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THE EFFECTS OF PRESESSION ATTENTION ON PROBLEM BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY DIFFERENT REINFORCERS
Author(s) -
McComas Jennifer J.,
Thompson Andrea,
Johnson LeAnne
Publication year - 2003
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.2003.36-297
Subject(s) - psychology , antecedent (behavioral psychology) , test (biology) , functional analysis , developmental psychology , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , biology , gene
The effect of presession attention on the later occurrence of problem behavior was examined with elementary‐school children with a range of disabilities. Results of analogue functional analyses suggested an escape function, an attention function, or both. Following the analogue functional analyses, the effects of two antecedent conditions (10‐min ignore vs. 10‐min attention) were compared on problem behavior in subsequent test conditions. For participants who displayed attention‐maintained problem behavior, the test condition involved contingent attention for problem behavior. For participants who displayed escape‐maintained problem behavior, the test condition involved contingent escape for problem behavior. Results indicated that participants who displayed attention‐maintained problem behavior displayed less problem behavior following presession exposure to attention than when ignored. No such effect was found for presession attention on escape‐maintained problem behavior. We discuss matching antecedent‐based interventions to the results of functional analysis.