Document Type

Dissertation

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

PhD in Behavior Analysis

Dissertation Defense Date

2020

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Second Committee Member

Bourret, Jason C.

Third Committee Member

Hanley, Gregory P.

Additional Committee Member(s)

Henley, Amy J.

Abstract

"Stereotypy treatment often involves methods emphasizing the decrease of stereotypy but Colón et al. (2012) examined the effect of reinforcement of alternative verbal behavior on both appropriate behavior and stereotypy. Similarly, the current study targeted stereotypy by first promoting verbal, social, and leisure behavior in contexts that simulated naturally occurring activities in the participants’ classrooms. Verbal behavior was targeted in two contexts, with one context approximating academic programming and the other providing incidental opportunities for established verbal responses. An interactive leisure training context involved building upon existing social skills and an independent leisure context involved incidental opportunities for established leisure skills. We measured contextually-appropriate behavior and stereotypy across all contexts prior to providing programmed consequences contingent on stereotypy (e.g., redirection). With all six participants, we observed low levels of stereotypy in at least two of the four contexts that did not warrant the addition of a redirection component. Context-specific redirection effectively decreased stereotypy in nine of the ten contexts in which it was implemented. One participant engaged in low levels of stereotypy and high levels of contextually-appropriate behavior across all four contexts, suggesting that at times promoting and reinforcing appropriate behavior is sufficient when treating stereotypy."

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