| The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of material presence and material absence during video viewing on rate of skill acquisition using video modeling. Three young boys diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder participated. A multiple baseline across participants design and a multi-element within participants design was used to compare acquisition rates of two pretend play scripts, one presented with the materials visible during video viewing, and one presented with materials absent during video viewing. An analysis of attending was conducted using a real-time measurement method to determine what stimuli participants attended to during video viewing (video, materials, or other stimuli) in both conditions. For two of the three participants, acquisition rate was faster in the materials absent condition, and for one of the three participants, acquisition rate was faster in the materials present condition. For the participants who learned faster in the materials absent condition, duration of attending to video was higher in the materials absent condition, and duration attending to other stimuli was similar across conditions. For the participant who learned faster in the materials present condition, duration of attending to other stimuli was higher in the materials absent condition, whereas duration of attending to video was similar across conditions. These findings identify environmental arrangement during video viewing as a crucial component of the video modeling procedure, as acquisition rates of all three participants were affected when this aspect was manipulated. |
