Auditory Control of Operant Behavior in Mute Autistic Children

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Abstract
To determine whether auditory stimuli can control operant responding in mute autistic children, 4 Ss were presented with 5 pairs of auditory stimuli. During the presentation of 1 stimulus the child was able to obtain food on a previously established fixed-ratio schedule of lever pressing, while during the presentation of the second stimulus an extinction schedule was in effect. A new set of stimuli was introduced when the preceding set was learned. 3 of the 4 children learned to discriminate four pairs of auditory stimuli within an average of 36 daily 40-min. sessions. The data indicate that some mute autistic children are capable of learning simple auditory-motor associations.