The effects of reinforcement on psychotic speech in a case of early infantile autism, age 12

Reducing aberrant verbal behavior by building a repertoire of rational verbal behavior

“…The present results replicate previous findings indicating that differential reinforcement may be effective in reducing bizarre or aberrant vocalizations and increasing rational verbal behavior (Ayllon & Michael, 1959;Bartlett et al, 1971;Dixon et al, 2001;Liberman, Teigen, Patterson, & Baker, 1973;Wilder et al, 2001). Also, our results are in accord with arguments that abnormal and normal behaviors can be viewed as reciprocally related, and the notion that psychotics can be seen as presenting considerable abnormal behavior, or little normal behavior (Isaacs et al, 1960).…”

“…Behavioral interventions have included (a) withholding attention in response to bizarre statements (e.g., Ayllon & Michael, 1959), (b) differential reinforcement of rational speech (e.g., Bartlett, Ora, Brown, & Butler, 1971;Dixon et al, 2001;Dixon et al, 2004), (c) non-contingent attention (Lancaster et al, 2004), (d) punishment of bizarre verbal responses-time-out (e.g., Reichle, Brubakken, & Tetreault, 1976), and (e) some combinations of these treatment elements (e.g., Mace et al, 1988). We wished to expand this list of procedures by showing that, through establishment of a verbal repertoire with different verbal operants, it was possible to reduce aberrant verbal behavior.…”

A Review of Behavioral Interventions for Psychotic Verbal Behavior in People With Intellectual Disabilities

“…However, this hypothesis was not directly tested, and consequence-based intervention was not directly applied to dysfunctional verbal behavior. Other studies have demonstrated that contingency-based interventions, sometimes in combination with other behavioral interventions such as prompting, reduce psychotic speech and may increase appropriate speech in people diagnosed with psychotic disorders (Bartlett, Ora, Brown, & Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 07:08 05 January 2015 Butler, 1971;Belcher, 1988;Liberman, Teigen, Patterson, & Baker, 1973;Reichle, Brubakken, & Tetreault, 1976;Schraa, Lautmann, Luzi, & Screven, 1978;Wincze, Leitenberg, & Agras, 1972). More contemporary studies have demonstrated that psychotic verbal behavior can be functionally analyzed and the results of these functional analyses can be used to design effective treatments (Wilder, Masuda, O'Connor, & Baham, 2001;Wilder & Wong, 2007).…”

Behavioral approaches to the treatment of early infantile autism: A review.

“…Eliminating psychotic speech. Bartlett, Ora, Brown, and Butler (1971) attempted to experimentally manipulate psychotic speech in a 12-year-old verbal autistic. In four experimental sessions, the child was reinforced for rational speech, extinguished, and then alternately reinforced for rational and psychotic speech.…”