The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities Test for Predicting Learning of Persons With Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) Test uses standard prompting and reinforcement procedures to assess the ease or difficulty with which a testee is able to learn a simple imitation and five two-choice discriminations. The authors review studies that have examined performance of participants with developmental disabilities (DD) on the ABLA test to predict (a) performance on a variety of simple imitations and two-choice discriminations, (b) performance on three-choice and four-choice discriminations, (c) the relative efficacy of three presentation modes (objects vs. photographs vs. verbal descriptions) for assessing preferences, (d) compliance of adults with DD and children with and without DD, and (e) participants' ability to learn to respond to the spoken names of pictures of common objects. Across all five types of studies, the predictive validity of the ABLA test has been very high.

Does Mastery of ABLA Level 6 Make it Easier for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities to Learn to Name Objects?

“…Fourth, as indicated in a review by Martin, Thorsteinsson, Yu, Martin and Vause (2008), the ABLA has very good predictive validity for the types of tasks that an individual will readily learn. Therefore, if a task is above a client's ability level, the client may not be able to learn the task even following a number of trials of reinforced practice.…”

The history of behavior analysis in Manitoba: A sparsely populated canadian province with an international influence on behavior analysis

“…During the last 20 years at the U of M, behavior-analytic research has continued to flourish. Yu, Martin, and their students have focused their research in areas such as the reliability and validity of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities with persons with IDs (Martin, Thorsteinsson, Yu, Martin, & Vause, 2008), teaching tutors and parents how to conduct DTT with children with autism (e.g., Thomson et al, 2012), and evaluations of preference assessment procedures for persons with IDs (e.g., Lee, Yu, Martin, & Martin, 2010). Pear and his students have continued their basic operant research (e.g., Pear, 2004) and their CAPSI research (e.g., Pear et al, 2011).…”

Evaluation of preference assessment procedures for use with infants and toddlers.

“…On the ABLA, there are six levels in the assessment including: imitation, position discrimination, visual discrimination, match-to-sample, auditory discrimination, and auditory-visual combined discrimination. The ABLA has been found to be effective in predicting how individual's perform on future imitation and two-choice tasks (Martin et al, 2008). To date, this research has been conducted on individuals with developmental disabilities, children with pervasive developmental disabilities, and typically developing children (Martin et al, 2008).…”

“…The ABLA has been found to be effective in predicting how individual's perform on future imitation and two-choice tasks (Martin et al, 2008). To date, this research has been conducted on individuals with developmental disabilities, children with pervasive developmental disabilities, and typically developing children (Martin et al, 2008). However, the youngest children assessed with this measure have been four years old.…”