Does delay of reinforcement produce durable persistence?

In a foru-phase experiment, phase I was runway training under four different reinforcement conditions: partial reinforcement (PRF), partial delayed reinforcement (PDR), constant delayed reinforcement (CDR), and consistent reinforcement (CRF). During phase 2 extinction, PRF and PDR groups did not differ; both groups were more persistent than group CDR, which was in turn superior to the CRF control. Phase 3 was CRF reacquisition for all groups. During phase 4 extinction, PRF group was more presistent than the other three groups which did not differ. A Pavlovian counter-conditioning hypothesis was proposed to account for the absence of durable persistence following PDR training.     

COMPARISON OF ESTABLISHED AND INNOVATIVE WEIGHT-REDUCTION TREATMENT PROCEDURES1

A central component of a commonly used weight-loss procedure developed by Stuart (1967), which emphasizes situational engineering (SE), was compared to eating behavior control (EBC), a treatment employing reinforcement of changes in eating habits. A third treatment encouraged development of individuals' own applications of a model of self-control and attempted to provide effective feedback regarding progress toward weight-loss goals. This self-initiated treatment (SI) was designed to be less directive than many behavioral treatment packages and to be more realistic about the expectations of subjects and the actual eating habits of overweight and normalweight people. Following baseline, treatment lasted six weeks and followup lasted 16 weeks. While all treatments produced weight losses, EBC surpassed SE during treatment. SI losses during treatment did not differ from SE or EBC, but SI was the only group that lost weight throughout followup, indicating the possible utility of more subtle, less directive interventions than those that have often been associated with behavioral approaches. The results of SE question the applicability to clinical procedures of the external cue hypersensitivity theory of obesity (Schachter and Rodin, 1974), to which SE is closely related.     

Children's self-determination of standards in reinforcement contingencies: A re-examination

The effects of contingent reinforcement under conditions of self-determined and externally determined standards were studied in two fifth-grade language art classes (n=64). Since external demands have confounded the effects of self-management previously, a major purpose was to examine the standards which students selected without external restriction and the effects on work rates. Students worked on an individualized curriculum in six heterogeneous groups within each class. Both external and self-determination of standards within reinforcement contingencies was experienced by both classes but in a counterbalanced order. Findings demonstrated an increase in the work rates over baseline from both contingency conditions (p<.05). Contingent reinforcement with externally determined standards produced an increase over reinforcement with self-determined standards (p<.05). Children selected increasingly lenient standards over the six weeks. Experience with external standards did not influence subsequent self-determined standards. The leniency was discussed in terms of peer influences and the relation of effort to rewards under self-management procedures with varying external demands.     

BIOFEEDBACK AND RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MIGRAINE HEADACHE

Twenty-four migraine patients were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) self-monitoring of headache activity (waiting list), (b) frontalis EMG biofeedback, (c) digit temperature biofeedback, and (d) digit temperature biofeedback plus Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET). Bidirectional control over the target physiological response was assessed through a reversal design in each session. Following at least a four-week baseline, the three biofeedback groups received 8 to 10, 30-minute sessions of bidirectional biofeedback training, scheduled twice a week. Subjects in the combined digit temperature biofeedback plus RET group received three 40-minute sessions of RET as an addition to the third, fifth, and seventh biofeedback sessions. Records of daily home practice were kept throughout treatment and three-month followup. Subjects on the waiting list monitored headaches for at least five months, corresponding to “baseline”, “treatment”, and three-month followup. Digit temperature biofeedback alone and in conjunction with RET did not prove to be more effective than the control conditions. All the EMG subjects reduced headache activity to two-thirds or less of the baseline level by the third month of followup. Bidirectional digit temperature performance did not improve with training, was demonstrated in only 33% of the biofeedback sessions, was not maintained over time, and was unrelated to improvement in headache activity. EMG subjects reported biofeedback performance to be an easier task and met the performance criterion on 85% of the sessions. The frequency of home practice contributed over 55% of the variance in retrospective estimates of headache improvement but was not related to changes in daily records of headache activity.     

