Facilitating discriminated responding within concurrent chains arrangements for an adolescent with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2013

First Committee Member

Hanley, Gregory

Second Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Third Committee Member

Ahearn, William

Abstract

"Concurrent chains arrangements (CCA) have been used to identifying preferences in complex situations. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate preference for different parameters of reinforcement schedules, specifically, ones that were and were not, easily discriminated by a 15-yearold adolescent diagnosed with autism. Following undifferentiated baselines in CCAs, two training procedures were tested. However, differentiated responding did not occur. Food was added to one of the links to test whether the undifferentiated responding was due to discrimination not occurring or if the boy was indifferent to the terminal-link contexts. Discriminated responding did occur when food was added suggesting indifference to the earlier contexts. The next phase of the study attempted to determine whether preference for more complex schedules of reinforcement would produce differentiated responding. In the initial analysis, immediate food delivery on a dense schedule was compared to delayed delivery on a thinner schedule. Responding was allocated toward the immediate and consistent food delivery, suggesting that discriminated responding could be achieved when large differences existed between the different contexts. The next analysis was a comparison between a dense schedule of reinforcement with a delay and a thinner schedule of immediately delivered reinforcement. Discriminated responding was not observed in this more nuanced comparison. A follow-up analysis showed that responding was controlled by initial access to either condition yielding reinforcement and was unaffected by the schedule parameters of delay or probability of reinforcement."

This document is available upon request to Western New England University faculty, students, and staff. Please contact D'Amour Library at dref@wne.edu for access.

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