The modification and generalization of voice loudness in a fifteen-year-old retarded girl.
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.
D000293:Adolescent; D001044:Aphonia / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014831:Voice