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. 2024 Jul;57(3):776-783.
doi: 10.1002/jaba.1071. Epub 2024 Mar 19.

Evaluation of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer

Erin L Sainsbury  1 , Tina M Sidener  1 , Catherine Taylor-Santa  1 , Kenneth F Reeve  1 , David W Sidener  2
Affiliations

Evaluation of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer

Erin L Sainsbury et al. J Appl Behav Anal. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S-deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a consequence for a new response. The results demonstrated that previously neutral praise words functioned as reinforcers and nonsense words did not. As in previous studies on establishing reinforcers, the effects were transitory, and praise words did not continue to function as reinforcers after repeated exposure without discrimination training. Recommendations are provided for future research and maintaining reinforcement effects.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; conditioned reinforcement; discrimination training; praise.

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References

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