A Comparison of the Effects of Two Variations of SAFMEDS in an Undergraduate Behavior Analysis Course

Within higher education settings, instructors have successfully implemented a practice and assessment procedure called Say All Fast Minute Each Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS), to increase student understanding of fundamental facts and terminology. While an efficient way to teach skills, a variety of procedural variations and unclear procedural descriptions across SAFMEDS studies make it difficult to establish best practices in using the procedure. The present study assessed the effects of two different SAFMEDS procedures (cumulative deck practice and unit deck practice) on undergraduate student performance in an introductory behavior analysis course. Results suggest that both unit and cumulative deck practice resulted in significantly more correct responses at the end of the semester. Differences in responding did emerge through the semester, with unit decks producing immediate accuracy in responding compared to the cumulative deck. Additionally, students rated unit decks as more acceptable. These findings add to the current literature base on SAFMEDS, further extend our understandings of the procedure, and provide practical suggestions for instructors when adopting SAFMEDS within their classroom.