Effects of High‐probability Requests on the Acquisition and Generalization of Responses to Requests in Young Children With Behavior Disorders

Abstract

The failure to respond to requests in young children often is maintained by the reactions of the adults that encounter this behavior. This failure to respond to requests has been identified as a primary reason for the children's exclusion from community, social, and instructional opportunities. Numerous interventions that target the failure to respond have consisted of punishment and reinforcement procedures. More recently, antecedent interventions have focused on changing the context in which a request is delivered. In the current study, high-probability requests were provided as an antecedent to delivering a low-probability request. The requests were delivered by multiple trainers in an attempt to produce generalized appropriate responding to adults who did not use the high-probability sequence. Results showed an immediate increase in appropriate responding in 2 children when the intervention was delivered. In addition, when the intervention was implemented by more than one adult, spontaneous increases in responding also were observed toward adults who had never implemented the request sequence. Improvements in responding to requests were maintained after the intervention was discontinued.

Analysis of a High‐probability Instructional Sequence and Time‐out in the Treatment of Child Noncompliance

“…These results are at odds with previous findings demonstrating the effectiveness ofthe highp sequence (Davis et al, 1992;Mace & Belfiore, 1990;Mace et al, 1988). However, except for Mace and Belfiore (1990), who found that noncompliant behavior (stereotypy) in 1 subject was escape motivated, it is not dear what accounted for the subjects' low level of compliance in previous studies.…”

“…Subsequently, Mace and Belfiore (1990) found that the high-p sequence reduced escapemotivated stereotypy and increased compliance in a mentally retarded adult. Consistent with these findings, Davis, Brady, Williams, and Hamilton (1992) …”

Effects of Reinforcer Quality on Behavioral Momentum: Coordinated Applied and Basic Research

“…Treatment consisted of presenting a rapid sequence of high-probability (high-p) instructions immediately preceding a low-probability (low-p) instruction with which the client was normally noncompliant. This article and several replications of the high-p treatment have shown that the intervention can increase compliance to clinically acceptable levels with individuals with normal development and individuals with mental retardation (Davis, Brady, Hamilton, McEvoy, & Williams, 1994;Davis, Brady, Williams, & Hamilton, 1992;Ducharme & Worling, 1994;Harchik & Putzier, 1990;Horner, Day, Sprague, O'Brien, & Heathfield, 1991;Houlihan, Jacobson, & Brandon, 1994;Mace & Belfiore, 1990;Singer, Singer, & Horner, 1987).…”

Establishing Operations: Implications for the Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Problem Behavior

“…Further, the pairing of these CEOs will result, over time, in the transfer of the motivative properties of one stimulus to the other, although it is not a priori clear in which direction the transfer will occur. Thus, besides evidence of increased compliance to low-p commands in the absence of the highp sequence (Davis, Brady, Williams, & Hamilton, 1992;Ducharme & Worling, 1994), there is also evidence of reduced compliance to high-p commands (Davis & Reichle, 1996;Zarcone, Iwata, Hughes, & Vollmer, 1993;. The EO perspective, therefore, offers the possibility of an explanation for all outcomes of the high-p/low-p procedure in a relatively parsimonious way, and may also facilitate a coherent account of a wide range of antecedent manipulations similar in their effects to behavioral momentum but with widely differing origins and explanations (Kennedy, 1994).…”