Posted: April 24th, 2025

Discussion

 

Consider all of the content from the course. If you are new to behavior analysis or behaviorism, discuss if and how your views have changed. If you are familiar with behavior analysis, indicate whether you are a methodological or radical behaviorist. In the subject line, enter a summation of what best describes your viewpoint (e.g., stronger behaviorist, psychologist, radical behaviorist, etc.) as a result of this course. Be sure to reference the scholarly material presented in this course, as well as refer to a specific topic of interest. Remember, although you are exploring your viewpoints, continue to use APA style, scientific writing, and avoid the overuse of the first person.

(Note: You must include ALL required readings for this week and include 1 outside reference to earn full credit! Also remember you must respond to peer to earn full credit.)

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

S ociety does promise positive reinforcers for behavior it wants
to encourage. Fears of failure. punishment, or disgrace are
balanced by the prospect ofrewards for conformity, diligence,

inventiveness, and constructive involvement. Unfortunately, we
discover evety day in the news media that rewards for operating
outside the law can be even greater. As long as people can gain more
money, power, and prestige by breaking laws-and not getting
caught-than by remaining within the law, a legal system without
punishment will remain unfeasible. To the extent that rewards for
vice exceed those for virtue, vice will remain in spite of its risks.

Positive Reinforcement and the Law

Our legal tradition accepts misconduct and crime as inevitable, as
human nature. Indeed, it is human nature. What else could it
possibly be? But human nature is not etched in stone. It is flexible
and changeable. Our conduct is always the net outcome of many
contingencies, some positive and others negative. We learn from our
experiences. Altering the contingencies does not alter human nature
but takes advantage of human nature’s plasticity.

Up to now, we have altered the contingencies in one direction only.
Unable to prove the worldlyadvantages oflawfulness over undetected
dishonesty, we pronounce virtue to be its own reward. Then, backed
by this principle ofrighteousness, we punish anyone we catch being
unrighteous. The tradition ofpunishmentbecomesevermore strongly
entrenched as society makes lawbreaking more costly to the few it
can detect and prosecute successfully. Even within the obvious
practical constraints. mightwe moreeffectivelyencourage conformity
to standards of civilized conduct by providing more frequent and
stronger positive reinforcement than by threatening more severe
punishment? We could be using what we know about behavior not
just by punishing crime but by keeping it from happening.

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Coercion and Its Fallout

The Police: Which Side Are They On? Society’s main enforcement
arm is the police. Our local. state, and federal police forces are for the
most part instruments ofcoercion. With some exceptions. the major
duties we assign to them are to threaten counterforce against anyone
who is tempted to deviate from our legal standards of peace and
decency. and to apply counterforce against anyone who actually
does deviate.

Government is more and more often calling on the police to support
affluent and influential segments of society against people who are
lesswell connected. Against a background ofpoverty. racial prejudice,
and other complex social problems. police coercion in many areas is
becoming more stringent and violent than it used to be. As
counterviolence by the poor, the dispossessed, and the idealistic
young intensifies, the police are also coming to act less selectively,
tending to treat any encounterwith the public-at-large as a potential
threat to their own safety. Coerced confessions havebeen sufficiently
common to have concerned our Supreme Court, which continues to
require police to inform suspects of their rights before questioning
them.

The intensification of police coercion has been taldng place most
prominently in our larger cities. where the problems that divide our
society stand out most visibly. When large-city police stop young
drivers for traffic violations. they automatically order them out while
they inspect the car for drugs. This is a humiliating experience for
manyyoungsters. Black or Hispanic drivers in a similar situation are
made to assume that undignified and degrading posture that all 1V
viewers know is intended to give the police the advantage in the event
the “suspects” attempt to flee or to counterattack. Because some
suspected lawbreakers have tried to run down the investigating
officers. the police now consider cars as weapons and feel justified in
shooting a driver who fails to stop when ordered.

More generally. as criminal activity has itself become more violent.
police action has followed suit. The police regard the presumption of
innocence not as a valued protection of the public but as a threat to
their own professional effectiveness and personal safety. They would
prefer the presumption of guilt as the guiding principle of law
enforcement. Then. the mere suspicion of crime would justify harsh
detention. arrest. and the use oftheir weapons. As our police become
more and more severely coercive. ever-widening segments of the
public are beginning to view them less as protectors than as shocks

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and signals for shocks-to be escaped m. avoided. and even to be
treated as objects of counteraggresston

The police have only been doing · a 1e m n ofthe taxpayers
have asked them to do. But like all coerc. ·e terns. this one too has
generated the usual side effects. coercive pressure is
causing many citizens in all economic . soci classes to fear and
mistrust the police. Even in peaceful an perous sections ofthe
city that demand police patrols to deter muggers. purse snatchers.
car theives. and rapists who come in from neighboring areas, the
local inhabitants rarely greet their protectors. converse with them.
or show any sign of gratitude for their presence. The patrollees. in
turn. theirwatchful eyes and suspicious expressions indicating that
they regard every approaching pedestrian as a potential aggressor.
arouse fear and anxiety even among those who are grateful for their
presence.

The goal ofreuniting public and police is worth considerable effort.
but the gulf is widening. In reaction to a community’s growing
mistrust, the police become ever more hostile and contemptuous
toward those they are supposed to protect. The public begins to
forget it needs police as protection: the police begin to forget they are
supposed to be protectors. Counteraggression against police is
spreading to other uniformed protectors: firemen in some quarters
are no longer surprised to find themselves being taunted and stoned
while performing their duties-for certain, a bit of social pathology
rather than a common occurrence. but one that springs directly from
coercive interactions between police and public. It is even possible
that the high incidence of police suicide is traceable at least in part
to the growing discrepancy between policepersons’ perception of
their duty to the public and the public’s lack ofappreciation for their
commitment.

The low esteem for the police in many communities also deters
countless young and able people from entering that career. As a
consequence, many who do choose law enforcement are hardly
distinguishable from those who cross to the r side. With each
side dependent on coercion to achieve the police and their
opponents become more and more

In most third-world countries. p and brutality are
already taken for granted. We can see a similar trend in
the highly developed nations of E “..,nited States, police
dependence on coercion is less evtden communities than

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Coercion and Its Fallout

in the cities. Urban police are coming to direct their energies less
toward protection of the citizenry and more toward guarding
themselves against public hostility. When some cities have failed to
meet their demands for higher pay, the police have generated tourist­
industry support by frightening away visitors and sightseers. When
members ofthe police force are themselves exposed as criminals, the
union does its best to block legal prosecution. They oppose and
hinder investigations of alcohol and other drug abuse within their
own ranks, of bribei:y and other easy forms of corruption, and of
cheating in promotion exams.

Allowed to continue, this increasing separation may well come to
its climaxwhen the police throw their lot inwith a political leaderwho
promises to raise them from their position as servants of the public
and, instead, to put them in charge. The public will then find itself
without any protection. This process may already have begun in the
United States presidential campaign of 1988, when both candidates
actively courted the support of police organizations. Ironically, the
first police group to support a candidate publicly was the vety one
that had frightened tourists in the airport in Boston.

Can we counteract this reversal of the police function? The police
will probably never be able completely to shed their coercive image,
but might a greater use of positive reinforcement help them tip the
balance back toward its original state? It will not be easy. Today’s
police are not likely to accept a change in their role from coercers to
positive reinforcers, even ifwejustadded positive techniques to their
armamentariumwithout taking away their coercive powers. Coercion
is, after all, familiar and comfortable. With the source oftheir power
hanging from their belt, they are protected against counterattack.
Why put out the extra effort to learn new methods of control­
whether over traffic or over crime-just because they might reduce
hostility? Would the methods even work? Eveiybody knows “good
guys come in last.” As long as they carty a gun, all other possible
forms of control become insignificant.

The ultimate coercer is the gun. the taker of life. Even sheathed,
guns are threats, and anyone canytng a gun is a threat. No matter
how much positive reinforcement you hand out, a gun at your side
tells evei:yone to keep in line-or else. Can the police ever shed their
coercive image while they continue to carry guns? Probably not.

And yet, with guns generally available, stripping police of their
weapons would place them at tremendous risk. We cannot remove

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

their backup coercers while leaving them open to that same coercion
by others. Perhaps a start could be made by changing a few of the
traditional conceptions thatunderlie policework. For example, every
policeperson is supposed to be ready to perform all duties at all
times. Could we not partitionpoliceresponsibilities? Guns are surely
not necessary for directing traffic. Vhen that job is assigned, could
it not be made their sole respons. . -‘? Then, if a nearby bank was
being robbed or a pedestrian m~. they would not be required to
intervene. Similarly, police working at desk jobs, particularly those
who come into contact with e ublic. could be given limited
enforcement responsiblllttes. 1:-: _· . would need no guns. And
when they investigate crimes tha ·e already been committed-
housebreaks, arson, even mur er-m s · e.,Tcanygunswhilethey
examine the scene and questio u: • :mants? Police uniforms might
even vary, depending on the c. rrero · assJ.gDment. The public would
soon learn the meanings .. ar. us uniforms and what to
expect-and not to expect- — · e wearers of each.

Most duties do not place e · e at risk and most of the public
is, after all, law abiding. Dispe __ i • their guns while on routine
duties would help emphasize :…..e S(;~ice functions that most often
bring the police into contac· … e general public and would
deemphasize their coerch ~-e .-\ small step, to be sure, but a
beginning. Even though e · e olice power remained coercive,
a reduction ofthe potential l r e~ e might help stem the growing
adversarial relationship be ·ee”” …. e and public. A small amount
ofpolice disarmamen~ restti · e a :rrs to safeduties and continuing
only after ..bugs” in the n – – ~ tern have been discovered and
eliminated, would be a step u. · e !:igh direction. Given the general
desirability of reducing the uency and force of the coercive
pressures in our society. a social experimentation does not
seem out of line.

Might it be possible eventuall: have a police force that is almost
weaponless? Given the current practicalities, that is not likely. Still,
those practicalities areworth examining in the light ofthe advantages
that might accrue ifwe could some owgetaround them. Gun control
has to be a two-way street. Before they can be taken from the police,
guns must first be taken from everybody else. But pressure groups
have lobbied successfully against laws that would regulate the
private possession of firearms. This is a complex issue, with much
more at stake thanjustpolice coercion. Butthe increasing frequency

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Coercion and Its Fallout

and ferocity of that coercion, and the resulting deterioration of the
relationship between the protectors and the protected, have not
usuallybeen considered in the debate overgun control. Reducing the
private ownership ofweapons could also reduce the need for public
safety officers to relyonweapons in carryingout their responsibilities.

Once violence against the policehas occurred, we cannotreasonably
expect them to “tum the other cheek” and respond with nonviolence.
And in tum, it is difficult to conceive of noncoercive measures for
making weapons unavailable to everyone else and thereby to reduce
the likelihood of violence against the police. Could we perhaps give
substantial rewards to people who turn in their guns? We might also
allow people to own guns but require them to be stored with the
police, who might then make their firing ranges available. These and
similar measures are probably worth trying even if, as seems likely,
they do not succeed completely. Although most who turn in their
guns would never have become involved violently with the police
anyway, some opportunities for confrontation will have been
eliminated. But the reinforcers for owning guns are frequently
negative-protection of self and property-and for many, no positive
reinforcers will outweigh these. And, of course, we have those whose
‘”business” is violence against society-those who need guns to back
up their coercive practices.

To deal with the hard core-those mostly law-abiding citizens who
will insist on holding on to their weapons for self-protection and
those who use them as items of “business equipment”-it may well
be necessary to institute some new coercive measures ourselves. A
certain amount of “preventive coercion” might be necessary to
disarm enough of the population to make it feasible for police to
perform most of their duties unarmed.

In order to help keep the police from having to respond to force with
force of their own, our laws may have to specify severe penalties not
just for the ownership of lethal weapons but for their possession in
the vicinity of law enforcement personnel. Then, merely possessing
a gun in the presence of a policeperson could bring nearly the same
penalty that would have followed the actual use of the gun.

Such a law, although severely coercive itself, might finally permit
police to abandon their guns in safety. This might leave room for
them to use positive reinforcement to build lawful conduct, instead
ofjust punishing those who break the law. The result could be a net
reduction of coercive control. Without guns-and, of course, with

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

adequate security against the use of guns by others-it would be
possible for the profession oflawenforeementto recruityoung people
who were not already committed to violence and retribution as a way
of life. The absence ofguns could help reduce the public perception
that the police are to be feared by everyone, and to reduce the extent
to which the police hold that coercive image of themselves. Could
that coercive self-image be responsible for the finding that police
officers are twice as likely to kill themselves as to be killed by a
crtminal?

Again, social experimentation will be necessary. We know that
coercion is self-defeating but practical substitutes need careful
appraisal. Positive reinforcementdoes notworkbymagic. I tis simple
in principle but often difficult to engineer. Our appraisal ofpositive
reinforcement techniques should begin before the subversion ofthe
police function has become irreversible.

Could local and state police help reestablish friendship with their
communities by dispensing positive reinforcement? Just as the
givers of shocks become shocks themselves, the givers of positive
reinforcers become positive reinforcers themselves. Athletic leagues
sponsored by police are existing examples of attempts to prevent
delinquency by reinforcing desirable conduct instead ofjustwaiting
for problems to occur and then striking hard. Such cooperation
between police and community would seem eminently reasonable
even if we knew nothing about behavior analysis, but data on the
effectiveness of the practice are lacking. We need to know if it
succeeds and if not, why it fails. Modifications might then bring
increasing success, perhaps even generating extensions of police
sponsorship into science fairs, agricultural shows, cooking and
baking competitions, and other educationally relevant activities for
young people.

Are there otherareas inwhich the policemight try to tip the balance
from negative to positive control? Now, they hand out penalty tickets
to motorists whom they catch speeding, passing through a red light
or stop sign, driving without a seat belt. canying children without a
safety seat, or having defective headlights and signals. What would
happen if, instead, they ·caught9 drivers obeying the speed limit,
stopping at a red light or stop sign. wearing a seat belt, carrying a
child in a safe car seat, orhaving fully functional lights-and handed
out free tickets to sporting events. movies, plays, concerts, and
museums?

273

Coercion and Its Fallout

This reversal of typical police practice might not prove as wildly
impractical as itmay seem at first. Itwould not require them to annoy
drivers bystopping themwhen theywere in a hurryto get somewhere;
the reinforcer could be given while the driver was stopped at a light
or a toll booth, or the officer could take the license number and a
computer could quickly find the address and mail the reinforcer
there. Even better, the officer could deliver it to the address in person.
Nor would it be necessary to hand out positive reinforcers to all or
even to most drivers who obey the law. Reinforcers given occasionally
have been found to maintain behavior-once it has been learned­
even more effectively than reinforcers given for evecy occurrence of
the desired conduct (a counterintuitive fact that has been quite
thoroughly documented).

