ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-569

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

We examined how reinforcer rate, quality, delay, and response effort combined to influence the choices of 6 youths with learning and behavior difficulties, and the viability of an assessment methodology derived from matching theory for determining differential responsiveness to those reinforcer and response dimensions. The students were given two concurrent sets of math problems that were equal on two dimensions but competed on two other dimensions (e.g., one set yielded higher rate and lower quality reinforcement than the other). Competing dimensions were counterbalanced across the six conditions of the initial assessment phase, permitting assessment of each dimension on time allocation. The conditions resulting in the most and least time allocated to one problem set alternative relative to the other were then replicated. Time allocated to each of the problems within sets was differentially affected by the reinforcer and/or response dimensions, with allocation patterns varying across students. The results are discussed in the context of implications for the design of treatments and extrapolations from basic research on matching and behavioral economics.

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-575

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three adolescent students with special educational needs were given a choice between completing one of two available sets of math problems. Reinforcers (nickels) across these alternatives were arranged systematically in separate experimental phases according to three different concurrent variable‐interval schedules (reinforcement ratios of 2:1, 6:1, and 12:1). Time allocated to the two stacks of math problems stood in linear relationship to the reinforcement rate obtained from each stack, although substantial undermatching and bias were observed for all subjects. However, changes in the schedules were not followed by changes in allocation patterns until adjunct procedures (e.g., changeover delays, limited holds, timers, and demonstrations) were introduced. The necessity of adjunct procedures in establishing matching in applied situations is discussed as a limitation to quantitative applications of the matching law in applied behavior analysi

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-585

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The field of behavioral economics combines concepts from economics and operant conditioning to examine the influence of schedules or price on preference for reinforcers. Three case studies are reported in which behavioral economic analyses were used to assess relative preference for reinforcers shown by people with intellectual disabilities when schedule requirements varied. The studies examined (a) preference for different reinforcers, (b) substitutability of reinforcers, and (c) changes in preference as a function of schedule requirements.

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-597

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The effects of an alternative course of action on sustained escalation and persistence in the face of failure was investigated using a computerized stock investment task. Subjects invested in “stock” in two “markets” that yielded returns according to two‐component multiple variable‐interval schedules. Both markets yielded equal but intermittent return rates during the first phase. In the second phase, one market ceased to yield returns, while the return rate for the other market was unchanged. During the second phase, behavioral contrast effects were evident. Investing in the market that ceased to yield returns dropped precipitously, and investing in the unchanged market increased significantly. Although the behavior may be economically “irrational,” it is predictable from the matching law and shows that interactions among a history of intermittent returns in a course of action, current return rate, and currently available alternative courses of action are important determinants of persisting in, or withdrawing from, a failing c

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-607

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

High‐probability requests were used to increase social interactions in 3 young boys with severe disabilities who had been identified as severely socially withdrawn. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of high‐probability request intervention on (a) social initiations, (b) social responses, (c) continued interactions, and (d) performance of high‐ and low‐probability requests. The students were observed in a second setting to examine generalization effects across peers who did not participate in the training sequence and settings. The results demonstrated that the high‐probability requests increased the students' responsiveness to low‐probability requests to initiate social behavior. Increases were also found in (a) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to the training peers, (b) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to peers who were not involved in the training procedure, and (c) generalized unprompted initiations and interactions in a second nontraining setting. The students maintained increased levels of initiations and interactions after all prompts were removed from both the training and nontraini

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-619

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The provision of a series of requests to which compliance is highly likely (high‐probability requests) immediately antecedent to low‐probability requests has been used to establish behavioral momentum of compliance. We evaluated a fading procedure for maintaining high levels of compliance obtained with high‐probability requests. Fading involved a systematic reduction in the number of high‐probability requests and an increase in the latency between the high‐ and low‐probability requests. High levels of compliance for both “do” and “don't” requests were maintained for 16 weeks in a 5‐year‐old boy with developmental disabilities after the high‐probability request sequence was faded. Similar maintenance was obtained for “do” requests in a 15‐year‐old girl with developmental disabilities. For this subject, however, the high‐probability request sequence was ineffective with “don't” requests. When “don't” requests were phrased as “do” requests, the high‐probability request sequence produced high levels of compliance to the low‐probability request. High levels of compliance to these “do” requests were maintained for 16 week

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-639

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Previous research on applications of behavioral momentum has indicated that a high‐probability (high‐p) instructional sequence, in which a series of instructions for which there is a high probability of compliance is presented immediately before an instruction for which there is a low probability of compliance, is an effective method for increasing compliance. It is not dear, however, whether the procedure is effective when individuals actively attempt to escape from the instructional situation. In this study, we examined the effects of the high‐psequence, when implemented first alone and then later with an extinction component, as treatment for the self‐injurious escape behavior of 2 individuals. Results showed that when the instructional sequence was implemented without extinction, rates of self‐injury increased and percentage of compliance decreased. In addition, the percentage of trials occasioning escape behavior increased for both high‐ and low‐probability instructions. When an extinction component was added to the high‐psequence, rates of self‐injury and the percentage of trials containing self‐injury decreased, and compliance increased. These findings suggest that extinction may be an important component of treatment when escape behavior such as self‐injury accompanies noncompliance in instructional contexts and competes wi

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-649

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Adults were selected on the basis of their scores on the Scale for Personality Rigidity (Rehfisch, 1958a). Their scores served as a measure of hypothesized rule governance in the natural environment. Experiment 1 studied the effects of accurate versus minimal instructions and high versus low rigidity on performance on a multiple differential‐reinforcement‐of‐low‐rate (DRL) 4‐s fixed‐ratio (FR) 18 schedule. When the schedule was switched to extinction, accurate instructions and high rigidity were associated with greater perseveration in the response pattern subjects developed during the reinforcement phase. In Experiment 2, the effects of rigidity and of accurate versus inaccurate instructions were studied. Initially, all subjects received accurate instructions about an FR schedule. The schedule was then switched to DRL, but only half of the subjects received instructions about the DRL contingency, and the other half received FR instructions as before. Accurate instructions minimized individual differences because both high and low scorers on the rigidity scale earned points in DRL. However, when inaccurate instructions were provided, all high‐rigidity subjects followed them although they did not earn points on the schedule, whereas most low‐rigidity subjects abandoned them and responded appropriately to DRL. The experiments demonstrate a correlation between performances observed in the human operant laboratory and a paper‐and‐pencil test of rigidity that purportedly reflects important response styles that differentiate individuals in the natural environment. Implications for applied research and interve

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-659

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Three students with moderate disabilities were taught to read and match‐to‐sample sight words comprising stimulus sets based upon the four food groups. We taught students conditional discriminations within four four‐member sets using a single‐sample/four‐comparison procedure. Students were taught A‐B, B‐C, and C‐D conditional discriminations for each of the four potential stimulus classes. Subsequent probes tested for relations based upon symmetry and one‐node and two‐node transitivity. The performances for all students indicated that symmetric relations emerged before one‐node transitive relations, and that one‐node transitive relations emerged before two‐node transitive relations. These results are consistent with a pattern of responding, referred to as a “nodality effect,” in which relations with fewer nodes are demonstrated prior to the demonstration of relations with a greater number of nodes. These results extend this area of research to sight‐word reading for stud

ISSN:0021-8855    

DOI:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-673

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY