Browsing by Subject "Delay to reinforcement"
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Item An evaluation of delay to reinforcement and variant responding(2016-08) Muething, Colin Sullivan; Allen, Greg, doctor of clinical psychology; Falcomata, Terry S.; Keith, Timothy; O'Reilly, Mark; Cawthon, StephanieChildren with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental disabilities often exhibit invariant responding (i.e., restricted behavioral repertoires), deficits in communication, and challenging behavior. A variety of interventions have targeted increasing variant responding such as extinction, lag schedules of reinforcement, and percentile schedules of reinforcement. An additional variation studied in the basic literature entails the inclusion of a delay to reinforcement. Results of basic studies indicate that the inclusion of a delay to reinforcement leads to an increase in the variety of responses. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a delay to reinforcement on the variability of communication responses during functional communication training with children with developmental disabilities with histories of engagement in challenging behavior. Results indicated that the delay to reinforcement increased variant communicative responding with all four participants.Item An evaluation of preference of delays to reinforcement on choice responding : a translational study(2020-02-05) Shpall, Cayenne Sarah; Falcomata, Terry S.Delays to reinforcement are often a necessary component during treatments of challenging behavior (e.g., Functional Communication Training; FCT). In the absence of programmed delay training, the utility and generality of FCT may be limited. Despite the importance of delays to reinforcement during FCT, few studies have empirically isolated and investigated the parameters pertaining to the implementation of delays to reinforcement. Results from basic empirical studies have shown that variable delays, or bi-valued mixed delays to reinforcement, are preferred in humans and nonhuman studies. The current research examined response allocation between fixed and mixed delays to reinforcement using a concurrent schedule of reinforcement. Results showed preference for mixed delays to reinforcement with 4 out of 4 participants. Potential avenues of future research on the use of mixed delays to reinforcement, such as the application within FCT and maintenance of socially appropriate behaviors, are discussed.