Premium
THE ROLE OF RESPONSE DELAY IN IMPROVING THE DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN
Author(s) -
Dyer Kathleen,
Christian Walter P.,
Luce Stephen C.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-231
Subject(s) - psychology , multiple baseline design , stimulus (psychology) , autism , impulsivity , stimulus control , developmental psychology , audiology , discriminative model , context (archaeology) , cognitive psychology , intervention (counseling) , neuroscience , computer science , medicine , machine learning , paleontology , psychiatry , nicotine , biology
This study investigated the influence of a response delay requirement on the discrimination performance of autistic children. In the context of a multiple baseline design with subsequent repeated reversals, two conditions were compared: a no‐response‐delay condition, where the child was allowed to make the target response immediately after presentation of the discriminative stimulus versus a response‐delay condition, where the target response was permitted three seconds following the discriminative stimulus when the therapist would signal the child to respond. The results showed that the response‐delay condition produced higher levels of correct responding than the no‐response‐delay condition. In addition, teachers in the research setting rated the response‐delay procedure to be a practical and effective teaching technique that could be implemented in a classroom setting. The results were discussed in relation to the literature on impulsivity, and were interpreted as indicating that the response‐delay procedure provides a valuable technique for teaching autistic children.