Abstract:
A series of experiments were conducted to test whether students without
observational learning will acquire observational learning by teaching them to master
monitoring the correct and incorrect responses of their peers. The procedure was tested
across 5 participants. The participants were five to six year old students with
developmental disabilities who did not demonstrate observational learning in the preexperimental
probes. The dependent variables for the first experiment were textual
responses to probes for common words and tacts immediately following each session in
which they observed their peers receive learn units. A counterbalanced delayed multiple
baseline and multiple probe design across participants for a) tacts and b) words was
implemented. The treatment consisted of the target students completing a series of steps
in which they learned to monitor their assigned peer's correct and incorrect responses to
learn unit presentations of words to a predetermined criterion. The results demonstrated a
higher level of responding to words and tacts from pre-experimental levels, thereby
demonstrating that the students had acquired observational learning. In addition, the results demonstrated that the participants' performance was not localized to the peers they had been paired with in the training sessions. Experiment 2 was primarily
conducted as a replication of Experiment 1. The purpose of the experiment was to
investigate the effects of the monitoring intervention on observational learning repertoires
after observing a peer receive learn units on vocal spelling programs. The results showed
similar findings where students who did not have observational learning repertoires in the
first experiment demonstrated observational learning after learning to monitor correct and
incorrect responses emitted by their peers.
