Three different word-retrieval deficits of persons with aphasia were examined from the viewpoint of conscious (controlled) processing versus unconscious (automatic) processing. The deficits studied were: (1) amnesic aphasia, (2) writing letters with one stroke that should have been written with several strokes ("tsuzukeji"), and (3) amnesic aphasia in which written retrieval is better than oral. The results were as follows: 1. For all three word-retrieval deficits, there were different states of the deficit between conscious (controlled) processing and unconscious (automatic) processing. This finding shows the usefulness of this distinction. 2. All the patients with aphasia did better with unconscious (automatic) processing than they did with conscious (controlled) processing.

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In an earlier study of the effects of cues concerning the number of categories and the size of categories of memory lists (Kamizono, 1988), it was found that the organization of memory was facilitated by using those cues even in 4- and 6-year-old children who have difficulty in organizing their memory. The present study was designed to investigate whether the cues in the Kamizono (1988) study would be effective for children with retardation. Effects of the cues were compared for children with retardation (MA groups of 4-year-old and 6-year-old children) and children without developmental disabilities. The results indicated that cues facilitated the organization of memory in all groups of children in the present study. The results demonstrate that concrete and practical cues in encoding and retrieval situations improve the monitoring function of memory and result in an increase in recall even in children with mental retardation.

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Techniques for shaping the shopping skills of two children with developmental disabilities were analyzed. Before the training, a task analysis of skills for shopping at a big supermarket was attempted. The study consisted of two conditions. First, simulation training was conducted in training settings (training condition); second, shopping in the actual settings was assessed (generalization condition). Results showed that the participants' shopping skills were shaped with the following strategy: (1) shaping the behavioral repertoire in the simulation settings, (2) using a delayed prompt procedure in the actual settings, (3) applying positive practice, and (4) using backward chaining. The results suggest that it is important to common discriminative stimuli between the training and the actual situation.

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A new trend in applied behavior analysis for children with developmental disabilities, called "community-referenced instruction", began in the United States in the late 1980s. The present article reviews the birth of this new trend. It has been two decades in Japan since behavior analysis was first formally applied in the field of education for children with developmental disabilities. Ever since, many behavior analysts have developed a large number of instructional and evaluation methods applying learning theory. They have focused on clarifying behavior specific to children with developmental disabilities. In the late 1980s, some behavior analysts in the United States redirected their research target to social factors surrounding the behavior change of children with disabilities. It was their conviction that applied behavior analysis should be one of the methods for enriching the quality of life for persons with disabilities, one that could encourage the expansion of the philosophy of normalization. For example, it is all very well to interpret the problem of generalization and maintenance in terms of variables such as antecedent and cosequent stimuli, but it is also necessary to develop standard guidelines for educational validation of target behaviors, specific analysis of natural environments, the logic of instructional settings, and assessment procedures. This new trend in applied behavior analysis in the United States will undoubtedly be used not only as a research strategy but also as a practical philosophy for special education in Japan.

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