Protective equipment as treatment for stereotypic hand mouthing: sensory extinction or punishment effects?
We examined the effects of noncontingent and contingent protective equipment as treatment for self-injurious hand mouthing exhibited by 2 individuals with profound mental retardation. Results of a functional analysis assessment revealed that neither subject's self-injury was maintained by social reinforcement: One subject's self-injury was cyclical in nature; the other's occurred during all assessment conditions but most frequently when left alone. In the noncontingent-equipment condition, oven mitts were placed on the individual's hands at the beginning of a session and remained on throughout. In the contingent-equipment condition, the mitts were briefly placed on the individual's hands following occurrences of hand mouthing. For 1 subject, noncontingent mitts produced a large decrease in the rate of hand mouthing and contingent mitts produced similar results following a return to baseline. Hand mouthing was also reduced in the 2nd subject, but this individual was exposed only to the contingent-equipment condition (i.e., there was no prior history with the noncontingent-equipment condition). These results suggest either a punishment or a time-out interpretation rather than an extinction interpretation to account for the behavior-reducing effects of contingent protective equipment on self-injury.
Mazaleski
J L
JL
Psychology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611.
Iwata
B A
BA
Rodgers
T A
TA
Vollmer
T R
TR
Zarcone
J R
JR
D000328:Adult; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior