Contextual control of problem behavior in students with severe disabilities

We investigated the impact of contextual variation on the effectiveness of two interventions. The problem behavior of 2 students with severe disabilities was analyzed across two contexts (task and leisure). Effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and time-out procedures were examined in the two contexts. Results indicated that in the task context the DRO procedure effectively reduced the problem behavior and increased task performance, whereas the time-out procedure was ineffective. In addition, rate of correct task performance increased during DRO relative to baseline and time-out. In contrast, in the leisure context, the time-out procedure effectively reduced the same problem behavior and the DRO procedure was ineffective. The results are discussed in terms of contextual control of problem behavior and alternative strategies for the design of DRO procedures.