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EXTINCTION OF SELF‐INJURIOUS ESCAPE BEHAVIOR WITH AND WITHOUT INSTRUCTIONAL FADING
Author(s) -
Zarcone Jennifer R.,
Iwata Brian A.,
Vollmer Timothy R.,
Jagtiani Suneeta,
Smith Richard G.,
Mazaleski Jodi L.
Publication year - 1993
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.1993.26-353
Subject(s) - extinction (optical mineralogy) , fading , psychology , reinforcement , audiology , multiple baseline design , spontaneous recovery , developmental psychology , statistics , medicine , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , mathematics , optics , physics , decoding methods , intervention (counseling)
Three individuals with developmental disabilities participated in a study of the treatment of self‐injurious behavior (SIB) maintained by negative reinforcement (escape from educational tasks). Treatment was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects, in which two treatments were compared in a multielement format. Both treatment conditions included an escape‐extinction component in which SIB no longer produced escape. One of the conditions also included a fading component in which the frequency of instructions was initially reduced to zero and then was gradually faded back in across sessions until the instructional rate matched that of the original baseline. Results indicated that extinction alone reduced SIB to the end‐of‐treatment criterion in fewer sessions than did extinction plus fading for all 3 subjects. For 2 of the 3 subjects, however, there was an initial increase in the frequency of SIB at the outset of treatment with extinction (an extinction burst) that was not observed when extinction was combined with the fading component.