Few studies have investigated methods for establishing neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcers in human subjects. Conditioned reinforcers, however, can alleviate some of the problems encountered in applied behavior analytic (ABA) therapy for children with autism, such as satiation and suitability of reinforcers for specific environments. A series of reversals evaluated the effects of a conditioning procedure involving pairing a neutral stimulus, the remote control stimulus (RCT), with an identified reinforcer. Phase 1 demonstrated that the RCT was neutral. In Phase 2, alternating pairing and testing conditions were run. During testing the effects of pairing were evaluated by the effectiveness of the RCT in maintaining a response in the absence of a previously available reinforcer (extinction test) and in increasing a new response over a baseline level (learning test). Results from the extinction test suggest that under some pairing conditions the RCT can acquire properties of a reinforcer.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:27:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Graziela Siebert.pdf: 1011844 bytes, checksum: 8cc453da65d734b48b6fc0795fde9f8d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-02-01 / Universidade Estadual Paulista J?lio de Mesquita Filho / Panic Disorder is one of the most frequent and incapability problems among anxiety disturbing, representing one of major reasons people look for health support in Brazil and in world. The Behavior Analyses Therapy constitutes a treatment propose with very satisfactory results, focusing on the relation between clients felt and described symptoms and the operation contingencies, of which his/her behavior means the functions. The fully removal of symptoms (private events described by client) may occur since contingencies changing. The goal of this present work is to verify the changing occurrence from a verbal report of a client (25 years old) diagnosed with Panic Disorder by a psychiatrist. The changes occurred were verbalizations on auto-analyses and symptom descriptions for observation report and description of the relation among behavior/symptoms/environment, creating an initial strategy for psychotherapy treatment of such disorder. First eleven psychotherapy sessions were recorded and transcribed, and verbalizations were divided into categories by three independent judges - categories of client verbalization: Symptom, Environment, Behavior, Symptom/ Environment, Others; and functional categories of therapist verbalizations: Information, Investigation, Feedback, Advice/Rule, Interpretations, Others. Results have demonstrated as an answer for therapy intervention an important decrease on client verbalization frequency concerning category of symptom and an increase on category concerning symptom/environment. Those results contribute with clinical practice based on Radical Behaviorism philosophy, by demonstrating, in a natural clinical situation, that client behavior statement is selected (by therapist), as any other behavior, following the behavior concept as a result of environmental concern. / O Transtorno do P?nico ? um dos mais freq?entes e incapacitantes problemas dentre os transtornos ansiosos, representando um dos motivos de maior procura dos servi?os de sa?de no Brasil e no mundo. A Terapia Anal?tico-Comportamental constitui uma proposta com resultados bastante satisfat?rios para seu tratamento, e seu enfoque ? o esclarecimento da rela??o entre os sintomas sentidos e descritos pelo cliente e as conting?ncias em opera??o, das quais seus comportamentos s?o fun??o. A completa remo??o dos sintomas (eventos privados descritos pelo cliente) poder? ocorrer em conjunto com a altera??o das conting?ncias. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi verificar a ocorr?ncia da mudan?a do relato verbal de uma cliente (25 anos) diagnosticada com Transtorno do P?nico por um psiquiatra. A mudan?a ocorrida foi de verbaliza??es sobre auto-observa??o e descri??o de sintomas para o relato de observa??o e descri??o da rela??o comportamento / sintoma / ambiente, compondo uma estrat?gia inicial para o tratamento psicoterap?utico deste transtorno. Foram gravadas e transcritas as onze primeiras sess?es de psicoterapia, e as verbaliza??es categorizadas por tr?s juizes independentes - categorias para verbaliza??es da cliente: Sintoma, Ambiente, Comportamento, Sintoma / Ambiente, Outras; e categorias funcionais para verbaliza??es do terapeuta: Informa??o, Investiga??o, Feedback, Conselhos / Regras, Interpreta??es, Outras. Os resultados demonstraram uma diminui??o acentuada na freq??ncia de verbaliza??es da cliente referentes ? categoria sintoma e um aumento na freq??ncia da categoria rela??o sintoma / ambiente, como produto da interven??o terap?utica desenvolvida. Estes resultados contribuem com a pr?tica cl?nica baseada na filosofia do Behaviorismo Radical, por demonstrar, em uma situa??o cl?nica natural , que o comportamento da cliente de relatar ? selecionado (no caso, pelo terapeuta), como qualquer outro comportamento, seguindo uma concep??o de comportamento como produto de rela??es ambientais.