Contriving Transitive Conditioned Establishing Operations to Establish Derived Manding Skills in ...

CONTRIVING TRANSITIVE CONDITIONED ESTABLISHINGOPERATIONS TO ESTABLISH DERIVED MANDING SKILLS IN

ADULTS WITH SEVERE DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

ROCIO ROSALES AND RUTH ANNE REHFELDT

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate derived manding skills in 2 adults with severedevelopmental disabilities and language deficits by contriving transitive conditioned establishingoperations. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced conditional discriminationlearning would ultimately result in a derived mand repertoire, in which participants manded foritems that were needed to complete chained tasks. After mastering the first three phases of thepicture exchange communication system (PECS), participants were taught to mand for theneeded items by exchanging pictures of the items for the items themselves. They were thentaught to conditionally relate the dictated names of the items to the corresponding pictures of theitems and to relate the dictated names to the corresponding printed words. We then tested, in theabsence of reinforcement, whether participants would mand for the items needed to completethe chained tasks using text rather than pictures. Both participants showed the emergence ofderived mands and some derived stimulus relations as a result of this instruction. Some of thederived relations were shown to be intact at 1-month follow-up, and scores on derived mandprobes were higher at follow-up than before training. In addition, the 2 participants vocallyrequested the needed items on maintenance test probes, a skill that was never trained and was notpreviously in their repertoires. These results suggest that a history of reinforced relationalresponding may facilitate the expansion of a number of verbal skills and emphasize the possibilityof a synthesis of Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior and derived stimulus relations intolanguage-training efforts for persons with significant disabilities.

DESCRIPTORS: stimulus equivalence, manding, establishing operations

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Individuals with severe developmental disabil-ities often display substantial limitations infunctional communication. Communicatingone’s wants and needs is critical for theseindividuals to sustain a meaningful quality oflife. Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior,which provides a taxonomy of verbal operants,has met with considerable success in establishing

rudimentary verbal repertoires in individualswith severe disabilities (e.g., Stafford, Sundberg,& Braam, 1988). These language-training cur-ricula often make the mand an initial focus ofintervention. The mand, ‘‘a verbal operant inwhich the response is reinforced by a character-istic consequence and is therefore under thefunctional control of relevant conditions ofdeprivation and aversive stimulation’’ (Skinner,pp. 35–36), is often granted emphasis in basiclanguage-training programs because it functionsprimarily for the benefit of the speaker: Regard-less of whether vocal communication, picturepointing or exchanging, or manual sign is thechosen modality, mands are maintained byspecific, concrete, and effective reinforcers(Bondy & Frost, 1994; Yamamoto & Mochi-zuki, 1988), and are for this reason likely to beacquired rapidly.

Skinner’s (1957) notion of the conditions ofdeprivation and aversive stimulation under

This project constituted the master’s thesis completedby the first author under supervision of the second authorin the Behavior Analysis and Therapy program atSouthern Illinois University. We thank Joe Spradlin andtwo anonymous reviewers for helpful comments ona previous version. We also thank Amie Heagle andCharles Williams for assistance with reliability data, andgratefully acknowledge Franklin-Williamson Human Ser-vices Inc. in West Frankfort, Illinois, for their support ofthis project.

Address correspondence to Ruth Anne Rehfeldt,Mailcode 4609, Rehabilitation Services Program, Re-habilitation Institute, Southern Illinois University, Car-bondale, Illinois 62901 (e-mail: [email protected]).

doi: 10.1901/jaba.2007.117-05

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2007, 40, 105–121 NUMBER 1 (SPRING 2007)

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which mands are emitted was further articulatedby Michael (1988), who defined such condi-tions in his analysis of the establishing operation(EO), or ‘‘an environmental event, operation,or stimulus condition which affects an organismby momentarily altering (1) the reinforcingeffectiveness of other events, and (2) thestrength of that part of the organism’s repertoirethat has been reinforced by those other events’’(p. 3). Michael distinguished between uncon-ditioned establishing operations (UEOs), whichare EOs whose value-altering effects are un-learned, and conditioned establishing opera-tions (CEOs), which are EOs that depend onindividual learning histories. More recently,Laraway, Snycerski, Michael, and Poling (2003)suggested that applied behavior analysts adoptthe term motivating operation in lieu ofestablishing operation, because the newer termmore directly refers to events that increase anddecrease the effectiveness of reinforcers andpunishers (see also Call, Wacker, Ringdahl, &Boelter, 2005).