In other areas of police responsibility, too, positive reinforcement
might help them achieve their objectives. In crowd control-at
parades, sporting events, and demonstrations of various types­
instead ofjustwaiting to push people back when they get out ofline,
could the police occasionally hand out reinforcers for staying within
the marked boundaries? Could we ask them not just to prevent
looting at scenes offlood or fire but to help provide food, clothing, and
shelter for those in need? At the voting booth, instead of just
disqualifying people who are not listed, could they occasionally give
something extra to people whose names they do find?

Although positive reinforcement is nota traditional police function,
it is not hard to come up with new possibilities once one has become
accustomed to thinking that way. Individual instances would
undoubtedly run into practical difficulties, but if one maintains the
experimental attitude, then one abandons unsuccessful practices ·
or, better, modifies them until they do work. We have good reason to
believe that reinforcement for keeping within the law would work in
many instances as effectively as the current system ofwaiting until
the law is broken and then punishing. We have precedent for the
beliefthat positive reinforcementfor desirable conductwould reduce
the necessity ofpunishment for undesirable actions. Evidence ofthe
power of positive contingencies is strong enough to warrant some
real social experiments along these lines, starting small but aiming
high.

Equally important would be the side effects-this time, side effects
of positive reinforcement. Police cars would signal not fear and
apprehensionbutanticipation offriendly and rewarding encounters,

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

welcome signs that everything is all right. As dispensers of positive
reinforcement, the police ·ould generatenotavoidance butapproach,
not fear but cheer. not hos~ . – b friendliness. We might see at

reestablishment of public ……..:· an confidence in our protective
institutions. The public “” · · .e police as adversaries would
disappear; they would ree · ~ ·:ed. respected, and trusted.

Mightwe also establish a · rcement system thatworks
in the other direction? C ~ re effectively show our
appreciation for police se~-: — ~g visible and valuable
consequences contingerr _…onnance? If we did. we
would be more likely to see e again.

Currently, we take noti ~……. when we detect
deviations from acceptab e 1ft to punish.
Instead ofjust reacting e conduct, we
could also reinforce them like. How about
individual citations, extra _ owardpromotion?
We would, of course. ha,·e · . A valid system
would probably require grea· e are accustomed to
in describing what we cons uct. Generalities
like outstanding hones~-. not suffice. Such
vague specifications leave t tnuy. capricious.
and even fraudulent Judgme to describe what
police officers actually have :
loyalty, integrity, or whatel . .
system from becoming com.:

It would be simplistic. o · ~tu-se.
reinforcementas a cure-all
public and police. Law entor<:eu1er.c.1 !"#·——~
large-scale economicand po&£~
have little control. We have ~
..forces" may discourageusfro
Only the physical sciences de·
In the social sciences, the~ mt:2ns
all too often serving Just
variables.

Law enforcement is a social ..
and among people. Behavtoia ~.-n”!:lT,l~n,,,p;;::

And reinforcement. positive an…. ::~tatn~
factors that determinewhat ·
to attribute to “social forces. – ·

275

Coercion and Its Fallout

determined at least in part by reinforcement variables. To the extent
that a reduction of police reliance on weapons to enforce coercive
practices can help bring relationships between police and public
under the control ofpositive reinforcers, to the extent that the police
can use positive reinforcement instead ofcoercion to accomplish the
task we have assigned them of controlling our own behavior, and to
the extent that we can generate and maintain desirable police
conductbyproviding positive reinforcement, the “forces” that influence
the relationship between police and public will have been weighted
somewhat less on the side of aversion and counteraggression, and
more on the side of mutual respect and cooperation.

Positive Reinforcement in Diplomacy

Doves and Hawks. We on the sidelines know little about what
actually goes onduringdiplomatic negotiations. Militaryand economic
resources-potential reinforcers-are enlisted in the service offoreign
policy through mysterious routes. The secrecy makes the diplomatic
process hard to analyze. But there is no mystecy about the results.
By maintaining that war is a viable alternative to peace, standard
diplomacy has spawned a system of intimidation, belligerence, and
murderous aggression that functions to satisfy economic greed and
lust for power.

Because power, resources, and prestige are potent reinforcers,
nations will probably always have to keep militacy forces to forestall
those who would take everything for themselves. “Hawks” advocate
an increasingly aggressive posture, backed up by an irresistible
militacy establishment. They argue that readiness to attack is self­
protective and insist that only superior force can protect a nation
against attack. “Doves,” who advocate international friendship,
argue that threatened aggression generates counteraggression and
insist that onlydisarmamentwill guarantee peace. The doves accuse
the hawks of causing rather than preventing wars, and the hawks
accuse the doves of unrealism, of just asking for self-destruction.

Certainly, no country can close its eyes to the possibility of attack
by another and yet, the notion of superior force has itself become
unrealistic; several nations now have enough nuclear explosives to
destroy evecyone. Is it really impractical to attempt to influence other
nations noncoercively? The dove-and-hawk analogy has a curious

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

twist. To be eitherkind ofbird is equallynatural and both have value.
but doves appear to be smvivors while hawks have become an
endangered species.

Positive reinforcement. although it does not generate the enmity
and counteraggresston that comes in the wake of coercion, is
nevertheless a contingency. It does not mean giving everything away
for nothing. To be effective, positive reinforcers must be contingent
on conduct and on the circumstances in which the conduct takes
place. Although not coercive unless misuse transforms it into
negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement is still behavioral
control.

As we have seen, nonconttngent giving is a form ofcontrol also, and
can be destructive, generating behavior that is in nobody’s best
interest. Giving unconditionally is not the opposite of coercion. If
parents give children everything they want regardless of how they
act, the children will learn nothing useful to them, to their parents,
or to society in general. One nation giving another everything itwants
regardless of what it does will not get the recipient to function
productively or peacefully in the world society. Noncontlngent giving
does not signify generosity. It produces its own destructive side
effects.

On the other side, the avoidance paradox (Chapter 9) will prevent
any coercive peace-keeping policy from succeeding completely;
nobody can continue avoiding forever without receiving an occasional
shock. Nuclear deterrence suffers a special disadvantage. When the
inevitable shock comes, it will put an end to all human conduct. For
that reason, a workable policy of mutual deterrence would require
the restriction ofarmaments to less destructive weapons. Even with
a peace that we maintain through mutual deterrence, nuclear
disarmamentwould be necessary. An occasional armed conflict that
does not wipe everyone out might then setve as the necessary
reminder that keeps us avoiding more wars for a while.

Although we can probably never completely eliminate coercion
from diplomatic policy, we cannotdependonitas the keypeacekeeping
mechanism. At most, we should keep itonlyfor emergencies. As with
families, a strong background ofpositive reinforcement can prevent
an occasional use of force from producing devastating side effects.
But again and again we have seen predominantly coercive control
sooner or later producing the veiy counte:rviolence it was intended to
prevent.

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Coercion and Its Fallout

Hungry Generals. Military establishments preempt and use up a
huge portion of the world’s wealth, transforming it mainly into
consumable supplies and weapons. Military organizations produce
no food or shelter except for themselves. manufacture no goods for
civilian use. provide health care only for their own, set up schools
almost solely for education in the methods and technology of
warfare, and establish research laboratories to discover new ways
and to refine old ways of destroying potential adversaries. Only a
miniscule portion of the military budget goes for the production of
generallyusefulgoods, technology, knowledge, or education. Most of
the resources it appropriates go to waste. In wartime, human lives
go down the drain. In peacetime, all weapons eventually bum,
explode, or rot.

The world could reduce this wastage enormously by reducing the
size of its military establishments. Wealthy and powerful nations
might find it possible to scale down their forces safely by substituting
positive reinforcement for the coercion that currently passes as
diplomacy. International coercion, ipso facto, requires a military
backup; retaliation is inevitable. We support coercive diplomacy by
building up militruy forces, producing a still greater wastage of
human and material resources. That cycle could be broken by
replacing coercion with positive reinforcement as an instrument for
maintaining civilized interactions among nations. Eliminating the
need to sustain increasingly voracious military organizations would
make a significantly larger pool of basic necessities and other
resources available for all. To be sure, the mere availability of
resources does not mean they will be distributed fairly or in a spirit
of international cooperation but it would at least open up a possibil­
ity. Contingent sharing would then lessen nations’ need to resort to
aggression and counteraggression.

Good Neighbors? Because the stakes are so high, preliminary
experimentation is desirable, although diplomacy that is based on
empirical data has hardly been a tradition anywhere. Might it make
sense for the State Department to establish a research arm that
included, among others, behavior analysts and experts in scientific
methodology? These “foreign-service scientists” could initiate
experimental studies, someperhapsaskingwhetherouraccumulating
knowledge about behavior might be applied in the service of
international peace.

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

The objectives ofdiplomacy are behavioral. Theiraim ts to influence
the conductofthosewhogovern othernations. Instead ofattempting
to destroy an unfriendlygovernment by supporting internal violence
and terrortsm-and in the process. turningold friends into enemies-­
might we shape cooperation and friendship? Shaping ts a tried and
true behavioral procedure. It involves finding some conduct that we
consider desirable and making that conduct more likelybyproviding
positive retnforcers. The first retnforceable conductmaybe relatively
unimportantbut itwill produce new forms ofconduct. closer towhat
we eventually want. We can therefore gradually reinforce behavior
that ts more and more important to us. And byprovidingretnforcers-­
sometimes changes in our own behavior-that satisfy the needs of
the other nation, the process becomes reciprocal; both nations
gradually change the nature of their interactions with each other.

In international relationships, that means getting together to find
areas ofagreement. Disagreements are easy to identify, butwe often
overlook an unfriendly nation’s needs that we could satisfy without
endangertng ourselves, and we fail to consider the likelihood that the
other nation would be willing to go along with at least some small
requirements ofourown. A certain amount ofmutualbackscratching
is always possible. In any negotiating session, the basic goal is to get
the members of the other team to press certain levers; this can be
accomplished by means shaping programs that make positive
reinforcements contingenton gradually closerapproximations to the
desired behavior.The shaping of behavior by means of positive
reinforcement ought to be an integral curriculum element in the
training of those entertng the diplomatic service.

Contingent support, although certainly a technique of control,
need not include the coercive elements of punishment and negative
reinforcement. Positive reinforcement does not involve threats;
support simply comes after desired conduct has occurred and at no
other time. Undesirable conduct is not punished either by giving
“shocks” or by taking away retnforcers that have already been
earned. Control. yes, but not coercive control.

Starting with small and perhaps even unimportant areas of
agreement, reinforcement strengthens desirable conduct and in the
process, makes new behavior appear for the first time. For example,
providing medical supplies in return for minimal commercial airport
privileges would bring citizens and government officials of each
country into constructive contact, would endowformer enemies with

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Coercion and Its Fallout

the characteristics ofpositive reinforcers, and would establish bases
for trust. Having made small progress, we might then see what other
areas of cooperation could be found. Perhaps we could ask for the
release ofsomepolitical prisonersand on ourpart, provide educational
opportunities for civilian and militruy personnel.

In return for friendship and cooperation we could do more thanjust
remove coercive pressures. We could send farm machinery, help
erect factories and train people to own and operate them, provide
medical supplies and physicians to initiate public health programs,
and establish schools that would help guarantee the country’s self­
reliance. Eventually, whatever help unfriendly governments might
be receiving from each other, we could easily exceed it, and in the
process attain our own diplomatic objectives also. Each nation
would give and each would receive; the leaders, the negotiators, and
the general populace of both would thereby maintain their self­
respect.

The reinforcement contingencies would not include the use of
force. Even an anti-American military buildup would not bring
destruction raining on their heads. Nor would the form or style of
government have to be involved in the contingencies. Friendly
actions would bring positive reinforcers, unfriendly actions would
not. Instead of the aftermath ofmistrust and hostility that the usual
coercive practices would have produced, friendship and peace could
prevail in the area. Although coercion mighthelp topple an unfriendly
government, it would leave equally serious problems in its wake.
Positive reinforcement for cooperation might prove just as effective
internationallyas in the individual family, bringingwtth it a lessening
of the tensions that coercive control only worsens.

Nobody can guarantee that things would work out this way. We
possess a wealth of data from the laboratory and from applications
of technology to other deep-rooted problems of human conduct.
Could this knowledge really provide guides for effective action in the
complex arena of international relations? In what looks from the
outside like a morass ofindividual greed for power and wealth, would
the desirable effects ofpositive reinforcement survive the alligators?
Could we ensure that reinforcers sent to another country would
reach the general population whose conduct we want to influence?
Would reinforcers ever be delivered to the neediest in countries
where the wealthy have concluded that their own survival depends
on keeping most of the population poor and uneducated?

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These and other foreseeable problems could be met in various
ways, with none perhaps providing a complete solution. Still, positive
reinforcement could show some ofits desired effects. The same could
be true of unforeseen problems. We will not know until we try.
Existing data suggest that the attempt would be worthwhile. The
disastrous effects of the current control techniques in international
diplomacy make the attempt necessary.

Even when coercive policies succeed in overthrowing hostile
governments, we find ourselves allied with corruption andviciousness.
Again and again, seemingly successful coercive pressures have left
the United States supportinggovernments thatmaintain themselves
through violence, suppression, destruction, and treachery. We
therefore remain faced with many of the same problems we were
attempting to eliminate-unfriendly governments and populations
not only in one country but throughout a region. While our agents
ofcoercion crow over the forceful elimination ofa potentially dangerous
military base, our opponents gain enormous credibility. Isolated
from and mistrusted by our neighbors, we find our position of
leadership ever more difficult to sustain. Coercive diplomacy turns
us into an eventual loser. Positive reinforcement might notwork, but
it could do no worse.

Clearly, these suggestions involve oversimpliflcations. But science
always oversimplifles at first. It then gradually adds the complexities
that bring controlled experiments into contactwith the uncontrolled
conditions ofthe everyday world. Positive reinforcement is a powerful
determinant ofbehavior. Applied on a large scale, its effects are likely
to show up broadly even though othervariables counteract its action
in some localities. It would be worth looking into other opportunities
to experiment with positive reinforcement as a replacement for
coercion in international relations.

