Skip to main content
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis logoLink to Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
. 1989 Spring;22(1):43–55. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1989.22-43

Effects of wait-time and intertrial interval durations on learning by children with multiple handicaps.

G Valcante 1, W Roberson 1, W R Reid 1, W D Wolking 1
PMCID: PMC1286151  PMID: 2523372

Abstract

We investigated the influence of teacher wait-time and intertrial interval durations on the performance of 4 multiply handicapped students during instruction in 10 skills. Four experimental conditions were evaluated: long wait-time and long intertrial interval, long wait-time and short intertrial interval, short wait-time and long intertrial interval, and short wait-time and short intertrial interval. Instructors attempted to keep short intervals as close as possible to 1 s and long intervals as close as possible to 10 s for both variables. Results showed that student performance was superior under the long wait-time conditions irrespective of the length of the intertrial interval.

Full text

PDF
46

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Carnine D. W. Effects of two teacher-presentation rates on off-task behavior, answering correctly, and participation. J Appl Behav Anal. 1976 Summer;9(2):199–206. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1976.9-199. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dunlap G., Dyer K., Koegel R. L. Autistic self-stimulation and intertrial interval duration. Am J Ment Defic. 1983 Sep;88(2):194–202. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dyer K., Christian W. P., Luce S. C. The role of response delay in improving in the discrimination performance or autistic children. J Appl Behav Anal. 1982 Summer;15(2):231–240. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-231. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Fellows B. J. Chance stimulus sequences for discrimination tasks. Psychol Bull. 1967 Feb;67(2):87–92. doi: 10.1037/h0024098. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Koegel R. L., Dunlap G., Dyer K. Intertrial interval duration and learning in autistic children. J Appl Behav Anal. 1980 Spring;13(1):91–99. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1980.13-91. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lowry P. W., Ross L. E. Severely retarded children as impulsive responders: improved performance with response delay. Am J Ment Defic. 1975 Sep;80(2):133–138. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis are provided here courtesy of Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

RESOURCES