Fischer, S. M., Iwata, B. A., & Mazaleski, J. L. (1997).
Noncontingent delivery of arbitrary reinforcers as treatment for self-injurious behavior.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
30, 239-249.
Results of recent r esearch have shown that noncontingent
reinforcement (NCR) can be effective in reducing the frequency of
behavior problems. In typical NCR applications, the reinforcer
that is responsible for behavioral maintenance (as demonstrated
through a functional analysis) no longer follows occurrences of
the target behavior but instead is delivered according to a
time-based schedule. Thus, it is unclear if NCR would be
effective if the target behavior continued to be reinforced or if
arbitrary reinforcers (i.e., those irrelevant to behavioral
maintenance) were substituted for the maintaining reinforcers in
the NCR procedure. In this study, 2 individuals whose
self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by positive
reinforcement were exposed to conditions in which arbitrary and
maintaining reinforcers were withheld and were delivered either
contingently or noncontingently. Results indicated that
noncontingent delivery of arbitrary reinforcers was effective in
reducing SIB even though occurrences of SIB produced access to
the maintaining reinforcer. These results suggest that (a)
arbitrary reinforcers may sometimes be substituted for
maintaining reinforcers, (b) an important component of NCR
procedures is alteration of a behavior's establishing operation,
and (c) NCR with arbitrary reinforcers might therefore be
effective when maintaining reinforcers cannot be identified or
withheld during the course of treatment.
DESCRIPTORS: extinction, functional analysis, noncontingent
reinforcement,reinforcer assessment, self-injurious behavior