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. 2007 Fall;40(3):475-88.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.2007.40-475.

Shaping academic task engagement with percentile schedules

Elizabeth S Athens  1 , Timothy R Vollmer, Claire C St Peter Pipkin
Affiliations

Shaping academic task engagement with percentile schedules

Elizabeth S Athens et al. J Appl Behav Anal. 2007 Fall.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of percentile schedules as a method of quantifying the shaping procedure in an educational setting. We compared duration of task engagement during baseline measurements for 4 students to duration of task engagement during a percentile schedule. As a secondary purpose, we examined the influence on shaping of manipulations of the number of observations used to determine the criterion for reinforcement (the m parameter of the percentile formula). Results showed that the percentile formula was most effective when a relatively large m value (20 observations) was used.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results for Tony, Ashley, and Charles. Filled circles indicate the total duration of on-task behavior, plotted in seconds along the left y axis. Horizontal marks connected by a dotted line represent the average criterion for reinforcement of a response, plotted in seconds along the right y axis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Results for Anthony. Filled circles indicate the total duration of on-task behavior, plotted in seconds along the left y axis. The horizontal marks connected by a dotted line represent the average criterion for reinforcement of a response, plotted in seconds along the right y axis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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