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The effects of establishment of conditioned reinforcement for observing

responses for 3D stimuli on generalized visual match-to-sample in children
with autism spectrum disorders

Article  in  European Journal of Behavior Analysis · January 2015

DOI: 10.1080/15021149.2015.1065655

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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15021149.2015.1065655

The effects of establishment of conditioned reinforcement

for observing responses for 3D stimuli on generalized visual
match-to-sample in children with autism spectrum disorders
Lin Dua,b, Joan Brotoc and R. Douglas Greerd
a
The Fred S. Keller School, Yonkers, NY, USA; bTeachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; 5
c
Semiahmoo Behaviour Analysts, Inc., Vancouver, Canada; dTeachers College and Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

We used a pre-and post-intervention probe across participants Received 10 August 2014
design to test the effects of establishment of conditioned reinfor- Accepted 11 May 2015 10
cement for observing 3-dimensional objects on the emergence of KEYWORDS
generalized match-to-sample (MTS) for object and print stimuli by conditioned reinforcement;
4 toddlers with autism spectrum disorders, aged 2 years 4 months observing responses;
to 4 years 7 months. The dependent variables in the study were generalized visual match-to-
137 identical MTS stimuli and 97 MTS abstractions of the stimuli. sample; autism spectrum 15
The independent variable was implemented whenever each parti- disorders
cipant continuously looked at (i.e., visually tracked) rotated
opaque cups with non-preferred objects under 1 of the 3 cups.
The independent variable was established by conditioning looking
at 1 of the 3 cups, beginning with transparent cups with preferred 20
items under one of them and progressing to opaque (non-
transparent) cups that contained non-preferred objects, for up to
10 consecutive seconds (from 1 rotation to 3 rotations). The results
show that, after the establishment of reinforcement for observing
responses, all 4 participants demonstrated generalized MTS for 25
objects and print stimuli. These findings, together with related
findings, suggest the benefits of establishing new reinforcers for
observing responses prior to teaching discriminations.

In our everyday experiences, the generalized visual match-to-sample (MTS) repertoire

is probably one of the most important foundational skills for children. This repertoire 30
enables students to discriminate between stimuli and allows them to learn to distin-
guish letters, numbers, pictures, and shapes that are foundational for other learning. It
is often one of the first objectives taught to children diagnosed with autism spectrum
disorder (ASD) (Lovaas, 1981; Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996; Tarbox, Tarbox, &
O'Hora, 2009). Individuals who do not have MTS in their repertoire are typically 35
taught simple and conditional discrimination using prompting strategies or educa-
tional tactics. Research on discrimination and matching skills, especially for children
diagnosed with ASD, have focused on the effective use of time delay, prompt-fade
procedures, and stimulus prompting (Fisher, Kodak, & Moore, 2007; Green, 2001;
Tarbox et al., 2009). 40

CONTACT Lin Du du@exchange.tc.columbia.edu

© 2015 Norwegian Association for Behavior Analysis
2 L. DU ET AL.

