Establishing Basic Discriminations

Step 1: Assess Basic Auditory Discrimination Skills

  1. Establish presence/absence discrimination of speech and nonspeech sounds with go/no-go task(Serna, Stoddard, & McIlvane, 1992).
  2. If unsuccessful, pair auditory and visual stimuli, then fade visual (e.g., Stoddard & McIlvane, 1989).
  3. If still unsuccessful, begin auditory discrimination remedial training procedure.
  4. Establish differential intradimensional auditory stimulus control using speech and nonspeech sounds (Serna et. al., 1992).
  5. If no differential control, use fading methods to introduce the incorrect stimulus (S-) (Serna et al., 1992; Serna, Jeffery, & Stoddard, 1996).
  6. If intermediate accuracy, use auditory delayed S+ procedures.

Step 2: Assess Basic Visual Discrimination Skills

  1. Identity matching-to-sample (IDMTS) teaching assessment (Procedures modeled after those described by Serna, Dube, & McIlvane [1997]).
  2. If simple form and/or picture discrimination is unreliable, explore "popout" techniques to encourage visual stimulus control.
  3. If still unsuccessful, follow expanded "Sorting-to Matching" remedial track (i.e., beginning with sorting 3-dimensional objects; Serna et al., 1997) .
  4. Establish "Yes-No" (blank comparison) baseline via teaching/assessment procedures (after Serna, Wilkinson, & McIlvane [in press]).
  5. If baseline is unreliable, implement remedial procedures
  6. If IDMTS is reliable with individual stimuli but unreliable with multi-component stimuli, see "Broadening Restricted Stimulus Control" (in prep.)
  7. Initial survey of IDMTS with selected teaching stimuli (e.g., pictures, letters, letter combinations, numbers, etc.; protocol modeled after Green et al., submitted)
  8. If IDMTS unreliable with individual stimuli, assess discrimination of stimulus components to pinpoint problem
  9. As needed, use stimulus control shaping methods to teach prerequisite component discriminations; see "Advanced Visual Stimulus Control Shaping Techniques" (a summary of established shaping techniques, in prep.).

Previous curriculum unit: Assessing Fundamental Prerequisites

Next curriculum unit: Assessing Stimulus Equivalence

References

Green, G., Johnson, C., Chellquist, K.B., Krendel-Ames, S., Ross, S., & Bellone, B. O'C. (submitted). Stimulus class analyses of symbol-based communication for people with severe developmental disabilities.

Serna, R. W., Dube, W. V., & McIlvane, W. J. (1997). Assessing same/different judgements in individuals with severe intellectual disabilities: A status report. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 18, 343-368. Summary

Serna, R. W., Jeffery, J. A., & Stoddard, L. T. (1996). Establishing go-left/go-right auditory discrimination baselines in an individual with severe mental retardation. The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, 14, 18-23. Summary

Serna, R. W., Stoddard, L. T., & McIlvane, W. J. (1992). Developing auditory stimulus control: A note on methodology. Journal of Behavioral Education, 2, 391-403. Summary

Serna, R. W., Wilkinson, K. M., & McIlvane, W. J. (in press). Blank-comparison assessment of stimulus-stimulus relations in individuals with mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation. Summary

Stoddard, L. T., & McIlvane, W. J. (1989). Establishing auditory stimulus control in profoundly retarded individuals. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 10, 141-151.