Faculty Articles
Assessment of Stimulus Generalization Gradients in the Treatment of Self-Injury
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 1998
Publication Title
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
Volume
31
Issue/Number
3
First Page
479
ISSN
0021-8855
Last Page
483
Abstract/Excerpt
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
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
