Behavioral Indicators of Satiation: a Systematic Review

Abstract

The use of behavioral indicators as a measure of satiation was a procedure developed by O'Reilly et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 773–783, 2009) to systematically manipulate presession access to a tangible reinforcer. In order to gain a better understanding of the utility of behavioral indicators of satiation in applied settings, a systematic literature review was conducted identifying nine additional studies that implemented this procedure. This review synthesized the research in terms of participant characteristics, use of behavioral indicators, dependent variables, and study outcomes. Results suggest this procedure is an effective way to decrease challenging behaviors and increase adaptive, on-task behaviors, adding to the literature in regard to the manipulation of abolishing operations as well as serving to identify future investigations into the use of behavioral indicators as a measure of satiation.