Verbal behavior development theory (VBDT) suggests that the lack of a generalized
MTS repertoire may be the result of certain missing behavioral developmental cusps,
and one of these is the developmental cusp for observing 2-dimensional (2D) and
3-dimensional (3D) stimuli (Greer & Du, 2015; Greer & Han, in press; Greer &
Keohane, 2005; Greer & Ross, 2008; Greer & Speckman, 2009; Skinner, 1957). When 45
2D and 3D stimuli do not function as conditioned reinforcers for observing responses,
prompting strategies are typically used but often result in prompt dependency.
However, VBDT studies suggest that if observing responses existed, prompt tactics
were not needed. In order to learn discriminations, the stimuli must reinforce the
observing response because the observing response is an operant (Holland, 1958). 50
Building on Dinsmoor and colleagues’ findings (1985), Donahoe and Palmer (2004)
defined observing responses as “acquired environment-behavior relations whose
primary function is to affect the sensing of stimuli, which then function as conditioned
reinforcers for those relations” (p. 360). This research and theory and recent findings by
Greer and Han (in press) suggest that the need for prompts is due to the learner’s lack 55
of the observing 2D and 3D stimuli.
Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1996, 1997) defined a developmental cusp as the onset of a
behavior that then allowed an individual to learn from new contingencies in the
environment because the child contacts contingencies in ways they could not before
by learning a new behavior such as walking or crawling. Growing evidence also 60
suggests that the learning of a new reinforcer results in the prerequisite attention
responses necessary for learning new discriminations and newly conditioned reinfor-
cers may be the origin of many behavioral developmental cusps (Du & Greer, 2014;
Dinsmoor, 1985; Greer & Du, 2015; Greer & Han, in press; Greer, Pistoljevic, Cahill,
& Du, 2011). When a cusp is acquired, not only are individuals able to learn new 65
contingencies, their rate of learning is also accelerated. For example, a child who has
acquired the cusp to walk is now able to encounter new learning possibilities.
Learning to walk is a cusp because before the child has acquired this cusp, he is
unable to come in contact with parts of the environment that walking permits.
Another example is the learning auditory phonemic discriminations for speech‒ 70
sound combinations lead to the acquisition of fluent listener repertoire (Greer,
Chavez-Brown, Nirgudkar, Stolfi, & Rivera-Valdes, 2005). When he has acquired
this cusp, the individual is now able to learn to follow novel vocal directions and
no longer need to be taught each direction separately. The establishment of new
conditioned reinforcers seems to be responsible for the onset of phonemic awareness, 75
social awareness of others (Greer et al., 2011), generalized imitation (Du & Greer,
2014), reading readiness (Singer-Dudek, Oblak, & Greer, 2011; Tsai & Greer, 2006)
and emergence of incidental name learning (Longano & Greer, 2014).
Several articles and a book have described the research identifying these verbal
developmental cusps and capabilities, as well as the protocols that induce or establish 80
these capabilities (Greer & Keohane, 2005; Greer & Longano, 2010; Greer & Ross, 2008;
Greer & Speckman, 2009; Keohane, Pereira-Delgado, & Greer, 2009). Current research
suggests that the conditioning of reinforcers for observing responses may be founda-
tional to children learning more complex repertoires. These pre-verbal foundations of
verbal behavior include conditioned reinforcement for faces (Maffei, Singer-Dudek, & 85
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 3

Keohane, 2014), conditioned reinforcement for voices (Greer et al., 2011), conditioned
reinforcement for seeing and doing (Du & Greer, 2014; Moreno, Greer, & Singer-
Dudek, submitted), and conditioned reinforcement for observing 2D and 3D stimuli for
instructional purposes or incidental learning (Greer & Han, in press; Speckman,
Longano, & Syed, 2014). 90
Conditioning reinforcement for observing adults’ faces and voices, for example,
has led to increases in general social awareness, as measured by eye contact and
orienting toward adults as they speak or enter a room (Maffei et al., 2014). When
faces were conditioned reinforcers for observing responses, students diagnosed
with ASD who previously did not demonstrate awareness of adult presence or 95
voices were able to do so. Once adults’ faces and voices were conditioned as
reinforcers for observing, the children noticed others in the environment and
their rate of learning from direct instruction was significantly accelerated (Maffei
et al., 2014).
Greer et al. (2011) tested the effects of conditioning adults’ voices using the stimulus‒ 100
stimulus pairing procedure with preschoolers diagnosed with ASD. After adult voices
had become conditioned as reinforcement, general awareness (measured by orientation
toward adult voices), and selection of listening to adult voices over toys in free choice
settings, the participants required fewer numbers of instructional trials to master
instruction involving the teachers’ spoken instructions. 105
Greer and Han (in press) tested the effects of conditioning 2D stimuli on the
acquisition of a generalized visual MTS repertoire. In this study, the participants
were kindergarten students diagnosed with ASD who did not have generalized visual
MTS in their repertoire. Once several pages of non-preferred 2D stimuli were
conditioned as reinforcers for continuous observation of the stimuli in a free 110
operant setting, the participants acquired generalized visual MTS for identical and
non-identical abstract stimuli. They also acquired looking at books as conditioned
reinforcement for observing responses and preference for looking at books in a free
play area.
Keohane, Greer, and Ackerman (2006) identified a visual tracking protocol that 115
functioned to condition observing responses to stimuli on desktop. This protocol was
suggested as a procedure to use with early learners who are under instructional control
(e.g., reinforcers were identified and used accurately for instruction) yet have difficulty
learning basic MTS repertoires. These students often require teaching each category of
MTS (e.g., letters, shapes, colors, symbols, and pictures) separately, often using numer- 120
ous prompt procedures and a range of reinforcers. The procedure consisted of placing a
reinforcer (e.g., edible or small toy) underneath one of two or three opaque cups and
asking the student to select the correct cup (with the reinforcer hidden in the cups) after
the cups were rotated several times. The rotation involved moving the placement of the
cups on the table, for example, moving the cup on the right and exchanging it with a 125
cup that was originally on the left. If the student observed the rotated cups and selected
the correct cup with the reinforcer hidden, the reinforcer was delivered to the student.
The procedure involved progressing from following the target cup in one rotation to
following the cup for multiple rotations. The results demonstrated the protocol was
effective to induce visual control of 3D stimuli, as demonstrated by the decrease in the 130
numbers of trials to criterion across MTS curricular objectives (i.e., matching shapes,
4 L. DU ET AL.

