Experimental analysis of response covariation among compliant and inappropriate behaviors

Abstract

Reliable changes in a variety of behaviors, or classes of behaviors, when only one is manipulated experimentally, have demonstrated that even topographically dissimilar responses can be functionally related. We investigated such a relationship between topographically different child behaviors (compliance and inappropriate activities) by using a methodology that tests for response covariation. Five conditions were provided to sequentially increase and decrease first one and then the other of these behaviors, with the degree of covariation between the two behaviors (i.e., the relationship between changes in the targeted and nontargeted behaviors) being the finding of interest. Results showed that, regardless of the intervention used, the behavior targeted, or the direction manipulated, the nontargeted behavior reliably covaried inversely with the targeted one. The findings have immediate relevance to the clinical treatment of multiple behavior problems exhibited by children. Furthermore, the study of relationships between responses and the processes underlying these relationships can have important implications for understanding the complexity characteristic of human behavior not yet analyzed by behavioral research.