| Two instructional prompt fading procedures, increasing assistance and graduated guidance, were investigated to compare the efficacy and efficiency of both procedures in teaching leisure skills to adults with severe handicaps. These procedures were evaluated using a combination of the multiple probe and alternating treatment designs through three investigations. The results of Investigation 1 showed that the targeted tasks, playing the cassette and block printing, were not equivalent in reinforcer value in that the participants enjoyed using the cassette more than block printing. The results concerning efficacy and efficiency are inconclusive since not all participants mastered both tasks. In an effort to make the tasks equivalent in reinforcer value, Investigation 2 focused on the same two target behaviors as in Investigation 1 but included tangible reinforcers for independent performance on steps. Once again, the efficacy and efficiency data are inconclusive since both participants did not master both tasks. A closer examination of the tasks revealed that block printing was a more difficult task than was playing the cassette. Investigation 3 focused on comparing increasing assistance and graduated guidance on two tasks that were equivalent both in difficulty and in reinforcer value (i.e., making popcorn in two types of popcorn poppers). The results indicated that both procedures were effective in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of the skills. The efficiency data are mixed in that while the two procedures were equivalent in terms of instructional time to criterion, increasing assistance required fewer trials to criterion than graduated guidance. Increasing assistance resulted in a larger percent of errors to criterion than graduated guidance. Limitations of the study include only one within subject comparison of the procedures, short-term maintenance as opposed to long-term maintenance, and assessment of generalization to a familiar person instead of a novel person. |
