Evaluation of a treatment package to reduce rapid eating.

We replicated and extended treatment procedures described by Lennox, Miltenberger, and Donnelly (1987) designed to reduce rapid eating. The participant was a 17-year-old girl with developmental disabilities who engaged in dangerously high rates of food ingestion. The procedure involved an adjusting differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate-responding (DRL) schedule, response blocking, and prompts. We evaluated a continuation of the treatment despite initial negative side effects that were similar to those reported by Lennox et al. Results showed that the treatment package was effective and negative side effects eventually decreased.

An evaluation of contingency strength and response suppression.

Typically, functional analyses of severe problem behavior have been conducted in two ways: (a) The target response is reinforced immediately after it occurs, or (b) the target response is reinforced on some schedule thought to mimic a naturally occurring schedule. We evaluated the effects of contingency strength in reducing levels of problem behavior with 2 participants who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Results showed that under a neutral contingency, one in which the probability of reinforcement for aggression was equal to the probability of reinforcement for the nonoccurrence of aggression, rates of aggression were suppressed to low levels for both participants.

Further evaluation of the role of protective equipment in the functional analysis of self-injurious behavior.

Using a procedure similar to the one described by Le and Smith (in press), we evaluated the effects of protective equipment during a functional analysis for 2 individuals who engaged in severe self-injurious behavior (SIB). Results of our analyses revealed that the use of protective equipment during functional analyses of SIB suppressed levels of responding such that a behavioral function could not be identified.