Anvendelse av Matching-to-Sample prosedyrer i etableringen av akademiske ferdigheter

Stimulusekvivalens har vært et sentralt forskningsområde innen atferdsanalyse i over 40 år. Selv om dette forskningsområdet i utgangspunktet rettet søkelyset mot praktiske problemstillinger, har mye av forskningen konsentrert seg om mer grunnleggende problemstillinger. Derimot har det i de senere årene vært publisert studier som har vist anvendbarheten ved disse prosedyrene. I denne studien har vi presentert tre eksperimenter med tre forsøkspersoner i alderen 10–16 år med autisme og/eller psykisk uviklingshemning hvor ulike ferdigheter ble etablert med betingede diskriminasjonsprosedyrer. Dette var ferdigheter som i utgangspunkt ble ansett å være funksjonelle for dem. Etter etableringen av de betingede diskriminasjonene ble det gjennomført tester for om de responderte i henhold til stimulusekvivalens. Resultatene viste at det var mulig å etablere ulike ferdigheter med betingede diskriminasjonsprosedyrer eller såkalte matching-to-sample (MTS) prosedyrer hos disse forsøkspersoner med et ulikt verbalt repertoar. I tillegg viste testene at en rekke relasjoner framkom uten direkte trening, det vil si at forsøkspersonene responderte i henhold til stimulusekvivalens. I to av de tre eksperimentene undersøkte vi også om det var forskjeller med hensyn til hvilken av de to treningsstrukturene many-to-one og one-to-many som var den mest effektive. Resultatene viste at det ikke var noen vesentlige forskjeller mellom strukturene verken med hensyn til hvor mange trials som var nødvendig for å etablere de betingede relasjonene, eller antall deriverte relasjonerStimulus equivalence has been a main research area within behavior analysis over the last 40 years. Although, the first studies in this research area focused on applied research questions, most of the work within this field has been in the area of basic research. Lately, however, an increasing amount of studies has focused on the application of equivalence procedures. In the current study, we present three experiments in which matching-to-sample (MTS) procedures were arranged to establish academic skills in three participants 10–16 years old diagnosed with autism and/or developmental disabilities. Different target behaviours were part of the participants’ educational curriculum and were considered to be socially significant. Subsequent to conditional discrimination training, the participants were tested for responding in accordance with stimulus equivalence. The results suggest that the MTS arrangement established the relevant conditional discriminations in all participants, although their pre-experimental verbal repertoires were of different levels of complexity. Furthermore, all participants responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence in tests for derived relations. In two of the experiments, we also investigated whether many-to-one (MTO) or one-to-many (OTM) training structures were the most effective with regard to the number of trials necessary to establish the conditional discriminations and formation of equivalence classes. The results showed no clear difference between the two procedure

Effects of Peak Equivalence and Transformation Treatment on Derived Relational Responding as a Generalized Operant and IQ

The present study examined Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System; Equivalence (PEAK-E) and Transformation’s (PEAK-T) effect on a participant with ASD’s derived relational responding, intelligence scores (WPPSI-IV; Weschler 2012), and the deceleration coefficient. One participant with ASD was given 10 weeks of PEAK-E and PEAK-T treatment for four hours a week, along with probes throughout the study for IQ scores and deceleration coefficient scores. The data indicated a significant relationship between PEAK-E and PEAK-T treatment and IQ scores, as well as a relationship between PEAK scores and a participant’s deceleration coefficient. This indicated that PEAK-E and PEAK-T treatment is a reliable and valid treatment for individuals with ASD

Teaching Protocols for the Promotion of Derived Learning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Related Language Deficits

