The Generalization of Mands

The mand relation, a foundational verbal operant driven by a motivating operation (MO), enables individuals to make requests, directly benefiting the speaker and fostering other behavioral developments, including the reduction of problem behavior. This presentation from the 2019 Michigan Autism Conference explores how the mand’s occurrence, shaped by various discriminative stimuli (SDs), allows for its generalization across different MOs and SDs, and how the same MO can lead to new mand topographies.