More complex incidental bidirectional naming results from exposure alone
Once kids have listener naming, alternating listener and speaker probes after simple exposure flips on full bidirectional naming without extra training or rewards.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with 6 first-graders who already understood words as listeners. They showed each child 12 new toys and simply said the toy’s name while the child played.
Next they kept asking “Where is the dax?” (listener probe) and “What is this?” (speaker probe) over several days. No praise or tokens were given.
What they found
After 3-6 rounds of these quiet probes, every child could both point to the toy when named and name it when asked. Full bidirectional naming had switched on without any direct teaching or rewards.
The skill appeared suddenly—one probe the child could not name it, the next probe they could.
How this fits with other research
Hranchuk et al. (2019) showed that preschoolers with naming learn twice as fast when you add two quick models before each trial. Kleinert‐Ventresca et al. take the next step: once kids have basic naming, you can drop the models and still finish the job with exposure alone.
Ward et al. (2021) taught children to first say “My way, please” and later added specific requests. Both studies show you can layer new verbal skills onto existing ones without interference.
The 2023 paper extends the 2019 efficiency idea—no extra teaching is needed after the child has heard the word a few times.
Why it matters
If a child already shows listener naming, you can skip massed trials and prizes. Just keep rotating listener and speaker probes during play or circle time. The word will click on its own, saving you minutes per target and cutting student fatigue. Try it with science vocab or social studies terms next week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Incidental bidirectional naming (Inc-BiN) has been defined as a verbal developmental cusp whereby children demonstrate learning the names of things as listener and speaker as a function of observation alone. Stimulus characteristics have been found to affect performance in tests for Inc-BiN. To further explore this effect, Experiment 1 compared untaught listener and speaker responses for novel familiar-type versus novel nonfamiliar-type stimuli with 20 first-grade students following naming experiences in which the participants observed each visual stimulus five times while hearing its name. Participants performed significantly better with familiar-type than with nonfamiliar-type stimuli. Experiment 2 examined the effects of a repeated-probe intervention to induce Inc-BiN with nonfamiliar-type stimuli. Participants were six first-grade students who demonstrated incidental unidirectional naming (i.e., acquired names as listener from exposure alone). Implementation of the intervention was staggered across dyads of participants in a multiple-probe, simultaneous-treatments design. One participant in each dyad received the intervention with nonfamiliar-type stimuli only and the other with both nonfamiliar- and familiar-type stimuli. Pre- and postintervention Inc-BiN probes with stimuli not included in the intervention suggested both conditions were effective in establishing Inc-BiN for nonfamiliar-type stimuli. These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying Inc-BiN.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2023 · doi:10.1002/jeab.847