Abstract:
Recent research suggested advantages of incorporating stimulus equivalence for producing emergent intraverbals, which are verbal responses that arise without direct training. The current study extends intraverbal literature by investigating whether a stimulus equivalence structure known as many-to-one training can help children to answer complex questions about relationships among items. This training was expected to generate two types of emergence: 1) emergent relationship intraverbals and 2) emergent category intraverbals. One of four participants performed closely to mastery criterion for emergent relationship intraverbals and reached mastery criterion for emergent category intraverbals. Another participant reached mastery criterion for emergent category intraverbals only. Increased performance in emergent category intraverbals was observed in one out of the two remaining participants. Conceptual, procedural, and practical considerations that contribute to such outcomes are further discussed. Although many-to-one training is a useful strategy to establish relationship intraverbals, our findings suggest that it is not yet ready to be used as a stand-alone intervention without additional training for young children and early language learners.
