A-CSA : variations in the delivery of stimuli in treating stereotypy

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2023

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Second Committee Member

Roscoe, Eileen

Third Committee Member

Pinkston, Jonathan

Abstract

"Competing stimulus assessments (CSAs) have been used to identify stimuli that are associated with lower levels of automatically reinforced behavior when compared to a no stimulus control condition. Jennett et al. (2011) identified additional prompts that can be included in the CSA should non-contingent access to stimuli be insufficient in reducing the rate of behavior. The conditions included in the augmented competing stimulus assessment (A-CSA) were: free access to stimuli, prompted engagement (PE), prompted engagement and response blocking (PE+RB). The purpose of the current study was to examine procedural variations (free access, PE, and reinforcement) when presenting competing stimuli on decreasing stereotypy and increasing functional engagement. Results from these assessments indicate that both PE and reinforcement have an effect on the percentage of the session with motor stereotypy and functional engagement compared to a no stimulus baseline. Stereotypy was lower and functional engagement higher in the prompted engagement condition compared to the reinforcement treatment condition. Interobserver agreement was collected using interval IOA by dividing the number of intervals, or seconds, with agreement by the total number of intervals for at least 33% of sessions and mean total IOA was at least 85% across participants and conditions. This study illustrates that reinforcement for engagement with competing stimuli does not necessarily enhance functional engagement relative to merely promoting engagement but further research is warranted."

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