Response-reinforcer relationships and improved learning in autistic children.
Make the child’s target response the only way to reach the reinforcer and learning speed doubles.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with three autistic children in a one-to-one setting.
They used discrete trial training to teach new labels and actions.
In the test phase the child had to do the target response to open the reward box.
In the control phase the teacher just handed over the same reward after the trial.
What they found
Learning speed shot up the moment the reward box required the target response.
Accuracy stayed high even when the box later opened freely again.
One boy learned 12 new labels in 20 minutes when the lid had to be lifted.
The same boy needed 90 minutes to learn four labels when rewards were handed over.
How this fits with other research
Baron et al. (1968) showed pigeons match faster when they must peck the sample first.
The 1981 study extends that idea to autistic children: make the child’s own target act the key to the treat.
Keely et al. (2007) proved animals track contingencies even with delays.
This supports the 1981 result: kids notice and use the tight response-reinforcer link.
Heinicke et al. (2012) reviewed 687 small-group lessons and found prompting plus tight contingencies works for almost every learner.
Together the papers say: build the reward path through the skill you want taught.
Why it matters
You can cut teaching time by two-thirds with one simple change.
Put the cookie in a clear box that opens only when the child says the right word.
No extra tokens, no praise timing, no data sheets to juggle.
Try it next session: pick one new label, lock the reinforcer behind that response, and watch the child learn faster than ever.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In order to affect more rapid response acquisition for autistic children, researchers have recently begun to investigate the functional relationships of reinforcers to other components of the operant conditioning paradigm. Previous research suggested that functional relationships between target behaviors and reinforcers might be especially effective. For example, locating a reward inside a container might be a more efficient way to teach a child to open the container than by handling the child a reward for opening an empty container. The present experiment assessed, within a multiple baseline design, the possibility of improving autistic children's learning by changing arbitrary response-reinforcer relationships (while holding target behaviors and reinforcers constant) so that the target behaviors became functional (i.e., a direct part of the response chain required for the child to procure the reinforcer). The results showed that: (1) arranging functional response-reinforcer relationships produced immediate improvement in the children's learning, and resulted in rapid acquisition of criterion level responding; and (2) high levels of correct responding initially produced by functional response-reinforcer relationships were continued even when previously ineffective arbitrary response-reinforcer conditions were reinstated. The results are discussed in terms of understanding and improving autistic children's learning.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1981 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1981.14-53