Behavior modification with culturally deprived school children: two case studies

Techniques of behavior modification were employed with two second-grade Negro girls in a demonstration school for culturally deprived children to increase the girls' appropriate classroom behaviors. A classification system that provided for continuous categorization of behavior was used to code the children's behavior in two classroom situations. Data were also taken on the type, duration, and frequency of the teachers' verbal interactions. The study included four conditions: Baseline, Modification I, Postmodification, and Modification II. The treatment variable was positive social reinforcement-attention and approval contingent upon desirable classroom behaviors-which was presented, withheld, or withdrawn (timeout from social reinforcement). Withholding of social reinforcement was contingent upon inappropriate attention-getting behaviors. Timeout from social reinforcement was contingent upon behaviors classified as aggressive and resistive. After 25 days of Modification I, desirable behavior increased markedly for each girl. The teachers were then asked to return to their Baseline level of performance. The resultant behaviors demonstrated that for one girl, behavior was still primarily under the control of the treatment contingencies. For the second child, many desirable behaviors that had increased in frequency during Modification I remained high, but inappropriate behaviors increased. When treatment was reinstated, the amount of time spent in desirable behaviors increased and remained high for both girls. Three checks during the three months following data collection showed that these behaviors continued to remain high.     

ELIMINATION OF BEDTIME THUMBSUCKING IN HOME SETTINGS THROUGH CONTINGENT READING1

Reading stories at bedtime was made contingent upon nonthumbsucking for girls 3, 6, and 8 yr old. According to their mothers, all had been persistent thumbsuckers since infancy. Two had accompanying dental disorders. During baseline conditions, continuous noncontingent reading occurred. During experimental conditions, reading terminated on each occasion thumbsucking was observed and resumed immediately when thumbsucking ceased. High percentages of thumbsucking occurred during baseline conditions when reading was noncontingent, and low percentages occurred during experimental conditions when reading was contingent. Bedtime thumbsucking was eliminated for all three girls.     

The effect of vicarious reinforcement on attentive behavior in the classroom

The effect of social reinforcement delivered to target subjects on the attentive behavior of adjacent peers was examined in a classroom setting. In a combined reversal and multiple baseline design, two pairs of mentally retarded children were sequentially exposed to three reinforcement phases. After baseline rates of attentive behavior were obtained, praise was delivered to the target subject in each subject pair for attentive behavior. After a reversal phase, praise was delivered contingently to target subjects for inattentive behavior. In a final phase, contingent praise for attentive behavior was reinstated for the target subjects. Throughout the study, nontarget subjects received no direct reinforcers. The results indicated a vicarious reinforcement effect. Reinforcing attentive behavior of target subjects increased this behavior in adjacent peers. However, reinforcing inattentive behavior of target subjects also increased the attentive behavior of adjacent peers. The effects obtained through vicarious reinforcement were considered to reflect the discriminative stimulus properties of reinforcement, which may serve as a cue for the performance of nonreinforced peers.     

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.     

The effect of a teacher's presence on the classroom behavior of conduct-problem children

Six institutionalized conduct-problem children performed in a classroom under three reinforcement conditions: (1) noncontingent reinforcement: (2) reinforcement for being on task and (3) reinforcement for the accuracy and rate fo their academic behavior. Within each of these conditions, the teacher was either present throughout the class session or absent for a portion of the session. In the teacher's absence, on-task behavior was markedly reduced and disruption was markedly increased, regardless of the reinforcement condition in operation. In contrast, the teacher's absence had no effect on academic accuracy and had a major effect on academic rate only when reinforcement was delivered noncontingently. Furthermore, the extent to which the children became disruptive in the teacher's absence was reduced when reinforcement was contingent upon academic accuracy and rate, instead of being contingent upon being on task or delivered noncontingently. It is suggested that the reinforcement of academic behavior, rather than on-task behavior or classroom social behavior, not only will improve the latter behaviors as well, but possibly also make them less dependent upon the presence and continued surveillance of the teacher.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION BETWEEN A BEHAVIORALLY DISORDERED PRESCHOOL CHILD AND HER CLASSROOM PEERS1

The social interaction between a behaviorally disordered preschool child and her classroom peers was measured under two conditions of contingent adult attention: (1) verbal praise and physical contact directed to the target subject's peers for appropriate interaction with the target subject, and (2) verbal praise and physical contact directed specifically to the target subject for engaging in appropriate interaction with peers. Continuous measures of interactive behavior were made during baseline, intervention, and return to baseline conditions. Results indicated that application of experimental contingencies to peers (Condition 1) rapidly increased appropriate social behaviors by the peers and also by the target subject. When experimental contingencies were applied to the target subject (Condition 2), a similar increase in appropriate social behaviors was noted for both the target subject and the peers. Additionally, during Conditions 1 and 2 the recipient(s) of contingent adult attention initiated more appropriate social contacts than did the interacting partner(s).     

