Title: The Relationship Between Bidirectional Naming, Derived Relations, and Non-Arbitrary Relations
Description: In 2 experiments, I analyzed relations between the presence of Bidirectional Naming (BiN) and the establishment of arbitrary and non-arbitrary relational responses. In Experiment I, I analyzed the presence and strength of correlations between Bidirectional Naming and the establishment of derived relations for 31 preschool students. For Bidirectional Naming, the participants’ responses to both familiar and unfamiliar stimuli were measured; familiar stimuli were defined as spoken and visual stimuli that may be commonly present in the participants’ environment, while unfamiliar stimuli were contrived spoken and visual stimuli that were not customarily present in the participants’ environment. For relational responses, a non-arbitrary relation was defined as a relation that can be made based on the formal characteristics of the stimuli, while an arbitrary relation would be based on verbally mediated contextual cues. Data from this experiment showed there was an overall positive correlation between the demonstration of Bidirectional Naming and the establishment of derived relations, r = .847, p < .001.

Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between Bidirectional Naming with unfamiliar stimuli and arbitrarily derived relations, r = .823, p < .001. In Experiment II, I studied the establishment of arbitrary visual-visual and auditory-visual relations for 18 preschool students. The participants were split into 3 equal groups based on their degree of Bidirectional Naming; the groups consisted of 6 participants that demonstrated Bidirectional Naming, 6 participants that demonstrated Unidirectional Naming (UniN), and 6 participants that demonstrated a low degree of Bidirectional Naming. A comparison of the mean correct responses, between experimental groups, showed a significant difference for auditory-visual relations, F(2,15) = 36.63, p < .001, as well as visual-visual relations, F(2,15) = 4.11, p = .038. These data suggest that simpler (i.e., auditory-visual) derived relations are present with Unidirectional Naming; however, the joining of the listener and speaker repertoires (i.e., Bidirectional Naming) may be necessary for the development of more complex (i.e., visual-visual) derived relations.

The results of these experiments suggest strong associations between the incidental acquisition of words and the incidental acquisition of language relations. The results also provide more evidence for how the establishment of Bidirectional Naming may lead to an individual learning at accelerated rates and in new ways.