Abstract
Several studies have shown that human performance on matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks may involve some form of verbal mediation. The current study evaluated the role of one form of mediation, specifically intraverbal naming (Horne & Lowe, 1996) in a visual-visual MTS procedure across three sets of arbitrary stimuli. Six undergraduate students (ages 20-32) were taught to tact the pictures with individual names, then to relate them with one another through intraverbal training. They were taught to relate A1 with B1, A2 with B2, and A3 with B3 vocally. Afterwards, participants performed MTS tasks in which A stimuli were presented as samples, and B stimuli as comparisons. Results indicated high accuracy of matching performance corresponding to trained vocal intraverbal relations. Furthermore, two out of six participants spontaneously vocalized intraverbals while performing the task, suggesting that intraverbal naming mediated their responses. Moreover, when participants were instructed to vocalize while performing the MTS task, they consistently stated the trained intraverbal relations while matching arbitrary pictures. This study further supports a verbal mediation account of matching performances and problem solving in general.