Emergence of Naming in Preschoolers: A Comparison of Multiple and Single Exemplar Instruction

Several reports have demonstrated the emergence of the Naming capability as a function of multiple exemplar instructions (MEI). We compared singular exemplar instruction (SEI) and (MEI) on emergence of untaught listener and speaker responses (Naming) by preschool children who were missing Naming using combined experimental-control group and nested single-case multiple probe designs. We taught training sets of pictures using MEI to 4-participants and the same sets using SEI to another 4-participants with numbers of instructional presentations for SEI participants matched to the MEI participants. Naming emerged for the MEI group but did not for the SEI group. Subsequently, the SEI participants received MEI and Naming emerged. Instructional histories that involve the rotation of speaker listener responding appear to predict the emergence of Naming. We discuss the findings in terms of the relation of the MEI as the source of Naming as a higher order operant and whether or not Naming is a relational frame.