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Hungry rats were allowed to lick an 8% sucrose solution and then one of four lick‐shock contingency conditions was superimposed on the licking baseline. These conditions were: free‐operant avoidance, free shock, punishment, and no shock. From highest to lowest response rates, the groups fell in the order—avoidance, no shock, free shock, and punishment. Lick rates adjusted rapidly to introduction and removal of the contingencies. Post‐shock responding was lowest in the punishment condition and highest in the free shock condition. No method was found simultaneously to equate shock frequency and separate response rates for the three shock contingency conditions. Only small, or no, reductions in shock rate occurred over sessions under the free‐operant avoidance schedule when the shock‐shock interval was 10 sec but large reductions occurred when the shock‐shock interval was reduced to either 1 or 2 sec.

In squirrel monkeys previously trained under a continuous avoidance schedule, characteristic patterns of responding were maintained under a 3‐min variable‐interval schedule of shock presentation (response‐produced shock). Responding in the presence of a periodically presented stimulus, the termination of which coincided with the delivery of a response‐independent electric shock (Estes‐Skinner procedure), was not reliably affected. When shocks followed every response during certain signalled portions of the session, and were presented under the variable‐interval schedule during the rest of the session (multiple 1‐response fixed‐ratio, 3‐min variable‐interval schedule of shock presentation), responding was suppressed during the fixed‐ratio component and maintained during the variable‐interval component. Environmental consequences do not have immutable properties, and may either support or suppress behavior, depending on the schedule of presentation.

An adjusting fixed‐ratio schedule of praise and immediate correctness feedback produced increases in a seventh‐grade student's arithemic response rate. Percentage of time spent in attending behavior also increased collaterally. Removal of the treatment led to decreases in both arithmetic response rate and collateral attending behavior. Reinstatements of the procedure again produced increases in both types of behavior. It was suggested that the present procedure of directly modifying arithmetic response rate requires less time and effort than working indirectly through modifying attending behavior.

Four parents enrolled in a Responsive Teaching class carried out experiments using procedures they had devised for alleviating their children's problem behaviors. The techniques used involved different types of reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. One parent increased the frequency of the wearing of an orthodontic device during five daily time checks by making an immediate monetary payoff contingent on wearing the device. A second parent increased the number of points earned for doing daily household tasks by providing back‐ups for which the points could be exchanged. The parents of a 4‐yr‐old boy decreased the frequency of whines, cries, and complaints by removing social attention when such behavior occurred. A mother decreased the duration of time it took for her 5‐yr‐old daughter to get dressed by making permission to watch television contingent on dressing within 30 min of the time she got up in the morning. Brief reversals of contingencies were used to show causal relationships between the procedures used and the changes in behavior. Checks on the reliability of measurement were made by persons present in the home.

A series of three experiments was performed in a classroom setting with small groups of young children with severe articulation problems. Variations on a basic token reinforcement procedure were demonstrated in each experiment. A combined multiple baseline/reversal design showed effective experimenter control of rates of correct and incorrect consonant sound articulation in all cases. In addition, the data in each experiment showed the problems of obtaining stimulus generalization of the high rates of correct articulation to non‐training settings. The third experiment demonstrated a procedure for producing such generalization by making each child a discriminative stimulus for correct articulaton by the other child, thus maintaining high levels of correct articulation for each child when in the presence of the other.

A prompting and differential reinforcement procedure was used to increase sitting in a hyperactive, retarded boy in a remedial preschool. This procedure not only increased sitting, but had the additional effects of decreasing posturing while leaving normal walking unaffected, and increasing the use of toys and proximity to children. All of these changes can be considered socially desirable effects of the sitting program. The results suggest that preschool programs can be designed that will treat several behaviors simultaneously in order to maximize a teacher's effectiveness.

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Three experiments involving parametric manipulation of reinforcement contingencies were performed with retardates in an automated Sheltered Workshop token economy. Experiment I showed that with amount of reinforcement held constant, work rates were positively related to reinforcement rates on fixed‐interval schedules and inversely related to reinforcement rates on fixed‐ratio schedules. Experiment II demonstrated an interaction between frequency of ratio reinforcement and torque required to complete a work unit: work rates were positively related to reinforcement rates when required response force was high and negatively related to reinforcement rates when required response force was low. Experiment III revealed that, with reinforcement frequency held constant, there was in inverse relationship between amount of reinforcement and work rate.