The Effectiveness of Using a Video iPod as a Prompting Device in Employment Settings

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a video iPod as a prompting device for teaching three job-related tasks to a young man with developmental disabilities in a community-based employment setting. The effectiveness of the prompting device was evaluated using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results indicated that the introduction of the video iPod was associated with immediate and substantial gains in independent correct responding with an associated decrease in the number of prompts given from a job coach. In addition, the participant used the video iPod independently. Instructional implications and future research will be discussed.     

Observational learning in capuchin monkeys: a video deficit effect

Young human children have been shown to learn less effectively from video or televised images than from real-life demonstrations. Although nonhuman primates respond to and can learn from video images, there is a lack of direct comparisons of task acquisition from video and live demonstrations. To address this gap in knowledge, we presented capuchin monkeys with video clips of a human demonstrator explicitly hiding food under one of two containers. The clips were presented at normal, faster than normal, or slower than normal speed, and then the monkeys were allowed to choose between the real containers. Even after 55 sessions and hundreds of video demonstration trials the monkeys’ performances indicated no mastery of the task, and there was no effect of video speed. When given live demonstrations of the hiding act, the monkeys’ performances were vastly improved. Upon subsequent return to video demonstrations, performances declined to pre-live-demonstration levels, but this time with evidence for an advantage of fast video demonstrations. Demonstration action speed may be one aspect of images that influence nonhuman primates’ ability to learn from video images, an ability that in monkeys, as in young children, appears limited compared to learning from live models.     

Randomized controlled evaluation of an early intervention to prevent post-rape psychopathology

A randomized between-group design was used to evaluate the efficacy of a video intervention to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems, implemented prior to the forensic medical examination conducted within 72 h post-sexual assault. Participants were 140 female victims of sexual assault (68 video/72 nonvideo) aged 15 years or older. Assessments were targeted for 6 weeks (Time 1) and 6 months (Time 2) post-assault. At Time 1, the intervention was associated with lower scores on measures of PTSD and depression among women with a prior rape history relative to scores among women with a prior rape history in the standard care condition. At Time 2, depression scores were also lower among those with a prior rape history who were in the video relative to the standard care condition. Small effects indicating higher PTSD and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores among women without a prior rape history in the video condition were observed at Time 1. Accelerated longitudinal growth curve analysis indicated a videoxprior rape history interaction for PTSD, yielding four patterns of symptom trajectory over time. Women with a prior rape history in the video condition generally maintained the lowest level of symptoms.     

Strengthening scientific verbal behavior: an experimental comparison of progressively prompted and unprompted programmed instruction and prose tutorials

Web-based software was used to deliver and record the effects of programmed instruction that progressively added formal prompts until attempts were successful, programmed instruction with one attempt, and prose tutorials. Error-contingent progressive prompting took significantly longer than programmed instruction and prose. Both forms of programmed instruction substantially increased the appropriate use of behavioral vocabulary during subsequent interpretive essays. These behavioral gains extended to a different setting, suggesting that more was being learned than simply how to answer programmed tutorial frames correctly.     

Comparison of simultaneous prompting and no-no prompting in two-choice discrimination learning with children with autism

This study compared no-no prompting procedures to simultaneous prompting procedures for 3 children with autism. Using a parallel treatments design, researchers taught rote math skills, receptive labels, or answers to "wh-" questions with both prompting systems. Results indicated that no-no prompting was effective in teaching all skills. By contrast, simultaneous prompting was effective in teaching only one pair of skills to 1 participant in the same amount of teaching time and trials. Researchers conducted a preference assessment to determine which of the two prompting procedures the 3 participants preferred. The participants showed mixed preferences for the two procedures.     

Instructive feedback: Review of parameters and effects

We present a review of the existing research on instructive feedback. Instructive feedback is a method of presenting extra, non-target stimuli in the consequent events of instructional trials (e.g., during praise statements). Students are not required to respond to those additional stimuli and are not reinforced if they do. The research is reviewed in terms of the characteristics of participants involved, the settings and instructional variables used, and the findings that emerged. The findings indicate that a wide range of students by age and disability were included and that most studies occurred in special education contexts. When used with response prompting procedures in a variety of direct instructional arrangements, students acquire and maintain some of the instructive feedback stimuli. Thus, teachers are encouraged to use instructive feedback in their direct instructional activities. Areas of future research include using instructive feedback in new contexts and examining methods for presenting instructive feedback. In addition, the use of instructive feedback to influence future learning and stimulus class formation should be investigated.     

Using public feedback to increase contributions to a multipurpose senior center

Multipurpose senior centers are expanding their services to meet the demands of a growing population. Unfortunately, federal agencies have not matched this expansion with monetary support. Many senior centers hold fund-raisers to supplement their budgets, but the impact of these projects is rarely evaluated. This study assessed the effectiveness of a public posting strategy designed to increase donations to an ongoing fund-raiser for a multipurpose senior center. The fund-raiser, "Coupons for Caring," consisted of senior volunteers clipping grocery coupons from newspapers, sorting them, and attaching them to their respective products in local grocery stores. Grocery store customers were given the option of donating the coupons to the senior center or redeeming them when they purchased the products to which the coupons were attached. In the experimental condition, signs were posted that included visual and written instructions, feedback on the value of coupons donated by customers the previous week, and feedback on the overall amount of money donated to the senior center. The signs were posted near each cashier stand and at the front entrances of the grocery stores in a multiple baseline across grocery stores. The percentage of coupons donated to the senior center increased at each store after the signs were posted.     

PROMPTING PATRON SAFETY BELT USE AT A RESTAURANT

A reversal (ABABAB) design was used to assess the effects of a verbal prompt on safety belt use of restaurant patrons. A verbal prompt delivered by employees at the exit door resulted in an average increase of 20% in safety belt use by drivers leaving the restaurant. A previous study provided this type of antecedent immediately before supermarket patrons entered their vehicles. This effort demonstrates the effects of a verbal prompt with greater latency between the prompt and target response.     

Learning to learn from video? 30-month-olds benefit from continued use of supportive scaffolding

Young children struggle to learn new words presented on video, but adult co-viewers can support them by providing scaffolds that explicitly connect the video and real world. In this study, we asked whether scaffolding facilitates children’s symbolic understanding of the video, such that they will subsequently transfer labels from video to real referents. Sixty-three 30-month-olds and 61 36-month-olds participated in a series of three word learning trials in one of three conditions. In the supportive condition, an in-person adult explicitly drew connections between each on-screen object and the corresponding real object in the room with the child. In the unsupportive condition, the in-person adult provided similar-length statements about the objects but did not draw connections between them. In the partial scaffold condition, the in-person adult provided the supportive scaffolds for the first two trials and the unsupportive version for the third trial. At 30 months, children selected the correct object on the third trial more often in the supportive than the unsupportive scaffold condition, and performance in the partial scaffold condition fell in between. At 36 months, performance on the third trial did not differ across conditions. The results showed that experiencing the scaffold twice was not enough to reliably support 30-month-olds in learning to think symbolically on the third trial; rather, they appeared to rely on the adult to connect the video image with its specific real-world referent. At 36 months, however, children did not rely on the adult scaffold to apply the video label to the real-world objects.