Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Autoshaping Infant Vocalizations, Alexander Mcnaughton Myers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A series of five experiments was conducted to determine whether operant or respondent factors controlled the emission of a particular vocalization ("Q") by human infants 16 to 18 months old. Experiment 1 consisted of a pilot investigation of the effects of an autoshaping procedure on three infants' vocal behavior. All three subjects demonstrated increased emission of the target sound during the CR period. Experiments 2 through 4 attempted to replicate the findings of Experiment 1 under controlled conditions, and failed to do so. Experiment 5a presented infant subjects with a discrete-trial operant procedure (having the identical temporal parameters as the …