Naming appears to be the source of the explosion in language development and involves the integration of the initially separate listener and speaker responses. This integration has a role in the development of reading, writing, and the following and construction of verbal algorithms that make types of complex human behavior possible. Considerable research has investigated the role of Naming in the emergence of derived relations. Recent research has also investigated the emergence of Naming itself. We describe these experiments and the experiences that function to induce Naming. We also describe evidence about preverbal developmental cusps that are foundational to the emergence of Naming and the evidence on its reinforcement sources. The isolation of the role of the environment in the emergence of Naming identifies stimuli that were said to be missing in accounts that were critical of Skinner's (1957) account of verbal behavior. These arguments purported that the phenomenon was not attributable to learning because of the ''poverty of the stimulus.'' Some of the relevant stimuli now appear to be identified.

Naming refers to the incidental acquisition of word-object relations as listener and speaker without explicit reinforcement. To investigate possible sources of reinforcement for naming, we examined the effects of a procedure for conditioning reinforcement for observing responses on the emergence of naming in children who previously lacked it. The participants were three 5-to 7-year-old children with and without diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder. During the intervention, either visual or auditory stimuli were first conditioned as reinforcers for observing responses. Then, neutral visual or auditory stimuli were paired with the conditioned visual or auditory stimuli until both visual and auditory stimuli acquired reinforcing properties for observing. Following this intervention, the participants demonstrated naming of stimuli that had been used in pretests for naming, as well as on a novel set of stimuli. We observed increases in echoic responding in conjunction with the emergence of naming and conditioned reinforcement for both observing responses. We interpret the data as suggesting that listener and speaker repertoires are joined for naming only when both visual and auditory stimuli reinforce the observing responses of looking and listening simultaneously.

In 2 multiple baseline experiments, we tested stimulus-stimulus pairing effects on acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for observing and manipulating stimuli and stereotypy/ passivity. In Experiment I we studied a 5 year-old male with autism and we collected data using continuous 5-sec whole interval recording in 5 min sessions in which the student emitted appropriate play, and partial intervals of stereotypy, or passivity. Experiment 2 tested the effects of same procedure on independent work by 2 male participants with autism. The dependent variables were: intervals in which students worked independently, percentage of correct responses, and worksheet completion. Results from both experiments showed significant increases in numbers of intervals students emitted the target behaviors and decreases in stereotypy and passivity. Key words: stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure, conditioned reinforcement, observing responses, preference ______________________________________________________________________________ Conditioned reinforcers are defined as initially neutral stimuli that have acquired reinforcing characteristics through the pairing of the neutral stimuli with a previously conditioned or unconditioned reinforcer (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 1988). For many students with disabilities, pairing procedures are necessary to condition stimuli that are important for development and academic progress. Dinsmoor (1985) found that greater observing or attending to specific stimuli (the reinforcement for observing are the stimuli) resulted in an increase in stimulus control for components of those stimuli.