Manipulating the behavior-altering effect of the motivating operation: examination of the influence on challenging behavior during leisure activities.
A five-minute free taste of the reinforcer that fuels problem behavior can act like an off-switch during the next activity.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three adults with intellectual disability went to a day program.
Each person’s problem behavior was maintained by one reinforcer.
The team gave a 5-minute free taste of that reinforcer right before leisure time.
They compared behavior with and without the free taste.
What they found
The free taste cut challenging behavior to near zero in every session.
The same reinforcer that usually caused problems now prevented them.
Five minutes of prior access acted like an off-switch for motivation.
How this fits with other research
Weinsztok et al. (2022) extends this idea. They showed that bigger or better reinforcers for the alternative behavior protect DRA when staff make mistakes.
O'Reilly et al. (2008) only gave free access; Weinsztok adds the teaching part.
King et al. (2025) used the same trick to stop resurgence. They gave noncontingent access to the old reinforcer during extinction and saw less relapse.
Rodriguez-Seijas et al. (2020) looks opposite at first: they brought back reinforcement and still saw less renewal. The key difference is timing. F et al. give the reinforcer before the situation; Craig gives it during a different context. Both lower later motivation, just at different points.
Why it matters
You can kill motivation before the session starts. If you know what reinforcer drives problem behavior, hand it out for five minutes first. The client now wants less of it, so play time stays calm. Try this on Monday while you set up toys.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We examined the behavior-altering effect of the motivating operation on challenging behavior during leisure activities for three individuals with severe disabilities. Prior functional analyses indicated that challenging behavior was maintained by positive reinforcement in the form of attention or tangible items for all participants. During leisure sessions, each participant played preferred games (cards, jigsaws) with two individuals without disabilities. The discriminative stimuli for challenging behavior were present during leisure sessions but challenging behavior was never reinforced. Immediately prior to leisure sessions, the participants received either access to the reinforcers that maintained challenging behavior or no access. Access versus no access to reinforcers for challenging behavior prior to leisure sessions was alternated in a multi-element design. Results demonstrated higher levels of challenging behavior during leisure sessions when the participants did not have access to the reinforcers prior to the sessions. Little challenging behavior occurred during leisure sessions when the participants had prior access to the reinforcers. Arguments for further examining the behavior-altering effects of the motivating operation in future applied research are presented.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2008 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2007.06.004