Emergence of auditory-visual discrimination and tacts through exclusionary responding

This study examined if listener behavior and responding by exclusion would emerge after training 3 participants with autism to tact stimuli. Tacts for 2 of 3 stimuli were directly trained using discrete trial training methodology and were followed by an auditory-visual discrimination probe in which auditory-visual discrimination by naming (i.e., bidirectional naming of trained tacts) and auditory-visual discrimination by exclusion were assessed; in subsequent sessions, tacting by exclusion probes were conducted in which tacts for the exclusion target (i.e., stimulus not trained as a tact) were assessed. All 3 participants demonstrated auditory-visual discrimination by naming, auditory-visual discrimination by exclusion, and tacting by exclusion across all comparisons. Results suggest that programming for learning by exclusion can provide an efficient way to enhance skill acquisition.