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Biomedical subjects

R M Foxx

Publications and source records attributed to R M Foxx.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

An eight-year follow-up of three social skills training studies.

An 8-year follow-up of the maintenance of social skills training effects was conducted. Nine subjects from previously published studies that targeted general/social, social/vocational, and social/sexual skills were retested in role play or interview/simulation generalization assessments. The follow-up tests revealed that 5 subjects' correct responding was maintained well above their pretrained or baseline levels, and 3 responded above their posttest levels. Increases in an untargeted response, number of words per response, were maintained for most of the subjects whose percentage correct responding was maintained. The results suggest that some individuals will display enduring situation-specific social responding.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

"Harry": a ten year follow-up of the successful treatment of a self-injurious man.

The successful treatment of a self-injurious man is reported in a ten year follow-up. The client, Harry, is a 32-year-old man who was treated for self-injurious behavior (SIB) ten years ago with a multiphased program that included a) reinforcement with physical restraint for increasingly longer periods of noninjury and timeout from restraint for SIB, b) fading restraint, c) substituting appropriate forms of restraint, d) token reinforcement for adaptive behavior, and e) parent and vocational training. After ten years Harry's SIB remains infrequent and rarely results in any tissue damage. No negative consequences have been used for his SIB for over nine years. Harry now works all day in a community workshop, earns approximately $45.00 per month, visits his parents' home virtually every weekend and accompanied them two years ago on a four and a half week vacation by car that covered 7500 miles. Conceptual and practical considerations related to the client's success are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Long-term follow-up of echolalia and question answering.

A long-term follow-up of echolalia and correct question answering was conducted for 6 subjects from three previously published studies. The follow-up periods ranged from 26 to 57 months. In a training site follow-up, subjects were exposed to baseline/posttraining conditions in which the original trainer and/or a novel person(s) presented trained and untrained questions. Four subjects displayed echolalia below baseline levels, and another did so in some assessments. Overall, echolalia was lower than in baseline in 80.6% of the follow-ups. Five subjects displayed correct responding above baseline levels. No clear differences were noted in correct responding or echolalia between the trainer and novel-person presentations or between trained and untrained questions. In a follow-up in a natural environment conducted by a novel person, lower than baseline levels of echolalia were displayed by 3 subjects; 2 subjects displayed lower than baseline levels in some assessments. Two subjects consistently displayed correct responding above baseline, and 3 did so occasionally. Issues related to the study of maintenance are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

A maintenance strategy for discontinuing aversive procedures: a 52-month follow-up of the treatment of aggression.

A strategy for systematically discontinuing aversive treatment components is illustrated with a 52-month follow-up of the treatment of severe aggression by an institutionalized, dually diagnosed deaf male. Phase 1 lasted 28 months and included: (a) contingent electric shock, (b) a high density positive reinforcement, (c) compliance training, (d) transfer of programmatic responsibility to others, and (e) a relaxation procedure. Phase 2 has lasted for 24 months and features (a) replacing shock with decreasing durations of nonexclusionary timeout and (b) naturally occurring reinforcers. Aggression has remained very low for over 4 years. The client is in an all day workshop, visits home frequently, and accompanies his parents on vacation. A social validity questionnaire revealed that he has become more sociable and less dangerous.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Replacing a chronic schizophrenic man's delusional speech with stimulus appropriate responses.

This study attempted to extend the use of Cues, Pause, Point language training procedures (developed to treat the speech disorders of mentally handicapped persons) to delusional speech. The direct and potential generalized effects of the procedures on the delusional and socially appropriate responding of an institutionalized, chronic schizophrenic man were evaluated in a multiple baseline design across stimulus-response pairs. The procedures encouraged the subject to (a) remain quiet before, during, and after the presentation of verbal stimuli and then (b) respond on the basis of environmental cues (i.e. written word cards) that contained the correct responses. Delusional responding was rapidly replaced by appropriate responding on both sets of the trained stimuli. Across person and setting generalization occurred in assessments conducted immediately following training, and these effects were maintained for 15 months. The results suggest that Cues, Pause, Point procedures may offer some potential for replacing delusional responding with appropriate responding to social stimuli.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

The right to effective behavioral treatment.

