Use of computer- and teacher-delivered prompts in discrimination training with individuals who have mental retardation.
Individuals with mental retardation received training on a series of 16 visual discrimination problems. Eleven subjects received computer-delivered instruction with a stimulus-fading procedure and 11 were trained with verbal and nonverbal prompts delivered by a human teacher. We found that (a) the teacher's prompts were effective with more subjects than was the computer-based fading procedure; (b) transfer to stimulus control to task stimuli was poor with the teacher's prompts but nearly perfect when fading was effective; and (c) subjects learned more discrimination problems with the computer-delivered fading procedure. These results suggest that the computer could be a useful tool to assist in discrimination training in special-education settings.
Dube
W V
WV
Behavioral Sciences Division, E. K. Shriver Center, Waltham, MA 02254, USA.
Moniz
D H
DH
Gomes
J F
JF
D000328:Adult; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D003201:Computers; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D013663:Teaching