Behavioral Technology for Teaching Symbolic Relations

描述（由申请人提供）：此第二期项目将完成一种主要用于教育智障儿童的基于计算机的产品的开发和研究。这款名为“符号老师”的产品教授了一项关键技能——与样本进行符号匹配——这也是目前许多针对这一群体的教学项目的目标。在符号匹配任务中，学生们看到一系列二维或三维的刺激，并被要求选择与样本“匹配”的项目；因此得名“样本匹配”。在身份匹配到样本的任务中，匹配是在物理身份的基础上进行的，而符号匹配涉及的刺激是不相同的；匹配是在指导和反馈的基础上进行的。例如，学生被教导将狗的图片（指物）与印刷的单词dog（符号）相匹配；没有物理刺激属性来定义符号-指称关系，因此，如果学生之前没有使用过这些刺激，那么这些刺激中就没有任何内在的东西来指导学生。该项目有两个主要目标。首先，我们将采用完善的、广泛研究的实验室方法和软件，供家长、教师和其他帮助专业人员使用。其次，我们将评估最终的产品，以确定它可以有效地用于典型的教学情况。对这种产品有明显的需求。符号匹配是教授各种辨别、阅读准备和符号沟通技巧的基础。然而，许多智障儿童并不容易（或根本）通过传统的教学方法学习符号匹配。在过去的十年里，美国国立卫生研究院对研究基金的大量投资已经导致了能够可靠地在残疾儿童中建立符号匹配的方法的发展。尽管取得了这些进步，但相关的知识和工具并不容易被专业人士、家长和儿童所获得，而他们本可以从中受益。我们将利用STTR资助机制，让更广泛的人获得这种行为技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase II project will complete the development and study of a computer-based product intended primarily for teaching children with intellectual disabilities. The product, "SymbolTeacher," addresses a pivotal skill - symbolic matching to sample - which is a target of many current programs for teaching this population. In a symbolic matching task, students are presented with an array of two- or three-dimensional stimuli and required to select the item that "goes with" a sample; hence the name "matching to sample." Unlike an identity matching-to-sample task, in which a match is made on the basis of physical identity, symbolic matches involve stimuli that are not identical; matches are made on the basis of instruction and feedback. For example, a student is taught to match the picture of a dog (referent) to the printed word DOG (symbol); there are no physical stimulus properties that define the symbol-referent relation, and thus nothing inherent in the stimuli to guide the student if he or she has had no previous experience with them. The project has two major objectives. First, we will adapt well developed, extensively researched laboratory methods and software for use by parents, teachers, and other helping professionals. Second, we will evaluate the resulting product to determine that it can be used effectively in typical teaching situations. There is a manifest need for the product. Symbolic matching provides a foundation for teaching a large variety of discrimination, reading readiness, and symbolic communication skills. However, many children with intellectual disabilities do not learn symbolic matching readily (or at all) via conventional instructional methods. Over the past decade, a substantial investment of NIH research funding has led to the development of methods that can reliably establish symbolic matching in children with disabilities. Despite these advances, the relevant knowledge and tools are not readily accessible to the professionals, parents, and children who would benefit. We will use the STTR funding mechanism to give broader access to this behavioral technology.