Negative reinforcement plus edibles and praise produced about 90 percent correct responding for four severely retarded/autistic children (six to eight years old), while edibles and praise alone were much less effective. Use of negative reinforcement with noncompliant or difficult- to-motivate behaviorally disordered children appeared to be an…

This study examined the effects of three reinforcement histories on the persistence of task engagement by two students (ages 9-10) who were off task during independent seat work. Results found the reinforcement history that contained an instructional control component produced the greatest persistence in student engagement. (Author/CR)

Teachers of 2 children (ages 7 and 13) with autism were trained to conduct a descriptive analysis and a classroom experimental analysis of aberrant behavior. Each procedure identified negative reinforcement as a maintaining variable for aberrant behavior. Intervention based on the assessment was successfully implemented with one child and had…

Overcorrection is a mild punishment technique that provides for logical consequences of inappropriate behaviors. The method has two components--restitution, during which a disruptive environment is reinstated to a state vastly superior to the original one, and positive practice, during which more appropriate responses are taught to replace the…

Paradoxical strategies appear to provide a change in the dynamics of the teacher-child relationship and are thus a more systemic way of viewing problem behavior than time-out procedures. Three case studies are presented in which the paradoxical strategies have varying degrees of success. (Author/ABB)

Effects on the academic and disruptive behavior of special education pupils after adding a cost contingency to a token reinforcement procedure were examined. Response rates were higher when response cost was added than during either the baseline or token reinforcement contingency. (Author/MV)

Research on clients' perceptions of the acceptability of psychological treatments has grown out of concern for social validity and has resulted in the development of a hypothetical model to explain how individuals might select treatments. This model involves four components: (1) acceptability of treatment; (2) use of treatment; (3) integrity of…