Assessment of Stimulus Generalization Gradients in the Treatment of Self-Injury

Author(s)

Joseph S. Lalli, Lehigh University
Floyd C. Mace, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Kimberley Livezey
Kelly Kates

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

ISSN

0021-8855

Publication Date

Fall 1998

Abstract

Descriptive and experimental analyses suggested that the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a 10-year-old girl with severe mental retardation was maintained by attention. Additional analyses identified physical contact as the type of attention maintaining SIB; therefore, we hypothesized that physical proximity of an adult was a discriminative stimulus for SIB. Based on these findings, we systematically varied the distance between the participant and a therapist to assess stimulus generalization. Results showed that rates of SIB varied relative to the distance between the participant and therapist; the highest percentage of SIB occurred with the therapist positioned less than 0.5 m from the participant. Treatment consisted of placing the therapist at a specified distance (9.0 m) from the participant (during low-attention situations), noncontingent reinforcement, and extinction.

DOI

10.1901/jaba.1998.31-479

Volume

31

Issue

3

First Page

479

Last Page

483

NSUWorks Citation

Lalli, J. S., Mace, F. C., Livezey, K., Kates, K. (1998). Assessment of Stimulus Generalization Gradients in the Treatment of Self-Injury. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31(3), 479-483.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/361