| Abstract: | Traditional audiological techniques have relied upon the subject making a distinct response if he/she can hear a certain sound, usually a pure tone. However, such approaches require that the instructions to make this response at a specific time be imparted to the subject before his/her hearing can be assessed. This is clearly not possible if there is a basic communication problem as with many young deaf children or with severely retarded persons. To overcome this, techniques using the principles of operant conditioning have been used with notable success. Fulton and Lloyd (1969) reported having assessed successfully the hearing of over a dozen severely retarded children, although a few cases required a more complex procedure than the simple positive reinforcement discrimination method described here. |