Contriving the motivating operation origi-nally identified by Michael (1988, 1993) as thetransitive CEO—a CEO in which one stimulusincreases the reinforcing value of a secondstimulus—has been shown to be a particularlyeffective means of establishing manding skills inindividuals with developmental disabilities. Oneprocedure, known as the interrupted chainprocedure (Hall & Sundberg, 1987), involvescontriving a situation so that a portion ofa behavior chain is interrupted and cannot becompleted unless a mand occurs, therebycreating the relevant conditions of deprivation.In other words, the inaccessibility of an itemneeded to complete a chained task createsconditions under which the needed itemincreases in value, thus making a mand for thatitem more probable. To use the interruptedchain procedure, the practitioner typicallyselects a chained task already in the individual’srepertoire, and a mand instructional trial isinserted into the chain. For example, the

headphones needed to complete the chainedtask of assembling a portable compact discplayer may be withheld as the individual beginsthe chained task. When the individual reachesthe point in the chain in which headphones areneeded to complete the next step, he or she maybe required to exchange a picture of headphonesfor access to the headphones. The headphonescan then be plugged into the compact discplayer and the remainder of the task can becompleted (see also Hunt, Goetz, Alwell, &Sailor, 1986).

The research program on derived stimulusrelations has provided an additional conceptual-ization of verbal behavior. Stemming fromSidman and Tailby’s (1982) original account,a number of studies have shown that whena small number of conditional discriminationsare explicitly reinforced, additional relations willemerge on the basis of that prior history ofreinforcement. For example, a verbally proficientindividual who is taught to conditionally relatedictated names to their corresponding picturesand text is likely to name the pictures, read thetext, and match the pictures to the text and textto the pictures in the absence of furtherinstruction. When such derived or untrainedrelations are observed, the stimuli are said to befunctionally substitutable or symbolic for oneanother (Sidman & Tailby). This finding iseducationally relevant, for it suggests thata number of new skills may emerge in theabsence of direct reinforcement solely on thebasis of a history of reinforced conditionaldiscrimination learning. Several studies havehighlighted the practical significance of expand-ing verbal repertoires by training derivedstimulus relations. Cowley, Green, and Braun-ling-McMorrow (1992) taught adults with braininjuries to conditionally relate their therapists’dictated names to their photographs and theirwritten names. Posttests showed the emergenceof untrained conditional relations involvingphotos and written names, and 2 participantswere capable of orally naming the photos.

106 ROCIO ROSALES and RUTH ANNE REHFELDT

Kennedy, Itkonen, and Lindquist (1994) useda similar procedure to establish untrainedconcept formation and sight-word recognitionskills in individuals with moderate disabilities,and de Rose, de Souza, and Hanna (1996)taught children with reading deficiencies tomatch printed words to dictated words and tocopy and name printed words with movableletters. All of the children showed the emergenceof reading skills, and some also read generaliza-tion words at the conclusion of training.

Although a fair amount of research in this areahas been conducted with individuals with mildor moderate disabilities, a paucity of research hasfocused upon derived stimulus relations inindividuals with severely limited verbal reper-toires, such as persons with severe mentalretardation (O’Donnell & Saunders, 2003).Because of the time- and labor-intensive in-struction that this population demands, individ-uals with severe developmental disabilities maybenefit from a language training program thatfocuses on establishing derived stimulus rela-tions, because all desired skills would not have tobe directly taught. Furthermore, because it iscritical for these individuals to acquire a rudi-mentary mand repertoire, incorporating elementsof both Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbalbehavior and the current conceptualization ofderived stimulus relations into language trainingefforts might prove to be particularly useful.Although the two areas of study have evolvedseparately, it is increasingly evident that there aresimilarities between their subject matters andtheir potential for expanding repertoires (Hall &Chase, 1991).

A synthesis of Skinner’s (1957) analysis ofverbal behavior and derived stimulus relationswas recently proposed by Barnes-Holmes,Barnes-Holmes, and Cullinan (2000). Theseauthors propose that unlike Skinner’s analysis ofverbal behavior (which contends that likenonverbal behavior, verbal behavior is contin-gency shaped), true verbal behavior is notestablished via direct contact with contingencies

of reinforcement but emerges via a reinforcedhistory of relational responding. Regarding themand specifically, Barnes-Holmes et al. (2000)argue that the mand as described by Skinner(1957) may not account for a novel object that‘‘(a) has never reinforced the mand in the past,(b) has never reinforced a different mand thatmight induce the current mand, (c) does notphysically resemble an object that previouslyreinforced the mand, and (d) has never beenpaired with an object that previously reinforcedthe mand’’ (p. 72). As the authors describe,

A nonverbal type involves the explicit training ofa particular mand to a particular object, as whena child in a toy shop mands for a toy car because inthe past manding for a car resulted in the parentactually buying the toy car and presenting it to thechild. The verbal type, however, involves themanded stimulus participating in relational frameswith other stimuli. In this example, the frame maycontain toys in general. The child learns to say ‘‘toy’’in the presence of cars, train sets, dolls, and so forth,and the child learns to mand at least one toy. Then,the child need not learn to ask for each specific toyfrom scratch; the child merely has to respond to theobject as participating in a frame of coordinationwith other toys. (p. 72)

Vocally requesting a novel toy, then, wouldconstitute an example of a derived mand.Derived mands may be nonvocal in form aswell, as in the case of an individual who requestsa preferred item by exchanging a picture of theitem for the item itself, and who is then taughtto conditionally relate the dictated name of theitem to the picture and to its correspondingtext. Ultimately the individual may request thepreferred item by exchanging its text rather thanits picture (Rehfeldt & Root, 2005). Pro-gramming for the emergence of derived mandsmay be an economical and efficient means ofexpanding verbal repertoires.

