An Investigation into the Speaker-as-own-Listener Repertoire and Reverse Intraverbal Responding

I conducted 2 experiments investigating the relations between speaker-as-own-listener cusps and responding to bidirectional or reverse intraverbals. Speaker-as-own-listener cusps include, Naming, Say-Do Correspondence and Self-Talk Fantasy Play. During a pilot experiment, I found the source of the problem in 2 participants’ learning was their deficient speaker-as-own-listener repertoires. Although both participants in the pilot study had the Full Naming capability in repertoire, they lacked Say-Do and Self-Talk. Following a Self-Talk Immersion intervention, Say-Do was induced for both participants and coincidentally, correct responses to bidirectional or reverse intraverbals emerged. In Experiment I, I continued examining relations between the speaker-as-own-listener (SOL) repertoire and intraverbal responding with a statistical analysis of 35 Early Intervention (EI) and Preschool students recruited from CABAS® model schools who functioned at listener and speaker levels of verbal behavior. Findings from Experiment I indicated that the presence of Say-Do Correspondence and Self-Talk were significantly correlated to correct responses to reverse intraverbals. Experiment II was a functional analysis, during which 4 participants were selected from an EI classroom due to their similar levels of verbal behavior, deficient SOL repertoire, and because they could not respond to reverse intraverbals. Results indicated a functional relation between the presence of Say-Do Correspondence and Self-Talk and correct responses to intraverbal probes for all 4 participants.