Abstract

CAHILL, Claire S.  and  GREER, R. Douglas. Actions vs. Words: How We Can Learn Both. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2014, vol.4, n.3, pp.1716-1745. ISSN 2007-4719.

In three experiments we investigated the relation between observing responses and incidental language acquisition by children ages 3 to 5 with and without disabilities. In Experiment I, participants heard the name of an object while observing an accompanying action with the object. The participants consistently acquired the actions associated with the objects, but learned few names. Experiment II compare responses to stimuli presented with and without actions, with the results indicating that the presence of an action hindered rather than facilitated incidental acquisition of names. In Experiment III, we selected participants who acquired listener responses when actions were present, but did not readily acquire the speaker responses. Following a multiple exemplar intervention, participants acquired both speaker and listener responses along with the action responses for novel stimuli. The findings suggest that when children are provided with a specific instructional history, they can acquire multiple benefits from a single language exposure experience.

Keywords : Observing Responses; Stimulus Control; Conditioned Reinforcement; Sensory Dominance; Language Acquisition.

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