On the formation of a functional “mand for instruction” in autistic students

Abstract

Three autistic students were taught to emit a mand for instruction to unknown stimuli, asking for a correct answer from an adult; the effects of such training were evaluated with multiple baseline analyses. In Experiment 1, the students were taught to respond “I don't know” to unknown Chinese characters, drawings or verbal questions. The results indicated that for everyone of the three students the acquired verbal response was generalized within the same stimulus set, but wasn't generalized beyond stimulus sets. In Experiment 2, students were instructed correct answers upon their response “I don't know. Let me know” to unknown stimuli. First, primary reinforcements were presented both for manding and correct answering (Condition 1). And then, reinforcements were presented only for correct answering (Condition 2). As a result, two out of three students did acquire correct answers but only when Condition 2 was implemented. Subsequently, all students also emitted appropriate verbal response in a situation involving textual tasks, dictation tasks and free play settings (Experiment 3). These results were discussed in terms of techniques in order to establish a generalized and functional language. © 1987, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.