Graduation Date

Fall 12-19-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Programs

Medical Sciences Interdepartmental Area

First Advisor

Dr. Nicole Rodriguez

Second Advisor

Dr. Bethany Hansen

Abstract

Responding to yes and no questions is a general language skill that allows individuals to efficiently interact with their verbal community. Few behavior analytic studies have sought teaching this skill in general, with even fewer studies seeking to teach this skill when it pertains to a tact or intraverbal context. All behavior analytic studies to date seeking to teach this skill have used direct prompting and reinforcement of the yes and no responses, but there is little guidance for what can be done if this teaching strategy is not producing desired acquisition. The current experiments examined a teaching procedure informed by joint control conceptualizations to teach yes-no responding across tact and intraverbal operants after direct prompting and reinforcement failed to result in acceptable levels of responding and acquisition of this skill. Experiment 1 showed that standard teaching procedures resulted in mastery levels for four of nine data sets. Experiment 2 showed that joint control teaching procedures resulted in mastery levels for one data set. Overall, this preliminary investigation did not support joint control teaching procedures for teaching yes-no. Implications, potential pre-requisites, and future research are discussed.

Comments

2025 Copyright, the authors

Available for download on Tuesday, June 09, 2026

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