Which of the following is an example of a mand?

• A. A girl sees an airplane and says, "Look, Dad! An Airplane!"
• B. A man hums softly to himself while mowing the lawn
• C. A boy requests cookies, is given some, and then eats them! (Yum)
• D. A child recites times tables in a group lesson

Answer: (C)

A mand is a request for something the speaker wants, reinforced by receiving that exact item. In this example, the boy asks for cookies, and when cookies are provided, that reinforcement strengthens the likelihood of future cookies requests. The fact that he then eats the cookies confirms the reinforcement was the cookies themselves. The other scenarios don’t fit as a mand: labeling what is seen is a tact (a comment about the environment), humming while mowing isn’t a request for reinforcement, and reciting times tables is a memorized verbal response (an intraverbal or echoic sequence) rather than a request for a specific item.