The purpose of this study was to assess whether variations in visual stimulus presentation during tact training would affect efficacy, efficiency, and the emergence of listener responses. Participants included two preschool-aged children diagnosed with autism. We implemented two teaching conditions using an adapted alternating treatment design with intrasubject replications. During successive tact training, the experimenter presented one picture per trial. During simultaneous training, the experimenter pointed to the target picture in a stimulus array. For one participant, both procedures were similarly effective and efficient. For another participant, successive tact training generated fewer errors and better efficiency results. Moreover, both formats resulted in accurate listener responding. Our results suggest that both procedures are effective, and that the simultaneous format may be a viable alternative for teaching tacts.

This study aims to assess (i) which acoustic characteristics of snoring sounds are associated with the annoying nature of snoring sounds; (ii) whether listeners\' heart rates correlate with their perceived annoyance; and (iii) whether perceived annoyance is different between listeners with different experiences with their bedpartners\' snoring sounds. Six snoring epochs with distinct acoustic characteristics (viz., reference, high pitch, high intensity, short interval, irregular intensity, and irregular intervals) were collected from snoring patients. Twenty physicians and technicians were involved in the healthcare of snoring patients, and were divided into three groups based on personal experience with their bedpartners\' snoring sounds (viz., non-snoring, snoring but not annoying, and snoring and annoying). The test subjects listened to each epoch and rated its level of annoyance. Listeners\' heart rates were also recorded during the test using a finger plethysmograph. Within the limitations of this study, it was found that, compared with other snoring sounds, snoring sounds with high intensity and irregularity were associated with higher perceived annoyance. However, higher perceived annoyance of snoring sound was not reflected in heart rate-related parameters. In addition, listeners\' personal experiences do not seem to affect their perceived annoyance.

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This study consisted of a systematic replication of previous research examining the effects of tact and listener instruction on the emergence of native-to-foreign (NF) and foreign-to-native (FN) intraverbals in children who had experienced difficulties learning to read and write. We assigned different sets of stimuli to tact and listener conditions, and taught 4 children to tact or respond as listeners in a foreign language using a progressive prompt delay with differential reinforcement. All participants mastered tacts and listener responses in the foreign language. For all participants, tact instruction yielded greater emergence of intraverbals compared to listener instruction. Tact instruction also produced all possible bidirectional (NF and FN) intraverbals relations for 3 of 4 participants, but listener instruction never resulted in the emergence of all possible relations. These results replicate previous findings suggesting that tact instruction is a more efficient way to teach a foreign language and extend them to progressive prompt-delay procedures.

We evaluated the effects of listener training on the emergence of analogical reasoning, as measured via equivalence-equivalence and explored the role of verbal behavior when solving analogy-type tasks. We taught 18 college students to select component stimuli from 2 classes, labeled \"vek\" and \"zog,\" and evaluated tacts and relational responding in the presence of baseline (AB and BC), symmetry (BA and CB), and transitivity (AC and CA) compounds. In Experiment 1, 5 out of 6 participants passed analogy tests, but none of them engaged in the relational tacts \"same\" and \"different\" during tact tests, possibly due to lack of instructional control. A change in instructions during Experiment 2 produced relational tacts in 4 of 6 participants, and 5 participants passed analogy tests. In Experiment 3, we implemented a talk-aloud procedure to determine if the participants were emitting relational tacts during analogy tests. All 6 participants tacted stimuli relationally and engaged in problem-solving statements to solve analogy tests. Results from these studies suggest that listener and speaker behavior in the form of relational tacts and other problem-solving statements influenced the participants\' equivalence-equivalence performance.

This paper discusses the problem of the role of language in autobiographical memory, that is barely considered in studies on autobiographical memories and narratives. As a matter of fact, most of the current studies on autobiographical memory confounded memory and narrative together. The present paper focuses on two main issues. Firstly, it debates how narratives contribute to the construction of autobiographical memories through self-other communication. Secondly, it reflects on how language and communication should be manipulated in studies about autobiographical memory. This paper is made of three sections: the first section discusses the role of language, particularly in the form of narrative, as a social tool by which autobiographical memories can be organised in a life story; the second section examines previous methods of investigation used in the study of autobiographical memories; finally, the third section proposes different methodological alternatives to overcome the problems emerging from our analysis of literature.

