Mark R. Dixon & Pamela A. Tibbetts. (2009).
The effects of choice on self-control.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
42, 243-252.
Three adolescents with traumatic brain injury performed a physical
therapy task in the absence of programmed consequences or duration
requirements. Next, the experimenter gave the participants the options
of a smaller immediate reinforcer with no response requirement or a
larger delayed reinforcer with a response requirement. Self-control
training exposed participants to a procedure during which they chose
between a smaller immediate reinforcer and a progressively increasing
delayed reinforcer whose values varied and were determined by a die
roll. The participants chose whether they or the experimenter rolled
the die. All participants initially demonstrated low baseline durations
of the physical therapy task, chose the smaller immediate reinforcer
during the choice baseline, and changed their preference to the larger
delayed reinforcer during self-control training.
DESCRIPTORS: brain injury, choice, delayed reinforcement, impulsivity, self-control