Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require instructional programs that simultaneously address academic content, interfering behavior, and potential gaps in prerequisite skills for a given curriculum. This study examined the impact of an intervention package consisting of contingent reinforcement and match-to-sample training on the…

Sleep problems are a common occurrence among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition to the adverse effects that sleep problems present for children's neurodevelopment, learning, and daytime behaviors, these sleep problems also present significant challenges for the entire family. This article outlines the results of a…

This study assessed the effects of a contingency management (CM) intervention for alcohol consumption in 10 alcohol-dependent participants. An ABCA design was used. Vouchers were provided contingent on results of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) urine tests (an alcohol biomarker with a 2-day detection period) and alcohol breath tests during the C phase.…

Preschool environments can be critical to academic success and risk reduction but disruptive behaviors can have significant and lasting negative effects on students as well as teachers. These behaviors may be pervasive in some classrooms and effective interventions are needed. A combined delayed multiple baseline and withdrawal design across a…

A cognitive-behaviorally based substance abuse treatment program was implemented within a community supervision setting. This program included a goals group that used a contingency management component and included the probation agent as a part of the treatment. In this article, the authors describe the contingency management component of the…

Play is widely acknowledged to be an integral part of human development and children with autism often experience substantial delays in the development of play behaviors. This review updates older reviews by covering the last 10 years of research targeting functional and symbolic play in children with autism. The review differs from other reviews…

The present study investigated the effects of contingency-specifying rules and a token economy to decrease the latency to comply with academic instructions by a 16-year-old girl with acquired brain injury. Results showed that treatment was successful in reducing academic response latencies. These results replicate previous research in which…

This article reviews evidence from basic and translational research with pigeons and humans suggesting that the persistence of operant behavior depends on the contingency between stimuli and reinforcers, and considers some implications for clinical interventions. (Contains 4 figures.)

The value of a reinforcer may change based on antecedent events, specifically the behavior of others (Bruzek & Thompson, 2007). In the current study, we examined the effects of manipulating the behavior of the therapist on problem behavior while all dimensions of reinforcement were held constant. Both participants' levels of problem behaviors…

The current study evaluated the effects of tokens delivered on differential reinforcement of zero-rate behavior (DRO) schedules or noncontingently on tic suppression in 4 children with tics. Tic frequency was lower in 3 of 4 children when tokens were delivered contingent on the absence of tics than when tokens were delivered noncontingently.…

This study evaluated the efficacy of a contingency management (CM) intervention to promote smoking cessation in methadone-maintained patients. Twenty participants, randomized into contingent (n = 10) or noncontingent (n = 10) experimental conditions, completed the 14-day study. Abstinence was determined using breath carbon monoxide and urine…

Two experiments with rats examined the dynamics of well-learned response sequences when reinforcement contingencies were changed. Both experiments contained four phases, each of which reinforced a 2-response sequence of lever presses until responding was stable. The contingencies then were shifted to a new reinforced sequence until responding was…

The purpose of the present experiment was to determine whether repeated cocaine exposure differentially affects sucrose-reinforced operant responding in rats raised in an enriched condition (EC) or an isolated condition (IC). Specifically, the performance of EC and IC rats pressing a lever for sucrose under a high fixed-ratio schedule (FR 30)…

We compared two strategies of prize-based contingency management (CM) in methadone-maintained outpatients. Urine was tested thrice weekly for 5 weeks pre-CM, 12 weeks CM, and 8 weeks post-CM. Participants were randomly assigned to a cocaine contingency (four prize draws for each cocaine-negative urine, N = 29) or an opiate-cocaine contingency (one…

Contingency management (CM) interventions frequently utilize vouchers as reinforcers, but a prize-based system is also efficacious. This study compared these approaches. Seventy-four cocaine-dependent methadone outpatients were randomly assigned to standard treatment (ST), ST plus a maximum of $585 in contingent vouchers, or ST plus an expected…