A BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS STUDY ON AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION LEARNING IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN : ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES TO SPEECH AND NONSPEECH SOUNDS

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  • 自閉症児の聴覚弁別学習に関する行動分析的検討 : 言語音と非言語音への反応傾向の分析
  • ジヘイショウジ ノ チョウカク ベンベツ ガクシュウ ニ カンスル コウドウ

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the fundamental characteristics of auditory discrimination learning and response tendencies to speech and nonspeech sounds in autistic children. Five male autistic children (CA 4:0-9:11, DA 1:5.5-3:0) were selected as subjects for the experiment. A successive discrimination learning paradigm was designed with a free-operant setting, using panel pushing as an operant behavior under the given stimulus. The experimental setting varied according to the stimuli; a complex auditory stimulus (white noise and non-sense speech sounds) as a positive stimulus, and a single auditory stimulus (pure tone 800Hz) as a negative stimulus. The experimental procedures were as follows; (1) Each subject was trained to respond (panel pushing) to the positive stimulus and not to the negative stimulus under the Multiple VR5 EXT. reinforcement schedule. (2) After achieving the criterion of the discrimination, extinction probe sessions were introduced to examine the extent of stimulus overselectivity by presenting individual components of the positive stimulus (white noise and the speech sounds) (3) The index of overselectivity was the overselectivity score which was calculated by finding the difference between the percentage of response to the white noise and the speech sounds. All subjects completed the original discrimination within 15 sessions. Three of the subjects appeared to show evidences of stimulus overselectivity in the probe sessions showing a higher tendency to respond to the white noise than to the speech sounds. It was found that there was a negative correlation between DA level and overselectivity scores. Furthermore, there seemed to be a positive correlation between the number of sessions for reaching the learning criterion and the overselectivity score. The analysis of the response rates to probe stimuli showed that the probe stimuli were functional for some subjects but nonfunctional for others. The present results were partially consistent with those of previous studies which showed that autistic children selectively respond to complex auditory stimuli. However, it also showed that some autistic children showed no evidence of stimulus overselectivity in the auditory mode, contrary to the results of other studies. This seems to be due to differences in experimental stimuli and procedures.

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