On the role of stimulus preference assessment in the evaluation of contingent access to stimuli associated with stereotypy during behavioral acquisition
✍ Scribed by Meeta R. Patel; James E. Carr; Claudia L. Dozier
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 86 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1072-0847
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Previous authors have reported successful behavioral acquisition in children diagnosed with autism using contingent access to stereotypic responding as reinforcement. Other studies have demonstrated robust reinforcement eects when consequences were selected using stimulus preference assessments. We conducted two stimulus preference assessments with a six-year-old female diagnosed with autism. Her acquisition of a non-vocal imitation response was then evaluated during two reinforcement conditions: contingent access to (i) a stimulus associated with stereotypic object manipulation and (ii) a stimulus unassociated with such stereotypy. Both stimuli were identi®ed from the stimulus preference assessments. Nearly identical response patterns were observed in both conditions; correct responses to verbal prompts greatly increased while correct responses to gestural and physical prompts decreased to near-zero levels. These preliminary ®ndings are discussed in the context of improving stimulus selection in this area.