Echoic behavior: characteristics and functioning

Let's see what this concept consists of and how it is used in operant conditioning programs.

Echoic behavior is a concept that arises from Skinner's work. Verbal Behavior (1957), where he explains how imitation is essential for language acquisition.

In the following we will see what echoic behavior is and how it is studied in psychology..

The beginnings of speech development in infancy.

When children are young, their oral language is basically made up of innate sounds and babbling typical of their mother tongue.

It is the people around them (especially the parents) who shape the child's vocal productions by successive approximations. This means reinforcing the sounds that resemble the child's own language. The child learns to say the target word more and more, until the target word is the one that the child learns to say, and which is eventually incorporated into his verbal repertoire.

Thus, thanks to the environment and as they grow, their vocabulary becomes richer and more varied.

Language can also be considered a behavior, as we will see below.as we will see later. The so-called operant conditioning, which was introduced by Skinner, consists of a form of teaching by which a subject is more likely to repeat forms of behavior that entail positive consequences and less likely to repeat those that entail negative consequences.

This type of conditioning is the basis of many behaviors, including echoic behavior.

What is echoic behavior?

Echoic behavior is a verbal behavior (e.g., uttering a word), which is emitted in the presence of a vocal stimulus and is socially reinforced by its sound resemblance.. Echoic means pertaining or relating to echo, i.e., to sound.

So, for example, saying "pen" when someone says "pen" is reinforced with a "very good" (or another word that acts as a reinforcer). In simpler words, it would be what we typically know as "repeat".

Structure

In order to understand a little more about how this type of behavior is moldedWe will explain the sequence that would be used.

First a discriminative stimulus would appear, which is always sonorous (e.g. "say"); then the vocal response would appear (e.g. "pen") and finally the social reinforcer (e.g. "Very good", a smile, etc.).

The echoic behavior and the verbal stimulus share what is known as point-by-point correspondence (a formal similarity).

The aforementioned verbal discriminatives ("say coin") would in turn act as a verbal command which, when executed (when the child says "coin"), will be reinforced and will increase the probability that the child will correctly reproduce the word in the future.

This sequence that we have mentioned would be repeated, and if the vocal response is always given after the discriminative stimulus, then it is said that the behavior is under the control of the discriminative stimulus. the behavior is under the control of verbal stimuli.. When this structure is trained and maintained over time, the child ends up acquiring the corresponding words and incorporating them into his repertoire.

How to enhance the learning of this type of behavior?

In educational practice, to teach vocabulary to a child and enhance their language, we can use the discriminative "di", attached to the word we want to teach; for example "say coin".

Another example would be when, in learning a new language, the instructor says (e.g.) "parsimonious" and then adds "can you say it?", to induce echoic behavior. That is, verbal discriminatives can also be questions.

Echoic behaviors are maintained by social reinforcement (generalized and conditioned), and so, they can be generalized to different times and contexts with proper training.. Thus, the child can reproduce new sounds (words) presented by adults.

Evolution to pathology: echolalia

However, there may be cases in which echoic behavior is not functional and becomes pathological: these are called echolalia. These These occur when the child systematically repeats a word or fragment of the listener's speech..

Echolalias can sometimes be delayed, appearing minutes, hours, days or even weeks after they are heard. Echolalias are often associated with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability. It is often a form of self-stimulation.

On the other hand, children may sometimes self-reinforce their own vocal behaviors by producing sounds that they have heard in the speech of others.

The fact of changing the intonation may be the reinforcing property for the child, rather than the word itself.The fact of changing intonation may be the reinforcing property for the child, rather than the word itself or some other special aspect of the speaker. In this case, these would not be proper echoic or functional behaviors.

Behavior modification programs

Echoic behavior is very present in behavior modification programs aimed at specific groups, such as, for example, children with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders, as mentioned above. This type of program includes a wide variety of behaviors to be implemented, including language.

Specifically in this type of children, the stimulation of language is a primary objective, since it enables the development of other learning processes.

The programs are based are based on operant conditioningThe programs are based on operant conditioning, and for language stimulation molding is used; thus, at the beginning, words that are close to words will be reinforced. At the beginning, they do not necessarily have to be words; they can be syllables, and especially if the child does not yet have language, for example "cam" to end up saying "truck".

As these are intensive programs, the child will progressively (always according to its characteristics), will emit sounds more and more similar to the words we are trying to teach him/her..

As it has been said, the reinforcement of the child's verbal behaviors will make possible more complex behaviors, as well as the fact that he/she can communicate in a more functional way and can express emotions, desires, states, etc.

Bibliographical references:

• B. F., Skinner (1981). Verbal behavior. Mexico: Editorial Trillas Mexico.
• Pérez, V., Guitérrez, M., Gracía, A., & Gómez, J.(2017). Basic psychological processes: a functional analysis. Madrid (Spain): UNED.