Changing preference from tangible to social activities through an observation procedure

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have qualitative impairments in social interaction and often prefer food or tangible reinforcement to social reinforcement. Thus, therapists who work with children with ASD often use food or tangible items as reinforcers to increase appropriate behaviors or decrease problem behaviors. The goal of the present study was to shift children's preferences from a highly preferred tangible item to an initially nonpreferred social reinforcer using an observational conditioning procedure. Participants observed a known peer engage in a simple task and select the social reinforcer that was not preferred by the participant. This procedure resulted in a shift of preference toward the social reinforcer by all participants. Maintenance data showed that although the preference change did not maintain for 1 of the participants, it was quickly reestablished with additional observational trials. Results provide further support for the use of observational procedures to alter preferences.

Back-translating behavioral intervention for autism spectrum disorders to mice with blunted reward restores social abilities

“…However, most of the techniques used in behavioral interventions involve positive reinforcement and thus stimulate the reward system, as we did in the present experiments. As a positive reinforcer, we used food reward, as commonly done in the first stages of EIBI 43 . Of note, mutant animals, especially females, consumed less-palatable food than Oprm1 +/+ mice during the course of training, suggesting reduced motivation for food, as previously described 57 .…”

“…A common feature of all these interventions remains the use of direct positive reinforcers to promote behavioral improvements, whereas punishment is mostly discarded 29 , 36 , 41 . Reinforcers are often edible or tangible items, such as palatable food, preferred by patients with ASD over more social reinforcement, like praise 42 , 43 . Thus, evidence-based behavioral intervention involves stimulating the reward system to increase the occurrence of appropriate behavior, particularly within the social repertoire, which is in accordance with a reward hypothesis in ASD.…”

Pivotal response treatment for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder: Defining a predictor profile

“…The increased sophistication of early behavioral interventions offered for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in recent years is noteworthy [Kasari, ]. Such intervention programs can yield substantial developmental gains for young children with ASD, although experts differ as to the necessary and sufficient elements of such programs [Leaf et al, ; Schreibman et al, ]. The evidence is clear, however, that the degree of progress experienced during behavioral intervention varies considerably among children with this heterogeneous condition.…”

A systematic review of behaviour analytic processes and procedures for conditioning reinforcers among individuals with autism, developmental or intellectual disability

“…This line of research focused on the emergence of conditioned reinforcers following observation of peers receiving neutral stimuli contingent on their behaviour (Greer & Singer-Dudek, 2008). In these studies, experimental preparation was varied in terms of stimuli to be conditioned, using neutral objects like strings or disks (Greer & Singer-Dudek, 2008), books (Singer-Dudek et al, 2011), toys (Leaf et al, 2012), or social activities (Leaf et al, 2016). Three of the studies reported results in terms of the acquisition of reinforcing properties, tested by measuring the effect of access to the conditioned item on maintenance or acquisition of behaviours.…”

“…As they grow older and developmental delay becomes more apparent, making effective interventions essential, the need for effective reinforcers becomes even more significant. These issues are not new, in fact, the need for effective ways to establish conditioned reinforcement when teaching children with autism has been apparent for a long time (Lovaas et al, 1966) and the need to synthesise the existing literature has been identified repeatedly (Axe & Laprime, 2017;Leaf et al, 2016;Petursdottir & Lepper, 2015;Shillingsburg et al, 2015).…”