Trace autoshaping: Acquisition, maintenance, and path dependence at long trace intervals

The pigeon's tendency to acquire and maintain signal-directed key pecking under a trace conditioning procedure was parametrically examined. In Experiment 1, the percentage of CS trials with a key peck response was a decreasing function of the trace interval for separate groups of pigeons. The majority of subjects acquired signal-directed key pecking with trace intervals as long as 36 sec. In Experiment 2, differential maintenance of key pecking occurred across trace intervals in a within-subject procedure. Maintenance of key pecking at 36- and 60-sec trace intervals was path dependent in that responding depended on the subject's performance under the preceding trace interval.     

RESEARCH ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE IN EXTRA-THERAPY RESPONDING1

Many authors have reported that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change. In Experiment I, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings. The results showed that one child did not generalize to the extra-therapy setting, but that other children did. However, for the children who generalized, extra-therapy responding was not maintained. Therefore, in Experiment II two variables affecting the durability of extra-therapy responding were assessed and found to be influential: (a) the use of partial reinforcement schedules in the original treatment environment; and (b) the presence of noncontingent reinforcers in the extra-therapy environment. The results suggest that there are two distinct parameters of extra-therapy responding: generalization and maintenance. A technology for producing durable extra-therapy responding is discussed in terms of different treatment procedures required for different deficits in extra-therapy responding.     

Treatment of overweight children: The relationship between dependent measures and a clinically significant outcome

Behavioral treatments for overweight children have not fared well in achieving or maintaining clinically significant weight losses. The use of more appropriate dependent measures which also take height, sex, and age into consideration is suggested. A multiple-baseline analysis of the behavioral treatment of seven overweight children was conducted. Results support the contention that a more clinically significant outcome emerges when appropriate measures are used.     

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.     

APPLICATIONS OF SELF-CONTROL PROCEDURES BY CHILDREN: A REVIEW

Self-control procedures as used by children to affect their own behavior were reviewed. Particular emphasis was placed on self-instruction, self-determined criteria, self-assessment, and self-reinforcement. Self-punishment, comprehensive programs, and innovative self-control procedures (distraction and restatement of contingencies) were also evaluated. Basic effectiveness, comparisons with similar externally imposed interventions, maintenance, and the augmental value of the procedures were assessed. Important problems for future research were identified.     

Maintaining Accurate Math Responses In Elementary School Students: The Effects Of Delayed Intermittent Reinforcement And Programming Common Stimuli.

This study examined the effect of delayed reinforcement on digits completed by elementary school children and the effect of programming stimuli common to reinforcement conditions on the maintenance of their performance. Participants exhibited similar levels of responding during intermittent and continuous reinforcement. Responding continued for a number of sessions at similar levels during a maintenance phase that included stimuli present during delayed reinforcement.     

Office paper recycling: A function of container proximity

We investigated the effects of proximity of containers on pounds of office paper recycled and not recycled by 25 employees. During a memo and central container condition, one container for recyclable paper was provided; in a memo and local container condition, desktop recycling bins, announced by memo, were successively introduced across administrative, office, and instructional settings using a multiple baseline design. Only 28% of paper was recycled in the central container condition, but when recycling containers were placed in close proximity to participants, 85% to 94% of all recyclable paper was recycled. Follow-up assessments, conducted 1, 2, 3, and 7 months after all settings received local recycling containers, showed that 84% to 98% of paper was recycled. Providing desktop recycling containers was a cost-effective procedure with long-term maintenance and program survival.     

Attributes of successful approaches to weight loss and control

Most weight loss treatments result in only temporary losses, followed by slow regain. This paper examines those factors that are correlated with the most favorable results in terms of loss and maintenance of loss. Weight loss is positively related to self-monitoring, goal setting, social support, and length of treatment. Maintenance of weight loss is correlated with regular physical activity, self-monitoring, and continued contact with therapists. Regain is associated with inconsistent and restrictive dieting, life stress, negative coping style, and emotional or binge eating patterns. The implications drawn from these findings are (a) normalize eating patterns, (b) emphasize exercise, (c) ensure social support, (d) set realistic goal weights, (e) focus on health rather than appearance, (f) focus on self-esteem, and (g) target binge eating.     

Assessing therapeutic problem solving skills: Empirical analysis of a measuring operation

Employment of caregivers as trainers is an imperative in the training and treatment of mentally retarded persons. Besides being taught specific behavior modification skills, these paraprofessional trainers have to obtain a set of general skills in order to adjust their specific skills to new clients, situations, and behaviors across time. Empirical research on the characteristics of therapeutic problem-solving skills are scarce. This may be due to a reluctance of behavior researchers against including cognitive factors in the analysis of behavior influence. However, the development of basic knowledge on the existence of therapeutic problem-solving skills should be one of the primary research goals. This article describes the development and application of four scales assumed to be representative of an important set of general skills—therapeutic problem-solving skills. By means of these four scales 21 caregivers were evaluated before and after extensive training. A multifaceted measuring operation is employed with the main objective of empirically testing the dimensionality of problem-solving skills. Rater consistency and individual differences in change from pre- to post-training level are also uncovered. It is concluded that the four scales of therapeutic skills, largely reflect the same underlying concept of a rather general therapeutic problem-solving skill. Discussion of the findings also pointed to future research.     

ENHANCING CONVERSATION SKILLS IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE USING A PROSTHETIC MEMORY AID

The effectiveness of teaching Alzheimer's disease subjects to use a prosthetic memory aid when conversing with familiar partners was evaluated. Effects of the training of three topics by caregivers was assessed in daily probes with the experimenter and twice weekly probes with a familiar conversational partner. All 3 subjects learned to use the memory aid with both conversational partners and improved the quality of their conversational content. Subjects made significantly more statements of fact and fewer ambiguous utterances after training on each topic according to a multiple baseline design. All subjects also generated novel, untrained statements in conversations with both partners. Treatment effects were maintained at high levels throughout training and at 3- and 6-week followup sessions. Naive judges rated baseline and posttreatment conversational samples as significantly improved on all eight conversational dimensions.