Basic and applied research on variables that influence the extinction of operant behaviors is reviewed and applied to the treatment of behavior disorders. The potential value of a general technology for the use of behavioral extinction is discussed. The paper concludes that current research findings are not sufficient for the development of a…

A 14-year-old student with moderate retardation rode a stationary bicycle, while rotation of the bicycle wheel operated one of three consequence conditions (television, flashing lights, or vibrator sound). Vibrator sound was the most potent reinforcing consequence. The activity led to the development of exercise behavior with a minimum amount of…

Recent evidence indicates that certain forms of memory, upon recall, may return to a labile state requiring the synthesis of new proteins in order to preserve or reconsolidate the original memory trace. While the initial consolidation of "instrumental memories" has been shown to require de novo protein synthesis in the nucleus accumbens, it is not…

Designed for both parents and teachers, the handbook presents methods for educating the moderately and severely retarded child. Those methods include measuring progress, rewarding and punishing, ways of using rewards and punishers, ways of giving positive reinforcers and punishers, withholding reinforcers (extinction), letting the child reward…

Many of the clinically disabling behaviors of elderly persons may be viewed as operants. Research bearing on the efficacy of operant techniques for programming individualized, group based, and ward-wide therapeutic intervention is reviewed. Suggests the operant view is useful for conceptualizing and treating many problem behaviors of elderly…

Described is the application of the Educateur Model to a facility providing residential, day treatment, and outpatient services to behaviorally disordered children and their families. (DB)

Three retarded children 3- to 11-years-old were trained, using prompting and reinforcement procedures, to respond correctly to three categories of prepositional requests (next to, under, and on top of). (Author)

Given research findings that women have a strong tendency to describe the ideal man as androgynous, perhaps social interaction with an androgynous male could be seen as a social reward, whereas interaction with a masculine male may be less rewarding or aversive for women. A study was conducted to determine the functional properties of androgyny as…

This paper: (1) briefly reviews the existing literature which supports that female adolescents possess significantly more negative attitudes toward middle school science than do males; (2) examines the process of gender socialization in the United States to establish the socio-cultural and social psychological framework within which an attitudinal…

The author reviews studies in which operant training techniques were used to develop and remediate the speech and language skills of vocal imitation, functional speech, generative speech, and generalized speech usage in autistic, severely retarded, echolalic, and other nonverbal Ss. (LC)

A continuous reinforcement, delayed classical eyelid-conditioning paradigm in combination with the peripheral vasomotor response of digital vasoconstriction was employed to examine the hypothesized attention deficit for 10 15-year-old educable mentally retarded and same-age nonretarded Ss. (Author/MC)

A program to teach the techniques of behavior modification to attendants working with severely and profoundly retarded institutionalized residents has been developed and tested. (Author)

A highly structured language instruction program was used for 4 months to accelerate the verbal development of 10 Down's syndrome children 4- to 7-years-old. (DB)

Described is the program of the Model Preschool Center for Handicapped Children in the Experimental Education Unit at the University of Washington which is currently serving 44 Down's Syndrome children ranging in age from 5 weeks to 5 1/2 years. (DB)