Lag Schedule Of Reinforcement Research Articles

Increasing novel toy play actions in children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can often demonstrate restricted and repetitive patterns of free play with toys, limiting their contact with the social and tangible reinforcement that is the result of more varied play. Lag schedules of reinforcement have been shown to increase novelty and variability of play actions in children with intellectual disability (ID; Baruni, R. R., Rapp, J. T., Lipe, S. L., & Novotny, M. A. (2014). Using lag schedules to increase toy play variability for children with intellectual disabilities. Behavioral interventions, 29(1), 21–35.). The current study extended the findings of Baruni et al. in three boys with ASD and ID, aged 8–10 years, in the United Arab Emirates. Novel actions increased for all participants during Lag 2 conditions following a systematic prompting strategy. Toy engagement, while variable, either increased or maintained across the intervention period. Maintenance and generalisation of behaviour change are discussed.

An Additive Analysis of Lag Schedules of Reinforcement and Rules on Novel Responses of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Lag schedules of reinforcement have been found to be useful in addressing invariant behavior of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to conduct an additive analysis of lag schedules and rules. Three participants with ASD were exposed to a Lag 2 schedule of reinforcement in isolation. Following, participants were introduced to an incomplete rule and then a complete rule regarding reinforcement in conjunction with the lag schedule. Results indicated that lag schedules in isolation were generally sufficient for increasing novel responding. The addition of incomplete and complete rules often resulted in increases, albeit small, in novel responding. Results are discussed in terms of applied use of lag schedules of reinforcement and addressing nonresponse.

The Effects of Lag Schedules of Reinforcement on Social Skill Accuracy and Variability

Five participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between the ages of 10 and 14 years attended a twice-weekly social skills group for 8 weeks. A multiple probe design across skills with concurrent replication across participants was utilized to assess the effects of social skills training using multiple exemplars and lag schedules on social skill variability. Prior to intervention, participants demonstrated low levels of skill accuracy and appropriate variability. Training with one and three exemplars of target skills without lag schedules resulted in no to small increases in appropriate variability, despite increases in skill accuracy. Following introduction of lag schedules, substantial increases were observed. Post-intervention rating scales completed by parents of participants indicated improvements in social functioning and reductions in repetitive behavior.

An evaluation of lag schedules and prompting methods to increase variability of naming category items in children with autism spectrum disorder.

A lag schedule of reinforcement is one way to increase response variability; however, previous research has been mixed with regard to the necessary parameters to increase variability. For some individuals, low schedule requirements (e.g., Lag 1) are sufficient to increase variability. For other individuals, higher lag schedules (e.g., Lag 3) or a lag schedule in combination with prompting is needed to increase variability. We evaluated the efficiency of different within-session progressive lag schedules to increase response variability with 2 children with autism. Results showed that increasing the lag criterion across sessions increased variability to levels similar to beginning with a high lag schedule for one participant. When lag schedules did not increase variability for the second participant, we compared a variety of prompting procedures. Results of the prompting evaluation showed that a tact-priming procedure was effective to increase varied responding.

An evaluation of the additive effects of lag schedules of reinforcement

ABSTRACTLag schedules of reinforcement represent an increasingly researched strategy for addressing restricted and repetitive social communication of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although the body of literature suggests that lag schedules of reinforcement are generally effective for this purpose, studies have varied in their utilization of verbal rules describing the contingency. Furthermore, research has yet to evaluate generalized effects of lag schedules of reinforcement to social communication with peers. This study evaluated the implementation of a social skills curriculum, modified to incorporate lag schedules of reinforcement, on novel responding of participants with ASD. Participants attended training twice per week, with probes of novel responding collected with both researchers and non-participating peers. Results indicate that social skills training that incorporated lag schedules of reinforcement generally resulted in larger increases in novel responding than social skills training alone. Furthermore, effects of training generalized to novel responding to non-participant peers.

