Establishing books as conditioned reinforcers for preschool children as a function of an observational intervention

Abstract

We tested the effects of an observational intervention (Greer & Singer-Dudek, 2008) on establishing children's books as conditioned reinforcers using a delayed multiple baseline design. Three preschool students with mild language and developmental delays served as the participants. Prior to the intervention, books did not function as reinforcers for any of the participants. The observational intervention consisted of a situation in which the participant observed a confederate being presented with access to books contingent on correct responses and the participant received nothing for correct responses. After several sessions of this treatment, the previously neutral books acquired reinforcing properties for maintenance and acquisition responses for all three participants.

Keywords: books as conditioned reinforcers; conditioned reinforcement; observational learning; observing responses.

Figure 1

Number of correct responses to the maintenance task during alternating A (food items) and B (books) phases before and after the observational intervention (indicated by the thick black condition change line) for Katie (top), Abigail (middle), and Evan (bottom) before and after the observational intervention.

Figure 2

Number of correct responses to the three learning tasks for Katie (top), Abigail (middle), and Evan (bottom) before and after the observational intervention.

Figure 3

Percentage of 5-s intervals out of 60 that participants looked at books in the free-play area before and after the observational intervention for Katie (top), Abigail (middle), and Evan (bottom).

Figure 4

Number of correct responses to the maintenance task and number of attempts to gain access to books during the observational intervention for Katie (top), Abigail (middle), and Evan (bottom).