The role of verbal behavior in human learning: III. Instructional effects in children.
Children who verbalize their own timing rules can produce smooth, low-rate performance on fixed-interval schedules without extra rewards.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught children to talk themselves through a fixed-interval schedule. First the experimenter gave short rules like “wait a bit, then go.” Later the kids said their own rules out loud. The goal was to see if self-instruction could shape steady, low-rate responding without any extra rewards.
All children were neurotypical and worked alone in a quiet room. A single-case design tracked each child’s button presses across sessions.
What they found
Every child learned to wait and then respond in a smooth, scalloped pattern. Older kids showed tighter control; their pauses after reward lasted longer and their response runs were sharper. The study showed that self-talk alone can create schedule-appropriate timing.
When children supplied their own instructions, the pattern held steady. The verbal rules acted like built-in timers.
How this fits with other research
Friedling et al. (1979) looks like a contradiction. They found self-instruction failed for hyperactive 7- to 8-year-olds in class. The difference is diagnosis: impulsive children may need tokens or other external supports before self-talk works. The target study used calm, neurotypical kids in a lab, so self-rules were enough.
Tanguay et al. (1982) and Davis et al. (1976) foreshadow these results. Both used self-instruction with preschoolers and saw big gains—worksheet accuracy and months-long on-task behavior. The target paper moves the same idea into the lab and shows the mechanism: verbal rules can directly control response rate.
Saunders et al. (1988) used adults and varied the content of experimenter-given rules. They also saw low-rate FI performance, proving the effect is not age-bound. The target extends this by showing children can generate the controlling rules themselves.
Why it matters
You can add a self-instruction step before fading external rewards. Teach the child to state the rule out loud, then whisper, then silently think it. Start in a quiet space with simple tasks; later test in louder, real-world settings. This builds true self-management instead of rote compliance.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Lever pressing of children from three age groups (2(1/2) to 4, 5 to 6(1/2), and 7(1/2) to 9 years) could produce reinforcers according to a fixed-interval 40-s schedule: (1) Some were instructed to respond at a high rate, others at a low rate, and (2) they were subsequently taught to provide their own spoken self-instructions consonant with the earlier, experimenter-supplied instructions. All subjects who received high-rate instructions responded at a steady, high rate, which was maintained following self-instructional training. The effects of low-rate instructions were directly related to the age of the children. The two older groups produced low-rate patterns, with the oldest children responding at very low rates; effects were least noticeable in the youngest age group. Following self-instructional training, all three groups showed adult-like low-rate behavior and the oldest children showed an improved ability to estimate the interval length. The results provide further evidence of the importance of language as a determinant of human behavior.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1987 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1987.47-177