Kathryn J. Saunders - US grants

This is a FIRST award proposal to investigate relational learning in subject's with mental retardation. Such learning is essential to independent human functioning. A hierarchy of three relational discrimination skills will be studied: arbitrary matching, arbitrary matching learning set, and emergent arbitrary stimulus relations (Sidman equivalence). The first aim is to study arbitrary matching and arbitrary matching learning set in subjects who are initially unable to acquire arbitrary relations without highly structured teaching,procedures. The studies will follow-up on findings that procedures designed to facilitate acquisition of arbitrary matching by training skill components can be adapted to promote rapid trial-and-error learning. This extension of the learning set outcome to relational discrimination will extend the generality of an important set of observations that previously have been made primarily with simple discrimination. Subjects with varying degrees of retardation will be included to extend earlier research that indicated a relation between level of retardation and learning set formation. The second aim is to investigate "emergent" matching performances in subjects with low mental ages (MA). The emergent performances investigated will be those identified by Sidman and Tail by (1982), as indicating that arbitrary matching relations are relations of meaning, or equivalence relations. it is likely that many subjects will initially not show these capacities. The studies will test the prediction of relational frames theory that the provision of a history of trained symmetric and transitive performances will be sufficient to produce emergent symmetry and transitivity. Such emergent performances have been considered an integral part of linguistic and symbolic behavior. Little is known about the mechanisms of their development, however, perhaps because they occur so readily in normally developing humans. The studies will contribute to an understanding of retardation and its remediation.

The first aim of the present proposal is to differentiate among several seemingly similar forms of stimulus classes. We approach these stimulus classes with the working hypothesis that they are hierarchical. The assumption is based on the empirical literature in combination with a logical analysis of the skill requirements of the various classes. For example, we expect that classes that require conditional discrimination of visual stimuli and bi-directional transfer may be more difficult than classes that require conditional position discriminations and only unidirectional transfer. Thus, the latter may be more likely in individuals with mental retardation. The second aim is to investigate the possibility of building higher level stimulus classes from lower level ones. We will attempt to demonstrate stimulus classes in the more complex procedures by first demonstrating the same classes in less complex procedures, and then gradually withdrawing this support over exemplars. The studies will help to precisely characterize cognitive deficits of individuals with retardation. Further, they will explore strategies for the remediation of these deficits.

We propose to determine the extent to which, in nonreading adults with mental retardation, useful components of the reading process can be established by teaching relations between spoken words and letters, and between spoken words and printed words. The studies will address basic questions about the processes of abstraction, recombinative generalization, and reading by analogy. They will also address practical issues important to the development of computerized instruction of rudimentary reading skills. We have two specific aims. The first is to investigate the conditions necessary to establish abstraction of onset sounds, that is, the recognition that the same onset sound occurs in different words. The second is to determine whether generative oral reading skills can develop after participants learn to select printed words in response to spoken words. The teaching and test words will be carefully selected to promote abstraction and recombinative generalization of syllable components. In individuals with mental retardation, these are largely unstudied questions. Thus, we seek small grant support for the collection of pilot data that would determine the feasibility of the approach and inform the development of a full research program.

