No description available.

No description available.

Fluent component performances may be more readily available for recombination into more complex repertoires. This experiment considered the stimulus equivalence preparation as a laboratory analog for the co-adduction said to occur in generative instruction. Seven adults received minimum training on 18 conditional discriminations, components of 9 potential stimulus equivalence classes. Training was interrupted periodically with tests to determine whether fluency of original relations predicted emergence of derived relations. Fluency predicted emergence in 2 of 17 instances of emergent derived relations for 4 subjects. One subject demonstrated fluency without derived relations. Training accuracies as low as 58% preceded emergence for 3 subjects. Fluency appears to be neither necessary nor sufficient for derived relations. Fluency's role may be in retention and complex application tasks rather than acquisition of behavioral relations.

The current study evaluated the methods outlined in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System Transformation Module (PEAK-T). Researches evaluated the validity and efficacy of the PEAK-T assessment at identifying skill deficits as well as its ability to identify appropriate intervention to target those deficits. Additionally, the current study evaluated the efficacy and validity of the methods as outline by the PEAK-T curriculum at teaching target skills. The PEAK-T assessment was conducted to identify three programs for each of the participants. Baseline probes of three boys with autism suggested that programs identified by the PEAK-T assessment were not in their repertories prior to treatment. Following treatment each of the participants was able to achieve mastery of all three programs this included directly trained as well as derived relations. The PEAK-T assessment was run following the intervention, all participants exhibited an increase in total PEAK-T score.

No description available.

Four college student subjects were trained to match graphic figures (A stimuli) to other figures (B stimuli), and then to match the B figures to numerals (C stimuli). Then in a test of application subjects answered simple math problems, presented as novel sample stimuli, by selecting one of the A figures, presented as comparisons. The application test was an analog for the academic task of answering math problems with newly learned Spanish number names. Three subjects performed accurately in the application test, which required the emergence of CA equivalence. All subjects demonstrated equivalence in test sessions after the application test. The study examined whether accuracy, fluency (rate of correct responding), practice, or stability of original relations performance corresponded to test accuracy. Accuracy, fluency, practice and stability corresponded to test accuracy for two subjects. Fluency corresponded to test accuracy for one subject, and stability corresponded to test accuracy for another subject.

This research asked whether a contextual stimulus in a visual conditional discrimination task controlled membership in classes of stimuli related hierarchically. Six experiments with nonreading preschool children posed the following question: Does a stimulus juxtaposed with a conditional discrimination task control relations among the stimuli involved in the task? In Experiments I and II, printed instance or concept words were juxtaposed with conditional discrimination tasks involving symbols. Results for eight of nine children demonstrated neither conditional nor equivalence relations between words and symbols. Would conditional discrimination training establish classes of visual stimuli composed of selectively nonequivalent subsets? In Experiment III, subjects from the first two experiments were taught conditional relations, then tested for stimulus class development. Printed words that could have been related transitively were not, apparently due to interference by identical letters in certain words, so no stimulus classes developed. Would the equivalence relations sought in Experiment III develop without a history where printed words were unnecessary to conditional discrimination tasks? For Experiment IV-A, one experimentally naive child was taught the same conditional relations as Experiment III subjects. Two stimulus classes emerged, each containing two subsets that were selectively nonequivalent depending upon trial context. Are direct or transitive stimulus relations more likely to control responding? In experiment IV-B, the subject from Experiment IV-A expressed more direct than transitive relations on modified matching trials. Would interference by identical elements in words be precluded by training conditional relations among words directly? One child in Experiment V was taught conditional relations between concept words and instance words, and instance words and symbols. Results suggested that stimulus class development, which would have answered the question affirmatively, had begun but was incomplete. Would providing auditory labels for some printed words preclude interference by identical elements, allowing nonidentical words to be related transitively? In Experiment VI, one child was taught auditory labels for selected printed words, followed by the same visual conditional discrimination training provided in Experiment III. Two stimulus classes developed, requiring transitive and symmetric relations among printed words.

Autism is a neurological disorder which impairs the individual's social interactions and communication. Such impairments lead to deficits in learning which accumulate over time. Finding effective and efficient technologies to teach children with autism helps to minimize deficits and teach children new skills to be independent learners. There is previous research on technologies such as discrete trail training (DTT), antecedent based interventions, and consequence based interventions which have to be shown to be effective, however, more research is needed to find more cost effective and efficient procedures.. The PEAK Stimulus Equivalence Training Module seeks to teach children with Autism in a concise easy to follow manual. Past research has shown stimulus equivalence to not only effectively teach children with autism novel skills, but also has shown the emergence of untrained relations. The present study uses the PEAK module with three boys with autism, between the ages of 6 and 8, to teach novel stimuli including, planets, holidays, and sports teams and to test for the emergence of untrained relations. Results showed that the all participants demonstrated derived relations. Implications for future research are discussed.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) language repertoire development varies greatly amongst each individual especially in one’s ability to understand emotions. One way to increase language development and further understand emotions is through stimulus equivalence. Theis present study examined the effefficacy of a stimulus equivalence training procedure in bringing the recognition of others’ emotions under multiple contextual control, and also evaluated co-occurring changes in the flexibility of participant responses to common questions requiring emotional recognition that is multiply controlled. The procedures were taken from the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Equivalence Module (PEAK-E) to aid in replication both clinically and in research. The results suggest that each of the three participants, all with an autism diagnosis, were able to identify the facial expressions of others when provided with a person and a context (i.e., What face does Person A feel at Location B?). In addition, two of the three participants were able to correctly identify an individual when provided with a context and an emotion (i.e., Who feels Emotion A at Location C?). Results from the flexibility probes throughout the study however indicate that the participants did not demonstrate an increase vin flexible responding following equivalence training. ectiveness of stimulus equivalence under multiple control to promote the emergence of an untrained relation via the PEAK – E Curriculum: Feelings in Context. Three participants diagnosed with autism, between the ages 12 and 17, were directly trained nine relations that established under a specific context a person will make a certain facial expression. Results indicate that all three participants demonstrated mastery in the training condition; however, when tested for equivalence only two of three participants were able to do so.

Two adults with intellectual disabilities were taught practical money skills within a stimulus equivalence training procedure taken from the PEAK equivalence relational training system. The participants were taught to accurately count and select combinations of money of five different values, in the presence of an object worth a specific value and combinations of coins worth the same value. The results of this study found that the PEAK program 12L: Monetary Exchange was successful in training two adults with intellectual disabilities and other co-occurring disorders how to accurately count five values as well as derive relations between two values and an object. The first participant mastered two complete levels of stimuli whereas the second participant mastered on complete level of stimuli before training was terminated due to behavioral variables.