Transfer of Stimulus Control and Generalization of Tacting In-Vivo Actions in a Child With Autism

AbstractThis intervention aimed to assess the effects of a teaching procedure on the acquisition and generalization of tacting in-vivo actions in one child with autism. The procedure consisted of transferring stimulus control from a verbal to a nonverbal stimulus by gradually decreasing the verbal prompt what is he/she doing?’ for a specific action. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were conducted for 13 separate actions and results suggested that gradually decreasing the verbal prompt was successful for transferring stimulus control to the nonverbal stimulus. Additionally, tacting was shown to have generalized to 7 other actions, without teaching. These findings have relevance for transferring stimulus control from verbal to non-verbal stimuli and for the generalization of tacting action