Document Type

Dissertation

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

PhD in Behavior Analysis

Dissertation Defense Date

2026-07-13

First Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Third Committee Member

Roscoe, Eileen

Additional Committee Member(s)

Dickson, Chata

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of continued practice of a task beyond one correct instance on maintenance of a variety of tasks, including vocabulary, city-country pairs, and mazes. Overlearning refers to the improved maintenance of performance on a task as a result of continued practice beyond one errorless trial. The current study established behavioranalytic term definitions and evaluated the effects of differential exposure to learning trials beyond mastery on maintenance of term definitions across substantially longer intervals than previously studied. Six individuals enrolled in a graduate program in applied behavior analysis participated in this study. We systematically manipulated the number of reinforced trials across groups of terms. For four participants, performance on terms with greater exposure to learning trials maintained at a higher level than terms with less exposure. Terms with the highest number of reinforced trials were most likely to maintain at the six-month assessment.

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