Vollmer, T. R., Ringdahl, J. E., Roane, H. S., & Marcus, B. A. (1997).
Negative side effects of noncontingent reinforcement.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
30, 161-164.
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) has emerged as a treatment
package for severe behavior problems. Although concerns about
potential side effects (such as incidental reinforcement) have
been raised, there have been few reported negative side effects
in published studies to date. In this article, we report an NCR
treatment evaluation for severe aggression that produced (a) an
extinction burst and (b) incidental reinforcement. These side
effects were evaluated by examining within-session response
patterns and response distributions. As a solution, a brief
omission contingency was added to the reinforcement schedule. The
omission contingency resulted in decreased aggression rates.
DESCRIPTORS: noncontingent reinforcement, incidental
reinforcement, differential reinforcement, aggression