| Abstract: | Non‐compliance with requests in educational or therapeutic settings interferes with teaching and learning. Recent studies indicate that the probability of compliance can be increased when short sequences of requests with a high probability of compliance are followed by a request less likely to be followed by compliance. The high probability command sequence (HPCS) consists of requests that produce compliance rates of 80% or more. For some individuals with severe disabilities it is difficult to find sufficient number of requests that result in 80% compliance. This study assessed the effects of two levels of high probability request sequences on compliance with subsequent low probability requests. The three participants (ages 7, 11, and 20) met the diagnostic criteria for autism and/or severe to profound mental retardation. Results showed that both high (>80% compliance) and medium (50–70% compliance) request sequences produced increases in compliance to subsequent requests that had produced low compliance rates (<40%) during baseline. No systematic differences were observed between high and medium probability sequences. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
