The delivery of food contingent on 10 s of consecutive toy engagement resulted in a decrease in engagement and a corresponding increase in other responses that had been previously reinforced with food. Similar effects were not observed when tokens exchangeable for the same food were delivered, suggesting that engagement was disrupted by the…

This study examined how the amount of effort required to produce a reinforcer influenced subsequent preference for, and strength of, that reinforcer in 7 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Preference assessments identified four moderately preferred stimuli for each participant, and progressive-ratio (PR) analyses indexed reinforcer…

This study evaluated an intervention for promoting wearing of prescription glasses in 4 individuals with mental retardation who had refused to wear their glasses previously. Distraction through noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) increased independent glasses wearing for 1 of the 4 participants. An intervention consisting of NCR, response cost, and…

Recent research has shown that the noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli can effectively reduce rates of destructive behavior maintained by social-positive reinforcement, even when the contingency for destructive behavior remains intact. It may be useful, therefore, to have a systematic means for predicting which reinforcers do and do not…

The automatically reinforced self-injury of a girl (age 11) with autism was treated by providing noncontingent access to a single set of preferred toys during 30-minute sessions. Rotating toy sets after 10 minutes or providing access to multiple toy sets resulted in reductions that lasted the entire 30 minutes. (Contains four references.)…

A study found verbal reprimands, delivered contingent upon eating prohibited foods, were sufficient to decease the food stealing of a girl (age 14) with Prader-Willi syndrome. Warning stimuli were then successfully used to help her discriminate between permitted/prohibited foods during sessions in which food stealing was not directly observed.…

An adolescent with severe mental retardation and cerebral palsy who displayed attention-maintained destructive behavior was exposed to noncontingent reinforcer delivery (NCR) with a high-preference or a low-preference stimulus while reinforcement for destructive behavior with attention remained in effect. NCR without extinction was effective only…