Relative influences of establishing operations and reinforcement contingencies on self-injurious behavior during functional analyses

In the typical functional analysis in which the antecedent and consequent events associated with problem behavior are manipulated, the control condition involves elimination of both the relevant establishing operation (EO) and its associated contingency through a schedule of noncontingent reinforcement (usually fixed-time [FT] 30 s). In some functional analyses, however, antecedent events are manipulated in the absence of differential consequences, and a common test condition in such analyses also involves the delivery of reinforcement on an FT 30-s schedule. Thus, the same schedule of reinforcement (FT 30 s) is not considered to be an EO in the former type of analysis but is considered to be an EO in the latter. We examined the relative influences of EOs and reinforcement contingencies on problem behavior by exposing 6 individuals who engaged in self-injurious behavior (SIB) to four combinations of functional analysis conditions: EO present/contingency present, EO absent/contingency present, EO present/contingency absent, and EO absent/contingency absent. Results indicated that the only condition in which high rates of SIB were observed consistently was one in which the EO and the reinforcement contingency were both present. Implications of these results for the design of functional analysis test and control conditions are discussed.     

An Analysis of Group-Oriented Contingencies and Associated Side Effects in Preschool Children

Group-oriented contingencies are arranged to target the behavior of a group of people simultaneously. Overall, group-oriented contingencies have been shown to be effective in both decreasing problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior. However, results are mixed regarding which type(s) of group-oriented contingency is most effective for changing behavior. In addition, although there are anecdotal reports of positive and negative side effects when using group-oriented contingencies, little research has involved direct measurement of these potential side effects. The purposes of the current study were to (a) compare the effects of three types of group-oriented contingencies for increasing on-task behavior and decreasing problem behavior, (b) determine whether implementing a group-oriented contingency for one behavior resulted in changes in a non-targeted behavior, and (c) determine how often and under what conditions side effects occurred within group-oriented contingencies conditions for two groups of preschool children. The results of the study were mixed. The results suggested that group-oriented contingencies were effective in decreasing problem behavior and increasing on-task behavior, but varied across groups as to which contingencies were the most effective at changing both behaviors. Secondary data suggested that side effects were associated with group-oriented contingencies, as well as the occurrence of problem behavior and reinforcer delivery.     

DISCRIMINATIVE CONTROL OF THERAPISTS' PERFORMANCE1

In order to examine therapists' discriminative responding to normal and idiosyncratic patient responses, naive subjects were presented with a simulated “patient” for treatment. The subjects were made to believe they were reinforcing normal verbalizations emitted by this patient In fact, they were listening to a tape on which normal and idiosyncratic verbalizations had been recorded. Different probabilities of normal and idiosyncratic “patient” verbalizations could be presented to the subjects by means of a digital programming unit. In one of a number of conditions, the subjects' accurate reinforcing responses were followed by an increased probability of the patient's normal verbalizations. Accurate reinforcing responses emitted by the subjects were brought under the control of normal and idiosyncratic patient responses, by use of contingent feedback, change in patient responding, and monetary reinforcers. When the patient's normal verbalizations increased in probability, so did the subjects' accurate reinforcing responses following the patient's normal verbalizations, and to a lesser degree, the subjects' inaccurate reinforcing responses following the patient's idiosyncratic verbalizations. When the patient's idiosyncratic verbalizations increased in probability, the subjects' accurate and inaccurate reinforcing responses decreased in probability. The clinical implications of these tendencies are discussed.     

The role of alternative hypotheses in the integration of evidence that disconfirms an acquired belief

Two experiments examined the role of alternative hypotheses in the recognition of belief-incongruent evidence and the consequent attribution of probative value to that evidence. Using a contingency judgement and prediction task, subjects monitored multiple predictor-outcome contingencies. In a subset of three of these contingencies the evidence strongly endorsed a positive contingency in a first phase but strongly endorsed a negative contingency in a second phase. In Experiment 1 the negative evidence was presented, in part, in terms of an alternative contingency involving a new predictor or a new outcome, or in terms of no alternatives. The presence of alternative hypotheses did not influence the recognition of the negative evidence but significantly reduced the subjects' persistence in predicting the outcome in the presence of the predictor. Using the same positive-negative contingencies, Experiment 2 replicated this effect but also demonstrated that error in the feedback during the negative phase strengthened the perseverance in outcome predictions even when subjects acknowledged the negative nature of the evidence. Results from these two experiments indicate that prior beliefs do not bias the recognition of belief-incongruent evidence but the integration of that evidence is determined by the nature of the alternative hypotheses available to the reasoner.     

