This study replicated the response-restriction free-operant procedures of Hanley et al. (2003) and expanded their study by comparing the results to that of a paired choice and multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments. I also compared the results to a modified version of the Hanley et al. procedures. A statistical analysis was conducted with the hierarchies identified from each assessment using the Spearman Rank order to measure the correlation within and across participants. Finally, I analyzed the results of 32 free operant preference assessments to identify at what point preference was identifiable.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of various secondary reinforcers on the behavior of a hyperactive child. A base rate of appropriate behavior was obtained in a first-grade classroom. The operant techniques employed were secondary reinforcers consisting of monetary reinforcement; monetary paired with peer reinforcement; monetary, peer, and verbal reinforcement combined; and verbal reinforcement only.

The fundamental unit of behavior, defined by the discriminated operant, can be reduced to the three-term contingency, which includes an antecedent stimulus, a response, and a reinforcing consequence. Behavioral momentum theory suggests that resistance to disruption (i.e., resistance to change) of operant behavior is governed by the relation between the antecedent stimulus context and the rate of reinforcement within that context (i.e., Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer relation). Further, behavior momentum theory suggests that resistance to change is independent of the contingency between the response and the reinforcer (i.e., operant response-reinforcer relation). Thus, although additional response-independent food decreases response rates by greatly degrading the response-reinforcer relation, resistance to change is increased because the stimulus-reinforcer relation is enhanced. Inconsistent with behavioral momentum theory, unsignaled delays decrease response rates and resistance to change by slightly degrading the response-reinforcer relation while maintaining equal stimulus-reinforcer relations. Therefore, it is unclear exactly how degrading response-reinforcer relations with response-independent food and delayed reinforcers affects resistance to change because the stimulus-reinforcer relations have generally differed across components and studies. Thus, the present experiment examined whether differentially degrading response-reinforcer relations affects resistance to change while maintaining equal stimulus-reinforcer relations. In the present experiment, a three-component multiple schedule with equal rates of immediate response-dependent reinforcement (15 per hr) was used with pigeons keypecking for food. Equal rates of response-independent food (60 per hr) and 3-s unsignaled delayed reinforcers (60 per hr) were added to two different components in baseline. Thus, the stimulus-reinforcer relations were equal in the two components with added reinforcers and were greater than in the component without added reinforcers . Any differences in resistance to change across the components with added reinforcers should reflect only differences in the response-reinforcer relations because the stimulus-reinforcer relations were equal. Consistent with behavioral-momentum theory, however, resistance to presession feeding, response-independent food presented during intercomponent intervals , and extinction was greater in the components with added reinforcers. There were no differences in resistance to change between the two components with added reinforcers. These results replicate the finding that adding response-independent food increases resistance to change and extends this finding to the effects of added delayed reinforcement.

Several variables have been shown to influence resistance to change including rate, magnitude, and delay to reinforcement (Nevin, 1974). One variable that has not been studied with humans concerns the evaluation of resistance to change with unconditioned and conditioned reinforcers. In Experiment 1 (Resistance to Extinction Assessment), 5 participants' behaviors were reinforced during a baseline phase on a mult VI 30 s VI 30 s schedule with either a conditioned (i.e., token) or unconditioned reinforcer (i.e., food). Following equal reinforcement rates across components, extinction was introduced as a disruptor. All participants showed greater resistance to extinction in the component associated with conditioned reinforcers than unconditioned reinforcers. In Experiment 2 (Varied Distractors Assessment), 4 participants experienced a baseline phase the same as Experiment 1 (i.e., mult VI 30 s VI 30 s). Each participant was then exposed to prefeeding and distraction as disruptors in separate analyses. Results showed that behaviors were more resistant to distraction with conditioned than unconditioned reinforcers, similar to Experiment 1. However, when prefeeding disrupted responding, greater resistance to change was observed with unconditioned reinforcers than conditioned reinforcers. Implications of the results are discussed.

Human operant studies frequently use points exchangeable for money as reinforcers. Some studies employ more immediately consumable reinforcers to emulate properties of food reinforcers. This study examined demand for points/money and for sound-clips to compare their economic characteristics. Across four participants, demand was often higher and less elastic for points/money than for sounds. During subsequent exposures at each response requirement, demand for sounds often decreased to a greater degree than demand for points/money. Thus, sound-clips seem less durable than points/money across prices and across repeated exposure to the same price. Response rates for points/money were often higher than for sounds, suggesting that reinforcers that generate higher response rates may be less elastic than reinforcers that generate lower response rates.

