Acquisition of incidental information during instruction for a response-chain skill

We examined the acquisition of incidental information and observational lea rning of incidental information by adolescents with moderate intellectual d isabilities during school-directed systematic instruction Effectiveness of constant time-delay instruction for vocational-skill acquisition was evalua ted within a multiple-probe design across sir dyads. Dyadic instructional a rrangements allowed the assess ment of incidental information acquired thro ugh observation. The constant time-delay procedure was effective in teachin g the target vocational skill. In addition, participants acquired and retai ned approximately 50% of the incidental information to which they were expo sed during the consequent events of constant time-delay instruction either through direct verbal presentation or through observation of their peers' i nstruction. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.