Identifying Sensitivity to Reinforcer Parameters with Brief Parametric Analyses

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

Spring 2024

First Committee Member

Bourret, Jason C.

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel H.

Abstract

There is abundant research on identifying reinforcing stimuli; however, identifying sensitivity to reinforcer parameters is less researched. We evaluated a method to identify preferred reinforcer parameters (of edibles) for three individuals with autism who did not tolerate delays to reinforcement. A concurrent-chains schedule was utilized to measure response allocation given (a) a high-quality item (HQ) delivered immediately (I; HQ-I) vs. after a delay (D; HQ-D, (b) a low-quality item (LQ)-I vs. an HQ-D, and (c) an HQ-I vs. multiple HQ-D. Each assessment continued with escalating delay durations until responding was consistently allocated to the immediate stimulus. Differential results among parameters were shown for two out of three participants, suggesting that the assessment was an effective and time- and resource-efficient method to identify reinforcer parameters that compete with the immediate delivery of reinforcers.

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