An evaluation of the good behavior game in kindergarten classrooms

The good behavior game (GBG) is a classwide group contingency that involves dividing the class into two teams, creating simple rules, and arranging contingencies for breaking or following those rules. Five kindergarten teachers and classrooms participated in this evaluation of the GBG. Disruptive behavior markedly decreased in all five classrooms as a result of the intervention. This study extends the GBG literature by systematically replicating the effects of the GBG with the youngest group of students to date.     

An evaluation of interdependent and independent group contingencies during the good behavior game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) uses an interdependent group contingency to improve classroom behavior. Despite the wealth of research on the effectiveness of the GBG, some teachers may have concerns about their students’ abilities to work in teams, particularly if they have a history of poor social skills. We used an alternating treatments design to compare the relative effectiveness of the GBG with interdependent and independent group contingencies in a classroom for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Our results showed that both versions of the GBG reduced verbal disruptions, inappropriate sitting, and off‐task behaviors for all children. However, the majority of children preferred the interdependent arrangement. We discuss how these results may promote more widespread use of the GBG with children with substantial behavioral challenges.     

Effects of the good behavior game across classroom contexts

The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a well‐researched classroom group contingency, is typically played for brief periods of time, which raises questions about the effects on subsequent contexts. This study used a multiple baseline design and showed that when the GBG was implemented in one context, behavior improved in only that context. Behavior improved in the subsequent activity only when the GBG was implemented.     

Efficacy of teacher-implemented good behavior game despite low treatment integrity

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a well-documented group contingency designed to reduce disruptive behavior in classroom settings. However, few studies have evaluated the GBG with students who engage in severe problem behavior in alternative schools, and there are few demonstrations of training teachers in those settings to implement the GBG. In the current study, 3 teachers were trained to implement the GBG in a restrictive setting for students with histories of emotional and behavioral disorders and delinquency. The teachers used the GBG to produce substantial reductions in problem behavior despite low treatment integrity. Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

Effect of the good behavior game on disruptive library behavior

A modification of the good behavior game was used to reduce disruptive behaviors during a weekly library period of children in a fourth-grade class. Modifications included student input in designing rules, attempts to state rules in positive terms, observation of class behavior in the experimental (library) setting as well as in a comparison (classroom) setting, and librarian involvement in instituting the game coupled with teacher involvement in delivering reinforcers. Reinforcers consisted of special classroom activities conducted by the teacher with winning team members. Modification of the good behavior game did not detract from its effectiveness in reducing disruptive and off-task behavior.     

Step it up! Using the good behavior game to increase physical activity with elementary school students at recess

We evaluated the effects of a modified version of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) on the number of steps taken by students during school recess. We divided a class into two teams, and awarded the team with the highest step counts at the end of each game raffle tickets for a school‐wide lottery. The GBG was compared to recess periods without the game using an alternating‐treatments design. Students took more steps while playing the GBG than they did during recess periods without the game.     

Programming a randomized dependent group contingency and common stimuli to promote durable behavior change

Low levels of academic engagement may impede students’ acquisition of skills. Intervening on student behavior using group contingencies may be a feasible way to increase academic engagement during group instruction. The current study examined the effect of a randomized dependent group contingency on levels of academic engagement for second‐grade participants receiving small‐group reading and writing instruction. The results showed that a randomized dependent group contingency increased the academic engagement of primary participants and several of the other participants during small‐group instruction. The findings also showed that high levels of academic engagement were maintained when common stimuli were present and the dependent group contingency was withdrawn.     

Feasibility of and teacher preference for student‐led implementation of the good behavior game in early elementary classrooms

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classwide group contingency shown to reduce disruptive student behavior. We examined the feasibility of training young students to lead the GBG in one first‐grade and three kindergarten classes. We also examined teacher preference for teacher‐led GBG, student‐led GBG, or no GBG using a concurrent chains procedure. We successfully trained students in all classes to lead the GBG, and the GBG reduced disruptive behavior regardless of who implemented it. Preference for who implemented the game varied across teachers. Results of this study suggest that students as young as kindergarten age can be trained to implement the GBG and that teacher preference should be taken into account when determining how classwide interventions are to be implemented.     