Citizens of the World. The collaborative production and sharing
ofscientific theory. data. technology. andotherproductsofintellectual
labor have established a world community of scholars. In general,
the important reinforcers that maintain scholarly excellence are
positive. The notion that scientific creativity can be motivated by
punishment is so contrary to experience that it is laughable.
Scientists find their work reinforcing when it proves useful to other
scientists or adds to the general welfare. The well-publicized and
prestigious prizes for scientific accomplishmentare largely based on

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Coercion and Its Fallout

the criterion, “How useful have other scientists found the work?”
International journals disseminate the results of experimental and
theoretical inquiry regardless of the country where the work was
done. Scientists and other scholars travel extensively to all parts of
the world both to teach and to learn. As a result of these positive
interactions. most scientists find the thought of engaging even in a
“limited” war against their scientific peers abhorrent.

In the arts, too, reinforcement is positive, contingent on the beauty
and originalityofthe artist’s creations-paintings. music, sculptures.
novels, dramas, essays, or performances. Although some artists
(and some scientists, too) may lead hard lives, the principal
reinforcement for artistic productivity lies not in the negative
reinforcement ofescape from starvation in the traditional garret but
in the effect the work produces on an audience. Like the audience for
science, the audience for the arts is international. Artists, too, travel
extensively to all parts of the world, teaching, learning, and
entertaining. The tntemational artistic community, like the scientific,
finds the very thought ofwar hateful.

Here are two large international groups, artists and scientists, for
whom peaceful interaction based on mutual positive reinforcement
has become a wayoflife. Positive reinforcement has beenestablishing
positive relationships among scientists. amongotherscholars, among
artists, and between these producers of knowledge and beauty and
their students and audiences all over the world. This worldwide
goodwill and cooperation have come about notbecause ofbut in spite
of standard diplomacy. Indeed, diplomats and their political
supporters often regard scientists and artistswith suspicionbecause
of their friendly interactions with citizens of potentially hostile
nations.

The Peace Corps has never been evaluated for its success in
establishing and maintaining international goodwill toward the
United States. Many informal testimonials suggest that it has been
enormously effective in counteracting the divisions that official
coercive diplomacy creates. Nevertheless, this country’s support for
the Peace Corps grows shakier all the time.

Another positive mechanism for encouraging international
cooperation, the Fulbright Scholar Program-maintained by the
United States Congress outside of the usual diplomatic channels
(and, for that reason, subject to steady destructive pressures from
State Department offlcials)-is a small experiment that has been

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going on for years, but we have not stopped to analyze it and learn
from it. Fulbright Fellowships, granted as positive reinforcers for
accomplishment, have significantly increased international goodwill
in return for a relatively small financial investment.

Why not enlarge the scope of these experiments, extending the
positive reinforcement model that has worked for international
technology, scholarship. and art to all areas of human activity?
When problems and conflicts of interest do arise, individuals with a
history of reciprocal positive reinforcement are more likely to insist
that their governments work out constructive and not destructive
solutions. When those at the negotiating table have no positive
bonds, they just make demands. When their citizens have already
established cooperative and friendly interactions, it is more natural
to propose solutions. Governments will find it difficult to threaten or
to makewar iftheir citizens, even their soldiers, have become friends.

To foster this aim of creating bonds among individuals, could we
not establish international institutes, devoted to research, teaching,
and the application of knowledge and technology in areas
characterized by important unsolved practical problems? These
could include agriculture, nutrition, disease prevention, business
management, architecture, law enforcement, computer technology,
education, and many others. We could locate these institutes in
many nations, excluding none. Each would invite experts and
laymen to internationalworkshops and conferences. All who attended
would be able to ask their own questions, learn what others are
thinking or have discovered, present their own thoughts and
discoveries, and evaluate the relative merits of various solutions to
a given problem. In the process, theywould have a chance to see the
“enemy” for themselves, interactingduringbothworkand relaxation.
Such positive interchanges would make it difficult for participating
individuals to remain or to become enemies.

Positive interactions among people of different nations could also
be fostered by a program of citizen exchanges. With national and
international support, young people could travel to other countries,
living with families long enough to become really acquainted with
another culture and to form lasting friendships. Hospitality is a term
that covers many positive reinforcers. It means being treated with
respect and consideration as a valued and interesting visitor, being
“shown around the town,” sharing food and shelter, taking part in
familyintlmacies, leaminga newlanguage, and becomingcomfortable

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Coercion and Its Fallout

with culturally speclflc skills, practices, and customs that seemed
strange or even frightening at first. It means acquiring an extensive
history of positive exchanges that would be difficult for any
circumstances to reverse. If enough citizens could be given such a
history, the customary coercive diplomacy would lose popular
support.

Such exchanges would clearly not solve all the world’s problems.
The suggestion is intended not as a cure-all but as a first step that
might then make other constructive steps possible. On a large scale,
the exchanges would be expensive, but if they eventually permitted
a significant reduction in the cost of maintaining military
establishments, the substitution ofone expense for the other would
be easily justlftable.

The general principle is for governments to relieve and prevent
international tension by using positive reinforcement to develop and
strengthenpositive relationships among individual citizens ofdifferent
countries and cultures, rather than using negative reinforcement to
set other governments scrambling to escape and avoid threats. The
technique is just the opposite of”sumrnitry,” in which heads ofstate,
having hurled their threats and counterthreats, meet to evaluate
each other’s suggestions for escaping from the tensions they have
created. Instead, they would meet-preferably with behaviorally
trained mediators present-to determine how each nation might
best achieve its needs. The push for peace would come from below,
with the general population setting the ground rules for the conduct
of international affairs. In the long run, programs that provide
positive reinforcement for the constructive actions of individual
citizens would more than pay for themselves. And the improvements
in the quality of life, unencumbered by the fear of partial or total
destruction, would be incalculable.

Terrorism Could positive reinforcement help bring terrorism,
too, to an end? Perhaps. but not quickly. Terrorist activities are just
one side effect ofcoercive pressures that have been in place for a long
time (see Chapter 9). And, of course, terrorism itself is a coercive
technique so it, too, generates countermeasures. Once set into
motion, repeating cycles ofcoercion and countercoercion are hard to
interrupt. Each side fears that any relaxation of its defenses (the
usual euphemism for offenses) will leave it at the mercy ofa merciless
enemy.

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Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

Positive reinforcement, used ineptly, has helped foster terrorism.
The payment of ransom. whether money, prisoner exchanges,
transportation, annaments. oranyotherpositive return, has ensured
that the taking and killing of hostages will continue. Responding to
anguished pleas from the families of hostages by paying ransom for
the release of one group has guaranteed that others will later be
taken. This is not a matter ofpersonal on ·o ; it is the way positive
reinforcement works. As long as we pay terrorists for what they do,
they will be happy to keep on obliging us with more of the same.

Another source of strong positive reinforcement that helps
perpetuate terrorism is the intense television, radio, newspaper, and
magazine coverage of every terrorist act. Terrorists have discovered
that throwing a small stone can make a worldwide splash, with
ripples extending not only into every council of state but into every
household. The relatively small effort involved in taking a few
hostages can bring a group up from obscurity, however insignificant
and powerless the group may be by any usual criterion.
Representatives of the most powerful governments and the most
influential churches allow themselves to be led blindfolded to rude
negotiating tables where they discuss payment with hostile and
contemptuous captors. The news media place the negotiators in the
world’s center stage. Only the superbowl and the international
soccer finals get as much publicity.

One ofour well-known newspaper columnists did a piece in which
he argued that acts of terrorism have become largely unsuccessful
in accomplishing broad political or social aims. But he went on to
point out, “Terrorism … has been filling the news for most ofour lives,
and will doubtless go on demanding the attention ofour children and
grandchildren as well. What’s new is how rarely it achieves its goals
these days.” In spite of his clear recognition of the broad media
response to terrorist acts, this columnist like almost everybody else,
fails to recognize that the media res 1s itself the goal of
terrorism. It does not matter what t their goals are or
whether they achieve their sta · .act remains that
conduct is governed by its consequen main consequence
of terrorism is media attention.

Imagine the feeling of power . in the breasts of
terrorists as they see themse heir achievements
discussed on channel after char. ar. pa ter page of the news
media. What must itmean to people 1/0rld has treatedwith

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Coercion and Its Fallout

contemptuous disregard to discover that they have been ablevirtually
to wipe out the international tourist industry for a time just by
detonating a couple ofbombs in airports? Are there simpler ways to
make your existence felt than by kidnapping and killing a few
defenseless individuals, or planting a time bomb, or machine­
gunning a prominqnt politician or industrialist? Have the deeds of
any hero ever gained more recognition?

Even that most recent variety of terrorism, the taking over of
schools and the murdering of pupils by their classmates, has
received such intensely detailed and continuing media coverage as
to guarantee the recurrence of such behavior. Indeed, in one
instance-a plot that was fortunately prevented after classmates
warned the authoritles-14 seventh-grade pupils, who brought
weapons, bomb components, and disguises to school, actually
admitted that by terronztng their class, they hoped to get their
pictures on television.

By negotiating and paying ransom and by providing unlimited
publicity, governments and news mediahavebeen supplyingpositive
reinforcement that guarantees the continuance of terrorism. It is
perhaps too late now for governments to use positive reinforcement
as they should have used it originally to bring about acceptable
alternative means of protest or to make protest unnecessary. Given
the present polarization, governments may no longer have any
choice except violent countercoercton to stop terrorism.

The reinforcement of terrorism by the news media has brought the
resurgence of an old threat, censorship. That solution to the media
problem is unthinkable. Free communication ofnews and opinion is
one ofthe strongest protections a people can have against those who
would achieve their aims bycoercion. Nevertheless, the news media’s
continuing support of terrorism is making It difficult for concerned
citizens to maintain their opposition to censorship. Those who would
prefer, for other reasons, to see our sources of information muzzled
are already making noises in that direction, pointing in justlflcation
to terrorism’s successful exploitation of the media.

Recognition both of its role in reinforcing acts of terrorism, and of
its own danger, should therefore engender a certain amount of
responsible self-restraint by the news media. The excuse that all the
news must be reported is patently false; it has never been possible
to report everything. Editors have always had to choose what to
publish. The real problem is that the media have never developed

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criteria for deciding what to report and what to leave unsaid. Taking
account ofthe behavioral consequences oftheir practices would help
provide rational and objective bases for such decisions. For example,
is informing the public about an act of terrorism-or about any act
ofviolence-worth the cost ofencouraging more such acts? What is
important is for the media to put those criteria into place themselves.

As far as government policy on terrorism ts concerned, the first
thing to be done there, too, is to stop the reinforcement. End all
negotiations, even ..quiet diplomacy.” Stop enhancing the prestige
and power of governments that make the support of international
terrorism a matter of national policy. Using them as middlemen to
win concessions from the very terrorist groups that exist only by
virtue of their protection just perpetuates their practices. To use a
technical term that is nonetheless apt, terroristic activity and its
support need to be extinguished, not reinforced.

Given terrorism’shistoryofsuccess, however, a policyofextinction­
the withdrawal of reinforcement-will require considerable time to
take effect. A single large reinforcement is enough to keep an act
going for a long time. Terrorism has yielded huge returns-many
large reinforcers; we can expect it to continue for a long time even if
it never succeeds again. Also, the beginning of extinction will bring
a temporary escalation of terroristic activity. Having allowed things
to reach this point, we may be left with no alternative than to reply
to the escalation with violence of our own.

No one should suffer the illusion, however, that anything
permanently constructive can be accomplished that way. Coercion
has brought a large segment of the world to a state of economic
deprivation, social humiliation, and political repression. The rest of
the world will have to reverse its reliance on coercive diplomacy if it
is ever to eliminate the threat of desperate countercoercion.

287

• Structure Bookmarks

19

Law Enforcement and Diplomacy

Positive Reinforcement and the Law

Positive Reinforcement in Diplomacy

18

Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

n ose who pose threats to themselves or to society at large, we
requently commit to institutions. There, we permit them only

limited social relationships, deprive them of freedom of
movement and ofopportunities for decision making, and forbid most
of the amenities they could enjoy outside. We often justify these
institutions as instruments for beneficial change. “Schools” for the
handicapped are supposed to teach their pupils new skills to help
them overcome their limitations. “Hospitals” for the mentally ill are
supposed to cure them. “Correctional institutions” are supposed to
rehabilitate lawbreakers.

Institutionalized Coercion

Locating these facilities in areas that are relatively unpopulated
and difficult to get at (at least initially, before cities or suburbs grow
up around them) indicates, however, what we really Lntend them for.
They are supposed to keep people whom we have decided are
retarded, insane, or criminal out of sight. We hand these “humane”
facilities over to members of the helping professions-physicians,
psychologists, nurses,behavior analysts, physical therapists, speech
therapists, rehabilitation counselors, social workers, and correctional
officers-and wash our own hands ofthe problems. “Out ofsight, out
of mind” is a grand avoidance reaction by the community.

Their geographic isolation, their walls , gates, and security towers,
and the public tendency to ignore the very fact oftheir existence leave
these institutions almost completelywithout control from the outside.
Whatever humanitarian impulses might have led to their initial
establishment, their freedom from public accountability turns most
of them into little more than warehouses for those whom society
judges to be misfits. The immediate priorities of staff and
administrative convenience, inmate docility, and obedience to rules
and regulations replace longer-term educational, therapeutic, or

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Coercion and Its Fallout

correctional goals. Coercion then becomes the technique of choice
for getting the residents to ..behave.”

An institution that is operated mostly for the benefit of the staff
attaches little significance to the deleterious side effects of coercion.
And so we find coercion prevailing in the institutional management
ofpeople with retardation or mental illness and ofthose incarcerated
for committing crimes. When public or judicial pressure for reform
does arise, it is short-lived and usually ineffective because it
concentrates on physical facilities and administrative procedures.
Rarely does an investigation evaluate the rationale and application
ofbehavior management techniques. Through misunderstanding or
incompetence, some institutional managers and members of the
helping professions twist and alter the concept of reinforcement
beyond recognition, attempting to transform even positive
reinforcement into an instrument of coercion.

The Misuse of Deprivation. Those whom we have placed in
positions of control over ourselves and others-teachers and school
administrators, military officers, prison guards and correctional
officers, police, government officials-are so accustomed to coercion
that they often can comprehend no other way. If they do try positive
reinforcement, their first impulse is to take something away from
their controllees so they can then give it back in return for “good
behavior.” That is exactly what happened in some infamous prison
projects that claimed to be using positive reinforcement. They
imposed solitary confinement on inmates and then let them out for
short periods if they showed the proper contrition; deprived them of
food and then handed them morsels if they acted subserviently;
denied them privacyand then gave them a few moments by themselves
ifthey had not been seen engaging in suspicious social interchanges
with other prisoners; gave them menial jobs and switched them to
more desirable work if they performed uncomplainingly and without
resistance. And then, with any lapse, real orperceived, they reimposed
the deprivations.

