Visual overselectivity: a comparison of two instructional remediation procedures with autistic children.

The present study compared two classroom-relevant procedures for remediating visual overselectivity in autistic children. One approach was based on perceptual-motor theory in which possible relationships between functional object-use and overselectivity were studied. The second strategy, equivalence training, used a four-step stimulus shift procedure. A comparison group of autistic children was exposed to simple repeated practice trials with the test tasks. Results showed that equivalence training was more effective than functional object-use in improving posttest scores, with repeated practice falling in between. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical issues relating to stimulus overselectivity, including the incorporation of microcomputer technology.

Overselectivity, developmental level, and overtraining in autistic and normal children.

Thirteen autistic children were compared to 13 normal children matched to them in mental age, on performance of a visual discrimination task. Form, color, and size were relevant and redundant cues. The groups did not differ significantly in mean trials to reach criterion or in breadth of learning, and both groups increased their breadth of learning after 50 trials of overtraining. Form was preferred to color and size by both autistic and normal children. Within each group, rank on mental age was highly correlated with rank in breadth of learning. Verbal and nonverbal autistic children did not differ in breadth of learning or in dimensional preference. Even nonverbal autistics equaled the performance of their normal controls. Our results suggest that overselective attention is better understood as part of a general developmental lag in cognition in autistic children than as a specific deficit underlying psychotic behavior.

Stimulus control of self-destructive behavior in a psychotic child.

This study attemped to isolate some of the stimulus variables that controlled the self-destructive behavior of a psychotic child. In Experiment 1, the child was exposed to several demand and nondemand situations. In Experiment 2, the situation containing demands was modified so that demands now occurred in the context of a positive, ongoing interaction between the child and the adult therapist. The rates of self-destructive behavior underwent several orderly changes: (1) Rates were high in demand situations and low in nondemand and modifieddemand situations; (2) rates decreased sharply when a stimulus correlated with the termination of demands was introduced; and (3) rates of self-destruction typically showed gradual increases within each of those sessions which contained only demands. These results were interpreted as suggesting that (1) self-destruction, under certain circumstances, may be conceptualized as an escape response which is negatively reinforced by the termination of a demand situation and (2) certain modifications of the social environment may provide discriminative stimuli for behaviors other than self-destruction, thereby decreasing this behavior.

Psychological test usage with adolescent clients: survey update.

In 1991, Archer, Maruish, Imhof, and Piotrowski presented survey findings based on the responses of a national sample of psychologists who performed psychological assessment with adolescent clients. The current survey was designed to update their results by examining the test use practices reported by 346 psychologists who work with adolescents in a variety of clinical and academic settings. These respondents represented an adjusted survey return rate of 36% and predominantly consisted of doctoral prepared psychologists (95%) in private practice settings (51%). The survey respondents had a mean of 13.6 years of post-degree clinical experience, and spent an average of 45% of their clinical time working with adolescents. Survey results reveal a substantial similarity in test usage between the 1991 survey and the current investigation. For example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) remain among the widely used tests with adolescents. However, several changes were also noted including a reduction in the use of the Bender-Gestalt and increases in the use of parent and teacher rating instruments. The current findings are used to estimate the relative popularity of an extensive list of test instruments, compare current findings to 1991 survey results, and to examine several issues related to general effects of managed care procedures and policies on test usage with adolescents.

The application of sensory change to reduce stereotyped behavior.

A combined reversal and multiple baseline design was utilized to assess reduction of repetitive hand movements for three severely mentally retarded children. Stereotypy was assessed during baseline (reinforcement for on task behavior) and sensory change (rings and reinforcement, rings, and faded rings) conditions. The results indicated sensory change effectively reduced the target responses. These results were durable up to 4 hours. We conclude that the procedure used in this study is a non-intrusive intervention that is an extension of the current literature pertaining to sensory extinction.

Self-stimulatory behavior and perceptual reinforcement.

