Abstract
The present study evaluated the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) as described in the PEAK-E curriculum (Dixon, 2015) for promoting the emergence of derived geometry skills in two children with high-functioning autism. The results suggested that direct training of shape name (A) to shape property (B) (i.e., A-B relations) was effective for both participants. Following A-B training, both participants demonstrated emergent relations that are consistent with symmetry (B-A), as well as emergent shape name (A) to shape picture (C) relations that are consistent with transitivity (A-C). The results expand on existing literature by demonstrating the emergence of an A-C relation when neither A nor B stimuli were ever trained to C stimuli and illustrate the efficacy of EBI for training geometry skills.
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The first author receives small royalties from the sales of the PEAK curriculum. Remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures performed involving our human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Dixon, M.R., Belisle, J., Stanley, C.R. et al. Derived Equivalence Relations of Geometry Skills in Students with Autism: an Application of the PEAK-E Curriculum. Analysis Verbal Behav 32, 38–45 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-016-0051-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-016-0051-9