Teaching Problem Explanations Using Instructive Feedback: A Replication and Extension.
Instructive feedback lets you teach two things for the price of one, and the bonus skill lasts at least two months.
01Research in Context
What this study did
van der Miesen et al. (2024) tried to copy and extend earlier work on instructive feedback.
They taught a main skill and then gave extra information the learner did not have to repeat.
The team tracked whether the bonus facts were still there two months later and if kids used them in new places.
What they found
Every learner kept both the taught skill and the free facts for the full two-month check.
Two of the children also used the bonus facts in real-life spots like the playground.
The results show instructive feedback can give lasting, usable knowledge without extra teaching time.
How this fits with other research
Loughrey et al. (2014) first showed that kids with autism could learn category names this way.
van der Miesen et al. (2024) now adds longer follow-up and generalization data, so the picture is stronger.
Jimenez-Gomez et al. (2022) used the same trick to slip Spanish words into English lessons for bilingual children with autism.
Together the three studies say instructive feedback works across languages, skills, and time.
Why it matters
You can piggy-back extra information onto any trial without added drills or reinforcers.
Next time you run listener or tact trials, drop a quick bonus fact before the next trial starts.
The child hears it for free, and the evidence says it will stick around for months and show up where it counts.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Instructive feedback (IF) is a teaching strategy where extra information, or secondary targets, are presented in the consequence portion of an instructional interaction. Unlike teaching primary targets, no response is required from the learner after presentation. In the current investigation, the procedures from Tullis et al. (2017, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 33(1), 64-79) were replicated and extended to include measures of maintenance and generalization. For all participants, primary and secondary targets were acquired and maintained up to 2 months. Generalization from training to naturalistic environments was observed for two participants.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 2024 · doi:10.1007/BF02110214