Positive reinforcement as treatment for problem behavior maintained by negative reinforcement

Bridging the gap between laboratory and applied research on response-independent schedules

In 1948, Skinner described the behavior of pigeons under response-independent schedules as "superstitious," and proposed that the responses were reinforced by contiguous, adventitious food deliveries. Subsequently, response-independent schedules have been of interest to both basic and applied researchers, first to understand the mechanisms involved, and later, as "noncontingent reinforcement" (NCR) to reduce undesirable behavior. However, the potential superstitious effects produced by these schedules have been challenged, with some researchers arguing that antecedent variables play a significant role. This paper examines the evidence for adventitious reinforcement from both laboratory and applied research, the results of which suggest that antecedent, nonoperant functions may be important in fully understanding the effects of NCR. We propose an applied-basic research synthesis, in which attention to potential nonoperant functions could provide a more complete understanding of response-independent schedules. We conclude with a summary of the applied implications of the nonoperant functions of NCR schedules.

Using synchronous reinforcement to increase mask wearing in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities

In 2020 the Centers for Disease Control provided the public with recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19 by wearing a mask in the community. In the current study, experimenters coached group home staff via telehealth to implement synchronous schedules of reinforcement to increase mask wearing for 5 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Results showed the intervention effectively increased mask wearing for all participants for up to 30 min. Additionally, some participants for whom we assessed generalization of mask wearing demonstrated generalization to various community environments. Furthermore, procedural integrity data suggested staff could be coached via telehealth to implement the intervention, and staff surveys suggested the procedures and coaching were socially valid.

Parents Are People Too: Implementing Empirically Based Strategies During Daily Interactions

The outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in decision-making related to in-person versus remote behavior-analytic service delivery. For those service providers who shifted from delivering in-person therapy to remote consultation, parents have presumably, at least at times, assumed a role similar to a registered behavior technician (RBT). We suggest that behavior analysts recommend two empirically based strategies to parents that they could incorporate into their daily lives during service disruptions: environmental enrichment and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. We provide examples of naturally occurring contexts during which parents could integrate these procedures: (1) self-care or daily living activities, (2) physical activity, and (3) preferred learning activities. We support selecting these strategies and their application during exemplar contexts under the premise that they do not result in additional time expenditure, afford parents opportunities to complete essential (household, work-related, or personal) tasks, and still result in therapeutic gains.

Applied Quantitative Analysis of Behavior: What It Is, and Why We Care-Introduction to the Special Section

Science evolves from prior approximations of its current form. Interest in changes in species over time was not a new concept when Darwin made his famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands; concern with speciation stretches back throughout the history of modern thought. Behavioral science also does and must evolve. Such change can be difficult, but it can also yield great dividends. The focus of the current special section is on a common mutation that appears to have emerged across these areas and the critical features that define an emerging research area-applied quantitative analysis of behavior (AQAB). In this introduction to the "Special Issue on Applications of Quantitative Methods," we will outline some of the common characteristics of research in this area, an exercise that will surely be outdated as the research area continues to progress. In doing so, we also describe how AQAB is relevant to theory, behavioral pharmacology, applied behavior analysis, and health behaviors. Finally, we provide a summary for the articles that appear in this special issue. The authors of these papers are all thinking outside the Skinner box, creating new tools and approaches, and testing them against relevant data. If we can keep up this evolution of methods and ideas, behavior analysis will regain its place at the head of the table!

Noncontingent reinforcement: Arbitrary versus maintaining reinforcers for escape-maintained problem behavior

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) involves the delivery of maintaining reinforcers on a time-dependent schedule and often includes extinction. However, arbitrary reinforcers may be equally efficacious during NCR without extinction for treating escape-maintained problem behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous research on NCR by evaluating the relative efficacy of NCR without extinction and comparing maintaining versus arbitrary reinforcers for 4 individuals with escape-maintained problem behavior. Two different NCR conditions, NCR using the maintaining reinforcer (escape) and NCR using an arbitrary reinforcer (an edible), were evaluated using multielement and reversal designs. Treatment effects varied across participants. Results for 2 participants showed a reduction in problem behavior during NCR without extinction with both the arbitrary and maintaining reinforcers. For 1 participant, results showed a reduction in problem behavior with both the arbitrary and maintaining reinforcers only when extinction was added to NCR. For the 4th participant, the maintaining reinforcer was effective during NCR without extinction, but the arbitrary reinforcer was ineffective.

Resurgence following differential reinforcement of alternative behavior implemented with and without extinction

In the clinic, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) often involves programming extinction for destructive behavior while reinforcing an alternative form of communication (e.g., a functional communication response); however, implementing extinction can be unsafe or impractical under some circumstances. Quantitative theories of resurgence (i.e., Behavioral Momentum Theory and Resurgence as Choice) predict differences in the efficacy of treatments that do and do not involve extinction of target responding when reinforcement conditions maintaining alternative responding worsen. We tested these predictions by examining resurgence following two DRA conditions in which we equated rates of reinforcement. In DRA without extinction, target and alternative behavior produced reinforcement. In DRA with extinction plus noncontingent reinforcement, only alternative behavior produced reinforcement. We conducted this study in a reverse-translation sequence, first with participants who engaged in destructive behavior (Experiment 1) and then in a laboratory setting with rats (Experiment 2). Across both experiments, we observed proportionally lower levels of target responding during and following the DRA condition that arranged extinction for the target response. However, levels of resurgence were similar following both arrangements.

