Maintaining behavior in a child with autism using a previously neutral stimulus, a remote control tactile stimulus, as the consequence

• Main Author: Wheat, Leigh Ann Stiles
• Other Authors: Ala'i-Rosales, Shahla
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2000
• Subjects: Autistic children > Behavior modification.; Autism in children > Treatment.; Reinforcement (Psychology); autism; behavior analytic therapy; reinforcers
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2550/

Few studies have investigated methods for establishing neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcers in human subjects. Conditioned reinforcers, however, can alleviate some of the problems encountered in applied behavior analytic (ABA) therapy for children with autism, such as satiation and suitability of reinforcers for specific environments. A series of reversals evaluated the effects of a conditioning procedure involving pairing a neutral stimulus, the remote control stimulus (RCT), with an identified reinforcer. Phase 1 demonstrated that the RCT was neutral. In Phase 2, alternating pairing and testing conditions were run. During testing the effects of pairing were evaluated by the effectiveness of the RCT in maintaining a response in the absence of a previously available reinforcer (extinction test) and in increasing a new response over a baseline level (learning test). Results from the extinction test suggest that under some pairing conditions the RCT can acquire properties of a reinforcer.