Social reinforcement, socialization, and chronic delinquency.
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Reinforcement contingencies and social reinforcement are ubiquitous phenomena in applied behavior analysis. This discussion paper is divided into two sections. In the first section, reinforcement contingencies are discussed in terms of the necessary and sufficient conditions for reinforcement effects. Response-stimulus dependencies, conditional probabilities, and contiguity are discussed as possible mechanisms of, and arrangements for, reinforcement effects. In the second section, social reinforcement is discussed in terms of its functional subtypes and reinforcement context effects. Two underlying themes run throughout the discussion: (a) Applied research would benefit from a greater understanding of existing basic research, and (b) basic research could be designed to specifically address some of the issues about reinforcement that are central to effective application.
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This study was designed to determine if the deficits in social behavior of retarded persons might be due, in part, to the failure of their environment to maintain that behavior. Using an ABAB design, we systematically ignored severely and profoundly retarded, institutionalized adolescents and gave them social reinforcement for appropriate social behavior. Social behavior decreased during nonreinforcement conditions and increased during reinforcement conditions. The data suggest that deficits in social behavior of retarded persons may be due to failure of their environment to maintain such behavior. Implications of these findings for staff behavior and the utility of the present procedure for increasing social behavior of institutionalized retarded persons were discussed.
This study investigated the effects of noncontingent social reinforcement on social and academic behaviors in grade school children. Twenty-four children in the second through fifth grades were selected on the basis of teacher ratings of disruptive behavior. Subjects were divided into a high social reinforcement verbal self-instructional (VSI) training group, a low social reinforcement VSI group, and a no-contact control group. Children in VSI groups were removed from their classrooms during four 40-minute periods and given VSI training. Significant between-groups differences on measures of social reinforcement were found indicating its successful manipulation. While none of the dependent measures indicated significant differences between experimental groups, a consistent pattern of difference scores emerged giving limited support to the hypothesis that noncontingent social reinforcement contributed to behavioral gains. Results are discussed in terms of the need for future research on the effects of rapport on treatment outcome.
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Although social influences are thought to promote bulimic pathology, little research has examined the effects of multiple socialization agents, or considered both modeling and social reinforcement processes. Accordingly, these two studies tested whether social reinforcement of the thin-ideal, and modeling of abnormal eating behavior by family, peers, and the media, (i) correlated with bulimic symptoms in a sample of young adult female (N = 114) and (ii) predicted the onset of bulimic behavior in a sample of adolescent females (N = 218). Social reinforcement of the thin-ideal by family, peers, and media was correlated with bulimic symptoms; family and peer social reinforcement prospectively predicted the onset of binge eating and purging. Family and peer, but not media, modeling of abnormal eating behavior was associated with concurrent bulimic symptoms, and predicted the onset of binge eating and purging. Results suggest that both social reinforcement and modeling processes may promote bulimic pathology, but imply that the effects are limited to family and peer influences.
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The effects of mental age (MA), knowledge of results, and social reinforcement on performance on a speed motor task by mildly mentally retarded children was investigated. Significant main effects were found for the variables of MA and social reinforcement and significant interactions for the MA x Social-Reinforcement conditions and the Knowledge of Results x Social-Reinforcement conditions. Post hoc analysis indicated that high-MA subjects performed significantly better under verbal praise conditions than did low-MA subjects. Also, knowledge of results was most effective in the presence of verbal praise. We suggested that verbal praise sensitized subjects to attend to the knowledge of results cue.
