Separate and combined effects of behavior rehearsal and self-other modeling variations on the grooming skill acquisition of mentally retarded women

48 19-60 yr old mentally retarded women employed in a sheltered workshop were screened on a measure of grooming skills and then randomly assigned to 1 of 6 conditions in a 2 (presence or absence of behavior rehearsal) by 3 (other-modeling, self-modeling, no-model) design that included a high demand, verbal-instructions-only control condition. At posttest and follow-up, the 5 active treatment conditions were all significantly superior to the control condition but were not different from each other on the primary measure of grooming skill. An unobtrusive measure of presentability correlated moderately with the primary measure and demonstrated the same outcome pattern. Thus modeling and behavior rehearsal were both effective procedures, but no advantage accrued from combining them. Cost-effectiveness considerations favor the other-modeling procedure. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).