colors, letter, and symbols). The researchers suggested that the visualization of the
edible was a conditioned reinforcer that when paired with looking and tracking objects
on the tabletop acted to condition 3D objects as conditioned reinforcers for looking at
objects in the instructional setting. 135
Speckman et al. (2014) tested the effects of a different visual tracking procedure on
observing 3D stimuli with three preschoolers diagnosed with ASD. The dependent
variables in the study consisted of matching identical objects, pictures, as well as
non-identical objects and pictures, imitation responses and imitation responses with
objects. They implemented the cup tracking procedure in which preferred and non- 140
preferred items were placed underneath clear and opaque cups. The cups were then
rotated and the participants were asked to visually track the rotated cup and find the
preferred and/or non-preferred items. The results demonstrated an increase across all
three participants for the numbers of correct responses for 3D matching and imitating
adults manipulating objects experimental probes. Two of the participants also emitted 145
more correct responses in post-intervention probes. One of the participants, however,
did not improve in matching repertoire and demonstrated least effect across all of the
experimental probes.
In the present study, we sought to replicate and extend the findings of Keohane
et al. (2006) with 2D stimuli and Speckman et al. (2014) with 3D stimuli. More 150
specifically, we wanted to test further if the conditioning of visual stimuli as
reinforcers, via the visual tracking procedure, would result in generalized MTS
for 137 novel identical matching stimuli and 97 novel non-identical abstraction
stimuli.

Method 155
Participants
The participants in this study included four male children diagnosed with ASD, aged
from 2 to 5 years old. All four participants attended a publicly funded and privately run
preschool for children with and without disabilities. The school employed a behavior
analytic model of instruction and curricula. 160
The presence or absence of the participants’ existing verbal repertoires was assessed
through the CABAS International Curriculum and Inventory of Repertoires for Children
from Preschool through Kindergarten (C-PIRK®) (Greer & McCorkle, 2009; Waddington
& Reed, 2009) and Verbal Behavior Development Assessment (Greer & Ross, 2008) by
professionals who were calibrated to a standard for doing the assessment. At the onset 165
of the study, all participants functioned at the pre-listener and pre-speaker levels of
verbal behaviors with very limited pre-verbal foundational behavior cusps (Keohane
et al., 2009). This means they could neither talk nor use non-vocal responses to
communicate and they did not have a listener vocabulary or receptive language in
repertoire. All participants were being instructed in the pre-listener curricula, includ- 170
ing staying in the toy area, establishing instructional control (i.e., identification of
reinforcers for teaching sit, sit still, eye contact, look here, and respond to name),
selective imitation with objects, and without objects, school routines (i.e., go to the toy
area, go to that table, go to teacher, and come with me), gestural mands, and
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 5

Table 1. Participants’ standard sores and percentile scores and demographical information.
Participant Gender Age Standard test scores
A M 3y1m Vineland-II Adaptive Behavior Scales
Communication SS 66
Motor Skills SS 90
Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DYAC)
Cognitive SS 73, 4%
Communication SS 62, 1%
B M 2y4m Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2
Visual-Motor Integration SS 5, 5%
Preschool Language Scale -5
Auditory Comprehension SS 65, 1%
Expressive Communication SS 75, 5%
Total Language Score SS 68, 2%
C M 2y8m Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd Ed)
Language Composite Score 68, 2%
Motor Composite Score 88, 21%
Vineland-II Adaptive Behavior Scales
Communication SS 69, 2%
D M 4y7m Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2
Visual-Motor Integration SS 8, 25%
Preschool Language Scale-5
Auditory Comprehension SS 80, 9%
Expressive Communication SS 78, 7%
Development Assessment of Young Children
Cognitive SS 85
The Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DYAC) provides an initial assessment for determination of develop-
ment delays from Voress and Maddox (1998). The Vineland-II Adaptive Behavior Scale is an adaptive skill measurement
from Sparrow, Cicchetti, and Balla (2005). The Preschool Language Scale-5 is a developmental language skill
assessment from Zimmerman, Steiner, and Pond (2011). The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 is designed to
evaluate gross and fine motor development in early childhood (from birth to age 5) from Folio and Fewell (2000).
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd Ed) from Bayley (2005) assesses all important developmental
aspects of young children. Tests report standard scores (SS) or percentiles. Percentiles compare the student’s scores to
those of other students who take the same standardized test. For example, 9% means that the student performs
better than 9% of those tested population.

conditioning books and toys as reinforcers. The participants were selected for this 175
study because they did not attend to instructional materials presented in their daily
instruction, and thus could not learn MTS repertoires without extensive prompt
procedures. See Table 1 for detailed demographical information about the participants
and their related standard test scores. These assessments were conducted by psychol-
ogists from each student’s own school district and thus the types of assessment tools 180
varied.

