Using matrix training to promote generalization of responding to greetings

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2015

First Committee Member

Dickson, Chata

Second Committee Member

Gould, Daniel

Third Committee Member

Karsten, Amanda

Abstract

"Individuals with autism spectrum disorder have deficits in social skills; for some individuals with ASD social skills do not develop independently and need to be systematically taught. Responding to greetings is a socially valid skill that needs to be taught in a way that programs for generalization. Matrix training is a technique that allows the teacher to program for generalization in an efficient manner. A matrix is a table that combines items from each dimension of the table. This teaching technique consists of training a subset of these combinations and probing for acquisition of untrained combinations from the matrix. The purpose of the study is to examine the efficacy of matrix training as a method to promote generalization of responding to greetings across multiple contexts. Matrix training was used to teach three children, aged 4-7 with ASDs an appropriate response that includes correct body orientation, eye contact, and a verbal response. A matrix, consisting of three discriminative stimuli (hi, hello, and hey) and three locations (cubby, classroom, and cafeteria), was used during training and generalization probes. Following training of three contexts, recombinative generalization of responding to greetings occurred across all 6 untrained contexts for all participants."

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