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Stimulus relations analysis and the emergence of novel intraverbals

APA Citation

Pérez-González, L. A., Herszlikowicz, K., & Williams, G. (2008). Stimulus relations analysis and the emergence of novel intraverbals. Psychological Record, 58, 95-129.

Publication Topic
RFT: Empirical
Publication Type
Article
Language
English
Abstract

In three experiments designed to analyze the emergence of untaught operants with a spoken response in normally developing 5- to 6-year-old children, verbal operants with the names of countries, cities, and parks were used as stimuli or responses—intraverbals. Children learned Country-City intraverbals and City-Park intraverbals. The authors then probed the emergence of novel intraverbals without reinforcement, which resulted from combining the stimuli and responses ofthe taught intraverbals. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the novel intraverbals might emerge without reinforcement. Experiment 2 showed that learning more basic operants facilitates the emergence of tbe novel intraverbals. Experiment 3 provided a within-participant replication and demonstrated that relations with novel stimuli of the same type emerge at a quicker pace as children learn novel sets. These results showed basic processes involved in complex verbal behavior, such as reasoning.