Schedule Thinning Following Functional Communication Training: Effects of Chained and Multiple Schedules

Functional communication training (FCT) is used to reduce rates of problem behavior by teaching communicative responses that access functionally equivalent reinforcers. During FCT, the communicative response is typically placed on a dense schedule of reinforcement that is unlikely to be maintained in the natural environment. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two schedule-thinning procedures (chained schedules and multiple schedules) on problem behavior maintained by escape from demands for three participants following FCT. The chained and multiple-schedule procedures were effective in reducing rates of problem behavior. Compliance increased under both schedules, but the chained schedule resulted in higher levels of compliance with two participants. In Experiment 2, participants’ preference for the chained or multiple-schedule procedure was evaluated using a modified concurrent-chain procedure. One participant preferred the chained schedule. One participant preferred the multiple schedule. One participant did not appear to discriminate between conditions.

Individual differences in the engagement of habitual control over alcohol seeking predicts the development of compulsive alcohol seeking and drinking

Excessive drinking is an important behavioural characteristic of alcohol addiction, but not the only one. Individuals addicted to alcohol crave alcoholic beverages, spend time seeking alcohol despite negative consequences, and eventually drink to intoxication. With prolonged use, control over alcohol seeking devolves to anterior dorsolateral striatum, dopamine-dependent mechanisms implicated in habit learning and individuals in whom alcohol-seeking relies more on these mechanisms are more likely to persist in seeking alcohol despite the risk of punishment. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the development of habitual alcohol-seeking predicts the development of compulsive seeking and that, once developed, it is associated with compulsive alcohol drinking. Male alcohol-preferring rats were pre-exposed intermittently to a two-bottle choice procedure, and trained on a seeking–taking chained schedule of alcohol reinforcement until some individuals developed punishment-resistant seeking behaviour. The associative basis of their seeking responses was probed with an outcome-devaluation procedure, early or late in training. After seeking behaviour was well established, subjects that had developed greater resistance to outcome-devaluation (were more habitual) were more likely to show punishment-resistant (compulsive) alcohol seeking. These individuals also drank more alcohol, despite quinine adulteration, even though having similar alcohol preference and intake before and during instrumental training. They were also less sensitive to changes in the contingency between seeking responses and alcohol outcome, providing further evidence of recruitment of the habit system. We therefore provide direct behavioural evidence that compulsive alcohol seeking emerges alongside compulsive drinking in individuals that have preferentially engaged the habit system.

Effectiveness of functional communication training paired with a chained schedule of reinforcement in the reduction of challenging behavior

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] To best meet the needs of elementary-aged students with Autism Spectrum Disorder who engage in challenging behaviors in the classroom, identifying a practical and feasible function-based intervention to both reduce problem behaviors and increase appropriate behaviors is optimal (Koegel, Matos-Freden, Lang and Koegel, 2012). The purpose of the current study is to extend previous research suggesting that Functional Communication Training (FCT) is an effective intervention to increase appropriate communication responses, and in turn decrease instances of problem behavior, when it is integrated with a chained schedule of reinforcement and programmed schedule-thinning (Zangrillo, Fisher, Greer, Owen, DeSouza, 2016). In addition to assessing intervention effectiveness and feasibility of teacher implementation, this study also assesses the extent to which applying mitigating strategies throughout the intervention would impact the likelihood of treatment relapse (Mace et al., 2010). Findings suggest that challenging behavior decreased throughout intervention, and functional communication and time on-task increased. Additionally, the data suggest that relapse did not occur. Implications for practice in the classroom are discussed.

Systematic Changes in Preference for Schedule-Thinning Arrangements as a Function of Relative Reinforcement Density

We treated destructive behavior maintained by both social-positive (i.e., access to tangibles) and social-negative (i.e., escape from demands) reinforcement in an individual diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder using functional communication training (FCT). We then thinned the schedule of reinforcement for the tangible function using a multiple schedule (mult FCT) and later thinned the availability of escape using a chained schedule (chain FCT). Both treatments proved effective at maintaining functional communicative responses while decreasing destructive behavior to near-zero levels. In addition, treatment effects maintained when we rapidly thinned mult FCT to the terminal schedule. Throughout chain-FCT schedule thinning, we assessed client preference for each schedule-thinning arrangement (mult FCT or chain FCT) using a concurrent-chains procedure. Client preference reliably shifted from chain FCT to mult FCT as the response requirement increased and the proportion of session spent in reinforcement began to favor mult FCT. We discuss the clinical implications of these findings.

Behavioural Contrast and Preference in a Double Chained Schedule

Pigeons peck faster during a signal for reward (S+) when that signal alternates with one for absence of reward (S−). This “contrast effect” has been shown to involve diminished preference for S + compared with a stimulus not involved in a discrimination. The present experiment demonstrates that the signal produced by pecks to S+ in a chained schedule is responded to in proportion to the contrast effect during S +. The result suggests that a prior interpretation of contrast, in terms of Amsel's frustration theory, is not the correct one.

Some Effects of Frustration in a Free Responding Operant Situation

In several experiments, rats and pigeons were reinforced on a chained schedule which varied in its second component but which always had a variable interval schedule as its first component. Occasionally, the reward which normally followed responding in the second component was omitted. On these frustrative non-reward occasions responding immediately subsequent to non-reward was sometimes elevated and sometimes depressed. The relevance of the elevation and depression effects to behavioural measures of frustration in the double runway was discussed.