Teaching individuals with autism receptive labeling skills involving conditional discriminations: A comparison of mass trial and intermixing before random rotation, random rotation only, and combined blocking

• This study compared three different discrimination training procedures for teaching receptive labeling skills.
• The Random Rotation Only procedure was most effective, followed by a Structured Mix before Random Rotation procedure, and a Combined Blocking procedure.
• For two of the participants, the Combined Blocking procedure produced the lowest percentage of errors.
• For all three participants, the Random Rotation Only procedure was associated with the highest percentage of errors.
• Maintenance probes demonstrated that labels in each condition were maintained across two weeks.

This study compared the efficacy of three different discrimination training procedures for teaching receptive labeling skills involving conditional discrimination to two adults and one child with autism, using an adapted alternating treatment design. The three training procedures were; Structured Mix before Random Rotation, Random Rotation Only, and Combined Blocking. Across participants, the Random Rotation Only procedure was most effective, followed by the Structured Mix before Random Rotation procedure, and the Combined Blocking procedure. For two of the participants, the Combined Blocking procedure produced the lowest percentage of error trials, and for all three participants, the Random Rotation Only procedure was associated with the highest percentage of error trials. Maintenance probes demonstrated that labels in each condition were maintained across two weeks.