Increasing Behavioral Variability and Social Skill Accuracy in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Although social skills training for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often addresses deficits in social communication, restricted and repetitive social behaviors are less frequently targeted in the literature. The present study evaluated a manualized social skills training program, modified to incorporate lag schedules of reinforcement, to promote appropriate and variable responding in three children in a school setting. Participants attended social skills once weekly, with probes of social skills taking place daily. A multiple baseline design across target skills was used to determine intervention efficacy. Results of the study indicated that the social skills curriculum incorporating lag schedules of reinforcement resulted in substantial increases in the number of appropriate and variable responses demonstrated by participants during each probe session, as well as the number of appropriate and variable responses demonstrated overall.

An evaluation of delay to reinforcement and mand variability during functional communication training

Children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities often exhibit invariant responding (i.e., restricted behavioral repertoires), deficits in communication, and challenging behavior. Approaches demonstrated in the basic and applied literature to increase response variability include extinction, lag schedules of reinforcement, and percentile schedules of reinforcement. Results of basic studies have also indicated that delays to reinforcement often produce increases in response variability. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a delay to reinforcement on the variability of communication responses during functional communication training with individuals with developmental disabilities and histories of engaging in challenging behavior. Results indicated that delays to reinforcement increased mand variability with all four participants with variable effects on challenging behavior across participants.

Effects of a lag schedule of reinforcement with progressive time delay on topographical mand variability in children with autism

ABSTRACTObjective: Evaluate the effects of a Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement and progressive time delay (TD) on topographical mand variability in children with autism. Methods: Using single-subject design methodology, a multiple baseline across behaviors with embedded reversal design was employed. During Lag 0, reinforcement was delivered contingent on any independent instances of manding. During Lag 1 + TD, prompts were faded and reinforcement was delivered contingent on independent or prompted variant mand topographies. Results: Higher levels of topographical mand variability were observed during Lag 1 + TD for both participants. Conclusions: A Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement with progressive TD increased variability across functionally equivalent vocal mand topographies for both participants. This finding extends prior literature by providing a novel model for studying reinforced mand variability in children, and by demonstrating how practitioners could use prompts and differential reinforcement to increase topographical mand variability in children with autism.

Enhancing appropriate and variable responding in young children with autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACTObjective: The present study utilized lag schedules of reinforcement, in conjunction with training multiple exemplars and provision of prompts, to promote appropriate variability of social skills. Methods: Participants included in three children between the ages of 5 and 7 with ASD. Participants attended a social skills training program twice per week for eight weeks. A multiple probe design across target social skills was used to assess the effects of intervention. Results: Findings indicate that training multiple exemplars alone did not appreciably increase appropriate and variable responding, whereas the addition of lag schedules of reinforcement and prompting to training multiple exemplars resulted in appropriate and variable responding that exceeded baseline levels. Conclusion: Use of lag schedule of reinforcement in conjunction with prompts was more effective than multiple exemplar training in isolation for increasing appropriate variability of social skills.

Promoting Accurate Variability of Social Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Restricted and repetitive behavior is a central feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with such behaviors often resulting in lack of reinforcement in social contexts. The present study investigated training multiple exemplars of target behaviors and the utilization of lag schedules of reinforcement in the context of social skills training to promote appropriate and varied social behavior in children with ASD. Five participants with ASD between the ages of 7 and 9 attended a twice-weekly social skills group for 8 weeks. A multiple probe design across skills was utilized to assess intervention effects. During baseline, participants demonstrated low levels of skill accuracy and low appropriate variability in responding. During continuous reinforcement with one trained exemplar, skill accuracy increased while appropriate variability remained low. Training of three exemplars of target skills resulted in minimal improvements in appropriate variability. Introduction of a Lag 2 schedule with three trained exemplars was generally associated with increased appropriate variability. Further appropriate variability was observed during Lag 4 with three trained exemplars. Limitations and implications are discussed.

