Emergence of Untaught Mands or Tacts of Novel Adjective-Object Pairs as a Function of Instructional History

Abstract

We tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) on the emergence of untaught mands or tacts of adjective-object pairs in a multiple-probe design across four students with autism/developmental disabilities. None of the students emitted either mands or tacts for three sets of three adjective-object pairs (word sets counterbalanced across students and conditions) in pre-experimental probe trials. In the baseline phase, either mands or tacts were taught for the first adjective-object pairs to each student who then received probe trials for the untaught verbal operants. None of the students emitted the verbal operant that was not directly taught. In the MEI condition, a second set of adjective-object pairs was taught under alternating mand and tact conditions until both operants were mastered. Following mastery of the second set in the MEI condition, students were again probed for the untaught mands or tacts for the adjective-object pairs that were not in their repertoires when a single verbal operant was taught in baseline (the first set). All students emitted the untaught mands or tacts for the first set. Finally, a third set of adjective-object pairs was taught as tacts or mands and the untaught mands or tacts emerged. The data are discussed in terms of generative verbal behavior, abstraction of establishing operation control, and multiple exemplar instruction.

How Kids Learn to Say the Darnedest Things: The Effect of Multiple Exemplar Instruction on the Emergence of Novel Verb Usage

“…The terms refer generally to similar operations. Some possible differences are that in both the MEI research described by Becker (1992) and in the research on the emergence of Naming (Fiorile & Greer, 2007;, 2007, the emergence of tacts from learning mands and vice versa (Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer, 2004), and the emergence of writing from saying and vice versa (Greer, Yuan et al, 2005) consistently used the correction component of the learn unit (Ingham & Greer, 1992); whereas, in the multiple exemplar training this may have not been the case. Moreover, the MEI used in the studies on Naming and the joining of saying and writing involve MEI across response types along with MEI for the visual stimuli.…”

“…In another but somewhat different application of MEI, Nuzzolo-Gomez and Greer (2004) found that MEI across establishing operations with a subset of responses led to the untaught usage of vocal mands or tacts with children for whom the tact and mand functions were independent prior to the MEI intervention. In this case, single responses came to be controlled for novel production as a function of the establishing operations tied to different verbal functions.…”

Establishing Mand Emergence: The Effects of Three Training Procedures and Modified Antecedent Conditions

“…However, these studies subsequently demonstrated emergent responding through the use of transfer-of-stimulus-control procedures (Partington et al, 1994), exemplar training (Hall & Sundberg, 1987;Sigafoos et al, 1990), or multiple exemplar training (Nuzzolo-gomez & greer, 2004). In general, these studies showed that emergent responding was demonstrated following specific training procedures to transfer control from the trained to the untrained operant.…”

“…The goal of much of this research has been to establish effective communicationtraining programs for persons with developmental disabilities (Sundberg & Partington, 1998). Researchers in this area have often focused on establishing "emergent" verbal behavior in which a response acquired under the controlling conditions of one verbal operant transfers to the conditions of another without direct instruction (Hernandez, Hanley, Ingvarsson, & Tiger, 2007;Nuzzolo-gomez & greer, 2004;Rosales & Rehfeldt, 2007). It has been observed that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) lack this type of emergent responding.…”

“…Directly trained dependence refers to performances that indicate an initial lack of untaught mand or tact emergence following training in the other operant (Hall & Sundberg, 1987;Nuzzolo-gomez & greer, 2004;Partington, Sundberg, Newhouse, & Spengler, 1994;Sigafoos, Reichle, Doss, Hall, & Pettitt, 1990). However, these studies subsequently demonstrated emergent responding through the use of transfer-of-stimulus-control procedures (Partington et al, 1994), exemplar training (Hall & Sundberg, 1987;Sigafoos et al, 1990), or multiple exemplar training (Nuzzolo-gomez & greer, 2004).…”