title: Stimulation and control as components of stereotyped body rocking.
abstract: Severely and profoundly mentally retarded children who engaged in stereotyped body rocking were presented with all possible pairs of three conditions and made a choice as to which they preferred: a rocking chair that rocked freely under the child's control (active stimulation), a rocking chair that provided the same stimulation but was under the experimenter's control (passive stimulation), and a rocking chair that had been immobilized (stationary). Children significantly chose the active stimulation condition over the passive and the passive over the stationary; however, the degree of the effect was associated with developmental level. Results were interpreted as showing that self-stimulation involves at least two independent processes, control and stimulation.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D012653:Self Stimulation; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior