Modification of severe disruptive and aggressive behavior using brief timeout and reinforcement procedures

Brief timeout for disruptive and aggressive behaviors and reinforcement for appropriate behaviors were used with two retarded patients in a state hospital ward setting. The procedures reduced loud vocal behavior in one patient and aggressive behavior in another to near-zero levels when first applied. The behaviors returned to previous levels when the procedures were removed and were again greatly reduced when timeout and reinforcement were reapplied. The results were significant because the behavior problems were severe and long-standing and the procedures were instituted without greatly disturbing normal ward routine.     

Disruption of a temporal discrimination under response-independent shock

The responding of rats was reinforced on one key after a 1-sec auditory stimulus and on a second key after a 5-sec stimulus. With errors punished by a short timeout, all subjects achieved a high level of accuracy. A chain of responses during the stimuli mediated the performance so that when the auditory signals were omitted accuracy decreased only slightly. Response-independent aversive stimulation superimposed upon this procedure both suppressed the total amount of behavior and reduced the accuracy of the discriminative performance, the intensity of the stimulus determining the error rate. The increase in errors under these conditions may have depended in part upon differential suppression of members of the response chain, but such suppression was not necessary, since error rate increased even in its absence. Furthermore, the locus of response disruption within the chain was not consistent from day to day either for any individual animal or across animals.