An advantage of adults with severe disabilitiesrequesting items via the exchange of text ratherthan pictures is that using text to communicatemay be more easily understood by communitylisteners. Also, exchanging text may be viewedas more adult-like for individuals for whomcommunity integration and inclusion are pri-

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orities. In addition, if such a skill is shown toemerge from a history of conditionally relatingdictated names to pictures and text, additionalderived stimulus relations (e.g., naming pic-tures, reading text, matching pictures to textand text to pictures) are likely to emerge as well,as was the case in the study reported by Rehfeldtand Root (2005). A limitation of that study,however, is that preferred items were present onall mand instructional and derived mand testtrials, thus calling into question whether theparticipants’ exchanging of text for preferreditems was exclusively under the control ofmotivating operations and not the preferreditems themselves. An important next step infurther synthesizing Skinner’s (1957) analysis ofverbal behavior and the derived stimulusrelations research program into language train-ing protocols is to demonstrate the emergenceof derived mands that are solely under controlof relevant conditions of deprivation. In thepresent study, transitive CEOs were contrivedby teaching adults with severe developmentaldisabilities to mand for inaccessible itemsneeded to complete chained tasks by exchangingpictures of those items. They were then taughtto conditionally relate the dictated names ofthose items to the corresponding pictures and tothe corresponding printed words. Finally,participants were tested for their ability toexchange the correct text when in need of anitem to complete a task as well as for theemergence of derived stimulus relations (e.g.,naming pictures, reading text, matching pic-tures to text and text to pictures) among thestimuli.

METHOD

Participants

Two adults with severe mental retardationwho lacked functional communication skillswere recruited from a community rehabilitationprogram in southern Illinois to participate inthis study. Lucy was a 34-year-old woman whohad also been diagnosed with Down syndrome.

The Stanford Binet Intelligence Test indicatedan IQ of 36. The social and communicativesubsection of the Inventory for Client andAgency Planning (ICAP), which measuresfunctional communication, imitation, receptiveand expressive language, and reading andwriting skills, indicated that Lucy communi-cated at an age equivalent of 3 years11 months. Lucy was taking 0.075 mg ofLevoxyl four times a day, 10 mg of Zocoronce a day, and 500 mg of Glucophage fourtimes a day throughout the study. Tony wasa 58-year-old man who had also been di-agnosed with anxiety disorder and psychoticdisorder not otherwise specified. Althougha current IQ score was not available, a previousexamination specified an IQ score of 24. Thesocial and communicative subsection of theICAP indicated that Tony communicated at anage equivalent of 1 year 8 months. Tony wastaking 20 mg of Olanzapine once daily, 0.5 mgof Lorazapam twice daily, and 15 mg ofMoexipiril once daily throughout the study.Tony’s and Lucy’s speech often consisted ofpoorly articulated single words and incoherentnoises. Both often used gestures to communi-cate. Agency staff recommended both partici-pants for this study to enhance their functionalcommunication skills.

Setting and Stimulus Materials

Training and test sessions were conducted ineither an isolated classroom or a kitchen at theparticipants’ developmental training center.These rooms were furnished with a table, severalchairs, and cabinets. Materials included, foreach participant, a binder (28 cm by 25 cm)with three hook-and-loop strips spaced approx-imately 10 cm apart; digital photographs (9 cmby 5 cm) of items needed to complete chainedtasks; printed words corresponding to thoseitems printed on cards (9 cm by 5 cm) inboldface Times New Roman 36-point font;a stimulus placement board (28 cm by 25 cm);and the items used to complete the chainedtasks.


Stimuli designated as A1, B1, and C1corresponded to headphones used to completethe chained task of playing a compact disc (CD)on a portable stereo. Stimuli designated as A2,B2, and C2 corresponded to a cup used tocomplete the chained task of making a pitcherof Kool-AidH, and stimuli designated as A3, B3,and C3 corresponded to a spoon also used tomake a pitcher of Kool-AidH. In all cases, the Astimuli were the dictated names of the items,the B stimuli were the corresponding pictures ofthe items, and the C stimuli were thecorresponding printed words for the items.The pictures were used during mand training;the printed words were used during derivedmand test probes; and all of the stimuli wereused during conditional discrimination trainingand derived stimulus relations test probes.

The materials used for the music chained taskincluded a portable stereo, headphones, two AAbatteries, and a CD. Materials needed for theKool-AidH task included a large plastic spoon,individual packets of sugar-free Kool-AidH,a pitcher, and Styrofoam cups.

