Transfer from Listener to Speaker versus Transfer from Speaker to Listener

Most Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention-manuals state that listener behavior should be mastered before training a tact repertoire. To date, however, only a few studies have examined this question and the results have been somewhat mixed. Participants were one child with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and 8 typical children. Using an alternating treatment design three stimuli were trained as listener behavior alternated with three stimuli trained as impure tacts. After mastering one of the conditions, transfer to the other condition were tested under extinction. All children showed higher degree of transfer from impure tacts to listener behavior as compared to transfer from listener behavior to impure tacts. Results suggest that transfer from impure tacts to listener behavior occurs more often than transfer from listener behavior to impure tacts. Moreover, impure tacts can be acquired without first having learned to respond to the stimuli tacted as a listener.