This study examines the effects of two teaching procedures and two testing procedures (“Skip” and “Guess”) on acquisition, retention and generalization of learning. Three typically developing females between the ages of 8 and 11 learned the 24 lower case letters of the Greek alphabet. Half of the letters were taught with the “Skip” procedure and the other half with the “Guess” procedure. The “Skip” procedure produced faster and more efficient learning than the “Guess” procedure. The “Skip” procedure also resulted in better initial retention (4 weeks), but this effect disappeared in subsequent retention tests. The training conditions did not have differential effects on generalization tests across learning channels, except for the Free/Say channel.

Errorless academic compliance training is a proactive, noncoercive approach to treating oppositional behavior in children. Three teaching staff in a special education classroom were trained to conduct this intervention with three male students diagnosed with autism. During baseline, staff delivered a range of classroom requests and recorded student compliance with these requests. A hierarchy (of 4 levels) of compliance probabilities for requests was then calculated. Requests ranged from Level 1, those yielding high compliance, to Level 4, those leading to oppositional responding. At the beginning of intervention, teaching staff delivered Level 1 requests, providing praise and other reinforcement for compliance. Subsequent levels were faded in gradually over time. By the end of intervention, students demonstrated substantially improved compliance to requests that had yielded high levels of noncompliance before intervention. Follow-up at 4 weeks indicated that treatment gains were maintained. Covariant improvement in academic on-task skills was also evident.

Errorless academic compliance training is a proactive, noncoercive approach to treating oppositional behavior in children. Three teaching staff in a special education classroom were trained to conduct this intervention with three male students diagnosed with autism. During baseline, staff delivered a range of classroom requests and recorded student compliance with these requests. A hierarchy (of 4 levels) of compliance probabilities for requests was then calculated. Requests ranged from Level 1, those yielding high compliance, to Level 4, those leading to oppositional responding. At the beginning of intervention, teaching staff delivered Level 1 requests, providing praise and other reinforcement for compliance. Subsequent levels were faded in gradually over time. By the end of intervention, students demonstrated substantially improved compliance to requests that had yielded high levels of noncompliance before intervention. Follow-up at 4 weeks indicated that treatment gains were maintained. Covariant improvement in academic on-task skills was also evident.

One way for students with disabilities to receive instructional support from someone other than the lead classroom teacher is through paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals who are not trained properly, however, can negatively impact student success rates. One intervention that has been explored has been the use of video modeling to train staff on various instructional and behavior management strategies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using video training to teach paraprofessionals how to implement errorless learning strategies with students. The participants within this study were three female paraprofessionals that were of Caucasian, Latino, and Ukranian descent and had worked in a classroom for at least one year. The dependent variables within this study were evaluated by use of a single subject, multiple baseline design across participants. Results of this study revealed that video training with a focus on errorless learning was effective in increasing paraprofessional percent correct implementation of the strategy, as indicated by an increase in exhibition of the strategy throughout observation and generalization sessions. Paraprofessional implementation of errorless learning procedures increased from a mean of 12.5% accuracy during baseline to 84% accuracy during intervention sessions. Generalization probes maintained high accuracy rates as well, with a mean of 88% accuracy across all three participants. The social validity results provided to the participants at the end of the study indicated that all participants prefer video training over in person training.

Equivalence based instruction (EBI) has been demonstrated as an effective method for teaching various skills to a wide range of clinical and non-clinical populations. Recent research suggests deictic framing, or perspective switching skills, can be taught to typically and atypically developing children using an EBI teaching paradigm, however the protocols for teaching deictic framing tend to be very long. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a brief EBI and errorless learning program to teach deictic framing to a young woman with learning disabilities. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine if training on one deictic framing program would improve responding on skills that involve other deictic frames. The participant completed a pre and post-test before and after mastering one of four tested EBI programs. Results indicate that EBI is effective in teaching deictic frames, as derived relations emerged following training. The participant’s performance on other skills did not improve. These results also lend support to multiple exemplar teaching. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of a constant time delay procedure to teach core content words in braille to a student with a visual impairment. A multiple probe (conditions) across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and follow-up sessions. The results showed the procedure was effective in teaching core content braille words within a resource setting and the student was able to generalize the information to an inclusive setting.