Such techniques are, of course, completely coercive. They are
based on socially imposed deprivation and on the escape and
avoidance that such deprivation generates. Punishment by shocks
or by deprivation makes escape reinforcing. Ifwe deprive prisoners,
students, children, or others of their basic needs, rights, and
privileges in order to create reinforcers, those reinforcers are negative,

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Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

not positive. They may serve temporarily to keep orderliness in cell
blocks, barracks, and classrooms, but they will also generate the
long-term side effects of coercive control.

Deprivation, however, does contribute to the effectiveness of
positive reinforcers: We have little interest in food right after a good
meal, but food influences our actions powerfully as time passes since
our last meal; the sexual appetite of sailors after a long sea voyage
is legendary; although individuals vary widely, what we do to get
money and what we do with money after we get it depend strongly on
how much we already have. Nevertheless, even though deprivation
makes positive reinforcers stronger, it is still not necessary to impose
deprivations deliberately in order to make use of positive reinforcers.
No one has enough ofeverything. It does not usually take much extra
effort to discover reinforcers that are already effective without
additional deprivation.

My concern here is with the use of deprivation as an instrument of
coercion. In certain extreme cases, deprivation for a brief time can
produce desirable consequences that are unavailable any otherway.
After everyone else has given up, you can still set a child with
retardation on the road to effective learning. First make her hungry.
Then use food as a reinforcer for some basic behavior like self-feeding
and following simple instructions. Once the child has learned those,
you can develop other reinforcers and discontinue food deprivation.
In cases of extreme retardation, or when previous incompetent
treatment has made a child unresponsive to standard methods of
instruction, both the child and the communitywill find the temporary
hardship beneficial.

Even then, one uses deprivation only to enhance the attractiveness
of a positive reinforcer, not to punish unsatisfactory behavior. Once
the child learns some adaptive behavior, one quickly discontinues
the deprivation, with no threat to impose it again. Taking away food,
possessions, privileges, or rights just so that these can be given back
in return for good behavior, and then taken away again to punish bad
behavior, subverts the principle of positive reinforcement. Anyone
who uses deprivation this way can expect the controllees to escape,
fight back, and exert countercontrol, just as they would react to any
coercive regimen.

It is far more effective simply to take advantage of naturally
occurring deprivations. Many exist even without social intervention;
that is the way the world works. Food, sex, and other biologically

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Coercion and Its Fallout

determined deprivations are built in. Without producing them
ourselves or making them any more severe than they would be in the
normal course of things, we can often put these deprivations to good
use in teaching basic skills to beginners and to those with learning
deficiencies.

As mealtimes approach, for example, food becomes a stronger and
stronger positive reinforcer. Some people with retardation or mental
illness seem sensitive to only a small number ofreinforcers, but food
is one ofthe most reliable. The use offood as a reinforcer at mealtimes
is a proven and powerful way to teach basic skills to those with
learning disabilities. It isjustas useful in teaching typically developing
children. Such teaching does not require us to deprive our pupils of
meals if they fail to learn. Teaching methods are now available that
guarantee learning, so meals need not be missed because of
unsuccessful teaching. Even if we have not yet worked out a
completely effective instructional program, pupils who have trouble
learning do not have to go hungry. While we are perfecting our
instructional plan, we can always let them earn a full meal by
practicing something they already know how to do.

Eventually, the conduct learned at mealtimes enables pupils with
retardation to function adaptively at other times, too. Their newfound
abilities-carrying a tray from serving counter to table, using a fork
and spoon, picking up spilled food, saying “please” and “thank
you”-make it possible to take them to cafeterias and restaurants.
There, new choices of food and drink become available to them and
they experience new environments. While on route to their treat, they
can be taught skills that make travel safe and enjoyable for them­
they can learn to read signs, interpret traffic signals, react to
strangers, and so on. Their world begins to open up.

And then new reinforcers become effective as they learn how to
interact with different environments and with people who are
important to them. They learn to recognize signs of approval as
precursors of other reinforcers, so people’s reactions take on
significance, becoming reinforcers in their own right. When that
happens, positive reinforcers like food need not always be forthcoming
immediately; delay ofgratification becomes possible. Food, one ofthe
few effective reinforcers at first gets these seemingly behaviorless
inmates ofthe local institution started. Before long, we find ourselves
able to use the newly learned reinforcers to teach them more
advanced behavior. Mealtimes then no longer need to be used as

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Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

learning opportunities but can simply be enjoyed, both appetitively
and as social occasions.

Ti.me-out and Its Abuses. A controversial form of punishment,
particularly in institutions but also at home, is the “time-out”
procedure. As a means of social control, various forms of time out
have long been part of society’s arsenal ofcoercive techniques. What
is time-out? What does it accomplish? Does it differ in any important
way from other kinds of punishment?

The basic feature of a time-out is the withdrawal of positive
reinforcement. This usually means removing someone physically
from an environment that has been making positive reinforcers
available toanother environment thatmakes little orno reinforcement
possible. It is a form of socially imposed deprivation. In practice,
time-out may range from standing an obstreperous child in the
comer to putting a violent patient into solitary confinement-the
classical padded cell.

Children do have to learn the meaning of “no.” Indeed, as they
continually experience opportunities to explore the unfamiliar, and
having already learned that some such situations result in disaster,
they come actually to welcome rules and limits that serve to protect
them from unpleasant consequences. A “time-out chair” or some
other special place where children are sent after misbehaving can be
a relatively painless way of teaching them that “no” denotes such
limits.

As used in many institutions, however, and by parents who control
largely by punishment, time-out-the withdrawal of positive
reinforcement-is just as coercive as the application of a shock.
Because time-aut inflicts no pain, it is oftenjustified as a benign kind
of punishment. This reasoning is similar to justifying the use of
drugs instead of straitjackets, ropes, or chains to immobilize an
uncooperative patient. The cruelty lies less in the method than in the
outcome. Isolation, physical restraint, and chemical restraint remove
the victims from contact with all of the reinforcers that make life
meaningful and worthwhile. Drugs can tum them into zombies, and
padded cells can tum them into raving maniacs. Both kinds of
punishment put an end to all learning except for various forms of
escape and avoidance that serve as mechanisms of countercontrol.
When the power of the authorities is too great for reprisal or
deception, depression takes over.

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Coercion and Its Fallout

It i often forgotten that even a relatively mild time-out cannot be
an effective punisher unless the punishee is removed from a positively
reiriforcing environment. That is what the name, “time-out,” refers to;
it means time away from reinforcement. Removing a disruptive child,
inmate, or patient into a seeming time-out is not going to prevent
future disturbances unless the original situation was reinforcing in
the first place. If it was not, taking the child out of it may actually
reinforce the disruptive behavior.

And then, our interaction while removing a child, for example, may
provide stronger positive reinforcement than anything the child was
getting in the original situation. We talk to him and, especially ifhe
resists, we pick him up and cany him, holding him close. When that
happens, time-out itself becomes a positive reinforcer, making
future disruptive behavior even more likely. We will strengthen the
very conduct we intended to punish.

A child whom we have to place repeatedly in time-out is sending us
a message: “I do not like it here. It is not paying off for me. Rather than
being unsuccessful and having you ignore me, I would prefer you to
cany me, kicking and screaming, into the bare room next door where
you will have to sit with me and hold me in order to keep me from
banging my head against the wall.” Our response to that message
has to be an examination ofour own conduct. What were we doing­
or not doing-that made the child prefer the time out?

If we were trying to teach, we will probably find that we were not
being successful. Because our pupil was not learning, we were
unable to reinforce, and the pupil found otherways to “succeed.” The
remedy in that situation is not to place the child in time-out, taking
away further opportunities for either pupil or teacher to learn, but to
revise our teaching. Go back to the last thing the child had learned
successfully, so that positive reinforcement again becomes possible,
and start over. Proceed more slowly this time, and take advantage of
newly available methods for reducing and even eliminating errors
from the learning process.*
*A large technical literature shows that errors are not a necessary part of the learning
process, but behavior analysts have not yet presented that material in easily available
form for nonprofessionals. Behavior shaping-teaching new behavior by reinforcing
gradually closer approximations to what is desired-can transform trial-and-error to
trial-and-success in teaching motor skills like the production of tones on musical
instruments or the pronunciation of words. Teaching long sequences of actions like
shoe tying, spelling, or “top-down” computer programming can proceed errorlessly if
the teacher starts from the end of the sequence and works backwards. With skillful
environmental shaping-teaching new relations between behavior and environment

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Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

Arranging a teaching program so that almost all behavior that
occurs is reinforceable is a powerful way to improve the learning of
people who find learning especially difficult. Time after time, with
careful programming and positive reinforcement, children who were
supposed to be incapable oflearning have been turned into learners.
More often than not, even children medically diagnosed as hyperactive
will participate constructively in class for long periods of time,
causing no disturbance or distraction as long as they are being
reinforced for successful learning. Effective teaching will usually
make it unnecessary to punish a child for misbehavior, or to drug a
child out of hyperactivity.

Prisons as Learning Environments. Most youths incarcerated in
reformatories have impoverished repertoires of behavior. From the
beginning, even before their imprisonment, they had only a limited
armament ofadaptive skills. Many reinforcers were out oftheir reach
and others were unknown to them. They were just as effectively
deprived as if we had deliberately taken away their food, shelter,
economic support, and all possibility of attaining the kinds of
success thateducation and trainingmake possible. Such deprivations,
not the results of biological processes, are socially imposed.

This is not to suggest that criminality is confmed to the poor or to
the socially rejected. Serious crime exists at all economic and social
levels. But homes and neighborhoods that suffer the harshest social
and economic deprivation, and at the same time lack a tradition of
upward economic mobility, also spawn the most visible forms of
youthful criminality. Such communities do not place great value
on-do not provide reinforcers for-conversing about anything except
basic needs, reading anything longer than billboard phrases and
newspaper headlines, writing anything more than signatures and
perhaps a few expletives suitable for graffiti, or calculating anything
more than the simplestcash transactions. Young people in depressed
areas, deprived of effective learning environments, grow up unable

by changing the environment gradually from familiar to unfamiliar forms-children
can learn errorlessly to copy, Wiite, and name letters ofthe alphabet; medical students
can learn the basic structure of the nervous system so errorlessly that they find it
difficult at first to believe they are actually learning anything. Procedures that
establish equivalence relations among spoken words, Wiitten words, and pictures give
children simple reading and speaking vocabularies that they were never explicitly
taught and that they use even the very first time without error. Errorless teaching is
an active field of research, with new methods and applications coming along rapidly.

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Coercion and Its Fallout

to talk, read, write, or calculate numerically. Written applications
and job interviews are out of the question. Ambitions are necessarily
limited to the immediately foreseeable resolution of coercive
contingencies imposed on the one hand by the Law and on the other
by the deprivations incompetence brings on. Their lives revolve
around reinforcers that are limited to food, shelter, alcohol, sex,
drugs, and money to purchase these. What they do learn is the most
reliable way-sometimes the only way open to them-for obtaining
basic reinforcers: Take them from someone else.

When the law catches up with youths whom the social system has
failed to teach effectively, they are sent to “correctional” institutions
that are supposed to “reform” them. After serving their term, they
usually return to their old territory, having learned nothing that
might help them get out of that environment, and even unaware of
the desirability ofgetting out. If they have been reformed in any way,
it has been by a sharpening of their ability to keep from getting
caught.

Many do get caught again. The threat of imprisonment failed to
prevent their first lawless acts, and actual imprisonment fails to
prevent their repetition. These failures are to be expected; coercive
control provides no alternatives for the lawbreaker who lacks socially
desirable kinds of competence. Deprivations imposed within prison
walls are hardly more severe than the familiar realities outside.
Thrown back into the same old scene with no new coping behavior
and now labelled as criminals, subject to even greater restriction,
why should they be expected to act any differently than before?

Criminalityis a complexproblem-actually, manydifferent problems
and with many roots. But in all its variations it is still behavior. Our
everyday concern is not with an abstract concept, “criminality,” but
with criminal actions. To assume that criminal acts are subject to the
same principles that control all kinds of behavior could prove
incorrect. Yet, given the successful extensions ofbehavioral analysis
to other kinds of complex human conduct, we cannot neglect this
important class just because of preconceived notions that have little
or no empirical support. Certainly, to reduce the incidence of
criminality by redesigning the environments it springs from is an
infinitely complex task. It is rarely possible to achieve the necessary
control of the critical reinforcers, to eliminate the current negative
reinforcers and replace them with positive. And so we dare not
eliminate our prisons.

262

Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

But however one feels about the desirability of imprisonment, its
failure to deter repetitive crime represents lost opportunities, even
tragedies. Prisons and reformatories control reinforcers to an extent
that is not permltted on the outside. While offenders are temporarily
unable to engage in the acts that brought them to prison, it is
possible to use positive reinforcement to teach them more adaptable
and acceptable forms ofconduct. Before leaving prison, the offender
could be equipped with new options, ways ofsurviving within rather
than outside the law. Reducing the number of multiple offenders
would also reduce society’s ever increasing need for new prisons.

The use of imprisonment as an opportunity for education has met
with so little success that law enforcement professionals view the
notion with nearly complete skepticism; proponents are “ignorant
do-gooders.” The lack of success and the resulting skepticism,
however, come from the mistaken notion that teaching can only be
accomplished by coercion, particularly when the students are
“criminals.” Most educational programs within prisons have failed
because they relied on coercive control. With positive reinforcement,
it is possible to accomplish real corrections in misdirected life paths.
Also, a well designed learning program with high levels of positive
reinforcement, instituted before youths have become habitual
offenders, costs considerably less in the long run than to prop up the
standard system of coercive control.

This is notjust impractical theory. Positive reinforcement has been
used successfully to replace juvenile offenders’ incompetence with
constructive skills, making new reinforcers available to them for the
first time. A superb demonstration project that showed the
effectiveness ofa well-planned and competentlyadministered positive
reinforcement system has been almost completely ignored by
professionals in behavioral science and in law enforcement. In this
project, new capabilities permltted youngsters, on leaving prison, to
enter new environments and succeed there without coming into
conflict with the law. The techniques for getting them there are not
difficult in principle. All correctional officers should be trained to use
them.*

The project made courses available to youthful prisoners, starting
with basic reading, writing, speaking, calculating, and remembering,

• The final report of this federally funded project Is available as: H. L. Cohen and J .
Filipczak. A New Leaming Environment. Boston. MA: Authors Cooperative, Inc.

