Evaluating the use of alternative reinforcers to treat problem behavior maintained by access to tangibles

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2017

First Committee Member

N/A

Second Committee Member

N/A

Third Committee Member

N/A

Abstract

"Children with autism and related disabilities may engage in problem behavior in order to access high-preference items (Day, Rea, Schussler, Larsen, & Johnson,1988). Most often, when the behavior is maintained by positive reinforcement, the prescribed treatment is to teach individals to request preferred items appropriately using functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985). The effectiveness of this treatment may decrease when an individual emits the communicative response but reinforcement is delayed or denied (Fisher et al., 1993). The purpose of this study is to evaluate two different treatments intended to decrease problem behavior evoked by delayed or denied access to highly preferred items: offering an alternative reinforcer or providing the target reinforcer contingent on the completion of a work requirement. Participants included two students from a residential school for children with autism. Effective treatments were identified for both participants. Following treatment, we used a concurrent chains arrangement to identify which treatment was most preferred by the participant."

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