The present study examined the mnemonic consequences of true/false denials and affirmatives on how a listener appraises their personal past. To this end, participants (listeners) rated the extent to which they were confident certain events occurred during their childhood. They rated these events both before and after a confederate (speaker) denied or affirmed the occurrence of four different childhood events each, for a total of eight \"rehearsed\" events. For each set (denials and affirmatives) of events, half were true and half were false. In turn, this created four types of events (two each): true denials, true affirmatives, false denials, and false affirmatives. Additionally, half of the participants were told that the speaker was provided independent information about the veracity of the event\'s occurrence (\"expert\" condition). Overall, listeners were less confident in the occurrence of false denial events, but more so when they believed the speaker to be more knowledgeable of the listeners memories, more confident in false affirmative events and, counter intuitively, more confident in the occurrence of true denial events. These results underscore the importance of a nuanced approach to the mnemonic consequences of true and false denials and affirmations in the course of social interactions.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a procedure to transfer stimulus control from picture exchange requests to receptive identification. Three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and absent receptive identification repertoires participated. An adapted alternating treatment design was used. During intervention, two high-preferred and two low-preferred targets were available during picture exchange requesting sessions. Participants requested primarily for one or both high-preferred targets. During receptive identification instructional sessions, one participant acquired one high-preferred target, one participant acquired all targets, and one participant demonstrated no improvements. Generalization to novel examples of targets was assessed pre- and post-intervention and programmed if necessary. One participant generalized his acquired high-preferred target without programming. Another participant generalized a high-preferred and a low-preferred target without programming, and acquired a high-preferred target with programming. Potential benefits of this intervention and suggestions for future research are presented.

During early childhood, children find spatial tasks such as following novel route directions challenging. Spatial tasks place demands on multiple cognitive processes, including language comprehension and memory, at a time in development when resources are limited. As such, gestures accompanying route directions may aid comprehension and facilitate task performance by scaffolding cognitive processes, including language and memory processing. This study examined the effect of presenting gesture during encoding on spatial task performance during early childhood. Three- to five-year-olds were presented with verbal route directions through a zoo-themed spatial array and, depending on assigned condition (no gesture, beat gesture, or iconic/deictic gesture), accompanying gestures. Children presented with verbal route directions accompanied by a combination of iconic (pantomime) and deictic (pointing) gestures verbally recalled more than children presented with beat gestures (rhythmic hand movements) or no gestures accompanying the route directions. The presence of gesture accompanying route directions similarly influenced physical route navigation, such that children presented with gesture (beat, pantomime, and pointing) navigated the route more accurately than children presented with no gestures. Across all gesture conditions, location information (e.g., the penguin pond) was recalled more than movement information (e.g., go around) and descriptive information (e.g., bright red). These findings suggest that speakers\' gestures accompanying spatial task information influence listeners\' recall and task performance.

Old Italian violins are routinely credited with playing qualities supposedly unobtainable in new instruments. These qualities include the ability to project their sound more effectively in a concert hall-despite seeming relatively quiet under the ear of the player-compared with new violins. Although researchers have long tried to explain the \"mystery\" of Stradivari\'s sound, it is only recently that studies have addressed the fundamental assumption of tonal superiority. Results from two studies show that, under blind conditions, experienced violinists tend to prefer playing new violins over Old Italians. Moreover, they are unable to tell new from old at better than chance levels. This study explores the relative merits of Stradivari and new violins from the perspective of listeners in a hall. Projection and preference are taken as the two broadest criteria by which listeners might meaningfully compare violins. Which violins are heard better, and which are preferred? In two separate experiments, three new violins were compared with three by Stradivari. Projection was tested both with and without orchestral accompaniment. Projection and preference were judged simultaneously by dividing listeners into two groups. Results are unambiguous. The new violins projected better than the Stradivaris whether tested with orchestra or without, the new violins were generally preferred by the listeners, and the listeners could not reliably distinguish new from old. The single best-projecting violin was considered the loudest under the ear by players, and on average, violins that were quieter under the ear were found to project less well.