263

Coercion and Its Fallout

and then going on to more advanced skills that made use of those
prerequisites. The content and sequence of courses was carefully
programmed. Guaranteeing that each course prepared students for
the next one, and requiring high marks before they could move on,
ensured success-continued reinforcement. No one was forced to
take courses. Punishment did not follow if anyone preferred the
usual prison routine rather than participating.

Simply making courses available was not enough, though. After
all, if they had never experienced the advantages that elementary
skills can bring, why should the prisoners have been interested in
participating? Contrived reinforcers for learning were therefore
necessary at first, until the students’ new skills brought them into
contact with more natural consequences. That is where a critical
feature of the system, positive reinforcement for learning, entered
the picture.

In order to get prisoners started, the project paid them for learning.
That made it possible for those who did engage in the learning
process to get things that would not otherwise have been available
at all, regardless of how they acted in prison. High exam scores
gained the learner a private space. Although sparsely furnished at
first with a table, chair, bookshelf, and lamp-items that made
continued studyfeasible-the space could be outfitted later according
to the owner’s personal tastes and resources. How were student
prisoners supposed to obtain those resources? Having secured the
space, they could then earn credits by continuing to show new
learning in their courses. They could save and use the credits like
money to purchase items in a store. The stock in the store was
tailored to the preferences of those who were working for credits.

Paying the students for learning simply set up school as another
job that was available to the inmates. The credits, the store, the
private space, and other privileges were actually part of the school
program-the job-and were enjoyed only during school hours­
while the prisoners were on the job. That the reinforcers the
participants enjoyed were actually earnings probably helped account
for the relative absence of resentment and hostility on the part of
prisoners who did not take part. They all had their choice of jobs.
Nobody was shut out. The reinforcers were available to anybody who
selected the school job as part of his prison duties.

Private ownership created new reinforcers. Wall decorations,
furnishings, furniture, music, and 1V became items worth working

264

Positive Reinforcement in Institutions

for, and learning continued. New skills created the potential for still
more reinforcers that the store made available. The ability to write
letters turned stationeryandwrttingmaterials into useful possessions.
The ability to handle a job interview made certain clothing desirable
for students who would soon be completing their prison term. The
ability to read created a new pleasure, and books became desirable
possessions. Later, as students became capable of new and more
complex behavior, they were allowed to begin using their credits to
buy privileges they could not before have been trusted to handle:
telephone calls, visits in privacy by friends and relatives, and,
starting in conjunction with their courses, supervised trips outside
the walls. As the value of learning, itself, became apparent, the
students eventually came to use some of their credits to pay tuition
for courses that they requested-a requirement they would also meet
outside.

When these students left, they were able to do things that made
new reinforcers available. Their world had expanded. There was no
guarantee, of course, that the old contingencies in their home
environments would not take over again, but now they at least had
a chance for something different. The evidence suggests that many
capitalized on new opportunities that the nonpunitive approach had
opened up to them. Fewer returned to prison.

It is too bad thatwe waited until these youths had been imprisoned
before we attended to their needs. We could have been investing in
those at-riskyoungsters before they got into serious trouble. Positive
reinforcement now can eliminate the need for punishment later. The
best way to prevent juvenile crime and give young people the
opportunity for satisfying, productive lives is not to lock them up but
to steer them in the right direction before serious trouble starts.

265

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1

Science, Skepticism, and Applied Behavior Analysis
Matthew P Normand, Ph D , BCBA, University of the Pacifc

ABSTRACT

Pseudoscientifc claims concerning medical and psychological treatments of all varieties
are commonplace. As behavior analysts, a sound skeptical approach to our science and
practice is essential. The present paper offers an overview of science and skepticism and
discusses the relationship of skepticism to behavior analysis, with an emphasis on the types
of issues concerning behavior analysts in practice

.

Descriptors: Behavior analysis, pseudoscience, science, skepticism

“In science, keeping an open mind
is a virtue—just not so open
that your brains fall out.”

– James Oberg1

notIn science, being skeptical does
mean doubting the validity of

everything, nor does it mean being
cynical. Rather, to be skeptical is to
judge the validity of a claim based on
objective empirical evidence. David
Hume, the 18th century philosopher,
asserted that we should accept no things
as true unless the evidence available
makes the non-existence of the thing
more miraculous than its existence. Even
extraordinary claims can be true, but the
more extraordinary the claim, the more
extraordinary the evidence required.
Not too long ago, the notion of human
fight seemed like pure fancy. Today,
scores of people take to the sky almost as
routinely as they take to the highway. To
be skeptical does not mean dismissing
claims—even extraordinary claims—out
of hand. It means examining the available
evidence before reaching a decision or
withholding judgment until suffcient
evidence is had. One should not start
with the assumption that a claim cannot
be true any more than one should start
with the assumption that a claim must
be true. All reasonable evidence on both
sides should be considered.

Skepticism is a critical feature of a
scientifc repertoire. Indeed, many of
the most prominent skeptics are and

1 Quote attributed to James Oberg by
(Sagan, 1996).

have been some of the world’s most
prominent scientists, including Richard
Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and Carl
Sagan. Even B. F. Skinner was among
the signers of the 1976 letter announcing
the formation of the Committee for
the Scientifc Investigation of the
Paranormal, an organization dedicated
to the promotion of scientifc skepticism
and publication of the Skeptical Inquirer
(Kurtz, 1996).2 The relationship of
skepticism to behavior analysis is the
relationship between skepticism and
science in general. The experimental
analysis of behavior is a natural
science, and this natural science is the
foundation of all behavior analytic
research and practice. Moreover, the
practical importance of a skeptical
repertoire for those engaged in behavior
analytic practice cannot be overstated.
Pseudoscience abounds in so many of the
areas behavior analysts tread, including
developmental disabilities, education,
and psychotherapy. According to
physicist Robert Park, pseudoscience
is characterized by claims purportedly
supported by well-established scientifc
evidence when, in truth, such evidence
is misinterpreted, misunderstood, or
wholly lacking (Park, 2000).

This paper is aimed primarily
at behavior analysts in practice
who are likely to encounter various
pseudoscientifc claims in the course
of their work and who might not
immediately identify themselves as

2 Now known as the Committee for Scientifc
Investigation (CSI).

scientists, although it will be argued,
they should. Pseudosciences know no
professional boundaries and thrive in
many areas of research and practice.
Claims regarding the effectiveness of
sensory integration therapy, facilitated
communication, and inclusion qualify
as pseudoscience. All are offered as
legitimate therapies or useful practices
when, in fact, the evidence available
fails to support them (Jacobson, Foxx,
& Mulick, 2005). Today, one would be
hard pressed to fnd an area more widely
affected by rampant pseudoscience than
that of autism treatment, which also
happens to be one of the largest single
areas of application for behavior analysts
(Shook, Johnston, & Mellichamp,
2004). In the sections that follow, I
discuss scientifc standards of evidence
as they relate to the practice of behavior
analysis, describe some of the common
characteristics of pseudoscientifc
claims, and offer suggestions to promote
skepticism in applied behavior analysis.

Standards of Evidence

Interobserver Agreement

When gathering and evaluating
relevant evidence, scientists take careful
steps to minimize bias in observation.
What scientists say should be controlled
primarily by what is seen, rather than
what one hopes to see. Bias in observation
cannot be entirely eliminated, but it can
be controlled. The ideal case might be
one in which some automated recording
system can be utilized, as often is the

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case in basic research. Though not
without precedent, such automated
recording is fairly uncommon in applied
research and practice. Where human
observers collect behavioral data, steps
must be taken to ensure that changes in
behavior over time are actually changes
in the behavior of interest, and not the
behavior of the observer (Baer, Wolf, &
Risley, 1968). That is, the veracity of
the data are assessed through some form
of interobserver agreement measures or
through the use of double-blind control
procedures. In this way, the primary
source of control over the verbal behavior
of the observer is more likely to be the
actually transpired events.

Experimental Design

Even the most careful observations
are not suffcient to inform about, say, the
effects of a given cold remedy. Many of us
do not visit the doctor when experiencing
mild symptoms characteristic of the
common cold. Instead, we visit the
doctor only when we’ve been struggling
with the symptoms for some prolonged
period of time or when the symptoms
become so severe that we have a diffcult
time coping. Typically, we receive a brief
exam, are prescribed some medication,
and go on our way. Within a few days
we are feeling better and able to resume
our normal activities. The wonders of
modern medicine? Not necessarily. We
might well have gotten better in about
the same amount of time had we never
visited the doctor. We visited the doctor
only after some extended period of time
suffering with symptoms or after we
noticed the symptoms become severe.
Either circumstance might suggest that
we were nearing the end of our illness.
The medication might have dampened
our symptoms, but our recovery might
not have been hastened. No matter how
carefully we observed what happened,
we would be unable to drawn any frm
conclusions about cause and effect.

Now consider an analogous
case concerning a behavior analytic
intervention. A young child is referred
by his classroom teacher for behavior
analytic services because he rarely works

on assigned tasks during the class time
allotted. The behavior analyst sets about
taking careful records of the time the
child is engaged in assigned class work for
a period of one week, with observations
distributed across times of day and
academic domains. Once these data are
analyzed, and it is determined that the
child is engaged in assigned academic
work about 30% of the time he should be
so engaged, a token reinforcement system
is implemented with points awarded
each time he is engaged continuously
with his work for 60 s. The points are,
of course, later exchanged for back-up
reinforcers such as preferred activities
or items. The behavioral observation
system is continued and, after a few
weeks of intervention, the child is now
observed to be on-task approximately
80% of the time and the teacher reports
that his assignment completion is greatly
improved, even better than some of his
peers.

The wonders of modern behavioral
science? Not necessarily. The
intervention could have produced the
changes observed, but so could have any
number of other uncontrolled variables.
Perhaps the type of work assignments
changed during the same period of time,
resulting in easier or more interesting
assignments. Or the referral might have
increased the overall amount of attention
provided to the student by the teacher
and other school personnel, thereby
improving performance due to changed
motivating conditions or more effective
academic instruction or behavior
management. It is impossible to know
why the student’s performance improved
based on the types of observations made.
But, you say, we can be more certain of
our success because what we did was
based on solid behavioral principles and,
moreover, we are successful again and
again with different children. Perhaps,
but it could very well be that our token
economy intervention regularly recruits
one or more of the extraneous variables
mentioned (e.g., increased attention by
school personnel), which is the actual
agent of change. Then again, maybe
not. The point is that we cannot know

from the information obtained.
Experimental evaluation is critical

for all sciences and is the mechanism
that ultimately provides us the ability to
predict and control our subject matter.
In most behavior analytic experimental
designs, prediction is made possible
through repeated measures of behavior
during a baseline condition before any
experimental or clinical manipulation
is made. Such measures then provide
a basis against which to compare
behavioral observations made under the
changed conditions. We use the baseline
measures to predict what we would
see if our manipulation did not affect
the behavior. If the observed behavior
under our changed conditions (e.g.,
during intervention) deviates from our
prediction, an experimental or clinical
effect is suggested. The extent to which
we are able to replicate this effect through
experimental manipulations such as
reversals to baseline or multiple-baseline
arrangements determines the strength
of the conclusions that can be drawn.
When we can predict the likelihood
of behavior occurring or not occurring
under certain conditions, and when we
can alter such likelihoods through our
manipulations, we have demonstrated a
cause-effect relationship.

Of course, a well-developed science
of behavior should presumably offer
well-established technologies for the
practitioner, technologies that do
not require continued experimental
evaluation. In medicine, for example,
the diagnosis of a bacterial infection
can readily lead to a prescription of
antibiotics. The effectiveness of the
antibiotic prescription is, however,
heavily predicated on an accurate
diagnosis. In behavior analytic practice,
the prescription of intervention
strategies also is heavily predicated on
accurate diagnosis or, in behavioral
terms, a functional behavior assessment.
At present, the varying rigor with which
functional assessments are conducted
across practitioners and settings suggests
that the easy prescription of well-
established behavioral technologies is not
practically at hand, with some exceptions.

SKEPTICISM AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 43

BAP_v1.2_p1-72.indd 43 10/10/08 8:55:57 AM

A powerful reinforcement-based
intervention such as a token economy,
superimposed on existing but unknown
contingencies, is likely to be benefcial
even without a rigorous functional
assessment. Ideally, as behavioral science
matures, we will have evidence-based
procedures of a fairly standardized sort
that have been demonstrated to work for
a large majority of people with whom
they are used. When non-responders
are identifed, more careful functional
assessments can be conducted on an
individual basis and individualized
interventions prescribed as necessary,
much the way a physician might alter
the prescription of antibiotics if your
health is not improved in the expected
period of time.

Replication and Self-Correction

Methods applied in any specifc
case are not failsafe. Fortunately, the
majesty of science is that although it is
fallible, it also is self-correcting. Careful
technological description of procedures
allows others to replicate the same
procedures at different times, in different
places, and with different participants
(Baer et al., 1968). In the best cases,
the peer-review process of publication
in scientifc journals identifes fawed
studies or erroneous conclusions drawn
from otherwise solid studies before they
are widely disseminated. Once fndings
are disseminated, failures to replicate
the reported fndings or the discovery
of new fndings that refute or attenuate
some earlier fndings lead to revisions of
scientifc language and, ultimately, to a
greater ability to describe, predict, and
control our world. Sadly, many non-
scientists view this as insufferable fip-
fopping. The politician who alters an
opinion or policy is thereafter chastised
for being indecisive or insincere. The
government agency that revises the
guidelines for a healthy diet is mistrusted.
In the public arena, it often is better to
be true to some core conviction than
responsive to a changing world. Science
embraces “fip-fopping” so long as
it is due to changes in evidence rather
than extraneous sources of control.

The scientifc community arranges
explicit and powerful contingencies
of reinforcement for such behavior,
and the scientist who treads lightly as
preliminary data are gathered is in a
much better position to alter his or her
stance as emerging evidence dictates. A
hallmark of the pseudoscientist is the
propensity to make bold statements and
draw frm conclusions in the absence of
suffcient evidence. Once so committed,
the aversive consequences for changing
course can trump those arranged by the
scientifc community.

