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AN EVALUATION OF ANTECEDENT EXERCISE ON BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY AUTOMATIC REINFORCEMENT USING A THREE‐COMPONENT MULTIPLE SCHEDULE
Author(s) -
Morrison Heather,
Roscoe Eileen M.,
Atwell Amy
Publication year - 2011
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.2011.44-523
Subject(s) - antecedent (behavioral psychology) , psychology , schedule , reinforcement , component (thermodynamics) , autism , sequence (biology) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , computer science , physics , genetics , biology , thermodynamics , operating system
We evaluated antecedent exercise for treating the automatically reinforced problem behavior of 4 individuals with autism. We conducted preference assessments to identify leisure and exercise items that were associated with high levels of engagement and low levels of problem behavior. Next, we conducted three 3‐component multiple‐schedule sequences: an antecedent‐exercise test sequence, a noncontingent leisure‐item control sequence, and a social‐interaction control sequence. Within each sequence, we used a 3‐component multiple schedule to evaluate preintervention, intervention, and postintervention effects. Problem behavior decreased during the postintervention component relative to the preintervention component for 3 of the 4 participants during the exercise‐item assessment; however, the effects could not be attributed solely to exercise for 1 of these participants.