Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

The present study examined operant extinction in a controlled setting using a human operant paradigm. Participants watched a preferred video. During the video, either the video or audio portion of the video was selectively removed, on average every 15 s. Participants could restore the video by pressing a force transducer. In one group, relatively low forces were required (250 g) and in the other relatively high forces were required (750 g). At the 20th and 30th minute during the session, the video or audio was removed but the participants could not restore the component for 30 s. The results showed that responding during the probe increased relative to 30-s periods prior and following the probe, characteristic of an extinction burst. The results also showed that overall we saw increases in force under high force conditions during extinction when presses no longer produced sound or video, and force changed little during the low force conditions. We conclude that extinction bursts are a robust phenomenon that can be demonstrated in humans. Additionally, the topographies, i.e. force, established during baseline and the modality of the consequence appear to be two variables determining the short-term course of extinction.

The possible application of habit reversal to mentally ill institutional residents has not been investigated. While habit reversal holds considerable promise as a treatment mode, due to its rapid success and patient involvement in controlling his-her own behavior, further research is in order. To investigate the generality of habit reversal to an institutionalized population, the present study utilized self-monitoring, which has been found to be effective with hospitalized patients, and habit reversal, which has been found to be effective with a non-hospitalized population, as a treatment package for eliminating nervous tics. There are four major purposes for doing this present study: a) to see if modified habit reversal techniques could be used to successfully treat tics in institutionalised mental ill individuals, and in doing so look at; b) the effectiveness of procedures that involve the subject controlling his/her own behavior with that kind of population; c) To evaluate the within-in subject generality of the procedures by using a generalization measure in each subject’s living environment; and d) since Azrin and Nunn’s (1973) use of habit reversal was restricted to baseline-treatment (AB) replications, to provide an experimental analysis using a multiple baseline design.