Noncontingent delivery of arbitrary reinforcers as treatment for self-injurious behavior.
Free, unrelated treats on a timer can slash self-injury even when the real reinforcer stays available.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two adults who hurt themselves got a steady stream of small, unrelated treats. The treats came every few minutes no matter what the person did.
The team kept the real payoff for self-injury in place. They wanted to see if free treats alone could still lower the behavior.
What they found
Self-injury dropped for both people once the free treats started. The behavior stayed low even when the usual reinforcer was still available.
The study shows that arbitrary, noncontingent reinforcers can cut severe behavior without removing the functional payoff.
How this fits with other research
Hanley et al. (1997) ran a similar test in the same year. They gave noncontingent attention or a favorite toy to children with attention-maintained destruction. Both studies found that noncontingent delivery worked even when the real reinforcer stayed.
Corrigan et al. (1998) built on the idea by adding matched sensory toys plus response blocking. Their package wiped out both stereotypy and destruction, showing you can boost NCR with tailored items and brief blocking.
Bouck et al. (2016) moved the logic into a classroom. Fixed-time escape breaks raised engagement and cut disruption for a student with developmental disability. The same free-stuff principle works across settings and reinforcer types.
Why it matters
You can weaken self-injury without doing a full extinction burst. Slip small, unrelated reinforcers on a fixed-time schedule and watch the behavior fall even if the client can still access the usual payoff. Try 30-second bites of music, stickers, or snacks every few minutes during high-risk times.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Results of recent research have shown that noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) can be effective in reducing the frequency of behavior problems. In typical NCR applications, the reinforcer that is responsible for behavioral maintenance (as demonstrated through a functional analysis) no longer follows occurrences of the target behavior but instead is delivered according to a time-based schedule. Thus, it is unclear if NCR would be effective if the target behavior continued to be reinforced or if arbitrary reinforcers (i.e., those irrelevant to behavioral maintenance) were substituted for the maintaining reinforcers in the NCR procedure. In this study, 2 individuals whose self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by positive reinforcement were exposed to conditions in which arbitrary and maintaining reinforcers were withheld and were delivered either contingently or noncontingently. Results indicated that noncontingent delivery of arbitrary reinforcers was effective in reducing SIB even though occurrences of SIB produced access to the maintaining reinforcer. These results suggest that (a) arbitrary reinforcers may sometimes be substituted for maintaining reinforcers, (b) an important component of NCR procedures is alteration of a behavior's establishing operation, and (c) NCR with arbitrary reinforcers might therefore be effective when maintaining reinforcers cannot be identified or withheld during the course of treatment.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1997 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1997.30-239