Developing compound stimulus control over vocal tacts

Abstract

The present research examined whether an intervention with a DOR component could enhance acquisition of tacts following poor to intermediate performance under typical teaching procedures. Participants included five reportedly typically developing children between the ages of three and five years who attended local daycares. In Phase 1, the experimenter attempted to teach participants to label compound stimuli first using a DOR absent condition (designed to mimic standard tact instruction methods), and then using a DOR present condition which required participants to engage in an identity match to sample (IMTS) response. The results revealed that two participants mastered the task during the DOR absent phase and did not require the intervention, and that the DOR component did not enhance acquisition for 2/3 remaining participants. Phase 2 was conducted to bolster acquisition for the two participants who were unsuccessful in Phase 1. Interventions in Phase 2 included a verbal DOR as well as precurrent behavioral training. Results revealed that the precurrent response training enhanced acquisition for one participant and not the other. These findings suggest that DOR manipulations may not be an effective intervention to produce the necessary discrimination skills to master tacts of compound stimuli that share features in common.