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Biomedical subjects

J E Spradlin

Publications and source records attributed to J E Spradlin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Equivalence class establishment, expansion, and modification in preschool children.

Preschool children were taught four two-choice match-to-sample conditional discriminations with 10 arbitrary visual stimuli. For 6 participants, 2 of the 10 stimuli served as the sample, or conditional, stimuli in all discriminations. For 5 additional participants, the same pair of stimuli served as the discriminative, or comparison, stimuli in all discriminations. Equivalence classes were established with more participants in the latter group, replicating prior research with participants with retardation. Four participants, in whom equivalence classes were established and who were available for further participation, were exposed to new conditional discriminations without trial-by-trial feedback and involving some novel and some familiar stimuli. Consistent conditional responding was observed, and tests for inclusion of the novel stimuli in the original classes showed class expansion. Training to reverse the unreinforced conditional performances produced a reversal of class membership in 3 of 4 participants, an outcome not consistent with other studies. The results are discussed with respect to the interaction of class structure and size.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded subjects: programming acquisition and learning set.

In Experiment 1, 3 subjects with retardation were exposed to two visual-visual arbitrary matching-to-sample problems each day. One conditional discrimination was presented under trial-and-error conditions, and the other was presented under a component training procedure. The latter began by establishing the comparison discrimination and its rapid reversal. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established through differential naming. Then, sample naming was maintained in conditional discrimination sessions in which the same sample was presented in blocks of consecutive trials. Block size was decreased across sessions until sample presentation was randomized as in trial-and-error training (but with naming maintained). Two subjects initially learned only with component training. The performance of the 3rd subject was inconsistent across conditional discriminations. One of the successful subjects ultimately learned rapidly and consistently with trial-and-error procedures. Experiment 2 sought to demonstrate learning set in the other 2 subjects. Elements of the component training procedure were withdrawn over successive conditional discriminations. Ultimately, 1 subject nearly always learned under trial-and-error conditions, and the other learned under trial-and-error conditions combined with differential sample naming.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Assessment of stimuli controlling the requests of students with severe mental retardation during a snack routine.

This study assessed stimuli controlling requests during a snack routine after extensive request training with a delayed prompt procedure. During training sessions, one of three three-item snack groups was presented to 3 subjects with severe mental retardation. Assessment sessions involved (a) training conditions (all items were visible), (b) presenting two of three items from a particular group, or (c) presenting no items. One subject requested food items when no food items were present, 2 frequently requested a missing item when the two other items were visible, and all subjects requested visible items. Procedures for assessing stimulus control, such as those described in the current paper, should lead to a better understanding of the variables controlling behaviors that initially appear perplexing and unpredictable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded adults: the development of generalized skills.

The development of generalized conditional discrimination skills was examined in adults with retardation. Two subjects with histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching under trial-and-error procedures were successful under procedures that trained one or more prerequisite skills. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by training the subjects to name the stimuli. The simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli was established using either (a) standard simple discrimination training with reversals or (b) a procedure in which each of the two sample-comparison relations in the conditional discrimination was presented in blocks of trials, with the size of the blocks decreasing gradually until sample presentation was randomized. The amount of prerequisite training required varied across subjects and across successive conditional discriminations. After acquiring either two or three conditional discriminations with component training, both subjects learned new conditional discriminations under trial-and-error procedures. In general, each successive conditional discrimination was acquired more rapidly. Tests showed that conditional responding had become a generalized skill. Symmetry was shown for almost all trained relations. Symmetry trial samples were ultimately named the same as the stimuli to which they were related in training.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Long-term stability of equivalence relations in the absence of training or practice.

An adult male with mild mental retardation, whose laboratory history included training in a match-to-sample task on 16 arbitrary relations among 16 visual stimuli and 2 auditory stimuli, had performances that showed the development of 112 additional arbitrary relations that had never been reinforced. In the presented study on 2-year and 3-year follow-up tests for these derived relations, his performances remained stable despite the absence of opportunities to practice these relations between the tests and the absence of explicit feedback during the tests. The similarity to the long-term stability of language was discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded adults: the effect of training the component simple discriminations.

