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The blocking effect of pictorial
prompts of sight-word reading. The present study replicates and extends previous research showing that an extra stimulus prompt (i.e., a picture of the item) can block the learning of sight-words by six students with moderate mental retardation. Correct responding was recorded during five conditions in an alternating treatments design. Twenty 5-letter words were presented either alone or with a corresponding picture. A feedback condition was also compared during which presentation of the picture served as feedback cue. The results show that the acquisition criterion was achieved fastest during the word-alone conditions with five students, whereas feedback cueing resulted in the fastest acquisition rate with one student. The percentages of correct responses during posttests in conditions in which words were presented with pictures, when presented with pictures as feedback cues, and when presented alone were 43, 47, and 56, respectively. Results may be explained by a blocking effect of extra stimulus prompts. Keywords: moderate mental retardation, sight-word reading, blocking effect, extra stimulus prompt |
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