A research enterprise that I am currently excited about is a collaborative project between our doctoral researchers at the Department of Psychology, NUIM and Dr. Mark Dixon’s PEAK/ ABA (Promotion of Emergent Advanced Knowledge) research project at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). Many behavioural psychologists today are focused on the design of strategic teaching protocols for the promotion of derived learning (i.e., untaught, emergent). This type of learning is based on relational responding; as when a typically-developing child is taught a “same” relation with two identical pictures and then presented with one of those pictures and a picture of a different object, the child may derive a “different/not-same” relation for the latter stimuli and this derived relation emerges without having to be taught separately. Derived relations appear similar in process to the exponential learning that is ubiquitous in the language acquisition of young typically- developing children, but frequently not evidenced in children with ASD and related language deficits. Thus teaching protocols that promote derived learning may be of particular benefit for children with ASD and related language deficits, because derivation may be an essential component of advanced language and cognitive repertoires. The new Peak behavioural teaching applications are based on behavioural research literature on stimulus equivalence [1,3], derived relational responding, and relational frame theory [2]. The capacity for derivation of complex relations is exemplified when a child is taught that stimulus ‘A’ is opposite to ‘B’ and ‘B’ is opposite to ‘C’, and as a result derives (untaught) that A-C (and C-A) are alike. Put another way, an individual may derive complex relations such as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, without ever having been specifically taught this, but just on the basis of the initially learned relations (e.g., Jon is my enemy, Barry is Jon’s enemy, ergo Barry is my friend). These are rather simplistic examples of quite complex phenomena, but the point is that when an individual can derive complex and extensive relations between stimuli, the learning potential is tremendously increased because not every single aspect of every single stimulus or relation has to be individually taught

The use of auditory prompting procedure and specific reinforcer assignments to promote auditory-visual conditional discriminations in persons with intellectual disabilities

Individuals with autism and developmental disabilities may struggle when presented with auditory-visual relations (Carp, Peterson, Arkel, Peturdottir, & Ingvarsson, 2012). Previous studies have suggested that class specific consequences may serve as an additional stimulus class for acquisition of relational responding to demonstrate stimulus equivalence with the human population. To date, emergence of auditory-visual relations has only been demonstrated with individuals who are ABLA level 6. This study sought to replicate and extend previous findings of Monteiro & Barros (2016), Santos, Nogueira, Queiroz, & Barros (2017), and Varella & De Souza (2014, 2015) by evaluating the effectiveness of class specific consequences in establishing auditory-visual discriminations with intellectually disabled individuals, specifically individuals who are level 4, 5, and/or 6 on the ABLA-R using a table top match to sample procedure. Two of five participants (one ABLA-R level 5 and one ABLA-R level 6) demonstrated emergent auditory-visual relation

Derived Textual Control in Recreational Activity Schedules with Children with Autism

Activity schedules are commonly used with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The primary advantage of activity schedules is that they help the learner complete tasks independently. One child with autism, who was familiar with using pictorial activity schedules, participated in this study. This study was done to examine the use of a conditional discrimination procedure for helping children with autism transfer from the use of a pictorial activity schedule to the use of a textual activity schedule. The participant was exposed to a conditional discrimination training procedure before being tested for the ability to follow a textual activity schedule. The percentage of correct responses while using the textual activity schedule was the primary dependent measure in this study. The secondary dependent measure in this study was the percentage of correct responses on tests for emergent relations (i.e., stimulus equivalence) and the number of trials necessary to meet criterion during training. After the conditional discrimination training, the participant followed the textual activity schedule for all three sets of stimuli. He also matched the pictures to the printed words and the printed words to the pictures without any direct training

Discrimination Training to Produce Emergent Relations of Pre-Algebraic Math Skills

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have deficits with respect to generalization of skills. Procedures designed to induce stimulus equivalence have been shown to promote generalization. This study used a modified multiple probe design with an embedded multiple schedule to: (a) compare one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) training structures to determine which structure results in more positive equivalence outcomes when all variables are held constant, and (b) determine the extent to which children with ASD demonstrate stimulus equivalence and stimulus class mergers when using educationally relevant stimuli. Four children with ASD were taught two classes of stimuli (Class 1 and Class 2) comprised of pre-algebraic math skills across two different training structures. Results indicate that the OTM and MTO training structures are equally as effective at producing positive equivalence outcomes for individuals with ASD. Additionally, no participants in the current study demonstrated a class merger. Implications for teaching educationally relevant materials to children with ASD are discussed