Two subjects with retardation who exhibited generalized identity matching, but who had extensive histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching, were exposed to a series of conditions designed to train separately the components of a two-choice conditional discrimination. First, the successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by programming a different schedule of reinforcement in the presence of each sample stimulus. Schedule performance was acquired and maintained by both subjects, but neither acquired arbitrary matching. To train the simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli, 1 subject was then exposed to a series of simple discrimination reversals and subsequently failed to acquire arbitrary matching. Both subjects acquired arbitrary matching under a procedure that maintained both the sample and the comparison discrimination by first presenting entire sessions composed of one sample-comparison relation and then gradually reducing the number of consecutive trials with the same sample until sample presentation was randomized (schedule performance was maintained). Removal of the schedule requirement had no effect on arbitrary matching accuracy. Both subjects subsequently demonstrated control by relations symmetric to the trained relations.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Establishing auditory stimulus control over an eight-member equivalence class via conditional discrimination procedures.

Two eight-member equivalence classes of visual stimuli were established during three phases of a training program. In Phase 1, two training arrangements were compared. In one, 3 subjects were taught on different trials to select from a single pair of comparison stimuli (A1, A2) in response to eight sample stimuli that were trained in pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2; E1, E2). In the second arrangement, subjects were taught to select from four pairs of comparisons (B1, B2; C1, C2; D3, D2; E2, E2) in response to two samples (A1, A2). Training with the single pair of comparison stimuli resulted in the development of equivalence relations (B1C1, B2C2, D1B1, D2B2, B1E1, B2E2, C1D1, C2D2, C1E1, C2E2, D1E1, D2E2, and their reciprocals) between the sample stimuli without direct training of these relations. In the other training arrangement, these relations among the comparison stimuli developed in the performance of 1 subject only. In Phase 2, three new pairs of stimuli (F1, F2; G1, G2; H1, H2) were substituted for three of the original pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2) and the training arrangements for the groups were reversed. Following training, the performances that showed equivalence relations on the probes in the first phase also showed equivalence relations in the second phase. If such relations did not develop in the first phase, they did not do so in the second phase. In Phase 3, relations between stimuli across the two previous phases (e.g., B1F1, B2F2, B1G1, B2H2, C1F1, etc.) were investigated. The 4 subjects whose performances showed the development of these relations were taught to select one stimulus from each class (E1 and E2) in response to a verbal label (I1 and I2) and then were tested to see if the verbal label controlled responding to the remaining members of the class (e.g., I1A1, I2A2, I1B1, I2B2, etc.). For 3 subjects, this generalized control occurred; for the 4th, generalization occurred only after verbal training with a second pair of visual stimuli (F1 and F2). In retests several months later, these auditory-visual relations were found to be intact or, if not, were recovered without direct training.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

The merger and development of equivalence classes by unreinforced conditional selection of comparison stimuli.

Three experiments assessed the likelihood that subjects with histories of equivalence class development would respond conditionally on new discriminations in the absence of differential consequences for responses. In the first two experiments, two groups of subjects with different experimental histories, but whose performances showed four equivalence classes, responded on trials without explicit reinforcement involving samples from two of the classes and comparisons from the other two classes, in a two-choice matching-to-sample format. Subjects consistently selected a particular comparison in the presence of a particular sample. Subsequent tests showed the emergence of equivalence relations between stimuli from classes linked by the unreinforced conditional selections. Subsequently, in Experiment II, the subjects' responses in the conditional selection trials were reinforced if the selection was reversed from that made previously. Although reversed selection was maintained, 2 of the 3 subjects continued to perform on equivalence relation trials according to their original unreinforced selections. In the third experiment, these 2 subjects responded on a series of conditional discriminations involving three new pairs of sample stimuli and one new pair of comparison stimuli. No explicit reinforcement followed responses on any trial in this experiment. Subsequent tests for equivalence between sample stimuli revealed the development of two equivalence classes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Therapy and research.