Setting
The study took place in the participants’ classrooms. The classrooms were furnished with
one large and three small children-sized tables. Each classroom also contained a toy area at
the corner of the classroom with books and toys on the shelves. The toy area served as an 185
assessment setting for testing preference, conditioned reinforcers, presence or absence of
stereotypy, and generalized stimulus control. At the time of the study, the experimenter sat
next to the participant at a child-side table. The students in the class who were not
participants were engaged in one-to-one instruction with other teachers in the classroom
or received the related services (e.g., speech therapy) in other therapists’ rooms. 190
6 L. DU ET AL.

Materials
The experimenters prepared a pen, a clipboard, data collection sheets, as well as
preferred and non-preferred stimuli that were selected based on the participants’
instructional histories. The preferred stimuli placed under the cups in the intervention
included the participants’ favorite edibles (e.g., Oreo®, Cheez it®, chips, and small toys) 195
previously found to function as reinforcers for learning and performance. The non-
preferred stimuli included common school and home objects (e.g., binder clips, timers,
and pens).
During the MTS probe sessions, the teacher prepared the following materials to test
the presence of the participants’ generalized MTS repertoires (i.e., MTS responses to 200
untaught pictures and objects) (see Table 2). All 2D visual stimuli (pictures, letters,
shapes, and colors) were printed on 7.6 cm × 12.7 cm index cards and prepared in
multiple visual exemplars (i.e., various fonts, colors, sizes) where the essential char-
acteristics were maintained while the irrelevant characteristics are varied. The 3D
stimuli included common school and home objects (i.e., highlighters, crayons, markers, 205
puzzle pieces, pegs, and straws). See Table 3 for examples of MTS stimuli used in pre-
and post-intervention probes.

Table 2. Visual matching sets used during pre- and post-intervention probes.
Identical match-to-sample Number of trials Abstraction match-to-sample Number of trials
Matching non-preferred objects 20 Matching non-preferred objects 20
Matching uppercase letters (A‒Z) 26 Matching uppercase letters (A‒Z) 26
Matching lowercase letters (a‒z) 26 Matching lowercase letters (a‒z) 26
Matching Arabic numbers (0–9) 10 Matching Arabic numbers (0–9) 10
Matching basic colors 5 Matching basic colors 5
Matching basic shapes 5 Matching basic shapes 5
Matching common animals 5 Matching common animals 5
Matching 3D objects to 2D print 20
Matching 2D print to 3D objects 20
Total 137 Total 97

Table 3. Examples of MTS stimuli used in pre- and post-intervention probes.

Examples
Identical match-to-sample
Matching non-preferred objects Match a binder clip with an identical binder clip
Matching uppercase letters (A‒Z) Match uppercase A with an identical uppercase A
Matching lowercase letters (a‒z) Match lowercase b with an identical lowercase b
Matching Arabic numbers (0–9) Match number 9 with an identical number 9
Matching basic colors Match a red card with an identical red card
Matching basic shapes Match a circle shape with an identical circle shape
Matching common animals Match a brown cow with an identical brown cow
Matching 3D objects circle shape to 2D print Match a timer with a corresponding timer picture
Matching 2D print to 3D objects Match a timer picture with a corresponding timer
Abstraction Match-to-Sample
Matching non-preferred objects Match a green Lego with a red Lego
Matching uppercase letters (A‒Z) Match a black uppercase E with a red uppercase E
Matching lowercase letters (a‒z) Match a lowercase c in size 48 with a lowercase c in size 72
Matching Arabic numbers (0–9) Match a blue number 9 with a pink number 9
Matching basic colors Match a green leaf with a green highlighter
Matching basic shapes Match a big circle with a small circle
Matching common animals Match a brown dog with a white dog
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 7

