Use of Repeated Within-Subject Measures to Assess Infants’ Preference for Similar Others

Research employing single-choice paradigms in which an infant is asked to make a single choice between two puppets suggest that infants show a preference for prosocial others and those who are similar to themselves. However, the extent to which infants’ preference for similar others is stable is unknown, as are other factors within the paradigm that may influence infants’ choices. The purpose of this study (two experiments, N = 44 infants, aged 8–15 months) was to replicate and extend previous work by including (1) within-subject repeated measures and (2) an experimental manipulation of a plausible demand characteristic. Results for the first-choice trial indicated a majority of the infants did not choose the similar puppet. Results from the within-subject repeated trials also indicated that a majority of the infants did not choose the similar puppet but a majority did choose a puppet from the same side. The experimental manipulation of the demand characteristic showed no effect on infant puppet choices. These results suggest that a closer examination of the single-choice puppet paradigm for assessing infants’ social evaluation is warranted. These findings also support recommendations made by others, including publishing null findings, standardizing data collection and reporting methods, and examining individual differences by employing within-subject designs with repeated measures

Conditioning the behavior of the listener

Among the many behaviors of speakers and listeners, perhaps none is more interesting from a behavior analytic perspective than those that modify the future behavior of the listener. Skinner first mentioned this possibility in Verbal Behavior (1957) in a section titled, �Conditioning the Behavior of the Listener,� in which he described how certain relational autoclitics could produce changes in the future behavior of listeners separate from their more immediate and straightforward conditioned reflexive and discriminative effects. Oddly, Skinner never returned to this topic, even when he described problem solving and rule-governed behavior in the late 1960s. As behavior analysts celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Verbal Behavior, I believe that it is important to revisit this feature of verbal behavior. In the present article, I (a) describe how the behavior of the listener is �conditioned� by verbal stimuli, (b) address the question of whether these changes in the listener�s behavior represent actual operant conditioning or an analog of it, and (c) discuss some implications for rule-governed behavior