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This study demonstrated reinforcement control over pronounced feminine behaviors in a male child who had been psychologically evaluated as manifesting “childhood cross‐gender identity”. The clinical history of the subject paralleled the retrospective reports of adult transsexuals, including (a) cross‐gender clothing preferences, (b) actual or imaginal use of cosmetic articles, (c) feminine behavior mannerisms, (d) aversion to masculine activities, coupled with preference for girl playmates and feminine activities, (e) preference for female role, (f) feminine voice inflection and predominantly feminine content in speech, and (g) verbal statements about the desire or preference to be a girl. The subject was treated sequentially in the clinic and home environments by his mother, trained to be his therapist. The mother was taught to reinforce masculine behaviors and to extinguish feminine behaviors, by using social reinforcement in the clinic and a token reinforcement procedure in the home. During this treatment, his feminine behaviors sharply decreased and masculine behavior increased. The treatment effects were found to be largely response‐specific and stimulus‐specific; consequently, it was necessary to strengthen more than one masculine behavior and weaken several feminine behaviors, in both clinic and home settings. A multiple‐baseline intrasubject design was used to ensure both replication and identification of relevant treatment variables. Follow‐up data three years after the treatment began suggests that the boy's sex‐typed behaviors have become normalized. This study suggests a preliminary step toward correcting pathological sex‐role development in boys, which may provide a basis for the primary prevention of adult transsexualism or similar adult sex‐role deviation.

Rats were trained to discriminate between two bursts of random noise that differed in intensity. In a two‐lever, discrete‐trial procedure, correct responses were reinforced with brain stimulation, and incorrect responses produced timeout. Responding was studied as a function of the decibel difference between the stimuli, the probabilities of presenting the stimuli, the relative duration of timeout consequent upon the two types of incorrect responses, and the absolute duration of timeout consequent upon incorrect responses. The results showed that the distribution of responses between the two levers depended upon the stimulus probabilities, but were independent of either the absolute or relative durations of timeout. When the stimulus probabilities were varied, the response probabilities did not match the stimulus probabilities; when the relative durations of timeout were varied, the animals did not obtain the maximum rate of reinforcement per unit time. Instead, the animals distributed their responses so as to obtain the maximum number of reinforcements at each level of discrimination. In addition, the level of discrimination increased as a function of the decibel difference between the stimuli.

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