PROCEDURAL VARIATIONS IN GROUP CONTINGENCIES: EFFECTS ON CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

There has been little research on the effects of the many procedural variables in applied group contingencies. In the present study, an individualized contingency and three group contingencies with different “responder” criteria (e.g., reward based on the group average, reward based on the work of a designated, low-achieving student, or reward based on the work of a randomly selected student) were applied to the academic work of primary grade children in a learning disabilities classroom. Group social interaction during each contingency was measured systematically. Although there were large individual differences in students' academic and social responses to the different contingencies, some consistent effects were observed. Two of the four low-achieving target students did their best academic work during the group contingency which focused on their performance as a designated responder. This type of contingency also produced high levels of positive social interaction in three of four groups of children observed.     

Comparing an interdependent and dependent group contingency to increase physical activity in students during recess

Physical activity produces important physiological, mental health, academic, and cognitive benefits in children and youth. Despite these advantages, a large proportion of this population does not meet the recommended amount of physical activity. Recent studies have shown that the interdependent (IGC) and dependent (DGC) group contingencies improve physical activity; however, no comparison of the effects of these contingencies on physical activity has been conducted. We used a multielement within a concurrent multiple baseline design across three classes to compare the effectiveness of group contingencies on physical activity. Both group contingencies increased physical activity, with the IGC producing slightly higher overall levels of physical activity at the classwide and individual levels of analyses. We also compared participants' positive and negative statements and found that, regardless of the group contingency in effect, participants emitted higher levels of positive statements about the contingency when they earned the reward than when they did not, suggesting that reward delivery influenced statements more so than the group contingency arrangement. Results are discussed within the context of treatment decisions and future research.     

Temporal differentiation of response duration in children of different ages: developmental changes in relations between verbal and nonverbal behavior.

Children aged 4.5, 7, or 11 years received an experimental session in which a contingency was placed on button-press duration. Each discrete trial was followed by a brief verbal probe asking a question about the contingency requirement. Other groups of children received an identical task followed by a postexperimental interview. Level of adaptation to the duration contingency tended to increase with age in subjects receiving posttrial verbal probes, but not for those who were interviewed. Eleven-year-olds in the verbal probe condition showed a strong correlation between accurate temporal differentiation and number of verbalizations relating to response duration or timing. The younger subjects, with one exception, showed no association between timing-related verbalizations (which were almost totally absent) and response duration differentiation. This developmental difference occurred even though the younger subjects verbalized after almost every trial. The results suggest that although 11-year-old children apparently produce rule-governed behavior under verbal control as adults do, the behavior of younger children may be controlled directly by reinforcement contingencies even when their verbal repertoires are highly developed.     

PREPARATION FOR EFFECTIVE SELF-REGULATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENERALIZED VERBAL CONTROL

A correspondence training procedure was used to develop consistency between children's verbalizations and their subsequent behavior across increasingly remote settings and time. The interval of time between the verbalizations and the opportunity to engage in several target behaviors was systematically increased across four preschool settings. Probes of generalized verbal control of home behaviors were conducted throughout training and showed that generalization was obtained in the absence of any salient externally imposed contingencies after the children had reliably come under the control of verbalizations about preschool behaviors.     

Increasing mentally retarded adolescents' verbalizations about current events

The effects of antecedent and consequent events on the verbal behavior of three institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents were examined. Verbal statements, related to current national and international events, were recorded after exposures to television news programs. The study examined the accuracy of verbalizations as a function of: (1) exposures to television news presentations in massed (i.e., viewing the entire news program before an opportunity to describe it) versus distributed from (i.e., viewing each news item separately with each followed by an opportunity to describe it), and (2) contingent tokens and social praise for correct verbal responses (i.e., statements corresponding to news items presented). Both the temporal distribution of news presentations and the reinforcement procedures improved the accuracy of verbal statements emitted by the subjects.     

GENERALIZATION OF VERBAL CONDITIONING TO VERBAL AND NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR: GROUP THERAPY WITH CHRONIC PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS1

Twelve chronic hospitalized female patients received token reinforcement contingent on two separate classes of verbalizations: (a) positive statements about optional activities available in the hospital setting, and (b) positive statements about people. Cross-class generalization of reinforced verbal responses about activities to overt behavior was tested by actual participation in activities; within-class generalization of verbal responses about people to verbalizations in another stimulus setting was assessed in a structured interview situation. A multiple baseline design with contingency reversals was employed to demonstrate experimental control of both classes of verbalizations in the group sessions. Positive statements about activities generalized to actual participation in activities, while generalization of positive statements about people to verbalization in the extra-group setting did not occur.     

