Little is known about the characteristics of meals that serve as motivating operations (MOs) for escape behavior. In the current investigation, we showed that the distance at which a therapist held a spoon from a child's lips served as an MO for escape behavior. Based on these results, we implemented spoon distance fading, compared fading with and…

An experiment with adult humans investigated the effects of response-contingent money loss (response-cost punishment) on monetary-reinforced responding. A yoked-control procedure was used to separate the effects on responding of the response-cost contingency from the effects of reduced reinforcement density. Eight adults pressed buttons for money…

Four pigeons were trained on two-key concurrent variable-interval schedules with no changeover delay. In Phase 1, relative reinforcers on the two alternatives were varied over five conditions from 0.1 to 0.9. In Phases 2 and 3, we instituted a molar feedback function between relative choice in an interreinforcer interval and the probability of…

Repetitive and invariant behavior is a diagnostic feature of autism. We implemented a lag reinforcement schedule to increase response diversity for 6 participants with autism aged 6 to 10 years, 4 of whom also received prompting plus additional training. These procedures appeared to increase the variety of building-block structures, demonstrating…

The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of an interdependent group contingency program on increasing homework completion and accuracy rates in fourth grade students in an elementary school. In addition, the present study attempted to determine whether randomized reinforcement was more effective than constant reinforcement. Overall, the…

Objective: Behavioral economic theory suggests that a reduction in substance use is most likely when there is an increase in rewarding substance-free activities. The goal of this randomized controlled clinical trial was to evaluate the incremental efficacy of a novel behavioral economic supplement (Substance-Free Activity Session [SFAS]) to a…

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…

Training context can influence resistance to disruption under differing reinforcement schedules. With nonhumans, when relatively lean and rich reinforcement schedules are experienced in the context of a multiple schedule, greater resistance is found in the rich than the lean component, as described by behavioral momentum theory. By contrast, when…

This study sought to evaluate the effect of participation in the Student-Guided Supports (SGS) curriculum on student behavior. The SGS curriculum was designed to teach students a set of simple behaviors to prompt and reinforce supportive teacher behavior. Student use of the SGS behaviors was hypothesized to initiate a constructive cycle of…

The present study examined problem characteristics of students with emotional disturbance in 3 educational environments, the behavior management and intervention strategies their teachers used, and what relation exists between problem characteristics and intervention strategies. Teachers completed a behavior problems rating scale and they…

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of explicit and general delay cues when implementing a tolerance for a delay in the delivery of a reinforcement procedure to increase task engagement and decrease escape maintained challenging behavior. Two preschool children with autism participated in an alternating treatments design with changing…

Although the use of differential reinforcement has been recommended in previous investigations and in early intervention curriculum manuals, few studies have evaluated the best method for providing differential reinforcement to maximize independent responding. This paper reviews previous research on the effectiveness of differential reinforcement…

We conducted a systematic analysis of studies that involved the treatment of rumination and operant vomiting in individuals with developmental disabilities. A total of 21 studies involving a combined 32 participants were identified and analyzed in terms of (a) participant characteristics, (b) dependent variables, (c) intervention procedures, (d)…

Two functional assessments (interview and direct observation) were used with three children with autism to identify the functions maintaining mealtime behaviour including acceptance, mouth clean, refusal, and other disruptive behaviours such as crying and pushing the spoon. Based on results of the functional assessments it was hypothesized that…

We evaluated antecedent exercise for treating the automatically reinforced problem behavior of 4 individuals with autism. We conducted preference assessments to identify leisure and exercise items that were associated with high levels of engagement and low levels of problem behavior. Next, we conducted three 3-component multiple-schedule…