Perhaps it is not so diffcult to see how
one can succeed in making claims absent
any supporting evidence, but how does
someone succeed in promoting a claim
in the face of existing evidence to the
contrary? In psychology and the related
social sciences, part of the answer is that
markedly lesser standards of evidence
are accepted than in the so-called hard
sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and
biology), and society seems to follow
suit. It is not entirely clear why this is so.
To be sure, a physicist need not labor to
convince an engineer of the importance
of basic physical laws. If the engineer
does not abide by the laws of physics,
the building falls down. This outcome
is obvious and the cause is not attributed
to some unknowable random process
beyond the control of the engineer. It
is attributed to some faw in design
or construction. Even the layperson
doesn’t assume that buildings sometimes
fall down spontaneously because we
can’t hope to control nature well enough
to ensure otherwise. As a result, the
engineer or builder is blamed and the
failed methods revised or discarded.
However, when a psychological therapy
fails to demonstrably change behavior,
the blame is not necessarily laid upon
the therapist or the therapy, though
the consequences of the failure can be
as great or greater than the collapsed
building. Instead, many laypeople and
scientists alike assume it impossible
to reliably infuence human behavior,
because human behavior is complex
and not entirely lawful. Therefore,
to demonstrate that one therapy does

not succeed as reliably as another is
not necessarily a fatal blow for the less
successful therapy. This is an unfortunate
state of affairs.

So what is to be made of the
proposition that some things cannot be
known with certainty, human behavior
or otherwise? Nothing is known for
certain, but much is known for which the
likelihood of alternative explanations is so
small as to be unworthy of consideration.
When discussing what we know, we
are really describing the strength of a
prediction we can make. If we state that
the sun will rise in the east tomorrow,
we state this because it has never been
observed to do otherwise.3 Based on
historical observations of both the daily
rising of the sun and, more importantly,
scores of physical regularities observed
by scientists at multiple levels of analysis,
we can state the probability of the sun
rising in the east as being so high as to be
practically certain. Is it possible that the
sun will rise in the west? Yes, but to say
something is possible is not to say much
at all. Science deals with probability, not
possibility.

But perhaps the foregoing description
of the general philosophy of science is just
one of many equally valid philosophies
about the world and our knowledge of
it. Rubbish. The superiority of science
is quite well-established, as science is the
only “philosophy” that regularly provides
the ability to predict and control that
which it purports to explain. One might
argue that prediction and control are not
the ultimate demonstrations of truth,
but such arguments seem to hold better
in conversation than in practice. As the
biologist Richard Dawkins eloquently
put it, “Show me a cultural relativist at
30,000 feet and I’ll show you a hypocrite”
(Dawkins, 1995, p. 31). When it really
matters, we rely on science; we fy in the
plane designed in accordance with the
laws of physics.

3 This is, of course, a geocentric description
of the behavior of the earth and sun. Although
wanting in scientifc precision, it should serve
the present purpose better than appeals to the
regularity of the earth’s rotation as it revolves
around the sun.

44 SKEPTICISM AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

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.

The Practical Limits
of Scientifc Rationalism

Ideally, we would behave as
scientifc rationalists in matters as
diverse as nutrition, economics, and
global warming. That is, we would
be able to respond to direct empirical
evidence as we confront important
matters affecting our lives. But what
if experimentation or the analysis of
existing experimental data is beyond
reach? Most of us are extremely limited
in our ability to distinguish between fact
and fction in unfamiliar areas such as
quantum mechanics or even automobile
repair. What we “know” comes from
our contact with others who describe
the evidence for us rather than from
our evaluation of the relevant research.
As a result, we are almost unavoidably
dogmatic in practice, insofar as a great
deal of what we do is infuenced by
statements of truth professed by people of
authority (or notoriety) rather than our
own examination of the evidence. That
this is so should be no great surprise. We
haven’t the skills necessary to personally
investigate all the phenomena that
impact us in our day-to-day affairs.

So what is to be made of those areas
that are beyond the scope of our direct
study but do have an impact on our lives,
both personal and professional? For
example, how is a behavior analyst to deal
effectively with the many claims made
about the genetic underpinnings of a
variety of conditions, including obesity, a
learning disability, or autism?Ultimately,
many of us will have to be dogmatic in
approach, but we should be carefully
dogmatic. At best, we are likely to
consult reviews of the research literature
in lieu of the literature itself. But in
so doing, we are subject to the biases
of interpretation in the writing of the
reviewer. At worst, we learn of some
new fad diet or therapy from someone
already convinced of its effectiveness and
thereby vested in convincing us of its
effectiveness by providing only evidence
seeming to support the claim. There
is no easy way for the non-specialist to
identify pseudoscience in unfamiliar

disciplines. However, as discussed in
the next section, one or more red fags
typically accompany pseudoscientifc
claims.

Characteristics of Pseudoscience

He Said, She Said

Pseudoscientifc claims often eschew
objective experimental evidence in
favor of anecdotes or testimonials. The
current autism-vaccine controversy is a
case in point. A large vocal contingent
of parents and professionals contend that
the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR)
vaccine or other vaccines that contained
a mercury-based preservative called
thimerosal are the cause behind the
recent autism “explosion.” A commonly
cited piece of evidence for the alleged
link between certain vaccines and autism
is that parents of children with autism
report that their child only began to
show signs of autism after receiving a
vaccination. These parent reports have
become even more important in the face
of mounting empirical evidence failing to
show even a correlation between vaccine
administration and autism diagnosis
(Normand & Dallery, 2007). When the
available scientifc evidence is examined,
parent testimonies are essentially the
only “evidence” that supports a link at
all. Despite their best intentions, parent
reports are poor sources of evidence, as
parents rarely have extensive training in
behavioral observation, their observations
are not independently corroborated to
ensure accuracy, and, being the parents
of the children observed, they are far
from objective.

Other times, the anecdotal nature of
the evidence for a claim is dressed up in
scientifc garb, as is the case with claims
that mega-vitamin regimens produce
marked improvements in young children
with autism (e.g., Barthelemy et al., 1981;
Rimland, Callaway, & Dreyfus, 1978).
The arguments for such treatments are
replete with examples of children who
reportedly improved after they began
a mega-vitamin regimen. A critical
problem with such evidence is that the
published studies rely almost exclusively

on parent reports of changes in child
behavior. Rather than being presented
as anecdotes, the reports are dressed up
as scientifc data (usually quantifed in
some way and analyzed statistically),
giving the impression of something
more substantial (e.g., Barthelemy et al.,
1978). Additionally, steps must be taken
to isolate the effects of the vitamins from
any other intervention. If the vitamins
are only one part of a larger collection
of intervention strategies, including
intensive behavior analytic intervention,
it would be inappropriate to attribute
the observed improvement in the child’s
behavior to vitamins rather than to any
of the other strategies or combinations
thereof.

The Unfalsifable Claim

Scientifc studies refuting pseudo-
scientifc claims often are criticized
and dismissed on grounds of poor
methodological rigor or problematic
design. Such is the case with facilitated
communication (FC) with persons
diagnosed with autism. FC proponents
claim that it enables these individuals
to communicate through the aid of a
“facilitator” who physically guides their
hand over a keyboard so that they can type
messages. A number of well-controlled
experiments have demonstrated that it is
the facilitators doing the communicating
(Jacobson, Mulick, & Schwartz, 1995).
Simply put, if the facilitator does not
have access to the question posed, a
correct answer is not given. Douglas
Biklen, one of the main proponents of
FC, frequently dismisses this sizeable
body of experimental research on the
grounds that the studies are poorly
designed and conducted, though no
acceptable scientifc rationale for this
claim is offered (Biklen, 1993). These
studies all meet the well-established
standards of experimental design and
appear in reputable peer-reviewed
scientifc journals. As a defense,
Biklen has suggested that the methods
employed in the contradictory studies
are predicated on the assumption that
human behavior can be understood
from a natural science perspective, and

SKEPTICISM AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 45

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that traditional scientifc standards of
evidence are merely a social construction
(Jacobson et al., 1995). In whose plane
would you rather fy?

It also is common for proponents
of a pseudoscientifc claim to criticize
individual studies or pieces of evidence
in minute detail, while the confuence
of multiple sources of evidence refuting
the claim is ignored. In the area of
autism, many opponents of behavior
analytic interventions focus on the
methodological limitations of Lovaas’
(1987) widely cited clinical outcomes
study. They point to the lack of random
selection and, especially, the lack of
random assignment. What they ignore
are the other outcome studies supporting
the positive results reported by Lovaas
(e.g., Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green,
& Stanislaw, 2005; Sallows & Graupner,
2005). More importantly, they ignore
the decades of sound experimental
research employing single-case research
designs demonstrating the effectiveness
of interventions based on behavior
analytic principles, targeting a variety of
problems across a variety of populations,
including young children with autism.

When evidence obtained by
independent investigators using a
variety of sound experimental methods
points to a common conclusion, the
picture is clear. Any single study will
have limitations. This is why replication
plays such an important role in science.
As the body of research in any given area
of inquiry grows, it becomes populated
by numerous studies, all having different
sets of strengths and limitations. As the
evidence in one study is verifed by other
studies, the probability of explanations
other than those suggested by the data
shrinks.

The Dull Edge of Science

It is sometimes claimed that the
very fact that mainstream science
rejects a claim offers support of its
veracity. The mainstream scientists are
characterized as closed-minded and the
pseudoscientists as cutting edge. Such
characterizations fnd their way into
all manner of pseudoscientifc spin

doctoring, from those recommending
special diets for children with autism
to the aforementioned claims of a
vaccine-autism link. Despite the
absolute rejection by the medical and
related scientifc establishments, diet
and vaccine proponents claim that
their information is at the forefront of
modern medicine. The establishment,
they claim, simply lags behind. There
is no shortage of case studies in the
history of science that they can dredge
up to support their position as noble
mavericks. After all, at one point in time
the heliocentric view of the universe was
widely dismissed and Copernicus, as its
chief proponent, suffered great abuse.
Even the Wright brothers were initially
viewed as curiosities for their conviction
that human fight was within reach.
True, but as Michael Shermer, founder
and director of the Skeptics society and
publisher of Skeptic magazine, eloquently
stated, “They laughed at Copernicus.
They laughed at the Wright brothers. Yes,
well, they laughed at the Marx brothers”
(1997, p. 50). The reality is that far
more people have proved deserving of
criticism for their outlandish claims than
have been vindicated. Heresy alone does
not constitute reasonable evidence.

Implications for
Behavior Analysts in Practice

What specifc action might a
practicing behavior analyst take in light
of the preceding discussion? That is
diffcult to say. In preparing this paper,
I found very little in the way of concrete
recommendations for skeptical practice
in the literature. Most treatises on
skepticism emphasize “critical thinking”
and highlight pseudoscience warning
signs with illustrative examples, much
like has been done in this paper. After
some consideration, I have compiled
a list, far from exhaustive, of possible
actions that seem to me feasible and
likely to be of beneft, though whether
they will be of beneft is most certainly
an empirical question.

Read and Read Widely

A sure way to spot pseudoscience is

to know the real science. Maintaining
contact with the peer-reviewed scientifc
literature is the primary way of keeping
abreast of scientifc developments and
controversies. One also should read
widely. That is, you should read more
than just the mainstream behavior
analytic journals. It is not reasonable
to assume behavior analysts will be
intimately familiar with all the sciences
or even all of the behavioral sciences,
but reading widely within ones’ specialty
(e.g., education, developmental
disabilities, health psychology) is
important. When you contact a new
claim, even one that is from the behavior
analytic community, become practiced
at searching the scientifc literature for
evidence and information before rushing
to judgment. In addition, it might not
hurt to read or subscribe to a publication
such as The Skeptical Inquirer or Skeptic.
Doing so will put you in contact with
critical analyses of a wide variety of
controversial claims, including some
directly relevant to your practice.

Be a Scientist-Practitioner

First and foremost, be a proponent
of evidence-based practice and good
science, not just those things formally
identifed as “behavior analysis.” Toward
this end, incorporate rigorous evaluative
systems into your clinical practice,
including experimental manipulations
whenever possible. For example, if
a family is considering placing their
child on a special diet as a means of
treating “autistic symptoms,” it might
be possible to persuade them to evaluate
the effects of the diet in a systematic
way. A list of clear operationally defned
behavioral objectives could be agreed
upon in advance, an adequate baseline
established, and then the diet introduced
and removed systematically over the
period of several weeks or months. It
might even be possible to arrange for
the parents to systematically provide
and withhold the diet according to pre-
specifed guidelines but while keeping
the behavior analyst(s) blind to the
manipulations until the evaluation is
complete.

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This approach would both emphasize
the role of careful evaluation of treatment
and eliminate the need for potentially
heated discussion or argument about
the merits of the dietary intervention. It
might even provide a nice bit of empirical
evidence that could be shared through
conference presentations or scientifc
publication. But also be critical of your
own practice and be wary of situations
such as that described earlier with the
example of the on-task student and the
“wonders of modern behavioral science.”
In short, be a model of skeptical behavior
generally. Do you really know that the
improvements you see are attributable
to your efforts? Even if they are,
which of your efforts are most critical?
Might any be omitted, thereby making
treatment easier or more effcient?
These are questions that can and should
be answered, not just by researchers,
but by those engaged in the practice in
question. Be a true scientist-practitioner.
This aspect of applied behavior analysis
has long been championed as one of its
defning features (e.g., Baer et al., 1968);
it is so described in virtually every
textbook and so taught in virtually every
training program. As a profession, are
we living up to these ideals? I, for one,
am skeptical in the most literal sense.

Implications for
Applied Behavior Analysis

As a feld, behavior analysis would
be well served to develop strategies to
infuence the behavior of its constituents
with respect to the issues discussed in
this paper. Any reasonable approach
to such infuence will undoubtedly be
multi-faceted, and the actions suggested
below constitute only some of the many
possible strategies.

Promote Skeptical Research and
Scholarship

As mentioned in the previous
section, specifc recommendations about
how to behave skeptically are lacking in
the published literature. As I assembled
the suggestions for this paper, I found
myself wanting a more comprehensive
functional analysis of skeptical behavior.

That is, under what conditions are
we likely to say someone is skeptical
or that they are behaving skeptically?
Conceivably, if some such conditions
are identifed, then steps can be taken
to evaluate ways to teach a skeptical
repertoire to students, professionals and
paraprofessionals, families, and behavior
analysts alike. Some research does
exist in this vein, though conducted
for different purposes. For example, a
recent article by McKenzie, Wixted, and
Noelle (2004) describes a method to
evaluate the skepticism of experimental
subjects about the possible answers
provided in a forced-choice task.
Though in the context of this particular
study skepticism was an undesirable
characteristic, presumably such work also
could be used to identify conditions that
might be altered to enhance skepticism.