The thesis is developed that therapy and research are not necessarily the same activity and that clinicians are not necessarily researchers. Though there are commonalities between research and therapy, especially as the use of single-subject research designs has increased, using the scientific method to guide therapy is not the same as doing science. The requirements of good therapy and good research are often different in critical ways. Both research and therapy are important to the vitality of the profession, and the profession is strengthened when the differences are acknowledged.

Audiology↗
PubMed1984

Behaving appropriately in new situations: a stimulus class analysis.

Ways in which initially unrelated stimuli can be established as members of the same stimulus class were reviewed and the suggestion made that such classes may explain individual's abilities to behave in appropriate ways in novel situations. Possible process limitations of retarded persons in developing such classes were discussed.

Association↗
PubMed1983

The development of derived stimulus relations through training in arbitrary-matching sequences.

Five-year-old children were taught three-stage sequences of arbitrary matching: A-C, B-C, A-D; A-C, B-D, B-C; or A-C, A-D, B-C. Each stage refers to a sample-comparison relation between stimuli. Unreinforced test probes revealed untrained arbitrary matches (B-D, A-D, and B-D, respectively), derivable by substitution of stimuli with a common sample or comparison function. Additional probes revealed further untrained sample-comparison relations derivable by substitution and identity, including the commuted relations D-B, D-A, and D-B, respectively. These processes may have relevance to conceptual and verbal behavior.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1982

Language training in natural and clinical environments.

A persistent problem in programs designed to help children acquire language skills is how to promote generalization so that the child can use communication skills in the widest variety of appropriate situations. One solution is to embed the teaching in the natural environment and, perhaps, to use the parent as the teacher. For some families, however, this may not be a feasible arrangement, because of the nature of the child's problem, the characteristics of the environment, or some interaction. It may then be most appropriate to teach the child in a clinical or laboratory environment and to use a formal language training program. When such programs are implemented, there is often a problem in extending or generalizing the child's newly acquired skills. Careful consideration of the manner in which stimuli are presented, the kinds of responses that are required, and the way in which reinforcement is dispensed may help to solve the difficulty in moving from laboratory to natural settings.

Child↗
PubMed1981

Teachers' generalized use of delay as a stimulus control procedure to increase language use in handicapped children.

In Experiment 1, classroom teachers were taught to delay their offers of help in naturally occurring situations, and thereby to provide additional opportunities for language use by six moderately retarded language-delayed children. The teachers introduced this delay technique in a multiple-baseline design across the six children. As delays were used, child verbal initiations increased. Follow-up assessment showed that teachers were maintaining greater than baseline levels of the delay technique after 10 weeks. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1, and included a more thorough maintenance assessment, while focusing on teachers' generalization of the delay technique. Teachers were found to generalize their use of delay to 56% of their monitored untaught opportunities. The two experiments show that (a) the delay technique is quick to teach and simple to implement, (b) delays do provide opportunities for children to initiate, (c) teachers can generalize their use of delay to novel self-selected situations, and (d) teachers can maintain their use of delays over time.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1979

Time delay: a technique to increase language use and facilitate generalization in retarded children.

Institutional breakfast-serving procedures were manipulated to assess what effect changes in that aspect of the environment would have on requests for food. During baseline, six severely retarded children were required to pick up their food trays and return to their seats. The first manipulation, delaying the giving of the food tray for 15 seconds, served as a cue to evoke meal requests by three of the six children. Two of the remaining three required a model of an appropriate meal request (i.e., "Tray, please.") at the end of the 15-second delay before they began requesting their meals. To evoke meal requests from the sixth child, an intensive training procedure, consisting of massed trials of delay and modeling, was required. Three different probes were administered to assess generalization across the people serving the meals, across mealtimes, and across both people and mealtimes. Typically, generalized responding in these new situations could be prompted by use of the 15-second delay procedure. Functional aspects of the delay procedure and its potential usefulness for evoking speech and facilitating generalization are discussed.

Adolescent↗