Drifke, M. A., Tiger, J. H., & Lillie, M. A. (2020). DRA contingencies promote improved tolerance to delayed reinforcement during FCT compared to DRO and fixed-time. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(3), 1579-1592. doi:10.1002/jaba.704
Drifke et al. (2020) compared participants’ delay tolerance under three conditions. The first condition was the delivery of reinforcement after a delay; the second was reinforcement after problem behavior was omitted; the third included reinforcement after alternative behavior occurred. The researchers used the alternating treatments design; they alternated sessions of three delay procedures: time-, DRO-, and DRA-delay probes. The participants were three children with developmental and intellectual disabilities, whose target problem behaviors were aggression and property destruction. Researchers found that, although participants’ functional communication responses declined with increased reinforcement delays, they never approached zero. Another finding is that DRA-based delays encourage greater engagement in alternative behavior than time-based and DRO-based delays. Finally, researchers suggested that the effectiveness of DRA-delays was due to the availability of competing activities, in contrast to time-based and DRO-based delays. This study is relevant to the current topic since it can be used to establish the background and formulate the research hypothesis. The strength of this study is a solid research design with multiple alterations, and a limitation is DRO contingencies could have influenced the effectiveness of DRA-delays. The quality rating of this research is 10 because the research design is appropriate for the research question, the researchers used multiple sessions of each intervention and presented sufficient evidence, and inter-observer reliability was high.
Hanley, G. P., Iwata, B. A., & Thompson, R. H. (2001). Reinforcement schedule thinning following treatment with functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34(1), 17-38. doi:10.1901/jaba.2001.34-17
Hanley et al. (2001) used the alternating treatments design to assess the effectiveness of four methods of reducing reinforcement frequency. Initially, in all three participants, reinforcement was delivered on FR 1 schedules. For the study purposes, one of them was exposed to extended reinforcement delays under FR 1 and graduated multiple and FI schedules. Two other participants were subject to a multiple schedule and a mixed schedule. The scholars found that increasing delays led to the extinction of alternative behavior. Another finding was that the FI schedule resulted in excessively frequent occurrences of alternative behavior. Finally, the multiple schedule with signaled periods of extinction and reinforcement promoted stable desired behavior in all three participants. The study is relevant to the present topic because it can be used to provide a rationale for the choice of FCT for decreasing problem behavior. The strength of this research is that it addresses an under-researched field of schedule thinning, and its findings are consistent with the literature. A limitation is the use of signaling procedures, which may reintroduce problem behaviors in the long run. The quality rating of the study is 10 due to the appropriate research design, multiple alternations, sufficient evidence, and social validity.
Hegel, M. T., & Ferguson, R. J. (2000). Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to reduce aggressive behavior following traumatic brain injury. Behavior Modification, 24(1), 94-101. doi:10.1177/0145445500241005
Hegel and Ferguson (2000) investigated the effectiveness of DRO in reducing aggressive behavior in a 28-year-old man who had a severe brain injury. This single-case study applied the multiple baseline across settings design to test the effectiveness of the intervention in the day shift and evening shift. Researchers found that DRO effectively reduced aggressive behavior in severely brain-injured when applied in the residential setting. The second result was that systematic reinforcement reduced functionally-related aggressive behavior. Finally, aggressive behavior did not decrease in the setting in which DRO was not previously introduced. This research is highly relevant to the current study’s topic because it evaluates the effectiveness of DRO for reducing aggression following traumatic brain injury. This source can be used to formulate the research hypothesis and provide a rationale for the selected intervention. The strength of this study is that it tested the effectiveness of DRO in different settings, and the limitation is a lack of randomization. The quality rating is 10 because the study design is appropriate for answering the research question, the research contains concurrent baselines, the authors provided sufficient evidence, and the study is ecologically and socially valid.
Ricciardi, J. N., Bouchard, S. W., Luiselli, J. K., & Dould, T. (2020). Integrated behavioral intervention and person-centered therapy within community-based treatment of an adult with acquired brain injury. Clinical Case Studies, 19(2), 133-144. doi:10.1177/1534650119890925
Ricciardi et al. (2020) used a case study research design to investigate the behavioral intervention combined with person-centered therapy for treating a woman who sustained a brain injury. After a baseline assessment that lasted for three months, the woman received a DRO intervention and person-centered therapy for 10 months. Throughout the treatment, the patient’s rates of verbal outbursts and elopement significantly decreased. The study involved a 9-month follow-up, during which researchers observed a stable reduction in problem behaviors. Based on these findings, the authors concluded that a combination of a DRO intervention and person-centered therapy was appropriate for individuals with brain injury. This study is relevant because it observes the effectiveness of DRO in patients with aggression after brain injury. The strength of this research is its long-term follow-up, and the limitation is a lack of inter-observer agreement. The quality rating of this study is 10 due to the appropriate research design, sufficient evidence, and adequate assessment of behavior maintenance in the absence of the intervention.
Rispoli, M., Camargo, S., Machalicek, W., Lang, R., & Sigafoos, J. (2014). Functional communication training in the treatment of problem behavior maintained by access to rituals. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47(3), 580-593. doi:10.1002/jaba.130
Rispoli et al. (2014) applied a multiple-probe design to evaluate the effectiveness of FCT in combination with schedule thinning and extinction for treating problem behavior. Three preschool children with developmental disorders underwent a functional analysis and received several sessions of FCT with extinction in the first treatment phase and FCT with extinction and schedule thinning in the second phase. The researchers found that the FCT intervention reduced problem behavior in all three participants. Further, schedule thinning maintained a systematic decrease in problem behavior. Finally, the researchers stated that their procedure of schedule thinning was similar to demand fading, which supports the effectiveness of this strategy. The study is relevant because it can be used to formulate a hypothesis about the effectiveness of the FCT intervention. The strength of this research is its experimental design and the investigation of a combined intervention of FCT and schedule thinning. The limitation is an inability to generalize results to older children and adults with ASD and other disorders. The quality rating is 10 because of the appropriate research design, high inter-observer agreement, sufficient evidence, and social validity.
References
Drifke, M. A., Tiger, J. H., & Lillie, M. A. (2020). DRA contingencies promote improved tolerance to delayed reinforcement during FCT compared to DRO and fixed-time. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(3), 1579-1592. doi:10.1002/jaba.704
Hanley, G. P., Iwata, B. A., & Thompson, R. H. (2001). Reinforcement schedule thinning following treatment with functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34(1), 17-38. doi:10.1901/jaba.2001.34-17
Hegel, M. T., & Ferguson, R. J. (2000). Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to reduce aggressive behavior following traumatic brain injury. Behavior Modification, 24(1), 94-101. doi:10.1177/0145445500241005
Ricciardi, J. N., Bouchard, S. W., Luiselli, J. K., & Dould, T. (2020). Integrated behavioral intervention and person-centered therapy within community-based treatment of an adult with acquired brain injury. Clinical Case Studies, 19(2), 133-144. doi:10.1177/1534650119890925
Rispoli, M., Camargo, S., Machalicek, W., Lang, R., & Sigafoos, J. (2014). Functional communication training in the treatment of problem behavior maintained by access to rituals. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47(3), 580-593. doi:10.1002/jaba.130