Piazza, C. C., Fisher, W. W., Hanley, G. P., LeBlanc, L. A., Worsdell, A. S., Lindauer, S. E., & Keeney, K. M. (1998).
Treatment of pica through multiple analyses of its reinforcing functions.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
31, 165-189.
We conducted functional analyses of the pica of 3 participants.
The pica of 1 participant appeared to be maintained by automatic
reinforcement; that of the other 2 participants appeared to be
multiply controlled by social and automatic reinforcement.
Subsequent preference and treatment analyses were used to
identify stimuli that would compete with the automatic function
of pica for the 3 participants. These analyses also identified
the specific aspect of oral stimulation that served as automatic
reinforcement for 2 of the participants. In addition, functional
analysis-based treatments were used to address the socially
motivated components of 2 of the participants' pica. Results are
discussed in terms of (a) the importance of using the results of
functional analyses to develop treatments for pica and (b) the
advantages of developing indirect analyses to identify specific
sources of reinforcement for automatically reinforced behavior.
DESCRIPTORS: automatic reinforcement, pica, multiply controlled
behavior, preference assessments, functional analysis