In Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) suggested that each verbal operant has independent response functions, in which acquiring one does not automatically result in the other, unless transfer between the verbal operants is directly trained. Although several researchers have shown that mands and tacts are functionally independent, more recent research has demonstrated that mands may emerge following tact training. However, this research has not clarified the influence of establishing operations on the emergence of pure mands following tact training. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of tact training on the acquisition of impure and pure mands in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) when conditioned establishing operations (CEO) were manipulated during mand probes. Three children diagnosed with ASD were taught to tact the utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles and then were assessed on their ability to mand for those utensils during CEO absent versus CEO present pure mand probes using a multiple baseline design across participants. It was hypothesized that children would be able to mand for the missing utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles only when the food items were present (CEO present, pure mand probes), but not when they were absent (CEO absent, pure mand probes). Results showed that responses taught as tacts failed to transfer to mand responses until direct training was implemented for two of the three participants. However, once a mand response was learned, all participants exhibited the mand in the CEO present condition but not in the CEO absent condition.

Studies have shown that increasing eye contact can be accomplished by using reinforcement, prompting, shaping, functional movement training, punishment, and self-monitoring. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates the use of technology as a way to increase eye contact. This study tested the effectiveness of a tablet application at increasing eye contact in children diagnosed with autism. The application requires the child to look at a picture of a person's face and identify the number displayed in the person's eyes in order to receive reinforcement. Data was collected immediately after training, one hour after training, and in the natural environment. The tablet application was not effective at increasing eye contact for any of the three participants. Once the tablet application was shown to be ineffective, the researcher used differential reinforcement to increase eye contact. All three participants showed an increase in eye contact once the differential reinforcement training was implemented.

The intraverbal is argued to be the most socially significant verbal operant and yet it is the least studied. Heal and Hanley (2011) suggest that different teaching strategies will lead to different rates of acquisition and child-preference with the tacting operant. This study continued this research into the realm of intraverbals, with focus on whether the embedded teaching strategy could be punishing on play or engaging in learning opportunities. The teaching strategies of discovery teaching, embedded prompting, and direct teaching were compared to see which strategy correlated with higher rates of acquisition and higher child preference. The study utilized a multi-element design by rapidly alternating teaching strategies while evaluating rate of acquisition and number of learning opportunities within the teaching strategies. Child preference was also demonstrated through card selection of associated teaching strategies in a concurrent chains agreement design. The teaching strategies differed in the amount of teacher directedness and taught intraverbal "Wh" questions. It was found through this study that embedded prompting did not punish play or the engagement in learning opportunities. The three participants preferred the three strategies differently and all participants were responding correctly the highest percentage of the time during the direct teaching contingencies by the end of the teaching sessions.

Stereotype threat is the cognitive pressure certain individuals feel when they believe their performance on a particular task might confirm a negative stereotype about their group. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the possible negative influence of stereotype threat on mixed-sex dyadic encounters by objectively and subjectively measuring their verbal accommodation behaviors. Sex-stereotypes were manipulated (men have greater logical intelligence than women; women have greater social intelligence than men) while participants engaged in multiple mixed-sex interactions. Four patterns emerged when analyzing the presence of both objective and subjective communication accommodation behaviors. First, women were more likely than men to objectively demonstrate accommodation behaviors such as hedges, questions, fillers, and back-channel responses. Second, most participants used less accommodation behaviors over time. Third, comparing the objective and subjective expressions of accommodation behaviors revealed no relationship--in other words, people may report one thing, but third-party accounts point toward different results. Finally, the way people judge a stranger's overall character is highly correlated to their perception of his/her verbal accommodation behaviors. This dissertation concludes with future recommendations for interpersonal communication scholars interested in stereotype threat research. / text

This study examined whether hiring recommendations based on thin slices of a structured interview were associated with recommendations based on the interview in its entirety. After viewing 12 seconds of silent interviewee behavior, participants made hiring recommendations that were significantly correlated with those produced by individuals viewing a still-frame of the interview and the entire interview. In an effort to determine what sources of information participants were using to arrive at their recommendations, nonverbal behaviors were examined in detail. Applicants who appeared attentive, not anxious, competent, confident, dominant, optimistic, and professional were more likely to receive positive hiring recommendations than others. Additional analyses reveal that these nonverbal behaviors impact hiring recommendations in both the still-frame and thin-slice video conditions after controlling for applicant physical attractiveness. Overall, results indicate that despite the availability of verbal content, interviewers may be heavily influenced by their first 12-second impression of a job applicant.

Establishing effective language intervention for those who struggle to acquire it early on has received significant attention from researchers within the field of behavior analysis. The procedures of the present study were adapted from Spurgin' thesis research from 2021, in which a stimulus specific consequence was used during teaching after participants made correct responses. In this case, the stimulus specific consequence was a label for a picture that participants were required to point to during teaching trials. When participants pointed to the correct card, the researcher would label the card and deliver a small wooden block which the participants were told they were working for. In the hear-say procedures, participants were taught one set of cards and instructed to echo the researchers' labels. In the see-say participants were taught a second set of cards and instructed to "beat' the researcher to saying the word. After all cards were taught, were tested with a non-vocal receptive identification test. Immediately following this, participants were tested with a vocal expressive identification test. An extended teaching was included to determine the effects of additional practice within each condition. Results indicated that the participants were able to require some receptive and expressive language but targets often did not correspond. In many instances, receptive mastery did not necessarily lead to expressive mastery or vice versa. Results also indicated that additional practice improved receptive scores but had little impact on expressive scores. Implication for teaching learners with autism as well as typical adults is discussed.

Licentiatavhandling (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 2 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed October 3, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-176)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on Sept.9, 2009). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The present studies evaluated the effect of training structures on the development of equivalence classes in college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two types of training structures, One-To-Many (OTM) (AB, AC, AD), and Many-To-One (MTO) (BA, CA, DA), on the establishment of equivalence classes in college students. A between group comparison was used in Experiment 1. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to two different groups. Twenty-one were assigned to the OTM group and twenty-one to the MTO group. Participants in both groups were taught 3 four-member stimulus classes. Participants in both groups were exposed to conditional discrimination training, mixed training, symmetry and equivalence test. Response accuracy and response latency were measured in both groups. The results showed that the MTO training structure was slightly more effective in establishing equivalence classes in college students. In the Experiment 2, six young adults with intellectual disabilities were taught mathematical relations using the MTO training structure which was the most effective training structure in Experiment 1. All participants were taught three 3-member stimulus equivalence classes using the MTO training structure. The experimental sequence consisted of a generalization probe and pretest followed by conditional discrimination training, symmetry test, equivalence test, and posttest. Upon the completion of the training and testing phases a generalization probe was evaluated. Five participants demonstrated equivalence relations. The results show that the MTO training was superior to the OTM in the Experiment 1. Response latencies were faster in the MTO group during the training phases and slower in the testing conditions. Experiment 2 showed that only five participants demonstrated equivalence relations and transferred untaught relations to new setting. Results and implications are discussed in light of the research on equivalence and training structures in both adults and individual with intellectual disabilities.