Influence of environmental contingency history on acquisition of new discrimination by chronic mental patients.

Abstract

Acquisition of new discriminations on two-choice and two-dimensional (form, color) tasks under response-contingent reinforcement was evaluated as a function of nearly four years' history of total-life environments of responsecontingent versus noncontingent experiences. A total of 28 chronic mental patients, half from each history condition, participated in the study, and were prescreened on component skills and presence of a manipulable reinforcer. Groups were equated on demographic variables and current level of functioning. No differences in acquisition were found as a function of contingency history. However, correlational analyses with multiple measures of current functioning and responsiveness to treatment found differential relations to exist within groups. The latter relations suggest that the response-contingent environment resulted in greater attention to discriminative stimuli and greater consistency between task-related and extraneous behaviors. 339

Persons versus situations in the real-life functioning of chronically institutionalized mental patients.

“…The milieu program, in contrast, was characterized by the therapeutic community model, which resulted in a relatively noncontingent environment. The differential predictability found for behavioral consistency in the present study is in substantial agreement with other investigations from the parent population (Montgomery, Paul, & Powers, 1974;Theobald & Paul, Note 5). Specifically, level of functioning has predicted performance on a variety of laboratory tasks for subjects from the milieu program, whereas performance of subjects from the social-learning program on the same tasks was more predictable by within-program responsiveness reflecting increased attention and discriminative responding to situational cues.…”

The Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist: Observational assessment of patient functioning

“…Within the original project, predictive validities of higher-order scores have also been found between on-unit TSBCs and functioning within specific activities and in various laboratory tasks, with correlations ranging from the 0.30's to the 0.50's across several studies (e.g., Montgomery et al, 1974;Paden et al, 1974;Theobald & Paul, 1976).…”

Clinical Frequencies Recording System: Standardizing staff observations by event recording

“…In a study of discrimination learning among chronic mental patients (Montgomery et al, 1974), concurrent CFRS scores -which provided a measure of global level of functioning -were found to significantly predict individual performance on the experimental task. More significant from a clinical perspective is the finding that CFRS index scores obtained prior to individuals' release from residential treatment can predict later behavior in the community.…”