We propose that individuals who are recipients or potential recipients of treatment designed to change their behavior have the right to a therapeutic environment, services whose overriding goal is personal welfare, treatment by a competent behavior analyst, programs that teach functional skills, behavioral assessment and ongoing evaluation, and the most effective treatment procedures available.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1988

Replacing maladaptive speech with verbal labeling responses: an analysis of generalized responding.

We taught three mentally handicapped students to answer questions with verbal labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on their maladaptive speech (e.g., echolalia) and correct responding to untrained questions. The students received cues-pause-point training on an initial question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in another setting. Probes were conducted on novel questions in three other settings to determine the strength and spread of the generalization effect. A multiple baseline across subjects design revealed that maladaptive speech was replaced with correct labels (answers) to questions in the training and all generalization settings. These results replicate and extend previous research that suggested that cues-pause-point procedures may be useful in replacing maladaptive speech patterns by teaching students to use their verbal labeling repertoires.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Cues-pause-point training and simultaneous communication to teach the use of signed labeling repertoires.

We taught two mentally retarded students who communicated by signing to answer questions with signed labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on their correct responding to untrained questions. The students received cues-pause-point training on one question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in other settings. Periodic probes were conducted on two novel question sets in other settings to determine further the strength and spread of any generalization effects. A multiple baseline across-subjects design revealed that the students' incorrect signing was replaced with correct responding in the training and all generalization sets. These results replicate and extend previous research and suggest that cues-pause-point procedures can be useful in teaching students to use their manual signing repertoires.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Cues-pause-point language training: teaching echolalics functional use of their verbal labeling repertoires.

We evaluated the direct and generalized effects of cues-pause-point language training procedures on immediate echolalia and correct responding in two severely retarded females. Two experiments were conducted with each subject in which the overall goal was to encourage them to remain quiet before, during, and briefly after the presentation of questions and then to verbalize on the basis of environmental cues whose labels represented the correct responses. Multiple baseline designs across question/response pairs (Experiment I) or question/response pairs and settings (Experiment II) demonstrated that echolalia was rapidly replaced by correct responding on the trained stimuli. More importantly, there were clear improvements in subjects' responding to untrained stimuli. Results demonstrated that the cues-pause-point procedures can be effective in teaching severely retarded or echolalic individuals functional use of their verbal labeling repertoires.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

A food satiation and oral hygiene punishment program to suppress chronic rumination by retarded persons.

Food satiation and oral hygiene punishment were used to treat the non-life-threatening rumination of two institutionalized profoundly retarded persons. Satiation consisted of allowing the clients to eat until a satiation criterion of food refusal was achieved or until two full meal portions were consumed. The oral hygiene procedure consisted of cleansing the clients' teeth and gums with Listerine for 2 minutes following each instance of rumination. In the formal study, three conditions--baseline, satiation, and satiation plus oral hygiene--were used following the lunch meal in a multiple-baseline across-subjects design. One client's rumination decreased from an average of 89.5% during baseline to 48.8% during the satiation condition and to 3% during satiation plus oral hygiene. The second client's rumination decreased from a baseline average of 49.9% to 7.9% during satiation and to 1.4% during satiation plus oral hygiene. Generalization probes taken following the breakfast and dinner meals showed a systematic decline in rumination as the various conditions were implemented following the lung meal. In the 16-week follow-up, rumination was treated following all meals with oral hygiene, and satiation was used at one of the daily meals for 1 week on a rotating basis. Rumination remained at a near-zero level following all meals throughout the follow-up. Thereafter, a maintenance program was conducted by the ward staff. The satiation plus oral hygiene punishment treatment program appears to be an immediate, effective, enduring, and humane method of treating the non-life-threatening rumination of retarded individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Nicotine fading and self-monitoring for cigarette abstinence or controlled smoking.

