An experimental analysis of task refusal: A comparison of negative reinforcement contingencies and transitions between academic tasks

The purpose of the study was to do an experimental analysis of academic task refusal for one girl with a developmental disability. Task refusal was analyzed in two experimental analyses. First, an analysis testing if the behavior was maintained by negative reinforcement, and the second, an analysis testing if the behavior was the result of transitioning between academic tasks differing in preference. Task refusal did not occur in the demand condition of the functional analysis, indicating that the behavior was not maintained by escape from demands. Conversely, task refusal occurred solely in the second experimental analysis when transitioning from a high-preferred to a low-preferred academic task. In this case, the context of terminating a preferred academic task and transitioning to a less preferred academic task was aversive but not the demand itself. In addition, when an embedded break condition was compared to a no break condition in a multielement design, task refusal was reduced to zero levels.