Dependent variables
Experimenters measured the numbers of correct responses during probe trials for
untaught 2D and 3D visual stimuli to test the participants’ generalized MTS repertoire. 210
All of the stimuli for the MTS responses were selected from the C-PIRK® (Greer &
McCorkle, 2009; Waddington & Reed, 2009). The 137 identity MTS responses included
(1) matching non-preferred objects, (2) matching 26 uppercase letters, (3) matching 26
lowercase letters, (4) matching 10 Arabic numbers, (5) matching 5 basic colors, (6)
matching 5 basic shapes, (7) matching 5 common animals, (8) matching 3D objects to 215
their corresponding 2D print, and (9) matching 2D print to their corresponding 3D
objects. The 97 abstraction stimuli responses used the same categories of stimuli, but
included stimuli with abstractions of the key elements but differed in non-essential
characteristics (i.e., match dog with different breeds).
During the pre- and post-intervention probes, all participants received conse- 220
quated instructional trials for their match responses. That is, the experimenter
reinforced the correct matching responses with vocal praise and preferred edibles,
and provided corrections for incorrect responses. Corrections required the partici-
pants to emit the correct response after being shown the correct response. The
participants’ corrected responses were not reinforced. A correct response occurred 225
when the participant matched the target stimulus with the identity exemplar stimu-
lus when presented in a field of three stimuli within 3 s. An incorrect response
occurred when the participant matched with the incorrect stimulus, or failed to
respond within 3 s. Responses to identity stimuli required the participant to match
their sample stimulus that was exactly the same (same size, color, shape, and all the 230
other measurable features). Matching 3D objects to their corresponding 2D pictures
(or vice versa) required the participant to match the target object or picture (e.g., a
yellow pencil) to its correspondent (e.g., a picture of the same yellow pencil).
Abstraction MTS stimuli consisted of stimuli that had the essential features of the
exemplar, but varied irrelevant features such as color (e.g., when shape was the 235
target), shape (e.g., when color was the target), size (e.g., when animal was the
target), and some other non-critical features.

Data collection
During the pre- and post- intervention probes, the participants’ emission of correct
and incorrect responses for all MTS sessions were recorded with a black pen using a 240
plus (+) for correct responses and a minus (−) for incorrect responses. We also
recorded data during the intervention to determine the establishment of the inde-
pendent variable. During the intervention, for the establishment of conditioned
reinforcement for observing stimuli, the experimenter recorded whether or not the
participant visually tracked (i.e., continuously looked at) the rotated cups for 10 s. A 245
plus (+) as well as the tracking duration (10 s) were recorded when the participant
successfully tracked the cup with preferred or neutral item for 10 s, and a minus (−)
and the exact duration in seconds were recorded when the participant looked at the
cup with preferred or neutral item for less than 10 s. For example, if the participant
looked at the rotated cup for 5 s and then looked away, the teacher recorded a minus 250
8 L. DU ET AL.

(−) together with 5 s on the data collection sheet. The total number of correct trials
out of 20 opportunities and the cumulative seconds were calculated at the end of
each session.

Design
Experimenters used a pre- and post-intervention probe design across four participants 255
to test the effects of establishing conditioned reinforcement for visual tracking of 3D
objects on the emergence of generalized visual MTS responding. Single probes were
done as pre- and post-intervention measures, immediately prior to and following the
intervention. The sequence of the design was as follows: (1) pre-intervention probes
were conducted on MTS responses to the identical and abstract stimuli, (2) conditioned 260
reinforcement of 3D objects on the table for observing responses was established for the
participants, followed by (3) post-intervention probes consistent with the pre-interven-
tion probes.

Procedure
Pre- and post-intervention probes 265
Prior to and after the implementation of the intervention, we conducted probes to
assess the participants’ generalized MTS repertories. The participants received conse-
quated instructional trials such that the correct responses they emitted during the
probes would not be placed into extinction because of the lack of reinforcers. We
delivered consequences to the instructional trials during the probe sessions to ensure 270
that the participants could not learn MTS simply by instruction. Thus, this procedure
compares whether or not the participant can learn before the intervention and after.
During the assessment for generalized MTS repertoire, the experimenter first pre-
sented 3 stimuli on the tabletop in front of the participant and provided him with an
exemplar with the vocal antecedent “Match _____.” The participant was asked to match 275
the stimuli by placing the exemplar on top of or side by side with the corresponding
stimulus within 3 s. If the participant emitted a correct response, the experimenter
delivered vocal praise (i.e. “That’s right! You are so smart!”), or preferred edibles
depending on the participant’s particular reinforcer preferences. If the participant failed
to respond within 3 s, or emitted an incorrect response, the experimenter provided the 280
correction procedure by showing the correct response and then repeating the ante-
cedent and response opportunity for the participant until the correct response was
emitted. If the participant was unable to emit a correct response with the third
opportunity during correction procedure, the experimenter provided a partial physical
prompt to guide the participant matching the correct stimulus. No reinforcement was 285
given for corrected responses.

Intervention
During the visual tracking procedure, instructional trials were arranged in 20-trial
sessions with each trial consisting of a measure of the participants looking at the cup
with the preferred edible/toy for an entire 10 s interval. The experimenter first pre- 290
sented three transparent cups on the table. The experimenter then presented some
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 9

preferred objects and let the student choose one (i.e., Oreo cookies, crackers, popcorn,
and car). Next, the experimenter obtained the participant’s attention by gesturing the
reinforcer and the cup, “Look here”, and placed the selected item underneath one of the
clear cups. The cup that contained the preferred object was rotated at a slow pace 295
around one of the other cups on the table in front of the participant. The experimenter
started the timer as soon as the participant looked at the rotated cup. The participant
was required to visually track the target cup for consecutive 10 s. Once 10 s were up, the
experimenter stopped the rotation of the cup and rewarded the participant with the
pre-selected reinforcer. A plus as well as 10 s were then recorded for the successful trial. 300
If the participant looked away at any point during the 10 s, the cup rotation was ceased
immediately. A minus was record for that trial and the teacher began the next trial.
Mastery criterion was set at 90% accuracy or higher for two consecutive sessions or
100% accuracy for one session.
Once the participant achieved criterion on the first objective (3 transparent cups with 305
1 rotation), the same procedure continued with the teacher slowly rotating the target
cup twice and then three times for up to 10 s. With the increase of the rotation times
from 1 time to 2 then to 3, the speed of the rotation increased gradually. Next, the same
procedure was repeated with the use of opaque cups rather than transparent cups,
whose use prevented the participants from seeing through what was hidden inside. Each 310
participant was required to track the preferred stimuli under the rotated cup for up to
10 s with 1 rotation, then 2 rotations, and 3 rotations. Once the participant mastered
visually tracking the rotated opaque cups with preferred objects, they were then asked
to repeat the same but with non-preferred objects underneath the rotated cup with 3
rotations. If the participant looked at the rotated cup for 10 s, he was rewarded with the 315
preferred edible or toy. If he looked away during the 10 s, the experimenter stopped the
rotation and moved on to the next trial. Table 4 shows the progressive seven phases
during intervention for establishing visual tracking. The objective of the conditioned
procedures was to transfer the stimulus control from visual presence of the preferred
item to the initially non-preferred stimuli. See Table 4 for a complete list of intervention 320
rotation phases.
For students who had difficulty meeting criterion with the 10 s visual tracking with
rotated cups (e.g., three sessions with no indication of learning), the experimenter
adjusted the duration requirement based on their average performance. For example,
if data showed that the participant typically looked away after 5 s each time, 325
the experimenter could set the goal slightly higher than his current performance
level (i.e., 6 s). When the participant achieved the objective with the shorter duration,
the experimenter increased the goal incrementally for the student (i.e., 8 s) until the

Table 4. Progressive intervention phases for establishing visual tracking.

Phase Number of containers
1 3 transparent cups
2 3 transparent cups
3 3 transparent cups
4 3 opaque cups
5 3 opaque cups
6 3 opaque cups
7 3 opaque cups
Number of rotations Materials under the container Duration objective
1 Preferred stimuli 10 s
2 Preferred stimuli 10 s
3 Preferred stimuli 10 s
1 Preferred stimuli 10 s
2 Preferred stimuli 10 s
3 Preferred stimuli 10 s
3 Non-preferred stimuli 10 s
10 L. DU ET AL.

10 s objective was achieved. The achievement of the visual tracking objective was
determined to be a demonstration of a shift in the reinforcement control from the 330
edible to the cups. Each session consisting of 20 trials was conducted once or twice
daily.

Interobserver agreement
Interobserver agreement (IOA) was collected for match instruction during the pre-
and post-intervention probes as well as intervention sessions by using the Teacher 335
Performance Rate Accuracy (TPRA) (Ross, Singer-Dudek, & Greer, 2005). The
TPRA was conducted by the supervisors to ensure treatment integrity and
reliability of the procedure. IOA was 100% across all probe session across all
participants. IOA was conducted for 25% of intervention sessions for Participant
A with 98% agreement (ranging from 95% to 100%). IOA was conducted for 32% 340
of intervention sessions for Participant B with 99% agreement (ranging from
95% to 100%). IOA was conducted for 51% of intervention sessions for
Participant C with 97% agreement (ranging from 90% to 100%). IOA was con-
ducted for 53% of intervention sessions for Participant D with 97% agreement
(ranging from 95% to 100%). 345

