Department of Behavior Analysis BEHV 5250: Advanced Topics in Intervention Summer 2003Department of Behavior Analysis Concept Learning and Analysis.

Summer 2003 Department of Behavior Analysis

Department of Behavior AnalysisBEHV 5250: Advanced Topics in Intervention

Concept Learning and Analysis



Today’s agenda

• Welcome (5 minutes)– Please remember to click– Party dishes

• Questions & answers (5 minutes)• Student presentations of difficult-to-discriminate stimuli

(45 minutes)



A thought for today…

“Those who fall in love with practice without science are like sailors who enter a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never can be certain of whither they are going.”

-author unknown



Concept Learning

• an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances (Webster’s On-line Collegiate Dictionary)

• Any stimulus property(ies) that set the occasion for the same or functionally equivalent responses

• “A common tact that is under the control of a subset of properties which may be present upon a given occasion but probably never exclusively compose such an occasion.” (Skinner, 1957)



Concept Attributes

• Critical– Define the concept– Required for delivery of reinforcement– Comprise the Sd

• Variable– Accompany, but do not define the concept– Are not required for reinforcement– Are often the source of stimulus control problems in instruction



Your turn!

• Generate a list of the critical and variable attributes for the following concepts:– Circle– Over– Sentences that use the passive voice construction



Critical Attributes Variable Attributes

On the need for discrimination training in instruction…

“Any property of a stimulus present when a verbal response is reinforced

acquires some degree of control over that response and

this control continues to be exerted when the property

appears in other combinations.”

- Skinner, 1957, p. 107



Teaching new conceptual items…

• One example cannot teach a concept• Sets of only positive examples do not help• Egs & Negs MUST share some common variable

attributes• Minimally different Negs tighten stimulus control



A basic discrimination routine to establish a concept…

• Eg• Maximally different Eg.• Minimally different Neg.• Maximally different Neg• Minimally different Eg.• Juxtapose NOVEL Egs & Negs

- Engleman & Carnine, 1991, p. 37







Your turn!

• On the next slide, you’ll see an example of a poorly designed discrimination routine to teach the concept “over.” While looking at the routine, describe what makes it a non-example of good instructional design.







Your turn!

• On the next slide, you’ll see an example of a poorly designed discrimination routine (although it is a bit better than the example you just saw) to teach the concept “over.” While looking at the routine, describe what features the routine has that makes it a good example and what features make it a bad example.







Your turn!

• On the next slide, you’ll see an example of a well-designed discrimination routine to teach the concept of “over.” Describe its features that help make it a good example.





Testing for generalization and discrimination

• Must use novel examples and nonexamples– Examples must be close-in nonexamples and far-out examples

• Far-out examples test for generalization• Close-in nonexamples test for discrimination

Please remember…

all test examples really should

be novel





Your turn!

• Now, take that fairly good example of the discrimination routine to teach “over” and make it even better!



Your turn!

• Generate discrimination routines that requires the child to answer “yes” or “no” to teach the concept of a circle– Generate a bad example of a routine and explain why it is a

nonexample– Generate a good example and explain why it is so

• Generate a discrimination routine to teach the child to say the number 3 in response to seeing three lines on a page– Generate a bad example of a routine and explain why it is a

nonexample– Generate a good example and explain why it is so



Tonight’s homework

• Analyzing appendices 6, 7, and 8 (8 is online)• of the 13 example draft concept analyses Tiemann & Markle

present in Appendix 7, select four and identify in each what procedural errors the drafts contain and exactly where the errors are located; also, please generate at least one solution for each procedural error you detect (due tomorrow)



Today’s agenda

• Welcome (5 minutes)– Please remember to click– Set date to begin applied project presentations

• Questions & answers (5 minutes)• Student presentations of difficult-to-discriminate stimuli

(45 minutes)• Concept relationships and constructing rational sets



Superordinate

Subordinate

Relationships between concepts



Coordinate

Relationships between concepts



Relationships between concepts(All)

X

Y



Relationships between concepts(All)

1

3



Relationships between concepts(Some)

1

3



Relationships between concepts(Some)

Floozals

WidgetsHoomptas



Relationships between concepts(No)

Floozals

WidgetsHoomptas



Your turn!

• Diagram the relationship between the following concepts:– Circles– lines– Shapes– Things that are drawn by hand– Label each as

• Superordinate

• Subordinate

• Coordinate



Student errors in responding

• Generalization error– Calls an X a Y, when it’s really an X– Source of error: variable attributes– Remediation: broader set of examples using wider range of variable

attributes

• Discrimination error– Calls a NON-X an X– Source of error: critical attributes– Remediation: broader set of examples and nonexamples that more

carefully control for presence and absence of critical attributes



Developing a rationale set

• Identify a prototype• Identify the critical attributes• Identify nonexamples based on absence of each

critical attribute• Identify the variable attributes• Assemble the minimum rationale set








Identifying the prototype

• Typical and highly representative











Nonexamples based on critical attributes

Concept Critical attribute Possible nonexample

Spoon Smooth forward edge of bowl

Small spatula

Shoe Closed heel Leather clog

Bed Mattress on some form of a base

Mattress on the floor



Your turn!

• Using the critical attributes you identified for the following concepts, describe and draw possible nonexamples based on the absence of critical features:– Circle– Three objects– Sentences that use the passive voice construction

• Each nonexample should be missing one (and only one) critical attribute








Identify the variable attributes

• Identify each important dimension (at least two) of each variable attribute

• Shoot for exhaustive values of each dimension• Select generalization examples based on exhaustive

values of variable attributes








Assemble the rational set

• 2 sets– Examples– Nonexamples



Assemble the rational set

• 2 sets– Examples

• Any attribute that does vary must vary

– Nonexamples• Must represent the absence of each critical attribute one at a time



Your turn!

• For the following concepts, generate a list of its critical and variable attributes, then generate a description of the minimal rational set for the examples and nonexamples, and place the examples and nonexamples into the teaching order we discussed earlier.– Book– Car– Lowercase letter “a”



Tonight’s homework• following the examples Tiemann & Markle gave you in Appendix 8, generate model

concept analyses for the following concepts assuming that you will be teaching these concepts to children with autism in elementary school:

• cup

• car

• shirt

• friend

– note: you will share these in class tomorrow, so please prepare the materials with presentation in mind

• complete steps one and two in Tiemann & Markle's Appendix 6 (bottom pf page 218) and be prepared to present your rational set to the class tomorrow. Do this for each of the concepts listed above.

Department of Behavior Analysis BEHV 5250: Advanced Topics in Intervention Summer 2003Department of Behavior Analysis Concept Learning and Analysis.

Documents

analysis slide

advanced topics

intervention summer

minutes slide

stimulus control slide

author unknown slide

concept sets

different negs