Previous research suggests that language-training procedures for children with autism might be enhanced following an assessment of conditions that evoke emerging verbal behavior. The present investigation examined a methodology to teach recognizable mands based on environmental variables known to evoke participants' idiosyncratic communicative…

In this study the effect of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure was used as part of a clinical investigation to increase vocalizations for two young children diagnosed with autism. This procedure involved pairing a vocal sound with a preferred stimulus (e.g., toy) to condition automatic reinforcement. In addition, this study assessed the effects…

This study tested the possibility of using the optimization techniques of the response surface model in maximizing the response to a concept learning task. A secondary purpose was the investigation of the extent to which findings from concept learning experiments in laboratory settings would generalize to the learning of types of concepts…