Three intervention packages consisting of (a) enhanced prompts, feedback, and social reinforcement; (b) a lottery; and (c) serving as a confederate were added and removed in sequence as adjacent conditions in an extended withdrawal design to assess their effects on the dietary choices of elderly persons. Participants were 3 elderly residents of an independent living facility who were identified as making consistently poor dietary choices and who had medical conditions that necessitated changes in their eating habits. All 3 participants demonstrated a marked increase in healthy choices of food items in response to the package of enhanced prompts, feedback, and social reinforcement. No additional increase occurred with the introduction of the lottery and serving as a confederate. Food-choice data indicated that most of these improvements could be attributed to healthier entree and dessert choices. Group data for all residents suggested small improvements in dietary practices during the three intervention conditions, with the largest proportion of the group's healthy choices occurring when the lottery was added to enhanced prompts, feedback, and social reinforcement. Food-choice data indicated that most of these improvements could be attributed to healthier dessert choices alone.
The motivational bases of the social reinforcement in human-dog relations were examined. In experiment I, performed on seven dogs, it was found that dogs were able to learn and sustain the natural responses of sitting, paw extension, and lying prostrate to conditional stimuli in the form of vocal commands reinforced only by social rewards given by the experimenter, such as petting and vocal encouragement. Overtraining did not produce deterioration of performance but, on the contrary, the continual decrease of latencies. It was evidenced that tactile stimulation plays an important role in social reward. In experiment II, instrumental responses to the auditory conditional stimuli were elaborated in two groups of dogs. The first group (nine dogs) was reinforced by food, and the second group (eight dogs) was reinforced exclusively by petting. A similar course of learning and level of performance during overtraining sessions in both groups indicated that petting serves as a good reinforcement, with rewarding value comparable to that of food reinforcement. It is suggested that a strong rewarding effect of pleasurable sensory stimuli occurs in the formation of the bond between dog and human and in the learning of different tasks.
The effects of social reinforcement on two motor tasks by 40 retarded subjects with high and low MAs were investigated. Ages ranged from 10 to 18 yr., M = 14.46 yr. Mean IQ was 46.82; mental age for the high subjects was 8.09 yr., for the low 5.45 yr. Significant main effects for social reinforcement were found for the persistence measure but none for the speed measure. The effectiveness of praise on retarded subjects' performance is related to the type of motor task used.
Mentally retarded individuals who had been examined on a task measuring responsiveness to social reinforcement after 3 weeks and after 3 years of institutionalization were examined after 6 years of institutionalization. IQ changes were also examined. For familially retarded subjects, a linear decrease in responsiveness to social reinforcement and a linear increase in IQ was found from the 1st to the 6th year of institutional life. No changes in responsiveness to social reinforcement or IQ were found over the 6 years for nonfamilially retarded subjects.
This study investigated the relative effects of vestibular rehabilitation (VR) and social reinforcement (SR) on recovery following ablative vestibular surgery. Twenty-four subjects were randomly assigned to three treatment groups of either VR with SR, VR without SR, or general range of motion (ROM) exercises with SR. Outcome measures included equilibrium scores in dynamic posturography, asymmetry index in rotation testing, motion sensitivity quotient (MSQ), and dizziness handicap inventory (DHI). A multiple comparison of the overall outcome measures showed no significant differences in group performance over an 8-week period. When individual outcome measures were compared, MSQ and DHI results at the end of the 8-week treatment period revealed less motion sensitivity and dizziness handicap in groups who received VR, with or without SR, as compared with the group who received ROM exercises. These results suggest that after a vestibular injury most patients can effectively utilize central compensation mechanisms to recover from such an injury, regardless of the type of therapeutic intervention used. On the other hand, the reduction in motion sensitivity and dizziness handicap for patients who received VR could indicate a more rapid and complete recovery for these patients. This investigation is continuing as a long-term follow-up study to determine whether there are any long-term benefits in participating in a VR program.
Two approaches, (a) patient education and (b) compliance-contingent social reinforcement, were employed to improve compliance with fluid restrictions in a chronically noncompliant hemodialysis patient of borderline intellectual functioning. Results indicated that only social reinforcement led to improved compliance (i.e., decreased intersession weight gain). Treatment effects were well maintained at both 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Contingency management strategies are recommended as a potentially cost effective treatment for noncompliance in hemodialysis patients.