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Biomedical subjects

R H Horner

Publications and source records attributed to R H Horner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Self-injurious behavior: gene-brain-behavior relationships.

This paper summarizes a conference held at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development on December 6-7, 1999, on self-injurious behavior [SIB] in developmental disabilities. Twenty-six of the top researchers in the U.S. from this field representing 13 different disciplines discussed environmental mechanisms, epidemiology, behavioral and pharmacological intervention strategies, neurochemical substrates, genetic syndromes in which SIB is a prominent behavioral phenotype, neurobiological and neurodevelopmental factors affecting SIB in humans as well as a variety of animal models of SIB. Findings over the last decade, especially new discoveries since 1995, were emphasized. SIB is a rapidly growing area of scientific interest to both basic and applied researchers. In many respects it is a model for the study of gene-brain-behavior relationships in developmental disabilities.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Relation between heart rate and problem behaviors.

A new methodological approach for understanding self-injury, aggression, and property destruction exhibited by individuals with severe developmental disabilities was evaluated in this descriptive study. Measures of heart-rate changes before, during, and after episodes of problem behavior were obtained in real time. Unique patterns of heart rate and problem behavior were documented for each participant. Heart rate, identified as an indicator of negative arousal, was reliably associated with higher scores of perceived distress. These results indicate that further research is needed to examine the link between problem behavior and physiology. The study also suggests that physiological measurement can be included in the functional assessment process to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying problem behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Comparison of supported living and traditional residential services in the state of Oregon.

Supported living has been described as an approach that contributes to higher lifestyle quality. We compared supported living and traditional residential support. Twenty supported living participants were matched with 20 participants receiving traditional support. Results indicated that participants receiving supported living services were more likely to be experiencing features of supported living and that supported living participants experienced significantly more community activity variety, did community activities more frequently, and did preferred community activities more frequently. Further, they engaged in activities with more people and did activities with these people more frequently. The costs were similar for providing supported living and traditional support.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Identifying instructional tasks that occasion problem behaviors and assessing the effects of student versus teacher choice among these tasks.

Levels of problem behavior were assessed when 4 students with severe disabilities received instruction on preferred versus nonpreferred tasks and when tasks of each type were chosen by the teacher rather than by the student. In Phase 1, interview and direct observation assessments were conducted to identify relative preferences for academic tasks. In Phase 2, the effects of these lower preference and higher preference tasks on the rate of problem behavior were evaluated using a multielement design. The results showed that lower preference tasks were associated with higher rates of problem behaviors and that students, when given a choice, consistently selected the tasks that had been identified through interview and direct observation as higher preference. In Phase 3, we assessed whether allowing the students to choose between pairs of lower preference tasks or between pairs of higher preference tasks reduced problem behavior relative to a condition in which the teacher selected the same tasks. For 2 of 4 students, the rates of problem behavior were lower when students (rather than the teacher) selected the lower preference activity. Higher preference tasks for 3 students were associated with relatively low rates of problem behavior regardless of whether the student or the teacher selected the task.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Using neutralizing routines to reduce problem behaviors.

Establishing operations can alter problem behaviors by changing the momentary value of reinforcers associated with those problem behaviors. If establishing operations (EOs) precede the presentation of discriminative stimuli (SDs) for problem behaviors, it may be possible to introduce neutralizing routines that both reduce the value of reinforcers associated with problem behaviors and decrease the occurrence of problem behaviors. The present study examined this logic with 3 adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities. Initial functional analyses indicated that problem behaviors were motivated by either escape or tangible items. Functional assessment interviews identified possible establishing operations that were associated with the occurrence of problem behavior and indicated that these establishing operations occurred over 1 hr before presentation of the SD for problem behaviors. We used an alternating treatments design to examine problem behaviors during instruction under four conditions: EO + SD, SD only, EO only, and neither SD nor EO. For all 3 participants, problem behaviors occurred almost exclusively during the EO + SD condition. A further analysis compared the EO + SD condition when neutralizing routines were embedded between the EO and the SD. Results from an ABAB reversal design supported the effectiveness of neutralizing routines to reduce these problem behaviors. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Focusing on values and lifestyle outcomes in an effort to improve the quality of residential services in Oregon.

Service systems for individuals with developmental disabilities are striving to assist people to obtain a higher quality of life, consistent with principles associated with continuous quality improvement. Through innovative, systematic, and widespread application of such principles, Oregon's Office of Developmental Disability Services is helping residential programs improve lifestyle outcomes for participants. Evaluations suggest that involved residential programs are maintaining implementation of the continuous quality improvement procedures and are finding them important and useful. More fine-grained research suggests that some programs are becoming more adept at identifying participants' preferred activities and incorporating them into Individualized Support Plans as well as improving participants' levels of physical and social integration.

Health Services Research↗
PubMed1995

Feedback to staff on resident lifestyle. A descriptive analysis.

Providing feedback has been found to affect the behavior of staff of school and community programs. The present article presents a descriptive analysis of feedback provided to staff members concerning the lifestyle of 33 participants in 18 community residential programs in Oregon. Staff from four cohorts of programs were trained to monitor the physically and socially integrated activities experienced by program participants, and to review those data at weekly meetings. Examination of the results before and after programs had used the monitoring system indicated increases in the average number of community activities experienced by participants, the average number of activities they did with community people, the size of their social networks, and the number of individuals they identified as friends. Results were discussed in terms of the role of feedback in improving community support, the need for further research for understanding staff behaviors responsible for observed gains, and the need to better understand the relationship between observed patterns of activities and individual quality of life.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

Benefit-cost analysis of community residential versus institutional services for adults with severe mental retardation and challenging behaviors.

A benefit-cost analysis was conducted to compare services in community residences versus an institution for 11 individuals with severe mental retardation and challenging behaviors who had been moved from an institution to a community setting. Effects that were not readily quantifiable in economic terms also were examined. Overall, the community-based program costs represented slight public savings over costs of the state institution. However, community living netted significant increases in variables such as resident's social networks, opportunities for integrated activities, and income.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

Factors contributing to the stability of social relationships between individuals with mental retardation and other community members.

Stability of social relationships may be an important indicator of lifestyle quality. Fourteen community members identified as being in long-term, socially stable relationships with one or more individuals with mental retardation provided answers to a quantitatively oriented questionnaire and participated in a more open-ended qualitative interview. In general, results indicated that the stability of the relationships was influenced by (a) the community members having previously served as staff members to the individuals with mental retardation, (b) their willingness to overcome logistical barriers that might otherwise have impeded their friendships, (c) their perception that the relationships included reciprocal social support, and (d) other idiosyncratic variables.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1994

Multiple functions of problem behaviors: assessment and intervention.

Three individuals with severe intellectual disabilities participated in separate analyses of problem behavior. In each case, a functional analysis was conducted under two parallel conditions. In one condition, self-injury or aggression resulted in escape from difficult tasks; in the second condition, the same problem behavior resulted in access to preferred items. Results indicated that the problem behaviors for each participant were maintained by both types of contingencies. Functional communication training was then delivered first in one condition and then in the second. After each participant was trained in a functionally equivalent mode of communication for one condition, levels of problem behavior decreased in that condition but not in the untrained condition. Only after separate communication forms were trained in both conditions was problem behavior reduced to clinically acceptable levels. These results document three examples of problem behaviors under multiple control, and emphasize the need to organize interventions that address different contingencies of reinforcement that maintain the same problem behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

A conceptual model for improving the social life of individuals with mental retardation.

Fostering and improving the social relationships of individuals with disabilities have become recognized as legitimate roles for service providers. This is, in part, a logical outgrowth of a shift from services that emphasized health, safety, and skill development to services whose mission is seen as also including "lifestyle support." In this paper we reviewed ways in which social life has been conceptualized and measured and suggested how such concepts might be integrated into a comprehensive model to spur research and development benefitting individuals with mental retardation.

Humans↗
PubMed1993

Validating predicted activity preferences of individuals with severe disabilities.

We examined the accuracy of 24 staff members' predictions of activities preferred by 14 individuals with severe disabilities. For each of 144 activities, staff members assigned a client preference rating of "likes a lot," "likes," or "dislikes." Two activities from each category were randomly selected for each individual with disabilities. Pairs of selected activities were presented to the individuals, who were prompted to choose an activity. Staff members' activity preference ratings correctly predicted the choices made by the individuals with disabilities for 78% of the trials. The more divergent the preference ratings of the paired activities, the more likely staff members were to predict correctly the activity selected by a participant.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Covariation within functional response classes: implications for treatment of severe problem behavior.

