精神遲滯兒의 不適切한 學習行動矯正에 관한 硏究

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of the systematic use of a food reinforcer on the inappropriate classroom behavior of a mentally retarded child in a special class. Inappropriate classroom behaviors, of this study, were divided into two discrete categories : non-task attention, and non-teacher attention. ⅰ) Non-task attention behavior-is defined as behavior in which the subject's full face is turned 90˚ or more away from the task materials at a time when the subject's full face is expected to be turned in the direction of the task materials. ⅱ) Non-teacher attention behavior-is defined as behavior in which the subject's full face is turned 90˚ or more away from the teacher at a time when the subject's full face is expected to be in the direction of the teacher. An observer was in the experimental classroom for each day covered by this study. The observer was a wall trained person other than the experimenter(teacher). The observer used a stopwatch to measure and record inappropriate behavior. Each observation period was thirty minutes long. Arithmetic was the subject taught during the observation period. Periods of non-task attention behavior and non-teacher attention behavior were recorded by the observer using a stopwatch. Total duration of both inappropriate behaviors was calculated. The subject was ten years of age, and was attending a class for educably retarded children. His learning level was low. His disruptive behavior consisted of having a short attention span, walking out of the seat, looking around and interupting others in class. The experimental period was divided into three parts : a baseline period, a reinforcement period, and a reversal period. Baseline Period During the five day baseline period, the experimenter(teacher) employed the same teaching methods as used in regular class and an observer recorded the periods of the subject's inappropriate classroom behavior. Reinforcement Period During this eight day period, the teacher gave the subject positive reinforcement contingent upon his appropriate classroom behavior. While she ignored the subject's inappropriate behavior. Appropriate behavior was reinforced by means of a food reinforcer given after 30 seconds. Reversal Period During this four day period, the teacher did not use any reinforcer at all. The purpose was to ascertain the effect of the food reinforcer used during reinforcement period. RESULTS The subject's inappropriate classroom behavior decreased significantly during the reinforcement period compared to the baseline periods (p ＜ 0.05). While the subject's inappropriate behavior during this reversal period did not increase significantly compared to the reinforcement period. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS The reasons the difference in the amount of the subjects reversal period and reinforcement period inappropriate behavior was not significant, are as follows : 1. The teacher's teaching skill had improved by the reversal period compared to the baseline period. 2. The social reinforcement used throughout the experiment played a discriminative stimulus' role in the reversal period. 3. The subject became accustomed to small group teaching methods. It. Due to the variable interval schedule used in reinforcement period, the extinction of appropriate behavior became slow in the reversal period. Based on the results of this experiment, the following conclusion can be drawn. The mentally retarded child's appropriate behavior could be modified through food reinforcement and extinction contingency. As a para-professional in behavior modification, a teacher can play the role of a therapeutic agent in the special classroom situation. Use of food reinforcers in the special classroom situation could be very effective. However, classroom uae of food reinforcers causes reactions in the other students and results in a waste of classtime. Use of a token system would probably be preferable;there are cases in the literature(Tymchuk, J. Alexander, 1960, Miller, L. Keithand Schneider, Richard, 1968) of successful modification of problem classroom behavior by use of a token system. Since this study is the first one to be conducted in Korea on the use of food reinforcers to modify inappropriate classroom behavior of mentally retarded children, it may be inadequate in some respects. Additional research would be required to determine how the methods presented in this study could be modified for efficient use in the special classroom situation.