Establishing conditioned reinforcers via a schedule thinning procedure

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2012

First Committee Member

Gould, Daniel

Second Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Abstract

"For three participants, a preference assessment was conducted to identify highly preferred edible stimuli, followed by a reinforcer assessment to verify that the highly preferred edible stimuli functioned as reinforcers. The reinforcer assessment also evaluated the reinforcing properties of social ephemeral stimuli (verbal praise) and a non-social ephemeral stimulus, Teaching with Acoustical Guidance (TAG). A pairing procedure, utilizing systematic thinning of the stimulus-stimulus pairing, was then evaluated to determine if social ephemeral and/or non-social ephemeral stimuli could be successfully conditioned as positive reinforcers. For all participants, the reinforcer assessment verified that neither praise nor TAG functioned as reinforcers prior to pairing. Results of the schedule thinning procedure indicated that the procedure was moderately successfully for two participants and unsuccessful for one participant. The social versus non-social stimulus property had no differential effects. Future research should assess the effects of thinning the pairing schedule more slowly than in the procedures of this study."

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