Behavioral momentum in the treatment of noncompliance.
Behavioral momentum refers to the tendency for behavior to persist following a change in environmental conditions. The greater the rate of reinforcement, the greater the behavioral momentum. The intervention for noncompliance consisted of issuing a sequence of commands with which the subject was very likely to comply (i.e., high-probability commands) immediately prior to issuing a low-probability command. In each of five experiments, the high-probability command sequence resulted in a "momentum" of compliant responding that persisted when a low-probability request was issued. Results showed the antecedent high-probability command sequence increased compliance and decreased compliance latency and task duration. "Momentum-like" effects were shown to be distinct from experimenter attention and to depend on the contiguity between the high-probability command sequence and the low-probability command.
Mace
F C
FC
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854.
Hock
M L
ML
Lalli
J S
JS
West
B J
BJ
Belfiore
P
P
Pinter
E
E
Brown
D K
DK
D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005794:Generalization, Response; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011930:Reaction Time