It is evident that numerous studies have been undertaken using differential reinforcement in identifying individual responses of the sample under study. However, absolute effectiveness of this method has not been attained. This essay will identify the hypotheses, the variables, how these variables were used and the data collection methods that were used in the study to come up with the conclusion
The study used the following hypotheses. First the review wanted to provide the study with a summary on differential reinforcement findings that were founded on previous acquisition based reviews. The second hypothesis was to identify areas in differential reinforcement that required improvement.
In order that the review would resolve the first hypothesis of skills acquisition, it obtained measurements based on standard format that evaluated the individual performance of the respondents. That is, were the respondents able to meet the pre-specified criterion the study had determined? These standards were implemented in the differential reinforcement studies variables. These variables were prompted responses and independent responses from the sample of the three children who were diagnosed to possess severe intellectual disabilities (Vladescu & Kodak, 2010).
Data that was collected in the study was obtained using the tact based differential reinforcement method of 5-s constant time delay. This method was crafted to yield results based on four conditions sub-categorised into two that each of the respondents would be subjected to. The study revealed that schedules favouring independent responses from the respondents induced higher rapidity in skills acquisition in the respondents. However, this study has a defect. It should be noted that it was un-clear whether the initial exposure of the respondents to the non-differential reinforcements in the testing stage of 0-s prompt delay had a direct effect on the rate of acquisition that the respondents displayed (Vladescu & Kodak, 2010).
The number of respondents that were used in this study was adequate to come up with its conclusion. This is because subsequent studies with fewer respondents that have been carried out had showed lineated results. However, future researches that will be carried in this field should evaluate the schedule fading across trials that the respondents are tested with to determine whether it would decrease their prompt dependence or increases their rate of skill acquisition. This intuition will help future researchers to identify whether this delay schedules are better placed in training these respondents than the static differential reinforcement schedules (Vladescu & Kodak, 2010).