Emergence of auditory-visual relations from a visual-visual baseline with auditory-specific consequences in individuals with autism.
Visual matching plus sound feedback can create new sound-picture links for kids with autism, no auditory baseline needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with four children with autism. They taught picture-to-picture matches using only visual prompts. Each correct match produced a brief sound, like a bell or a click.
No one taught the kids to match sounds to pictures. The study asked: would the sounds alone create new sound-picture links?
What they found
All four children soon picked the correct picture when they heard its sound. Three children also passed new picture-to-picture tests. The sound reward was enough to build cross-modal classes.
How this fits with other research
Duker et al. (1991) showed the same idea in neurotypical adults, proving the concept decades earlier. Danitz et al. (2014) extends that work to autism and drops the need for cross-modal baseline trials.
Iarocci et al. (2010) and Bao et al. (2017) found autistic kids gain little from lip-reading cues, hinting at weak audiovisual links. Those studies measured speech-in-noise, not equivalence training, so they do not contradict the new data.
De Meo-Monteil et al. (2019) and Capio et al. (2013) show sharper visual timing in autism. The current study taps that strength by using visual matches as the teaching base.
Why it matters
You can build listening skills without direct auditory drills. Start with easy picture-to-picture games, then let a quick sound mark each correct match. The child may later point to the right picture when they only hear the sound, even though you never practiced that step. Use this shortcut to expand vocabulary, follow spoken directions, or prep for reading.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Run a 5-trial picture match game; play a unique 1-s sound each time the learner is correct, then test if the learner picks the picture when they only hear the sound.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Empirical studies have demonstrated that class-specific contingencies may engender stimulus-reinforcer relations. In these studies, crossmodal relations emerged when crossmodal relations comprised the baseline, and intramodal relations emerged when intramodal relations were taught during baseline. This study investigated whether auditory-visual relations (crossmodal) would emerge after participants learned a visual-visual baseline (intramodal) with auditory stimuli presented as specific consequences. Four individuals with autism learned AB and CD relations with class-specific reinforcers. When A1 and C1 were presented as samples, the selections of B1 and D1, respectively, were followed by an edible (R1) and a sound (S1). Selections of B2 and D2 under the control of A2 and C2, respectively, were followed by R2 and S2. Probe trials tested for visual-visual AC, CA, AD, DA, BC, CB, BD, and DB emergent relations and auditory-visual SA, SB, SC, and SD emergent relations. All of the participants demonstrated the emergence of all auditory-visual relations, and three of four participants showed emergence of all visual-visual relations. Thus, the emergence of auditory-visual relations from specific auditory consequences suggests that these relations do not depend on crossmodal baseline training. The procedure has great potential for applied technology to generate auditory-visual discriminations and stimulus classes in the context of behavior-analytic interventions for autism.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2014 · doi:10.1002/jeab.93