Innovation of a reinforcer preference assessment with the difficult to test.
A two-choice switch test can rank sensory reinforcers for adults who can only press one button.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Six adults with profound intellectual disability could only press one switch.
The team built a two-choice box. Left switch lit up one toy, right switch lit up another.
Clients got 30 seconds with the toy they picked. The toy paused when they let go.
Sessions flipped the left-right sides so clients had to track the item, not the spot.
What they found
Four of the six adults showed clear favorite-to-least-favorite lists.
The same toys stayed on top even when the team repeated the test later.
Two clients did not show a pattern; their picks looked random every time.
How this fits with other research
Buskist et al. (1988) and Allan et al. (1991) already proved systematic beats staff guesswork.
Kangas et al. (2011) extends that work to people who can only close one switch.
Parsons et al. (1990) used two-choice food pairs; D et al. swapped food for lights, fans, and massagers.
Burford et al. (2003) showed pictures can stand in for real items. D et al. show a single switch can stand in for pointing or reaching.
Why it matters
If your client has almost no movement, you can still find reinforcers. Give the learner a brief feel of each toy first. Then run short two-choice trials that reverse left-right placement. Watch which toy gets hit more often. Use those top toys to power teaching programs, break times, or behavior plans.
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Join Free →Pick two sensory toys, let the client sample each for 20 seconds, then run ten switch-press trials flipping left-right sides.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study, we continued evaluation of a two-choice preference assessment aimed at identifying a hierarchy of reinforcers for individuals with only one voluntary motor sequence-closing and releasing an adaptive switch. We assessed preferences among types of sensory stimulation in 6 adults with multiple profound impairments using concurrent synchronous reinforcement contingencies. Pre-experimental assessments with various types of stimulation led to the selection of music (A), vibration (B), and either olfactory or visual stimulation (C) as the 3 modalities for continued testing. Each participant received opportunities for familiarization with each type of stimulation in blocks of six 20-min sessions in which the closure of an adaptive switch produced the stimulation for as long as the switch remained closed. Next, participants could choose between pairs of types of stimulation in blocks of 12 sessions. In the first 6 of the 12 sessions, switch closure activated one type (e.g., A) and switch release activated the contrasted type (e.g., B). In the second 6 sessions, the contingencies were reversed. Two additional 12-session blocks completed all possible contrasts (AB, BC and AC). Four of the 6 participants showed distinct preferences in these two-choice tests with indications of preference hierarchies. The results demonstrate a method for obtaining indications of relative preference for potentially reinforcing stimuli from individuals without communication and without the abilities to act on more than one switch.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.01.049