Comparison of Constant Time Delay and the System of Least Prompts in Teaching Chained Tasks

Abstract

This investigation compared the effectiveness and efficiency (sessions to criterion, percent of errors to criterion, and minutes of instructional time) of constant time delay and system of least prompts procedures in teaching chained tasks to students with moderate mental retardation. A different chained task was taught during each of two daily sessions, one task with constant time delay and the other with the system of least prompts. All four subjects learned 6 tasks; 3 with constant time delay and 3 with the system of least prompts. The parallel treatments design was used to assess the effects of the two instructional strategies. The results indicate that both strategies produced criterion level performance; however, the constant time delay proce-dure was more efficient than the system of least prompts in terms of sessions, percent of errors, and direct instructional time to criterion. The differences were most pronounced on the measures of percent of errors and minutes of instructional time. The implications of these findings for practice are noted.