Training Intraverbal Naming to Establish Matching-to-Sample Performances.
Saying ‘A goes with B’ is enough to create accurate matching in adults—no matching practice required.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ten college students with no known disabilities joined the study. The team used a multiple-baseline design across three picture sets.
Students never touched a matching card. They only learned to say, 'A goes with B,' for 18 picture pairs. Then the test asked them to match without talking.
What they found
Every student scored 90 % or better on the final matching test. Symmetry tests (B to A) were just as strong.
The words alone created the matching skill. No direct matching trials were needed.
How this fits with other research
Clark et al. (1977) tried a similar idea with preschoolers. They added extra verbal training before correspondence training and saw no gain. The new study shows adults can skip matching trials entirely, a cleaner step forward.
Robertson et al. (2013) also compared teaching setups while keeping time the same. They found traditional drill beat mixed flash cards. Here, the ‘drill’ was pure intraverbal naming, and it still won, extending the idea to derived relations.
Stephenson et al. (2015) reminds us that single-case graphs like these need clear visual rules. Their meta-analysis found only 76 % agreement between viewers, so use sharp phase lines and labels when you share your own data.
Why it matters
If you need to teach matching skills fast, start with intraverbal naming. Have the learner say the relation out loud for a few minutes, then test matching. You can cut direct matching trials and still get emergent performance. This saves session time and reduces rote drilling.
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Join Free →Pick two pictures, teach the learner to say ‘apple goes with orange,’ then immediately test visual matching—skip the usual matching trials.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The current study evaluated whether training intraverbal naming would be sufficient to establish visual-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) performances in college students. In the first experiment, we used a multiple-probe design across stimulus sets to assess whether six participants could match arbitrary visual stimuli (AB) after learning to tact their two experimentally defined classes (A' and B') and then intraverbally relate their names (i.e., "A' goes with B'"). All participants matched the stimuli accurately after training, as well as emitted the trained intraverbals. In the second experiment, we used a multiple baseline design across four participants to assess whether the same training would produce bi-directional intraverbals in the form of "B' goes with A'," and MTS performance consistent with symmetry (BA). All participants responded accurately during matching and intraverbal tests. Across both experiments, participants stated the trained intraverbals while performing the matching task. Results showed that MTS performance can be established solely by verbal behavior training.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 2015 · doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(68)80167-7