ON THE REINFORCING EFFECTS OF THE CONTENT OF VERBAL ATTENTION

During a functional analysis, a boy with autism and oppositional defiant disorder displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by attention in the form of verbal reprimands (e.g., “Don't hit me”). In a second analysis, contingent verbal reprimands produced higher rates of the behavior tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied behavior analysis 1996, Vol.29 (2), p.235-238
Main Authors: Fisher, Wayne W., Ninness, H. A. Chris, Piazza, Cathleen C., Owen-DeSchryver, Jamie S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression - psychology
Analysis
Attention
Autism
Autistic Disorder - psychology
Autistic Disorder - therapy
Behavior Disorders
Behavior Modification
Behavior Therapy - methods
Behavior therapy. Cognitive therapy
behavioral assessment
Biological and medical sciences
Case Studies
Child Behavior Disorders - psychology
Child Behavior Disorders - therapy
Child, Preschool
developmental disabilities
Evaluation Methods
Extinction, Psychological
Functional Analysis
Humans
Intervention
Maintenance
Male
Medical sciences
Motivation
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Outcomes of Treatment
Play and Playthings
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reinforcement
Reinforcement, Verbal
Responses
Social Behavior
Speech Acoustics
Therapy
Treatment Outcome
Treatments
verbal behavior
Verbal Communication
Young Children
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Description
Summary:During a functional analysis, a boy with autism and oppositional defiant disorder displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by attention in the form of verbal reprimands (e.g., “Don't hit me”). In a second analysis, contingent verbal reprimands produced higher rates of the behavior than contingent statements that were unrelated to the target response (e.g., “It is sunny today”), suggesting that some forms of attention were more reinforcing than others. A treatment based on these analyses reduced the behavior to near‐zero levels.
ISSN:0021-8855
1938-3703
DOI:10.1901/jaba.1996.29-235