Suppression of antisocial behavior by facial screening using multiple baseline and alternating treatments designs

Abstract

Facial screening has provided an effective procedure for reducing various types of undesirable behavior. In Experiment 1, a multiple baseline design was used to demonstrate the efficacy of 1-min facial screening for suppressing screaming by a profoundly retarded girl in three different locations in an institution. Experiment 2 used an alternating treatments design in which 1-min facial screening sessions were juxtaposed with either 30-sec (phase 1), 3-sec (phase 2) or 1-min (phase 3) facial screening sessions to suppress screaming by a developmentally normal child in her home. The 1-min treatment duration produced complete suppression of screaming and the other two treatment durations partial suppression. Followup data showed that screaming was observed at very low levels in Experiment 1 and not observed in Experiment 2 during the 6-month observation period.