The Modification and Generalization of Voice Loudness in a Fifteen‐year‐old Retarded Girl1

Abstract

A fifteen-year-old severely disturbed girl was treated for aphonia. Because of the extent of her withdrawal, the subject was conditioned in a laboratory setting and received tokens for speaking loudly enough to operate a voice-operated relay. Conditioning at first consisted of saying 100 monosyllabic words, with the possibility of reinforcement on each word. Later, the subject was required to say a polysyllabic word, and finally, five or six words per token. The subject was shaped to speak with normal loudness in the laboratory, and generalization to a reading situation in the laboratory was measured and observed to occur, at first for a few minutes, and later for a longer period. Generalization to a reading situation in the classroom did not occur, but the subject's voice loudness also increased in the classroom when several new reinforcement contingencies were put into effect there.

Sidney Slug: A Computer Simulation for Teaching Shaping without an Animal Laboratory

“…The tutorial also advises (and the algorithms require) that students use frequent reinforcement in order to shape Sidney successfully-a reinforcement rate of 70% to 80% is recommended. The latter figure, although high by animal laboratory standards, was chosen with the demands of applied settings in mind; this rate of reinforcement by the shaper is consistent with recommendations in the applied literature (Gambrill, 1977;Gelfanld cSr Hartman, 1975;Jackson & 'Wallace, 1974). A major portion of the tutorial comprises a mock demonstration of a shaping session.…”

Applied behavior analysis.

“…Applied researchers, by contrast, will study response allocation because, for example, decreasing responses allocated to drug taking is of societal importance (see Volume 2, Chapter 19, this handbook). Likewise, they will study response intensity because it is either too low, as in inaudible speech (Jackson & Wallace, 1974), or too high, as in noisy behavior on the school bus (Greene, Bailey, & Barber, 1981). Furthermore, many human performances are such that clinical improvement requires change in more than one dimension of a response.…”

Elevation of Voice Volume in Young Development Ally Delayed Children via an Operant Shaping Procedure

“…This study differs from previous experiments attempting to increase voice volume in several respects. First, subjects were preschool children rather than disturbed adolescents (Jackson & Wallace, 1974;Schwartz & Hawkins, 1970) or chronically institutionalized adults (Patterson et al, 1975). Secondly, the current experiment successfully produced and objectively measured substantial increases in voice volume in a generalization setting devoid of additional programmed reinforcement contingencies.…”

“…A "color organ" apparatus on corresponded to the voice volume emitted by the child served as the reinforcing stimulus during shaping. Jackson and Wallace (1974) successfully increased the voice volume of a 15-yr-old "severely disturbed" girl using a voice-activated relay system to identify suprathreshold responding during a shaping procedure using token reinforcement. Increases did not generalize, however, from the laboratory to a classroom reading setting without additional contingencies.…”

“…Jackson and Wallace found little generalization of laboratory volume increases to the classroom without additional contingencies. Thirdly, the current study includes objective generalization setting follow-up data whereas only anecdotal data are reported by Patterson et al (1975) and Jackson and Wallace (1974).…”