Effects of rate building on fluent performance: A review and commentary

Abstract

The use of rate-building procedures to encourage the production of high response rates and to develop fluency has been increasingly justified by research on precision teaching and automaticity. Rate-building procedures often ensure both speed and accuracy, and claims have been made that such procedures result in greater retention, persistence, and generalization of trained skills, as well as preference by students. Given the potential importance of these claims for behavior analysts and educators alike, this review assesses the validity, generality, and implications of research on rate building. The review revealed sparse empirical evidence that retention, persistence, and generalization of skills result from the use of rate-building procedures when the effects of practice and reinforcement rate are controlled. Given the results of this review, the implications are discussed in the context of behavior-analytic research (e.g., behavioral momentum), and further research is recommended.

Increasing the sight vocabulary and reading fluency of children requiring reading support: the use of a Precision Teaching approach

“…It is notable that similar concerns regarding the lack of well-designed research in the field of PT have been recently highlighted. Such concerns followed a review of literature by Doughty, Chase, and O'Shields (2004) in which PT claimed to be superior in producing learning outcomes to other intervention methods. This review queried the validity and reliability of many PT studies, due to the use of small samples sizes and/or flawed research designs (for example, Bolich & Sweeney, 1996).…”

Treating Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities

“…There is some debate within the field about whether fluency is achieved as a function of rate-building or is an artifact of another element of instruction (Doughty, Chase, & O'Shields, 2004). In fact, several potential confounds and explanatory variables may be responsible for the effects.…”

Effects of Response Spacing on Acquisition and Retention of Conditional Discriminations

“…One instructional method commonly used by behavior analysts and a cornerstone of precision teaching is rate building (Binder, 1996;Péladeau, Forget, & Gagné, 2003). This procedure involves establishing fast, accurate, and repeated performance of learned skills, usually to a defined criterion (Doughty, Chase, & O'Shields, 2004). Criterion-level performance is referred to as fluency, which is defined by Binder as ''the fluid combination of accuracy plus speed that characterizes competent performance' ' (p. 164).…”

“…Training to fluency is claimed to enhance the retention and endurance of discriminated operants (Haughton, 1972), and a sizable applied literature supports the benefits of establishing performance that is both fast and accurate. Doughty et al (2004) recently reviewed this literature. They concluded that although the applied benefits of rate-building procedures are well established, it is very difficult to ascertain the effects of establishing a high rate of responding relative to a lower rate, because rate of responding typically is confounded with rate of reinforcement, number of learning opportunities (i.e., training trials), or both.…”