The Use of Response Prevention to Eliminate Daytime Thumbsucking

The effects of a response prevention strategy consisting of the fading of restraint and the removal of reniforcers contingent on daytime thumbsucking was evaluated with three boys using a multiple baseline plus reversal design. Following a baseline condition thumbsucking was restrained by absorbent cotton taped over the thumb and the children lost access to an agreed upon reinforcer and T.V. time contigent upon thumbsucking. Thumbsucking increased when this condition was abruptly removed for two children. The reintroduction of the absorbant cotton restraint plus contingencies procedure and a no restraint procedure plus contigencies conditon was associated with the complete suppression of thumbsucking which remained suppressed during the follow-up condition for all three children.     

Self-regulation in the modification of disruptive classroom behavior

This study compared self-regulation and external regulation procedures in the treatment of children's disruptive classroom behavior. After baseline data were collected, three of the four most disruptive children in each of 10 first- and second-grade classrooms received reinforcement for achieving low rates of disruptive behavior. The fourth child served as a control subject throughout the experiment. Two of the three experimental subjects were then taught to self-observe their own disruptive behavior. In the final reinforcement period, these subjects were given control over dispensing reinforcers to themselves, based on their self-collected behavioral data while subjects in the other experimental group continued with the externally managed reinforcement. In extinction, reinforcement was discontinued for all subjects, but one of the self-regulation subjects in each classroom continued overtly to self-observe. Results indicated that both reinforcement programs reduced disruptive behavior. The self-regulation procedures were slightly more effective in reducing disruptiveness than was the external regulation procedure, and this advantage persisted into extinction. These results suggest that self-regulation procedures provide a practical, inexpensive, and powerful alternative in dealing with disruptive behavior in children.     

Reinforcement of visual attending in classrooms for deaf children

The efficacy of immediate tangible reinforcement in increasing appropriate visual attending for entire classes of deaf children was examined. The subjects were three classes (seven children each) in a residential school for the deaf. Boxes were installed on each child's desk, with lights that were flashed immediately contingent upon 10 sec of visual attending. Light flashes were backed up by M & M's, cereal bits, or tokens. In two of the classes, extinction sessions were also scheduled. For all classes, the reinforcement procedure increased visual attending by 50% or more, maintaining it at rates above 82%. Withdrawal of tangibles decreased attending back to baseline levels. The results support analysis of attending as operant behavior and demonstrate the applicability of reinforcement procedures in modifying these behaviors for young deaf children in a classroom setting.     

EFFECTS OF SYSTEMATIC,RESPONSE-DEPENDENT FADING AND THINNING PROCEDURES ON THE MAINTENANCE OF CHILD-CHILD INTERACTION

Previous investigations of the social behavior of handicapped preschool children (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1974, 7 , 583–590; Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 31–40; Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1977, 10 , 289–298) demonstrated that introduction of adult or peer confederate intervention agents produced substantial increases in levels of positive social behavior emitted by the subjects. In addition, it was observed that changes in rates of positive social behavior emitted by recipients of intervention tactics were accompanied by parallel changes in rates of positive social behavior emitted by interacting peers. However, with one limited exception, sudden removals of arranged intervention procedures were followed by immediate reductions in the levels of positive social behavior emitted by subjects and peers in each study. The current investigation was designed to examine the effects of response-dependent removal of intervention procedures on the positive behavior of three socially withdrawn preschool boys. Interactive effects on the social behavior of classroom peers who did not receive adult prompts and contingent attention events were also examined. A combination of withdrawal of treatment and multiple baseline procedures was employed. The three target subjects received fixed numbers of prompts and contingent attention events during Intervention I and Intervention II, Phase 1 conditions. During Intervention II, Phase 2 conditions, prompts and contingent attention events were reduced on a response-dependent basis for two subjects and on a response-independent basis for the third subject. The results suggest that: (a) the intervention procedures produced marked increases in positive social behavior emitted by each subject; (b) response-dependent fading and thinning, contrasted with response-independent tactics, maintained levels of positive social behavior equivalent to those observed during Intervention I and Intervention II, Phase 1 conditions; (c) changes in positive and negative behaviors emitted by peers paralleled changes in positive and negative behaviors emitted by each subject; and (d) no “spillover” of treatment effects was noted for subjects during periods in which they were not direct recipients of intervention procedures.     

