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FURTHER ANALYSIS OF PICTURE INTERFERENCE WHEN TEACHING WORD RECOGNITION TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
Author(s) -
Dittlinger Laura Harper,
Lerman Dorothea C.
Publication year - 2011
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.2011.44-341
Subject(s) - psychology , autism , cognitive psychology , phenomenon , reading (process) , word (group theory) , association (psychology) , developmental psychology , word recognition , blocking (statistics) , word learning , linguistics , vocabulary , philosophy , physics , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist
Previous research indicates that pairing pictures with associated words when teaching sight‐word reading may hinder acquisition (e.g., Didden, Prinsen, & Sigafoos, 2000; Singh & Solman, 1990; Solman & Singh, 1992). The purpose of the current study was to determine whether this phenomenon was due to a previously learned association between the spoken word and picture (i.e., blocking) or due to the mere presence of a picture as an extrastimulus prompt (i.e., overshadowing). Three participants were taught to recognize words that were presented alone or paired with pictures that the participants either could or could not identify prior to training. All participants learned the words more quickly when they were presented alone rather than with pictures, regardless of their prior learning history with respect to pictures representing the words. This finding is consistent with the phenomenon of overshadowing. Nonetheless, consistent with blocking, all participants also acquired the words presented alone more quickly if they could not identify the associated pictures prior to training. Together, these findings have important implications for using prompts when teaching skills to individuals with developmental disabilities.