Noell George H, Whitmarsh Ernest L, VanDerHeyden Amanda M, Gatti Susan L, Slider Natalie J
Louisiana State University, USA.
Behav Modif. 2003 Apr;27(2):191-216. doi: 10.1177/0145445503251577.
This study compared two strategies for increasing accurate responding on a low-preference academic task by interspersing presentations of a preferred academic task. Five children attending a preschool program for children with delayed language development participated in this study. Preferred and nonpreferred tasks were identified through a multiple-stimulus, free-operant preference assessment. Contingent access to a preferred academic task was associated with improved response accuracy when compared to noncontingent access to that activity for 3 students. For 1 student, noncontingent access to the preferred activity led to improved response accuracy, and 1 student's analysis suggested the importance of procedural variety. The implications of these findings for use of preference assessments to devise instructional sequences that improve student responding are discussed.
