Vollmer, T. R., Marcus, Bethany A., & Ringdahl, J. E. (1995).
Noncontingent escape as treatment for self-injurious behavior maintained by negative reinforcement.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
28, 15-26.
We extended research on the role of noncontingent positive
reinforcement following a functional analysis of
attention-maintained self-injurious behavior to self-injury
maintained by negative reinforcement in 2 young males
with developmental disabilities. During a pretreatment
functional analysis, each participant's self-injury was
shown to be differentially sensitive to escape from
instructional activities as negative reinforcement. During
noncontingent escape, escape from learning activities was
provided on a fixed-time schedule that was not influenced
by the participant's behavior. One participant was also
exposed to differential negative reinforcement of other
behavior. During this condition, escape from instructional
activities was provided contingent on the omission of
self-injury for prespecified intervals. Results showed that
the provision of escape, even when noncontingent, resulted
in significant reductions in self-injury. These results are
particularly interesting in light of the experimental history
of noncontingent reinforcement as a control rather than as
a therapeutic procedure. Noncontingent escape is discussed
as a form of extinction that may be less likely than other
forms of extinction to produce severe side effects.
DESCRIPTORS: self-injurious behavior, noncontingent
escape, differential negative reinforcement, functional
analysis