Response to Ahrendt, Houlihan, and Buchanan

The implementation of seclusion time-out (STO) described by Ahrendt, Houlihan, and Buchanan (2013) reveals several contemporary practice standards within the domain of clinical behavior analysis. First, the "time-in" environment of the inpatient facility included a token-based incentive program by which staff reinforced "positive behavior" and consumers exchanged tokens for primary reinforcers. Thus, the intent was to increase motivation to avoid STO in favor of remaining in the reinforcing environment (Marlow, Tingstrom, Olmi, & Edwards, 1997).