Carol Murphy & Dermot Barnes-Holmes. (2009).
Derived more–less relational mands in children diagnosed with autism.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
42, 253-268.
In Experiment 1, more and less relations were trained for
arbitrary Stimuli A1 and A2 with 3 children with autism.
The following conditional discriminations were then trained:
A1–B1, A2–B2, B1–C1, B2–C2. In subsequent tests, participants
showed derived more–less mands (mand with C1 for more and
mand with C2 for less). A training procedure reversed the B–C
conditional discriminations, and participants then showed
derived reversed more–less mands (mand with C1 for less, C2
for more). Baseline B–C relations were retrained, and participants
subsequently demonstrated a return to the original derived
manding. A second experiment with 1 prior participant and 1
naive participant removed a possible confounding effect.
Establishing derived manding may be an advantageous
component when teaching a mand repertoire in applied settings.
DESCRIPTORS: autism, children, derived mands, language, more–less relations