This study examined the effects of presession attention on the acquisition of tacts (Experiment 1) and intraverbals (Experiment 2) in children diagnosed with autism. Each participant experienced 3 conditions. In the first 2 conditions, participants experienced a 15-min interval of either presession attention (PA) or no presession attention (NPA)…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have qualitative impairments in social interaction and often prefer food or tangible reinforcement to social reinforcement. Thus, therapists who work with children with ASD often use food or tangible items as reinforcers to increase appropriate behaviors or decrease problem behaviors. The goal of the…

Studies that have compared the effectiveness of differing prompt types to teach intraverbal responses have yielded mixed results, suggesting that individuals' reinforcement histories with prompt types may influence which prompt will be most effective. The purpose of this study was to test whether programmed increases in exposure to specific prompt…

We conducted a modified paired-choice preference assessment and used a multielement design to examine the effects of noncontingent access to high- and low-preference music on vocal stereotypy exhibited by children with autism. For 3 of the 4 participants, high-preference music (a) produced lower levels of vocal stereotypy than low-preference music…

This study examined how the amount of effort required to produce a reinforcer influenced subsequent preference for, and strength of, that reinforcer in 7 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Preference assessments identified four moderately preferred stimuli for each participant, and progressive-ratio (PR) analyses indexed reinforcer…

Top-ranked items were identified during 30-min free-operant preference assessments for 9 individuals. Data from each session were analyzed to identify the item (a) that was engaged with first in each session and (b) to which the most responding was allocated after 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, and 25 min had elapsed in each session. The results…

Although experimental analysis methodologies have been useful for identifying the function of a wide variety of target behaviors (e.g., Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994), only recently have such procedures been applied to verbal operants (Lerman et al., 2005). In the current study, we conducted a systematic replication of the…

The generality and long-term maintenance of a pairing procedure designed to improve the efficacy of less intrusive procedures were evaluated for the treatment of problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement exhibited by 2 individuals with developmental disabilities. Results suggested that a less intrusive procedure could be established…

Belke and Spetch's (1994) work with pigeons on choice between reliable and unreliable reinforcement is discussed. Hypothetical applied examples address variables that influence preference for unreliable reinforcement, including signaling and its context, conditioned reinforcement, and duration of reinforcement schedules. Implications regarding…

Observations of three parent-child dyads seeking help for severe interactional problems provided tentative support for the predictability hypothesis, which suggests that social interactions are most likely to function as aversive stimuli when delivered in unpredictable fashion by either party and that responses instrumental in reducing…

Three experiments involving four children (ages 3-7) with mental retardation found participants preferred unreliable reinforcements under certain conditions. Findings are discussed regarding the role of specific stimuli as conditioned reinforcers and how they influence preference for a response that produces reinforcement on a leaner schedule than…

The performance of five students (ages 6 to 10) in an adjustment class for deaf children was compared under fixed and variable ratio schedules of reinforcement. During the VR condition, students visually attended more and engaged in disruptive behavior less often than during the FR condition. (Author)