Effect of self-monitoring on maintenance and generalization of conversational skills of persons with mental retardation.

The effect of self-monitoring on the generalization and maintenance of conversational skills of adults with mental retardation was examined. Target behaviors were asking nondirected questions, answering directed questions, and asking directed questions. Although training alone did not result in generalization of these skills to the assessment setting, the addition of self-monitoring did. Results were maintained over 6 months and generalized to the untrained behavior of answering nondirected questions. The importance of the effect was supported by social comparison and subjective evaluation data. Results indicate that self-monitoring may be effective in increasing generalization and maintenance of conversational skills.