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Biomedical subjects

A Rincover

Publications and source records attributed to A Rincover.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Parent education project. III: Increasing affection and responsivity in developmentally handicapped mothers: component analysis, generalization, and effects on child language.

We evaluated the effects of a parent training program consisting of verbal instruction, modeling, and feedback on the affection and responsivity of 3 developmentally handicapped mothers towards their children. The results indicated the following: First, the training package increased maternal physical affection, praise, and imitation of child vocalizations. These parenting skills increased to levels found in comparison groups of nonhandicapped mothers. Second, the training package was more effective than verbal instruction alone, the latter being the predominant method presently used by social service workers. Third, most maternal gains were maintained over a 3- to 18-month follow-up period, although one mother required a reinforced maintenance procedure. Fourth, instructing mothers to generalize served to increase the generalization of newly acquired skills from play times (the training context) to child-care tasks (e.g., diapering, feeding). Fifth, teaching the parents to imitate child vocalizations was related to gains in both the frequency and quality of verbal behavior of the two language delayed children as measured by standardized developmental tests and in vivo comparisons with age-matched children (who had nonhandicapped parents). These results show that behavioral instruction can improve important child-rearing skills of developmentally handicapped mothers, with corresponding benefits to their children.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Variables influencing stimulus overselectivity and "tunnel vision" in developmentally delayed children.

Three variables (diagnosis, location of cues, and MA of learners) influencing stimulus control and stimulus overselectivity in autistic children were assessed. Eight autistic and 8 intellectually average children, matched on MA, were trained on two discrimination tasks; one task contained two "within-stimulus" (i.e., physically connected) cues; the other contained the same two cues presented "extra-stimulus" (i.e., physically separate). Generalization gradients were used following training to measure the degree of stimulus control acquired by each cue. Results showed: autistic subjects tended to respond overselectively only in the extra-stimulus condition; MA was positively correlated with breadth of learning; and when autistic children were overselective to one cue, some stimulus control was also acquired by the second cue. The notion of tunnel vision was discussed, as it may represent a "keystone" deficit interfering with stimulus control and learning by autistic children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Parent education project II. Increasing stimulating interactions of developmentally handicapped mothers.

Two studies are reported on the assessment and training of parent-child interactional skills in developmentally handicapped mothers. Study 1 compared the interactions of eight developmentally handicapped versus eight nonhandicapped mothers during play with their young (6-25 months) children. Results showed that the former group generally interacted much less with their children and that they were less likely to praise appropriate child behavior and imitate child vocalizations. Study 2 attempted to remediate these deficits, using a training package consisting of discussion, modeling, feedback, social reinforcement, and self-recording. Results showed, first, that the training did increase the targeted skills to well within the range found for the nonhandicapped mothers. Second, training effects generalized from the group instructional setting to the mothers' own homes. Third, newly acquired skills were generally maintained at or above levels found for the nonhandicapped mothers over a 5- to 10-month follow-up period. Finally, all seven children showed increases in vocalizations concomitant with parent training. The results suggest that developmentally handicapped mothers can be taught to provide more effective and stimulating interactions to their young children.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Behavioral research in self-injury and self-stimulation.

This article reviews the behavioral literature on self-injury and self-stimulation. Studies investigating the causes of such pathologic behavior and methods of treatment are critiqued. New, promising treatment procedures, such as "sensory extinction," are described and discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1985

Comparing autistic and normal children along the dimensions of reinforcement maximization, stimulus sampling, and responsiveness to extinction.

The purpose of this study was to assess autistic children's ability to maximize reinforcement, sample among available stimuli, and respond to extinction. Responding to five concurrent reinforcement schedules (CRF, FR 2, FR 4, FR 7, and FR 11) was monitored and compared to groups of mental age-matched and chronological age-matched normal children. When a given child consistently selected a given schedule of reinforcement, it was then put on extinction, and both perseveration and responding to the remaining (intact) schedules of reinforcement were monitored. The results showed, first, that while normal children selected the richest schedule of reinforcement, autistics did not maximize reinforcement, typically selecting one of the thinner schedules available. Second, the autistic children sampled less, and less efficiently, than the normal children. Third, the autistic children proved to be much less responsive to extinction, perseverating longer than the normal children before switching to a new reinforcement schedule. Fourth, whenever extinction proved to be a problem in the autistics, it was quickly achieved by a simple change in the stimulus conditions. These results are discussed as possible "keystone" deficits, which may be causally related to many of the behavioral deficits of autism and which might be important target behaviors for treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The relative motivational properties of sensory and edible reinforcers in teaching autistic children.

We compared the effects of sensory and edible reinforcers on resistance to satiation in three autistic children while learning visual discrimination tasks. Within-subject designs were used to compare a single sensory reinforcer with a single edible reinforcer and to compare multiple sensory reinforcers with multiple edibles. Results indicated that multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers; however, the use of single sensory reinforcers and single edibles resulted in about equal numbers of trials to satiation. Both multiple and single sensory reinforcers produced higher percentages of correct responses than edible reinforcers. The findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of sensory reinforcers in teaching autistic children.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1980

The technical drift of applied behavior analysis.

