Timeout, a widely used approach with severely handicapped and deaf blind students, is nevertheless potentially aversive and should not become a routine procedure. The decision to employ timeout from positive reinforcement should be based on careful consideration of the child's behavior, the severity of the target behavior, and the need for…

A case study focuses on the characteristics and physical management of a 15-year-old with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a birth defect associated with hypotonia, insatiable appetite, hypogonadism, central nervous system dysfunction, and abnormal growth and development . A literature review addresses studies dealing with behavior modification of obesity…

There is a need when working with mentally handicapped people to develop interventions that can be used within a self-control framework. One intervention that has demonstrated success in a self-control context with normally intelligent people is Cognitive Stress Inoculation Training (CSIT). In CSIT clients are taught to recognize current self-talk…

A nonverbal, severely retarded, 24-year-old female, who had undergone abdominal surgery due to pica (compulsive eating of inedible substances) participated in the study. Antecendent scavenging behavior was reliably identified and redirected. Pica was prevented by using a short duration physical restraint. Giving non-edible items that might be…

Three aversive conditioning programs were conducted to deal with self-injurious behavior at a residential facility for autistic, brain damaged and retarded children and adolescents. In study 1, mild electric shock paired with a neutral stimulus was moderately effective in decreasing lip biting and head striking in an autistic 15-year-old. Case 2…

This paper presents cognitive strategies as one major approach to pain management. They are discussed as part of a trimodal system of pain management that also includes behavioral manipulations and physical intervention. The need for a standardized classification to deal with terminological inconsistency in the literature on cognitive management…

In order to understand the complex behavior of an individual, what that individual has learned must be understood. Unfortunately, behavior analysis and psychology in general have not studied the cumulative effects of the learning principles. However, there are concepts in behavior analysis that, although not well researched, address this area.…

Investigates the effects of personality types on the effectiveness of various treatment procedures in reducing test anxiety. Fails to support previous studies in which group application of counseling techniques reduced anxiety more than did a study skills group. (Author/PC)

Investigation supported by a Research Career award from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Public Health Service, and related to AA 501 855.

Behavior therapy is going through a period of questioning and self-examination. This pause for self-questioning is certainly a healthy trend, and is sorely needed to prevent the field from becoming too entrenched in orthodoxy. (Author)

Author argues that behavior therapists could do worse than to begin the latest chapter in their development with the recognition that a decade or so of work has brought them back to conclusions they scorned at the outset. (Author)

Author argues that as long as behavior therapy continues to ignore the inductive, single-case research on behavior frequency that was so successful for both Pavlov and Skinner, there will be little progress. (Author)

Effects of model status and offender type on imitation of self-reward criteria were examined. Immature-inadequate and gang-oriented offenders viewed videotapes of models who were either stringent or liberal in self-reward criteria and were either staff members or peers. Subjects viewing the liberal model rewarded themselves more. (Author)

In one study of a college merit pay program, the best predictor of salary improvement was proximity to the evaluator's office. (IRT)

Six mildly to severely mentally retarded 10- to 16-year-olds were given 10 to 45 minutes of interpolated reinforcement (additional to existing unplanned reinforcement) for target behavior that interfered with habilitation. When the interpolated reinforcement was discontinued, the forms of responding returned to those of initial baseline and the…