Derived manding in children with autism: synthesizing Skinner's verbal behavior with relational frame theory

Abstract

Mand functions for two stimuli (A1 and A2) were trained for 3 children with autism and were then incorporated into two related conditional discriminations (A1-B1/A2 -B2 and B1-C1/B2-C2). Tests were conducted to probe for a derived transfer of mand response functions from A1 and A2 to C1 and C2, respectively. When 1 participant failed to demonstrate derived transfer of mand response functions, transfer training using exemplars was conducted. When participants had demonstrated derived transfer of mand functions, the X1 and X2 tokens that were employed as reinforcers for mand responses were incorporated into two conditional discriminations (X1-Y1/X2-Y2 and Y1-Z1/Y2-Z2). Tests were conducted for derived transfer of reinforcing functions. Finally, tests were conducted to determine if the participants would demonstrate derived manding for the derived reinforcers (present C1 and C2 to mand for Z1 and Z2, respectively). Derived transfer of functions was observed when the sequence of training and testing was reversed (i.e., training and testing reinforcing functions before mand response functions) and when only minimal instructions were provided.

Figure 1A. Schematic representation of the training and testing tasks across each phase of Experiment 1.

Figure 1B. Schematic representation of the training and testing tasks across each phase of Experiment 1.

Figure 1C. Schematic representation of the training and testing tasks across each phase of Experiment 1.

Figure 2. Results for Participant 1.

DM  =  direct mand training. A1 − B1, A2 − B2 + B1-C1, B2 − C2  =  conditional discrimination training with mand stimuli. BDM  =  baseline derived mands. RDM  =  reverse derived mands. X1 − Y1, X2 − Y2 + Y1 − Z1, Y2 − Z2  =  conditional discrimination training with reinforcing stimuli. DRF  =  derived reinforcer functions. CDMR  =  combined derived mands and reinforcers.

Figure 3. Results for Participant 2.

See Figure 2 for details.

Figure 4. Results for Participant 3.

See Figure 2 for details. TT  =  transfer training.

Figure 5. Results for Participant 4.

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Figure 6. Results for Participant 5.

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Figure 7. Results for Participant 6.

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Figure 8. Results for Participant 1, Experiment 3.

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Figure 9. Results for Participant 3, Experiment 3.

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Figure 10. Results for Participant 5, Experiment 3.

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Figure 11. Results for Participant 7.

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