Procedures that reduce errors while learning a repertoire play an important role in Applied Behavior Analysis for people with autism due to the detrimental effects that excessive exposure to error may have on learning. Previous studies have investigated the effects of correction procedures that require active student response after a trial with error. Some intervention manuals recommend against reinforcing responses after correction to prevent the establishment of prompt dependence. This study directly investigated the effect of reinforcement after an active-response correction procedure during tact training in four children with autism. An echoic-to-tact training procedure was used to train tacts. A “no reinforcement after correction” (NRC) condition was compared to a “reinforcement after correction” (RC) condition, using an adapted alternated treatments design. All participants needed less correction trials in RC than in NRC, and considering all 26 sessions in which both training procedures were implemented, participants’ performance was higher with RC than without in 17 sessions and was the same in 3 sessions. We discuss the effectiveness of reinforcing correct responding after an active-response correction procedure, the absence of prompt dependence, and the implications of better correction procedures for applied settings.

中文翻译：

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评估程序强化在诊断患有自闭症的儿童的矫正过程中的使用


在学习曲目时减少错误的程序在自闭症患者的应用行为分析中发挥着重要作用，因为过度接触错误可能会对学习产生不利影响。先前的研究调查了纠正程序的效果，这些纠正程序要求学生在错误尝试后积极反应。一些干预手册建议不要在纠正后强化反应，以防止迅速形成依赖。这项研究直接调查了四名自闭症儿童在机智训练期间主动反应纠正程序后强化的效果。使用回声到触觉训练程序来训练触觉。使用适应的交替治疗设计，将“校正后无强化”（NRC）条件与“校正后强化”（RC）条件进行比较。与 NRC 相比，所有参与者在 RC 中需要的校正试验较少，并且考虑到实施两种训练程序的所有 26 个课程，参与者在 RC 中的表现在 17 个课程中比没有在 RC 中更高，并且在 3 个课程中相同。我们讨论了主动响应校正程序后加强正确响应的有效性、即时依赖性的缺乏以及更好的校正程序对应用设置的影响。