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Published on: February 15, 2015
The effect of rules on differential reinforcement of other behavior
Amanda C Watts1, David A Wilder, Meagan K Gregory
1FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE SCOTT CENTER FOR AUTISM TREATMENT.
Abstract:
Previous research on the treatment of problem behavior has shown differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to be an effective behavior-reduction procedure. However, the extent to which presession descriptions of the DRO contingency enhance intervention effects has not been examined. In the current study, we compared a condition in which a presession rule that described the DRO contingency was given to a condition in which no rule was given for 4 participants. The target behavior was toy play, which served as an analogue to problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results showed that DRO was more efficient for 1 participant and more effective for 2 participants when a rule was given.
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