Positive reinforcement was more effective than negative reinforcement in promoting compliance and reducing escape-maintained problem behavior for a child with autism. Escape extinction was then added while the child was given a choice between positive or negative reinforcement for compliance and the reinforcement schedule was thinned. When the reinforcement requirement reached 10 consecutive tasks, the treatment effects became inconsistent and reinforcer selection shifted from a strong preference for positive reinforcement to an unstable selection pattern.DESCRIPTORS: differential reinforcement, compliance, choice, escape-maintained behavior, behavioral economics Recent studies have demonstrated that positive reinforcement for task compliance can increase compliance and decrease escapemaintained problem behavior even when problem behavior continues to result in escape (Lalli et al., 1999;Piazza et al., 1997). Moreover, participants in the study by Lalli et al. continued to display low levels of problem behavior when the negative reinforcement schedule for problem behavior was far denser than the positive reinforcement schedule for compliance. These authors suggested that the value of positive reinforcement exceeded that of negative reinforcement even when schedule discrepancies favored the latter.In the current study, we first reexamined the relative effects of positive and negative reinforcement for compliance, without extinction, on levels of compliance and escapeThis investigation was supported in part by Grant 1 R01 HD37837-01 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Address correspondence to Iser G. DeLeon, Neurobehavioral Unit, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 707 N. Broadway, Baltimore, Maryland 21205 (E-mail: deleon@kennedykrieger.org). maintained problem behavior. We then reexamined potential changes in the relative value of positive and negative reinforcement as a function of increasing reinforcement schedule values. However, unlike Lalli et al. (1999), the second analysis was conducted while problem behavior was on extinction and positive or negative reinforcement could be earned only through appropriate behavior. A direct comparison of the relative value of positive and negative reinforcement was made using a chained schedule procedure in which completion of the required number of tasks produced the opportunity to choose positive or negative reinforcement. METHOD Participant and Target BehaviorsSamantha, a 10-year-old girl who had been diagnosed with autism, had been admitted to an inpatient unit for the assessment and treatment of severe behavior disorders. Samantha communicated using three-to four-word phrases and followed multistep instructions. Her aberrant behaviors included self-injury (scratching herself ),

The automatically reinforced self-injury of a girl with autism was treated by providing noncontingent access to a single set of preferred toys during 30-min sessions. The reductive effects of the intervention waned as the session progressed. Rotating toy sets after 10 min or providing access to multiple toy sets resulted in reductions that lasted the entire 30 min.

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