Protocol analysis of rhyming and alliterative equivalence relations

Randell, Tom and Remington, Bob (2003) Protocol analysis of rhyming and alliterative equivalence relations. Association for Behavior Analysis International Annual Convention, San Francisco, United States.

Abstract

A number of studies have demonstrated that verbal behaviour can be functional in the emergence of equivalence classes. Randell and Remington (1999), for instance, showed that when baseline relations are trained between pictures whose names rhyme, emergent relations are exhibited more quickly and reliably than when those relations are trained between non-rhyming combinations of the same pictures. Other research has indicated that protocol analysis (Ericsson & Simon, 1980) may provide a tool for investigating participants’ verbal behaviour during equivalence research. Further to investigate the functionality of language in equivalence, a talk-aloud procedure was implemented within a contextually controlled equivalence paradigm. In one context, relations were trained between stimuli whose names rhymed. In a second context, relations were trained between different combinations of the same stimuli whose names were alliterative. There were two conditions: ten participants were instructed to talk-aloud throughout the experiment. Another ten participants received no such instruction. Results indicate that talking aloud hindered the emergence of contextually controlled equivalence classes. Analysis of participants’ verbal protocols, however, suggested that normative stimulus naming and comparison selection on the basis of rhyme and alliteration facilitated the emergence of contextually controlled equivalence classes.

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