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A target behavior program, structured within a token economy project, was implemented to modify the behavior of an institutionalized patient who exhibited excessive rates of crying and no smiling responses. To affect both responses concurrently, token costs were made contingent upon crying and token payments and/or social reinforcements were provided for smiling. The results indicated both the feasibility of eliminating “anxiety‐depression” within an institutional environment and the efficacy of the treatment procedures 14 months after discharge.

Programmed handwriting materials were used to examine the effects of different reinforcement contingencies on the academic performance of six public school kindergarten children. The children's responses to these materials provided an educationally relevant dependent variable for the analysis of factors that affected the accuracy of their responses and the attainment of criterion performances. Variations in the complexity of most academic materials, which confound the analysis of contingencies, were eliminated by the programmed sequence so that the differential effects of three reinforcement conditions were observed. The three conditions were: baseline without tokens, tokens contingent on correct writing responses, and noncontingent tokens. It was consistently observed that the children were more accurate when their correct responses produced tokens, and that noncontingent tokens reduced accuracy below baseline levels.

Pigeons were trained on a Wyckoff observing response procedure in which key responses were reinforced on a mixed schedule consisting of fixed‐interval and extinction components. In Experiment 1, stepping on a pedal (a) converted the mixed schedule to a multiple schedule, (b) replaced the mixed‐schedule stimulus with an unlit key (or, in different phases, a blackout), or (c) had no consequence. In Experiment 2, pedal standing removed the mixed‐schedule stimulus that was physically similar to the multiple‐schedule stimuli or one that was less similar. In Experiment 3, Wyckoff's differential and nondifferential discrimination procedure was repeated. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the Wyckoff pedal response was controlled by neither the removal of the mixed‐schedule stimulus nor the production of discriminative stimuli. The results indicated a correlation between key‐response rates and pedal‐standing time. Experiment 3 showed that high response rates to mixed‐schedule stimuli were correlated with little pedal‐standing time while high key‐response rates to multiple‐schedule stimuli were correlated with considerable pedal standing time. The correlation between key‐response rates and pedal‐standing time was related to the physical arrangement between the key and pedal operanda.

Pigeons were trained on a zero‐delay matching‐to‐sample procedure during which only three of the four possible stimulus configurations were presented. Subsequently, all birds were exposed to all four configurations as a transfer test. A high degree of negative transfer from the three training configurations was obtained in Experiment 1. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that three‐configuration training produced differential position‐preference effects. During the transfer test, responding after one sample stimulus was apparently based on position, while responding after the other sample was based on color.

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Pigeons were exposed to two stimuli that were each correlated with the same fixed‐ratio schedule. During one stimulus, the ratio had to be completed in more than a specified time for food to be presented. During the other, the ratio had to be completed in less than a specified time. Failures to meet the time criterion produced a timeout and reset the ratio. Treating the entire behavioral sequence generated by a fixed‐ratio schedule as a unitary response and scheduling differential reinforcement with respect to the duration of the sequence produced effects comparable to those observed previously with individual responses. The times taken to complete the ratios conformed to the time criteria under both stimulus conditions. Similar effects have been observed with differential reinforcement of the duration of individual responses and in experiments specifying running speed criteria under discrete trial conditions.

Human subjects given choices among 10 different pairs of concurrent fixed‐ratio schedules preferred the smaller ratio. After a preference had been determined, timeout of increasing duration followed the completion of the preferred schedule. The larger the fixed‐ratio difference, the longer the timeout necessary to produce the shift to the previously nonpreferred ratio. Responses by two of three subjects were unaffected by changes from response‐dependent to response‐independent pay.

The effects of three different timeout durations were investigated in a group of 20 retarded, institutionalized subjects. Each subject received 1, 15, and 30 min of timeout in a design that was counterbalanced in terms of the order in which timeout durations were presented. Displays of deviant behavior—such as aggression, tantrums, and self‐destruction—were followed by periods of isolation in a timeout room. A reversal design was employed such that return‐to‐baseline periods were instituted after each timeout period. The overall effect of timeout was to reduce significantly the rate of deviant behavior. On the average, 15 and 30 min produced a 35% decrease in deviant behavior with little difference between the effectiveness of 15 and 30 min. The range of effects in all timeout conditions varied widely. The sequence in which the 1‐min duration was presented effected the direction of its effect. When it preceded the use of longer durations, 1 min was most effective. As it came later in the sequence, its suppressive characteristics became less reliable.

Brief isolation from a group situation was found to suppress persistent, high‐rate misbehavior in two extremely withdrawn children, even though no positive reinforcement for other behaviors was systematically administered. Changes in a variety of behaviors, including looking, touching, speaking, responding, and other non‐punished misbehaviors, were observed when isolation timeout was administered contingent on only one misbehavior of each child.