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SELF‐STIMULATORY BEHAVIOR AND PERCEPTUAL REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Lovaas Ivar,
Newsom Crighton,
Hickman Carol
Publication year - 1987
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 - 10.1901/jaba.1987.20-45
Subject(s) - psychology , reinforcement , perception , extinction (optical mineralogy) , sensory system , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , paleontology , biology
Self‐stimulatory behavior is repetitive, stereotyped, functionally autonomous behavior seen in both normal and developmentally disabled populations, yet no satisfactory theory of its development and major characteristics has previously been offered. We present here a detailed hypothesis of the acquisition and maintenance of self‐stimulatory behavior, proposing that the behaviors are operant responses whose reinforcers are automatically produced interoceptive and exteroceptive perceptual consequences. The concept of perceptual stimuli and reinforcers, the durability of self‐stimulatory behaviors, the sensory extinction effect, the inverse relationship between self‐stimulatory and other behaviors, the blocking effect of self‐stimulatory behavior on new learning, and response substitution effects are discussed in terms of the hypothesis. Support for the hypothesis from the areas of sensory reinforcement and sensory deprivation is also reviewed. Limitations of major alternative theories are discussed, along with implications of the perceptual reinforcement hypothesis for the treatment of excessive self‐stimulatory behavior and for theoretical conceptualizations of functionally related normal and pathological behaviors.