Experimental Design

A multiple probe design (Horner & Baer,1978) across 2 participants was used to controlfor the effects of history, maturation, andrepeated testing. First, pretest probes of Lucy’sand Tony’s manding for items needed tocomplete the tasks by exchanging the correcttext were presented. Derived stimulus relationsbetween the stimuli were also assessed on pretestprobe trials. When pretest probes were judgedto be visually stable for both participants, Lucybegan mand training. When she attainedcriterion performance during mand training,conditional discrimination training was intro-duced, in which she was taught to conditionallyrelate dictated names to their correspondingpictures and dictated names to their corre-sponding text. Derived mand and derivedstimulus relations test probes were repeatedfor both Lucy and Tony following Lucy’scompletion of mand training and conditional

discrimination training. Once she demonstratedthe emergence of derived mands on posttestprobes following conditional discriminationtraining, Tony began mand training, followedby conditional discrimination training and thederived mand and derived stimulus relationsposttest probes. Derived mand and derivedstimulus relations maintenance probes wereconducted approximately 1 month followingTony’s and Lucy’s posttest probes. All sessionswere conducted 3 to 4 days per week for 45 to60 min.

Dependent Measure and Interobserver Agreement

The dependent measures were the percentageof correct responses during derived mand andderived stimulus relations probes. A derivedmand was defined as the exchange of the correcttext (C1, C2, or C3) for a missing item neededto complete the task on at least eight of nineunreinforced trials (89% correct). A derivedstimulus relation was defined as accurateperformance on eight of nine unreinforcedtrials (89% correct) for each particular derivedrelation, including naming pictures (B-A rela-tions), reading text (C-A relations), matchingpictures to text (B-C relations), and matchingtext to pictures (C-B relations). Interobserveragreement was recorded by an independentobserver for 33% of all sessions with Lucy and32% of all sessions with Tony. Agreement wascalculated by dividing agreements by agree-ments plus disagreements and multiplying by100%. The mean percentage of observeragreement across participants was 97% for allsessions with Lucy and 100% for all sessionswith Tony.

Preexperimental Procedure

PECS training. Participants were taught tomand for preferred items using procedures forthe first three phases of PECS training de-veloped by Bondy and Frost (1994). Preferreditems had been identified via formal stimuluspreference assessments and interviews withcaregivers and staff. Briefly, the first three

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phases of PECS are as follows: Phase 1 teachesthe physical exchange, which consists of pickingup a picture of a highly preferred item andreleasing the picture into the hand of thecommunicative partner. Phase 2 teaches ‘‘per-sistence and distance,’’ and includes teachingthe participant to remove pictures from thecommunication book and finding the commu-nicative partner at increasing distances to makethe physical exchange. Phase 3 consists ofdiscrimination training, in which items of lowand high preference are introduced and theparticipant is taught to choose a picturecorresponding to a preferred item when thepicture is presented in an array of pictures ofpreferred and nonpreferred items. Promptingand reinforcement procedures were performedin accordance with Frost and Bondy (2002)throughout all phases of PECS training. Thereader is referred to Frost and Bondy for furtherdetail on PECS.

Maintenance probes of Phase 3 skills werepresented intermittently throughout the study.Retraining of Phase 3 skills was implemented ifa participant scored fewer than 78% per trialblock.

Chained tasks. Total task presentation (e.g.,Schuster, Gast, Wolery, & Guiltinan, 1988)was used to teach Lucy and Tony the chainedtasks of playing a CD on a portable stereo andmaking a pitcher of Kool-AidH prior to thestudy. The tasks were considered masteredwhen the participants completed all of the stepsindependently on three consecutive trials.

Pretest Probes

Derived mand probes. Derived mand probesevaluated whether Lucy and Tony would mandfor a missing item needed to complete a task byexchanging the text corresponding to the item(e.g., ‘‘headphones,’’ ‘‘cup,’’ and ‘‘spoon’’).Trials were conducted in nine-trial blocks, withthree trials presented for each stimulus (‘‘head-phones,’’ ‘‘cup,’’ and ‘‘spoon’’). An array of fivetextual stimuli arranged on the cover of theparticipants’ binders was available during both

tasks. The five stimuli consisted of the tex-tual stimuli that corresponded to the missingitems and two distracter words (tissue andplate). To begin each task, participants wereinstructed to ‘‘play music’’ or ‘‘make Kool-AidH.’’ A music trial began when a portable CDplayer and a CD in its case were placed on thetable in front of the participant. The chain wasas follows:

1. Pick up CD player.2. Open face of CD player.3. Select CD.4. Open CD case.5. Insert CD into CD player.6. Close CD player.7. Pick up headphones.8. Plug headphones into CD player.9. Push ‘‘play’’ button on CD player.

When the participant reached the point in thechain at which the headphones were needed tocomplete the next step, he or she was requiredto mand for the headphones by exchanging thecorresponding text.