This study compared four treatment approaches to cigarette smoking: (1) a nicotine fading procedure, in which subjects changed their cigarette brands each week to ones containing progressively less nicotine and tar; (2) a self-monitoring procedure in which subjects plotted their daily intake of nicotine and tar; (3) a combined nicotine fading/self-monitoring procedure; and (4) a slightly modified American Cancer Society Stop Smoking Program. Thirty-eight habitual smokers were assigned to one of the treatment groups. The study had two goals: (1) to achieve a clinically significant percentage of abstinence, and (2) to reduce the nonabstainers' smoking to a "safer" level by having them smoke low tar and nicotine cigarettes. The 18-month followup results showed that the nicotine fading/self-monitoring group was the most successful: 40% were abstinent and all who had not quit were smoking cigarettes lower in tar and nicotine than their baseline brands. Half the nonabstainers had decreased their rate of smoking relative to baseline while the other half had increased. Furthermore, the fading/self-monitoring group achieved the largest reductions from baseline in daily nicotine and tar intake (61% and 70% respectively). The results suggest that the study's goals were achieved and that the nonaversive combined procedure could be used to treat not only habitual smokers but also smokers with severe cardiovascular and respiratory problems, because it does not have some of the inherent limitations of the successful aversive smoking cessation procedures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Behavioral treatment of caffeinism: reducing excessive coffee drinking.

Excessive coffee drinking can have deleterious effects because of the large amounts of caffeine that are ingested. Caffeine is thought to be addicting, and prolonged and excessive use can lead to caffeinism, a condition that has serious behavioral and physiological side effects. The present study developed and evaluated a treatment program to reduce excessive daily coffee drinking to moderate and presumably safer levels. Three habitual coffee drinkers received individualized changing criterion programs that systematically and gradually reduced their daily caffeine intake. The coffee drinkers were required to self-monitor and plot their daily intake of caffeine. They received monetary prizes for not exceeding the treatment phase criteria and forfeited a portion of their pretreatment deposit when they did. Their coffee drinking decreased from almost nine cups per day (over 1100 mg of caffeine) during baseline to less than three cups per day (less than 343 mg) at the end of treatment or a reduction of 69%. The treatment effect was maintained during a 10-month follow-up, averaging a 67% reduction from baseline. The program appears to be a reasonable method of reducing and then maintaining daily caffeine intake at less harmful levels.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1978

The timeout ribbon: a nonexclusionary timeout procedure.

Recently, the use of timeout rooms has been questioned by various agencies, and some have adopted policies that prohibit or greatly restrict exclusionary timeout. The present study developed a timeout procedure that did not require removal of the misbehaver from the learning environment. The procedure was applied to the disruptive behaviors of five severely retarded children in an institutional special-education classroom. An observer prompted all teacher behaviors related to the procedures to assure their precise implementation. After baseline, a reinforcement-only condition was implemented. Each child was given a different colored ribbon to wear as a tie and received edibles and praise every few minutes for good behavior and for wearing the ribbon. When timeout was added, a child's ribbon was removed for any instance of misbehavior and teacher attention and participation in activities ceased for three minutes or until the misbehavior stopped. Reinforcement continued at other times for appropriate behavior. An ABCBC reversal design was used to demonstrate control of the behavior by the conditions applied. On average, the children misbehaved 42% and 32% of the time during the baseline and reinforcement conditions respectively but only 6% of the time during the timeout conditions. A followup probe during the new school year revealed that the teacher was able to conduct the procedure independently and that the children's disruptive behaviors were maintained at low levels. The practicality and acceptability of the procedure were supported further by the successful implementation of the procedure by a teacher in another state and by responses to a questionnaire given to 40 mental health professionals. The ribbon procedure appears to be a viable form of timeout, provided that disruptive behaviors during timeout can be tolerated within the setting, or a backup procedure such as exclusionary timeout can be tolerated within the setting, or a backup procedure such as exclusionary timeout is available when needed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Attention training: the use of overcorrection avoidance to increase the eye contact of autistic and retarded children.

A crucial first step in teaching and training the retarded and autistic is to develop and maintain eye contact with the therapist. Functional movement training (an overcorrection procedure) plus edibles and praise were compared with edibles and praise alone as a method of developing eye contact in three such children. In both conditions, the child was given food and praise when eye contact occurred within 5 sec of the therapist's verbal prompt: "Look at me." Functional movement training avoidance plus edibles and praise produced about 90% attention for the three children, while edibles and praise alone were less effective (eye contact never exceeded 55%). Functional movement training avoidance combined with edibles and praise appears to be an effective method of teaching eye contact and possibly other forms of instruction-following to behaviorally disordered children who are not always responsive to positive consequences.

Attention↗