Campus Access Only

All rights reserved. This publication is intended for use solely by faculty, students, and staff of University of the Pacific. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or later developed, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or the publisher.

An experimental analysis of generative manding in preschool children

Author

W. Guy Tidwell, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

1986

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Graduate Studies

First Advisor

Mike Davis

First Committee Member

Esther Cohen

Second Committee Member

Ken Beauchamp

Abstract

This study examined the development of mands for missing objects. Two female children and two male children (ranging from 2 years, 1 month to 3 years, 5 months) were selected on the basis of screening probes that indicated an absence of manding. A mand probe consisted of instructions to complete a response chain when one of the needed objects was missing. For every response chain, each child was:. (a) taught to label (tact) the objects, (b) then taught to use the objects in reinforced response chains, and (c) then given mand probes for the stimuli just trained.

Results for all children indicated correct responses· to tact and operation probes but incorrect responses to the mand probes. After pretraining, mands were trained one at a time until generalized manding developed. The efficacy of the training procedures was established by using a multiple probe design. These results are discussed in terms of mands and tacts representing distinct response classes.

Pages

87

Recommended Citation

Tidwell, W. Guy. (1986). An experimental analysis of generative manding in preschool children. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2115