Self-reinforcement by under-achieving, under-controlled girls.

Abstract

Two black sixth-grade girls served as subjects in studies, each of which utilized a single person and combined a reversal and a multiple-baseline design. The problems leading to referral included frequent breaking of school rules, academic underachievement, and use of physical force and the threat of violence to get other children to comply with the subjects' requests. An “employer” paid the girls to work for him, to record their own behavior, and to reinforce themselves for movement in the contracted direction. An independent observer tracked three classroom behaviors approximately every other day during each phase for each girl. The first subject increased Attention by 107% and Positive Talk by 333% but failed to reduce Inappropriate Locale when applying self-reinforcement to the indicated target behaviors. The second subject increased Attention by 20% and Positive Talk by 700% but failed to change Inappropriate Locale significantly.