Article Abstract:
Horne and Lowe offered a naming hypothesis of stimulus class formation in their 1996 paper. They assume that a child's production of a name results in the selection of a printed word in situations where the reinforcement contingencies call for the child to match a printed word comparison to a picture sample and the child is consistent in providing an audible name during the trial. They assume that a name affected the selection anyway if the child does not speak during the trial. This interpretation should be avoided and corrected.
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Article Abstract:
Pauline J. Horne and C. Fergus Lowe argue that it is naming that determines stimulus equivalence and not the other way around. The good thing about their account is that it revives Skinner's conceptions of language development and integrates them to a broadly Vygotskian point of view. However, their theory allows many other hypotheses to be proposed. Nevertheless, problems such as this should not be overestimated. This can be surmounted with a systematic program of experimentally driven development behavioral research.
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Article Abstract:
P. Horne and C. Lowe were able to shed light on the concepts of verbal behavior and stimulus equivalence with their 1996 paper. Despite the virtues of their account, however, it does not come without certain problems. Their discussion on the influence of interverbal naming on equivalence relation is one of the points that need to be tackled further. Their assumption that the concept of sameness or substitutability cannot be used to objects and words also needs to be addressed more. Further research is needed.
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