title: Task engagement and escape maintained challenging behavior: differential effects of general and explicit cues when implementing a signaled delay in the delivery of reinforcement.
abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of explicit and general delay cues when implementing a tolerance for a delay in the delivery of a reinforcement procedure to increase task engagement and decrease escape maintained challenging behavior. Two preschool children with autism participated in an alternating treatments design with changing criterions for task engagement. For both children, descriptive and experimental analyses verified that the challenging behavior functioned to escape instructional task demands. Subsequently, two types of tasks were identified for each participant with assignment to either the explicit or general cue procedures. Both participants demonstrated increased task engagement with concurrent decreases in challenging behavior with both types of delay cues, though rate of successful work unit completion advanced more quickly with explicit delay cues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, 56 E. River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. reich001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reichle
authors.forename: LeAnne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Monn
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D004924:Escape Reaction; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis