Exploring non-simultaneous stimulus presentations and their role in derived naming

Abstract

Perspective-taking is deemed important for social interaction, particularly in autistic children, who tend to demonstrate lower levels of this skill. A systematic review of behaviour analytic studies on deictic relational responding and perspective-taking in autistic children revealed a need for research on the foundational language skills involved in this area (Hempkin et al., 2024). The empirical research reported in the current thesis focuses on some of the foundational language skills as identified within relational frame theory (RFT), including mutually entailed orienting—where a child shifts focus between a caregiver and an object. According to RFT, mutually entailed orienting occurs when children are learning to name objects and events while interacting with their caregivers (Hayes et al., 2001), and as such naming is deemed a foundational skill for perspective-taking. The current doctoral research programme focuses, therefore, on naming and in particular examines how contextual cues, such as orientation, pointing, temporal contiguity and linguistic prompts, affect naming in both neurotypical and autistic children across three studies. Throughout all of the research, naming was analyzed using procedures in which names and objects were presented non-simultaneously, thus ensuring that naming tests involved derived relations as defined within RFT. Positive findings led to further research on using these cues within multiple exemplar training to establish naming in autistic children in a fourth study. Additionally, in a final study, the role of contextual cues in establishing relational flexibility was explored in second language learning in autistic participants. Overall, the current PhD contributes to understanding the behavioural processes involved in naming, supporting future investigations into more complex behaviours, including verbal perspective-taking.

Date of Award	Nov 2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Dermot Barnes-Holmes (Supervisor), Julian Leslie (Supervisor) & Maithri Sivaraman (Supervisor)