Immediate and sustaining effects of extrinsic rewards on specific exploratory behavior

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the immediate and sustaining effects of monetary and social rewards on specific exploratory behavior. Specific exploratory behavior was conceived as a behavioral expression of intrinsic motivation and was measured by the number of additional requests for viewing blurred tachistoscopically presented slides of varying degrees of uncertainty. The results of the study showed that when monetary and social rewards were presented contingent on performance, exploration increased at the upper levels of uncertainty above a control group. It was also found that after removal, females who had previously received social rewards sustained a significantly higher level of exploration above the control group, while males who had previously received social rewards, as well as both males and females who had previously received monetary rewards, did not differ significantly from the control. The discrepany between these findings and previous findings is explained in terms of theoretical differences in defining and measuring intrinsic motivation.     

Cooperative learning and group contingencies

This paper discusses the similarities and differences between cooperative learning and group contingencies. Cooperative learning refers to any methods in which students work together to help one another learn, while group contingencies refer to rewarding students based on the performance of a group. Research on the achievement effects of cooperative learning finds that these methods are effective primarily when they incorporate group contingencies, when groups are rewarded based on the average of their members' individual learning performances. The use of group contingencies within cooperative learning is hypothesized to motivate students to do a good job of explaining concepts and skills to their groupmates, and elaborated explanation is the principal behavior found to account for achievement gains in cooperative learning.     

Drug effects on responding maintained by stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer contingencies.

The effects of pentobarbital and d-amphetamine were assessed on key pecking by pigeons under conventional single-key multiple schedules and under two-key multiple schedules in which discriminative stimuli appeared on one key (stimulus key) while pecks on a second key (constant key) produced food. Pecks on the stimulus key had no scheduled consequences. A 60-second variable-interval schedule operated in one component of each multiple schedule: either extinction or a 60-second variable-time schedule operated in the alternate component. When the alternate-component schedule was extinction, a high rate of responding was maintained in the variable-interval component of the single-key schedule; responding on both keys was maintained in the variable-interval component of the two-key schedule. Pentobarbital increased responding in the variable-interval component of the single-key schedule and increased stimulus-key, but not constant-key responding in that component of the two-key schedule. When the alternate-component schedule was changed to variable time, responding declined in the variable-interval component of the single-key schedule; stimulus-key responding was no longer maintained under the two-key schedule. Pentobarbital decreased responding in the variable-interval component of both schedules. With an exception, d-amphetamine only decreased responding in the variable-interval component of the single- and two-key schedules both when the alternate-component schedule was extinction and when it was variable time. The results suggest that the effects of pentobarbital, but not d-amphetamine, depend on the nature of the contingency (stimulus-reinforcer, response-reinforcer) that maintains responding.     

Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning Groups at the College Level: Differential Effects on High,Average, and Low Exam Performers

Over a three-semester period in a large undergraduate human development course, students were assigned to 5–7 member groups to work together in preparing for an exam in one of the five content units in the course. Their exam performance was tracked over three units: a baseline unit in which students worked only individually, a unit in which they worked in cooperative teams, and a follow-up unit in which the formal cooperative team structure was removed. Three different bonus-credit contingencies were used in the cooperative learning unit across the three semesters: (a) awarding full bonus credit to each individual in the group if the group as a whole improved its exam performance by the specified amount, (b) awarding partial bonus credit to each individual in the group if the group as a whole improved it exam performance by the specified amount and full bonus credit to each individual who also improved by the specified amount, and (c) awarding full bonus credit to an individual in the group if both the group and the individual improved exam performance by the specified amount. The three contingencies produced somewhat similar patterns of change for low and average performers, but the high performers fared better under the last two contingencies than under the group-only contingency.     

Group versus individual reinforcement contingencies within the context of group study conditions

We investigated the effects of two teaching variables on students' Spanish vocabulary quiz performance: (a) group study and (b) individual versus group contingencies. In Experiment 1, we compared students' quiz scores under conditions in which students either studied independently and received no programmed reinforcement or studied in groups and received individual rewards for high scores. The results showed that, on average, the group-study individual-reward condition produced superior quiz scores. In Experiment 2, we compared individual (i.e., the superior condition in Experiment 1) and group contingencies within the context of the group study condition. On average across the class, group contingencies produced performance superior to individual contingencies. In both studies, however, benefits for the classes as a whole were mitigated by effects on individual students. These results extend the literature on the effects of group-based instructional activities and reinforcement contingencies. Educators who choose such procedures may encounter conflicting findings depending on whether they examine results at the group or individual level.     

