Indexador

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

AbstractFunctional communication training (FCT) is a highly effective intervention to reduce challenging behavior. However, continuous reinforcement of the functional communicative response typically used during FCT cannot be maintained in natural settings. Reinforcement schedule thinning addresses this drawback. In order to better inform practice and future research, we conducted a systematic review of all peer‐reviewed studies published between the years 1985 and 2022 that implemented schedule thinning following FCT. We identified 82 articles with 296 participants and 401 applications of schedule thinning. We summarized each application according to characteristics of the participant, FCT, and schedule thinning procedure. We identified nine unique schedule thinning procedures. The four most prevalent were multiple schedules, chained schedules, delay‐to‐reinforcement, and response restriction with a correlation between the function of challenging behavior and the selected schedule thinning approach. Notably, there was great procedural variability across each procedure. Very few studies were conducted in natural settings or involved natural change agents in selecting the terminal schedule of reinforcement or as schedule thinning implementers. Although there is ample evidence supporting the efficacy of schedule thinning after FCT, more research is needed to determine the most effective procedures necessary to ensure that the benefits of FCT can be maintained via schedule thinning in natural settings.

AbstractThe reinforcer pathology model posits that core behavioral economic mechanisms, including delay discounting and behavioral economic demand, underlie adverse health decisions and related clinical disorders. Extensions beyond substance use disorder and obesity, however, are limited. Using a reinforcer pathology framework, this study evaluates medical adherence decisions in patients with multiple sclerosis. Participants completed behavioral economic measures, including delay discounting, probability discounting, and a medication purchase task. A medical decision‐making task was also used to evaluate how sensitivity to mild side effect risk and efficacy contributed to the likelihood of taking a hypothetical disease‐modifying therapy. Less steep delay discounting and more intense (greater) medication demand were independently associated with greater adherence to the medication decision‐making procedure. More generally, the pattern of interrelations between the medication‐specific and general behavioral economic metrics was consistent with and contributes to the reinforcer pathology model. Additional research is warranted to expand these models to different populations and health behaviors, including those of a positive health orientation (i.e., medication adherence).

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

Este estudio evaluó el efecto de las normas que explícitamente prohibían la apropiación de los recursos del compañero o la apropiación excesiva de los recursos comunes y simultáneamente permitían la apropiación por prelación o desuso temporal en una situación de recursos comunes con consecuencias individuales e intercambio diferencial de las ganancias sobre la apropiación de recursos. Participaron 24 estudiantes universitarios distribuidos al azar en dos grupos experimentales de seis díadas expuestas a dos condiciones experimentales de apropiación: con o sin norma explícita. Para explorar el papel de los intercambios verbales y su posible efecto en la apropiación de recursos y su sanción, dos de las seis díadas de cada grupo trabajaron bajo condición juntos y cuatro bajo condición separados. Las díadas no agotaron inmediatamente los recursos comunes durante la condición de apropiación sin norma explícita. Prohibir y/o permitir determinado modo de apropiación acotó situacionalmente las relaciones interindividuales en la apropiación y su función en términos de uso inmediato o acumulación de recursos. Se observó una relación directa entre la cualidad de los intercambios verbales y la contingencia establecida entre participantes. Los resultados se discuten respecto de estudios previos e interpretan en términos de las relaciones interindividuales establecidas.

AbstractRelapse following the successful treatment of problem behavior can increase the likelihood of injury and the need for more intensive care. Current research offers some predictions of how treatment procedures may contribute to relapse, and conversely, how the risk of relapse can be mitigated. This review describes relapse‐mitigation procedures with varying levels of support, the quantitative models that have influenced the research on relapse mitigation, different experimental methods for measuring relapse mitigation, and directions for future research. We propose that by viewing the implementation of relapse‐mitigation procedures as a means of producing behavioral inoculation, clinicians are placed in the proactive and intentional role of exposing their client's behavior to an array of reinforcement and stimulus conditions during treatment with the goal of decreasing the detrimental impact of future treatment challenges.

AbstractMany researchers have tackled the question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes. Some have adopted a nonmechanistic (functional) perspective that attempts to describe the influence of outcomes on behavior. Others have adopted a mechanistic (cognitive) perspective that attempts to explain the influence of outcomes on behavior. Orthogonal to this distinction, some have focused on the influence of outcomes that a behavior had in the past, whereas others also consider the influence of outcomes that a behavior might have in the future. In this article, we relate these different perspectives with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and fostering collaborations between researchers who adopt different perspectives on the common question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes.

AbstractStudying relating of relational networks is a complex and challenging task. The main objective of the present study was to demonstrate relating within and across relational networks based on same/opposite and bigger/smaller contextual cues and establish antecedent control. After nonarbitrary pretraining of the contextual cues, two nonsense stimulus classes were established based on comparative relations. Participants were trained to select stimuli from an array of options based on a symbolic rule that established a relation between two stimuli: one of Network 1 and one of Network 2. Training involved relating Network 1 to Network 2, and testing assessed relating Network 2 to Network 1. Seven of eight participants reached the mastery criterion in training and responded accordingly in test. In a final stage, reinforcing and punishing consequences were varied systematically in the presence of two novel stimuli and antecedent control was observed for all 7 participants. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 but using contextual cues taken from natural language, and Experiment 3 sought to understand the effects of pretraining relational responding using natural language. The mastery criteria were reached by four of seven participants in Experiment 2 and by all eight participants in Experiment 3. Future studies could develop and refine the methods employed here in analyzing the relating of relational networks, thus allowing for an increasingly sophisticated behavior‐analytic account of human language and cognition.

Resumo não informado pela fonte indexada.

AbstractThe literature offers few recommendations for sequencing exposure to treatment conditions with individuals with multiply maintained destructive behavior. Identifying relative preference for the functional reinforcers maintaining destructive behavior may be one means of guiding that decision. The present study presents a preliminary attempt at developing a robust relative preference and reinforcer assessment for individuals with multiply maintained destructive behavior. Guided and free‐choice trials were implemented in which participants chose between two multiple‐schedule arrangements, each of which programmed signaled periods of isolated reinforcer availability and unavailability. Consistent participant choice and responding during free‐choice trials was then used to thin the corresponding schedule of reinforcement. The results demonstrated a strong preference for one of the two functional reinforcers for all four participants, yet preferences differed across participants and were not well predicted by responding in prior analyses.