Personal characteristics associated with episodes of injury in a residential facility.

Number of episodes of injury and personal characteristics of 412 individuals living in a state-operated ICF/MR during 1994 were examined. Results indicated that 16% of the facility population experienced 67% of the injuries. Discriminant functions were created using chlorpromazine equivalent level combined with maladaptive behavior, medical, and adaptive behavior factors to classify individuals into high and low injury groups. Individuals taking antipsychotics, having higher maladaptive behavior scores, and having relatively higher levels of adaptive behavior were most likely to be in the high injury group. We concluded that episodes of injury were not evenly distributed across the individuals and certain personal characteristics discriminated high from low risk groups.

Case study of the relation between census reduction and injuries to residents in an ICF/MR.

We compared the frequency and severity of injuries of adults living in an ICF/MR for one year before and one year after the census of their cottage was reduced from 28 to 19. These residents had severe or profound mental retardation, few sensory deficits, and limited communication skills; most had severe behavior problems. Results showed a decrease from 23.3 to 13.3 injuries per person for the 18 men who resided in the building after census reduction. A larger decrease in injuries requiring versus not requiring medical attention (71.7% vs. 38.9%) was also found. A control group of 18 similar male residents showed only a slight decrease (16.9 vs. 16.2) in injury reports over the same time period. Results suggest that a lower census was clearly related to reduced number of injuries.

Using decelerative contingencies to reduce the self-injurious behavior of people with multiple handicaps: the effects of response satiation?

The response satiation model of instrumental performance was used to establish contingencies to reduce the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of two adults with profound mental retardation and multiple handicaps. In Experiment 1, withdrawal designs indicated behavior reductions of 68% and 82%, respectively, when contingencies were implemented that required the participants to engage in leisure activities at greater than baseline levels if they continued to perform the SIB at their baseline level. Experiment 2 involved the transfer of the treatment to the participants' respective living areas using staff as trainers. The largest reductions in behavior were associated with treatment packages that contained response satiation contingencies, and generality of the treatment packages across locations and trainers occurred. The limitations of this study as an analysis of response satiation theory were noted; however, it was concluded that the response satiation approach to establishing contingencies for reducing SIB was worthy of future investigation.

Effects of a freely available response on the schedule performance of mentally retarded persons.

The effects of a freely available response on the schedule performance of 84 mentally retarded persons were examined in a laboratory setting. Instrumental performance exceeded performance of the free response in contingent schedules; the opposite occurred in noncontingent schedules. Also, instrumental performance decreased whereas responding on the free response increased across increasing probability levels of the freely available response. We concluded that increases of instrumental performance in the response deprivation schedules employed were due to the contingency and not noncontingent deprivation and that the effectiveness of therapeutic reinforcement programs is influenced by the presence of alternative responses.

Effects of response deprivation on the instrumental performance of mentally retarded persons.

The accuracy of the response deprivation and probability differential hypotheses to predict reinforcement effects for mentally retarded persons was evaluated. Fifteen individuals listened to music and looked at slides in baseline phases, in reinforcement schedules and in control phases with no contingent relation between the responses. Individual analysis of instrumental responding indicated increases in those schedules that produced response deprivation but only once in schedules that did not, regardless of the probability differential between responses. The conclusions were that the response deprivation hypothesis identified the necessary and sufficient conditions for producing reinforcement for retarded persons and that this hypothesis might provide an alternative approach to reinforcer selection for retarded individuals.

Effect of mentally retarded persons' level of stereotypy on their learning.

The effect of level of stereotypy on learning a discrimination for 30 mentally retarded persons was examined. A factorial design with high and low levels of stereotypy and three levels of IQ was employed. The number of days to acquire the discrimination differed among the IQ groups, but there was no main effect of stereotypy. An interaction was found indicating that a high level of stereotypy slowed learning only in the lowest IQ group. We concluded that the effects of stereotypy upon learning were different across the IQ levels and that high levels of stereotypy did not uniformly interfere with the acquisition of the discrimination.

Correspondence training: an example of rule-governed behavior?

