A translational evaluation of component skills for the establishment of multiply controlled intraverbals
Make sure every component skill is solid before you target multiply controlled intraverbals, or the blended answers may never show up.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Jennings et al. (2023) asked what skills adults need before they can answer questions that pull from more than one source.
They first checked each adult’s tact, listener, and match-to-sample scores. Then they ran short blocks that switched between tact and intraverbal training.
Only adults who passed every part showed the new, blended answers without extra teaching.
What they found
Half of the adults never gave the target answers, even after the alternating drills.
The other half started giving the answers only after every piece skill was firm.
Mixed results mean the package works, but only when prerequisites are rock solid.
How this fits with other research
Kisamore et al. (2016) got kids with autism to give multiply controlled answers using simple prompt delay and error correction. The 2023 lab study shows adults need stricter skill checks first. Different ages and diagnoses explain the gap.
Petursdottir et al. (2019) found that tact-first training speeds up later conditional discriminations in typical adults. Jennings adds the rule: check all pieces, not just tacts, before you expect blended intraverbals.
Dixon et al. (2017) used PEAK-E equivalence to create derived categorical intraverbals in preschoolers with disabilities. Jennings moves the question to adults and spells out the entry skills, extending the line of work on emergent verbal behavior.
Why it matters
Before you run intraverbal programs that mix cues, probe each supporting skill. If any piece is weak, shore it up first. This saves trial time and cuts error patterns for both neurotypical adults and clinical learners.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Intraverbal behavior is a type of verbal behavior in which the response form has no point-to-point correspondence with its verbal stimulus. However, the form and occurrence of most intraverbals is under the control of multiple variables. Establishing this form of multiple control may depend on a variety of preestablished skills. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to evaluate these potential prerequisites with adult participants using a multiple probe design. The results suggest that training was not required for each putative prerequisite. In Experiment 2, probes for all skills were conducted following convergent intraverbal probes. The results showed that convergent intraverbals only emerged when proficiency of each skill was demonstrated. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated alternating training of multiple tact and intraverbal categorization. The results showed that this procedure was effective for half of the participants.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2023 · doi:10.1002/jeab.837