The effects of verbal reprimands upon verbal and nonverbal behaviors in preschool children

• Grant number: 17/12066-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Mariéle de Cássia Diniz Cortez
• Grantee: Isabella Marino Brassolatti
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The conception of verbal behavior as operant behavior has allowed the identification of its environmental controlling variables. From this perspective, verbal responses, including verbal reporting, can be modified according to the consequences they produce. The present study will investigate how aversive verbal consequences (verbal reprimands) following self-reports on non-verbal behavior would affect both the accuracy of such reporting as well the frequency of the corresponding nonverbal behavior. Four children aged three to five will be exposed to a procedure using a do-say sequence. "Doing" will consist of playing with certain toys (nonverbal behavior) and "saying" in reporting which of them the child has played with or not (verbal behavior). Initially, baseline sessions will evaluate the children's self-report accuracy in a situation with no programmed consequences for verbal or nonverbal behaviors. Following baseline, children will be exposed to Verbal Reprimand sessions, in which affirmative reports of playing with certain toys will be followed by a verbal reprimand. The results will be analyzed in a multiple baseline design across participants considering the frequency of the corresponding and non-corresponding reports as well as the frequency of the nonverbal behaviors (playing). (AU)