Interaction of Reinforcement Schedules, a Behavioral Prosthesis, and Work-Related Behavior in Adults With Mental Retardation

Abstract

The effects of variable-interval (VI) and fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement for work-related behavior and an organizer for the work materials (behavioral prosthesis) were evaluated with 3 adults with severe or profound mental retardation. The participants had been recommended for study because of high rates of off-task and aberrant behavior in their daily vocational training programs. For 2 participants, VI and FR schedules resulted in the same outcome: more aberrant behavior than on-task and off-task behavior combined. The FR schedule nearly eliminated emission of aberrant and off-task behavior by the 3rd participant. Combining the behavioral prosthesis with FR reinforcement (FR+O) increased the proportion of time spent in on-task behavior by all participants under certain FR schedule parameters. Second-by-second analyses of the observation records revealed that FR schedules reduced off-task and aberrant behavior during work sequences (i.e., ratio runs), and FR+O led to a further reduction of these behaviors during postreinforcement pauses. Overall, the results show how organizer and schedule parameters can be adjusted to produce an optimized balance between productivity and reinforcement while undesirable behavior is minimized.

Increasing across-session variability of leisure activity selection for children with autism.

“…During intervention, colored paper functioned as a discriminative stimulus that signaled the activities eligible for reinforcement. Visual discriminative stimuli are common intervention features for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (e.g., visual schedules or token boards) serving a prosthetic function (e.g., Saunders, McEntee, & Saunders, 2005). Using a visual discriminative stimulus as part of the treatment plan can produce rapid behavior change and could be used to aid in maintenance and generalization of response variability.…”

Avaliação e tratamento de comportamentos autolesivos em pessoas com transtorno do neurodesenvolvimento

“…Não foi observada grande mudan-ça na taxa de respostas adequadas em relação à variável quantidade de reforços. Saunders, McEntee e Saunders (2005) avaliaram os efeitos de uma modificação específica no procedimento tradicional de DRA quando o comportamento alternativo ensinado era o engajar-se em atividades que eram evitadas, de três participantes adultos com deficiência intelectual severa. Para os autores a evitação poderia ser uma falha do reforço para facilitar o controle de estímulo em engajamentos.…”