Stimulus fading
Gradually reducing an exaggerated or added feature of a stimulus, such as size, color or intensity, until the learner responds correctly to the natural stimulus alone.
Stimulus fading is used to remove stimulus prompts. At first, a feature of the correct stimulus is highlighted so that the right choice is easy: it is larger, darker, colored, or placed closer. Over many trials the highlighted feature is reduced in small steps until the stimulus looks like the normal target and the learner still responds correctly.
Examples include tracing letters whose dots get lighter over sessions until the learner writes on a blank line, a red outline around the correct answer that becomes thinner and paler, or a correct card that starts much closer to the learner and moves back into line with the others. The aim is to transfer stimulus control from the added feature to the relevant feature of the stimulus.
Stimulus fading is an errorless method when the steps are small enough. If the steps are too large, errors increase and the plan may call for going back a step. If the learner attends only to the highlighted feature, the response may fall apart when it disappears, which is why the supervisor plans the steps carefully.
The RBT prepares the materials for the current fading step exactly as the plan states and records the step used each session.
Example and non-example
| Example | The word "EXIT" is first shown in large, bold red letters next to other words in small black letters. Over sessions, the letters become smaller and black until all the words look the same, and the client still picks "EXIT". |
|---|---|
| Non-example | A picture of a cat gradually changes shape, step by step, into the printed word "cat." Changing the form of the stimulus is stimulus shaping. |
Don't confuse it with
| Stimulus shaping | Stimulus shaping gradually changes the form of the stimulus itself; stimulus fading gradually reduces an added or exaggerated feature. |
|---|---|
| Prompt fading | Prompt fading is the general term for removing any prompt; stimulus fading refers specifically to fading stimulus prompts. |
Test yourself
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Question 1In a sight-word program, the plan prints the correct word card in bold red letters while the other cards are in plain black. What is the red printing?
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D: A stimulus prompt. Changing a feature of the correct stimulus, such as its color, size or position, is a stimulus prompt. The plan will usually fade the red gradually so that the word itself controls the response.
- A: A response prompt is help aimed at the learner's response, such as a verbal or gestural prompt; here the materials are changed.
- B: The printed word is the SD the program is teaching; the red color is added help that is meant to be faded.
- C: A partial physical prompt involves touching the learner; nothing touches the learner here.
Task C.7 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 2To teach letter writing, a plan has the client trace dark dotted letters. Over sessions the dots are made lighter and lighter until the client writes the letter on a blank line. Which procedure is this?
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A: Stimulus fading. Stimulus fading gradually reduces an added feature of the materials, such as the darkness of tracing dots, until the learner responds without it.
- B: Graduated guidance is physical help adjusted during the response; here the printed support changes.
- C: Least-to-most prompting adds help within a trial only when needed; here help is reduced across sessions.
- D: Shaping reinforces closer and closer versions of the response itself; here a feature of the materials is gradually removed.
Task C.7 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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Question 3What is the key difference between shaping and stimulus fading?
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D: Shaping changes the response; stimulus fading changes the antecedent stimulus. In shaping, the requirement for the response changes step by step. In stimulus fading, the response stays the same while an added feature of the antecedent stimulus is gradually removed.
- A: This option reverses the two procedures.
- B: Shaping uses reinforcement of the current approximation along with extinction of earlier ones.
- C: Shaping is mainly used to build behavior, not only to reduce it.
Task C.10 · 40-hour curriculum section E
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On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task C.7 Prompting and prompt fading in content area C, Behavior Acquisition, which is 19 of the 75 scored questions.