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Teaching individuals a safety response when they encounter a firearm may be one way to prevent accidental injuries or death. Previous researchers have used behavioral skills training (BST) with and without in situ training to teach individuals with and without disabilities to engage in a safety response in the presence of a firearm. However, few studies have arranged BST to ensure the safety response occurred in response to a representative sample of all relevant stimulus features for which a response should be evoked. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which BST conducted in a single context established stimulus control that would evoke the safety response across a range of contexts under which young children could encounter a dangerous stimulus in a room in their house. All participants demonstrated a discriminated safety response following BST. Further, safety responses generalized across all contexts not associated with training for all participants.

Preschool and kindergarten teachers expect children to sit appropriately and attend to the teacher during group instruction. However, children may engage in high rates of inappropriate responses that distract other students from learning opportunities. In addition, children often receive intermittent teacher attention for inappropriate responses, which might result in a lack of discrimination for when attention is or is not available. The purpose of the current study was to assess the efficacy of a multiple schedule plus rules indicative of the availability of attention for hand raises during circle time in typical preschool classrooms. Results showed that the rates of hand raises increased or maintained in the reinforcement component and decreased in the extinction component of the multiple schedule in all three classrooms. Results suggest that a multiple schedule plus rules indicative of the availability of attention from a classroom teacher can be used by preschool teachers in typical classrooms to maintain hand raise responses at appropriate levels.

Fluency-based strategies such as Say All Fast a Minute Each Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS) effectively promote fluent responding (i.e., high rate and accuracy). It is possible, however, that the stimulus control developed through these activities inhibits stimulus generalization. We investigated this concern in a two-part study with college students. Study 1 assessed generalization of rates of responding from training with SAFMEDS to a novel set of equivalent SAFMEDS flashcards. Results indicate that SAFMEDS promoted fluent responding, but rates of responding decreased during generalization probes. Furthermore, higher rates of responding during training were correlated with a greater decrease in rates of responding during generalization probes. This may indicate that students attend to irrelevant stimulus features of SAFMEDS during training. Study 2 examined the effects of embedding multiple-exemplar training within SAFMEDS. Results indicate that multiple-exemplar training can promote generalization of accurate and high-rate responding when incorporated in a SAFMEDS activity.

Three participants were trained on 6 target algebra skills and subsequently received a series of 5 instructional interventions (cumulative practice, tiered feedback, feedback plus solution sequence instruction, review practice, and transfer training) in a multiple baseline across skills design. The effects of the interventions on the performance of 5 problem-solving tasks that required novel combinations of 2 or more of the target skills were evaluated. Results showed that cumulative practice of the skills and a combination of feedback with solution sequence instruction led to limited performance increases on some of the problem-solving tasks, with one task meeting the mastery criterion following the solution sequence intervention. The introduction of the transfer training resulted in more consistent improvements across tasks such that participants achieved the performance criterion on all remaining problem-solving tasks during a final baseline condition. The findings suggest that a structured intervention designed to transfer stimulus control from previously established discriminative stimuli to more complex, novel stimuli can facilitate problem solving without extensive direct instruction on the higher-level skills.

As a stage-based model of learning, the Instructional Hierarchy offers a useful heuristic for organizing research on effective instructional strategies at different levels of skill proficiency. In this paper, we summarize and highlight the unique contributions of each empirical study presented in the special issue. We describe common methodological features across the studies that likely contributed to intervention effectiveness, and present several implications for research and practice.

Extensive evidence exists demonstrating the benefits of repeated readings (RR) interventions at increasing students’ fluency on intervention passages. Few studies however have examined the extent to which repeatedly reading one passage improves students’ reading fluency on similar passages. Using an alternating treatment design, we examined the extent to which two interventions resulted in improvements in students’ fluency on generalization passages. While both interventions incorporated RR, one intervention involved students reading one passage four times and the other involved students reading two similar passages each twice. Intervention effects were evaluated by having students read a generalization passage prior to and following intervention implementation. Results indicate that both interventions were effective in increasing students reading fluency on generalization passages. For 3 participants the RR intervention produced greater gains in fluency on the generalization passages, while data for the remaining 3 participants are inconclusive. Implications of these findings for practice and for better understanding application of the instructional hierarchy to the development of reading interventions are discussed.