As a way to foster skeptical research
and analysis by behavior analysts,
explicit solicitation of such papers for
behavior analytic journals is an obvious
move. The very journal you are reading
seems a particularly appropriate vehicle
for this work, but such articles would
also be at home in other outlets. One
might publish a review of existing studies
evaluating a controversial treatment
or summarizing the evidence-based
consensus for an effective intervention
in Behavior Analysis in Practice (BAP),
an experimental evaluation of a fad
therapy in the Journal of Applied
Behavior Analysis (JABA), or an analysis
of the potential controlling variables for
skeptical or credulous verbal behavior
in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior or
The Behavior Analyst. Such work is not
without precedent in behavior analytic
journals (e.g., the excellent experimental
evaluation of facilitated communication
by Montee, Miltenberger, & Wittrock,
1995), but it is not common.

Highlight Non-Behavior Analytic Work
with Implications for Behavior Analysts

In a manner similar to JABA’s
effort some years ago to highlight basic
behavioral research of potential interest
to applied behavior analysts, journals
such as JABA or BAP could devote a

section to reporting on work outside of
mainstream behavior analytic circles that
nonetheless bears on behavioral research
or practice. For example, recent articles
have appeared in Current Directions in
Psychological Science questioning the
validity of claims that there is an autism
epidemic (Gernsbacher, Dawson, &
Goldsmith, 2005), and in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences
demonstrating that contingent, but
not noncontingent, maternal attention
shapes infant speech (Goldstein, King,
& West, 2003). Behavior analysts
might not review the contents of such
journals on a regular basis or at all and,
consequently, are likely to overlook
research quite relevant to their interests.

Additionally, workshops and
symposia focusing on controversial
therapies could be featured events for
continuing education at regional and
national conferences. These workshops
or symposia might not focus specifcally
on behavior analytic techniques or
theory, but could involve careful scientifc
analysis of research and practice relevant
to behavior analysis. It seems only
reasonable that steps be taken to ensure
that professional behavior analysts keep
abreast of developments in behavioral
science and practice, and not just
attend programs that rehash the same
old material originating from the same
group of researchers and practitioners.

Organizational Position Statements

Many major scientifc and
professional organizations release
offcial position statements when some
manner of ridiculousness relevant to
their purposes comes to light. The
American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) issued a statement denying any
demonstrated link between vaccines and
autism, and the American Psychological
Association (APA) issued a resolution
describing facilitated communication as
unproven and unsupported by scientifc
evidence, to cite just two examples. Our
regional and national behavior analysis
organizations have been conspicuously
quiet on such matters, though they
no less affect the research and practice

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of their constituents than they do the
constituents of AAP or APA (indeed
there is at least some overlap among the
membership of all three organizations).
Clear position statements with at least
a summary analysis of why the position
is as it is could prove a useful guide to
parents and professionals alike. An
improved interface with the media to
promote such endeavors could enhance
the effect. This might be accomplished
through the establishment of media
sections on organizational websites
to post current research summaries,
organized responses to pseudoscientifc
claims, etc., as well as the solicitation of
media coverage of national and regional
conferences, perhaps with organized
panels of experts to be spokespeople.
Progress is being made in this direction,
with the Association for Behavior
Analysis, International and the Florida
Association for Behavior Analysis
now consulting with public relations
professionals and taking these very steps.
Hopefully, this is a sign of good things
to come.

Do No Harm

Do no harm. It is the credo of the
helping professions. It is therefore a
credo for behavior analysts in practice.
Detection of and protection from
pseudoscientifc practices is an important
service for those in need who have
limited abilities to detect such foolery
themselves. Such need can arise when an
unproven therapy is used as an adjunct
to a proven therapy and, as a result, the
proven therapy is compromised in some
way. For example, suppose that a couple
has been convinced that sessions in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber will be of
great beneft to their young son recently
diagnosed with autism. Although
the parents have enrolled their son in
an intensive behavioral intervention
program in which he is making good
progress, the hyperbaric oxygen therapy
requires them to travel out of state once a
month for several days at a time. During
these travels, their son does not receive
any intensive behavioral intervention.
What harm might result from such a

diminished intensity of intervention?
We cannot know for certain, but we have
reason to be concerned. At the very least,
we know that considerable beneft can
result from early and intensive behavioral
intervention and have no evidence that
any beneft will result from the time and
money spent on the hyperbaric oxygen
therapy. If the use of such an unproven
treatment with dubious potential for
effcacy hinders more proven treatments,
it would be unwise to pursue them in
non-research settings.

Not only can precious time and
money be diverted away from useful
and proven practices, but grave physical
harm also can result. Consider the
case of the 5-year old Pennsylvania boy
who, in 2005, reportedly died following
complications from chelation therapy, a
procedure intended to rid the blood of
heavy metals erroneously assumed by
some to cause the symptoms of autism.
Or the 2000 case in which a young girl in
Colorado died from suffocation during
“rebirthing,” a form of attachment
therapy that involves wrapping the
patient in a sheet and requiring that they
force their way free, in an attempt to
mimic childbirth so that the patient is
“reborn” (for a horrifying account of this
incident, see Mercer, Sarner, & Rosa,
2003).

Pseudoscience can and has produced
harm. Behavior analysts should do
more than avoid or ignore what they
consider to be non-behavior-analytic
practices. They should take it upon
themselves to consider the scientifc and
pseudoscientifc claims being made in
their area of practice, become familiar
with the evidence for and against
these claims, and consider carefully
any potentially harmful implications
of the claims should they be adopted
as practice. When possible, they
should take active roles in the careful
experimental evaluation of their own
practices, emerging behavior analytic
practices, as well as pseudoscientifc
claims. That is, they should be scientifc
skeptics and informed behavior analytic
practitioners.

References

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T.
R. (1968). Some current dimensions
of applied behavior analysis. Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 91-97.

Barthelemy, C., Garreau, B., Leddet, I.,
Ernouf, D., Muh, J. P., & LeLord,
G. (1981). Behavioral and biological
effects of oral magnesium, vitamin
B6, and combined magnesium-B6
administration in autistic children.
Magnesium Bulletin, 3, 150-153.

Biklen, D. (1993). Notes on validation
studies of facilitated communication.
Facilitated Communication Digest, 1, 4-6.

Dawkins, R. (1995). River out of Eden:
A Darwinian view of life. New York:
Basic Books.

Gernsbacher, M. A., Dawson, M.,
Goldsmith, H. H. 2005. Three reasons
not to believe in an autism epidemic.
Current Directions in Psychological
Science,14, 55-58.

Goldstein, M. H., King, A. P., & West,
M. J. (2003). Social interaction shapes
babbling: Testing parallels between
birdsong and speech. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, 100,
8030-8035.

Howard, J. S., Sparkman, C. R., Cohen,
H. G., Green, G., & Stanislaw, H.
A. (2005). Comparison of intensive
behavior analytic and eclectic
treatments for young children with
autism. Research in Developmental
Disabilities, 26, 359-383.

Jacobson, J. W., Foxx, R. M., & Mulick,
J. A. (Eds.). (2005). Controversial
therapies for developmental disabilities:
Fad, fashion, and science in professional
practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz,
A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated
communication. American Psychologist,
50, 750-765.

Kurtz, P. (1996). CSICOP at twenty.
Skeptical Inquirer, 20, 5-8.

Lovaas, O. I. (1987). Behavioral treatment
and normal educational and intellectual
functioning in young autistic children.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 55, 3-9.

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McKenzie, C. R. M., Wixted, J. T., &
Noelle, D. C. (2004). Explaining
purportedly irrational behavior
by modeling skepticism in task
parameters: An example examining
confdence in forced-choice tasks.
Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30,
947-959.

Mercer, J., Sarner, L., & Rosa, L. (2003).
Attachment therapy on trial: The torture
and death of Candace Newmaker.
Westport, CT: Praeger.

Montee, B. B., Miltenberger, R. G., &
Wittrock, D. (1995). An experimental
analysis of facilitated communication.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
28, 189-200.

Normand, M., & Dallery, J. (2007).
Mercury rising: Exposing the vaccine-
autism myth. Skeptic, 13, 32-36.

Park, R. (2000). Voodoo science: The road
from foolishness to fraud. Oxford:
University Press.

Rimland, B., Callaway, E., & Dreyfus,
P. (1978). The effects of high doses
of vitamin B6 on autistic children: A
double-blind crossover study. American
Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 472-475.

Sagan, C. (1996). The demon-haunted
world: Science as a candle in the dark.
New York: Random House.

Sallows, G. O., & Graupner, T. D.
(2005). Intensive behavioral treatment
for children with autism: Four year
outcome predictors. American Journal
on Mental Retardation, 110, 417-438.

Shermer, M. (1997). Why people believe
weird things. New York: MJF Books.

Shook, G. L., Johnston, J. M., &
Mellichamp, F. H. (2004). Determining
essential content for applied behavior
analyst practitioners. The Behavior
Analyst, 27, 67-94.

Author Note

I would like to acknowledge the
writings of Richard Dawkins, Carl
Sagan, and Michael Shermer as primary
infuences on the present paper.
Wherever possible, I cite directly the
sources from which specifc material is
drawn. However, the overall content
of the paper cannot be meaningfully
disentangled from my extensive history
of reading the work of these three
authors. I also would like to acknowledge
the insightful comments of the reviewers
of this manuscript. Their comments
were especially useful and contributed to
a greatly improved paper.

Address correspondence to Matthew
Normand, University of the Pacifc,
Department of Psychology, 3601 Pacifc
Ave., Stockton, CA 95211. (E-mail:
mnormand@pacifc.edu.)

5th International Conference

August 7 – 10 • Oslo, Norway

ABA International’s international conferences promote behavior analysis outside the U.S.

and reach a broad population interested in behavior analysis. International delegations

help develop basic and applied behavior analysis in regions of the world where they are not

established and may require support.

We welcome you and all those interested in the philosophy, science, education, and teaching

of behavior analysis to join us in Oslo for an outstanding and educational conference!

Information pertaining to the 2009 international conference, taking place in Oslo, Norway,

is available on the ABA International Web site, at:

www abainternational org/oslo/index asp

SKEPTICISM AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 49

BAP_v1.2_p1-72.indd 49 10/10/08 8:55:57 AM

mailto:mnormand@pacific.edu

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2015, 48, 194–198 NUMBER 1 (SPRING)

DO MIRRORS FACILITATE ACQUISITION OF MOTOR IMITATION IN
CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM?

SCOTT A. MILLER, NICOLE M. RODRIGUEZ, AND AMI J. ROURKE

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER’S MUNROE-MEYER INSTITUTE

We evaluated the efficacy of a procedure that incorporated a mirror to teach gross motor imitation
with a 2-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with autistic disorder. Responses taught with a
mirror were acquired more quickly than responses taught without the mirror and were maintained
after the mirror was removed. These data indicate that a mirror can facilitate acquisition of motor
imitation.

Key words: autism, mirror, motor imitation, skill acquisition

The ability to imitate may serve as a behavioral
cusp that leads to the learning of new repertoires
(Rosales-Ruiz & Baer, 1997). For example,
imitation may facilitate the development of
social skills and language in children. Unfortu-
nately, some children with autism do not acquire
imitative skills without direct instruction (Rog-
ers & Pennington, 1991). In such cases, the use
of a mirror may promote imitation by providing
visual feedback regarding the correspondence
between the observed sample stimulus and the
position of one’s own body (Catania, 1998,
Chapter 13; Du & Greer, 2014), particularly
when the correspondence between the modeled
and imitative response cannot be easily observed
(e.g., facial expressions and hand gestures that are
not within the learner’s normal range of vision).

Recently, researchers have begun to evaluate
the effects of mirrors on imitative responding
(i.e., Du & Greer, 2014). Du and Greer (2014)
studied the effects of mirrors on imitative
responses and generalized imitation relative to
face-to-face (no-mirror) procedures in a be-
tween-groups comparison with six children
(three per group) who had been diagnosed

with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children
in the mirror condition correctly imitated and
demonstrated more novel topographies than
children in the no-mirror condition. Although
the experimental design did not allow a direct
comparison of the effects of mirror and no-
mirror methods, Du and Greer provided
preliminary evidence of the potential benefits
of incorporating mirrors to teach imitative
responding to children with ASD.

Imitative responses necessarily require the
learner to orient toward the model rather than
the topographical correspondence of their
behavior with respect to the model. A mirror
may be useful in that it allows this type of
additional visual feedback, which may facilitate
establishing the necessary discriminative control
of the model. To date, only one study (Du &
Greer, 2014) has evaluated the benefits of
including a mirror on the acquisition of imitative
behavior for children with ASD. The purpose of
the current study was to evaluate the efficiency of
teaching imitative responses using a mirror
compared to responses trained in the absence
of the mirror.

We thank Kevin C. Luczynski for his suggestions for data
display.

Address correspondence to Nicole M. Rodriguez,
Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical
Center, 985450 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha,
Nebraska 68198 (e-mail: nicole.rodriguez@unmc.edu).

doi: 10.1002/jaba.187

METHOD

Participants, Setting, and Materials
Bryce, a 2-year-old boy who had been

diagnosed with ASD, had attended a univer-
sity-based early intervention program for

194

mailto:nicole.rodriguez@unmc.edu

195 MIRRORS AND MOTOR IMITATION

2 months before his participation in the study.
Bryce was selected for participation because he
did not engage in motor imitation despite
multiple attempts to target this skill. All trials
were conducted in a cubicle (2.4 m by 1.8 m)
that contained a table, two chairs, reinforcers
(e.g., edible items and toys), pen and data sheets,
and a free-standing mirror (0.75 m by 1 m)
positioned on the floor. The mirror was present
only during sessions in which it was used for
teaching.

Design and Procedure
Mirror-present and mirror-absent conditions

were compared using an adapted alternating
treatments design (Sindelar, Rosenberg, & Wil-
son, 1985) embedded within a concurrent
multiple baseline across sets of responses. Four
pairs of responses were assigned to either the
mirror-present condition or mirror-absent con-
dition and were evaluated across two sets. For Set
1, pairs were randomly assigned to the mirror-
present and mirror-absent conditions. For Set 2,
the pair associated with the highest level of
responding during baseline was assigned to the
mirror-absent condition to allow a more compel-
ling demonstration of the effects of the mirror.

Pair 1 included hands on cheeks and arms out
to the side; Pair 2 included touch eye and raise
arm; Pair 3 included touch nose and touch
stomach; and Pair 4 included touch ear and
touch shoulder. Target responses in each pair
were quasirandomly distributed across a 10-trial
session so that no target response was presented
consecutively for more than two trials. To
control for the visual feedback provided by the
mirror, we selected response topographies that
were not within the participant’s normal range of
vision (e.g., touch ear). Across all conditions,
reinforcers were selected from a one-trial multi-
ple-stimulus-without-replacement preference as-
sessment (similar to DeLeon & Iwata, 1996) that
was conducted before each session.

