The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a well-documented group contingency designed to reduce disruptive behavior in classroom settings. However, few studies have evaluated the GBG with students who engage in severe problem behavior in alternative schools, and there are few demonstrations of training teachers in those settings to implement the GBG. In…

Arranging periods in which requests for reinforcement are denied in a multiple schedule may result in increased destructive behavior during these periods for individuals who receive functional communication training (FCT) as treatment for severe destructive behavior. Providing access to competing activities during periods of reinforcer…

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…

Treatment integrity has cogent implications for intervention effectiveness. Understanding these implications is an important, but often neglected, undertaking in behavior analysis. This paper reviews current research on treatment integrity in applied behavior analysis. Specifically, we review research evaluating the relation between integrity…

A functional analysis identified the reinforcer maintaining feces throwing and spitting exhibited by a captive adult chimpanzee ("Pan troglodytes"). The implementation of a function-based treatment combining extinction with differential reinforcement of an alternate behavior decreased levels of inappropriate behavior. These findings further…

This study examined the effectiveness of using qualitatively different reinforcers to teach self-control to an adolescent boy who had been diagnosed with an intellectual disability. First, he was instructed to engage in an activity without programmed reinforcement. Next, he was instructed to engage in the activity under a two-choice fixed-duration…

We compared the effects of escape extinction (EE) plus noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) with sensory integration therapy as treatment for the feeding problems of 2 children. Results indicated that EE plus NCR was more effective in increasing acceptance, decreasing inappropriate behavior, and increasing amount consumed relative to sensory…

One child with developmental disabilities was taught to mand for attention by saying "excuse me." Treatment effects were extended to multiple training contexts by teaching the participant to attend to naturally occurring discriminative stimuli through differential reinforcement of communication during periods of the experimenter's nonbusy…

The present study evaluated a new 30-day Web-based contingency management program for smoking abstinence with 4 daily-smoking adolescents. Participants made 3 daily video recordings of themselves giving breath carbon monoxide (CO) samples at home that were sent electronically to study personnel. Using a reversal design, participants could earn…

Eight children (ages 6-10) were given a simplified treatment program for stuttering which included awareness training, training a response incompatible with stuttering, and social support. The home treatment program was effective in reducing stuttering to less than 3% for all subjects. Maintenance of effects was seen at 10-13 months posttreatment.…

A study compared two methods for programming and thinning noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) schedules during the treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) of three adults with mental retardation. Results found that both schedules were effective in initially reducing SIB and in maintaining response suppression as the schedules were thinned.…

A study used direct and indirect methods to assess and treat several topographies of the aggression of a 7-year-old boy with severe mental retardation and pervasive personality disorder. Functional communication training with extinction reduced all forms of aggression except chin grinding, which was reduced by an alternative treatment. (Author/CR)

The efficacy of noncontingent reinforcement with variable-time (VT) schedules was evaluated by comparing the effects of VT and fixed-time (FT) reinforcement schedules with two individuals with moderate to severe mental retardation and severe behavior problems. Both VT and FT schedules were effective in reducing problem behavior. (Contains…

The study reduced the disruptive behaviors of students in 2 elementary physical education classes, including an alternative education class containing 14 fourth and fifth grade boys with severe behavior problems. A modified time-out procedure was used to reduce frequency of disruptive behaviors by 95 percent. (Author/DB)

Two children with mental retardation were trained to emit different communication responses to request the reinforcer for destructive behavior and an alternative reinforcer. Differential reinforcement of communication reduced destructive behavior regardless of whether a functional reinforcer or an alternative reinforcer was available or whether…