Premium
Effects of treatment‐integrity failures on a response‐cost procedure
Author(s) -
St. Peter Claire C.,
Byrd Jeffrey D.,
Pence Sacha T.,
Foreman Apral P.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1002/jaba.291
Subject(s) - structural integrity , personal integrity , signal integrity , psychology , bodily integrity , reliability engineering , computer science , social psychology , telecommunications , engineering , structural engineering , interconnection , law , political science
Effects of incorrect or partial implementation (poor treatment integrity) on response cost are largely unknown. We evaluated reduced treatment integrity during response cost on rates of 2 concurrently available responses. College students earned points by clicking on either a black circle or a red circle on a computer screen. Experiment 1 compared 2 types of treatment‐integrity failures (omission and commission errors) across 2 levels of integrity (20% and 50%). Compared to 100% integrity conditions, omission errors did not suppress responding to the same extent, and commission errors reduced target responding but also decreased rates of alternative behavior. Experiment 2 compared the effects of 20% and 50% omission errors within subjects. Implementation at 50% integrity adequately suppressed responding, but treatment effects were lost at 20% integrity. There may be a critical level at which response cost must be implemented to suppress responding, which has important implications for application.