Progressive Delay and Unlimited delay of Prompts in Forward Chaining and Whole Task Training Strategies

Abstract

Nineteen vocational rehabilitation clients were trained to assemble four different twelve-part apparatuses (electric drill, lawn mower engine, bicycle brake, and electric mixer). A forward chaining or whole task training sequence was used with a 1-second progressive prompt delay or an unlimited prompt delay. The four resulting training conditions were (a) whole taskunlimited delay, (b) whole task-progressive delay, (c) forward chaining—unlimited delay, and (d) forward chaining-progressive delay. Subjects were divided into two functional aptitude groups. Less training time but more prompts were required in whole task than in forward chaining conditions. The condition involving neither progressive addition of parts nor progressive delay of prompts (whole task-unlimited delay) yielded most errors. The condition involving both progressive addition of parts and progressive delay of prompts (forward chaining-progressive delay) yielded few errors, but not significantly fewer than forward chaining-unlimited delay and whole task-progressive delay conditions.