Some effects of audio and visual stimulation on multiple forms of stereotypy

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of audio and visual stimulation, alone or in combination, on the behavior of three children who displayed multiple forms of stereotypy (e.g., hand mouthing, body rocking). The results of experiment 1 showed that all three participants displayed different forms of stereotypy when audio and visual stimulation were provided versus when no stimulation was provided. The results of experiments 2 and 3 showed that the form of one participant's stereotypy, but not the other two, changed when visual stimulation and audio stimulation were presented separately. Overall, the results suggest that ambient stimulation may influence both the form of and time allocation to stereotypy. Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION'Stereotypy' typically refers to behavior that persists across time, involves repetitious movement of one or more body parts, and is relatively invariant in topography or form (e.g., Berkson, 1983). Although a recent review by Rapp and Vollmer (in press) concluded that most forms of stereotypy are automatically reinforced, little is known about specific antecedent events that may influence automatically reinforced behavior. In fact, the antecedent event that most often associated with stereotypy is 'low environmental stimulation' with and without reference to social and tangible reinforcers (e.g., Berkson & Davenport, 1962;Berkson & Mason, 1963, 1964Emerson, Hatton, Robertson, Henderson, & Cooper, 1999;Hall, Thorns, & Oliver, 2003;Horner, 1980;Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994.A handful of studies have shown that the presence of a particular, often preferred, stimulus sets the occasion for some individuals to engage in automatically reinforced problem behavior (Carter, Devlin, Doggett, Harber, & Barr, 2004;Friman, 2000 Rapp, 2004;Van Camp et al., 2000). Friman demonstrated that a young child engaged in thumb sucking only when he held a small cloth. Rapp first found that providing access to automatically reinforced object twirling early in a given day resulted in decreased levels of object twirling later in that day. Subsequently, Rapp found that access to music (a highly preferred stimulus) increased object twirling even when prior access to object twirling had been provided. Similarly, Carter et al. found that levels of a boy's screaming and hand mouthing were higher during a nointeraction condition (no social consequences) with continuous and noncontingent tangibles than during a no-interaction condition without tangibles. In an elegant series of experiments, Van Camp et al. isolated antecedents associated with automatically reinforced problem behavior that was displayed by two boys. For one participant, the results showed that hand biting was exhibited only when vibratory stimulation was available from a toy. For the other participant, the results indicated that hand flapping occurred only when social interaction was provided noncontingently. Although these studies showed that antecedent stimulation of various modaliti...

Interval recording for duration events: a re‐evaluation

“…Thirteen data sets (from nine participants) that contained duration measures of behavior were selected from four published studies (Britton, Carr, Landaburu, & Romick, 2002;Falcomata, Roane, Hovanetz, & Kettering, 2004;Rapp, 2005;Rapp, Vollmer, Dozier, St. Peter, & Cotnoir, 2004). Three data sets from studies by Rapp and colleagues were initially scored using 10-s PIR (Rapp; Rapp et al).…”

“…Because a number of recent studies have shown that duration-based events may covary (e.g., Lerman, Kelley, Vorndan, & Van Camp, 2003;Rapp, 2005;Rapp et al, 2004), the purpose of this experiment was to compare data paths generated with interval methods to data paths produced with CDR for the same events. For example, data collected with CDR may show that behavior A occurs for a higher percentage of time than behavior B during every session.…”

Effects of Noncontingent Music on Vocal Stereotypy and Toy Manipulation in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Rapp and colleagues (Rapp, 2004(Rapp, , 2005Rapp, Vollmer, St. Peter, Dozier, & Cotnoir, 2004) have conducted a series of experiments showing how response restriction may produce response reallocation towards other forms of stereotypy, but the studies did not focus on changes in appropriate behavior (e.g., toy play). First, researchers have published a restricted number of studies examining the collateral effects of interventions designed to reduce engagement in vocal stereotypy.…”

Types of Motivating Operations in Interventions With Problem Behavior

“…The MO had mixed results on the participant's problem behavior in only two studies (Lanovaz, Fletcher, & Rapp, 2009;Rapp, 2005). The findings in Table 3 suggest that MOs' effects vary depending on the function of the problem behavior.…”