Contriving motivating operations to evoke mands for information in preschoolers with autism

Four preschoolers with autism participated in the study. Stimulus preference assessments were conducted to identify high and low preferred items, which were then hidden or given to an adult in order to contrive motivation for the information about the location of the items. The first experiment involved the manipulation of motivating operations to evoke the mand “Where is it?” Upon successful acquisition of this initial mand for information, students participated in a second experiment involving the manipulation of a motivating operation to evoke the mand “Who has it?” All participants successfully acquired the ability to mand for information.