title: Shaping academic task engagement with percentile schedules.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the use of percentile schedules as a method of quantifying the shaping procedure in an educational setting. We compared duration of task engagement during baseline measurements for 4 students to duration of task engagement during a percentile schedule. As a secondary purpose, we examined the influence on shaping of manipulations of the number of observations used to determine the criterion for reinforcement (the m parameter of the percentile formula). Results showed that the percentile formula was most effective when a relatively large m value (20 observations) was used.
authors.affiliation: University of Florida, Gainesville 32611, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Athens
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Vollmer
authors.forename: Claire C St Peter
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Pipkin
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D013334:Students