Behavioral Momentum in the Treatment of Noncompliance

Author(s)

Floyd C. Mace, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Michael L. Hock, University of Vermont
Joseph S. Lalli, Lehigh University
Barbara J. West, Lehigh University
Phillip Belfiore, Lehigh UniversityFollow
Elizabeth Pinter, Lehigh University
D. Kirby Brown, Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate UnitFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

ISSN

0021-8855

Publication Date

Summer 1988

Abstract

Behavioral momentum refers to the tendency for behavior to persist following a change in environmental conditions. The greater the rate of reinforcement, the greater the behavioral momentum. The intervention for noncompliance consisted of issuing a sequence of commands with which the subject was very likely to comply (i.e., high-probability commands) immediately prior to issuing a low-probability command. In each of five experiments, the high-probability command sequence resulted in a "momentum" of compliant responding that persisted when a low-probability request was issued. Results showed the antecedent high-probability command sequence increased compliance and decreased compliance latency and task duration. "Momentum-like" effects were shown to be distinct from experimenter attention and to depend on the contiguity between the high-probability command sequence and the low-probability command.

DOI

10.1901/jaba.1988.21-123

Volume

21

Issue

2

First Page

123

Last Page

141

NSUWorks Citation

Mace, F. C., Hock, M. L., Lalli, J. S., West, B. J., Belfiore, P., Pinter, E., Brown, D. (1988). Behavioral Momentum in the Treatment of Noncompliance. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21(2), 123-141.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/366