NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT: A FURTHER EXAMINATION OF SCHEDULE EFFECTS DURING TREATMENT

• Published in: Journal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 709 - 719
• Main Authors: Wallace, Michele D., Iwata, Brian A., Hanley, Gregory P., Thompson, Rachel H., Roscoe, Eileen M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2012; Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior; The Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Subjects: Adult; Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Behavior disorders; Behavior Problems; Behavior Therapy - methods; Behavior therapy. Cognitive therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Children & youth; Comparative Analysis; extinction; Extinction, Psychological; Families & family life; Female; functional analysis; Functional Behavioral Assessment; Humans; Influence; Intellectual disabilities; Intellectual Disability - psychology; Intervals; Male; Medical sciences; motivating operation; noncontingent reinforcement; Positive Reinforcement; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reinforcement; Reinforcement (Psychology); Reinforcement Schedule; Resistance (Psychology); schedule effects; Schedules; Self Destructive Behavior; self-injurious behavior; Self-Injurious Behavior - psychology; Self-Injurious Behavior - therapy; Teenagers; Treatments; Human; Self injury; self-injurious behavior; Aggression; Extinction; noncontingent reinforcement; Functional analysis; Noncontigent reninforcement; schedule effects; Treatment; Behavior therapy; motivating operation; Behavior; extinction; functional analysis; aggression
• ISSN: 0021-8855; 1938-3703
• DOI: 10.1901/jaba.2012.45-709

We conducted 2 studies to determine whether dense and thin NCR schedules exert different influences over behavior and whether these influences change as dense schedules are thinned. In Study 1, we observed that thin as well as dense NCR schedules effectively decreased problem behavior exhibited by 3 individuals. In Study 2, we compared the effects of 2 NCR schedules in multielement designs, one with and the other without an extinction (EXT) component, while both schedules were thinned. Problem behavior remained low as the NCR schedule with EXT was thinned, but either (a) did not decrease initially or (b) subsequently increased as the NCR schedule without EXT was thinned. These results suggest that dense schedules of NCR decrease behavior by altering its motivating operation but that extinction occurs as the NCR schedule is thinned. The benefits and limitations of using dense or thin NCR schedules are discussed.