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Errorless Learning

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Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology
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Synonyms

Delayed prompting; Response prevention; Stimulus fading

Definition

Errorless learning refers to a type of training that reduces the learner’s opportunity to make errors during the learning process. The aim of this approach is to prevent the learner from reinforcing errant behavior, which may occur with repeated mistakes. One of the earliest researched errorless learning techniques, stimulus fading, is best highlighted in animal research by Terrace (1963), the first research that demonstrated the benefits of errorless learning. Terrace demonstrated that pigeons were better able to discriminate between green and red lights using stimulus fading. First, Terrace introduced a red light, the correct response. Once the pigeons responded consistently to the red light, a green light (the incorrect response) was introduced gradually to the experiment. The green light was at first briefly presented at a dim intensity, but eventually reached the same intensity and duration as the red...

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References and Readings

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Correspondence to Adam B. Warshowsky .

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Warshowsky, A.B. (2018). Errorless Learning. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1090

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