The purpose of the current study was to examine blending and segmenting of phonemes as an instance of small, textual response classes that students learn to combine to produce whole word reading. Using an A/B/A/B design, a phoneme segmenting and blending condition that included differential reinforcement for response classes at the level of phonemes was compared to a control condition which was equated for differential reinforcement of reading words and opportunities to respond. The critical difference between conditions was the size of the responses that were brought under stimulus control (phonemes versus whole words). Findings clearly supported the superiority of the phoneme blending treatment condition over the control condition in producing generalized increases in word reading. The results are discussed in terms of the behavioral mechanisms that govern early literacy behaviors and the essential role that targeting measured increases in academic responses plays in furthering our understanding of how to improve the analysis and instruction of students who need to learn these important skills.

The impact of adding performance-based interventions to a skill-based intervention on oral reading fluency was examined with 3 elementary students identified as having difficulty with reading. Two performance-based interventions were combined with the skill-based intervention Repeated Reading (RR) to create the three instructional packages investigated. The packages included Repeated Readings (RR), Repeated Readings with Performance Feedback (RR/FB), and Repeated Readings with Performance Feedback and Contingent Reward (RR/FB/REW). Results suggested that Repeated Reading (RR) alone led to the greatest increase in reading fluency for participants with the highest reading rates and lowest error rates at baseline. In contrast, the participant who exhibited the lowest reading rate and highest error rate benefited the most when Repeated Readings was offered in conjunction with Performance Feedback (RR/FB) or Performance Feedback plus Contingent Reward (RR/FB/RW). Implications for blending skill- and performance-based interventions to develop stimulus control over fluent reading and future research directions are discussed.

Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) has been shown to be an efficient learningteaching procedure. Although there is an extensive educational software tradition using CAL approaches, few of them have demonstrated a better student performance than standard drill and practice methods. The purpose of this study was (a) to evaluate the effectiveness of the “Let’s Play With :::” software program, and (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of a prompt (i.e. a blinking object) used in the program. The educational software “Let’s Play With :::” was designed to teach basic concepts involving shapes and body positions to preschool students. The software structure follows a behavioral design and uses a stimulus control procedure. The study was carried out with 64 preschool students in the Cadiz (Spain) School District. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental group and a control group.

Stimulus generalization has been defined as the spread of effect of reinforcement for responses emitted in the presence of one stimulus to different stimuli presented under extinction conditions. As a result of stimulus generalization, novel stimuli come to exert stimulus control over members of the response class. Studies in the applied behavior analysis literature, however, have reported experimental preparations that included prompting and reinforcement procedures during what were claimed to be stimulus generalization conditions. These studies violated the procedural requirement that stimulus generalization be tested under extinction conditions. Responses that come under the control of a class of stimuli may do so by direct training or by stimulus generalization. It is desirable for organisms to respond in the presence of members of an appropriately constructed stimulus class, but we should understand the mechanism of entry into the class by its members. If inaccurate claims of stimulus generalization are made when training procedures are used in the ostensible generalization conditions, the robustness of the original training procedures will be over estimated. By adhering to the operational requirements of behavioral definitions, we could better understand the power and limits of our educational and training procedures.

In teaching discriminations to persons with retardation, we often presume we will improve acquisition and generalization if we use multiple examples of boththe correct and incorrect stimuli. Two experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In the first experiment, 7 persons with moderate retardation learned to discriminate between functional words under two conditions. In one condition, Multiple Example of S- Only,1 example of the correct stimulus (S+) and 10 examples of the incorrect stimulus (S-) were used during acquisition. In the other condition, Multiple Examples of S+ and S-,10 examples of the S+ and 10 examples of the S- were used. Results showed that the condition which presented only a single example of S+ was superior 16 times and inferior 4 times during acquisition, generalization, and maintenance. A second experiment was conducted to (a) replicate the methodology and procedures in Experiment 1 with different participants, (b) determine whether the results were replicable, and (c) obtain efficiency data. Results replicated the findings of the first experiment. The condition which presented only a single example of S+ was superior on measures of (a) trials to criterion, (b) percent correct during acquisition, and (c) minutes to criterion. On measures of generalization, the two conditions were relatively equal. Thus, the condition which presented only a single example of the correct stimulus was more efficient and was just as effective in generalization as the condition which presented multiple examples of both the S+ and S-. These surprising results were discussed in terms of stimulus control, why students performed just as well during generalization when only one example of the S+ was used, why acquisition was also poorer for this condition, and how future studies might address these points.

