouraged to “picture” what they read; a phenomenon commonly referred to as conditioned seeing in the behavior analytic literature. This cusp may be critical in improving reading comprehension outcomes and can be established early, even with children who have not yet started to textually respond. Six preschool students classified with disabilities were selected to participate in this study because they did not demonstrate Incidental Bidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN) and emitted low numbers of correct selection responses for conditioned seeing when told age-appropriate stories out loud. Using a combined pre-post and multiple probe across participants design, we tested the effects of the establishment and subsequent increase in strength of stimulus control for Inc-UniN or Inc-BiN on the number of correct conditioned seeing selection responses and listener comprehension responses. Preference for listening to story content was also assessed. Results demonstrated that following intervention, the number of correct conditioned seeing and listening comprehension responses increased for all participants, and, when stimulus control for Inc-UniN or Inc-BiN was strengthened, correct responses for both measures increased even more significantly. Increases in story preference were variable. These findings suggest that Inc-UniN alone may play a critical role in the development of conditioned seeing.

We present data on 10 to 12 students’ object-function intraverbals and reverse intraverbals. Students were selected to participate if they had tact and point discrimination responses in repertoire and did not emit object-function intraverbals (e.g. What do you do with a pencil?; What do you write with?). We determined the strength of stimulus control of unidirectional (UniN) and bidirectional (IncBin) naming for all participants prior to the study. Students were taught to tact items in pictures and point to the items in a field of four when told their function. Once they responded correctly to each task for each item with 90% accuracy, we went back and assessed their object function intraverbals and the reverse intraverbals. Students who still did not emit correct responses were taught a different set of tacts and point by function responses, but for this phase we also directly taught the intraverbal and reverse intraverbal for each item in the set within the instructional rotation. Once criterion was met, we again assessed the original intraverbal set to determine if the second instructional rotation resulted in learning the relations. Results are presented in terms of possible prerequisite repertoires or cusps for the emergence of these early intraverbal responses.