title: The effects of presession attention on subsequent attention-extinction and alone conditions.
abstract: We examined the effects of presession levels of attention (no attention vs. continuous attention) during subsequent alone and attention-extinction conditions for an individual with severe disabilities and problem behavior. A prior functional analysis indicated that attention was a primary maintaining variable for problem behavior. Experimental control was demonstrated using a within-subject multielement design. Results indicated that presession conditions influenced responding, with higher levels of problem behavior occurring during alone and attention-extinction conditions when preceded by the no-attention presession condition. Overall, these results seem to support descriptions of the behavior-altering effects of the motivating operation (MO). Specifically, presession access seemed to influence behavior during the alone condition in which both discriminative and reinforcing stimuli were absent, suggesting a direct effect of the MO on the behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education, 1 University Station D5300, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. markoreilly@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.forename: Chaturi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Edrisinha
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sigafoos
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lancioni
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Machalicek
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antonucci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D009042:Motivation