The effects of presession attention on tacting.

The team asked: does a quick dose of adult attention right before a lesson change how much a child labels pictures? They ran three adults through brief attention satiation or deprivation, then counted tacts in a progressive-ratio task. Each adult got both conditions on different days so the results could be compared head-to-head.

Two adults tacted more after they had been kept away from attention. One adult tacted the same no matter what. The overall pattern was mixed, but the hint was clear: a short attention break can boost labeling for some learners.

Dove et al. (1974) saw the same push-pull effect with pigeons. Pre-feeding cut food-reinforced pecks and raised water-reinforced pecks, just like attention deprivation raised later tacting. Wallander et al. (1983) added that the heavier the birds, the better their behavior matched reinforcer rates; deprivation muddied the match. Together these lab studies say: level of deprivation tunes how strongly the next reinforcer pulls behavior.

Ghaziuddin et al. (1996) and Konstantareas et al. (1999) flip the angle. They used attention as a consequence, not a set-up. Noncontingent attention lowered self-injury and fine-tuning the quality of attention clarified FAs. The 2014 paper extends that line by showing attention also works before the response, not just after it.

Jenkins et al. (1973) showed teacher attention given right after peer play tripled that play while cutting aggression. The new study keeps the spotlight on attention but moves it to the presession moment, proving the variable is powerful whether it comes before or after the behavior you care about.

You now have a zero-cost tactic: give the learner a quick attention break before tact trials. Two of three participants labeled more pictures after that tiny deprivation period. If your client’s tact rate is flat, try two minutes of no interaction, then jump straight into labeling. Track the data for five sessions—you may see the same lift without changing anything else in the program.