To test reports that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings for three autistic males (7 to 11 years old). (Author)

A variable interval schedule of reinforcement was used with five behavior disordered boys (7-13 years old) to improve attending and study behavior of the children during the communicative skills period. (SBH)

Contingency contracting has been demonstrated to be an effective procedure for achieving weight loss. A problem with this type of contract is that the S may have to permanently forfeit an item for a failure to lose weight when in fact his/her eating behavior has been appropriate. The following procedure was developed to overcome this problem. A…

This study, by comparing for learning disabled and control children parental frequency rating of physical punishment and of completion of tasks, hypothesized that parental indulgence is associated with learning disorders. Referral children with learning problems (N=18), were rated significantly lower on both measures that students referred for…

The effects of different schedules of noncontingent reward on subsequent learning in children were investigated. In the first phase of the experiment subjects performed a block-design matching task and received one of three schedules of noncontingent reward, i.e., continuous reward (Group CRF), random reward on 50% of the trials (Group 50R), or no…

To determine whether the addition of milieu principles to a contingency program increases its effectiveness, the investigators compared two treatment programs in a mental hospital: (a) a social learning or token economy approach and (b) a combined social learning and milieu approach. (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…

In this study, the task was to analyze the separate effects of contingent reinforcement (money) and monitoring (counting) on the frequency of responses indicative of anxiety. Observed (physiological) and introspective (covert statements about experiencing anxiety) were used to determine the effects of reinforcement and monitoring on anxiety prone…

Teaching procedures involving differential reinforcement, modeling, and physical priming were used to train a severely retarded woman (30-years-old) to assemble a saw chain. (IM)