Additional free reinforcers increase persistence of problem behavior in a clinical context: A partial replication of laboratory findings.

Behavioral momentum theory is a quantitative framework used to characterize the persistence of behavior during response disruptors as a function of baseline stimulus-reinforcer relations. Results of several investigations have shown that alternative reinforcement can increase the resistance to change of a target response during extinction. In the present study, concomitant variable-interval fixed-time schedules of reinforcement for problem behavior were employed to simulate naturalistic situations involving the superimposition of response-independent reinforcers on a baseline schedule of reinforcement for problem behavior, as in the common use of noncontingent reinforcement treatments. Resistance to change of problem behavior was assessed during postsession periods of extinction by comparing response rates in extinction following sessions with and without additional reinforcer deliveries arranged by fixed-time schedules. For 2 out of 3 participants, problem behavior tended to be more resistant to extinction following periods in which additional fixed-time reinforcers were delivered. These results are discussed in terms of potential effects of noncontingent reinforcement on problem behavior when the intervention is discontinued or implemented without good treatment integrity.