Federal Government support for mental retardation research is increasing, and there is a critical need to attract talented new investigators to the filed, so that this increase in research support can have maximum impact. Moreover, these new investigators must be prepared to excel in a research field that is inherently interdisciplinary. Few new PhDs have had the experience necessary to compete in this climate. Our goal is to attract new investigators to the field of mental retardation, and provide these investigators with career-building interdisciplinary and collaborative experiences. The training program is designed to nurture the development of researchers who will meet national research priorities in the field of mental retardation and developmental disabilities. This 5-year training grant will provide training and support to a total of 16 postdoctoral traineeships, each lasting two years.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many individuals with mental retardation read at levels below what might be expected based on other cognitive skills. Further, reading instruction historically has emphasized sight words, and this emphasis limits reading vocabulary to words that have been taught directly. Thus, there is a critical need for effective methods to teach word-attack skills to this difficult-to-teach population.The long-term goal of this research program is to develop computerized instructional programming to teach foundational reading skills individuals with mental retardation. The present application takes a step towards that goal by addressing the critical early reading skills of phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle. Should we discover ways to develop these skills largely via computer, the efficiency, fidelity, and cost-effectiveness with which these skills could be taught would skyrocket. The scientific foundation for our work lies in the conclusion of the National Reading Panel that phonological awareness training that involves linking letters to sounds is more effective than training that is limited to the manipulation of speech sounds. Thus, we plan to study the development of these skills using a word-construction task, in which the participants build words by selecting individual letters from a pool of letters. These procedures simultaneously promote the development of phonological awareness and the concept that print maps sound. This approach to providing foundational skills of early reading instruction is an unstudied approach to generative reading in individuals with MR. If the success that we have had to date continues, we not only will produce a fine-grained analysis of reading difficulties in this population, but also will develop a set of evidence-based procedures that will have near- immediate utility as teaching tools. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many individuals with mental retardation read at levels below what might be expected based on other cognitive skills. Further, reading instruction historically has emphasized sight words, and this emphasis limits reading vocabulary to words that have been taught directly. Thus, there is a critical need for effective methods to teach word-attack skills to this difficult-to-teach population.The long-term goal of this research program is to develop computerized instructional programming to teach foundational reading skills individuals with mental retardation. The present application takes a step towards that goal by addressing the critical early reading skills of phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle. Should we discover ways to develop these skills largely via computer, the efficiency, fidelity, and cost-effectiveness with which these skills could be taught would skyrocket. The scientific foundation for our work lies in the conclusion of the National Reading Panel that phonological awareness training that involves linking letters to sounds is more effective than training that is limited to the manipulation of speech sounds. Thus, we plan to study the development of these skills using a word-construction task, in which the participants build words by selecting individual letters from a pool of letters. These procedures simultaneously promote the development of phonological awareness and the concept that print maps sound. This approach to providing foundational skills of early reading instruction is an unstudied approach to generative reading in individuals with MR. If the success that we have had to date continues, we not only will produce a fine-grained analysis of reading difficulties in this population, but also will develop a set of evidence-based procedures that will have near- immediate utility as teaching tools. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

See instructions): The objective of this postdoctoral training program is to promote the development of the next generation of researchers who address the problems of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Our goal is to support a broad, interdisciplinary perspective that integrates basic research and application. Progress in understanding and treating IDD will require a translational research effort that entails not only the flow of knowledge from basic research to the solution of clinical problems, but also the laboratory investigation of the behavioral and biological mechanisms that underlie these problems. The primary means of achieving our training goals will be he active and continuous participation of trainees in the translational research programs of mentors, and the guided development of trainees own lines of research. In addition, a seminar series that targets issues in IDD, translational-research proposals, grantsmanship, and other aspects of professional development will be a critical part of the postdoctoral experience. We plan to have a total of four trainees per year. Most will have just earned the PhD, but our budget allows for several more-senior trainees over the course of the five-year program. A critical characteristic of our approach lies in the extent to which the faculty represent and integrate application and basic research The training program brings together researchersfrom Cognitive Neuroscience, Behavior Analysis, Speech and Language, Pharmacology, and Special Education. Faculty research areas range from early intervention for cognitive or social development, behavioral and neurological predictors of IDD, language development, chronic aberrant behavior, pharmacology, and literacy. Mentors are highly experienced researchers with histories of collaboration, both with one another and with investigators from other universities and IDDRCs. RELEVANCE (Seeinstructions): Solutions to problems of the prevention, early detection, and treatment of IDD will require a highly trained research force whose training is not constrained by typical academic boundaries, and reflects the true integration of applied and basic research. Postdoctoral training that promotes such integration is critical to the development of scientists prepared to address the challenging scientific issues in IDD.