DeQuinzio, J., & Taylor, B. (2015). Teaching children with autism to discriminate the reinforced and nonreinforced responses of others: Implications for observational learning. Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis, 48(1), 38-51. doi: 10.1002/jaba.192

This study aimed to investigate the behavior of teaching children with autism when it comes to discriminate between reinforced  and non-reinforced responses of the adult model.

Consequently, three autism participants took part namely Rose 6, Leah 9, Mary 12 and Mark 7. The model applied assessed the effectiveness of the intervention through the use of multiple baseline designs. Notably, the intervention model involved a token system to motivate the participants to take part in the study actively. A multiple baseline design was applied to evaluate the impact of discrimination training on the acquisition of unknown picture labels and saying “I don’t know” at training and generalization test sessions. The intervention was efficiently implemented for the four participants across an extended period depending on the necessity of the participant. For example, some participants like Rose spent about 10 min in the baseline session. Therefore, the participants used different time session in the baseline, training on discrimination and generalization post tests. Upon implementation, the percentage of correct response was recorded for the tests: baseline, discrimination training, and generalization sessions. Looking at figure 1 the percentage for the four participants was at 60 percent and below in baseline sessions. Since Rose did not show an increase in discrimination and training session over baseline, a repeat session was conducted, and an increase recorded. From the graph, the trend is quite stable for discrimination training and generalization session, and participants showed acquisition in the discrimination of both reinforced and non-reinforced responses. Again generalization to stimuli not related to training differed for the four participants.

Reference

DeQuinzio, J., & Taylor, B. (2015). Teaching children with autism to discriminate the reinforced and nonreinforced responses of others: Implications for observational learning. Journal Of Applied Behavior Analysis, 48(1), 38-51. doi: 10.1002/jaba.192