A GROUP-ORIENTED CONTINGENCY TO INCREASE LEISURE ACTIVITIES OF ADULTS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

An interdependent group-oriented contingency and graphic feedback were used to increase the activity levels of residents of a group home for persons with traumatic brain injury. Results showed that the intervention was effective for 4 of the 6 subjects. Individual performances must be examined when implementing group contingencies because all subjects may not respond.     

Pseudocontingencies derived from categorically organized memory representations

Pseudocontingencies (PCs) allow for inferences about the contingency between two variables X and Y when the conditions for genuine contingency assessment are not met. Even when joint observations X _i and Y _i about the same reference objects i are not available or are detached in time or space, the correlation r(X _i ,Y _i ) is readily inferred from base rates. Inferred correlations are positive (negative) if X and Y base rates are skewed in the same (different) directions. Such PC inferences afford useful proxies for actually existing contingencies. While previous studies have focused on PCs due to environmental base rates, the present research highlights memory organization as a natural source of PC effects. When information about two attributes X and Y is represented in a hierarchically organized categorical memory code, as category-wise base rates p(X) and p(Y), the reconstruction of item-level information from category base rates will naturally produce PC effects. Three experiments support this contention. When the yes base rates of two respondents in four questionnaire subscales (categories) were correlated, recalled and predicted item-level responses were correlated in the same direction, even when the original responses to specific items within categories were correlated in the opposite direction.     

Delusional verbalizations and beliefs

This study evaluated the intensity of delusional beliefs during the modification of delusional verbalizations with three chronically mentally ill inpatients. The multiple-baseline across responses design was used to evaluate the efficacy of a behavioral treatment package to modify delusional verbalizations. Results revealed that changes were obtained in delusional verbalizations to personal questions without corresponding changes in the subjects' delusional beliefs. Changes in delusional verbalizations were well-maintained for two subjects during a 6-month follow-up period. Mixed results were obtained for generalization probe interviews.     

An analysis of coordinated responding of pigeons

Experimental analyses of coordinated responding (i.e., cooperation) have been derived from a procedure described by Skinner (1962) in which reinforcers were delivered to a pair of subjects (a dyad) if both responded within a short interval, thus satisfying a coordination contingency. Although it has been suggested that this contingency enhances rates of temporally coordinated responding, limitations of past experiments have raised questions concerning this conclusion. The present experiments addressed some of these limitations by holding the schedule of reinforcement (Experiment 1: fixed ratio 1; Experiment 2; variable interval 20 s) constant across phases and between dyad members and by varying, in different conditions, the number of response keys (one to three) across which coordination could occur. Greater percentages of coordinated responding occurred under the coordinated-reinforcement phases than under independent-reinforcement phases in most conditions. The one exception during the one-key condition of Experiment 1 appeared to be a consequence of variability introduced by the independent-reinforcement phase procedure. Furthermore, coordination percentages decreased with increasing response options under both schedules. These results confirm and extend the finding that coordination contingencies control higher rates of temporally coordinated responding than independent-reinforcement contingencies do.     

The use of statistical,spatial-temporal,and intensional information in judgments of contingency

Judgments of the contingencies between the opinions expressed by three persons in a video-taped group discussion were investigated. Although a purely statistical interpretation of the contingency judgment task was called for by the experimental instruction, the intrusion of non-statistical information in the judgment process was demonstrated: Temporal contiguity (order of speech) and spatial contiguity (eye-contacts, body movements) systematically affected the estimated frequency of agreement among discussion participants. Similar biases were obtained in a memory test for the observed opinion statements which also suggests that intensional information (structural similarity of the discussants' arguments) influenced the cognitive representation of the contingencies. An attentional focus manipulation was also effective; attending to a certain pair of discussants resulted in higher agreement ratings for that pair. The implications of these findings for experiments which use purely statistical models of contingency as a normative criterion are discussed.     

Student-Administered Group-Oriented Contingencies:

This study introduced the student-administered group-oriented contingency intervention as a means of increasing arithmetic performance of grade-school children. Arithmetic performance and disruptive behavior were measured across a clinic and natural school setting for four underachieving fifth grade boys. The effectiveness of this intervention was assessed with an ABAB withdrawal design. Concurrent with treatment phases in the clinic setting, generalization to the school setting was evaluated. Findings indicated all four participants showed increases in arithmetic performance in the clinic during treatment phases paralleled by decreases in nontreated disruptive behavior. The first treatment phase in the clinic yielded no spontaneous setting or behavior-setting generalization. Stimuli common to the clinic setting were programmed into the school setting concurrent with the second treatment phase. This procedure resulted in setting and behavior-setting generalization. Further implications of this treatment strategy were discussed.