Conditioning brief stimuli via a schedule thinning procedure

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2013

First Committee Member

Gould, Daniel

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Third Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Abstract

"A reinforcer is defined as a stimulus change that increases the future likelihood of a behavior that occurs prior to delivery of the reinforcer (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). A conditioned reinforcer is established through pairing a neutral stimulus with a reinforcer. Identifying an effective method for conditioning neutral stimuli as reinforcers is the goal of the current research. For three participants displaying characteristics of autism spectrum disorder, a schedule thinning procedure was used to condition a brief audible click sound, TAG, as a conditioned reinforcer. The schedule of reinforcement initially consisted of dense pairing trials between the primary reinforcer and TAG then gradually the primary reinforcer was delivered on a thinner schedule of reinforcement while TAG continued to be delivered for each response. Results indicate that for all three participants, the brief stimulus, TAG was effectively conditioned as a reinforcer. The brief nature of TAG shares properties with social praise which is also brief in nature. Implications from the current research include the use of schedule thinning as an effective method to condition reinforcers. Also, the ability to establish TAG as a conditioned reinforcer via schedule thinning suggests a method to establish other brief stimuli, such as social praise, as conditioned reinforcers."

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