A Kool-AidH trial began when a pitcher andlid, Kool-AidH packet, and gallon-size water jugwere placed on the table in front of theparticipant. The chain was as follows:

1. Pick up pitcher.2. Pick up Kool-AidH packet.3. Open packet completely.4. Empty packet into pitcher.5. Pick up water jug.6. Open water jug.7. Pour water into pitcher at least half full.8. Place jug back on table.9. Select spoon from table.10. Put spoon in pitcher of water.11. Stir until powder completely dissolves.12. Remove spoon from pitcher.13. Pick up lid.14. Place lid tightly on pitcher.15. Pick up cup.16. Pour Kool-AidH into cup at least half full.


When the participant reached the point in thechain where the spoon or cup was needed tocomplete the next step, he or she was requiredto mand for the particular item by exchangingthe corresponding text.

Correct mands were never prompted. Becauseinferring the emergence of derived skillsrequires that the skill be demonstrated in theabsence of reinforcement, correct mands werenever differentially reinforced with the deliveryof the item specified in the mand or verbalpraise for accuracy. Rather, the instructorobtained the needed item and completed thenext step in the task independent of whether ornot a correct mand was emitted, after whichtime the participant resumed completion of thetask. Intermittent praise for effort was giventhroughout probe trials.

Derived relations probes. Picture naming (B-Arelations), text reading (C-A relations), andmatching picture to text (B-C relations) andtext to pictures (C-B relations) were tested overthe course of 36 test trials. Each skill was testedin nine-trial blocks, with each sample stimulusbeing presented three times per block for each.On picture-naming test trials, Lucy’s andTony’s oral naming of the pictures of theheadphones, cup, and spoon after the pre-sentation of each individual stimulus was tested.On text-reading test trials, Lucy’s and Tony’soral reading of the text corresponding toheadphones, cup, and spoon after the pre-sentation of each individual stimulus was tested.Picture-naming and text-reading probe trialsbegan with the presentation of each stimulusand the question, ‘‘What is it?’’ If theparticipant did not respond within 5 s, the trialwas scored as incorrect and the next trial waspresented. Unintelligible responses were alsoscored as incorrect. On picture-text matchingtest trials, participants’ matching of the picturesto their corresponding text was tested, and text-picture test trials tested their matching of text tothe corresponding pictures. For matching testtrials, a trial began when the instructor

presented the participant with a picture orprinted word and instructed the participant to‘‘put with same.’’ The three comparison stimuliwere evenly placed on a stimulus placementboard directly in front of the participant, withtheir positioning varied across trials. The orderof test trials for each relation was random. Nofeedback was delivered on test probe trials.Intermittent praise for effort was given through-out probe trials. The reader is referred toFigure 1 for a visual representation of the testedrelations.

Training mands under transitive CEO control.Participants were taught to mand for threeitems (headphones, cup, and spoon) needed tocomplete specific steps in the two chained tasksby exchanging the picture corresponding to thecorrect item for the item itself. Training wasconducted in nine-trial blocks, with threeopportunities to mand for each of the threeitems (headphones, cup, and spoon) pro-grammed per block. Each trial presented theopportunity to mand for one missing item. Anarray of five pictures arranged on the cover ofthe participants’ binders was available duringboth tasks. The five stimuli consisted of thepictures of the headphones, cup, and spoon,and two distracter pictures. To begin each task,participants were instructed to ‘‘play music’’ or‘‘make Kool-AidH.’’ Trials began with theplacement of the items needed to completethe particular task on the table in front of theparticipant, with the exception of the head-phones (needed for the music task) and thespoon and cup (needed for the Kool-AidH task).When the participant reached the point in eachchain at which the headphones, spoon, or cupwas needed to complete the next step, he or shewas required to mand for the particular item byexchanging the correct picture. At this time, theinstructor refrained from asking ‘‘What do youwant?’’ and delivered the item specified in theparticipant’s mand along with descriptive verbalpraise similar to that used in the third phase ofPECS training (e.g., ‘‘Oh, you want the cup!’’).

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Figure 1. Trained and derived relations for Stimuli A1B1C1, A2B2C2, and A3B3C3. Derived relations are depictedby dashed arrows and trained relations by solid arrows.


When an incorrect picture exchange occurred(e.g., the participant handed the instructora picture of an item other than the one neededto complete the task), the item specified in thepicture was delivered to the participant, theitem was removed after 5 to 10 s, and the trialwas repeated. If the participant did notimmediately respond on a given trial, non-descriptive verbal prompts such as ‘‘pay atten-tion’’ or ‘‘look here’’ were delivered. Correctmands were differentially reinforced only by thedelivery of the correct item and verbal praise ifthey occurred prior to the steps in the taskswhen the items were needed; however, Lucy andTony never attempted to mand for the itemsduring other portions of the tasks. Masterycriterion was set at three consecutive blocks witheight of nine (89%) correct independent mandsper trial block.

Praise for effort was delivered throughouttraining. Participants had the opportunity toengage in leisure activities, to drink a cup ofKool-AidH, to listen to a chosen CD for 1 to2 min, and to use PECS to request preferreditems between training trials.

