Frequent Baseline Reinforcement Reduces Treatment Efficacy

Shedrick Garrett*, Stephanie Jones and Claire St Peter, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506

Field (Broad Category): Psychology (Behavioral & Social Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Psychology/Neuroscience 

Individuals enter treatment with a variety of histories for challenging behavior. Existing research suggests that behavioral treatments based on discontinuing reinforcement may be more effective when they immediately follow a history of receiving reinforcement for every response (“continuous reinforcement”) instead of intermittently (“intermittent reinforcement”). However, the effects of these histories when challenging behavior also continues to produce some reinforcers is unknown. We assessed effects of continuous and intermittent histories with a non-clinical sample during “treatment” of an arbitrary response (mouse-clicking on a computer) using a within-subject design. Each participant experienced two replications of three conditions: baseline (reinforcement for clicking), treatment that discontinued reinforcement for clicking, and treatment with intermittent reinforcement for clicking, in that order. Baseline consisted of continuous reinforcement in one replication and intermittent reinforcement in the other. In contrast with previous findings, preliminary results suggest that a history of continuous reinforcement worsened treatment outcomes when treatment included continued intermittent reinforcers for challenging behavior, relative to initial intermittent reinforcement. Results suggest that clinicians should be careful about following previous recommendations to shift to continuous reinforcement before commencing treatment. 

Funding: