Timothy R. Vollmer

Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) : A behavioral checklist for functional assessment of aberrant behavior

Functional assessment is a method to identify the relationships between a behavior of interest and an individuals environment. Traditional methods for functional assessment have relied on experimental techniques in which analog sessions are designed to replicate conditions in the individuals environment. However, these techniques can be time-consuming, require advanced training, and rely on the availability of extensive resources in the individuals setting. Development of a brief functional assessment checklist would circumvent these difficulties and meet clinical needs for efficient assessment methods. The current study provides psychometric data for the Questions About Behavioral Function. These data include test-retest, inter-rater, and internal consistency.

The concept of automatic reinforcement: implications for behavioral research in developmental disabilities

Automatic reinforcement refers to situations in which behavior is maintained by operant mechanisms independent of the social environment. A number of difficulties exist in conducting an adequate functional analysis of automatically reinforced aberrant behavior. For example, sources of reinforcement are often difficult or impossible to identify, manipulate, or control. Further, the development of treatments is often difficult because many behavioral interventions, such as timeout, involve manipulation of the social environment--an approach that may be functionally irrelevant in the case of automatic reinforcement. This article discusses the problems inherent in the analysis of automatically reinforced behavior and reviews four classes of treatment that are compatible with that behavioral function. The four types of intervention reviewed include manipulations of establishing operations, sensory extinction, differential reinforcement, and punishment. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Differential reinforcement as treatment for behavior disorders: Procedural and functional variations

For many years, differential reinforcement has been a prevalent and preferred treatment procedure for the reduction of behavior disorders. This paper reviews the procedural variations of differential reinforcement and discusses their functional properties. It is proposed that such procedures are more likely to be successful if behavioral function is a primary consideration in prescribing treatments; furthermore, limited success noted in previous research may be due to the arbitrary relationship that often exists between reinforcers and target behaviors when behavioral function is unknown. Despite the promise of a function-based approach to differential reinforcement, several current limitations exist in the identification and manipulation of relevant variables. Thus, further research is required to elucidate the relationship between aberrant behaviors and the variables responsible for maintaining them; otherwise, successful treatment cannot be expected. Several areas for future research are discussed conceptually as extensions of current and past experimentation.

EFFECTS OF TREATMENT INTEGRITY FAILURES DURING DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF ALTERNATIVE BEHAVIOR: A TRANSLATIONAL MODEL

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) is used frequently as a treatment for problem behavior. Previous studies on treatment integrity failures during DRA suggest that the intervention is robust, but research has not yet investigated the effects of different types of integrity failures. We examined the effects of two types of integrity failures on DRA, starting with a human operant procedure and extending the results to children with disabilities in a school setting. Human operant results (Experiment 1) showed that conditions involving reinforcement for problem behavior were more detrimental than failing to reinforce appropriate behavior alone, and that condition order affected the results. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated the effects of combined errors and sequence effects during actual treatment implementation.

An investigation of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior without extinction.

We manipulated relative reinforcement for problem behavior and appropriate behavior using differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) without an extinction component. Seven children with developmental disabilities participated. We manipulated duration (Experiment 1), quality (Experiment 2), delay (Experiment 3), or a combination of each (Experiment 4), such that reinforcement favored appropriate behavior rather than problem behavior even though problem behavior still produced reinforcement. Results of Experiments 1 to 3 showed that behavior was often sensitive to manipulations of duration, quality, and delay in isolation, but the largest and most consistent behavior change was observed when several dimensions of reinforcement were combined to favor appropriate behavior (Experiment 4). Results suggest strategies for reducing problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior without extinction.

Evaluation and Treatment of Swimming Pool Avoidance Exhibited by an Adolescent Girl with Autism.

We evaluated and treated swimming pool avoidance that was exhibited by a 14-year-old girl diagnosed with autism. In part, treatment involved blocking for flopping (dropping to the ground) and elopement (running away from the pool) and access to food for movements toward a swimming pool. Treatment also involved reinforcement for exposure to various depths of water. Generalization of treatment outcome was demonstrated by showing sustained effects with her mother without food reinforcement and, subsequently, by replicating these effects with her mother in an untrained setting.

Some current themes in functional analysis research

The purpose of this article is to review and discuss some current themes in functional analysis research. The paper is divided into two general sections; one section discusses clinical application of functional analysis and a second section discusses functional analysis as a research method. In the first section, current issues related to treatment logic and development are reviewed. Also, clinical limitations of functional analysis are described, including treatment and assessment implementation issues (such as time and resource constraints). In the second section, three areas of research are reviewed with suggestions for further research: the analysis of diverse response topographies, the analysis of basic behavioral processes, and the evaluation of methodological refinements.

An evaluation of the good behavior game in kindergarten classrooms.

The good behavior game (GBG) is a classwide group contingency that involves dividing the class into two teams, creating simple rules, and arranging contingencies for breaking or following those rules. Five kindergarten teachers and classrooms participated in this evaluation of the GBG. Disruptive behavior markedly decreased in all five classrooms as a result of the intervention. This study extends the GBG literature by systematically replicating the effects of the GBG with the youngest group of students to date.

Treatment Classification and Selection Based on Behavioral Function

Results from more than 25 years of research on behavioral approaches to the treatment of self-injury, aggression, and related disorders in developmentally disabled individuals indicate that these problems are learned behaviors and can be reduced significantly using interventions derived from operant conditioning principles. A consistent finding has been that behavior disorders are responsive to treatment across an extremely wide range of procedural variation. Because so many options are available in a given clinical situation, issues related to treatment selection have become increasingly important in recent years, and a number of decision-making models have been proposed. Yet the question of how best to proceed when attempting to reduce a serious behavior problem has been difficult to answer and is often the subject of controversy. Some treatments are viewed as more effective, intrusive, or costly than others, and there has been disagreement over the relative “ranking” of treatments based on these factors. The ultimate criteria used in making treatment decisions should take into account scientific, ethical, and economic factors, as well as consumer preference (e.g., see the extensive discussion of these factors in Repp & Singh, 1990). Much of the current controversy, however, arises from more basic misconceptions about the characteristics of treatment procedures and the behavior disorders they are designed to eliminate, resulting in either arbitrary or erroneous classification.

Practical implications of data reliability and treatment integrity monitoring.

Data reliability and treatment integrity have important implications for clinical practice because they can affect clinicians’ abilities to accurately judge the efficacy of behavioral interventions. Reliability and integrity data also allow clinicians to provide feedback to caregivers and to adjust interventions as needed. We present reasons why reliability and integrity measures are paramount in clinical work, discuss events that may result in decreased reliability or integrity, and provide several efficient means for collecting data and calculating reliability and integrity measures.