Date of Award
5-2016
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Behavior Analysis and Therapy
First Advisor
Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne
Second Advisor
Dixon, Mark
Third Advisor
Nichols, Jane
Abstract
Observational learning has been defined as the learning of new responses that occurs as a result of observing the responding of a model and the consequences that this responding produces (Catania, 2007; Taylor & DeQuinzio, 2012). The following study compared the effectiveness of a peer and staff model for teaching four adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities a new response chained task. An alternating treatment design, counterbalanced across subjects was used to evaluate the effects of each modeling condition. Results indicated that all four adults learned the skill with fewer sessions by observing the peer model. Following acquisition of each task, the degree of generalization and maintenance of responding was also evaluated. Implications and directions for future research are further discussed.
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