Group contingencies are effective classroom-based interventions that can be used to increase the academic engagement of students with disabilities. This article defines and outlines examples of dependent, independent, and interdependent group contingencies. In addition, tips for success, including making reinforcement accessible to students,…

This paper addresses some of the practical ways by which students can be given information about the adequacy of their responding. The author views this information as all that is frequently necessary to alter an inappropriate behavior. Thus, he considers feedback to be the first step in most behavior management programs. Studies to determine how…

In Study one, the effect on stuttering frequency of contingent monetary gain and contingent monetary loss resulted in decreased stuttering. In Study two, monetary gain and loss was made contingent on units of fluent speech. Fluency increased for the group during monetary gain, but monetary loss did not decrease fluency. (Author)

This study compared systematic desensitization and two pseudotherapy manipulations with and without false galvanic skin response feedback after every session suggesting improvement in the modification of intense snake and spider fear. The results indicated no consistent differences between the three treatment groups. (Author)

Underweight subjects were assigned to either a self-reinforcement condition, a self-punishment condition, or to a discussion/reflection control condition. The subjects received one treatment session per week over a five-week period. After treatment, the self-reinforcement groups gained significantly more pounds (kilograms) than either of the other…

Eight disruptive children attended an after school reading tutorial program one hour a day for 72 days. After baseline, the children evaluated their academic and social behavior. A token program was instituted in which points and backup reinforcers were made contingent upon accurate self-ratings. This program was then gradually modified. (Author)

The author discusses in detail the case of a fifth grade student with behavior problems. Transactional analysis, group counseling, and counseling of parents as well as teachers were successful in effectively dealing with the problems at hand. (SE)

Two contingency systems, individual and group, were evaluated for their effects on children's behavior during small group meetings. A group of 48 children, ages 8-14, attended a seven-week residential camp program operated on a token economy system. Ratings of the campers' behavior were made by the counselors on a five-point rating scale at the…

Many of the clinically disabling behaviors of elderly persons may be viewed as operants. Research bearing on the efficacy of operant techniques for programming individualized, group based, and ward-wide therapeutic intervention is reviewed. Suggests the operant view is useful for conceptualizing and treating many problem behaviors of elderly…

This report outlines the limitations and weaknesses of singlecase, time-series research designs, of which the ABAB design is one of the widely used. An alternative design, the simultaneous treatment design, proposed by Browning and Stover (1971), has several advantages over the ABAB design. The design enables an experimenter to simultaneously…

While few would disagree that token economies are effective in bringing certain positive and negative target behaviors under contingent control, the recent past has witnessed increased concern over choice of targets as well as back-ups, voluntary versus involuntary client participation, as well as the effectiveness of such programs in meeting…

This paper provides students with a brief outline of behavioral principles and behavior change techniques, and describes various means of behavior change including operant conditioning. Methods discussed include reinforcement, extinction, punishment, response cost, time-out, overcorrection, training, and data collection for taking a baseline.…

Twenty-four studies are reviewed for home-based reinforcement of school behavior as a method for motivating behavioral change. It is noted that the technique has been used successfully with children in group homes and in special classes, and with entire mainstreamed and special classrooms. (MH)