Advisor(s)

William H. Ahearn

Contributor(s)

Jason C. Bourret, Chata Dickson

Date of Award

2011

Date Accepted

8-2011

Degree Grantor

Northeastern University

Degree Level

M.S.

Degree Name

Master of Applied Behavior Analysis

Department or Academic Unit

Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Department of Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology.

Keywords

psychology, behavioral, multiple schedule, RIRDm, RIRDv, stereotypy, withdrawal design

Subject Categories

Mental illness - Treatment, Stereotyped behavior (Psychiatry)

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

Many traditional treatment evaluations such as multiple baseline, alternating treatments, and withdrawal designs are effective but can be time and labor intensive. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a multiple schedule as a method to rapidly identify treatment effects when implementing response interruption for stereotypic behavior. Additionally, given that it has been suggested that response blocking can produce an establishing operation for stereotypy (see, Rapp, 2006), this study also examined whether consistent motivative effects were obtained following response interruption. Participants were two teenage boys diagnosed with autism whose stereotypy was presumably maintained by automatic reinforcement. The multiple schedule analyses were arranged in which BL and response interruption components were alternated. Two types of response interruption were used for each participant. The multiple schedule analyses were then compared to the results of withdrawal design comparison of the same conditions (i.e., ABABACAC). Treatment effects were detected via a proportional analysis of the treatment relative to the baseline conditions for the multiple schedule analysis. More profound treatment effects were obtained during the ABABACAC comparisons. Abolishing operation effects were seen in with the RIRDm and RIRDv components, while establishing operation effects were seen with the RI component.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights Holder

Delna Bharucha


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