Anna Ingeborg Petursdóttir, Alma Rún Ólafsdóttir, & Berglind Aradóttir. (2008) The effects of tact and listener training on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 41, 411-415.

We evaluated the effects of 2 types of training on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations with 4 typically developing children. Tact training involved reinforcing foreign-language vocalizations in the presence of visual stimuli, and listener training involved reinforcing selections of visual stimuli following vocal presentations of foreign-language words. Intraverbal relations were tested by instructing participants to vocalize native-language equivalents of foreign-language words or vice versa. Both types of training produced increases in intraverbal responding, but the emergent relations were not always bidirectional.

DESCRIPTORS: emergent relations, foreign-language instruction, intraverbals, listener behavior, tacts