Problem behavior is a concern for individuals with developmental disabilities. Research suggests that a release contingency time-out is effective to reduce problem behavior, but may increase the duration of time-out. Other sources recommend including a release contingency to avoid reinforcing problem behavior. It is possible clinicians generalize this concept to other domains, such as differential reinforcement with discrete-trial-training. Such a modification may be conceptualized as a tandem ratio requirement. Evidence from basic literature suggests that a tandem ratio requirement may increase a bout of responding. The current study examined effects of applied behavior analytic procedures using a bout analysis. The purpose was to identify a best-practice recommendation for clinicians to use when patterns of bout-like responding are evident, in order to efficiently decrease the duration of a bout. Three children with ASD participated. Results showed that release contingencies influenced bout-like responding in two participants. Social validity was assessed on the feasibility, efficacy, and likeability of the study. Social validity measures indicated the study had appreciable effects on problem behavior.

Operant response rate can be viewed as bouts, periods of alternating engagement and disengagement with ongoing schedules of reinforcement. Relatively few studies have examined the role of force and effort on engagement bouts. Moreover, those examining effort have used switch closure devices to define the response. Switch closures tend to overestimate the effect of effort because increasing the force requirement excludes low-force responses that previously activated the switch. In the present study, we examined the effects of effort using a force transducer, which allows us to record criterion responses that meet the force requirement and subcriterion responses that do not. The current study was conducted using four male Sprague Dawley rats. Each rat was run through a series of four conditions, each with a different combination of variable interval schedules (VI 30s, VI 120s) and force requirements (5.6g, 32g). Log survivor analyses of bout structure showed that increased force requirements decreased the rate of bout initiations. Additionally, when log-survivor functions were computed using only criterion responses, shifts in the function were less extreme than when all measured responses were used; the latter finding suggests exclusion of "subcriterion" responses in prior work has overestimated the effects of force on bout structure