Extinction effects during the assessment of multiple problem behaviors.

The team ran a functional analysis on a child who hit, screamed, and threw things.

They first stopped giving attention when the child hit. When hitting dropped, they quickly stopped giving attention for screaming and then for throwing.

The design is called a multiple baseline across behaviors. Each behavior gets its own turn under extinction.

All three behaviors fell once attention was removed. The quick drop showed one reinforcer—attention—kept every behavior alive.

One extinction phase was enough to test the rest. The team saved hours by not running separate tests for each problem.

Einfeld et al. (1995) did a similar trick with breath holding years earlier. They also used extinction inside the FA, so the idea has roots.

Reed et al. (2009) later showed the same logic works for learning problems. They removed the over-selected cue in kids with ASD and the ignored cue suddenly controlled behavior.

Mead Jasperse et al. (2023) gives a next step. If you run extinction and the behavior still hangs around, the reinforcer might be something sneakier—like the chance to do the replacement response itself.

You can speed up your FA today. After the first behavior drops under extinction, probe the rest right away. If they all fall together, write one treatment plan that removes attention for every topographies. No need for extra sessions.