Effect of Sample-Response Requirement on Matching-to-Sample Accuracy of Exceptional Children

Abstract

10 exceptional children ages 3 to 16 yr. matched-to-sample with either one response (single sample-response condition) or 5 or 10 responses (multiple sample-response condition) requited on the sample to produce the comparison stimuli. Accuracy increased going from the single to the multiple sample-response condition and decreased when the multiple sample-response requirement was changed to a single sample response. Acquisition of the task by two of the subjects was facilitated by the increased sample-response requirement.

Reducing Stimulus Overselectivity Through an Increased Observing‐response Requirement

“…Results replicate findings with nonhuman animals showing a positive relation between discrimination accuracy and observing‐response requirements (e.g., Maki et al, 1977; Sacks et al, 1972). We also extended the results of Osborne et al (1978) by evaluating the relation between discrimination accuracy and observing‐response requirements in an individual who displays stimulus overselectivity. These findings suggest that an increased observing‐response requirement is another means of reducing stimulus overselectivity in individuals with autism.…”

“…Under a DMTS procedure with an increased observing-response requirement, the completion of a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule greater than one removes the sample stimulus. To our knowledge, only Osborne, Heaps, and Phelps-Bowden (1978) have extended the use of an increased observing-response requirement during DMTS tasks to human participants. Osborne et al, however, did not examine stimulus overselectivity.…”

Time, Sleep, and Stimulus Equivalence-Based Relational Memory

“…TI tasks, on the other hand, usually present pairs of stimuli with one designated stimulus TIME, SLEEP AND EQUIVALENCE 14 deemed correct on each trial. The DMTS procedure and observing response made to the sample on every trial in conditional relation training may have facilitated acquisition and long-term retention of the baseline relations and made the task more engaging for participants (Osborne, Heaps, & Phelps-Bowden, 1978;Wilkie & Spetch, 1978). Delayed testing for symmetry and equivalence relations is therefore likely to have been facilitated by the stringent training procedure adopted in the present study that ensured extraneous sources of stimulus control could be ruled out.…”