An Examination of Stimulus Control in Fluency-Based Strategies: SAFMEDS and Generalization

Meindl, James N.; Ivy, Jonathan W.; Miller, Neal; Neef, Nancy A.; Williamson, Robert L.

doi:10.1007/s10864-013-9172-6

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…All information on the fronts and backs of the cards appeared in the center of the cards. To avoid stimulus control issues such as smudge marks or bent corners evoking responses instead of the printed words (see Eshleman, 2000a, 2000b, and Meindl et al, 2013, for further discussion), multiple identical decks were created and rotated throughout sessions. Cards with any visible marks, smudges, tears, or other defects were replaced with new cards.…”

Section: Settings and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since its inception, SAFMEDS has been evaluated to determine its effects on learning (e.g., Bolich & Sweeney, 1996;Byrnes, Macfarlane, Young, & West, 1990;Eaton & Fox, 1983;Eshleman, 1985) and the maintenance of learning (Kim, Carr, & Templeton, 2001;Olander, Collins, McArthur, Watts, & McDade, 1986). In addition, comparisons between different SAFMEDS procedures (e.g., teacher vs. student deck development; McDade & Olander, 1990) and modalities (e.g., computer-based vs. paper deck;McDade, Austin, & Olander, 1985) have been made, as well as between factors affecting performance outcomes (e.g., error rate; Bower & Orgel, 1981;stimulus control;Meindl, Ivy, Miller, Neef, & Williamson, 2013). A review of this literature indicates that SAFMEDS increases the number of correct answers across varied content (e.g., math facts, reading fluency, positive self-statements), various populations (i.e., elementary education, secondary education, university, and geriatric), and various settings (e.g., education, home, and community; Quigley, Peterson, Frieder, & Peck, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Evaluation of Multiple SAFMEDS Procedures

Quigley

Peterson

Frieder

et al. 2021

Behav Analysis Practice

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Lindsley developed the "say all fast minute every day shuffled" (SAFMEDS) procedure in the late 1970s to enhance the typical use of flash cards (Graf & Auman, 2005). The acronym specifically guides the learner's behavior when using flash cards. A review of SAFMEDS research indicates its successful use with children, college students, and older adults with and without disabilities. The literature also indicates that SAFMEDS procedures are not well documented and have multiple variations, limiting practitioners' ability to know what procedures to use and when. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a basic SAFMEDS procedure and four supplementary SAFMEDS procedures on the rates of correct and incorrect responding to unfamiliar Russian words and Chinese characters in college students. The results of the study suggest that the basic SAFMEDS procedure produced some learning (i.e., increases in correct responding and decreases in incorrect responding), but all of the supplementary procedures led to greater increases in the number of correct responses per 1-min timing. Further research evaluating differences in performance across the supplementary procedures is warranted.

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Section: Settings and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Evaluation of Multiple SAFMEDS Procedures

Quigley

Peterson

Frieder

et al. 2021

Behav Analysis Practice

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“…Say-All-Fast-Minute-Every-Day-Shuffled (SAFMEDS) is a practice and assessment strategy that applies the principles PT (Potts et al, 1993). Children typically practice the SAFMEDS strategy using a deck of flashcards; with a question on the front and the corresponding correct answer on the back (Meindl et al, 2013). A child reads the front of the card silently before vocalizing the answer (Quigley et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research has demonstrated that, when paired with data-driven decisions, the SAFMEDS strategy can improve skill fluency across several academic domains. For example, learners can use the SAFMEDS strategy to improve recall of arithmetic facts (Casey et al, 2003;Nam and Spruill, 2005;Cunningham et al, 2012;Hunter et al, 2016), words in a second language (Bolich and Sweeney, 1996;Beverley et al, 2016), and subject-specific terminology (Beverley et al, 2009;Stockwell and Eshelman, 2010;Meindl et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Social Validity of the SAFMEDS Strategy From the Perspective of Teachers and Children

Owen¹,

Hughes²,

Beverley

et al. 2021

Front. Educ.

