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NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS OF NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Vollmer Timothy R.,
Ringdahl Joel E.,
Roane Henry S.,
Marcus Bethany A.
Publication year - 1997
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.1997.30-161
Subject(s) - reinforcement , psychology , aggression , extinction (optical mineralogy) , contingency , functional analysis , contingency management , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , intervention (counseling) , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , biology
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) has emerged as a treatment package for severe behavior problems. Although concerns about potential side effects (such as incidental reinforcement) have been raised, there have been few reported negative side effects in published studies to date. In this article, we report an NCR treatment evaluation for severe aggression that produced (a) an extinction burst and (b) incidental reinforcement. These side effects were evaluated by examining within‐session response patterns and response distributions. As a solution, a brief omission contingency was added to the reinforcement schedule. The omission contingency resulted in decreased aggression rates.