An Experimental Analysis of Generalization of Banking Skills from Classroom to Bank Settings in the Community

Abstract

The extent to which simulated training approaches are appropriate for teaching functional skills to mentally retarded learners is unclear at the present time. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a banking curriculum, taught to secondary students with mild mental retardation in a classroom setting, in producing generalized performance at a real bank in the community. A single-subject multiple baseline design with probes was used to demonstrate the functional effect of the training program. Four subjects were trained individually in a simulated bank setting at their school. Performance of savings account operations was measured in the classroom, at the bank for which the curriculum was designed, and at another bank in the community for which subjects were not trained. Results of the study show that all subjects learned the skills. After training, performance of all subjects improved markedly over baseline levels, indicating that these students were able to generalize newly trained skills to real community settings. All subjects required some additional in-vivo training at the target bank to achieve perfect performance. Weekly maintenance probes suggested that subjects retained skills when training contingencies were no longer in effect.