The Effects of Fading Schedules of Noncontingent Reinforcement with and without Extinction

Abstract

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at an increased risk of problem behavior, which can result in various impediments to daily living and injury to themselves and others. Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) is often used with individuals with IDD. NCR is typically used concurrently with extinction (EXT); however, the effectiveness of NCR without EXT has demonstrated promising, but mixed results. The current translational study replicated and extended Saini et al. (2017) to evaluate (a) the effectiveness of NCR on reducing an analogue to problem behavior with and without EXT while fading schedules of reinforcement, (b) levels of variability in responding during and following NCR schedule fading with and without EXT, and (c) response resurgence following changes in schedules of reinforcement with and without EXT. Application of a reinforcement schedule thinning procedure recommended by LeBlanc et al. (2002) was also evaluated. Results indicated that both NCR with and without EXT decreased the target response rate for all six participants; however, only NCR with EXT decreased the response rate to clinically significant levels. Participants exposed to NCR without EXT engaged in more variable responses than those exposed to NCR with EXT, and resurgence occurred more often for participants exposed to NCR with EXT. The reinforcement schedule thinning method was effective at quickly reaching the terminal thinning criteria while maintaining a low to zero rate of problem behavior for three participants exposed to NCR with EXT. Limitations of the current study, as well as directions for future research are discussed.