On the reinforcing effects of the content of verbal attention.
Reprimands can be powerful reinforcers—check the content of attention during your next FA; neutral chatter may not replicate the effect.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a functional analysis on a child with autism.
They compared two kinds of adult talk: calm neutral chatter and sharp reprimands.
The goal was to see which type of attention kept destructive behavior alive.
What they found
Reprimands won.
Every time the adult said "Stop that!" the child hit or threw things more.
When the adult switched to dull neutral talk, the behavior dropped to almost zero.
How this fits with other research
Hanley et al. (1997) later showed the same drop with noncontingent attention, proving you do not need the reprimand content to get control.
Rasmussen et al. (2006) moved the idea into a classroom: fixed-time teacher praise cut verbal outbursts, showing the principle works in groups.
Madsen et al. (1968) is the grandparent study—teachers using praise instead of scolding also lowered disruption, hinting decades ago that attention type matters.
Why it matters
If your FA attention condition uses calm talk, you may miss that real-world reprimands are the true fuel.
Next time you test, run one phase with the exact words parents or teachers use when they are mad.
Match the content, then remove it or deliver it noncontingently, and you should see the same near-zero result W et al. got.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a reprimand-rich condition to your FA and compare rates with a neutral-attention phase.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
During a functional analysis, a boy with autism and oppositional defiant disorder displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by attention in the form of verbal reprimands (e.g., "Don't hit me"). In a second analysis, contingent verbal reprimands produced higher rates of the behavior than contingent statements that were unrelated to the target response (e.g., "It is sunny today"), suggesting that some forms of attention were more reinforcing than others. A treatment based on these analyses reduced the behavior to near-zero levels.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1996 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1996.29-235