We compared the effects of reinforcing compliance with either positive reinforcement (edible items) or negative reinforcement (a break) on 5 participants' escape-maintained problem behavior. Both procedures were assessed with or without extinction. Results showed that compliance was higher and problem behavior was lower for all participants when compliance produced an edible item rather than a break. Treatment gains were achieved without the use of extinction. Results are discussed regarding the use of positive reinforcement to treat escape behavior.

Contingencies of reinforcement involve, in part, relations between behavior and subsequent environmental events. In this study we observed 11 individuals with developmental disabilities and severe behavior problems while they interacted with their primary care providers in simulated environments (hospital therapy rooms). We compared the probability of obtaining attention, escape from instructional demands, or access to materials following instances of problem behavior with the background probability of those events. However, the focus of our analysis was the evaluation of comparative probabilities ("contingency values") in the context of relevant establishing operations such as diverted attention, instructional demands, and restricted access to materials. Results showed that the method was useful in identifying relations between behavior and subsequent environmental events. Implications for linking descriptive and functional analyses are discussed, and difficulties in identifying naturally occurring contingencies are considered.

Impulsivity and self-control involve a choice between a smaller, more immediate reinforcer and a larger, more delayed reinforcer. Impulsive behavior occurs when responding produces the more immediate, relatively smaller reinforcers at the expense of delayed larger reinforcers. Self-control occurs when responding produces delayed larger reinforcers at the expense of immediate smaller reinforcers. Recently, researchers in applied behavior analysis have suggested that evaluations of self-control and impulsivity are relevant to socially important behaviors. Further, common behavioral treatments such as differential reinforcement may be influenced by variables such as reinforcer delay. In this study, we showed that aggression, reinforced by access to food, could be maintained as impulsive behavior. The participants were 2 young boys with severe developmental disabilities. For both participants, descriptive observations, care provider report, and functional analyses suggested that aggression was reinforced by food access (and television access for 1 participant). Next, we introduced a differential reinforcement procedure in which appropriate mands were reinforced. After various manipulations, we showed that aggression occurred when it produced immediate but small reinforcers even though mands produced larger, more delayed reinforcers. However, both participants displayed self-control when the delay to reinforcement was signaled (with a hand gesture or a timer).

descriptive assessment, functional analysis, lag-sequential analysis, precursors, problem behavior, response-class hierarchies

We evaluated problem behavior and appropriate behavior using the matching equation with 4 individuals with developmental disabilities. Descriptive observations were conducted during interactions between the participants and their primary care providers in either a clinical laboratory environment (3 participants) or the participant's home (1 participant). Data were recorded on potential reinforcers, problem behavior, and appropriate behavior. After identifying the reinforcers that maintained each participant's problem behavior by way of functional analysis, the descriptive data were analyzed retrospectively, based on the matching equation. Results showed that the proportional rate of problem behavior relative to appropriate behavior approximately matched the proportional rate of reinforcement for problem behavior for all participants. The results extend prior research because a functional analysis was conducted and because multiple sources of reinforcement (other than attention) were evaluated. Methodological constraints were identified, which may limit the application of the matching law on both practical and conceptual levels.DESCRIPTORS: matching, descriptive analysis, severe problem behavior, functional analysis Choice may be defined as the emission of one of two or more alternative and usually incompatible responses (Catania, 1998). In operant laboratories, choice has been evaluated typically in concurrent-schedule arrangements (e.g., Herrnstein, 1961) under which two or more schedules operate simultaneously but independently, and consequences are delivered for different response alternatives. Herrnstein provided a quantitative description of behavior on concurrent schedules of reinforcement now known as the matching law. The matching law states that organisms will distribute their behavior

We conducted descriptive observations of 5 individuals with developmental disabilities and severe problem behavior while they interacted with their caregivers in either simulated environments (an inpatient hospital facility) or in their homes. The focus of the study was on caregiver reprimands and child problem behavior. Thus, we compared the frequency of problem behavior that immediately preceded a caregiver reprimand to that immediately following a caregiver reprimand, and the results showed that the frequency of problem behavior decreased following a reprimand. It is possible that caregiver reprimands are negatively reinforced by the momentary attenuation of problem behavior, and the implications for long- and short-term effects on caregiver behavior are discussed.

Functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behavior typically include conditions to determine if the contingent delivery of attention, tangible items, or escape reinforce food refusal. In the current investigation, descriptive analyses were conducted for 25 children who had been admitted to a program for the assessment and treatment of food refusal to determine if the consequences commonly delivered during functional analyses were observed during parent-conducted meals. The conditional probabilities for the delivery of attention, tangible items, and escape following food refusal and acceptance were compared to the unconditional probabilities of each event. Results showed that attention and escape most frequently followed refusal and differed depending on the topography of refusal. Implications for further evaluations of food refusal using similar methods are discussed.

Using a procedure similar to the one described by Conger and Killeen (1974), we evaluated levels of attending for 25 college students who participated in either a 20-min (n = 12) or 30-min (n = 13) discussion on juvenile delinquency. Confederates delivered statements of agreement (e.g., "I agree with that point") according to independent variable-interval schedules. Pooled results were evaluated using three generalized formulations of the matching law, and showed that matching was more likely during the first 5 min of the discussion than during the last 5 min. Individual data for 7 of 9 participants were better described by the generalized response-rate matching equation than by the generalized time-allocation matching equation when response allocation was characterized in terms of frequency rather than duration.