Body weight and response acquisition with delayed reinforcement.

The relation between body weight and responding established with unsignaled delayed reinforcement was investigated. In three experiments, naive rats were deprived to either 70%, 80%, or 90% of ad libitum weight and were then exposed to tandem variable-interval 15-s differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-s schedules. The tandem schedule defined a resetting unsignaled delay-of-reinforcement procedure. In the first experiment, speed of magazine training, acquisition of lever pressing, and final rate of lever pressing were related to body weight. In the next experiment, lever pressing was established and maintained in rats that were magazine trained at 70% of ad libitum weight but that were then exposed to the delay procedure at 90% of ad libitum weight. Responding did not change consistently either across or within subjects in subsequent conditions in which body weight was manipulated. In the final experiment, lever pressing was established and maintained with delayed reinforcement in the absence of magazine training for each of 2 rats at 70% and for 1 of 2 rats at 90% of ad libitum weight. The results further illuminate the conditions under which responding can be established in the absence of training and when such responses are reinforced only following an unsignaled delay period.     

Weight reduction as a function of negative covert reinforcement (sensitization) versus positive covert reinforcement

The use of covert or imaginal procedures for weight reduction was evaluated using both positive covert reinforcement and negative (covert sensitization) in group treatment. The results indicate that both of these groups had significantly greater weight losses than a minimal treatment control group. Although the covert, positive reinforcement group did not significantly differ from the negative, its mean weight loss (in lbs) was greater at the end of the four week program. Both groups showed a further weight loss at a three month follow-up, although the changes in mean loss were not statistically significant. The control group, on the other hand, lost a significant amount of weight between the end of treatment and follow-up. However, at follow-up both positive and negative groups still had significantly greater weight losses than the control.     

The effect of self-recording and social reinforcement components of parent training programs

This investigation attempted to assess the effectiveness of two components of parent training programs: (1) the effect of a self-behavior management project prior to intervention with deviant child behaviors, and (2) that of social reinforcement from peers and the consultant. Four groups of parents were exposed to a basic training program and were measured on their success in an intervention program in the inappropriate behavior of their children (ages 7–9 years). Two groups of parents were requested to do a self-modification program prior to the intervention with deviant child behavior; two groups did a child intervention program without a self-management project. One group in the self-management and one group without self-management received verbal social reinforcement from peers and the consultant during interventions. Results obtained indicate that the parent group whose training involved a self-behavior management project prior to intervention with their child's inappropriate behavior and verbal social reinforcement achieved a significantly greater reduction of these behaviors when compared to the groups where either self-management of social reinforcement was used.     

TREATING OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN THROUGH PARENTAL TRAINING AND CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING1

Fifteen overweight girls aged 5 to 11 yr were randomly assigned to one of two weight-reduction treatments: response-cost plus reinforcement, response-cost only, or a no-treatment control group. In the response-cost plus reinforcement group, parents contracted to facilitate their child's weight loss by carrying out reinforcement and stimulus control techniques, completing weekly charts and graphs, and encouraging their child to exercise. The response-cost only group parents did not contract to reinforce their child's performance. The response-cost program applied to both experimental groups was conducted in weekly meetings in which parents lost previously deposited sums of money. Twenty-five per cent was deducted for missing the weekly meeting, 25% for failing to fill out charts and graphs, and 50% if their child failed to meet her specified weekly weight-loss goal. At the end of the 12-week treatment period, both experimental groups had lost significantly more weight than the control group. After an eight-week, no-contact follow-up, some of the lost weight was regained. The response-cost plus reinforcement group was still significantly below the controls. The response-cost group just missed significance. A 31-week, no-contact follow-up failed to show a treatment effect, but did show a trend towards slower weight gain by the response-cost plus reinforcement group.     

