# PROGRAMMING DISCRIMINATION AND ONE-TRIAL LEARNING

> **NIH NIH R29** · EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER CTR MTL RETARDATN · 1994 · $73,515

## Abstract

This proposal seeks a FIRST award to support a five-year study of
discrimination learning in mentally retarded individuals.  The research
will make use of a programmed method for generating one-trial
discrimination learning (OTDL).  Successful completion of the OTDL
program establishes the following two-trial performance: On the first
trial, a single visual stimulus Is displayed and Its selection is
reinforced.  On the second trial, two stimuli are displayed, one from the
previous trial and a different stimulus: selection of the previously
displayed stimulus is defined as correct.  Different stimuli appear on
each two-trial problem.  Consistently accurate performance on the second
trial of each problem demonstrates acquisition of new discriminations
after exposure to a single training trial.

     The proposed studies will apply the programmed OTDL method to
several areas of interest in the analysis and remediation of learning
problems in mental retardation.  The specific aims are:

(1)  To compare the effects of programmed instruction and verbal
     instruction on several characteristics of the OTDL performance.  By
     including subjects across a range of mental retardation, the
     comparisons will test the prediction that acquisition of such
     performance in lower-functioning subjects will be more successful
     with programmed procedures, and that higher-functioning subjects
     will learn equally well with either procedure.  Subsequent exposure
     to changes in reinforcement contingencies will examine reported
     differences in "contingency shaped" and "rule governed" behavior.

(2)  To develop broadly applicable procedures for studying "breadth of
     attention" in mentally retarded individuals. including those
     classified as severely retarded.  Breadth of attention refers to
     discrimination of the individual elements of complex stimuli after
     very limited exposure (e.g., a single trial) to each complex.  The
     studies will (a) examine effects of training history on element
     discrimination, (b) examine for the first time breadth of attention
     in low-functioning mentally retarded individuals, and (c) determine
     whether attention can be broadened by extension of the programmed
     methods.

(3)  To determine if one-trial learning can be extended to conditional
     discrimination in the arbitrary matching-to-sample format.  The
     study will investigate conditions under which a single exposure to a
     two-element complex will lead to selection of one element
     conditionally upon the other.

(4)  To determine if one-trial learning can be extended to the formation
     of classes of equivalent stimuli.  The study will ask if conditional
     relations established in one trial are also relations of
     equivalence, according to widely accepted criteria established by
     Sidman & Tailby (1982).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2199603
- **Project number:** 5R29HD025488-04
- **Recipient organization:** EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER CTR MTL RETARDATN
- **Principal Investigator:** WILLIAM V DUBE
- **Activity code:** R29 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $73,515
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1991-04-01 → 1996-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2199603

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2199603, PROGRAMMING DISCRIMINATION AND ONE-TRIAL LEARNING (5R29HD025488-04). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2199603. Licensed CC0.

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