Conditional discrimination training. During

conditional discrimination training, partici-

pants were taught to conditionally relate the

dictated names of items to their corresponding

pictures (A-B training) and corresponding text

(A-C training). Participants were taught using

a tabletop simultaneous match-to-sample pro-

cedure. Training throughout all phases was

conducted in nine-trial blocks, with each

sample stimulus, or dictated name, presented

three times per block. The order of trials within

each block was random, and the positioning of

comparison stimuli on the stimulus placement

board varied across trials.Participants were first taught to match

dictated names to the corresponding pictures(A-B training), followed by training to matchdictated names to the corresponding text (A-Ctraining) to a criterion of eight of nine (89%)correct independent responses for three consec-

utive blocks. Mixed A-B and A-C relations weretrained next in 18-trial blocks, with masterycriterion of 16 of 18 (89%) correct responsesfor three consecutive blocks. The onset of a trialfor each phase was marked by the instructordictating the name of an item (e.g., ‘‘cup’’) anddisplaying three comparison stimuli on thestimulus placement board. The participant wasrequired to point to or deliver the picture ortext to the instructor to indicate his or herchoice. Descriptive verbal praise was providedfor correct responses. Intermittent praise foreffort was provided throughout training. If anincorrect response occurred, the instructorrepeated the trial and provided corrective verbalfeedback (e.g., ‘‘try again’’). If this feedback wasnot effective in preventing excessive errors,gestural prompts with a graduated delay pro-cedure were used to facilitate acquisition.Gestural prompts consisted of the instructorpointing to the correct comparison stimulus.Gestural prompts were initially presentedimmediately following the presentation of thedictated name. After the participant respondedcorrectly on eight of nine trials for threeconsecutive blocks, the delay before the promptwas presented was increased to 1 s. After theparticipant again responded correctly on eightof nine trials for three consecutive blocks, thedelay before the prompt was presented wasincreased to 2 s. This process continued untilthe participant selected the correct comparisonstimuli independently on eight of nine trials forthree consecutive trial blocks. This procedurewas necessary to teach both Lucy and Tony tomatch dictated names to text. The reader isreferred to Figure 1 for a depiction of therelations trained.

Posttest Probes

Derived mand probes. Derived mand posttestprobes were conducted in the same manner asderived mand pretest probes. Following thedemonstration of the emergence of derivedmands on posttest probes, a second block ofderived mand probe trials was presented in

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which correct mands were differentially rein-forced by the delivery of the needed item andparticipants were able to complete the next stepin the task. Reinforcing a correct text exchangewith the delivery of the item thus satisfiedSkinner’s (1957) definition of the mand.

Derived relations probes. Derived relationsposttest probes were conducted in the samemanner as derived relations pretest probes.

Maintenance probes. Derived mand and de-rived stimulus relations maintenance probeswere conducted in the same manner as pretestand posttest probes and were presented approx-imately 1 month following the emergence ofderived mands for both participants.

RESULTS

The emergence of derived stimulus relations,including picture naming (B-A), reading text(C-A), picture-text matching (B-C), text-picturematching (C-B), and derived manding skillswere inferred if a participant performed cor-rectly on 89% (eight of nine) of the test trialsfor each respective skill.

Pretest Probes

Derived mands. Neither Lucy or Tonyscored higher than 33% correct on the derivedmand pretest probes (Figure 2). Thus, ex-changing text to mand for the items needed tocomplete the chained tasks was not established

Figure 2. Percentage of correct derived mand probes per nine-trial block before and after A-C conditionaldiscrimination training.


in either participant’s repertoire prior to thestudy.

Derived stimulus relations. Lucy scored ashigh as 78% correct on the picture-naming (B-A relations) pretest probes, and Tony’s scoreson picture-naming (B-A relations) pretestprobes ranged from 56% to 100% correct(Figure 3). Lucy scored 0% correct on all of thetext-reading (C-A relations) pretest probes, andTony scored no higher than 33% correct on thetext-reading (C-A relations) probes (Figure 4).Lucy scored 100% correct on the secondpicture-text matching (B-C relations) pretestprobe, and Tony scored no higher than 56%correct on the picture-text matching (B-C

relations) probes. Lucy scored 89% correct onthe second text-picture matching (C-B rela-tions) pretest probe, and Tony scored no higherthan 44% correct on the text-picture matching(C-B relations) pretest probes. These scoressuggest that some, but not all, of the relationswere intact in Lucy’s repertoire prior toconditional discrimination training, in that shenamed pictures (B-A relation) correctly on all ofthe test trials for spoon (B2-A2 relation);matched pictures to words (B-C relation)correctly on all of the test trials for theheadphones (B1-C1 relation) and spoon (B2-C2 relation); and matched text to picturescorrectly on all of the test trials for the

Figure 3. Percentage of correct picture-naming (B-A relations) probes per nine-trial block before and after A-Bconditional discrimination training.

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headphones (C1-B1 relation). With the excep-tion of naming the pictures (B-A relation), thederived stimulus relations were not establishedin Tony’s repertoire prior to conditionaldiscrimination training.