Results
Prior to the implementation of the intervention, none of the participants was able to
match either 3D objects or 2D print presented on the tabletop. Here, we combined
the identity with the abstraction MTS responses. During the pre-intervention train-
ing probes, Participant A emitted 21 correct matching responses out of 234 oppor- 350
tunities, Participant B emitted 66 correct responses, and Participant C and D
emitted 0 correct responses. After the implementation of the 3D conditioning
protocol, three of the four participants demonstrated generalized visual MTS, and
one demonstrated significant increases in the post-intervention probe. Participant A
emitted 181 correct matching responses, Participant B emitted 231 correct matching 355
responses, Participant C emitted 230 correct matching responses, and Participant D
emitted 234 correct matching responses.
Figures 1 and 2 show the identical matching responses and the abstraction matching
responses, respectively. Figure 1 displays the numbers of correct responses from all
participants during pre- and post-intervention probes on identical MTS programs. 360
Figure 2 displays the numbers of correct responses for all participants during pre-
and post-intervention probes on non-identical MTS stimuli.
Figure 3 shows the data collected during intervention training phases. It took the
four participants a mean of 44 sessions to finish the conditioning intervention
(Participant A 40 sessions, Participant B 38 sessions, Participant C 51 sessions, and 365
Participant D 47 sessions). It is worth noting that Participant C required some addi-
tional tactics to help him maintain the 10-s visual tracking of the rotated cups in some
of the phases and did not complete all 7 objectives as did the other participants.
However, anecdotal observations in the classroom showed that the participant was
matching letters on the iPad apps and matching shapes and animals when completing 370
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 11

Number of Correct Responses during Probe Sessions

Probe Sessions

Figure 1. Pre- and post-intervention probe results in identical matching for all participants.

puzzles. Based on the observation, the experimenters thus decided to conduct the post-
intervention probe prior to the mastery of all levels. Post-intervention probe data
showed that his generalized matching repertoire still emerged as a result of the con-
ditioning procedure.

Discussion 375
The results indicate that the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for
observing responses can lead to generalized visual identity matching in young
children with developmental disabilites. The findings in this article extended and
replicated the studies by Greer and Han (in press), Keohane et al. (2006), Maffei
et al. (2014), and Tsai and Greer (2006). Before the establishment of conditioned 380
reinforcement for visual observing participant’s particular reinforcer repertoire
responses, none of the four participants attended to 3D objects or 2D pictures
presented in instruction. Their instructors reported tremendous difficulty in
obtaining their attention prior to the intervention and failure to achieve any
12 L. DU ET AL.

Number of Correct Responses during Probe Sessions

Probe Sessions

Figure 2. Pre- and post-intervention probe results in abstract matching (non-identical) for all
participants.

academic objectives, even with the most fundamental repertoires (i.e., match 385
pictures and point to body parts). Our results were similar to Keohane et al.
(2006)’s study in which the 3D conditioning procedure resulted in accelerations
in students’ rates of learning (i.e., fewer learning trials required for them to learn
to match sets of stimuli). However, the data from the current study further show
that the cusp of generalized identity matching was established for three of the four 390
participants. These findings were consistent with the Greer and Han (in press)
study which conditioned observing 2D rather than 3D stimuli. In the present
article, the three participants who acquired generalized visual MTS, no additional
instruction was needed for MTS objectives, resulting in an improved educational
prognosis for them. It should be noted that the participants did not receive 395
additional prompting or matching instruction during the implementation of the
procedure, it seems that establishing observing as a conditioned reinforcer by
visually tracking the 3D items did lead to the acquisition of the matching
repertoires.
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 13

Number of Correct Responses during Probe Sessions

Probe Sessions

Figure 3. Number of trials the participants visually tracked the stimuli for up to 10 s on tabletop (see
Table 5 for description of phases).

Participant A was the only one who did not demonstrate complete acquisition of all 400
his matching repertoires. He did not meet criterion on matching 3D to 2D and
matching 2D to 3D in the post-intervention probes. The two matching programs
were then added into his daily instruction to teach him to match. The experimenters
then conducted a follow-up probe 3 months later after the completion of the procedure
and this participant did acquire the originally lacking MTS 3D to 2D and 2D to 3D 405
repertoires. The participant mastered the two matching repertoires through the pre-
sentation of the instructional trials without any extra prompts. This finding suggested
that the 3D conditioning protocol established the missing generalized matching cusp in
the participant, which enabled him to learn skills that he could not prior to the
intervention. 410
In Greer and Han (in press), they tested the effects of a 2D conditioning procedure
on dependent measures similar to our study. They were able to demonstrate the
effectiveness of a stimulus‒stimulus pairing procedure to condition observing 2D
stimuli and, in turn, after 2D stimuli were conditioned as a source of reinforcement
14 L. DU ET AL.

