Behavioral self-management of on-task behavior in a sheltered workshop setting

The present study involved the use of a self-management model of behavior training to increase the productivity of adult mentally retarded subjects in a sheltered workshop setting. Five subjects were randomly selected for the experimental group and five subjects were likewise selected for the control group. Experimental subjects designed their own self-management programs for increased productivity and received training in self-monitoring, self-recording, and related procedures. On-task behavior performance was the specific target behavior which was considered. It was assumed that an increase in this variable would yield a corresponding increase in overall productivity.

A systematic time-sampling technique was used by observers to estimate the individual rates of on-task performance of the subjects. Concurrently, subjects individually self-recorded their own rates of on-task behavior according to a different type of time-sampling technique which involved the use of audible cues presented at variable intervals. The results of the two types of data collection techniques appeared to correlate highly.

Results of the study were presented utilizing tables and graphs, as well as discussions of the measures of central tendency and variability among the control and the experimental groups. The findings of the study supported the use of self-management techniques in the vocational habilitation of individuals who are assumed to be mentally retarded.

More specifically, the study concluded (1) that individual rates of on-task performance as well as consistency of performance could be influenced through the use of self-management procedures, (2) that the mentally retarded subjects of this study worked at a more consistent pace when their work assignments appeared to be more stimulating and less routine, and (3) that the subjects were finding the self-management procedures inordinately stress producing. The latter observation led to additional investigation and the subsequent supposition that our current system of services for the retarded may not foster the degree of responsibility acceptance for self-management of which these individuals appear capable. More research is needed on this point.