Emergence of Tacts Following Mand Training in Young Children With Autism

Abstract

This study sought to examine the effects of training mands on the emergence of tacts with the same response forms. Results indicated that training adjective sets as mands resulted in the emergence of adjective sets as tacts under modified, but not standard, antecedent conditions. The findings suggested that the apparent functional independence of mands and tacts may be explained by a lack of appropriate antecedent control over responding.

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

“…Specifically, the initial functional independence observed in standard antecedent conditions during posttraining probes was subsequently overcome by the introduction of the modified antecedent. Notably, these findings are consistent with previous research indicating that antecedent conditions control the emergence of untrained mand or tact operants following training in the other operant (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008, 2009). The authors concluded that the modified antecedent functioned as a verbal discriminative stimulus that cued participants to respond in the context of the experimental conditions.…”

“…Therefore, the form of the verbal SD determined the emergence of mands for these participants. This finding is consistent with previous research demonstrating that the form of antecedent SD presented during mand probes may control emergent responding (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008, 2009. Thus, future research should consider the form of the SD employed during emergent mand probes.…”

“…Thus, participants may have continued to respond during mand probe sessions with responses established outside the experimental conditions. Consistent with previous research, the presentation of the modified antecedent may have functioned as a verbal discriminative stimulus that cued participants to respond in the context of the experimental training (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008, 2009.…”

“…Two recent studies demonstrated that an initial lack of mand/tact emergence was observed following tact/mand training in standard antecedent conditions (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008, 2009). An emergence of the untrained operant was subsequently overcome under modified antecedent probe conditions in which specific vocal (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2009) or specific vocal and gestural (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008) antecedent cues were present.…”

“…Recent research has explored a number of variables that might be responsible for the lack of emergent responding across mand/tact operants, and, in particular, antecedent stimuli seem to be important in this regard (Egan & Barnes-Holmes, 2008, 2009). Specifically, training in one verbal operant (either mand or tact) did not result in the emergence of the other verbal operant (tact or mand) under standard antecedent conditions.…”