This paper concerns the problem of teaching people with intellectual handicaps to respond reliably to spoken words and other auditory instructional stimuli. We describe how microcomputer technology can be applied to implement effective auditory stimulus control shaping methods. With hardware and software currently available, it is now possible to adapt procedures that have been previously successful in stimulus control programming with visual stimuli. We describe several techniques for programming gradual stimulus changes (e.g., stimulus fading, stimulus shaping) to promote auditory discrimination learning. Teaching studies with two individuals with severe mental retardation provide illustrative applications and data supporting the feasibility and potential utility of auditory stimulus control shaping methodology.

We assessed the effects of a computerized matching-to-sample procedure on the spelling performances of three students with mental retardation. Initially, the students could 1) match pictures and printed words to one another, and 2) match pictures and printed words to spoken words. However, they could not construct words to either pictures or spoken words (e.g., touch, in order, the letters s->h->o->e given the spoken-word sample “Shoe”). Word constructions then improved markedly after exposure to delayed constructed-response identity matching (e.g., touch the letters s->h->o->e given the printed-word sample shoe). One subject's oral and written spelling also improved. The results extend previous research by showing multiple positive effects of a computerized spelling intervention. These effects may have occurred in part because of the formation of stimulus classes among pictures, printed words, and spoken words.

This study used a multielement design to compare standard training (prompting and reinforcement) with and without reinforced directed rehearsal as a correction procedure in teaching expressive sign language to 10 nonverbal students with moderate to severe mental retardation. Standard training consisted of either sequential prompting or graduated guidance and 5 students were randomly assigned to each condition. Directed rehearsal involved 10 practices of the correct sign contingent on an error or no response; praise was given during directed rehearsal for cooperation and attempted signing. A stimulus control analysis revealed that only 6 of the 10 students (3 from each standard training condition) completely discriminated the trained signs within the maximum training period of 160 trials (3 of the 4 students who failed the stimulus control test were hearing impaired; the remaining 6 who showed stimulus control were not). Using only these six students' data, we found that directed rehearsal increased: (a) accuracy (percent correct), (b) speed of learning (required fewer trials to criterion), (c) efficiency (decreased total instruction time), and (d) generalization (across trainers, objects, and settings). There were no obvious interactions between directed rehearsal and the type of prompting strategy employed. Very little agitated behavior occurred in any of the sessions, and a treatment acceptability survey indicated that 10 of 14 direct-care staff and the trainers in this study preferred corrective directed rehearsal (as used in this study) over standard training alone. The results indicate that directed rehearsal may be a valuable adjunct to sign language training with nonverbal students with mental retardation.

Three individuals with mental retardation, who had failed to learn identity matching to sample with standard fading and prompting procedures, were given microcomputer-based programmed instruction. The methods were based on an analysis of two features of typical identity matching procedures: (a) within each trial, the current sample stimulus must control comparison selection, and (b) across trials, specific comparison stimuli must function both as S+ and as S−, depending upon the sample presented (conditional discrimination). During the first phase of training, one-trial acquisition of discriminative stimulus control was established in a nonconditional discrimination context where the S+ or S− functions of specific stimuli did not change from trial to trial. After one-trial learning was established, conditional discrimination was programmed by gradually introducing reversals of S+/S− stimulus functions. All three participants learned to perform conditional identity matching. Avenues for further analysis of the prerequisites for conditional discrimination and continued development of programmed methods are discussed.