Training

Training mands under transitive CEO control.Both Lucy and Tony performed with 100%accuracy on the first three consecutive nine-trialblocks of mand training (Figure 5). Thus,following mastery of Phase 3 of PECS, intensivetraining in exchanging pictures to request items

needed to complete the tasks was not necessaryfor either participant.

Conditional discrimination training. Threenine-trial blocks were required for both Lucyand Tony to demonstrate criterion performancein matching dictated names to their correspond-ing pictures (A-B training) (Figure 5). Lucyrequired 17 blocks and Tony required 13 blocksto demonstrate criterion performance in match-ing dictated names to their corresponding text(A-C training). Lucy met mastery criterion inseven 18-trial blocks and Tony met masterycriterion in three 18-trial blocks during mixed

Figure 4. Percentage of correct text-reading (C-A relations), picture-text matching (B-C relations), and text-

picture matching (C-B relations) probes per nine-trial block before and after A-C conditional discriminationtraining.


(A-B and A-C) conditional discriminationtraining.

Posttest Probes

Derived mands. Lucy scored 67% on the firstderived mand posttest probe that was con-ducted following A-C training (Figure 2).Once she completed mixed (A-B and A-C)conditional discrimination training, Lucyscored 89% correct. Tony scored 67% correcton the first derived mand posttest probe thatwas conducted following A-C training (Fig-ure 2). He again scored 67% correct aftercompleting mixed (A-B and A-C) conditional

discrimination training, after which he com-pleted one training block of mand trainingwith pictures and one more training block ofmixed (A-B and A-C) conditional discrimina-tion training. He then scored 89% correct onthe third derived mand posttest probe. Thus,Lucy and Tony both showed the emergence ofderived mands.

Following the emergence of derived mands,Lucy and Tony’s text exchanges were differen-tially reinforced with the delivery of theparticular item. Both participants demonstratedcriterion performance on differentially rein-forced mand trials on the fourth block of trials.

Figure 5. Percentage of correct responses per nine-trial block during mand training and conditional discriminationtraining. Arrows represent the point at which test probes were presented for each participant.

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Derived stimulus relations. Lucy scored 100%correct on the first picture-naming (B-A rela-tions) posttest probe, and Tony scored 89%correct on the first picture-naming (B-A rela-tions) posttest probe (Figure 3). Lucy scored nohigher than 22% correct on text-reading (C-Arelations) posttest probes, and Tony read text(C-A relations) with 89% accuracy on thesecond text-reading (C-A relations) posttestprobe (Figure 4). Lucy scored 100% correcton the second picture-text matching (B-Crelations) posttest probe and 89% correct onthe second text-picture matching (C-B rela-tions) posttest probe (Figure 4). Tony scored100% correct on the first picture-text matching(B-C relations) and text-picture matching (C-Brelations) posttest probes. Thus, Lucy demon-strated the emergence of almost all and Tonydemonstrated the emergence of all of thederived stimulus relations following conditionaldiscrimination training. However, some, butnot all, of the derived stimulus relations wereintact for Lucy prior to training. Lucy sponta-neously named the stimuli on 78% of thepicture-text matching (B-C relations) trials and56% of the text-picture matching (C-B rela-tions) trials (data not shown).

Maintenance Probes

Derived mand. Lucy performed with 44%accuracy and Tony performed with 56%accuracy on derived mand maintenance testprobes (Figure 2). Thus, the derived mandswere not maintained at follow-up for eitherparticipant, but the scores were higher than onpretest probes. Both Lucy and Tony vocallyrequested the correct items on all of themaintenance test trials, even those on whichan incorrect text exchange occurred (data notshown).

Derived stimulus relations. Lucy performedwith 89% accuracy on picture-naming (B-Arelations) and picture-text matching (B-Crelations) maintenance probes (Figures 3 and4). She performed with 56% accuracy on thetext-reading (C-A relations) maintenance

probes and 78% accuracy on text-picturematching (C-B relations) maintenance probes.Thus, naming pictures (B-A relations) and text-picture matching (C-B relations) were main-tained at follow-up for Lucy. Tony performedwith 89% accuracy on the picture-naming (B-Arelations) maintenance probe, 78% accuracy onthe text-reading (C-A relations) and picture-textmatching (B-C relations) maintenance probes,and 100% accuracy on the text-picture match-ing (C-B relations) maintenance probe (Fig-ures 3 and 4). Thus, naming pictures (B-Arelations) and matching pictures to text (B-Crelations) were maintained at follow-up forTony, and his text-reading and picture-textmatching scores were significantly higher atfollow-up than on pretest probes.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study suggest that a historyof reinforced conditional discrimination learn-ing may lead to the emergence of derivedmanding in persons with severe developmentaldisabilities and language impairments. Lucy andTony were explicitly taught to exchangepictures for items needed to complete chainedtasks, and to conditionally relate dictated namesof those items to the corresponding pictures andtext. Both participants then exchanged text, inthe absence of reinforcement, to request theneeded items. Because the needed items werenot present on test probe trials, the participants’exchanging of text seemed to be exclusivelyunder control of a motivating operation,specifically, the transitive CEO (Michael,1988, 1993). These findings thus support theproposed synthesis of derived stimulus relationswith Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behav-ior, as proposed by Barnes-Holmes et al.(2000), and, more specifically, the incorpora-tion of such a synthesis into language trainingcurricula for persons with severe developmentaldisabilities. In addition to the derived mands,Lucy and Tony also showed the emergence ofother skills, including picture naming, oral


