A Systematic Examination of Different Parameters of Presession Exposure to Tangible Stimuli That Maintain Problem Behavior

Description

Researchers examined the effects of three different presession conditions on tangibly maintained problem behavior for two students with autism, using individual-participant multielement designs. First, an analogue functional analysis demonstrated that access to tangible items maintained problem behavior. Next, researchers identified topographies of item rejection. Finally, students received (a) brief access, (b) no access, and (c) satiation to the tangible items prior to tangible sessions. The results demonstrated high levels of problem behavior following the brief-access and no-access presession conditions and low levels of problem behavior following the satiation condition. The article discusses the findings in the context of how best to define satiation for these sorts of evaluations.

Citation

O’Reilly, M., Lang, R., Davis, T., Rispoli, M., Machalicek, W., Sigafoos, J., . . . Didden, R. (2009). A systematic examination of different parameters of presession exposure to tangible stimuli that maintain problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 773–783.