Comparison of Function-Based, Nonfunction-Based, and Combined Treatments for Escape-Maintained Aggression in a Child With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Case Study

In applied behavior analysis, the use of function-based treatments to reduce problem behavior is well-supported. However, in some cases, function-based treatments alone may not be as effective as nonfunction-based treatments or function-based treatments with additional, nonfunction-based components. In this case study, we compared the delivery of preferred edible items (a nonfunction-based treatment), a break from a task (a function-based treatment), and an enhanced break, which consisted of a break plus access to a preferred tangible item (combination of a nonfunction-based and function-based treatment), to treat escape-maintained aggression exhibited by a young child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Across all three treatments, reinforcement (i.e., edible, break, or enhanced break) was delivered contingent upon compliance with instructions and problem behavior resulted in escape. The nonfunction-based treatment and the combination treatment reduced aggression to zero levels; the function-based treatment did not. Finally, we allowed the participant to choose which of the three treatments he preferred to experience; he selected the combination treatment most often.

Classification of injuries observed in functional classes of self-injurious behaviour

BACKGROUND

Limited research has examined how the functions of self-injurious behaviour (SIB) relate to the production of injuries and the location, type or severity of those injuries.

METHODS

Clinical and medical records were coded for 64 individuals hospitalised for SIB. When injuries were present, the physical properties of SIB and injuries were assessed across groups of individuals with automatically and socially maintained SIB.

RESULTS

Injuries were observed for 35 of the individuals who engaged in SIB. Individuals who engaged in a single form of SIB were more likely to have injuries (P < .05). Individuals with SIB maintained by automatic reinforcement had significantly more severe injuries to the head than those in the social group (q < .05, P = .0132, H = 12.54).

CONCLUSION

Although results are preliminary, the results provide evidence that the function of SIB may influence the severity and location of injuries produced.

The Psychological Foundations of Supervisor–Subordinate Information Asymmetry

Information asymmetry in an employment relationship is much researched in the organization studies literature because of its consequences for employment contracts, compensation, and rent appropriation by the involved parties. However, its psychological antecedents have not been adequately addressed so far. We conceptually investigate the psychological drivers of supervisor–subordinate information asymmetry by primarily invoking social exchange theory. Whereas agency theory examines how information distribution is driven by self-interest seeking, social exchange theory emphasizes how individuals may be motivated to fulfill social obligations and not by exclusive self-interest seeking. This paper advances several propositions regarding the influence of a subordinate’s and supervisor’s psychological variables, such as relational identification, disposition for relational trust, assumed similarity, and the shaping techniques used by a supervisor on information asymmetry. In doing so, it highlights the underlying social exchange (social attraction and reciprocity), and the cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes. The influence of the psychological variables on information asymmetry may be moderated by contextual factors, such as interactional justice climate in teams, agency costs, and the type of employment relationship.

A comparison of positive and negative reinforcement for compliance to treat problem behavior maintained by escape

Previous research has shown that problem behavior maintained by escape can be treated using positive reinforcement. In the current study, we directly compared functional (escape) and nonfunctional (edible) reinforcers in the treatment of escape-maintained problem behavior for 5 subjects. In the first treatment, compliance produced a break from instructions. In the second treatment, compliance produced a small edible item. Neither treatment included escape extinction. Results suggested that the delivery of a positive reinforcer for compliance was effective for treating escape-maintained problem behavior for all 5 subjects, and the delivery of escape for compliance was ineffective for 3 of the 5 subjects. Implications and future directions related to the use of positive reinforcers in the treatment of escape behavior are discussed.

Essential components of written behavior treatment plans

For the last 25 years, the only empirically determined system to evaluate the content of written behavior analysis plans was developed by Vollmer et al. (1992). For the current study, the content of that earlier system was revised by the first author and submitted to 48 members of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and seven (7) other acknowledged experts on the editorial boards of Behavioral Interventions and Research in Developmental Disabilities. Of 55 recipients, 36 responded. The thirty-six (36) respondents rated each of 28 items from essential to non-essential using a five-point Likert scale. After reviewing the expert panel members' evaluations, we reduced the 28 items to 20 essential components of written behavior treatment plans. The implications of the results were discussed.

Analysis and meta-analysis of single-case designs: an introduction

The last 10 years have seen great progress in the analysis and meta-analysis of single-case designs (SCDs). This special issue includes five articles that provide an overview of current work on that topic, including standardized mean difference statistics, multilevel models, Bayesian statistics, and generalized additive models. Each article analyzes a common example across articles and presents syntax or macros for how to do them. These articles are followed by commentaries from single-case design researchers and journal editors. This introduction briefly describes each article and then discusses several issues that must be addressed before we can know what analyses will eventually be best to use in SCD research. These issues include modeling trend, modeling error covariances, computing standardized effect size estimates, assessing statistical power, incorporating more accurate models of outcome distributions, exploring whether Bayesian statistics can improve estimation given the small samples common in SCDs, and the need for annotated syntax and graphical user interfaces that make complex statistics accessible to SCD researchers. The article then discusses reasons why SCD researchers are likely to incorporate statistical analyses into their research more often in the future, including changing expectations and contingencies regarding SCD research from outside SCD communities, changes and diversity within SCD communities, corrections of erroneous beliefs about the relationship between SCD research and statistics, and demonstrations of how statistics can help SCD researchers better meet their goals.