Chapter 10

What are the steps involved in prompting and transferring stimulus control?

1. Prompt fading 2. Prompt delay 3. Stimulus fading

Physical Prompt

A person physically helps the person to engage in the correct behavior at the right time. Ex: Coach McCall held the bat with Trevor and physically helped him to swing the bat and hit the ball. The person using this prompt is executing all or part of the behavior with the learner. This prompt often involves hand-over-hand guidance, in which the trainer guides the person's hands through the behavior

Extrastimulus Prompt

Adding another stimulus or cue to the SD Sometimes stimulus prompts involve adding a stimulus to help a person make a correct discrimination. Ex: The line drawn in the dirt next to home plate by the coach helps the T-ball player stand in the correct place when batting

Modeling Prompt

Any demonstration of the correct behavior by another person that makes it more likely that the correct behavior will occur at the right time is a this prompt. A person observes the model and imitates the modeled behavior (makes the correct response) in the presence of the SD. When coach McCall hit the ball to show Matt how to do so, he was modeling the correct behavior. Matt imitated the coach's behavior and hit the ball successfully himself. For a modeling prompt to be successful, the person must be able to imitate the model's behavior

Gestural Prompt

Any physical movement or gesture of another person that leads to the correct behavior in the presence of the SD is considered a gestural prompt. Ex: Coach McCall pointed to the place that Tom should stand in the batter's box. When coach McCall showed him the motion of the ball and where to swing the bat, he was using gestural prompts that helped Tom hit the ball

Why does the learning trial always start with the discriminative stimulus?

As you can see, prompts are used to increase the likelihood that a person will engage in the correct behavior at the correct time. They are used during discrimination training to help the person engage in the correct behavior in the presence of the discriminative stimulus (SD). "Prompts are stimuli given before or during the performance of a behavior.

What are "can't do" vs. "won't do" problems? When do we use prompting and fading?

Can't Do Problem: Physically can't do it, don't know how to do. Use fading for this problem Won't Do Problem: They know how to do the behavior but refusing to learn the behavior. Use prompting for this problem

Within-stimulus Prompt

Changing the SD You can change the salience of an SD (or S) in a number of ways. You can change the position of the SD or you can change some dimension of the SD (or S), such as size, shape, color, or intensity. Ex: Coach McCall used a stimulus prompt (in addition to response prompts) when he taught his players to hit a baseball. The SD is a baseball approaching the batter at normal speed from a normal distance. The response is to swing the bat correctly, and the reinforcing consequence is hitting the ball and getting praise from the coach.

When is reinforcement used during prompting and fading?

However, if the correct behavior is not occurring (if the player is not correctly swinging the bat to hit the ball), the behavior cannot be reinforced. The function of prompts is to produce an instance of the correct behavior so that it can be reinforced. This is what teaching is all about: The teacher provides supplemental stimuli (prompts) together with the SD so that the student will exhibit the correctbehavior. The teacher then reinforces the correct behavior so that it will eventually occur whenever the SD is present

Delay Prompt

In this procedure, you present the SD, wait a certain number of seconds, and then, if the correct response is not made, you provide the prompt. The time delay between the presentation of the SD and the prompt may be constant or progressive

Stimulus prompts

Involves some change in a stimulus, or the addition or removal of a stimulus, to make a correct response more likely. Might involve a change in the SD or the S-delta (S) that makes the SD more salient and the S less salient so that the person is more likely to respond to the SD (to make the correct discrimination). Likewise, other stimuli might be used in conjunction with the SD or S to make the SD more salient, thereby making a correct discrimination more likely.

Response Prompts

Is the behavior of another person that evokes the desired response in the presence of the SD. Verbal prompts, gestural prompts, modeling prompts, and physical prompts are all these types of prompts.

Prompt fading

Is the most commonly used method of transferring stimulus control. A response prompt is removed gradually across learning trials until the prompt is no longer provided Ex: When coach McCall provided fewer and fewer instructions to Luke as he hit the ball, the coach was fading a verbal prompt. When the coach provided less and less physical guidance to Trevor as he started to hit the ball successfully, the coach was fading a physical prompt.

When would least-to-most prompting be more appropriate and when would most-to-least prompting be more appropriate?

Least to most: Less intrusive or weaker prompts (such as verbal prompts) should be used if the learner is capable of benefiting from them (i.e., the learner is capable of following instructions). If unsure of the level of prompt that is needed, you may use graduated prompt strategies Most-to-least: prompting is used when the trainer believes the learner will need a physical prompt to engage in the correct behavior. Using most-to-least prompting, the job coach would start by providing a physical prompt together with a verbal prompt.

Transfer of Stimulus control

Prompt fading: The response prompt is eliminated gradually. Prompt delay: After the SD is presented, the prompt is delayed to provide the opportunity for an unprompted response to occur. Stimulus fading: The stimulus prompt is eliminated gradually.

Prompts

Prompts are used to increase the likelihood that a person will engage in the correct behavior at the correct time. are used during discrimination training to help the person engaged in the correct behavior in the presence of the discriminative stimulus (SD) so the behavior can be reinforced The function of prompts is to produce an instance of the correct behavior so that it can be reinforced

Why is it important to fade prompts?

So the behavior can be done without the help of the instructor

When is teaching considered to be complete when using prompting and fading?

The teacher shows the students a flash card with a word on it (SD ). If the students cannot make the correct response (read the word), she provides a verbal prompt (says the word). Eventually, she will fade the prompt, and the students will read the word presented on the flash card without any assistance.

Learning trial

This sequence of presenting the SD, prompting the response, and providing a reinforcer

Verbal Prompts

When the verbal behavior of another person results in the correct response in presence of the SD, this is a verbal prompt. It is when you say something that helps the person engage in the correct behavior. Ex: WhenNatasha was learning to read, the teacher showed her the flash card with the word CAR and said "car"

Most-to-least prompting and fading

With this method, the most intrusive prompt is used first and is then faded to less intrusive prompts. Most-to-least prompting is used when the trainer believes the learner will need a physical prompt to engage in the correct behavior.

Least-to-most prompting and fading

in which less intrusive prompts are tried first and more intrusive prompts are used as needed. Stimulus prompts are most appropriate when you want to help a person make a correct discrimination. Because stimulus prompts highlight the SD (make it more salient), they increase the likelihood that the learner will respond when the SD is present

Fading

is the gradual elimination of the prompt as the behavior continues to occur in the presence of the SD. Is one way to transfer stimulus control from the prompts to the SD.

Stimulus fading

would involve gradually removing that additional stimulus as the response began occurring reliably in the presence of the SD. Once this additional stimulus is completely removed and the response continues to occur in the presence of the SD, stimulus control has been transferred to the SD.