A systematic evaluation of stimulus preference, response effort, and stimulus control in the treatment of automatically reinforced self-injury

Abstract

Environmental enrichment (EE) was evaluated as treatment for the automatically reinforced self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a 13-year-old male diagnosed with autism. First, a functional analysis determined that the participant's SIB persisted in the absence of social consequences. Next, EE was implemented as treatment and various components of the intervention were manipulated. The results suggested that three factors were correlated with increased EE efficacy: stimulus preference, response effort, and inhibitory stimulus control.