Increasing appropriate speech in a chronic schizophrenic.
Only praise that lands right after appropriate speech grows language; praise given for free teaches nothing.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with one adult who had chronic schizophrenia and spoke very little.
They used an ABAB reversal design.
First they gave instructions, showed models, and added cheerful comments no matter what the man said.
Next they made the same comments, but only right after he said something appropriate.
They repeated the sequence to be sure any change came from the contingency.
What they found
Appropriate speech stayed flat when praise was given for free.
It jumped each time praise followed the target words.
The data showed clear control by contingent reinforcement.
Non-contingent attention plus teaching cues was not enough.
How this fits with other research
Hart et al. (1968) saw the same pattern with a preschooler.
Contingent praise lifted cooperative play; non-contingent praise did nothing.
The match shows the principle works across ages and diagnoses.
Neuringer et al. (1968) went further with withdrawn schizophrenic adults.
They added prompt fading and schedule thinning and the gains lasted three months.
Their longer follow-up suggests you can keep the new speech going if you thin reinforcement slowly.
Gevarter et al. (2016) extended the idea to minimally verbal children with autism.
They paired vocal prompts with device use and the kids began to speak.
Together the studies form a thread: contingent consequences drive expressive language, while prompts and thinning help the skill stick.
Why it matters
If a client is quiet, check what happens right after they talk.
Random encouragement, instructions, or modeling alone may fail.
Deliver your strongest reinforcer the moment the desired words leave their mouth.
Then thin the schedule and add brief prompts to protect the gain.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In a severely withdrawn schizophrenic, a combination of instructions, modeling, informational feedback, and noncontingent reinforcement was associated with a low rate of appropriate verbalizations. However, an increase in speech output was obtained using a combination of instructions, modeling, informational feedback, and contingent reinforcement. The design of this study thus permitted the conclusion that contingent reinforcement was crucial in bringing about the increase in appropriate verbalizations. The three verbal behaviors that increased in frequency were: (a) the number of socially appropriate words emitted, (b) declarative statements, and (c) appropriate replies to questions. The verbal behaviors of conversational questions and positive conversational feedback failed to be significantly affected by the experimental procedures. An attempt was also made to establish whether having the subject engage in the observable, information‐gathering response of reading aloud would result in increased speech output during a subsequent conversation period. Having the subject read aloud failed to have any discernible positive effect on his speech output. A withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the experimental procedures. The importance of assessing changes in verbal output with a variety of verbal response measures, stereotyped verbal behaviors, and carryover effects are discussed.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1979 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1979.12-302