Manipulating establishing operations to verify and establish stimulus control during mand training.
Use a quick EO probe—free access to one item—to check if picture-card mands are real; if the child still asks for both, switch to a new response form.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught four children with developmental delays to ask for two favorite items using picture cards.
After the kids could swap each card for its item, the adults ran a quick probe. They gave free access to one item, then the other. The question: would the child still ask only for the missing item, proving real stimulus control?
If the child kept handing over both cards, the team knew the pictures were not truly controlled by wanting the item.
What they found
Three kids quickly stopped asking for the item they already had. Their mands now matched their motivation.
The fourth child kept handing over both cards. Only when the team switched him to two different response forms—one vocal, one sign—did his requests line up with what he actually wanted.
How this fits with other research
Hattier et al. (2011) used the same EO trick but taught "Where’s [toy]?" instead of picture cards. Both studies show: contrive the need, then watch the response.
Frampton et al. (2024) later packaged these EO probes into a step-by-step tutorial. Their paper calls the reach, point, or gaze that happens before the mand an "indicating response"—exactly what Anibal waited for in 2007.
Rosenthal et al. (1980) taught mands without EO checks. Their kids only asked under the exact cues used in training. Anibal’s probe fills that gap, giving you a fast way to be sure the mand works in real life.
Why it matters
You can run the same five-minute probe in your next session. Give free access to one item, withhold the other, and see which card the child hands you. If both cards still appear, drop the pictures and try a vocal or a sign. This simple test saves weeks of false stimulus control and keeps your mand training honest.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Acquisition of verbal behavior is a major goal of interventions for children with developmental disabilities. We evaluated the effectiveness of manipulation of an establishing operation for functional discriminated mands. Four individuals with developmental disabilities participated in a training procedure designed to teach two separate mands for two separate preferred items. Participants were taught to mand using picture cards. Following training, the manipulation of the establishing operation was used to assess and establish discriminated manding. This manipulation involved providing free access to one of the preferred items, such that there should be no motivation to ask for it, while motivation to ask for the other item remained in place. Three of the 4 participants acquired discriminated manding using topographically similar responses (picture cards). One participant did not acquire a discriminated mand until topographically distinct mands were taught (vocal and picture card). Results suggest that discrimination training is not necessarily sufficient to teach discriminated manding when more than one picture card showing preferred items is used. In addition, manipulation of the establishing operation served as an appropriate assessment tool for the verification of discriminated manding as well as a possible training tool to establish discriminated manding.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2007 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.645-658