EVALUATING LATENCY TO RELAPSE WITH MATCHED AND UNMATCHED STIMULI: A PROOF OF CONCEPT

Researchers have demonstrated that noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) is an effective treatment for the reduction of problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement (Roscoe, et al., 1998). However, researchers have not evaluated methods for mitigating return of problem behavior when noncontingent reinforcers are removed, or NCR schedules are thinned in the context of NCR-based intervention for automatically maintained problem behavior. Extant research shows that NCR including either matched or unmatched stimuli can effectively reduce automatically maintained problem behavior. To gain a better understanding how stimulus type might impact return of automatically maintained behavior following NCR, Experiment 1 attempted to evaluate the effects of matched versus unmatched item exposure on a non-clinically relevant behavior. Exposure to the two NCR conditions did not result in a reduction in analogous problem behavior. The researcher conducted Experiment 2 to evaluate the effects of presession exposure to matched or unmatched stimulus in the absence of the analogous problem behavior. Following exposure, data were collected on overall engagement in analogous problem behavior as well as latency to engagement. A reduction in overall engagement in analogous problem behavior following presession exposure was observed regardless of stimulation type. The researcher predicted that exposure to matched items would result in a longer latency to re-emergence of analogous problem behavior; however, no such effect was demonstrated.