Teaching WH-Questions Isn’t Enough: Building True Conditional Discrimination
Presented by Dana Pettus
This presentation challenges the assumption that teaching WH-questions in isolation produces flexible verbal repertoires. Drawing on the work of Dr. Francesca degli Espinosa, participants will examine how autoclitic frames and the scaffolding of skills can be used to systematically establish robust discriminated responding across verbal forms and to prevent faulty stimulus control before it becomes entrenched.
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About this CEU
Many behaviour analysts can establish correct responding to individual WH-questions. However, when programs stall at more complex discriminations—such as discriminating features from functions questions, or adjectives from class relations—the issue is rarely the learner’s ability. The breakdown often reflects faulty stimulus control resulting from programming that uses a train and hope method of teaching question discrimination.
What you'll learn
- 11. Discriminate between correct WH responding under limited stimulus control and responding under true conditional and multiply controlled stimulus control. 2. Analyze learner errors to identify competing, restricted, or faulty stimulus control within tact and WH-question programs. 3. Design cumulative instructional sequences to establish discriminated responding across WH forms, adjectives, features, functions, and class relations. 4. Revise existing verbal behaviour programs to strengthen stimulus control, promote maintenance, and reduce rote responding.
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