The use of structured learning therapy and transfer programming with disruptive adolescents in a school setting

In behavior change literature, little attention has been paid to the systematic study of variables affecting transfer of training. The present study employed a skill-training method known as Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) for the dual purpose of testing the effectiveness of this method and to identify variables that will promote transfer of training. Forty-three disruptive male adolescents were assigned to three experimental and two control conditions. One experimental group received SLT plus an additional transfer-enhancing procedure referred to as Transfer Programming (TP) which consisted of in vivo practice of treatment gains and peer reinforcement. Another group received only SLT, and a third group received only TP. One control group received only brief instructions pertaining to the nature of the skill, while the second group served as an attention control. Consistent with predictions, the results were that the two groups receiving the SLT performed significantly better than the three groups not receiving SLT on all dependent measures at posttest. These differences generally maintained at follow-up. Contrary to expectations, the implementation of TP did not prove to promote transfer of training beyond that found with SLT alone.     

Facilitating cognitive performance in children: A comparison of strategy modeling and strategy modeling with overt self-verbalization

Children, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 years old, were randomly divided into three training conditions—a strategy modeling condition, a strategy modeling with overt self-verbalization condition, and a control condition. The subjects in the two modeling conditions were given training on four cognitive tasks, a signal task, a match-to-standard task, a paired-associates task, and a twenty-questions task. A 6 (age) × 2 (sex) × 3 (treatment) × 2 (trial) analysis of variance was performed on each of the dependent variables associated with each of the four tasks. The results of these analyses indicate that both modeling conditions facilitated performance on the signal and match-to-standard tasks for all six age groups. However, the two modeling procedures facilitated performance on the paired-associates and twenty-questions tasks only in the three older age groups. Since the two modeling procedures did not differ in effectiveness, it was suggested that strategy modeling without overt self-verbalization is the more practical and efficient procedure for facilitating cognitive performance in normal children.     

Multimethod Psychoeducational Intervention for Preschool Children with Disruptive Behavior: Two-Year Post-Treatment Follow-up

This paper describes the 2-year post-treatment follow-up of preschool children identified as having high levels of disruptive behavior at kindergarten entry. They were assigned to four treatment conditions: A no-treatment group, parent-training only, treatment classroom only, and the combination of parent training with the treatment classroom. Interventions lasted the entire kindergarten academic year. Initial post-treatment results reported previously indicated no effects for the parent-training program but some efficacy for the classroom intervention program. For this report, the disruptive behavior (DB) children were subdivided into those who did (n = 74) and did not (n = 77) receive the treatment classroom. Two-year post-treatment follow-up results indicated no differences between the classroom treated and untreated DB groups. These groups also failed to differ in the percentage of children using available treatments across the follow-up period. The DB children in both groups had significantly more symptoms of ADHD and ODD than a community control group (N = 47) at follow-up. They also received higher ratings of externalizing problems on the parent Child Behavior Checklist, more severe ratings of behavior problems at home, and ratings of more pervasive behavior problems at school, and had poorer academic skills. Results suggested that early intervention classrooms for DB children may not produce enduring effects once treatment is withdrawn, and that better approaches are needed for identifying those DB children at greatest risk for later maladjustment.     

Spouse involvement and a possible long-term follow-up trap in weight loss

The present study was conducted to determine if husband attendance at treatment sessions and participation in behavioral contracting would produce greater weight losses than two other levels of spouse involvement. The three treatment groups investigated did not significantly differ at post-treatment but by 1-yr follow-up female Ss who attended treatment sessions alone and contracted with the counselor (HA) lost significantly more weight than women who attended sessions with their husbands and also contracted with the counselor (HNC). The Ss who attended sessions with their husbands and contracted with them (HC) did not significantly differ from Ss in the other two conditions. The total amount lost by Ss in the HA, HNC and HC conditions by 1-yr follow-up was 16.4, 4.4 and 15.5 lb, respectively. The study was also conducted to collect preliminary data about procedures Ss used during long-term follow-up to ascertain if weight losses during follow-up could be attributed to the behavioral weight-loss techniques learned during the treatment program. At all follow-up periods, many Ss reported using behavioral weight-loss techniques but 4 of the 36 Ss (11.1%) at 1-yr follow-up, 15 of the 23 (65.2%) and 24 of the 25 (96.0%) who responded, respectively, at 3- and 4-yr follow-up had used other weight-loss programs or methods. A possible confound for follow-up data was identified and suggestions for future research were presented.     