reading, and matching words to pictures andpictures to words. Although Lucy displayedsome of the stimulus relations prior to in-struction, she nonetheless displayed new rela-tions following mastery of the conditionaldiscriminations.

Lucy’s and Tony’s performances on mainte-nance test probes are particularly significant.Both participants showed the maintenance ofsome of the derived stimulus relations approx-imately 1 month following instruction. Thatsome of the derived relations were maintained isnoteworthy, for few applied studies in this areahave probed the long-term maintenance of suchskills. Although these results are less impressivefor Lucy because her pretest scores for some ofthe relations were high, Tony displayed none ofthe stimulus relations prior to training. Thus,the durability of the derived stimulus relationsis particularly encouraging in his case. Inaddition, both Lucy and Tony vocally requestedthe items needed to complete the tasks onderived mand maintenance test probes. Neitherparticipant had displayed this skill previously,and no training opportunities on the skillstargeted in the study were provided during themonth preceding maintenance probes. It ispossible that the participants vocally mandedfor the items at this time because the textexchange responses had deteriorated and anoth-er form of manding was necessary. Because theemergent text exchange repertoire was intactduring the initial derived mand posttest probes,vocal mands were not necessary. It is thereforeimportant to account for the training history inthis study that led to the emergence of vocalmanding. One possibility is that PECS trainingfacilitated the emergence of vocal mands.Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, andKellet (2002) found that spontaneous vocaliza-tions increased over the course of PECS trainingfor children with autism. Because Frost andBondy (2002) advise a proclamation of therequested item following a correct pictureexchange during PECS training (e.g., ‘‘oh, you

want [name of item],’’ this possibility does notseem implausible. However, if PECS trainingwas the cause of the facilitative effects on Tony’sand Lucy’s vocal manding, it is not clear whysuch vocalizations never occurred over thecourse of training mands under transitiveCEO control. A more likely possibility is thatthe history of relating the dictated names of theitems to their pictures and to their correspond-ing text facilitated the emergence of vocalrequesting, because the pictures, items, text,and their corresponding names had becomefunctionally substitutable. Thus, this history ofreinforced conditional discrimination learningmay have permitted the emergence of vocalmanding.

In addition to demonstrating derived mandsand derived stimulus relations, Lucy and Tonyalso manded for the items when the mands weredifferentially reinforced with the delivery of theneeded item. This skill thus meets Skinner’s(1957) definition of a mand as a response underthe control of relevant conditions of deprivationor aversive stimulation that is reinforced bya characteristic consequence. It is interesting tonote that both participants required additionalremedial training to demonstrate accuracy onthe differentially reinforced mand trials. This ismost likely due to the fact that the participants’text exchanges had not previously been differ-entially reinforced with the delivery of theneeded items; rather, Lucy and Tony wereaccustomed to exchanging text and having theinstructor complete the next step in the chain.Thus, the participants may have simply neededmore experience with this change in conse-quences for manding.

An important shortcoming of this study isthe lack of procedural integrity data. Asnonautomated procedures for teaching rela-tional tasks become more common in educa-tional settings, ensuring close adherence to theinstructional protocol is compulsory. In addi-tion, it should be noted that Lucy’s and Tony’sperformances on test probe trials represent

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only small samples of each participant’srepertoires, in that as only three derived mandswere established for each participant. Theresults would have been particularly notewor-thy if more extensive training in relationaltasks had been provided and a number of newverbal skills had been shown to emerge ina variety of situations. For these reasons,continued research efforts in this area arenecessary.

In conclusion, this study represents animportant step in the proposed synthesis ofderived relational responding with Skinner’s(1957) analysis of verbal behavior (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2000). Moreover, the resultssuggest that this synthesis may be particularlyrelevant for expanding the verbal repertoires ofpersons with severe developmental disabilitiesand significant language impairments, a popu-lation that has been neglected in research onderived stimulus relations to date (O’Donnell& Saunders, 2000). Future research shouldattempt to establish other derived verbaloperants in applied settings as well as continueto examine the long-term maintenance andgeneralization of these emergent skills. Studiesthat do this may take applied behavior analysisa long way towards the identification ofeffective and efficient teaching protocols thatresult in the establishment of new skills inpersons who lack functional communicationrepertoires.

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Received August 29, 2005Final acceptance September 18, 2006Action Editor, Iser DeLeon

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