John T. Rapp, Timothy R. Vollmer, Claire St. Peter, Claudia L. Dozier, & Nicole M. Cotnoir (2004).
Analysis of response allocation in individuals with multiple forms of stereotyped behavior.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
37, 481-501.
Using a modified constant prompt-delay procedure to teach
spelling to students with physical disabilities
Mari Beth Coleman-Martin & Kathryn Wolff Heller
Three experiments were conducted to evaluate response
allocation of stereotypy during free-
operant and restricted-operant conditions. Five children
with autism or related developmental
disabilities participated in at least one and
up to three of the experiments. In Experiment 1, the
stereotypic response that emerged as most probable
during a free-operant phase was restricted,
and response allocation was again evaluated. The
results for 3 participants showed that restricting
the high-probability response was correlated with
covarying reductions in a nontargeted
stereotypy. In Experiment 2, the effect of environmental
enrichment on response allocation was
evaluated. One participant reallocated behavior
to appropriate object manipulation, 1 participant
showed no change in behavior, and a 3rd participant
reallocated behavior to object manipulation
only when the putative stimulus products of the
object manipulation matched those of stereotypy.
In Experiment 3, additional interventions were
implemented to promote response reallocation.
Results showed that both response restriction
and reinforcement for object manipulation decreased
stereotypy and increased object manipulation. Collectively,
the results of these experiments point
to a need for complex evaluations of interventions
for stereotypy.
DESCRIPTORS: environmental enrichment, response restriction, stereotypy