Theses Doctoral

The Role of Verbal Behavior Development in Reading and Spelling Sight Words

Bajwa, Tanya

In 3 experiments, I investigated the role of verbal behavior development in reading and spelling sight words. I evaluated effects of different interventions for reading and spelling sight words and establishing the transformation of stimulus function across word reading and spelling.

In Experiment 1, I evaluated the effects of 3 interventions on the acquisition and maintenance of sight words: single topography exemplar instruction (STEI), multiple topography exemplar instruction (MTEI), and MTEI with dictation (MTEI-D). The STEI intervention consisted of reading individual sight words. The MTEI intervention consisted of reading, pointing-to, and intraverbally responding to sight words. The MTEI-D intervention consisted of reading, pointing-to, and writing dictation responses for sight words. I measured the acquisition and maintenance of sight words through 5 response topographies: textual, intraverbal, point-to, sentence generalization, and dictation responses. The results indicated that participants acquired and maintained textual, intraverbal, point-to, and sentence generalization responses across all 3 conditions but only acquired dictation responses in the MTEI-D condition.

The results from the MTEI-D condition suggest that the rotation of textual and dictation responses may have established transformation of stimulus function (TSF) across word reading and spelling. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across word reading and spelling on establishing TSF across word reading and spelling. The results from Experiment 2 indicated that the MEI intervention was not effective in establishing TSF across word reading and spelling for all participants. However, the results highlighted the need to further evaluate the role of other cusps such as, incidental bidirectional naming (Inc-BiN) and conditioned seeing, in strengthening the stimulus control for establishing TSF across word reading and spelling. In Experiment 3, I evaluated the effects of a MEI intervention across delayed textual and delayed transcription responses on establishing TSF across word reading and spelling.

The results demonstrated that MEI across delayed textual and transcription responses was effective in establishing TSF across word reading and spelling for all participants. The results also demonstrated that all participants increased in their correct responding for conditioned seeing probes. Keywords: sight words, transformation of stimulus function, incidental bidirectional naming, conditioned seeing, word reading, spelling

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Applied Behavior Analysis
Thesis Advisors
Fienup, Daniel
Degree
Ph.D., Columbia University
Published Here
July 5, 2023