Two training procedures were compared with respect to the average number of training trials it took to teach new verbal responses to normal children. Mand contingencies were alternated with tact contingencies in one condition while only tact contingencies were in effect in the other condition. Normal, preschool children served as subjects and toy parts were the objects that were to be named. The results indicated that it took, on the average, fewer trials to teach part names (tacts) in the mand-tact condition than in the tact only condition. Although more research is needed to confirm this, it appears that mand contingencies involve stronger controlling variables and can facilitate the acquisition of a tact repertoire.
A student laboratory procedure for teaching simple analogs of verbal behavior to pigeons is described. The three kinds of stimulus-response relations are analogs to the topography-based tact, the stimulus-selection-based tact, and receptive language. In the topography-based tact the pigeon exhibits a particular topography (pecking the left foot) when shown a particular nonverbal stimulus (a red plastic ball). In the selection-based tact the pigeon pecks a particular verbal stimulus or lexigram when shown the lexigram. In each case a set of several topographies, nonverbal stimuli, and lexigrams is involved, and food reinforcement is only received if the relation is the correct one. The procedure requires no special apparatus and can be used by students at any level.
The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities ofGrey Parrots by Irene Pepperberg is reviewed from a behavior analytic orientation. The results of the majority of her experiments are discussed in terms drawn from the general literature of behavior analysis and Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior. We conclude that she has provided evidence of the complex control of vocal behavior that illustrates a functional verbal repertoire of tacts and mands. This book suggests several areas for future research on the methods needed to establish verbal repertoires in species other than humans.
Darwin's theory of natural selection is as applicable to the analysis of the behavior of organisms as it is to their origins. Skinner's theoretical writings have guided operant psychologists in this area. The behavioral account of selection by Donahoe and Palmer (1994) is positively compared to the points on operant selection made by Hull et al. The “general account of selection” was found to be useful.
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