The role of verbal behavior in human learning: II. Developmental differences.
Language flips the switch from animal timing to human rule-following on fixed schedules.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested 3- to young learners on a fixed-interval schedule.
They compared babies who could not yet talk with older kids who could.
Each child pressed a button for candy on a 30-second timer.
What they found
Preverbal infants acted like pigeons. They paused, then pressed fast near the end.
Verbal children acted like adults. They waited calmly and pressed at the right time.
Talking changed how kids handled the schedule.
How this fits with other research
Thomson (1974) showed pigeons make the same scallop pattern the infants made. The 1985 study proves that pattern is the default before language.
Tantam et al. (1993) found adults use self-talk to stay on schedule. The new data show this skill starts as soon as kids can speak.
Barnes et al. (1990) taught play skills to nonverbal children. Both papers highlight the big jump that happens when speech appears.
Why it matters
If a child is not talking yet, expect animal-like schedule patterns. Use shorter intervals and more prompts. Once speech starts, shift to rule-based instructions like 'wait for the green light.' This one change can triple learning speed.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Start nonverbal clients on 10-second DRL with visual cues; add simple verbal rules like 'count to 10' as soon as they echo words.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
When children in four different age ranges operated a response device, reinforcers were presented according to fixed-interval schedules ranging in value from 10 to 70 seconds. Only the behavior of the subjects in the youngest of the four groups, the preverbal infants, resembled that of other animal species. The children in age ranges 5 to 6(1/2) and 7(1/2) to 9 years exhibited either the low-rate or high-rate response patterns typical of human adults. Those who showed the low-rate pattern reported a time-based formulation of the contingencies and some of them were observed to occasionally count out the interval before responding. The performance of children aged 2(1/2) to 4 years differed from that of both infants and older children, though containing some patterning elements similar to those produced by the older and younger subjects. The predominant response pattern of the infants consisted of a pause after reinforcement followed by an accelerated rate of responding that terminated when the next reinforcer was delivered. Analysis of postreinforcement-pause duration and response rate showed that infant performance, but not that of the older children, consistently exhibited the same kinds of schedule sensitivity observed in animal behavior. The evidence supports the suggestion that the development of verbal behavior greatly alters human operant performance and may account for many of the differences found between human and animal learning.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1985 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-165