Preference and Reinforcer Effects of Different Forms of Attention in Young Children

Abstract

Attention may function as a reinforcer for increasing appropriate behavior and inappropriate behavior; however, the conditions under which attention is most likely to function as a reinforcer are unclear. Previous research has suggested that various factors may influence the reinforcing efficacy of attention including magnitude (i.e., duration) of attention; immediacy of attention delivery; schedule of attention delivery; motivating operations; conditioning history; and type, content, and overall quality of attention. Various position papers and early childhood organizations (e.g., NAEYC, 2014; Serna, Lambros, Nielsen, & Forness, 2002) have suggested the use of various forms of attention in early childhood environments for the purpose of social-emotional development and teaching of young children. Common forms of attention that are suggested include praise, conversation, and physical attention (e.g., Kazdin, Silverman, & Sitter, 1975; Kelly et al., 2014; Roscoe, Kindle, & Pence, 2010; Smaby et al., 2007). Therefore, I developed an efficient assessment procedure to determine which, if any, of these types of attention were preferred by a large number of preschool-age children. Next, I conducted a reinforcer assessment under fixed-ratio (FR) 1 and progressive schedules to (a) validate the attention assessment and (b) determine whether these common types of attention function as reinforcers when used contingent on correct responding on a maintenance task. Overall, results showed that the majority of children preferred conversation or physical attention. In addition, in general, the results from our reinforcer assessments suggested that the forms of attention that were preferred in the assessment were more likely to function as reinforcers. Keywords: attention, reinforcer efficacy, praise, physical attention, conversation, progressive-ratio schedule