Differential Reinforcement of Low Rate Schedules Reduce Severe Problem Behavior.
Full-session DRL alone can slash severe problem behavior in clients with ID or DD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested full-session DRL on four people with ID or DD.
Problem behavior was severe. No other tricks were added.
They wanted to see if DRL alone could make the harm stop.
What they found
Every person hit a big drop in problem behavior.
The change was large enough to matter in daily life.
DRL by itself did the job.
How this fits with other research
Doughty et al. (2002) warned that bigger reinforcers can spoil DRL. They saw this in rats and pigeons. The new study shows the schedule still works in humans when you keep reinforcer size steady.
Iannaccone et al. (2020) later added clear rule statements to DRO and also saw big cuts in severe behavior. Their tweak boosts another DR form, but both papers say differential reinforcement can stand alone.
Hodnett et al. (2018) mixed DR with extinction for kids with Smith-Magenis syndrome and got good results. Zhou et al. (2018) proves you can skip extinction and still win with pure f-DRL.
Why it matters
You can start lowering severe behavior right away with just a timer and praise. No need to withhold all reinforcement or run long extinction bursts. Try f-DRL first; add extinction only if the data stall.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedules are reinforcement contingencies designed to reduce response rates. A common variation of the DRL arrangement is known as full-session DRL ( f-DRL), in which a reinforcer is presented at the end of an interval if the response rate during that interval is below a predetermined criterion. Prior human operant research involving arbitrary mouse clicks has shown that the f-DRL is likely to reduce target responding to near zero rates. Similarly, applied research has shown that the f-DRL is likely to reduce minimally disruptive classroom behavior. There are, however, relatively few successful applications of the f-DRL to severe forms of problem behavior (e.g., self-injurious behavior). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of f-DRL on the severe problem behavior of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For four participants, the f-DRL reduced severe problem behavior by clinically significant levels. Furthermore, results of a contingency strength analysis showed a strong negative contingency strength between target responding and reinforcer delivery for all participants.
Behavior modification, 2018 · doi:10.1177/0145445517731723