"Assessment of Stimulus Generalization Gradients in the Treatment of Se" by Joseph S. Lalli, Floyd C. Mace et al.
 

Faculty Articles

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

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

Peer Reviewed

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