Rule-Governed Behavior: Teaching a Preliminary Repertoire of Rule-Following to Children With Autism

Abstract

Rule-governed behavior is generally considered an integral component of complex verbal repertoires (Skinner, 1974) but has rarely been the subject of empirical research. In particular, little or no previous research has attempted to establish rulegoverned behavior in individuals who do not already posses the repertoire. This study consists of two experiments which evaluated multiple exemplar training procedures for teaching a simple component skill which may be necessary for developing a repertoire of rule-governed behavior. In both experiments, children with autism were taught to respond to simple rules which specified antecedents and the behaviors which should occur in their presence. In the first study, participants were taught to respond to rules containing "if/then" statements, where the antecedent was specified before the behavior. The second experiment was a replication and extension of the first. It involved a variation on the manner in which rules were presented. Both experiments eventually demonstrated generalization to novel rules for all participants, however variations to the standard procedure were required for several participants. Results suggest that rule-following can be analyzed and taught as generalized operant behavior and implications for future research are discussed.

Antecedent and consequential control of derived instruction‐following

“…One criticism of the current study might be that the participants were verbally sophisticated human adults and thus the current model simply tapped into previously existing verbal repertoires; we did not establish instructional control in whole cloth in these participants. A recent study (Tarbox, Zuckerman, Bishop, Olive, & O'Hora, ), provided a first demonstration of such behavior. Participants with limited verbal repertoires learned to produce simple behaviors conditional on the presence of objects when the conditionality was prescribed in a simple instruction (e.g., “Clap if this is a carrot”).…”

Using equivalence‐based instruction to teach the visual analysis of graphs

“…However, it is possible that a participant in the current study learned the rule that describes different types of graphs and then used that rule to identify the extent of functional relation demonstrated by other graphs. Given the fact that the graph‐to‐functional relation statement discrimination emerged for all participants and generalized to novel stimuli, it is reasonable to question whether some part of that performance was due to the emergence of a relation not only among the three stimuli in the functional relation statement class, but also among the verbal stimuli in the rule itself (Barnes‐Holmes et al, ; Tarbox, Tarbox, & O'Hora, ; Tarbox, Zuckerman, Bishop, Olive, & O'Hora, ). The slight increases in pretest scores for Participants 2 and 4 might also be explained by the use of verbal problem‐solving skills and/or the participants' history with written selection‐based assessments (i.e., multiple choice tests).…”

Postsecondary Expectations of High-School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…This suggests a broad view of the benchmarks of maturity and may reflect how engagement in transition planning (which emphasizes that secondary school services are tied to chronological age), influences thinking about markers of adulthood. It also may reflect literal thinking regarding definitions of adulthood, as many individuals on the spectrum rely on hierarchal thinking and rigid rule-based reasoning (Tarbox, Zuckerman, Bishop, Olive & O’Hora, 2011). Regardless of the possible reasons for the linkages between age and other markers in our sample, it is important to note that the transition to adulthood is taking longer in contemporary society and adult roles are uncommonly met before the age of 21 (Furstenberg, Kennedy, McLoyd, Rumbaut & Settersten, 2004).…”