Analyzing the Impact of Name-Object and Object-Name Delays with Contextual Cues on Derived Simple-Discrimination Naming with Adults: A Preliminary Study

Incidental naming has attracted increasing attention in the behavior-analytic literature, but no studies have focused on the potential role of contextual cues in such naming, as defined by relational frame theory. In accordance with the theory, presenting an object and its name simultaneously may function as a cue for naming itself and may also be viewed as explicitly training a bidirectional name relation. The current study adopted a nonsimultaneous presentation technique, while manipulating specific contextual cues for simple-discrimination naming across different procedural variations (i.e., object–name versus name–object sequences with 3–5 s and 10–12 s delays between the object and name pairings). It is important to note that simple-discrimination involved naming following individual name–object experiences and not establishing discrimination among multiple name–object relations. Twenty-four typical adult participants were divided into six groups. Groups 1–4 were exposed to an AB design in which the exclusion of cues (A) was presented before the inclusion of cues (B). Nine of the 16 participants produced more naming errors in the absence of cues than in their presence. Groups 5–6 were exposed to a BA design, in which contextual cues were presented first (B) followed by the removal of cues (A). With the exception of a single error, all eight participants produced correct naming across all trials, thus indicating that the improved performances observed with the cues across Groups 1–4 were unlikely to be the result of a mere exposure effect. Implications for future research on incidental naming with both adults and children are discussed.