This study investigates the use of response guidance for errorless learning of a perceptual motor task in normal elderly. It provides normative data for a study with stroke patients using this technique for cognitive rehabilitation. While errorless learning has been shown to be more effective on most tasks than trial and error learning for people with memory impairments, its use with normal individuals has received limited attention. The questions of interest were whether errorless training of the perceptual motor task was more effective for improving and retaining accuracy; and whether both accuracy and response speed were more resistant to the effects of increased cognitive demands. A sample of 43 normal elderly in the United Kingdom, ranging in age from 60 to 77, completed an assessment of intelligence, memory, and attention. They then received training, over two sessions one week apart, to mark the midpoint of Judd Arrows presented on a computer screen using a cross cursor moved by an active force feedback joystick (AFF). During training the errorless group received AFF guidance to the correct midpoint, while the errorful group received none, and both received auditory and visual knowledge of results. There was no AFF during baseline or post test measures. Training was to criterion in each session with a discontinue rule if accuracy did not improve. At the end of session two both groups were given a cognitively challenging task concurrent with the arrow bisection. Results revealed that both groups improved their accuracy through training with the errorless group being significantly more accurate and tending to be faster in the final post tests of both sessions. The errorless group was significantly faster than the errorful group under the cognitive challenge, without sacrificing accuracy. These results suggest not only that AFF is an effective means of implementing errorless perceptual motor learning, but elderly individuals trained in this manner do not sacrifice accuracy for speed. Implications of these results are discussed.

The present study compared the effects of an errorless stimulus shaping procedure to an errorful fluency based procedure for teaching difficult letter sound discriminations using a counterbalanced multielement experimental design. For 2 participants, letters fsteai were taught using the errorless procedure and letters bpdvou were taught using the errorful procedure. For the other 2 participants the conditions were reversed. All participants had considerably fewer errors and fewer trials to criterion with the errorless than with the errorful procedure. Tests of retention and generalization indicate that the errorful procedure generalized and was retained at a higher frequency than the errorless procedure. For 3 participants preference for the errorless procedure over the errorful procedure was demonstrated; whereas, the fourth participant demonstrated preference for the errorful procedure.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LEANA VILMAR BERNARDES.pdf: 2954760 bytes, checksum: b4204bf0d486719e5425f40e2bff4408 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / The study bellow is a sysmatic replication, magnified by the researcher of the reading program proposed by Iñesta (1980), based on methods of choosing by the gradual fading visual aid, colors of the stimulus e reinforcement, providing errorless learning, with the purpose of verifying your effect in the aquisition of the textual behavior of kids with autism diagnosis. Two kids in ages of 10 and 11 years, with autism diagnosis took part of the study and the behavior of reading was not part of their repertory. For the program application, file folders with A4 paper with printed stimuli, registration protocols, Sodré Primer, e revision texts were used. The program was applied in 5 steps, in all of them, baselines were applied to follow the participants performances. The data was analyzed and was verified that both kids learned to read. Four months after the program application finished, a follow up session was performed, confirming the learning conservation and generalization, and the increase of the textual behavior learned from the baseline 1. The hypothesis that the people with autismo learn when the learning proceedings are appropriate for the disorder features, was confirmed. / O presente estudo é uma replicação sistemática, ampliada pela pesquisadora, do programa de leitura proposto por Iñesta (1980), baseado nos métodos de escolha de acordo com o modelo com esvanecimento gradual de ajuda visual, cor dos estímulos e reforço, proporcionando uma aprendizagem sem erro, com o objetivo de verificar seu efeito na aquisição do comportamento textual de crianças com diagnóstico de autismo. Participaram do estudo duas crianças, 10 e 11 anos, com diagnóstico de autismo e o comportamento de ler não fazia parte do repertório delas. Para a aplicação do programa foram utilizadas pastas fichário, com folhas A4 com os estímulos impressos, protocolos de registro, Cartilha Sodré e texto de revisão. O programa foi aplicado em 5 etapas, em todas foram aplicadas linhas de base para acompanhar o desempenho dos participantes. Os dados foram analisados e verificou-se que as duas crianças aprenderam a ler. Depois de 4 meses de terminada a aplicação do programa, foi realizada uma sessão de follow up, confirmando a manutenção e generalização da aprendizagem e aumento do comportamento textual aprendido em relação à linha de base 1. É confirmada a hipótese de que as pessoas com autismo aprendem quando os procedimentos de ensino são adequados às características do transtorno.

Very few behavior-change programs with canines produce effects that persist beyond the training condition. The present study is an experimental demonstration of a constructional program that established calm patterns of behavior as alternatives to hyperactive ones. Three dogs that exhibited hyperactive patterns were chosen as subjects. Seven conditions common to canine-caretaker relationships were used to determine which factors resulted in the hyperactive patterns. Then, sitting and lying down were taught as beginning points using touch as a reinforcer. The final behavior, maintained by naturally occurring reinforcers, was established errorlessly. The study used a control-analysis strategy of behavior change with a changing-criterion design. The intervention resulted in an immediate reduction in hyperactivity and an increase in sitting and lying down for all dogs.