A scoping review of empirical research on emergent intraverbal behavior
The emergent intraverbal literature is vast (99 experiments) and methodologically scattered—check this review before designing your next study.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Conine et al. (2024) read 99 experiments on emergent intraverbal behavior. They mapped how each study tested and measured untaught verbal answers.
The team sorted the methods, settings, and outcomes to spot patterns and gaps.
What they found
The field is busy but messy. No two studies used the same recipe to teach or check for emergent intraverbals.
Because of this mix, we cannot yet say which method works best or for whom.
How this fits with other research
Gavidia et al. (2022) tried instructive feedback with two autistic children. One child showed strong emergent intraverbals; the other showed weak gains. Conine’s map shows this mixed result is typical.
Cortez et al. (2020) found that tact training beat listener training for emergent foreign-word intraverbals in preschoolers. Conine’s review lists several similar comparisons, but the tactics still vary widely.
Yamaguchi et al. (2024) compared native-to-foreign versus foreign-to-native intraverbal drills. They got more emergent relations with the first style. Conine’s data set flags this as one promising thread among many untested angles.
Why it matters
If you plan to run or replicate an emergent intraverbal study, read this scoping review first. It shows which methods have been tried, which have not, and where the design holes are. Use the list to pick a procedure that fills a gap instead of adding another duplicate. Share your data with clear labels so future reviews can finally point to a best practice.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractFor decades, Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior has been applied in a variety of contexts. One critically important topic in this area is the extent to which some verbal operants may be learned indirectly, as a result of learning other verbal operants. This phenomenon is often referred to as emergent verbal behavior, and is critical to our understanding of how language is learned in a generative fashion across the lifespan. Emergent intraverbal repertoires are especially important because responses under some degree of intraverbal control may constitute a majority of responses in a fully formed verbal repertoire. Recent literature reviews suggest that there are many published studies on emergent intraverbals, but that this body of literature is highly heterogeneous. To provide an overview of this literature and map out the various tactics used across studies, we conducted a scoping review. We identified 99 total experiments on emergent intraverbals contained in 79 total articles. Findings are summarized in terms of populations and independent variables studied, procedural variations, and recommendations for future research.
Behavioral Interventions, 2024 · doi:10.1002/bin.1986