A primary goal of behavioral interventions is to reduce dangerous or inappropriate behavior and to generalize treatment effects across various settings. However, there is a lack of research evaluating generalization of treatment effects while individuals with functionally equivalent problem behavior interact with each other. For the current study,…

A correspondence training procedure was used to develop consistency between children's verbalizations and subsequent behavior across increasingly remote settings and time. Generalization was obtained in the absence of any salient externally imposed contingencies after Ss had reliably come under control of verbalizations about preschool behaviors.…

Results of a study comparing the outcome of a reinforcement (do only) procedure with correspondence (say/do) training indicated no apparent differences in generalization between two groups of mentally retarded adults (N=12). Rule-governed behavior, rather than verbal regulation of behavior, may best account for behavior changes seen in…

The use of operant procedures was extended to decrease immediate echolalia and increase appropriate responding to questions of a 21-year-old autistic man. Multiple baseline designs demonstrated that echolalia was rapidly replaced with correct stimulus-specific responses. A variety of generalized improvements were observed in verbal responses to…

This review focuses on correspondence training procedures, in which a subject makes statements about intended positive behavior and the statements are reinforced. The paper examines early research, generalization, maintenance, application to mentally retarded individuals, and the concept of self-control. (Author/JDD)

Two experiments to replicate P. E. Touchette's findings on the delayed prompt effect, with 34 subjects having mental retardation, found more variable results, with all five of the possible outcomes occurring with some subjects. The paper concludes that successful use of the delayed prompt technique depends on such factors as difficulty of target…

A severely disabled and retarded 15-year-old girl was examined for: effect of music and approval as reinforcers for following a command; effect of a food-pairing procedure on an approval alone condition, an approval plus music condition, and an ignore condition; durability of newly conditioned reinforcers; and strength of the new reinforcers as…

A training program in which operant procedures were used to improve the identification and definition of selected vocabulary words by a 6-year-old mildly retarded Down's syndrome girl is described. Results showed that the S had generalized the training and the findings were replicated with two additional children. (PHR)

This paper presents a model for school psychologists to instruct parents in behavior modification procedures for use with their children. This model, designed for use by individuals who have a basic working knowledge of operant conditioning and applied behavior analysis procedures, consists of three training sessions which are outlined with…

Five experiments were conducted to determine whether properties inherent in some training procedures may subtly influence the adaptability of skilled performance of complex tasks. The first two experiments assessed the insensitivity of low-rate performances. Examined in the third experiment was the issue of whether instructions that focus…