Four dimensions (applied, analytic, general, conceptual) were selected from Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968) seminal article on the nature of applied behavior analysis and were monitored throughout the first 10 volumes of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Each of the experimental articles in Volumes 1 through 6 and the first half of Volumes 7 through 10 was rated on each of these dimensions. The trends showed that applied behavior analysis is becoming a more purely technical effort, with less interest in conceptual questions. We are using simpler experimental designs and are conducting fewer analogue studies. Although concern for maintenance is increasing, other forms of generality are being measured or analyzed less often. These trends are discussed in terms of a technical drift in applied behavior analysis.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1979

Sensory extinction and sensory reinforcement principles for programming multiple adaptive behavior change.

The role of sensory reinforcement was examined in programming multiple treatment gains in self-stimulation and spontaneous play for developmentally disabled children. Two phases were planned. First, we attempted to identify reinforcers maintaining self-stimulation. Sensory Extinction procedures were implemented in which auditory, proprioceptive, or visual sensory consequences of self-stimulatory behavior were systematically removed and reintroduced in a reversal design. When self-stimulation was decreased or eliminated as a result of removing one of these sensory consequences, the functional sensory consequence was designated as a child's preferred sensory reinforcer. In Phase 2, we assessed whether children would play selectively with toys producing the preferred kind of sensory stimulation. The results showed the following. (1) Self-stimulatory behavior was found to be maintained by sensory reinforcement. When the sensory reinforcer was removed, self-stimulation extinguished. (2) The sensory reinforcers identified for self-stimulatory behavior also served as reinforcers for new, appropriate toy play. (3) The multiple treatment gains observed appeared to be relatively durable in the absence of external reinforcers for play or restraints on self-stimulation. These results illustrate one instance in which multiple behavior change may be programmed in a predictable, lawful fashion by using "natural communities of sensory reinforcement."

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1978

Sensory extinction: a procedure form eliminating self-stimulatory behavior in developmentally disabled children.

This study was designed to investigate the role of sensory reinforcement in the motivation of self-stimulation. If self-stimulatory behavior is maintained by its sensory consequences, such as the proprioceptive, auditory, or visual stimulation it produces, then such behavior should extinguish when those sensory consequences are not permitted. The present study introduces a new procedure, Sensory Extinction, in which certain sensory consequences are masked or removed, to examine whether self-stimulation is operant behavior maintained by sensory reinforcement. The effectiveness of Sensory Extinction was assessed by a reversal design for each of three autistic children, and the results showed the following. First, self-stimulation reliably extinguished when a certain sensory consequence was removed, then increased when that consequence was permitted. This was replicable within and across children. Second, different Sensory Extinction procedures were required for different self-stimulatory behaviors, since the sensory reinforcers supporting them were idiosyncratic across children. Finally, regarding clinical gains, the data suggest that Sensory Extinction may be a relatively convenient and rapid alternative for the treatment of self-stimulation. The present findings extend the efficacy of extinction as a behavior-modification technique to instances in which the reinforcer is purely sensory. The implications of these results for the treatment of other forms of deviant behavior are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1977

Research on the difference between generalization and maintenance in extra-therapy responding.

Many authors have reported that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change. In Experiment I, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings. The results showed that one child did not generalize to the extra-therapy setting, but that other children did. However, for the children who generalized, extra-therapy responding was not maintained. Therfore, in Experiment II two variables affecting the durability of extra-therapy responding were assessed and found to be influential: (a) the use of partial reinforcement schedules in the original treatment environment; and (b) the presence of noncontingent reinforcers in the extra-therapy environment. The results suggest that there are two distinct parameters of extra-therapy responding: generalization and maintenance. A technology for producing durable extra-therapy responding is discussed in terms of different treatment procedures required for different deficits in extra-therapy responding.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1977

Assessing and training teachers in the generalized use of behavior modification with autistic children.

This study investigated the feasibility of developing reliable, valid criteria for measuring and training the skills necessary to teach autistic children. The behaviors of 11 teachers and 12 autistic children were recorded in a series of different teaching situation. Teacher-training was initiated at different times for different teachers. The results showed: (1) it was possible to asses empirically whether a teacher was correctly using defined behavior-modification techniques; (2) generally, for any given session, systematic improvement in the child's behavior did not occur unless the teacher working in that session had been trained to use the techniques to a hight criterion; (3) all 11 teachers were rapidly trained to use these techniques; and (4) the teachers learned generalized skills effective with a variety of children and target behaviors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Some determinants of the reinforcing and punishing effects of timeout.

Some determinants of the reinforcing and punishing properties of timeout were investigated in two experiments. Experiment I began as an attempt to reduce the frequency of tantrums in a 6-yr-old autistic girl by using timeout. Unexpectedly, the result was a substantial increase in the frequency of tantrums. Using a reversal design, subsequent manipulations showed that the opportunity to engage in self-stimulatory behavior during the timeout period was largely responsible for the increase in tantrums. Experiment II was initiated following the failure of timeout to reduce the spitting and self-injurious behavior of a 16-yr-old retarded boy. Using a multiple-baseline design, the nature of the timein environment was shown to be an important determinant of the effects of timeout. When the timein environment was "enriched", timeout was effective as a punisher. A conception of timeout in terms of the relative reinforcing properties of timein and timeout and their clinical implications are discussed.

Adolescent↗