A Modern Collaborative Behavior Analytic Approach to Incidental Naming

An important distinction has been drawn within the behavior-analytic literature
between two types of naming. Naming that is reinforced is referred to as
bidirectional naming, and naming that is not reinforced is referred to as incidental
bidirectional naming. According to verbal behavior development theory children
who demonstrate incidental naming have developed a verbal behavioral cusp, and
often learn new language more rapidly as a result. A growing body of research
has assessed incidental naming using what is described as an incidental naming
experience, in which novel stimuli are presented and named by a researcher but
with no direct differential reinforcement for subsequent naming responses by the
participant. According to relational frame theory, such studies on incidental naming
have typically involved presenting contextual cues that likely serve to establish the
name relations between an object and its name. As such, contextual cues may play
a critical role in the emergence of incidental naming responses, but there are no
published studies that have systematically tested the potential role of contextual cues
in relation to incidental naming. The current article provides a narrative review of
the incidental naming literature, highlighting variables that remain to be explored in
future research.