Equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is an efficient and efficacious methodology to establish equivalence classes that has been used to teach various academic skills to neurotypical adults. Although previous reviews confirmed the utility of EBI with participants with developmental disabilities, it is unclear whether certain procedural parameters…

Five children with autism participated in learning sessions involving trials of an acquisition task interspersed with trials of three maintenance tasks. Correct responses to acquisition tasks were continuously reinforced throughout all conditions; reinforcement for competent performance of maintenance tasks differed systematically. All children…

The role of subject verbalization in the generalization of verbal-nonverbal correspondence was investigated in 12 kindergarten children who underwent either correspondence training (subject verbalization) or performing a behavior verbalized by the experimenter. Pupils who received correspondence training demonstrated greater generalization.…

This study tested whether conditioning to one member of a compound stimulus can be blocked by presence of a second member to which the response was previously conditioned. Eight mentally retarded students (ages 7-9) were presented with words, sometimes accompanied by pictures. Six students performed best when words were presented without pictures.…

The effects of instructional strategies on the academic performance of four children with learning disabilities were examined using brief multielement designs. Instructional strategies included follow along/sound out, verbal rehearsal, verbal outline, and rhyming words/sample spelling. Manipulation of the instructional strategies was useful in…

This study evaluated the importance of active student responding while using the microcomputer to deliver the contingencies of programed instruction. Results from 75 undergraduates found that students who covertly responded to frame blanks or were required to type frame answers performed better on a posttest than students who passively read…

This paper argues that there is a science of pedagogy based on a science of behavior and that educational researchers have been remiss in ignoring the findings of behavior analysis. Implementation of the comprehensive application of behavior analysis to schooling (CABAS) is described as an effective approach for increasing student learning. (JDD)

Peer management was utilized as a source of feedback in a staff training and management program with six subjects, who were instructors in a vocational program for adults with mental retardation. The paired subjects were trained to monitor peer teaching, record and graph data, provide feedback, and set goals. (DB)

Three seven-year-old males with autism included in social skills groups with nonhandicapped peers were successfully trained in such social skills as initiating, responding, keeping interactions going, greeting, conversing, giving and accepting compliments, taking turns and sharing, asking for help and helping others, and including others in…

This study compared active student response (ASR) error correction and no-response (NR) error correction while teaching science terms to five elementary students. When a student erred, the teacher modeled the definition and the student either repeated it (ASR) or not (NR). ASR error correction was superior on each of seven dependent variables.…

Effects of 2 procedures (either whole word or phonetic-prompt) for error correction were compared during drills in sight word recognition of 5 students (ages 8 and 9) with developmental disabilities. Results from instruction, same-day tests, and next-day tests indicated that more words were learned in the whole word condition. (Author/DB)

This study evaluated the Task Demonstration Model for teaching discrimination skills with three teachers and their students (adolescents and young adults with moderate to severe mental retardation). The intervention required students to respond simultaneously. Students increased their percentage and rate of correct responding as well as their…

A study of 4 youths (ages 11-18) with autism examined the effectiveness of teaching appropriate affective behavioral responses. Participants were described by teachers as having flat and inappropriate affect. Treatment consisted of modeling, prompting, and reinforcement. The combination of an error-correction procedure and contingent delivery of…