title: The relationship of self-stimulation to learning in autistic children.
abstract: The acquisition of discriminative behavior was studied in three autistic children with high-frequency self-stimulatory behavior. It was found that: (a) the children did not acquire the discrimination while engaged in self-stimulation; (b) suppression of self-stimulation produced an increase in correct responding, with eventual acquisition of the discrimination; (c) successful discrimination learning was always associated with a reduction in self-stimulatory behavior, even when aversive stimuli were not used for suppression.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Koegel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Covert