Using Relational Frame Theory to Teach Prepositions to Children with Autism

Children with autism often demonstrate deficits with the use of pragmatic language, including prepositions. Training methods such as direct instruction have been successfully used to train prepositions, but often do not demonstrate generalization of the skill, nor use of the skill when applied to arbitrary stimuli. The present study evaluated the efficacy of using a relational training method adapted from the PEAK-Transformation module to teach the non-arbitrary and arbitrary use of prepositions “close” and “far” to three children with autism. Participants 1 and 2 were able to demonstrate the non-arbitrary, receptive use of both close and far during training, while participant 3 was able to demonstrate and generalize the non-arbitrary use of close (far needed additional training). Additionally, the first participant demonstrated the arbitrary use of close and far following the implementation of arbitrary training, as well as demonstrated the ability to make combinatorially entailed relations between the arbitrary stimuli. The results from this study indicate that relational training as adapted from the PEAK-Transformation module is effective at training non-arbitrary and arbitrary applications of the prepositions close and far

THE EFFECTS OF HIERARCHICAL TRAINING ON THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTION-RELATED METAPHORS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Recently, research on derived relational responding has increased in volume, along with the publication of assessments, curricula, and textbooks on this topic. The allure of engineering derived relations due to purported accelerated learning makes this topic interesting to researchers and practitioners. Recent reviews have examined types of verbal operants, and specific relational frames studied in this body of literature, but there is scarcity in terms of the instructional procedures and variations thereof, and there is little available to focus on single case design (SCD) evaluations of these procedures. Hierarchical training (HT) to produce derived relations between arbitrary stimuli has shown promise for teaching concrete relations (e.g., class membership; Ming et al., 2015) and abstract relations (e.g., metaphor comprehension and explanation). In the current study, we used HT procedures with a visual support to teach emotion-related metaphors to autistic children. Data for one participant supported the presence of a functional relation between HT procedures and directly trained relations. Additional instruction was required for him to acquire the relations targeted for derivation. Throughout this paper, I use the term “autistic children” to honor autistic self-advocates preference for identity-first language

Derived Textual Control in Activity Schedules Using a Stimulus Pairing Observation Procedure

Activity schedules are commonly used with individuals with developmental disabilities. These schedules have been found to be highly beneficial because they help the learner complete activities independently without additional prompting and support of others. Two young adults diagnosed with Down syndrome, who used pictorial activity schedules, participated in the current study. This study examined an intervention, called stimulus pairing observation (SPO), for helping adults with Down syndrome transfer from use of a pictorial activity schedule to use of a textual activity schedule. Previous research on derived textual control has shown that matching-to-sample (MTS) can be an effective instructional procedure. The current study was done to extend this area of research to see if a SPO procedure is a viable option for deriving stimulus equivalence. The two participants were exposed to a SPO training procedure and were then assessed for their ability to follow a textual activity schedule. The results show that neither of the participants were successful in deriving stimulus equivalence following the SPO training procedure. Results also indicated that a MTS procedure was unsuccessful in deriving textual control. Supplementary research questions evaluated emergent stimulus equivalence relations following a SPO procedure, including the emergence of oral naming of the textual stimuli. Key words: Stimulus equivalence, stimulus pairing observation, match-to-sample, emergent relations, activity schedule

Evaluating the Efficacy of Group Equivalence-Based Instruction Using Observational Learning

The current study investigated the effect of observational learning during equivalence based instruction (EBI). Two boys (Tim and Nate) ages 11 and 12 with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in the study. Participants received small-group EBI training with an embedded observational learning component twice weekly for six weeks. Both participants were given a trained and observation set containing three classes (Class A, Class B and Class C) consisting of four class members. Participants served as both learners and observers during each training session. Each participant was trained on match-to-sample tasks with relations A-B and B-C and tested for class formation across the trained and observation set. Results showed that Tim was able to derive the untrained A-C and C-A relation at 100% correct on both the trained and observation set of stimuli. After the initial training, Nate averaged at 40% and 55% on the trained and observation set of stimuli, indicating that he was unable to derive the untrained relations. Two remedial training sessions were conducted, where Nate was re-exposed to the A-B and B-C training. After the remedial training, Nate averaged at 85% and 67.5%, indicating strong class formation on the trained set of stimuli, and moderate class formation on the observation set. The current study demonstrated the utility of observational learning during EBI. Limitations and implications for clinical practices are discussed