An examination of within-session responding following access to reinforcing stimuli.
Presession toy access gives you one quiet hour—schedule a second access or different support before 60 minutes pass.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers gave three children with autism five minutes of free play with a favorite toy before a long classroom period. They then watched problem behavior for 90 minutes and compared it to days with no toy time.
The study used an alternating-treatments design. Each child served as his own control across several school days.
What they found
Problem behavior stayed low for the first hour after toy time. After 60 minutes, rates climbed back toward baseline.
One hour of calm is all the team got before the 'rebound' began.
How this fits with other research
McSweeney et al. (2000) warned that dense attention right before an assessment can inflate how powerful attention looks. Mandy’s team shows the same warning applies to toys: a quick presession binge buys only short peace.
Wanchisen et al. (1989) found that letting kids pick a reinforcer before class almost wiped out problem behavior. Their sessions were short; Mandy’s longer 90-minute blocks reveal the benefit fades after 60 minutes.
Fisher et al. (2019) saw resurgence when rich reinforcement stopped. Mandy’s rebound at the 60-minute mark looks like a mild cousin of that same process.
Why it matters
If you start the day with a preferred-item warm-up, plan to re-offer that item, or another break, before the hour is up. Without a second access, the child’s challenging behavior is likely to return, undoing your quiet start.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research has shown tangibly maintained challenging behavior can be temporarily decreased by providing presession access to the relevant tangible. However, the duration of this beneficial effect is unknown. We measured the subsequent duration of behavior reduction effects following presession access during extended classroom observation sessions by analyzing within-session patterns of responding in three children with autism. An alternating treatments design was used to analyze within- and across-session responding following presession access and presession restriction conditions. The cumulative frequency of challenging behavior was higher following the presession restriction condition for all participants and lower following presession access. Within-session analysis revealed the same basic pattern of responding across participants. Specifically, the first half of the sessions contained very little, if any, challenging behavior; however, after 60 min, the rate of challenging behavior began to increase rapidly for two of the three participants. Results are discussed in terms of implications for practitioners, satiation, habituation, and behavioral contrast.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.10.013