The Japanese Journal of Special Education

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Previous research suggests that individuals with autistic disorder may fail at tasks that require relational concepts such as comparative and spatial relations. This study examined the assessment and establishment of same/different judgments, considered to be the first step in relational concepts, in two boys with autistic disorder. Component analyses of same/different judgments were carried out by expansion of the Stimulus Equivalence paradigm. Through these analyses, 4 tasks requiring same/different judgments were identified. The boys were trained in 1 of 4 tasks. In the training, they were instructed to match the printed words "same" or "different" to 2 pictures that they had constructed. The target response in "same" trials was maintained by positive reinforcement, whereas the target response in "different" trials was maintained by negative reinforcement. After training with 1 stimulus set, 1 student could generalize the same/different judgments across 5 other stimulus sets and 3 other tasks. The other student could, after training with 3 stimulus sets, generalize the judgments across 3 other stimulus sets and 3 other tasks. These results are discussed in terms of expanding the Stimulus Equivalence paradigm for analyzing and assisting relational concepts.

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The present study analyzed the relation of offering information about a child with mental retardation who is about to be integrated into a regular educational institution, and the other children's attitudes toward that child. The effect of prior instruction about educational integration was examined. Participants in the study were 35 sixth graders in an elementary school. The dependent variables were scores on a measure of favorable image of the abilities and personality of the child with mental retardation, and scores on a measure of accepting behavior. The relation of attitude to the other children's contacts with the child with mental retardation was also analyzed. The main findings were as follows: (1) Offering information about a child with a disability who is going to be integrated had a good influence on the formation of the other children's attitudes toward the child with a disability. (2) After the other children had been offered information about the child with mental retardation, the favorable image measure showed a lower score after the children had contacted the child with a disability compared to the scores before such contact.

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