MAINTENANCE OF THERAPEUTIC CHANGE BY MOMENTARY DRO

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) involves delivery of reinforcement at the end of an interval during which the target behavior has not occurred. Momentary DRO, however, is a procedure in which reinforcement is delivered if a response did not occur at the end of an interval. We examined the extent to which momentary DRO maintained suppression, following initial treatment with whole-interval DRO, of nine retarded students' maladaptive behavior. Results indicate that momentary DRO maintained response suppression comparable to that obtained by whole-interval DRO.     

Teaching communicative alternatives to socially withdrawn behavior: An investigation in maintaining treatment effects

This study examined the effectiveness of a contextual intervention strategy paired with an existing packaged intervention on the ability to produce increased and durable social involvement among children who displayed socially withdrawn behavior and their peers. Using a multiple baseline design across three socially withdrawn subjects, results indicated that the combination intervention effectively increased social interactions. Results also indicated that the effects of the intervention maintained two months after intervention termination. General implications for the use of the contextual intervention strategy to produce durable treatment outcomes are discussed.     

A TECHNOLOGY FOR PROGRAM MAINTENANCE: PROGRAMMING KEY RESEARCHER BEHAVIORS IN A STUDENT HOUSING COOPERATIVE

Behavioral researchers play critical, but often unanalyzed, roles in the programs they develop. Unless they replace their key activities with standardized procedures, their continued participation may be essential to program success—a situation that is often not only impractical but may be prohibitively expensive and disliked by local staff. This study was conducted in a student housing cooperative that is dependent on close researcher supervision for its continued health and survival. A key activity of the co-op researchers was to provide public recognition for good job performance by co-op members. The purposes of this study were (a) to replace that idiosyncratic recognition with systematic procedures so members, instead of the researchers, would provide public recognition to each other for good job performance; and (b) to evaluate those procedures by comparing job performance when member-delivered recognition was provided and when it was not. When the procedures were in place, job performance increased and fines for poor job performance and complaining at meetings decreased. This study suggests that procedures can be developed to reduce program reliance on the researcher that are effective, inexpensive, sustainable, and acceptable to the participants—a first step toward developing a technology of program maintenance.     

INVOLVING INSTITUTIONAL STAFF IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF SIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS WITH PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS

A program to involve institutional staff in developing manual sign language skills with profoundly retarded persons was evaluated. In Experiment 1, six direct care staff, with close supervision, taught a small repertoire of signs to six profoundly retarded residents who had not benefited from previous training in vocal language. Training was conducted in a group format using instructions, modeling, manual guidance, contingent reinforcers, and feedback. During training, all residents learned to identify pictures of objects with manual signs. Generalization observations during unstructured times on the residents' living unit indicated that staff used their signing skills with the residents in addition to their vocal interactions but the residents did not increase their signing or vocalizing. In Experiment 2, the residents' skills in signing with real objects on their living unit as opposed to pictures of objects were evaluated and provided with additional training where necessary. Results indicated that all participating residents learned to communicate with signing during structured interactions on their living unit, and the skills maintained during follow-up assessments ranging from 39 to 49 weeks. Results are discussed regarding the variable generalization effects noted as well as the general benefits and disadvantages of teaching manual signing skills to profoundly retarded persons.     

OVERCORRECTION: GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE1

The present study examined the effects of one component of overcorrection—verbal reprimands—and compared them with the effects of the entire overcorrection procedure. Generalization and maintenance of effects were also evaluated. A combined reversal and multiple-baseline experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of the various contingencies on the inappropriate searching behavior of a severely and profoundly mentally retarded adult living in a group home. Searching was defined as carefully and thoroughly touching floors, sofas, cabinets, etc. Data were collected by group-home personnel during three separate observation periods each day of the 115-day study: before breakfast, after breakfast, and after dinner. Observers also served as experimenters. Following an initial baseline phase, verbal reprimands followed searching behavior during two daily experimental periods in multiple-baseline fashion. An immediate reduction of searching during experimental periods occurred with the onset of verbal reprimands. No reduction was observed in the third daily observation period, the control session. After a second baseline phase, during which searching behavior was not shown to return to the original baseline levels, overcorrection procedures (washing hands) were instituted. Overcorrection virtually eliminated inappropriate searching during both daily experimental periods. Further, the effects generalized to the daily control session. In a final experimental phase, decreased searching behavior was maintained with verbal reprimands alone.     

Some thoughts on correspondence between saying and doing

Recent research on verbal-nonverbal correspondence is evaluated, and conceptual, methodological, and applied issues regarding correspondence are addressed. Directions for research concerning the correspondence training procedure and extended applications are suggested.     

Sharing in preschool children: Facilitation, stimulus generalization, response generalization, and maintenance

Three approaches to facilitating verbal and physical sharing and of the generalizability and durability of the behaviors that were trained were investigated. During a free play period, groups of preschool children were taught to share verbally, to share physically, or to share verbally and physically; another group was not trained. Immediately following free play, the children were observed in a different setting. Follow-up was conducted 4 weeks after training ended. Physical sharing that was durable and generalizable resulted only when children were taught to share verbally. Increases in physical sharing produced by training children to share only physically were not durable and did not generalize. Training both verbal and physical sharing produced results with a magnitude slightly greater than teaching just verbal sharing. Despite a lack of special programming, some of the treatment effects generalized to another setting and were maintained during the Follow-up. There was response generalization of the effects of training verbal sharing to physical sharing but not vice versa. Problems with the concept of response class, a methodological suggestion for studying response generalization, and possibilities concerning why generalization and maintenance occurred without specific programming are discussed.