title: Reducing overselective stimulus control with differential observing responses.
abstract: Overselective stimulus control refers to discriminative control in which the number of controlling stimuli is too limited for effective behavior. Experiment 1 included 22 special-education students who exhibited overselective stimulus control on a two-sample delayed matching task. An intervention added a compound identity matching opportunity within the sample observation period of the matching trials. The compound matching functioned as a differential observing response (DOR) in that high accuracy verified observation and discrimination of both sample stimuli. Nineteen participants learned to perform the DOR and two-sample delayed matching accuracy increased substantially for 16 of them. When the DOR was completely withdrawn after 10 sessions, accuracy declined. In Experiment 2, a more gradual withdrawal of DOR requirements showed that highly accurate performance could be maintained with the DOR on only a proportion of trials for most participants. The results show that DOR training may lead to a general improvement in observing behavior.
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts Medical School and Western New England University.
authors.forename: Rachel S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Farber
authors.affiliation: New England Center for Children and Western New England University.
authors.forename: Chata A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Dickson
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts Medical School and Western New England University.
authors.forename: William V
authors.initials: WV
authors.lastname: Dube
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004519:Education, Special / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: differential observing responses; intellectual disabilities; matching to sample; overselective stimulus control