Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice

Author ORCID Identifier

Katherine R. Brown https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3438-7042

Volume

24

Issue

2

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Publication Date

2024

Journal Article Version

Accepted Manuscript

First Page

66

Last Page

83

Abstract

Schedule thinning occurs after functional communication training to teach individuals to tolerate delays to accessing functional reinforcers. One challenge that can emerge during schedule thinning is poor discriminated use of the newly taught functional communication response (FCR). Although prevalence of this treatment challenge remains largely unknown, it appears to be relatively uncommon during schedule thinning approaches that incorporate arbitrary discriminative stimuli. In contrast, several studies using naturalistic discriminative stimuli during delay tolerance schedule thinning have reported this treatment challenge. In the current study, we examined the efficacy of embedding arbitrary discriminative stimuli into delay tolerance schedule thinning to improve discriminated responding. In addition, we examined if we could subsequently transfer stimulus control properties from the arbitrary to naturalistic discriminative stimuli. The findings of this study have implications for procedural modifications to improve the efficacy of delay tolerance and systematically remove discriminative stimuli to promote generalization.

Comments

©American Psychological Association, 2024. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/bar0000286

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