This study was an objective investigation of an operant program in behavior modification using tangible reinforoers, which was conducted in two Special Education classes in the Denton Independent School District.

The following study was conducted to find out more about a video test that could identify social activities that are motivating for individuals with disabilities. Commonly tests can be administered to find what physical items, food, toys, games and so forth, are preferred but the process becomes infinitely more difficult when social activities and interactions are involved. Research has shown that participation in reinforcing social experiences is critical for development and crucial in social skill building. In this study, a video-based test was analyzed to see how effective it was in identifying these socially preferred activities in three individuals with disabilities. The study began with a parent interview, to identify potentially reinforcing activities, and a brief pretest with each participant. The participants then completed the video test in which they were allowed to choose, via video, which activities they wanted to do. When the video test was complete, the activity that each participant liked the most and least was used in the final phase of the study. Each participant was given an individual task and in each session they were rewarded for completing tasks with their most and least preferred activities. For each of the three participants the most highly preferred activity increased their task completion and the lowest preferred did not have a significant effect. These results suggest that the video-based preference assessment was able to successfully identify social activities that were preferred and nonpreferred for each participant.

We used a combined multi-element, ABCBC reversal design to examine whether qualities of various negative reinforcers can be assessed under progressive-ratio schedules. Two adults with disabilities participated in this study. We assessed five sounds three times using progressive-ratio schedules to obtain mean break points for each stimulus and ranked negative reinforcers according to their mean break points. We called the stimulus with the highest mean break point the high-quality escape (HQE) stimulus and the stimulus with the lowest break point the low-quality escape (LQE) stimulus and examined responding according to different schedules of reinforcement for each stimulus: FR2, FR4, and FR8 for Jenny and FR1 and FR11 for April. We identified preferred and nonpreferred sounds for both participants.We observed differential responding for both participants between preferred and nonpreferred sounds. We observed differential responding between HQE and LQE stimuli for April but not for Jenny; a larger range in break points was observed for April. These results demonstrate a method to identify preferred and nonpreferred sounds and provide support for the possibility of using progressive-ratio schedules to rank negative reinforcers of various qualities.

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 2016-07-27T14:21:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiza de Marilac Ribeiro Cardoso.pdf: 911836 bytes, checksum: 07b849ac79584ad355a0c0623415af0f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-04-30 / This study aims to investigate the effects of aerobic exercise in connection with generalized reinforcers on the intensity of depression in people diagnosed by psychiatrists as depressed disorders. The subjects were two female adolescents, who were presented with behavior indicating depression. A reversion outline in the pattern ABAB-B was used to demonstrate the control of the procedures adopted, over a period of five months, distributed into 48 sessions of 60 minutes for the participants, as follows: Baseline I (BLI) composed of 6 sessions, followed by an intervention phase (INT-I) with 12 sessions; return to Baseline (BL-II) with 6 sessions, followed by two other intervention phases (INT-II and INT-III), the last of which conducted 30 days after INT-II. Data collecting was conducted through register sheets (RS) registering participants emotional conditions, RS-1 and RS-2 have been filled out by participants themselves, where as RS-3 by a family member. Research data show that regular aerobic exercise, in connection with generalized reinforcers efforts proved effective in reducing depression intensity. Next, analogous considerations under the prism of behaviorist concepts were developed. / O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar efeitos da aplicação do exercício aeróbio associado aos reforçadores generalizados sobre a intensidade da depressão em pessoas diagnosticadas por psiquiatras com o transtorno depressivo. Participaram da pesquisa duas adolescentes do sexo feminino, que apresentavam comportamentos indicativos de depressão. Um delineamento de reversão no formato ABAB-B foi utilizado para demonstrar o controle dos procedimentos utilizados, durante um período de cinco meses distribuídos em 48 sessões de 60 minutos para ambas participantes, assim especificados: Linha de base I (LB-I) composta de 6 sessões, seguida por uma fase de intervenção (INT-I) com 12 sessões; retorno à fase de linha de base (LB-II) com 6 sessões, seguida por outras duas fases de intervenção (INT-II e INT-III), sendo a última após 30 dias do final da INT-II. A coleta de dados foi feita através de folhas de registro (FR) sobre o estado emocional das participantes, sendo a FR-1 e a FR-2 preenchidas pelas mesmas e a FR-3 preenchida por um membro da família. Os dados da pesquisa mostraram que a prática do exercício aeróbio regular, associado aos reforçadores generalizados, foi efetiva na redução da intensidade da depressão. Em seguida, se desenvolveram considerações análogas sob o enfoque dos conceitos comportamentalistas.