Operations training in vocational skills.

Whether operations training reduces time and errors in the acquisition of specific vocational tasks was investigated. An operation is a particular response class that occurs in the presence of a consistent stimulus. Subjects were mentally retarded vocational-rehabilitation clients in a sheltered workshop. Each subject was trained in either mechanical operations (ABC) or wood operations (DEF) and subsequently trained in two tasks involving ABC and two tasks involving DEF operations. Significant time and error savings occurred in task training when subjects had previously been trained on the generic operations involved in those tasks. Results suggest that component operations to facilitate lateral and vertical transfer to a variety of more specific job skills should be taught in vocational-training programs.