Conceptual Understanding of Antecedent Interventions

Chapter 23

•Literature has classified all antecedent-based behavior change strategies under single terms

–e.g., antecedent procedures, ______, antecedent manipulations, antecedent interventions

–Using the same terms may cause confusion or failure to recognize the different functions

•______– evoke behavior due to past correlation with increased availability of reinforcement

•______– increase current frequency of behavior when an effective reinforcer is not available

•Each has different implications for how behavior change strategies should be ______and ______

Classifying Functions of Antecedent Stimuli

•Categories for functions of ______stimuli

–Contingency ______

•Contingency dependent

–Antecedent event is ______on the consequences of behavior for developing evocative & abative effects

–All stimulus control functions

–Referred to as ______

•Contingency independent

–Antecedent event is ______on the consequences of behavior for developing evocative & abative effects

–Antecedent itself affects behavior-consequence relations

–MOs are contingency independent

–Referred to as ______

Antecedent Intervention

•Antecedent interventions serve abolishing operations

–Used in ______or in combination (i.e., treatment packages)

–Decrease the effectiveness of ______that maintain problem behavior

•Effects of MOs are temporary (Smith & Iwata, 1997)

–Will not produce ______improvements in behavior

–Can be used simultaneously to reduce problem behavior

–Most often antecedent interventions serve as a component of treatment package

•Produce more ______effects

•Interventions with established experimental results

–Noncontingent reinforcement ______

–High-probability ______sequence

–Functional communication training ______

Noncontingent Reinforcement

•NCR is an ______intervention

•Stimuli with known ______properties are delivered on a fixed-time (FT) or variable-time (VT) schedule independent of the learner’s behavior (Vollmer et al., 1993)

•May effectively ______problem behavior because reinforcers that maintain the problem behavior are available ______& ______

•Functions as an abolishing operation ______

•Referred to as presenting stimuli with known reinforcing properties

•Uses three distinct procedures that identify & deliver stimuli with known reinforcing properties

–______reinforcement

•NCR with positive reinforcement

–Kahng, Iwata, Thompson, and Hanley (2000)

–Study demonstrated the use of positive reinforcement (i.e., attention & food) for three individuals with developmental disabilities as an antecedent intervention to decrease problem behaviors found during analysis to be maintained by the positive reinforcement

•NCR with negative reinforcement

–Kodak, Miltenberger, and Romaniuk (2003)

–Study demonstrated the use of negative reinforcement (i.e., break from instructional requests) for two individuals with autism as an antecedent intervention to decrease problem behaviors found during analysis to be maintained by negative reinforcement

–Increased participants’ compliance & decreased problem behaviors

•NCR with automatic reinforcement

–Lindberg, Iwata, Roscoe, Worsdell, and Hanley (2003)

–Study demonstrated the use of automatic reinforcement (i.e., physical manipulation of highly preferred leisure items) for two individuals with profound mental retardation to decrease SIB found during analysis to be maintained by automatic reinforcement

–Demonstrated that NCR object manipulation could compete with automatic reinforcement to reduce SIB

•Using NCR effectively

–Three key elements to enhance effectiveness

•______& ______of stimuli with known reinforcing effectiveness of NCR

•Inclusion of extinction with NCR interventions

•Vary the ______stimuli with NCR intervention to reduce problems of changing preferences

–Proper utilization of information obtained through FBA

•Correct identification of maintaining contingencies of reinforcement

•Ringdahl, Vollmer, Borrero, and Connell (2001)

–Study demonstrates the importance of the schedule under which reinforcement is delivered in NCR

–Similarities between baseline and initial NCR may be ineffective

–Denser reinforcement (than during baseline) during initial NCR ensures discrepancy & better chances for intervention to be successful

•Ringdahl et al. (2001) suggest three procedures for emphasizing reinforcement during NCR intervention

–______the delivery of stimuli with known reinforcing properties

–Use an obviously ______schedule of reinforcement at treatment onset

–Combine ______with the NCR treatment package

•Time schedules for NCR

–Typically most applications use a ______

–Also can be done using a VT schedule

–Establishing the ______schedule is crucial & can impact the overall effectiveness of the intervention

–Recommendation is to start with a dense FT or VT schedule

•Can be done ______

•More effective to base it on the ______of occurrences of problem behavior

•To determine the initial NCR schedule

–Divide the ______duration of all baseline sessions by the total number of ______of the problem behavior (during baseline)

–Set the initial interval at or slightly ______the quotient

•Thinning the time-based schedules

–Completed by adding small ______to the NCR interval

–Best done after the initial NCR interval has produced ______in problem behavior

–Can be accomplished using three procedures

•______time increases

•______time increase or decrease

•Constant time increases

–Increase the FT or VT schedule intervals by using a ______of time

–Decrease the amount of time the individual has access to the SCR stimuli by a constant ______of time

•Proportional time increase

–Increase the FT or VT schedule interval ______

•Each time the schedule is increased by the same amount of time

•Session-to-session time increase or decrease

–Use the individual’s ______to change the schedule interval on a session-to-session basis

•Additional considerations for NCR

–Establish a ______criterion

–Weigh the possible advantages against possible disadvantages before deciding to utilize ______with any individual

High-Probability Request Sequence

•Referred to as ______request sequence

•Delivery of a high-p request sequence involves

–Presentation of a ______of easy-to-follow requests for which the individual has a history of compliance (i.e., high-p requests)

–When individual complies with several ______requests, provide individual with ______request (i.e., low-p)

•Behavioral effects of high-p request sequence suggests the ______effects of an AO by

–______the value of reinforcement for non-compliance to low-p requests

–Reducing the ______& self-injury typically associated with low-p requests

•Provides nonaversive procedure for improving ______by diminishing escape-maintained problem behaviors

•May ______excessive slowness in responding to requests & increase time used for completing tasks

•Apply the high-p request sequence by

–Selecting ______with which the individual has a history of compliance

–Present the high-p request sequence ______requesting the target task (i.e., low-p request)

–Present the low-p request following in the same manner that all high-p requests were presented

•Engelmann and Colvin (1983)

–One of the first formal descriptions of high-p request sequence

•Field has utilized a variety of terms to refer to this intervention

–______requests (Horner et al., 1991)

–Pre-task requests (Singer et al., 1987)

–Behavioral ______(Mace & Belfiore, 1990)

–Referred to by most as ______sequence

•Using high-p request sequence effectively

–Select from the ______repertoire

–Present requests ______

–Acknowledge ______

–Use potent ______

•Selecting from the current repertoire

–Behaviors selected for the high-p request sequence should be:

•In the learner’s ______repertoire

•Occur with regularity of ______

•Have a very ______duration of occurrence

•Presenting requests rapidly

–High-p requests should be presented in ______succession with short inter-request intervals

–First low-p request should ______follow reinforcer for high-p compliance (Davis & Reichle, 1996)

•Acknowledging compliance

–Individual’s compliance should be acknowledged ______

–Use of ______

•Use potent reinforcers

–Social praise may ______be enough to increase compliance if motivation for escape behavior is high

–Use of ______positive stimuli immediately following compliance may increase effectiveness of the intervention

Functional Communication Training

•FCT establishes an appropriate ______behavior to compete with problem behaviors evoked by an EO

•Develops ______behaviors that are sensitive to the EOs (in contrast to NCR and high-p request sequence)

•Application of DRA

–Develops alternative ______an antecedent to diminish problem behavior (Fisher et al., 1998)

•Alternative response produces the ______that has maintained problem behavior (Durand & Carr, 1992)

•Alternative response can take a variety of forms

–Vocalizations

–______

–Communication boards

–Words or picture cards

–Vocal ______systems

–Gestures

•Carr and Durand (1985) defined FCT as a two-step process

–Completing a functional behavior assessment to identify the stimuli with known reinforcing properties that maintain problem behavior

–Using those stimuli as reinforcers to develop an alternative behavior to replace the problem behavior

•Very effective for problem behavior maintained by ______

•FCT interventions typically

–Involve ______behavior change strategies in addition to teaching the alternative communication response

•Response prompting

•Time-out

•Physical restraint

•Response ______

•Redirection

•______of problem behavior

•Effective use of FCT includes

–Dense schedules of ______

–Decreased use of verbal prompts

–Behavior ______procedures

–Schedule thinning

•Dense schedules of reinforcement

–Alternative ______response should produce the reinforcers that maintain the problem behavior on a continuous schedule of reinforcement at first

•Decreased use of verbal prompts

–When the alternative communication response is being taught initially ______are often used

–After the response is in the individual’s repertoire the verbal prompts should be ______and eliminated (if possible)

•Assists in removing any ______dependence

•Behavior reduction procedures

–Effectiveness of FCT can be increased with the use of ______procedures (in a treatment package to enhance the reduction of the undesired (problem) behaviors

•______procedure

•Schedule thinning

–______of the schedule on which the established communication response is reinforced is an ______part of FCT

–Should only be done ______the alternative communication response is firmly in the individual’s repertoire

–Guidelines for schedule thinning are ______the same as those for NCR

•Alternative communication response must remain ______to evocative function of the EO to compete with problem behavior

•______of problem behavior could occur

–Hanley et al. (2001) recommended using a procedure for schedule thinning

•Used dense FI schedule of reinforcement during initial teaching of alternative communication response

•After the response is established, gradually thin the FI schedule

•Suggest use of external cues to indicate when reinforcement is available