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Appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in two inclusive kindergarten classrooms
Richard A Colombo1, Saba Mahmoudi2, Waylon B Wright1
1Department of Special Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
|May 18, 2026
Summary
Appetitive Pavlovian conditioning shows promise for typically developing children and those with developmental disabilities. Verbal specification of the contingency enhanced positive emotional responses in children with developmental disabilities.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Inclusive classrooms present unique challenges for implementing behavioral interventions.
- Understanding how children with and without developmental disabilities respond to learning protocols is crucial.
- Pavlovian conditioning is a fundamental learning process with potential therapeutic applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate a classwide appetitive Pavlovian conditioning protocol in inclusive kindergarten settings.
- To compare the efficacy of the protocol for typically developing children and children with developmental disabilities.
- To investigate the impact of verbally specifying the contingency on conditioned responses.
Main Methods:
- A classwide appetitive Pavlovian conditioning protocol was implemented in two inclusive kindergarten classrooms.
- Children included typically developing students and those eligible for special education or diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
- Conditioned responses (positive emotion, attention) were measured during conditioned stimulus presentations (CS+ and CS-).
Main Results:
- The CS+ evoked significantly more conditioned responses in typically developing children compared to children with developmental disabilities.
- Children with developmental disabilities showed increased CS+-evoked attention, but with a smaller effect size.
- Verbal specification of the Pavlovian contingency was necessary to significantly increase positive emotional responding in children with developmental disabilities.
Conclusions:
- Classwide appetitive Pavlovian conditioning can elicit conditioned responses in inclusive classrooms.
- Procedural modifications, such as verbal contingency specification, may be essential for therapeutic efficacy in children with developmental disabilities.
- Further research is needed to explore how these findings can inform interventions for adaptive operant behavior.
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