EFFECTS OF COLLATERAL PEER SUPPORTIVE BEHAVIORS WITHIN THE CLASSWIDE PEER TUTORING PROGRAM

A classwide peer tutoring procedure was implemented in an urban elementary school classroom to improve students' spelling performance. Three students combined untrained or collateral tutoring behaviors with the core behaviors initially taught. To explore the function of these natural and spontaneous behaviors, a multielement single-subject experiment with replications was conducted. Results indicated that the additional tutoring behaviors increased (a) the academic response frequencies of 3 tutees and (b) the weekly spelling achievement of 1 target tutee. The remaining class members were successfully taught and continued to use these behaviors over the final 3 weeks of the school year. These findings are discussed with regard to academic instruction, natural communities of peer reinforcement, and the social validation of intervention procedures.     

Eliminating the battering of women by men: Some considerations for behavior analysis

Based on review of representative literature, history and current research indicate that battering by male partners is a major health problem for women. Use of physical aggression and verbal coercion can be described by three-term contingencies involving escape, avoidance, punishment, and positive reinforcement. These contingencies occur within societal practices, rules, and models that involve oppression of women and insubstantial consequences for men who batter. The difficulties in directly observing a couple's interactions and their aggression have been a methodological barrier to the involvement of behavior analysts in treatment of and research on domestic violence. Recommendations are made for behavior analysts to contribute to reducing battering through development and analysis of program components and application of contingency management and behavioral training technology.     

Facilitating paper recycling: effects of prompts, raffles, and contests

The effects of prompts and reinforcement to promote paper recycling were compared in six university dormitories. For a Prompt condition, residents were urged to recycle paper for ecological reasons via flyers distributed to each room. For a Raffle contingency, residents were given one raffle ticket for every pound of paper brought to a collection center. For a Contest contingency, two dorms were paired and the dorm whose residents delivered the most paper won $15 for its treasury. Contingency awareness was strengthened via a flyer placed under the door of each resident's room. Flyers alone had little effect in increasing paper-recycling behaviors, but the raffle (substantially) and the contest (somewhat) increased the amount of paper brought to a dorm's recycling center. Students whose rooms were closest to the collection center showed the greatest participation. Removal of the reinforcement contingencies resulted in a return to baseline levels.     

ON SYSTEMS ANALYSIS IN AUTISM INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

Although intervention technology has grown substantially during the past quarter century, the design of intervention systems has not grown apace. This paper examines organizational arrangements that enhance and diminish treatment effectiveness and argues that defining, measuring, and manipulating systemic antecedent and consequent variables are as important as assessment and intervention on an individual client's behalf.     

Immediate and subsequent effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior and noncontingent matched stimulation on stereotypy

A three‐component multiple‐schedule and brief reversals were used to examine the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and noncontingent matched stimulation (NMS) on the automatically reinforced mouthing of a child with autism. Both DRO and NMS decreased immediate engagement in mouthing, but NMS produced larger reductions in the behavior. Furthermore, NMS produced subsequent effects (i.e., when the treatment was withdrawn) similar to those of prior access, whereas DRO marginally increased subsequent engagement in mouthing. The results suggest that NMS was a functionally matched intervention for mouthing. Implications for the assessment and treatment of stereotypy and applications for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE EFFECTS OF A GOOD BEHAVIOR GAME ON THE DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF SUDANESE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

An endemic version of the Good Behavior Game was applied in a rural Sudanese second-grade classroom. Official letters of commendation, extra time for recess, victory tags, and a winner's chart were used as backup reinforcers. The class was divided into two teams, and the teacher indicated she would place a check on the board after every rule violation. The students were also told that the team with the fewest marks would win the game and receive the aforementioned prizes. After an initial adaptation period, the rate of disruption was charted across four treatment phases: viz., baseline I, introduction of the game, baseline II, and reintroduction of the game. It was observed that the game phases were associated with marked decreases in the rate of seat leaving, talking without permission, and aggression. The teacher, principal, parents, and students were consequently individually interviewed, and their comments spoke strongly for the social validity of the game.     

Good behavior game: effects of individual contingencies for group consequences on disruptive behavior in a classroom

Out-of-seat and talking-out behaviors were studied in a regular fourth-grade class that included several "problem children". After baseline rates of the inappropriate behaviors were obtained, the class was divided into two teams "to play a game". Each out-of-seat and talking-out response by an individual child resulted in a mark being placed on the chalkboard, which meant a possible loss of privileges by all members of the student's team. In this manner a contingency was arranged for the inappropriate behavior of each child while the consequence (possible loss of privileges) of the child's behavior was shared by all members of this team as a group. The privileges were events which are available in almost every classroom, such as extra recess, first to line up for lunch, time for special projects, stars and name tags, as well as winning the game. The individual contingencies for the group consequences were successfully applied first during math period and then during reading period. The experimental analysis involved elements of both reversal and multiple baseline designs.