Two studies involving three adolescents with severe emotional disturbance/behavior disorders and learning difficulties examined effects of problem difficulty and reinforcer quality upon time allocated to two sets of arithmetic problems. Results have implications for understanding the effects of problem difficulty and reinforcer quality on behavior…

Examination of effects on 27 secondary students' Spanish vocabulary quiz performance of 2 variables (group versus individual study and group versus individual contingencies) found that, overall, group study was superior to individual study and, within the group study condition, group contingencies were superior to individual contingencies.…

A teacher training and supervision program for increasing the involvement of severely handicapped adolescents and adults in functional educational tasks was accompanied by large increases in functional tasks in three classrooms. In two subsequent experiments, surveys provided social validation for the criteria for functional versus nonfunctional…

Three adolescent students with special educational needs were given reinforcers (nickels) according to three different concurrent variable-interval schedules. Time allocated to the assigned tasks was in linear relationship to the reinforcement rate. However, changes in reinforcement schedules were not followed by changes in allocation patterns…

This study examined how reinforcer rate, quality, delay, and response effort combined to influence the choices of six adolescents with emotional disturbance and learning difficulties and the feasibility of an assessment methodology based on matching theory for determining differential responsiveness to reinforcer and response dimensions. Results…

The effectiveness of a five-second time-delay procedure to teach three chained food preparation behaviors to four moderately retarded adolescents was evaluated within a multiple probe design across behaviors. The skills maintained over a three-month period and generalized from school to home for subjects completing the generalization probe…

The first of two studies with two adolescent students with serious emotional disturbances examined the interaction between unequal rates of reinforcement and equal versus unequal delays to reinforcer access on performance of math problems. The second study examined the interactive effects of reinforcer rate, quality, and delay. (Author/DB)

A videotape modeling procedure used in conjunction with shopping training in one natural environment was effective with three autistic young adults in promoting generalization of purchasing skills to community stores. These and other results of the use of videotapes as a means of program generalization in community training programs are discussed.…

Four students, aged 15-19, with moderate mental retardation learned to cash checks and use an automatic teller through either a decreasing prompt hierarchy or time-delay procedure. Both strategies led to acquisition of target tasks and were equally effective in producing performance maintenance; however, the decreasing prompt hierarchy was more…

The use of response cards during classroom review sessions was examined in an earth science class of 23 secondary students, 8 of whom had learning disabilities, mental retardation, or behavior disorders. Results indicated achievement of higher test scores by all students, including those with disabilities, when students had used response cards in…