The Effects of the Acquisition of Conditioned Reinforcement for Adult Faces and/or Voices on the Rate of Learning and Attention to the Presence of Adults for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

I conducted two experiments to test the effects of the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for observing adult faces and conditioned reinforcement for listening to adult voices on rate of learning and attention to the presence of adults using a delayed multiple probe design across participants and behaviors. In Experiment 1, two participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) participated and the dependent variables were: (1) learn-units-to-criterion across speaker and listener programs based on 1000 learn units respectively (2) attention to the presence of adults prior to and following pre- and post-intervention probe sessions. The independent variable was the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for observing the human face and the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for listening to adult voices using the conjugate stimulus-stimulus pairing protocol. In Experiment 2, there were four participants in this study diagnosed with ASD. The dependent variables were learn units to criteria across speaker and listener programs, observing responses, and verbal operants emitted by the participants across three settings. In Experiment 1, the results showed Participant A's rate of learning accelerated after the first intervention and decreased after the second intervention. Participant A's attention to the presence of adults increased after the first intervention and slightly decreased after the second. For Participant B when the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for faces and conditioned reinforcement for listening to voices were in repertoire rate of learning and attention to the presence of adults accelerated. In Experiment 2, the results indicated that the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement for observing adult faces and/or voices increased rate of learning, attending to adults present in the environment, and verbal operants for all four participants.