Presents a method for enhancing student understanding of negative reinforcement. Suggests a quiz be administered to determine students' degrees of misunderstanding. Introduces remedies for inadequate understanding. Urges the use of the consequence-grid matrix, delineating between negative reinforcement and punishment, and student analysis of their…

This article examines the concept of negative reinforcement in relation to the maintenance of off-task and disruptive behaviors in classrooms. Suggestions are given for determining whether negative reinforcement (in the form of escape from the instructional task) or teacher attention is maintaining the behavior. Suggestions for making tasks less…

Teachers of 2 children (ages 7 and 13) with autism were trained to conduct a descriptive analysis and a classroom experimental analysis of aberrant behavior. Each procedure identified negative reinforcement as a maintaining variable for aberrant behavior. Intervention based on the assessment was successfully implemented with one child and had…

This research review finds that academic activities and instructional interactions are potential sources of aversive stimuli that may increase undesirable escape and avoidance behavior in students with emotional disturbances. By reducing the availability of aversive stimuli in the instructional process, the development of more powerful and…

Compares effects of negative feedback statements and specific directives in music-performance instruction. Indicates that subjects' attitudes and performance achievements were unaffected by type of comment: all subjects expressed positive attitudes about the experience, and the time required to reach the learning goal was unaffected by type of…

Examines the lessons taught by physical punishment in education and childbearing. Discusses education and religious beliefs that have long supported corporal punishment. Details the lessons instilled by spanking, the historical myth that spanking was practiced by all ancestors, and some alternatives to spanking, such as hugs. (RJM)

This study applied functional behavioral analysis to the destructive behaviors of two young boys with multiple disabilities including behavior disorders. Results suggested that the subjects' destructive behaviors were sensitive to both escape and attention as reinforcers. Results support the importance of establishing operations in determining the…

Two studies involving five students (ages 9-17) with autism found that stereotypy was multiply determined or occurred across all assessment conditions (attention, demand, no-attention, and recreation conditions) and that the presumed association between response topography and behavioral function may be less important than previously realized.…

Analysis of the effects of a short break contingent on completed work with a 10-year-old boy with autism and profound mental retardation found the 20-second break increased responding more than a positive reinforcer did, and the reinforcing effects of a 20-second break were affected by the availability of positive reinforcers during the break. (DB)

Effects of extinction and negative reinforcement on latency of responses (including aggression and self-injurious behavior) following activity requests to an adolescent girl with mental retardation and autism were evaluated. Results showed that latencies occurred in a predictable order. The response class was expanded to include an appropriate…

Examines regional differences in college student experiences with corporal punishment as children. Students from a northeastern and a southern university were surveyed. Results indicated that students attending the northeastern university were less likely to have been spanked as children. Effect of region was more important for attitudes than…

A 3-year study investigated interactions of teachers and 99 students (grades 1-8) with high rates and/or severe disruptive behaviors and 278 controls. There were no differences in the relative occurrences of disruptive behaviors of the students, however, teachers were more likely to respond negatively to disruptive behaviors of target students.…

Recent biological theories of state anxiety have focused on temperament and neurophysiology as factors that predispose some people to be particularly at risk of debilitating levels of performance anxiety. The present study extends Gray's (1982; Gray & McNaughton, 2000) reinforcement sensitivity theory by proposing a linkage between sensitivity to…

This handbook describes the use of corporal punishment, attitudes towards it, and alternatives to it. Topics covered include: (1) a definition of corporal punishment; (2) descriptions and examples of different types; (3) a brief history of its use in schools and society; (4) arguments in favor of its use; (5) arguments for abolition; (6)…