An Analysis of Physical Guidance as Reinforcement for Noncompliance

Abstract

Physical guidance is a strategy commonly used for noncompliance. In two experiments, we evaluated reinforcing effects of physical guidance. Experiment 1 include three individuals with developmental disabilities who were noncompliant with tasks. Anecdotal observations indicated physical contact was highly reinforcing, and a functional analysis identified attention as a reinforcer for problem behavior. Two conditions compared physical guidance following noncompliance and no physical guidance following noncompliance. Results showed noncompliance increased for all three participants when physical guidance followed noncompliance. The second experiment empirically evaluated the function of noncompliance prior to examining the effect of physical guidance on noncompliance. A functional analysis, conducted with two participants, indicated noncompliance served an escape function for one and an attention function for the other. Comparisons of physical guidance and no physical guidance indicated physical guidance resulted in decreased noncompliance for the participant with an escape function but increased noncompliance for the participant with an attention function.

Assessment of the Relative Effects of Attention and Escape on Noncompliance

“…Thus, the purpose of the current study was to describe a method for evaluating the relative contributions of escape and attention in the maintenance of noncompliance. Our procedures were similar to the functional analysis described by Kern, Delaney, Hilt, Bailin, and Elliot (2002), which was designed to evaluate noncompliance of an adult woman and adolescent boy who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities.…”

Identifying predictive behavioral markers: A demonstration using automatically reinforced self‐injurious behavior

“…Iwata et al () demonstrated that extinction procedures that matched the function of behavior effectively reduced the target behavior whereas mismatched extinction procedures did not. A handful of other studies have produced similar results (Brown et al, ; Kern, Delaney, Hilt, Bailin, & Elliot, ; Kuhn, DeLeon, Fisher, & Wilke, ; Richman, Wacker, Asmus, & Casey, ). Although predictive accuracy of the function of problem behavior has not been formally quantified using the methods described in the current study, we can characterize it as PBM in light of the extensive body of evidence supporting function‐based interventions and the status of this approach as reflecting best practice.…”

Compliance to Mothers’ Instructions with Medical Treatment

“…The physical guide served as a positive reinforcer of child's noncompliance behaviors and increased their occurrence. According to Kern et al (2002), physical guide was recommended only when noncompliance's behavior served as an escape function.…”