Self-stimulatory behavior is repetitive, stereotyped, functionally autonomous behavior seen in both normal and developmentally disabled populations, yet no satisfactory theory of its development and major characteristics has previously been offered. We present here a detailed hypothesis of the acquisition and maintenance of self-stimulatory behavior, proposing that the behaviors are operant responses whose reinforcers are automatically produced interoceptive and exteroceptive perceptual consequences. The concept of perceptual stimuli and reinforcers, the durability of self-stimulatory behaviors, the sensory extinction effect, the inverse relationship between self-stimulatory and other behaviors, the blocking effect of self-stimulatory behavior on new learning, and response substitution effects are discussed in terms of the hypothesis. Support for the hypothesis from the areas of sensory reinforcement and sensory deprivation is also reviewed. Limitations of major alternative theories are discussed, along with implications of the perceptual reinforcement hypothesis for the treatment of excessive self-stimulatory behavior and for theoretical conceptualizations of functionally related normal and pathological behaviors.

A neurobiological nonalternative: rejoinder to Lewis, Baumeister, and Mailman.

Certain misrepresentations of our theory of self-stimulatory behavior by Lewis, Baumeister, and Mailman (1987) are corrected and several questions raised by the commentators are answered. Their proposed neurobiological alternative is considered briefly and judged to be insufficiently detailed, inadequate in scope, and therefore premature.

The relative motivational properties of sensory and edible reinforcers in teaching autistic children.

We compared the effects of sensory and edible reinforcers on resistance to satiation in three autistic children while learning visual discrimination tasks. Within-subject designs were used to compare a single sensory reinforcer with a single edible reinforcer and to compare multiple sensory reinforcers with multiple edibles. Results indicated that multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers; however, the use of single sensory reinforcers and single edibles resulted in about equal numbers of trials to satiation. Both multiple and single sensory reinforcers produced higher percentages of correct responses than edible reinforcers. The findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of sensory reinforcers in teaching autistic children.

A simultaneous discrimination procedure for the measurement of vision in nonverbal children.

Few nonverbal developmentally disabled children ever receive adequate vision assessment because of their limited language skills. The present study details a simultaneous discrimination procedure for measuring subjective visual acuity in such children. A stimulus fading procedure was used to train a discrimination between Snellen Es differing in orientation, and a psychophysical tracking method was used to determine acuity thresholds. The procedure was tested with 11 nonverbal autistic and schizophrenic children and validated with four nonpsychotic children. Eight of the psychotic children were successfully examined in one to three sessions. Two of these children were identified as having significant acuity losses. The validity assessment showed that the experimental procedure resulted in thresholds equal to or slightly lower than those obtained with the Illiterate E chart.

Escape as a factor in the aggressive behavior of two retarded children.

This study sought to identify some of the variables controlling the severely aggressive behavior of two retarded children. In Experiment 1, each child was presented with several demand and nondemand situations. Aggression was frequent in the demand situations and rare in the nondemand situations. When a stimulus correlated with the termination of demands was introduced, aggression fell to a near zero level. In Experiment 2, for one child, a variety of preferred reinforcers was introduced into the demand situation contingent on correct responding. Aggression abruptly decreased to a low level. Experiments 3 and 4 involved the second child. In Experiment 3, this child was permitted, in one condition, to leave the demand situation if he emitted a nonaggressive response. Aggression decreased to a low level. In Experiment 4, he was prevented, in one condition, from leaving the demand situation in spite of high levels of aggression. Aggression fell to a near zero level. In Experiments 3 and 4, he was permitted, in several conditions, to leave the demand situation following aggressive behavior. Aggression increased to a high level. The results suggested that: (1) aggression can sometimes function as an escape response; and (2) escape-motivated aggression can be controlled by: (a) introducing strongly preferred reinforcers to attenuate the aversiveness of the demand situation; (b) strengthening an alternative, nonaggressive escape response; or (c) using an escape-extinction procedure.