MODIFICATION OF PERSEVERATIVE RESPONDING THAT INCREASED EARNINGS BUT IMPEDED SKILL ACQUISITION IN A JOB-SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM

• Published in: Journal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 627 - 640
• Main Authors: DeFulio, Anthony, Iati, Carina, Needham, Mick, Silverman, Kenneth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2009; Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior; The Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Subjects: Abstinence; addiction; Addictions; Adult; Adult Education; Adults; Cocaine; Contingencies; Contingency Management; Double-Blind Method; Drug Addiction; Earnings; Education; Employment; extinction; Female; Humans; Intervention; Job Skills; job skills training; Male; Maryland; Middle Aged; Motor Skills Disorders - chemically induced; Motor Skills Disorders - rehabilitation; Naltrexone - adverse effects; Narcotic Antagonists - adverse effects; Office Occupations; Persistence; Poverty; Rehabilitation, Vocational; Reinforcement; Reinforcement (Psychology); response blocking; Responses; Secondary schools; Skill Development; Skills; Substance abuse treatment; Substance-Related Disorders - drug therapy; Substance-Related Disorders - physiopathology; Substance-Related Disorders - rehabilitation; Therapy, Computer-Assisted - methods; Training; Unemployment; Urine; Vocational Rehabilitation; voucher reinforcement; Vouchers; Welfare; Workplace; Maryland; response blocking; voucher reinforcement; extinction; addiction; job skills training
• ISSN: 0021-8855; 1938-3703
• DOI: 10.1901/jaba.2009.42-627

Adults in a therapeutic workplace working on a computerized keyboarding training program earned vouchers for typing correct characters. Typing technique was evaluated on review steps. Participants could pass the review and earn a bonus, or skip the review and proceed with no bonus. Alternatively, participants could continue practicing on the same step. Participants persistently repeated the same step, which halted progress through the program but allowed them to increase their rate of responding and, as a result, their earnings. Blocking the initiation of practice on review steps and removing payment for practice initiated after prompts (extinction) both produced rapid progress through the program. These results underscore the importance of careful arrangement of the contingencies in adult education programs.