Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities最新文献

Analyses of response relationships offer the potential for designing treatment procedures that are more economical and entail less risk for misuse than many we currently employ. The present study investigated whether previous results indicating the reduction of problem behaviors by reinforcing compliance in fact occurred because of the contingent relationship between compliance and the presumed reinforcing events. A clinic analogue procedure consisting of a standard set of adult requests was employed in a multiple baseline design across subjects with three children receiving three conditions — no reinforcement, noncontingent reinforcement, and reinforcement contingent on compliance — and a fourth child receiving the first and third conditions to assess possible order effects. The data indicated that: (1) compliance covaried inversely with some, but not all, of the problem behaviors measured; (2) sustained covariation occurred only when reinforcement was contingent on compliance; (3) substantially large but transient increases in compliance and decreases in problem behavior during noncontingent reinforcement occurred for those children who initially demonstrated high compliance and low levels of aberrant behavior during baseline; and (4) the problem behaviors that inversely covaried with compliance were idiosyncratic across children. The results suggest that treatment procedures based on response relationship strategies should consider that children's individual learning histories may determine which behaviors covary and the likelihood that large, initial changes can occur with noncontingent reinforcement.

Three mentally retarded subjects were taught with matching-to-sample procedures and geometric shapes as stimuli to make matching and mismatching responses, respectively, in a two-component, multiple schedule. The subjects also made generalized matching and mismatching responses to unreinforced probe samplees in the respective components. During each trial the subjects were given the opportunity to choose the sample stimulus to which to respond. Choice responding was compared under conditions of no intertrial interval and 5-sec and 10-sec interial intervals. Generally, longer intertrial intervals resulted in a low probability of probe-sample selection and a high probability of reinforced-sample selection. Nevertheless, the subjects continued to display generalized matching and mismatching behavior when probe samples were selected, demonstrating that generalized matching and mismatching could be maintained concurrent with a discrimination between the reinforced and unreinforced sample stimuli as measured by the choice procedures. Further, the patterns of responding in the mismatch-reinforced component for all subjects were observed to change as intertrial interval conditions were changed across sessions. Under longer intertrial interval conditions, subjects responded to specific choice stimuli as mismatches for specific samples, but reverted to other strategies under no intertrial interval conditions. The results suggest that intertrial interval length may be an important variable in both matching-to-sample and choice behavior.

In recent years, concern has developed regarding the degree to which training with a limited set of objects will result in generalized responding to novel objects of the same category. The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of the benefits of training with multiple exemplars. Specifically, training with five as opposed to three good examples was investigated. The difference in the averaged correct response to novel objects between conditions was not significant (p = .08); however the arithmetic difference between the two conditions indicated higher levels of generalization following training with five examples for five of the six subjects. The results are discussed in reference to implications for teaching and for further research regarding the benefit of using multiple exemplars when teaching natural object categories.

Eight handicapped youths were taught arbitrary matching between visual sample stimuli and visual comparison stimuli: Given Sample A1, selecting Comparison B1 was reinforced; given A2, selecting B2 was reinforced. During nonreinforced test trials consisting of novel samples, novel comparisons, and familiar B comparisons, subjects selected the novel comparisons. Compared to intervening preference tests between novel comparisons, these results suggested that selecting the novel stimuli was controlled by the B comparisons, a phenomenon called exclusion. Some subjects continued to select the same novel comparisons during subsequent preference tests, suggesting that control by exclusion may result in arbitrary matching in new contexts. emonstrated symmetry of AB matching (i.e., BA matching) suggested that A stimuli should also control novel comparison selection; however, these subjects did not show exclusion, but most often selected the A comparisons.

In the present study, we explored the feasibility, effectiveness, and acceptability of teaching seriously mentally handicapped individuals to provide interactions and materials to multiply handicapped retarded persons during leisure periods. With simple and economical teaching procedures, five seriously retarded individuals were taught to engage in levels of interaction which exceeded standards established by exemplary employees. Their efforts systematically resulted in higher levels of material availability to recipient clients. The behavior of the client providers was maintained under realistic supervision conditions, which staff reported were practical in the settings in which these clients functioned. Information from questionnaires indicated that client providers enjoyed their work, that staff valued their contributions and that human rights representatives viewed the effort as worthwhile to client providers and recipients alike. The potential benefits and limitations of such an approach are discussed and areas of future research are described.

This study evaluated a program for teaching handicapped students to tell time to the nearest 5-minute interval. Four adolescents with IQs of 42 or below participated. The target skills were trained in six phases, each of which consisted of two or more steps. A modified multiple probe technique was used for each subject. The data indicated that all subjects completed the program in 14.2–19.6 hours of individual training time. The mean percentage of correct responses during training was 87.9. Frequently occurring discrimination errors, the relative efficacy of the program, and the social relevance of the skill are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine the generality of Sidman's (1971) equivalence model when applied to vocabulary acquisition in deaf preschool children. The model specifies six vocabulary tasks involving auditory and visual sensory modalities. The data confirmed that lip reading (visual modality) could be substituted for auditory input (speech). However, for novice lip readers, words with auditory-visual confusions depressed performance on receptive vocabulary tasks, in contrast to the emergent expressive performances. The results are discussed with respect to the applicability of the equivalence model to education of deaf children using a computerized system. It is suggested that the computer system provides a standardized method for assessment of mechanical and cochlear implant prosthetic devices.