Behavior analysis offers a very general way of
understanding the behavior of organisms and I find all facets of
behavior analysis valuable. However, because the path from developing software
to applying software is quite direct; it's the path I've chosen for
myself and my students.
All of our projects address learning; here are some current projects:
- We have developed software that
implements the repeated acquisition
of chains procedure. This procedure assesses learning at the level
of the single person. The procedure can
help people with attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorders decide whether they should use medication.
- Student writing is often incohesive and inconcise. Our
software gives students much practice and immediate feedback on whether
their editing is producing cohesion and concision. Students practice until
they achieve high levels of accurate and rapid responding. We have
been examining whether such practice generalizes over time and
texts.
- We spend millions of dollars and hours attempting to teach
students foreign languages but only a small percentage of our students become fluent.
Our language software will help students fluently conjugate Spanish verbs
and inflect German adjectives. Again, students practice until they achieve high levels of accurate and rapid
responding.
- Many students want to enhance their English
vocabularies. Our software will provide students with practice at: recognizing English morphemes derived from Latin and Greek and
specifying their meanings. For example, the word "apotheosis"
has these morphemes "apo- = off, from, away"
and "theos = god"; and the word "peninsula" has these
morphemes "pen = almost" and "insula = island." Students practice until they achieve high levels
of accurate and rapid responding.
We expect our fluency-based software to produce unforgettable performances
that will: generalize over time and place and combine to provide
novel and valuable performances.
T
o discover more about our general approach, which has been
called Precision Teaching or fluency training, explore John
Eshleman's Links and those available at the Fluency Factory.
Marshall Dermer's Home
Page
Keywords: CBT, computer-based training, educational
software, fluency, Precision Teaching, empirically-validated
instruction