Date of Award
8-1980
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Cheryl Poche
Second Advisor
Dr. Jack Michael
Third Advisor
Dr. Norman Peterson
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
The present study tested a procedure to establish vocal mands in a 47- year-old non-verbal male with Down's syndrome and manually signed mands in a 64-year-old severely retarded female who was physically incapable of speech. In a multiple baseline design across subjects and settings, subjects were taught to complete four behavioral sequences. An establishing operation was then introduced: an item required to complete each sequence was systematically removed once as a probe for manding. Following this, relevant establishing operations were paired with imitative prompts to train manding missing items. Following mastery of a ll mands during booster training, subjects were tested for the presence of tacting. The male subject learned 20 vocal mands and demonstrated 16 tacts. The female learned 21 mands and demonstrated 7 tacts. Three conclusions were presented and discussed. First, tact training is not necessary before mand training. Second, tacts may be demonstrated without direct training. Finally, the item need not be present to teach manding.
Recommended Citation
Bradford, Terry Steven, "Establishing Verbal Behavior: The Effects of Using Establishing Operations and Imitative Prompts to Teach Mands to Two Non-Verbal Elderly Retarded Persons" (1980). Masters Theses. 1848.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1848