Systematic reinforcement: academic performance of underachieving students

The effect of contingent tangible and social reinforcement on academic performance was investigated in an experimental classroom of 25 selected underachieving students. Measures were taken of both teacher and child behavior during a baseline and two experimental treatment periods. During Treatment I, a point system with tangible backup reinforcers was combined with contingent social reinforcers dispensed by the teaching staff to assess the effects on three measures of academic performance (i.e., per cent of time at work, work output per minute, and accuracy). During Treatment II, the contingencies for the tangible reinforcers were terminated while social reinforcement was continued to see if the positive effects of Treatment I on academic performance would persist. The results show that with combined tangible and social reinforcers, students' work time, rate of output per hour, and accuracy in all activities substantially increased. After termination of the tangible reinforcers, the students maintained their high rates of output per hour and accuracy for the remaining period of the study while the total amount of time at work returned to the baseline level.     

Stimulus control in the experimental study of cooperation

The cooperative responses of pairs of human subjects were reinforced under several stimulus conditions in two settings designed to require a "social" response, i.e., where at least one of the two persons is responding to the behavior of the other. The first task, designed by Lindsley and Cohen, required individual responses within 0.5 sec of one another for reinforcement. The second (modified) task required a delay of 3 sec between individual responses. To determine dependence of cooperation on social stimuli, rates of cooperative behavior on these tasks were compared in the presence and absence of a stimulus indicating to each subject the other's response and a stimulus which indicated the duration of the timeout after reinforcement. The results indicated that only in the modified task was a high rate of cooperation always contingent upon the presence of the social stimuli.     

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND EXTINCTION OF SELF-INJURIOUS ESCAPE BEHAVIOR

Three studies are presented in which environmental correlates of self-injurious behavior were systematically examined and later used as the basis for treatment. In Study 1, 7 developmentally disabled subjects were exposed to a series of conditions designed to identify factors that maintain self-injurious behavior: attention contingent on self-injurious behavior (positive reinforcement), escape from or avoidance of demands contingent on self-injurious behavior (negative reinforcement), alone (automatic reinforcement), and play (control). Results of a multielement design showed that each subject's self-injurious behavior occurred more frequently in the demand condition, suggesting that the behavior served an avoidance or escape function. Six of the 7 subjects participated in Study 2. During educational sessions, “escape extinction” was applied as treatment for their self-injurious behavior in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Results showed noticeable reduction or elimination of self-injurious behavior for each subject and an increase in compliance with instructions in all subjects for whom compliance data were taken. The 7th subject, whose self-injurious behavior during Study 1 occurred in response to medical demands (i.e., physical examinations), participated in Study 3. Treatment was comprised of extinction, as in Study 2, plus reinforcement for tolerance of the examination procedure, and was evaluated in a multiple baseline across settings design. Results showed that the treatment was successful in eliminating self-injurious behavior and that its effects transferred across eight new therapists and three physicians. General implications for the design, interpretation, and uses of assessment studies are discussed.     

A contingency management technique for increasing student attention in a small group setting

Fifty-four elementary school children previously identified as consistently inattentive were involved in an extraclassroom treatment program comparing three conditions. In the E condition, attention was reinforced by making the earning of token points (exchangeable for rewards) contigent upon appropriate responses to a signal detection task embedded in the lessons. C1 condition subjects participated in the same lessons without the token system, while C2 subjects remained in their regular classrooms throughout the study. Four participating classroom teachers received brief training in behavior modification techniques for maintaining student attention. Subjects in the E condition were found to be significantly more attentive during the treatment lessons. Changes did not transfer to the regular classroom, however, and training for teachers did not affect in-class attention scores of subjects.     

Group Skills Training to Increase the Conversational Repertoire of Retarded Adolescents

Ten retarded adolescents in a short-term residential center lacked appropriate social itneraction skills and were referred for group conversational skills training. Group treatment consisted of an instruction-modeling-rehearsal procedure sequentially targeting three classes of converstaional skills:(1) eliciting information from others;(2) appropriate self-disclosing of interests and personal information; and (3) using reinforcing-complimentary conversational behaviors. During baseline and following each training group, social behavior was assessed by recording unstructured 8-minute dyadic conversations between randomly-paired subjects. Weekly generalization probes consisted of unstructured 8-minute conversations between each subject and a different nonretarded, unfamiliar partner. Results indicated that contingent upon group targeting of a specific conversational skill, the frequency of that skill increased in both (1) the unstructured dyadic interactions between pairs of retarded subjects, and (2)the generalization interactions between retarded subjects and novel nonretarded persons. Follow-up mainenance of skill increases was obtained. The utility of a "single group" multiple baseline design in applied social skills research is discussed.     

