Systematic review of acquisition mastery criteria and statistical analysis of associations with response maintenance and generalization

Abstract

AbstractFour recent experiments demonstrated roughly parametric effects of acquisition‐performance criteria, or mastery criteria, on response maintenance outcomes: higher criteria produce higher maintenance. In this systematic review, we analyzed the generality of these effects across 3 years of articles published in three prominent applied behavior analysis journals. We identified skill acquisition articles and extracted general characteristics, the acquisition criterion, and maintenance and generalization outcomes at the level of individual participants. Our review included descriptions of the existing skill acquisition literature as well as a statistical analysis (chi‐square) of the association between acquisition criteria and maintenance and generalization outcomes. Overall, the results corroborate experimental work showing that higher acquisition criteria are associated with higher response‐maintenance outcomes across varied populations, interventions, and teaching tactics. We extended the literature by detecting the same associations with generalization outcomes. Future directions and important implications of these findings are discussed.