Table 5. Description of phases for visual tracking training figures (Figure 3)

and the number of rotations required for each participant to meet the
observing criterion constituting the establishment of conditioned reinforce-
ment for observing the cups.
Participant Phase tags
A (1) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s
(2) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s with novel preferred stimuli
(3) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s (disperse LU)
(4) Clear cups 2 rotations 10 s
(5) Clear cups 3 rotations 10 s
(6) Opaque cups 1 rotation 10 s
(7) Opaque cups 2 rotations 10 s
(8) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s
(9) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s with non-preferred stimuli
B (1) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s
(2) Clear cups 2 rotations 10 s
(3) Clear cups 3 rotations 10 s
(4) Clear cups 3 rotations 10 s (disperse LU)
(5) Opaque cups 1 rotation 10 s
(6) Opaque cups 2 rotations 10 s
(7) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s
(8) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s with non-preferred stimuli
C (1) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s
(2) Clear cups 1 rotation 5 s
(3) Clear cups 1 rotation 3 s
(4) Clear cups 1 rotation 5 s
(5) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s
(6) Clear cups 2 rotations 10 s
(7) Clear cups 3 rotations 10 s
(8) Opaque cups 1 rotation 10 s
(9) Opaque cups 1 rotation 6 s
(10) Opaque cups 1 rotation 3 s
(11) Phase change and post-probe
D (1) Clear cups 1 rotation 10 s
(2) Clear cups 2 rotations 10 s
(3) Clear cups 2 rotations 10 s with novel preferred stimuli
(4) Clear cups 3 rotations 10 s
(5) Opaque cups 1 rotation 10 s
(6) Opaque cups 1 rotation 5 s
(7) Opaque cups 1 rotation 10 s
(8) Opaque cups 2 rotations 10 s
(9) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s
(10) Opaque cups 3 rotations 10 s with non-preferred stimuli

for observing, the participants acquired identical and abstraction MTS repertoires 415
without direct instruction. It appears that the transfer in the source of reinforcement
to observing responses of the stimuli, in this study and in theirs, led to the induction of
the participants observing responses.
Participant C’s experience with the conditioning protocol suggests us to question,
whether it would be necessary for all participants to complete the entire seven inter- 420
vention phases in order to establish the conditioned reinforcement of 3D objects on the
tabletop. In the current study, three out of four participants went through all seven
phases while only one mastered the first three (with the use of transparent cups).
Nonetheless, our results indicate that all of the four participants acquired the condi-
tioned reinforcement criterion for 3D objects after the implementation of the protocol. 425
We learned from our experience with Participant C that it was quite plausible that not
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 15

all seven phases was necessary for all candidates in need of this protocol. This warrants
a further study to determine a more efficient and individualized system for potential
candidates with different pre-intervention repertoires.
It is worth noting that the pre- and post-intervention design used in the current 430
study may not typically be the optimal option for a perfectly “clean” experiment.
However, the participants’ instructional history revealed that none of them achieved
any learning objectives prior to this intervention due to their lack of general awareness
of their surroundings, especially the attending skills to educational stimuli presented on
the table. The data collected from the only pre-intervention probe for all four partici- 435
pants were found to be consistent with their everyday performance in the classroom.
What’s more, the 16 MTS programs included in the pre- and post-probes were
essentially very similar in nature, in which the generalized visual matching repertoires
were tested. Therefore, the one pre-probe in fact contained multiple probe across 16
different behaviors. The implementation of the 3D conditioning protocol and the 440
establishment of the observing responses of stimuli on the table top is hence responsible
for the increase in the participants’ MTS responses from the pre- to post-intervention
probe.
What’s more, Malot once pointed out “the clock is ticking on these kids” (Malott &
Shane, 2013) as he urged us to outweigh the educational benefits of the students in the 445
experiments over other more seemingly important scientific concerns. The experimen-
ters followed the advice and made the timely decision to move the participants on to
intervention to teach these children “as soon as we can” (Malott & Shane, 2013).
Two different procedures, the procedure described herein and the Greer and Han (in
press) procedure, have been used to condition 2D stimuli as reinforcers for observing 450
responses and both proved effective in establishing the conditioned reinforcers and
both resulted in generalized visual identity matching. It appears that the use of either
protocol is sufficient for students to acquire the generalized matching repertoires.
Future studies might identify whether one procedure is more efficient or whether
different procedures may be effective for different participants. At this point, we do 455
know the importance of acquiring the pre-verbal developmental cusps and capabilities
and the importance of conditioning observing responses to stimuli prior to teaching
matching repertoires and discrimination repertoires (Dube & McIlvane, 1999; Greer
et al., 2011; Tsai & Greer, 2006). Building reinforcers for observing responses may prove
critical to effective discrimination instruction. 460

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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