Noncontingent Reinforcement. An Introduction

Abstract

This article reviews basic features of a relatively new behavior analytic method: noncontingent reinforcement (NCR). The method is strikingly simple; just presenting reinforcers according to a (mostly fixed-) time schedule. The article also discusses more complicated considerations that must be made before applying NCR. Important considerations are how dense NCR schedules must be in order to reduce or eliminate problem behavior, whether schedules can be thinned while maintaining effects, the possibility of adventitious reinforcement, whether reinforcers demonstrated to maintain the problem behavior to be treated have to be delivered, the generality of NCR across behaviors and functions, and whether NCR eliminates alternative responses. NCR and the history of behavior analysis are also discussed, including why NCR was not applied at a large scale earlier.