THE RELATIVE MOTIVATIONAL PROPERTIES OF SENSORY AND EDIBLE REINFORCERS IN TEACHING AUTISTIC CHILDREN

We compared the effects of sensory and edible reinforcers on resistance to satiation in three autistic children while learning visual discrimination tasks. Within-subject designs were used to compare a single sensory reinforcer with a single edible reinforcer and to compare multiple sensory reinforcers with multiple edibles. Results indicated that multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers; however, the use of single sensory reinforcers and single edibles resulted in about equal numbers of trials to satiation. Both multiple and single sensory reinforcers produced higher percentages of correct responses than edible reinforcers. The findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of sensory reinforcers in teaching autistic children.     

Sensory Extinction: A procedure for eliminating self-stimulatory behavior in developmentally disabled children

This study was designed to investigate the role of sensory reinforcement in the motivation of self-stimulation. If self-stimulatory behavior is maintained by its sensory consequences, such as the proprioceptive, auditory, or visual stimulation it produces, then such behavior should extinguish when those sensory consequences are not permitted. The present study introduces a new procedure, Sensory Extinction, in which certain sensory consequences are masked or removed, to examine whether self-stimulation is operant behavior maintained by sensory reinforcement. The effectiveness of Sensory Extinction was assessed by a reversal design for each of three autistic children, and the results showed the following. First, self-stimulation reliably extinguished when a certain sensory consequence was removed, then increased when that consequence was permitted. This was replicable within and across children. Second, different Sensory Extinction procedures were required for different self-stimulatory behaviors, since the sensory reinforcers supporting them were idiosyncratic across children. Finally, regarding clinical gains, the data suggest that Sensory Extinction may be a relatively convenient and rapid alternative for the treatment of self-stimulation. The present findings extend the efficacy of extinction as a behavior-modification technique to instances in which the reinforcer is purely sensory. The implications of these results for the treatment of other forms of deviant behavior are discussed.     

The generality of overselectivity in developmentally disabled children

A growing body of research suggests that low Mental Age (MA) autistic and retarded children show a unique stimulus control deficit, one that may cause many or most of their behavioral deficiencies. This problem, stimulus overselectivity, is evidenced when a child responds only to a restricted portion of the stimulus environment when compared with normal children. The purpose of this study was to assess whether this overselectivity is general across situations or whether it is restricted to certain stimulus/task conditions. Eight autistic children, who evidenced overselectivity on a preassessment task, and 8 normal children with similar MA levels participated. All children were trained on 3 tasks to determine if overselectivity varied as a function of different stimulus conditions. Each of the 3 tasks involved training a child to respond to (i.e., touch) a card containing a circle (S +) and to avoid a blank (S ?) card. In each case, the circle comprised a series of dots. The difference between the 3 circles (tasks) was the distance between the successive dots making up each circle. Also, in the minimal separation condition the dots were smaller in size and greater in number than in the larger separation conditions. Of concern was whether autistic children learned about the gestalt (i.e., the circle), which required attention to multiple cues, or whether children would overselect and respond to the dots. The results showed that (1) stimulus overselectivity was found not to be a generalized deficit in autistic subjects; instead, it varied as a function of the stimulus variables; and (2) the stimulus variables manipulated in this study similarly influenced the responding of both normal and autistic children. The implications of these data for a theory of overselectivity are discussed.     

The technical drift of applied behavior analysis

Four dimensions (applied, analytic, general, conceptual) were selected from Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968) seminal article on the nature of applied behavior analysis and were monitored throughout the first 10 volumes of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Each of the experimental articles in Volumes 1 through 6 and the first half of Volumes 7 through 10 was rated on each of these dimensions. The trends showed that applied behavior analysis is becoming a more purely technical effort, with less interest in conceptual questions. We are using simpler experimental designs and are conducting fewer analogue studies. Although concern for maintenance is increasing, other forms of generality are being measured or analyzed less often. These trends are discussed in terms of a technical drift in applied behavior analysis.     

ASSESSING AND TRAINING TEACHERS IN THE GENERAUZED USE OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION WITH AUTISTIC CHILDREN1

This study investigated the feasibility of developing reliable, valid criteria for measuring and training the skills necessary to teach autistic children. The behaviors of 11 teachers and 12 autistic children were recorded in a series of different teaching situations. Teacher-training was initiated at different times for different teachers. The results showed: (1) it was possible to assess empirically whether a teacher was correctly using defined behavior-modification techniques; (2) generally, for any given session, systematic improvement in the child's behavior did not occur unless the teacher working in that session had been trained to use the techniques to a high criterion; (3) all 11 teachers were rapidly trained to use these techniques; and (4) the teachers learned generalized skills effective with a variety of children and target behaviors.     

TREATMENT OF PSYCHOTIC CHILDREN IN A CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT: I. LEARNING IN A LARGE GROUP1

The purpose of this study was to investigate systematically the feasibility of modifying the behavior of autistic children in a classroom environment. In the first experiment, eight autistic children were taught certain basic classroom behaviors (including attending to the teacher upon command, imitation, and an elementary speaking and recognition vocabulary) that were assumed to be necessary for subsequent learning to take place in the classroom. Based on research documenting the effectiveness of one-to-one (teacher-child ratio) procedures for modifying such behaviors, these behaviors were taught in one-to-one sessions. It was, however, found that behaviors taught in a one-to-one setting were not performed consistently in a classroom-sized group, or even in a group as small as two children with one teacher. Further, the children evidenced no acquisition of new behaviors in a classroom environment over a four-week period. Therefore, Experiment II introduced a treatment procedure based upon “fading in” the classroom stimulus situation from the one-to-one stimulus situation. Such treatment was highly effective in producing both a transfer in stimulus control and the acquisition of new behaviors in a kindergarten/first-grade classroom environment.     

Some motivational properties of sensory stimulation in psychotic children

The purpose of this experiment was to assess the reinforcing properties of sensory stimulation for autistic children. Three different types of sensory stimulation were used: music, visual flickering stimulation (e.g., strobe light), and visual movement (e.g., windshield wiper). In a given session, one of the three kinds of sensory stimulation was presented for 5 sec contingent upon the children's bar pressing (FR5). In Phase I, which was designed to assess the differential reinforcement value of these events, four children participated in sessions with each of the sensory events. In Phase II, designed to assess variables influencing the maintenance of responding for the sensory events, two children continued to participate in sessions with their preferred sensory event until satiation occurred. The results showed the following: (1) Sensory events could be used as reinforcing stimuli to produce a high rate of responding which was relatively durable over time: (2) the reinforcement function of the sensory events was idiosyncratic across children. with one child preferring one kind of sensory event, and another child preferring a different kind; (3) there was substantial variability in daily response rates: and (4) when a child satiated on a particular sensory event, a relatively small change in the sensory event was sufficient to recover a high rate of responding. The results of this study suggest that sensory reinforcers can profitably be used in behavior therapy with autistic children.     

PARENT EDUCATION PROJECT III: INCREASING AFFECTION AND RESPONSIVITY IN DEVELOPMENTALLY HANDICAPPED MOTHERS: COMPONENT ANALYSIS,GENERALIZATION, AND EFFECTS ON CHILD LANGUAGE

We evaluated the effects of a parent training program consisting of verbal instruction, modeling, and feedback on the affection and responsivity of 3 developmentally handicapped mothers towards their children. The results indicated the following: First, the training package increased maternal physical affection, praise, and imitation of child vocalizations. These parenting skills increased to levels found in comparison groups of nonhandicapped mothers. Second, the training package was more effective than verbal instruction alone, the latter being the predominant method presently used by social service workers. Third, most maternal gains were maintained over a 3- to 18-month follow-up period, although one mother required a reinforced maintenance procedure. Fourth, instructing mothers to generalize served to increase the generalization of newly acquired skills from play times (the training context) to child-care tasks (e.g., diapering, feeding). Fifth, teaching the parents to imitate child vocalizations was related to gains in both the frequency and quality of verbal behavior of the two language delayed children as measured by standardized developmental tests and in vivo comparisons with age-matched children (who had nonhandicapped parents). These results show that behavioral instruction can improve important child-rearing skills of developmentally handicapped mothers, with corresponding benefits to their children.     

Comparing autistic and normal children along the dimensions of reinforcement maximization, stimulus sampling, and responsiveness to extinction

The purpose of this study was to assess autistic children's ability to maximize reinforcement, sample among available stimuli, and respond to extinction. Responding to five concurrent reinforcement schedules (CRF, FR 2, FR 4, FR 7, and FR 11) was monitored and compared to groups of mental age-matched and chronological age-matched normal children. When a given child consistently selected a given schedule of reinforcement, it was then put on extinction, and both perseveration and responding to the remaining (intact) schedules of reinforcement were monitored. The results showed, first, that while normal children selected the richest schedule of reinforcement, autistics did not maximize reinforcement, typically selecting one of the thinner schedules available. Second, the autistic children sampled less, and less efficiently, than the normal children. Third, the autistic children proved to be much less responsive to extinction, perseverating longer than the normal children before switching to a new reinforcement schedule. Fourth, whenever extinction proved to be a problem in the autistics, it was quickly achieved by a simple change in the stimulus conditions. These results are discussed as possible "keystone" deficits, which may be causally related to many of the behavioral deficits of autism and which might be important target behaviors for treatment.