Establishing stimulus control of motor stereotypy

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2019

First Committee Member

Johnson, Cammarie

Second Committee Member

Hanley, Gregory

Third Committee Member

Dube, William

Abstract

"A multielement and reversal design was used to evaluate stimulus control of motor stereotypy in a 17-year-old boy diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Multiple-schedule (MS) and chained-schedule (CS) arrangements were used to compare baseline measures of stereotypy to treatment levels. Both schedules contained one component with contingencies to decrease stereotypy (S-), and another component with contingencies that allowed for the occurrence of stereotypy (S+). Specific colored cards were associated with each component of each schedule. In all S- components, a brief hands-down procedure was implemented contingent on stereotypy and a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) procedure was implemented. In all S+ components, there were no programmed consequences for stereotypy. The arrangement of these components differed across MS and CS schedules. The results showed differential latencies to first response and levels of stereotypy in the S+ and S- components of both schedules, indicative of stimulus control over stereotypy. Responding during the S- component was not suppressed to the same extent as Creed (2015), which could be due to stimulus generalization. Whereas previous researchers have suggested that CS is more effective than MS (e.g., Slaton & Hanley, 2016), this study was a direct comparison of the two schedules and did not show evidence of one schedule being more effective than the other. Generality probes were conducted in a new context (completing academic work) and with the use of a DRO and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) procedure and showed that the colored cards continued to exert control over stereotypy, to a degree similar to treatment."

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