Grouping strategies, peer influence, and free time as classroom management techniques with first- and third-grade children

This study systematically investigated the effects of different procedures on classroom behaviors ranging from teacher designated seating groups and seating groups based on sociometric data to peer encouragement and free time reinforcers. Subjects were first- and third-grade children in classrooms using a Follow Through program model. Data were taken on the attending behavior of the children in small groups arranged by the teacher. The level of appropriate attending behavior was low and did not increase when the groups were restructured based on sociometric data. The introduction of instructions to the peer groups to help the child with his or her work brought about a major increase in the third-grade subjects' appropriate behavior. Appropriate attending behavior for the first-grade children did not increase to the predetermined acceptable level until a free time period for each peer group was made contingent upon the appropriate behavior of the subject in each group. Frequencies of verbal interactions suggested peer attention has an effect on the appropriateness of peer interactions.     

Laboratory control of thumbsucking by withdrawal and re-presentation of reinforcement

A 5-year-old boy was shown cartoons, and punished for thumbsucking during alternate cartoons by turning off the cartoons for as long as his thumb remained in his mouth. Thumbsucking weakened during such periods. During alternate periods of uninterrupted cartoons, thumbsucking promptly recovered, suggesting a quick discrimination process. Two other 5-year-old boys were shown the same cartoons; withdrawal of the cartoons was made contingent upon thumbsucking for one, and randomly yoked for the other. Then their roles were reversed. Contingent withdrawal and re-presentation of the cartoons controlled thumbsucking rate; yoked withdrawal and re-presentation did not.     

A conditioning technique applicable to elementary school classrooms

A procedure was developed for use in a public school classroom where only one of the children needed treatment, sophisticated apparatus was not feasible, personnel were untrained in conditioning techniques, and where disruption had to be minimized. Candy reinforcers were contingent upon working behavior. The total candy earned in the session was divided equally among the class. Portable radio control apparatus was adopted to give feedback to the child when he was displaying the desired working behavior. An increase in working behavior and a decrease in talking aloud and out-of-seat behavior was observed for each of the four subjects. When the feedback apparatus was removed, the desired behavior was maintained through candy reinforcement alone in all four subjects.     

Modification of interactive behaviors in chronic mental patients

Four chronic mental patients, residents of a token economy treatment unit, were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition and attended 10 thirty-minute treatment sessions. For the two experimental subjects, contingent reinforcement was received for interacting with each other according to instructions in four distinct phases of interpersonal behavior: talking to another person, attending and talking to another person, asking and answering questions in a dyad, and working cooperatively in the dyad to solve problems. The two control subjects were instructed to perform the same behaviors but received non-contingent reinforcement. The results indicated a strong contingent reinforcement effect on the performance of the treatment sessions' target behaviors. Several baseline, treatment, and post-treatment response measures indicated that the treatment effects had generalized to other areas of social behavior away from the treatment setting.     

Verbal self-reports of delayed matching to sample by humans

Undergraduates participated in two experiments to develop methods for the experimental analysis of self-reports about behavior. The target behavior was the choice response in a delayed-matching-to-sample task in which monetary reinforcement was contingent upon both speed and accuracy of the choice. In Experiment 1, the temporal portion of the contingency was manipulated within each session, and the presence and absence of feedback about reinforcement was manipulated across sessions. As the time limits became stricter, target response speeds increased, but accuracy and reinforcement rates decreased. When feedback was withheld, further reductions in speed and reinforcement occurred, but only at the strictest time limit. Thus, the procedures were successful in producing systematic variation in the speed, accuracy, and reinforcement of the target behavior. Experiment 2 was designed to assess the influence of these characteristics on self-reports. In self-report conditions, each target response was followed by a computer-generated query: “Did you earn points?” The subject reported by pressing “Yes” or “No” buttons, with the sole consequence of advancing the session. In some cases, feedback about reinforcement of the target response followed the reports; in other cases it was withheld. Self-reports were less accurate when the target responses occurred under greater time pressure. When feedback was withheld, the speed of the target response influenced reports, in that the probability of a “Yes” report increased directly with the speed of accurate target responses. In addition, imposing the self-report procedure disrupted target performance by reducing response speeds at the strictest time limit. These results allow investigation of issues in both behavioral and cognitive psychology. More important, the overall order in the data suggests promise for the experimental analysis of self-reports by human subjects.