Side effects of extinction procedures in a remedial preschool.
Ignoring one behavior can drag down desirable ones and boost unwanted side acts—track and treat these extras from day one.
01Research in Context
What this study did
A preschool class for children with intellectual disability ran an A-B-A-B design.
The teacher ignored one girl each time she talked out of turn.
They watched what else changed while the talking dropped.
What they found
Ignoring cut the talking, but good things fell too.
Peer play and school work dropped.
Disruptions and cross-gender toy play rose.
Later, a short time-out reversed the unwanted changes.
How this fits with other research
Hatton et al. (1999) saw the same pattern in 41 kids with self-injury.
About half showed bursts or aggression when staff used extinction alone.
Petscher et al. (2008) also found extinction can hike aggression in some children.
Yet Takashima et al. (1994) shows the flip side.
When they stopped reinforcing one play move, kids invented new, useful ways to use the same toy.
Same tool, different fallout: extinction can spark good novelty or bad escalation.
The key is the response class you target.
Why it matters
Before you ignore a behavior, list the good ones that might sink with it.
Track them during treatment.
If they fall, add a quick fix like time-out or non-contingent attention so the child keeps learning and playing while the target fades.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Several studies have shown that behavior modification procedures aimed at a single behavior may have effects on other, nonmanipulated behaviors. A young retarded boy engaged in excessive conversation with his preschool teacher. The teacher then began to ignore his initiated conversation during free-play periods, and it decreased. In addition, (1) social behavior relative to children increased, and (2) use of girls' toys decreased during free play. Also, (3) appropriate behavior at group academics declined, while (4) disruptions rose. In a second study, the teacher alternated conditions of praise and ignoring for talking with children. Talking with children varied accordingly. In addition, use of girls' toys and group academics disruptions rose during the ignoring condition. Appropriate behaviors dropped. Lastly, a timeout procedure was used to eliminate the undesirable side effects of disruptions and of use of girls' toys. Apparently, a response class may have member behaviors that covary directly and/or inversely. Some covariations may be socially desirable, others undesirable. The appearance of undesirable "side effects" can be controlled using behavior modification techniques.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1972 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1972.5-163