The use of a discrimination-training procedure to teach mand variability to children with autism.

We investigated the effects of a script-fading and discrimination-training procedure on mand variability in preschoolers with autism. Participants were taught to vary their vocal mands in the presence of written scripts, a green placemat, and a lag schedule of reinforcement. They were also taught to engage in repetitive mands in the presence of the same written scripts and a red placemat. When the scripts were removed, all 3 participants continued to engage in varied manding in the presence of the green placemat and lag schedule, and they continued to engage in repetitive manding in the presence of the red placemat. When the lag schedule was also removed, 2 of the 3 participants continued to engage in varied responding in the presence of the green placemat and repetitive responding in the presence of the red placemat. Finally, all 3 participants demonstrated generalization and maintenance of mand variability during snack sessions with their peers.

Play skills taught via behavioral intervention generalize, maintain, and persist in the absence of socially mediated reinforcement in children with autism

We measured generalization, maintenance and parent reports of child happiness in the context of a behavioral intervention to teach toy-play skills to three young children with autism. Lag schedules of reinforcement were implemented for two participants whose play did not initially generalize. The play skills intervention was conducted within the participants’ early childhood classroom and the utility of teaching play as a means to reduce stereotypy within this setting was also evaluated. A multiple baseline design across participants demonstrated that play taught via behavioral intervention may be maintained after programmed reinforcement is discontinued, generalize across settings and toys (i.e., response and stimulus generalization), and occasion a decrease in stereotypy. Further, the occurrence of play in the absence of socially mediated reinforcement suggested that play taught via behavioral interventions may come to be automatically reinforced. Finally, parent responses on rating scales suggested that two of the participants were happier, in a better mood, and were more interested in appropriate toy-play following behavioral intervention.

Increasing response variability in children with autism spectrum disorder using lag schedules of reinforcement

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with deficits in variability in responding across multiple repertoires. However, research to date has resulted in little empirical evaluation of remediation strategies for such deficits. We investigated the effects of lag schedules of reinforcement on response variability using a computer-based task designed for the purpose of the study. The U-value statistic was used as a measure of variability in responding to determine if increasing the lag criterion would correspondingly increase levels of variability. Participants included children with ASD (Group 1) and neurotypical children (Group 2). Results showed that U-values were higher when reinforcement was contingent on increased variability, indicating the effectiveness of higher lag values on response variability. A significant difference in response variability between groups provided evidence for the disparity in such responding in children with ASD compared to their neurotypical peers. Group 1 showed consistently lower U-values than Group 2 indicating lower response variability. However, data from this study clearly show that lag schedules of reinforcement may be employed to increase response variability in ASD.

Increased variability in tacting under a lag 3 schedule of reinforcement.

Research has shown that variability may be an operant dimension of behavior. One method of reinforcing response variability is to use a lag schedule of reinforcement (Page & Neuringer, 1985). Several studies have shown that a Lag 1 schedule is effective in increasing variable responding with human participants (e.g., Esch, Esch, & Love, 2009; Lee, McComas, & Jawor, 2002). In these arrangements, however, the return to baseline responding during reversal phases suggests that the resulting behavior change may not be maintained following intervention. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a Lag 3 schedule on increasing and maintaining variability of tacts in 2 children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Results demonstrated increased variability in tacting for both participants and maintenance in variable responding after a 3-week follow-up.

Increasing vocal variability in children with autism using a lag schedule of reinforcement.

Variability has been demonstrated to be an operant dimension of behavior (Neuringer, 2002; Page & Neuringer, 1985). Recently, lag schedules have been used to demonstrate operant variability of verbal behavior in persons with a diagnosis of autism (e.g., Lee, McComas, & Jawor, 2002). The current study evaluated the effects of a Lag 1 schedule on the vocal variability of 2 nonverbal children with a diagnosis of autism. Results showed systematic increases in variability during the Lag 1 schedule. Implications of lag schedules for speech and language training are discussed.