Two groups of six mentally retarded adults were exposed to either a "say/do" correspondence training program or a "do only" reinforcement procedure to evaluate the suggestion of Rogers-Warren and Baer (1976) that reinforcement of the nonverbal target behavior in the absence of the relevant verbal behavior may account for the behavior changes seen in correspondence training. The participants worked in an experimental setting on a variety of manipulatory responses leading to various auditory and visual consequences. Analysis of individual patterns of responding indicated no apparent differences between the groups during training; four individuals in each group appeared to develop generalized correspondence skills. We conclude that the outcome of correspondence training may not necessarily be verbal regulation of behavior as is assumed. Rather, we suggest that the notion of rule-governed behavior can best account for the type of behavior changes seen in correspondence studies.

A quantitative review of self-help research with the severely and profoundly mentally retarded.

Eighty-seven studies published since 1964 through 1982 on training self-help skills to severely and profoundly mentally retarded persons were analyzed according to 19 parameters reflecting their methodological details. The results showed a steady interest in this research area over time, but 63% of the studies focused on toileting and feeding with fewer studies looking at other self-help skills. Package treatments composed primarily of accelerative techniques were most frequently used to train these skills. Methodologically, it was found that these studies typically involved profoundly mentally retarded people (33% of studies) who were trained by residential staff (69% of studies) in institutional settings (63% of studies). The results also indicated an increase over time in the number of studies rated acceptable on the reliability and design parameters. Finally, very few studies reported assessments of generalization, maintenance, or social validity. It was concluded that, (a) researchers need to broaden their interests in terms of settings, trainers, and behaviors studied to best meet the needs of this population, (b) the experimental quality of this literature is improving, and (c) the social impact of observed behavior changes has yet to be fully explored.

The use of response deprivation to increase the academic performance of EMR students.

This research was designed to evaluate the proposed advantages of response deprivation as the basis for establishing reinforcement schedules in applied settings. In Experiment 1, response deprivation was used to improve the cursive writing of six EMR children, using math as the contingent response. The results suggested that writing improved in schedules that produced response deprivation and when the children were given corrective feedback on their performances. In Experiment 2, reversibility of reinforcement was investigated in four EMR children working on math and writing tasks. The students were sequentially presented two reinforcement schedules that produced response deprivation; however, the instrumental and contingent responses were reversed from the first to the second. Consistent with the response deprivation view, the results indicated an increase in instrumental responding in both schedules, which suggests that reversibility of reinforcement can be achieved simply by changes in schedule requirements. In summary, the results of both experiments offered support for response deprivation as an alternative method of producing reinforcement in educational settings.

Evaluation of a method for teaching dressing skills to profoundly mentally retarded persons.

The present study was a systematic replication of Azrin, Schaeffer, and Wesolowski's (1976) method for teaching dressing skills to mentally retarded persons. Of the 3 profoundly retarded adults trained in this study, 2 attained criterion for independent undressing. No residents reached criterion on dressing despite as much as 108.2 hours of training. These results contrasted with those of Azrin et al. (1976), whose subjects reached criterion on all skills in an average of 12 hours. We also found that treatment gains were generally maintained through 3 months of follow-up. We concluded that although the program improved the clients' self-care skills, more research is needed to identify critical program and subject variables that may have accounted for the contrasting results between this study and the earlier work.

Response deprivation and reinforcement in applied settings: A preliminary analysis.

First-grade children engaged in seatwork behaviors under reinforcement schedules established according to the Premack Principle and the Response Deprivation Hypothesis. Across two experiments, schedules were presented to the children in a counter-balanced fashion which fulfilled the conditions of one, both, or neither of the hypotheses. Duration of on-task math and coloring in Experiment 1 and on-task math and reading in Experiment 2 were the dependent variables. A modified ABA-type withdrawal design, including a condition to control for the noncontingent effects of a schedule, indicated an increase of on-task instrumental responding only in those schedules where the condition of response deprivation was present but not where it was absent, regardless of the probability differential between the instrumental and contingent responses. These results were consistent with laboratory findings supporting the necessity of response deprivation for producing the reinforcement effect in single response, instrumental schedules. However, the results of the control procedure were equivocal so the contribution of the contingent relationship between the responses to the increases in instrumental behavior could not be determined. Nevertheless, these results provided tentative support for the Response Deprivation Hypothesis as a new approach to establishing reinforcement schedules while indicating the need for further research in this area. The possible advantages of this technique for applied use were identified and discussed.