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The Say-All-Fast-Minute-Every-Day-Shuffled (SAFMEDS) strategy promotes fluency across several skills and contexts. However, few studies have reported the social validity key stakeholders associate with using the strategy in schools. Assessing social validity may provide us with some insight into factors that may affect engagement, implementation fidelity, and persistent use of the intervention after the termination of a research study. Study 1 details the findings from a survey completed by teachers who have used the strategy in their schools (N = 55). Using thematic analysis, we identified three themes: 1) factors that promote and limit progress, 2) confidence, and 3) inherent advantages of the SAFMEDS strategy. These themes encapsulate teachers experiences of implementing the strategy under the real-word conditions of the classroom and the accompanying advantages and potential challenges they face. Within study 2, we discuss themes arising from interviews with children (N = 26) about their views and experiences of using the SAFMEDS strategy. These children had used the strategy with their teacher for one academic year to promote fast and accurate recall of arithmetic facts. Analysis of these transcripts revealed five further themes relating to children’s engagement with the strategy: 1) enjoyment, 2) data, 3) sense of achievement, 4) skills, and 5) home use. Collectively these themes have potential impact with regards to future training and support models for the SAFMEDS strategy.

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“…Behavioural fluency differs from traditional concepts of mastery (commonly used in simulationbased education), as behavioural fluency focuses not only on the accuracy or correctness of performance, but also its pace [2]. Behaviours taught to fluency have been shown to maintain better over time (Retention), to transfer to other contexts (Generalisation) and to endure despite distraction [1,3,4]. Interventions targeting behaviour fluency: 1) are typically criterion-referenced, meaning that learners work towards achieving a pre-determined 'expert' standard that is time-based [5]; 2) are focused on providing learners with opportunities to practice the behaviour, a key element of the learning process often absent in educational programs [6]; and 3) involve both continuous measurement of behaviour and performance feedback for the learner [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A pragmatic randomised controlled trial of SAFMEDS to produce fluency in interpretation of electrocardiograms

et al. 2020

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Background: SAFMEDS (Say-All-Fast-Minute-EveryDay Shuffled) is a flashcard-type behavioural instructional methodology, involving one-minute learning trials that function both as practice and assessment, used to facilitate the development of fluency in a behaviour. The primary research question was whether SAFMEDS engenders improvement in performance beyond that conferred by usual teaching. A secondary research question was whether SAFMEDS is an effective method of producing fluency in Electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation. Methods: A pilot study was conducted to determine sample size required to power the pragmatic randomised controlled trial (RCT). For the subsequent RCT, participants were randomly assigned to a "usual teaching" control group (n = 14) or the SAFMEDS intervention group (n = 13), with the recognition of 15 cardiac conditions on ECGs (e.g., atrial fibrillation, complete heart block) targeted. Intervention group participants' performance was tracked over eight weeks as they worked towards achieving the fluency criterion. Percentage accuracy in ECG interpretation was assessed at baseline and post-test for both groups. An ANCOVA was conducted to assess for differences in the performance of the intervention and control group at post-test while controlling for the baseline performance of participants. At post-test, the numbers of participants achieving fluency within the intervention group was examined. Results: A large effect size of SAFMEDS (partial η 2 = .67) was identified when controlling for the effects of baseline performance. At post-test, the intervention group significantly outperformed (M = 61.5%; SD = 12.1%) the control group (M = 31.6%; SD = 12.5%, p < .001). In total, 7 of 13 intervention group participants achieved fluency. Participants required an average of 51.9 one-minute trials (SD = 18.8) to achieve fluency. Conclusions: SAFMEDS offers a useful adjunct to usual teaching within medical education. Further research could assess whether learning retains, is stable, and transfers to clinical practice.

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An Examination of Stimulus Control in Fluency-Based Strategies: SAFMEDS and Generalization

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

An Evaluation of Multiple SAFMEDS Procedures

An Evaluation of Multiple SAFMEDS Procedures

Assessing the Social Validity of the SAFMEDS Strategy From the Perspective of Teachers and Children

A pragmatic randomised controlled trial of SAFMEDS to produce fluency in interpretation of electrocardiograms

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