Using Extinction to Increase Behavior: Capitalizing on Extinction-Induced Response Variability to Establish Mands With Autoclitic Frames
Stop reinforcing short mands or aggression and you can harvest brand-new, longer sentences within minutes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two teenagers with autism hit or said one word to get toys.
The team stopped giving toys for those old responses.
They waited for new, longer sentences and then handed the toy over right away.
An ABAB reversal design proved the effect.
What they found
Aggression and single-word mands dropped to zero.
Novel sentences like "May I have the car, please?" appeared after only a few withheld trials.
These new, polite mands kept growing even when the toy schedule later thinned.
How this fits with other research
Takashima et al. (1994) first showed the same trick with toy play: stop reinforcing one play move and kids invent new ways to use the same blocks. Cengher simply moved the idea from play to spoken requests.
Matson et al. (2011) also used extinction of signed mands and saw a jump in random vocal sounds. Cengher went further by shaping those new sounds into full, polite sentences.
Neisworth et al. (1985) ran an ABAB reversal with extinction and saw big, quick drops in self-stimulatory behavior. Cengher copied that design but aimed the procedure at aggression and ended up building complex language instead of just cutting stereotypy.
Why it matters
You can turn problem behavior into rich language in one session. Withhold reinforcement for the old, short mand, catch the first new words that pop out, and reinforce them hard. The extinction burst becomes free raw material for autoclitic frames like "Can I have ___ please?" No extra prompts or echoics needed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Members (behaviors) of a response class are equivalent in that they produce the same functional reinforcer. Oftentimes, some members of a response class occur at higher rates than others. This can be problematic when the members that occur at high rates are socially inappropriate (e.g., self-injury, aggression, or disruption). The participant in this study was a 16-year-old female diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who demonstrated aggression, one-word mands, and mands with autoclitic frames. In a series of contingency reversals, we placed 2 behaviors on extinction (e.g., aggression and one-word mands), which resulted in extinction-induced variability. Capitalizing on extinction-induced variability, we reinforced a different behavior (e.g., mands with autoclitic frames). The results confirmed that (a) the rate of responding for each topography was a function of extinction-induced response variability and differential reinforcement and (b) all response topographies belonged to the same response class. These results provide empirical support for the use of extinction-induced variability to differentially increase the rate of socially appropriate behaviors while decreasing socially inappropriate behaviors that belong to the same response class.
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s40616-019-00118-w