Rules and Statements of Reinforcer Loss in Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior

Julia A Iannaccone; Louis P Hagopian; Noor Javed; John C Borrero; Jennifer R Zarcone

doi:10.1007/s40617-019-00352-7

Rules and Statements of Reinforcer Loss in Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior

Behav Anal Pract. 2019 Apr 17;13(1):81-89. doi: 10.1007/s40617-019-00352-7. eCollection 2020 Mar.

Authors

Julia A Iannaccone^{1

2}, Louis P Hagopian^{1

3}, Noor Javed¹, John C Borrero², Jennifer R Zarcone^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ 1The Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD USA.
² 2University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD USA.
³ 3Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA.

Abstract

Providing a rule regarding consequences for behavior can increase the efficacy of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) procedures in the treatment of severe problem behavior (Watts, Wilder, Gregory, Leon, and Ditzian, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 46, 680-684, 2013). The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the literature on DRO procedures by evaluating the efficacy of rules and statements of reinforcer loss (SRL) in the treatment of severe problem behavior. Conditions included baseline, no rule DRO, rule DRO, and rule DRO with SRL. For 2 of 3 participants, neither the no rule DRO nor the rule DRO condition reduced problem behavior. The rule DRO with SRL condition produced a substantial decrease in problem behavior for all participants, suggesting that a consequent rule enhances the efficacy of DRO. The current study extends the literature on DRO procedures by providing data on nontargeted ("other") behavior. An increase in other behavior was observed for 2 participants.

Keywords: Differential reinforcement of other behavior; Problem behavior; Rule-governed behavior; Rules; Verbal behavior.