Abstract
The functional independence of mand and tact operants (Skinner, 1957) has been demonstrated with humans and non-humans. The purpose of this study was to test whether functional independence held true for impure tacts and impure mands. Four educationally disabled preschoolers were taught to mand an item necessary to engage in a preferred activity, specifying the abstract stimulus property (e.g., “I want a whole crayon please”). Tact training of abstract stimulus properties consisted of teaching the students to tact an item, specifying the abstract stimulus property, before continuing with an unrelated activity (e.g., “That is a whole crayon”). Results indicated that students who were taught to mand an abstract stimulus property (“I want a whole crayon please”) did not tact the property (“That is a whole crayon”), and vice versa. In 9 out of the 10 conditions, impure mands or tacts for abstract stimulus properties did not reliably occur in the other function without direct training. In addition, training in the first function did not seem to expedite training in the second function. These results provide further support for Skinner’s (1957) assertion that the verbal operants are functionally independent at the time of acquisition, and have implications for teaching language to children who fail to acquire a typical verbal repertoire.
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This study is part of a dissertation submitted by the author in partial fulfillment of a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Columbia University/Teachers College. The author would like to thank the reviewers (Genae Hall, Jane Howard, and Phil Chase) and Mark Sundberg for their helpful and insightful comments. Their suggestions were greatly appreciated.
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Twyman, J.S. The functional independence of impure mands and tacts of abstract stimulus properties. Analysis Verbal Behav 13, 1–19 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392903
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392903