Training elementary aged peer behavior managers to control small group programmed mathematics

The effects of a training procedure and two maintenance contingencies on consequence-dispensing behavior were investigated. Four peer behavior managers were trained to supervise small groups of subjects (four to six per group) working in programmed math materials and were compared with a teacher skilled in the use of social and point reinforcement and response cost. Manager training was differentially effective in accelerating manager's rates of appropriate social and point dispensing. Having manager reinforcement contingent upon manager consequence-dispensing resulted in moderately higher rates of appropriate social and point dispensing for three of four subjects than did having manager reinforcement contingent upon group study behavior. Two managers exposed to the group performance contingency before the manager performance contingency increased inappropriate social and point-dispensing behaviors to pretraining baseline levels. Subsequent change to the manager performance contingency was effective in reducing the inappropriate dispensing behavior of only one of the two managers.     

Blocking the development of stimulus control when stimuli indicate periods of nonreinforcement

To learn whether prior discrimination training based on one stimulus would block learning about a subsequently added stimulus, rats were first trained to press a bar on a variable-interval schedule of food reinforcement. Occasional stimuli were presented during which no reinforcement was available. Responding became suppressed in the presence of these stimuli. Stimuli could be noise, light, or a compound of noise plus light. A group trained with noise in Phase 1, then trained with the compound in Phase 2, showed less suppression to light in a subsequent test than a group that had the same compound training in Phase 2 but only variable-interval training in Phase 1. This showed that prior training with noise blocked the development of control by light during compound training. Two further groups showed that noise training following compound training did not have the same effect on control by light.     

Self-help for binge eating disorder in primary care: A randomized controlled trial with ethnically and racially diverse obese patients

Objective

The objective was to examine the effectiveness of a self-help treatment as a first line primary care intervention for binge eating disorder (BED) in obese patients. This study compared the effectiveness of a usual care plus self-help version of cognitive behavioral therapy (shCBT) to usual care (UC) only in ethnically/racially diverse obese patients with BED in primary care settings in an urban center.

Method

48 obese patients with BED were randomly assigned to either shCBT (N = 24) or UC (N = 24) for four months. Independent assessments were performed monthly throughout treatment and at post-treatment.

Results

Binge-eating remission rates did not differ significantly between shCBT (25%) and UC (8.3%) at post-treatment. Mixed models of binge eating frequency determined using the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) revealed significant decreases for both conditions but that shCBT and UC did not differ. Mixed models of binge eating frequency from repeated monthly EDE-questionnaire assessments revealed a significant treatment-by-time interaction indicating that shCBT had significant reductions whereas UC did not during the four-month treatments. Mixed models revealed no differences between groups on associated eating disorder psychopathology or depression. No weight loss was observed in either condition.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that pure self-help CBT did not show effectiveness relative to usual care for treating BED in obese patients in primary care. Thus, self-help CBT may not have utility as a front-line intervention for BED for obese patients in primary care and future studies should test guided-self-help methods for delivering CBT in primary care generalist settings.     

Diagnosing and Caring for the Reading Difficulties of College Freshmen

One hundred forty-four subjects dichotomized as internal or external on the I-E scale were randomly assigned to one of three reinforcement conditions-no reinforcement, self-reinforcement, or external reinforcement-and one of three subject determination of the correct response conditions-0%, 50%, or 100%. Trials to criterion and errors to criterion on a complex verbal discrimination task were the dependent variables. The results demonstrated that self-reinforcement influenced learning to a greater degree than no reinforcement. Further, when subjects were allowed to determine 100% of the correct responses, the effects of self-reinforcement paralleled the effects of external reinforcement. When subjects determined 50% or 0% of the correct responses, the self-reinforcement and no reinforcement conditions did not differ in influencing overall rate of learning. Internals made significantly fewer errors than externals.     

