McComas, J. J., Thompson, A., & Johnson, L. (2003).
The effects of presession attention on problem behavior maintained by different reinforcers.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
36, 297-307.
The effect of presession attention on the later occurrence of
problem behavior was examined with elementary-school children
with a range of disabilities. Results of analogue functional
analyses suggested an escape function, an attention function, or
both. Following the analogue functional analyses, the effects of
two antecedent conditions (10-min ignore vs. 10-min attention)
were compared on problem behavior in subsequent test conditions.
For participants who displayed attention-maintained problem
behavior, the test condition involved contingent attention for
problem behavior. For participants who displayed escape-
maintained problem behavior, the test condition involved
contingent escape for problem behavior. Results indicated that
participants who displayed attention-maintained problem behavior
displayed less problem behavior following presession exposure to
attention than when ignored. No such effect was found for
presession attention on escape-maintained problem behavior. We
discuss matching antecedent-based interventions to the results of
functional analysis.
DESCRIPTORS: _abolishing operations, academic settings, antecedent
interventions, establishing operations, problem behavior