A comparison of acquisition of a behavior chain using social, edible and no reinforcers

Abstract

There has been basic research conducted on chains and task analyses, however, no studies have compared the effects of different consequences on the acquisition of a behavior chain. The purpose of this study was to compare the acquisition of a behavior chain taught with various consequence conditions. These conditions consisted of either edible or social consequences or no reinforcer following responding. Three individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder participated. Three 15-step play constructs were taught using an alternating treatments design and the dependent measures were the number of trials and sessions to acquisition and the number of errors in each consequence condition. Sessions in each condition consisted of one probe trial followed by 10 training trials with the behavior chain. Most-to-least prompting with a constant delay was utilized for all conditions. Results showed that all reinforcement procedures were effective while the efficiency varied across learners. For one of the three individuals, acquisition of the behavior chain was demonstrated to be quicker in the edible reinforcer condition. Findings generalized across novel teachers and settings. IOA data were collected in at least 34% of sessions and averaged 97%. Procedural integrity data were taken in at least 34% of sessions and averaged 95%. Intrinsic reinforcers and negative reinforcers may have affected the acquisition of the chains since all three individuals acquired the chain in the edible reinforcer, social reinforcer, and the no reinforcer conditions.