Behavioral staff management: An analogue study of acceptability and its behavioral correlates

This study examined the acceptability of four behavioral staff management techniques: instruction/ modeling, reinforcement, punishment, and self-management. Staff working with developmentally handicapped clients were randomly assigned to these conditions, which were presented in role-plays with a handicapped confederate, while the experimenter directed the management techniques toward the reinforcing behaviors of staff. Dependent variables included number of reinforcers delivered by the staff person, number of problems attempted by the confederate, and ratings of acceptability from staff. Instruction/modeling was most acceptable, followed, in order, by self-management, reinforcement, and punishment. A significant interaction showed number of reinforcers to increase only for instruction/modeling and self-management conditions.     

Effects of imaginal exposure to feared disasters in obsessive-compulsive checkers

The combined effects of imaginal exposure to feared catastrophes and in vivo exposure to external stimuli were compared with the effects of in vivo exposure alone in 15 obsessive-compulsives with checking rituals. The first group received 90 min of uninterrupted exposure in imagination, which concentrated mainly on disastrous consequences, followed by 30 min of exposure in vivo to stimuli-situations which triggered rituals. The second group was given 2 hr of exposure in vivo only. Both groups were prevented from performing rituals. Treatment consisted of 10 daily sessions within a 2 week period.Assessments were conducted before and after treatment and at follow-up ranging from 3 months to 2.5 yr with a mean of 11 months. At post-treatment both groups improved considerably and did not differ. But at follow-up those who received imaginal and in vivo exposure maintained their gains, whereas the group who were treated by exposure in vivo alone evidenced partial relapse on four of the six dependent measures. The results tend to indicate that a closer match between a patient's internal fear model and the content of exposure enhances long term treatment efficacy.     

Computer-assisted dieting: Effects of a randomised controlled intervention

In this pilot study, the effects of two computer-assisted dieting (CAD) interventions on weight loss and blood chemistry were examined among overweight and obese adults. Participants (91 community members, average age 42.6 years) were randomly assigned to CAD-only (a single-session introduction and provision of a dieting software, n = 30), CAD plus an additional four-session self-management group training (CAD+G, n = 31) and a waitlist control group whose members were randomised into the two interventions at the 3-month follow-up (n = 30). A three (group)-by-two (time) repeated measures ANOVA revealed no significant group by time interaction during the initial 3-month period. However, the two intervention groups combined showed a significant, though moderate weight loss relative to the control group. Further, although a general improvement was found with regard to the lipid panel results during the first 3 months of the trial, the treatment by time interaction was not significant. A comparison of the developments in the two intervention groups during the 3- to 6-month follow-up time period revealed a tendency towards greater weight regain in the CAD-only condition. The evidence suggests that CAD supports initial weight loss; however, additional self-management training might be necessary to support maintenance.     

Effects of a waking schedule on primary enuretic children treated with full-spectrum home training

Examined the effects of adding a waking schedule to full-spectrum home training (FSHT) for primary enuresis. Twenty children received FSHT, and 17 children received FSHT plus a waking schedule. The groups did not reliably differ in average bedwettings per week in treatment and length of treatment. Also, the groups did not reliably differ with respect to proportion of treatment successes and proportion of relapses at 1-year follow-up. Further, across both treatment groups, 76% achieved a dry bed, and only 16% experienced a relapse by 1-year follow-up. Although results support the efficacy of FSHT, the beneficial effects of a waking schedule reported previously were not replicated. The findings suggest the need for closer examination of individual differences among children with primary nocturnal enuresis.