We tested the effects of teaching peer monitoring on the emergence of an observational learning (OL)

We tested the effects of an intensive tact instruction procedure on the emission of verbal operants in non-instructional settings by three preschool students with developmental delays. The participants were selected because they emitted low numbers pure verbal operants in non-instructional settings throughout the school day. Specifically, we measured the number of pure mands and tacts emitted during probes in the non-instructional settings. During the intensive tact procedure, the participants received an additional 100 tacts above their average number of daily learn units. In a delayed multiple probe design, we found that the intensive tact instruction was effective in increasing the number of pure mands and tacts emitted in the non-instructional settings by all three of the participants in the study.

We studied the effects of conditioned reinforcement for two-dimensional visual stimuli (print) on visual match-to-sample responses for three pre-schoolers with disabilities using a time lagged multiple probe design. Visual stimuli (pictures, symbols, letters and shapes) were conditioned using a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure until these print stimuli functioned as reinforcement for looking. Dependent variables were 1) pre-and postconditioning responses to probes for the number of seconds participants looked at novel visual stimuli, and 2) the ratio of learn units to criteria for the acquisition of two -dimensional match-to-sample programs. Results showed a functional relationship between the acquisitions of conditioned reinforcement for the visual stimuli and decreased the mean numbers of learn units to criteria on match-to-sample curricular instruction for all participants. Keywords: Foundations to verbal developmental, Developmental behavioral cusps, Conditioned reinforcement, Acquisition of match-to-sample repertoires Recently, Keohane, Greer, & Ackerman (2006), tested the effects of conditioning sustained eye contact with three-dimensional (3D) objects (Visual Tracking Protocol) on the acquisition of matching responses for a participant for whom looking at or observing 3D instructional stimuli on a table that were not reinforcers for visual observing responses. They found that when 3D stimuli were paired with This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of playful physical contact as an establishing operation (EO) on correct academic responses for four-year-old preschool students with developmental disabilities who functioned at the pre-speaker and pre-listener levels of verbal behavior. Two males and one female served as participants who attended a publicly funded, private preschool outside a large metropolitan area. A multi-element design (alternating treatments design followed by an AB design) was used to test the effects of the establishing operation. The data were collected in seven acquisition programs and one performance program for each participant. The establishing operation consisted of experimenters' tickling, spinning, and hugging the participants as pre-instructional play for 10 seconds for every 10 learn units. The results of these data showed that an establishing operation was effective at increasing correct academic responding across all participants. In addition, Participants A and B emitted more mands for the playful physical contact during the pre-play sessions (mands were not measured for Participant C).