Baseline training sequence affects speed of emergent conditional discriminations.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Verbal Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Understanding the sequence of learning is crucial for effective skill acquisition.
• Conditional discriminations are fundamental to complex language abilities.
• The role of training order in establishing stimulus control is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the sequence of tact and intraverbal training impacts conditional discrimination performance.
• To determine if different training orders lead to varied sources of stimulus control.
• To analyze the relationship between training order, intraverbal retention, and match-to-sample accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-two college students were divided into two groups: tact-intraverbal (TI) and intraverbal-tact (IT).
• The TI group learned to name visual stimuli (tact) then relate verbal labels (intraverbal).
• The IT group received the same training in reverse order, followed by a match-to-sample (MTS) test.

Main Results:

• The TI group exhibited significantly faster reaction times than the IT group across all test blocks.
• Intraverbal retention was lower in the IT group compared to the TI group.
• While MTS accuracy did not differ when controlling for intraverbal retention, its correlation with retention varied by group.

Conclusions:

• The sequence of baseline training significantly influences the emergence of conditional discriminations.
• The tact-intraverbal training order appears to establish more robust stimulus control for this task.
• Findings suggest that different training sequences engage distinct cognitive processes influencing task performance.