Two studies examined the effects of a reductive treatment versus instruction-based treatments on the generalized reduction of problem behaviors. Each study involved a detailed analysis of multiple problem behaviors performed by school-aged youth with severe intellectual disabilities. The analysis examined the contrasting effects of one of two different positive intervention procedures (teaching a positive alternative behavior or providing additional teacher assistance during instruction) versus blocking and/or verbally reprimanding a problem behavior. The focus of each analysis was on the covariation of multiple problem behaviors within functional response classes. Results of the investigation indicated that when only one member of the response class was blocked, a collateral increase was observed in one or more different problem behaviors from the same response class. Alternatively, when 1 participant was taught a functionally equivalent mand response, all problem behaviors in the response class were reduced. Problem behaviors also were reduced for the remaining participant by presenting antecedent teacher assistance. Implications of the research extend to analysis of covariation within response classes and to procedures that result in generalized reduction of problem behaviors within a response class.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1991

Interspersed requests: a nonaversive procedure for reducing aggression and self-injury during instruction.

Interspersed requests are simple commands, with a high likelihood of being followed correctly, that are interspersed among instructional trials to increase the probability that a learner will attempt to perform new or difficult tasks without engaging in aggression or self-injurious behavior. This report presents two assessments of the effect of interspersed requests on aggression and self-injury during instruction. The participants were individuals with severe mental retardation who used aggression and self-injury to avoid difficult instructional situations. Results from both studies indicate that interspersed requests were effective at increasing the responsiveness of the learners to instructions and reducing levels of aggression and self-injury.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1991

Social interactions in three supported employment options: a comparative analysis.

Controversy exists over the benefits that workers with severe disabilities accrue under different supported employment options. This study focused upon one benefit of supported employment: social integration. Direct observation procedures were used to assess the social interactions of 37 adults with severe disabilities in 18 employment programs representing three different supported employment contexts (individual, enclave, and work crew). Results indicated that workers employed in individual and enclave programs had significantly more contact with nondisabled persons than did members of work crews. No differences were detected in the social contact rate between disabled and nondisabled workers in individual versus enclave sites. Furthermore, few differences in type of interactions across the three different work options were revealed. Results suggest that both individual and enclave models are capable of facilitating social integration. However, characteristics of specific job sites, more so than the employment model per se, may determine whether a particular employment setting is conducive to social integration.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The effects of response efficiency on functionally equivalent competing behaviors.

Three experiments addressed the role of response efficiency in the application of functional equivalence training. Functional equivalence training includes conducting a functional assessment of the problem behavior. Variables that predict and maintain the problem behavior are defined, and socially appropriate, functionally equivalent skills are identified and taught. The logic is that if the learner has a socially appropriate way to achieve the same function, he or she will be less likely to use problem behaviors. This study examined the role of response efficiency in functional equivalence training. Response efficiency was examined in terms of three variables: (a) physical effort, (b) schedule of reinforcement, and (c) the time delay between presentation of the discriminative stimulus and reinforcer delivery. Each of the three experiments involved a person who performed a set of problem behaviors and a functional assessment of the problem behaviors. A socially appropriate alternative response was taught, but this new response was less efficient than the problem behavior on one of the efficiency variables (effort, schedule, delay in time). The new behaviors did not compete successfully with the problem behaviors until a new, more efficient, alternative behavior was taught. These results are discussed in terms of our understanding of response covariation and the need in applied contexts to include response efficiency in any functional analysis assessment.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

Comparison of simulation training on self and using a doll for teaching generalized menstrual care to women with severe mental retardation.

This study examined the effects of two simulation methods of general case instruction in teaching generalized menstrual care; long-term maintenance was assessed up to 18 months. Within a split multiple-baseline design across subjects, three middle-school students and one adult woman with severe or profound mental retardation initially were assigned either to on-self instruction or to instruction using a doll. The two learners receiving doll training also participated in instruction on self. A modified forward chaining procedure with identical task analysis steps was used with each method. The range of positive and negative training examples used also was identical for the two techniques except that doll-size underwear and sanitary pads were used for doll training. Participants were taught (by demonstrating on themselves or by manipulating the doll) to change stained underwear and stained pads and not to change underwear or to obtain a pad in the absence of a stain. The dependent variables consisted of simulation and in vivo (natural menses) assessment probes and reflected the percentage of trials in which all task analysis steps were performed correctly. Correct performance on critical menstrual-care steps alone also was assessed. Results indicated limited generalization after training using a doll. While all four learners demonstrated high levels of generalized responding following on-self instruction, the effect decreased over time for two participants. Implications for defining the dependent variable, selecting teaching examples, and enhancing maintenance are discussed.

Adolescent↗