Teaching symbol identification: A comparison between standard prompting and intervening response procedures

The use of “mediational” or “orienting” responses has been shown to increase the effectiveness of matching-to-sample procedures. The present study compared the effectiveness of a standard prompting procedure (stimulus-delay) and that same procedure with an intervening response of naming the target stimulus prior to responding. Four developmentally disabled adults were taught two sets of symbols placed on flashcards. The teacher named a symbol and the subject was required to point to the corresponding card. The two teaching methods were used in a counterbalanced order between subjects and symbol groups. Acquisition rates were similar for both methods. However, two subjects showed a larger deterioration of performance under the intervening response condition at a 9-month retention check.