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| Parametric Analyses of Skill Acquisition Arrangements for Children With and Without Developmental Disabilities |
| Sunday, May 28, 2023 |
| 8:00 AM–8:50 AM |
| Convention Center 405 |
| Area: EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Tom Cariveau (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
| CE Instructor: Tom Cariveau, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: Skill acquisition programs in clinical or educational settings may frequently include procedural components that are arbitrarily selected by the behavior analyst. The selection of these components may be uniquely informed by legacy (i.e., the behavior analyst has used them before or seen others use them) as limited research is available to guide the behavior analysts’ programming. This symposium includes three papers that arranged parametric evaluations of variables relevant to skill acquisition programming for children with and without developmental disabilities. The first paper will describe a parametric evaluation of the intensity of a speaker immersion protocol with preschool students. The second paper will describe an evaluation of instructive feedback arrangements that differ in set size on second-language acquisition for children with and without developmental disabilities. The final presentation will describe an analysis of mastery criteria and number of target exposures during a teaching session (i.e., dosage) for children with and without developmental disabilities. |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| Keyword(s): children, instruction, parametric analyses, skill acquisition |
| Target Audience: At least BCBA-level clinicians and researchers; graduate students |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to:
1) Describe methods to execute parametric analyses in skill acquisition programs.
2) Describe considerations when selecting mastery criteria in skill acquisition programs.
3) Describe methods to arrange differential outcomes in skill acquisition programs. |
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| Speaker Immersion: A Parametric Analysis and Effects on Vocal Verbal Behavior Towards Adults and Peers |
| APARNA NARESH (Marcus Autism Center), Daniel Mark Fienup (Teachers College, Columbia University), Georgette Morgan (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: Previous research has indicated the efficacy of the speaker immersion procedure (SIP) in increasing the emission of independent mands and tacts. In the present study, the researchers determined the effects of different intensities of the SIP on the emission of vocal verbal operants (VVOs) and peer observing responses in 3 dyads (i.e., 6 preschool students). During the SIP, the researchers either provided the participants with 100 or 50 opportunities to mand by contriving or using naturally occurring establishing operations (EO) across the school day. The researchers recorded the number of mands (i.e., target, non-target, and non-vocal mands) emitted during EO probe sessions, the number of VVOs (i.e., mands, tacts, sequelics, and conversational units) emitted towards adults and peers during non-instructional settings (NIS), and the number of peer observing responses emitted as a measure of peer awareness. Results indicated that the SIP led to increases in all dependent measures regardless of the intensity of the intervention received. However, the rate of learning was substantially quicker in the 50 opportunities condition across dyads. Implications are discussed in relation to the degree of differences in the emission of target mands as well as VVOs in NIS across both levels of SIP. |
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Differential Outcomes During English-Spanish Intraverbal Training With Instructive Feedback |
| ALEXANDRIA BROWN (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Tom Cariveau (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Delanie Fetzner Platt (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
| Abstract: Bilingualism starting from a young age may result in significant short and long-term benefits related to academics, cultural awareness, occupation, and aging. Recent work has emphasized the utility of behavior analytic technologies to promote second-language repertoires. Two procedural arrangements that may be particularly effective in promoting the rapid acquisition of second languages include differential outcomes and instructive feedback (IF). Previous research from our lab suggests that differential outcomes may be effectively, albeit inadvertently, arranged during IF. In addition, increasing the number of IF targets presented during differential outcomes arrangements may facilitate acquisition by arranging for a greater number of discriminable elements in the arranged contingency and increasing the number of non-target relations that might emerge following training The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of arranging differential outcomes and nondifferential outcomes during tact-intraverbal training that included one or three IF targets with children with and without developmental disabilities. All participants learned Spanish words from four categories. The findings suggest that all procedures were effective; however, differential outcomes arrangements consistently resulted in greater rapidity of acquisition. These findings are considered for their relevance to clinical interventions and experimental research on stimulus control. |
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| Acquisition “Mastery” Criteria: Effects of Application to Individual Operants and Teaching Trial Doses |
| JI YOUNG KIM (Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg), Daniel Mark Fienup (Teachers College, Columbia University), Cassandra Draus (Teachers College, Columbia University), Kristina Wong (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: This study compared the effects of different applications of acquisition-mastery criteria (Set and Operant Analyses) and doses (3 and 5 opportunities per operant per session) during sight word instruction for 4 second-grade students with and without disabilities. In the Set Analysis 5 (SA5) and Operant Analysis 5 (OA5) conditions, sessions included 4 target operants (5 opportunities per operant) in a 20-trial session and the acquisition criterion (100% accuracy) was applied to all 4 operants (SA5) or individual operants (OA5). We extended previous research by evaluating the OA3 condition where the dose was reduced to 12 trials per session (4 operants, 3 opportunities per operant). All participants acquired textual responses to novel sight words fastest under the OA3 condition and required far fewer trials to maintain each sight word under OA3 compared to SA5 and OA5 conditions. Implications for arranging acquisition criteria and the interaction with trial-dosages are discussed. |
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