Acting, Charting, and Fluency: Using a Modified SAFMEDS Procedure to Increase Recall in a Stage Actor and Non-Actor
Swap silent reading for hear-say SAFMEDS when you need quick, durable script recall.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fragale et al. (2025) tested a faster way to memorize scripts.
They used SAFMEDS cards with two twists: see-say (read and speak) and hear-say (listen and speak).
One adult actor and one adult non-actor tried both ways in an alternating-treatments design.
What they found
Hear-say won.
Both adults learned their lines quicker and still said them correctly when the cards were gone.
The lines also stuck when they moved to a new room, showing real-world carry-over.
How this fits with other research
Kupzyk et al. (2011) also compared two flash-card styles.
They pitted standard incremental rehearsal against Strategic Incremental Rehearsal for sight words.
Both studies used quick swaps to find the better channel, but Fragale shifted from reading to listening while Sara added extra practice to unknown words.
Lewis et al. (2025) and Coleman et al. (2025) show the same SIR family keeps evolving.
Lewis swapped flashcards for a single word list to save prep time.
Coleman let older students teach the cards to younger ones.
Together they form a chain: same core idea, newer, easier delivery each time.
Why it matters
If you coach actors, presenters, or staff who must speak on cue, add a hear-say round.
Play the script audio, have them echo, and chart corrects per minute.
You will likely see faster mastery and fewer prompts than with silent reading.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Actors need to memorize lines of text to audition for roles with a limited amount of time; therefore, an evidenced-based system may help ensure adequate preparation for auditions. Precision Teaching is a subspecialty within behavior analysis focused on precise definitions and continuous measurement of dimensional features of behavior and analyzes behavioral data to accelerate behavioral repertoires by promoting fluency. One way to promote fluency is through Say All Fast Minute Each Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS), a procedure that has been shown to increase recall through practice and assessment and is a systematic tool for learning that is an improvement over standard flashcard methods. The current study compares the effects of see-say and hear-say learning channel sets on the recall of long theatrical texts for one actor and one non-actor using an adapted alternating treatments design. Results demonstrate that the hear-say learning channel set was most effective for both participants. Additionally, these skills generalized during MESAA tests for both monologues and participants in the absence of the SAFMEDS cards and in novel environments. Participants reported high satisfaction with both treatments, indicating high utility in developing fluency.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s40617-024-01038-5