後效區辨訓練對自閉症兒童觀察學習之成效研究

Effectiveness of Contingency Discrimination Training for Observational Learning of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

觀察他人的行為反應來學習新技能，是人類最常見的學習管道，不僅能減少因嘗試錯誤所耗費的時間，亦能促進後續複雜能力的發展。觀察學習包含注意力、模仿能力及後效區辨能力，其中，後效區辨力被視為發展觀察學習技能的關鍵元素。本研究旨在探討透過後效區辨訓練對提升自閉症兒童觀察學習能力之成效。研究對象為兩名六歲的輕度自閉症兒童。研究方法採用單一受試之跨受試多基線實驗設計，透過後效區辨訓練，了解自閉症兒童在學習後效區辨之成效與其維持、類化情況，並觀察學習命名的技能表現。以視覺分析及觀察資料，了解後效區辨訓練是否提升受試者之區辨後效與觀察學習的能力，並透過家長與教師的回饋問卷與訪談建立社會效度。研究結果如下：一、後效區辨訓練可增進輕度自閉症兒童之區辨後效能力，且具維持與類化的效果。二、後效區辨訓練可增進輕度自閉症兒童觀察學習命名技能。三、家長與教師均肯定後效區辨訓練之教學成效。本研究根據研究結果與發現提出相關建議，以供教育工作者與未來研究之參考。

Purpose: The common process through which human beings learn new skills is by observing the behaviors of others and the consequences that accompany these behaviors. This process not only prevents wasting time through trial and error but also enhances the development of complex capacities. Observational learning skills comprise the abilities of attention, imitation, and contingency discrimination. In particular, the ability to discriminate contingencies is the most crucial for developing observational learning skills. In the literature, children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit deficiencies in their ability to pay attention to and imitate others in order to learn new skills. Even if they acquire these essential skills after intensive training, children with autism still have difficulty making complex discriminations of another person’s actions and their consequences. This study investigated the effects of contingency discrimination training on the observational learning ability of children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods: The participants were two 6-year-old children with mild autism. A single-subject multiple-baseline experimental design across subjects was used. The independent variable was contingency discrimination training. The dependent variables were the percentage of correct responses in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of discrimination and progression of observational learning abilities. Visual analysis and observation data were used to analyze the effect of contingency discrimination training on the participants. Additionally, questionnaires and interviews with the participants’ parents and teachers were conducted, and the results confirmed the social validity of the study. Results/Findings: The results showed that contingency discrimination training (1) enhances, maintains, and generalizes the discriminating contingency skills of children with mild autism; (2) enhances observational learning skills in acquiring naming skills for children with mild autism; and (3) was confirmed by to have a beneficial effect by the caregivers of the participants, thus giving the training social validity. Conclusions/Implications: We suggest professionals fully comprehend all information regarding this training, confirm participants’ repertoires before commencing training, identify new skills that participants are capable of learning through observation, and use the reinforcements in consider to strengthen the motivation of the participants. Furthermore, practitioners who undertake future intervention research should increase the number of participants or include participants of different ages, implement contingency discrimination training to promote a variety of skills, and compare the effectiveness of the training using the experimental multiple-baseline design across behaviors. In addition, high-tech equipment should be used to record the frequency, duration and direction of participants’ eye contact, participants’ capacity for selective attention, and their ability to discriminate a figure-ground during intervention.