Baseline (differential reinforcement). The mir-
ror was not present during baseline for either

condition. Bryce and the therapist sat in chairs
facing each other. The therapist obtained eye
contact and said “do this” while modeling the
response. Prompts were not provided, and
incorrect responses received no programmed
consequence. Praise and edible reinforcement
were delivered contingent on correct imitation.

Interventions: Mirror present versus mirror
absent. We used progressive prompt-delay (Char-
lop, Schreibman, & Thibodeau, 1985) and
prompt-fading procedures during both mirror-
present and mirror-absent conditions to transfer
stimulus control from prompts to the discrim-
inative stimuli (i.e., modeled response). For
sessions with the mirror present, Bryce sat on the
floor facing the mirror with the therapist
positioned behind and to the right of him. The
therapist obtained eye contact in the mirror before
delivering the instruction. During the mirror-
absent condition, the therapist and Bryce were
seated in chairs facing each other, and the therapist
obtained eye contact before delivering the in-
struction. The mirror was added to Pair 2 after 28
sessions without an increase in correct responding.

The prompting steps included (a) 0 s to full
physical; (b) 2 s to full physical; (c) 0 s to partial
physical, then 2 s to full physical if Bryce did not
correctly complete the response; and (d) 2 s to
full physical. A second therapist, positioned
behind Bryce, provided all full and partial
physical prompts during both conditions. The
mirror was introduced at the 0 s to full physical
prompt step for responses assigned to the mirror
condition. We then introduced a 2-s delay to the
full physical prompt to assess transfer of stimulus
control after exposure to the 0-s prompting
sessions. Because an increase in correct respond-
ing was not observed and errors consisted of
incorrect responses rather than no responses, we
introduced a 0 s to partial physical/2 s to full
physical prompt as an intermediate step for
transferring stimulus control from the physical
prompt to the model while the potential for
errors was reduced (Wolery & Gast, 1984).
During the partial physical prompt, the therapist

196 SCOTT A. MILLER et al.

placed two fingers under Bryce’s forearm and
immediately guided the response halfway to
completion (partial physical prompts were
operationally defined per response to ensure
consistency of implementation across sessions).
The delay was increased to a 2-s delay to a full
physical prompt after two consecutive sessions in
which Bryce correctly completed the response on
at least 90% of trials. As in baseline, praise and
edible reinforcers were delivered contingent on
correct responding across all sessions during both
mirror-present and mirror-absent conditions.

Mastery was defined as three consecutive
sessions at or above 90% independent correct
responding. Three to 5 days after responses
taught with feedback from the mirror reached
mastery, we conducted a probe session to
evaluate whether correct responding would
persist without feedback from the mirror.

Response measurement, interobserver agreement,
and procedural integrity. Observers collected
data on Bryce’s correct, incorrect, and mirror-
orienting behavior. Correct responses were defined
as imitating the model of the primary therapist
within the specified prompt delay. Incorrect
responses were defined as any motor movement
other than the target behavior during the prompt
delay. Mirror orienting was defined as Bryce
making eye contact with the therapist through
the mirror’s reflection. During the partial
prompting procedure, a correct response was
scored if Bryce independently completed the
response after partial guidance. Data were
converted to a percentage of trials with correct
imitation for the purpose of data analysis. A
second observer collected data during 42% of
sessions. Interobserver agreement was calculated
by dividing the number of agreements by the
number of trials in a session (10) and converting
the result to a percentage. An agreement was
scored when each data collector recorded the
same response during a trial. Mean agreement
was 99% (range, 90% to 100%). The same
observer simultaneously collected procedural
integrity data on correct delivery of the

instruction, orientation of Bryce toward the
therapist or therapist’s reflection in the mirror,
and implementation of prompting and rein-
forcement contingencies. Each of these proce-
dures needed to be implemented correctly for a
trial to be recorded as correct. Integrity was
assessed for 33% of all sessions and ranged from
93% to 100%, with a mean of 99.6%.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 1 shows the results of our evaluation.
Correct responding was low during baseline
across all sets, suggesting that differential re-
inforcement alone was insufficient to promote
acquisition of the imitative response. Overall,
when the intervention phase was introduced,
correct responding increased more rapidly for
pairs of responses in the mirror-present condition
(28 sessions to mastery for Pairs 1 and 3) than in
the mirror-absent condition (57 and 54 sessions
to mastery for Pairs 2 and 4, respectively). Correct
responding for Pair 2 remained low throughout
the mirror-absent condition. After we introduced
the mirror with Pair 2, responding reached
mastery and remained high when the mirror
was removed. The relative efficiency of teaching
with feedback from the mirror was replicated for
Set 2. Specifically, although mastery was even-
tually achieved in the mirror-absent condition
(Pair 4), almost twice as many sessions were
required than during the mirror-present con-
dition (Pair 3). Thus, the current results provide
evidence, in addition to previous work (e.g., Du
& Greer, 2014), of the positive effects of mirrors
on imitative responding in children with ASD.

One limitation of this study is that, in contrast
to patterns of responding for Pair 2, mastery
levels were eventually observed for no-mirror
responses in Pair 4. One plausible explanation is
that generalized imitation (Du & Greer, 2014;
Stokes & Baer, 1977) might have emerged as a
result of multiple imitative responses having
already been acquired in the mirror-present
conditions (i.e., multiple-exemplar training). In

197 MIRRORS AND MOTOR IMITATION

Figure 1. Percentage correct imitation across Pair 1 (top panel), Pair 2 (second panel), Pair 3 (third panel), and Pair 4
(bottom panel) during baseline and intervention (mirror present vs. mirror absent).

this way, our results were consistent with those of
Du and Greer (2014). It should be noted,
however, that caution should be used with regard
to conclusions that pertain to possible relations
between the use of the mirror and generalized
imitation given that (a) the effects were delayed
and (b) we did not isolate this potential effect
within the context of the experimental design.
Differences in difficulty between mirror and no-
mirror responses, as might be suggested from the
relatively higher levels of accurate responding
during baseline, could have also contributed to
the acquisition of Pair 4 without the mirror. As
previously noted, the pair in Set 2 with the
highest accuracy was assigned to the no-mirror
condition to allow a more compelling demon-
stration of the effects of feedback from the

mirror. It is also worth noting that, like Pair 4,
Pair 2 may have eventually been acquired with
additional exposure to the teaching procedures in
the absence of the mirror. Nevertheless, our
results suggest that feedback from a mirror may
be a more efficient means of teaching imitation,
particularly for individuals in the early stages of
developing a motor imitation repertoire.

As previously noted, we selected responses that
did not easily allow visual feedback without a
mirror to control for the presence of visual
feedback. Differential rates of acquisition under
these conditions provide empirical support for
Catania’s (1998) notion that a mirror may be
beneficial in that it provides feedback between
the modeled and imitative responses. However, it
is unclear whether the mirror would have

198 SCOTT A. MILLER et al.

provided any additional advantage had all of the
target responses been within the child’s normal
range of vision (e.g., hand or arm gestures that
extended in front of the child). It is also
unknown whether initially targeting movements
that are within a child’s normal range of vision
(e.g., clapping hands) would facilitate general-
ization of imitation across movements outside
this range. Thus, future research should evaluate
the effects of using mirrors to target movement
within the normal range of vision.
Future research should assess the generality of

these findings by replicating this procedure
across individuals with similar prerequisite skills
and skill deficits. Future research might also
evaluate the effects of differences in the position
of the therapist in relation to the child (e.g., the
therapist models responses in front of or next to
the child during mirror or no-mirror condi-
tions). The use of a mirror might also be useful in
correcting inaccurate imitative responses such as
when a child waves his or her hand with the palm
facing him- or herself (e.g., during greetings).

REFERENCES

Catania, A. C. (1998). Learning (4th ed.). Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Charlop, M. H., Schreibman, L., & Thibodeau, M. G.
(1985). Increasing spontaneous verbal responding in
autistic children using a time delay procedure. Journal

of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 155–166. doi:
10.1901/jaba.1985.18-155

DeLeon, I. G., & Iwata, B. A. (1996). Evaluation of a
multiple-stimulus presentation format for assessing
reinforcer preferences. Journal of Applied Behavior
Analysis, 29, 519–533. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1996.
29-519

Du, L., & Greer, R. D. (2014). Validation of adult
generalized imitation topographies and the emer-
gence of generalized imitation in young children with
autism as a function of mirror training. The
Psychological Record, 64, 161–177. doi: 10.1007/
s40732-014-0050-y

Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1991). A theoretical
approach to the deficits in infantile autism. Develop-
ment and Psychopathology, 3, 137–162. doi: 10.1017/
S0954579400000043

Rosales-Ruiz, J., & Baer, D. M. (1997). Behavioral cusps: A
developmental and pragmatic concept for behavior
analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30,
533–544. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1997.30-533

Sindelar, P. T., Rosenberg, M. S., & Wilson, R. J. (1985).
An adapted alternating treatments design for instruc-
tional research. Education and Treatment of Children, 8,
67–76.

Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology
of generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
10, 349–367. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1977.10-349

Wolery, M., & Gast, D. L. (1984). Effective and efficient
procedures for the transfer of stimulus control. Topics
in Early Childhood Special Education, 4, 52–77. doi:
10.1177/027112148400400305

Received February 19, 2014
Final acceptance August 24, 2014
Action Editor, Terry Falcomata

Journal of Behavioral Education, Vol 1, No. 2, 1991, pp. 253-266

Precision Teaching’s Unique Legacy from B.
F. Skinner

Ogden R. Lindsley, Ph.D.1’2

Accepted: February 27, 1991. Action Editor: R. Douglas Greer__________________

Precision Teaching’s unique legacy from B. F. Skinner was the monitoring
system of rate of response and the cumulative response recorder. This legacy
is unique because the other instructional systems derived from Skinner’s work
do not use his monitoring method exclusively. Rate of response, cumulative
recording and their extension to Precision Teaching’s standard celeration chart
ing are briefly described. In addition, Precision Teaching’s nature, history, costs,
distribution, inductive data-base, and academic base are briefly described.
Skinner’s legacy to education was a sound behavioral scientific base and his
unique legacy to Precision Teaching was self-monitoring for real time decision
making by learners and teachers. ___

KEY WORDS: Precision Teaching; Skinner; rate of response; cumulative recorder; standard
celeration chart.

INTRODUCTION

Precision Teaching inherited “rate of response” and “cumulative
response recording” from B. F Skinner. This legacy is unique since
Precision Teaching is the only instructional system derived from Skinner’s
work to use his monitoring method exclusively. Other instructional systems
adopted Skinner’s descriptive language, reinforcement strategies, response
shaping, and stimulus fading strategies, but not his behavior monitoring
methods. This is surprising because Skinner considered rate of response

Professor Emeritus, School of Education, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
Correspondence should be directed to Ogden Lindsley, School of Education, University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045.

1053-0819/91/0600-0253$06.50/0 © 1991 Human Sciences Press, Inc.

.

255 254 Lindsley

and the cumulative response recorder to be his major contributions (Skinner,
1976).

WHAT IS RATE OF RESPONSE?

The rate of response can be defined as behavioral events or products
per unit time (e.g., number per minute). Rate was the measure of operant
behavior used in the animal laboratories (Ferster & Skinner, 1957; Keller &
Schoenfeld, 1950; Skinner, 1938). In Precision Teaching the term fre-
quency is used instead of rate because it is more readily understood by
non-psychologists. Furthermore in one of his more general books, Skinner
(1953, p. 62) himself used the term frequency when describing behavior.

It was Skinner’s use of rate of response as a measure of operant be-
havior that convinced me to switch from research in electrophysiological
psychology to study animal and human learning with him. My early under-
graduate studies in engineering and biology taught me the power of standard
measurement of things on frequency spectra. When we looked at light
qualities we accomplished little, but when we looked at light merely as dif-
ferences on a frequency spectrum, we accomplished wonders of radiance.
When we listened to sound qualities, we accomplished little, but when we
placed sounds on a frequency spectrum we developed instruments and
amplifiers far purer than the best ever crafted by quality artisans. When
we puzzled over differences in the qualities of electricity, we accomplished
little, but when we sprinkled electrical events over a frequency spectrum,
we made great strides in electrical control and discovery.

Skinner often said in classes, “Rate is a universal datum,” but he had
recorded only the frequencies of lever pressing by rats and key pecking by
pigeons. In Skinner’s statement, I saw the opportunity for putting all be-
havior of all organisms on a frequency spectrum, as previously had been
done with light, sound, and electricity. In our laboratory research on
chronic psychotics, I had recorded the frequencies of human plunger pulling,
pacing, talking, looking and listening (Lindsley, 1956, 1960, 1962). Once we
had all behaviors plotted on a frequency spectrum, I was convinced major
behavioral discoveries would soon follow.

Now, after collecting tens of thousands of records of hundreds of dif-
ferent behaviors, I am convinced that frequency is much more than
Skinner’s universal datum. I am convinced that frequency is actually a
dimension of behavior. When you change the frequency, you have changed
the behavior. Just as frequency is a dimension of light, sound, and
electricity, frequency is a dimension of behavior. Frequency should not be

Precision Teaching

Table 1. A Comparison of Cumulative Response Record Grids
Rat speeda Human speedb Pigeon speedc

Degrees R/min Degrees R/min Degrees R/min

80 80 79 180

64
45
27
15

8 64
4 45
2 27
1 15

40
20
10
5

60
42
24

60
30
15

aSkinner (1938). bLindsley
(1962). cFerster & Skinner
(1957).

considered a mere measure of behavior, it is a dimension of behavior. You
have not accurately described a behavior until you have stated its frequency. In
a recent article, I detailed why and how I went from human laboratory
research at Harvard into teacher education at Kansas in order to place
frequency recording in classrooms (Lindsley, 1990a). Early appliers of
behavior analysis were recording rate of response in their pre-school
laboratories, but recording percent correct in their pre-school classrooms
They told me that you could not get teachers to record frequencies. This
was problematic because our laboratory research had shown human be-
havior frequencies to be 10 to 100 times more sensitive to changes in pro-
cedures than percent correct (Lindsley, 1962). Details of the sensitivity and
rationale for frequency have been fully described elsewhere (Johnston &
Pennypacker, 1980).

WHAT IS CUMULATIVE RESPONSE RECORDING?

A cumulative response record plots the cumulative number of re-
sponses vertically up the left of the chart, against time in minutes along
the bottom of the chart. Cumulative records display changes in rate of
response (frequency) as changes in the slope of the curve in real time while
the behavior is in progress (Ferster & Skinner, 1957, p. 725).

Equally important additional features of cumulative recording not
usually noted in publications are:

(1). Self recording. “All the curves given in this book … are
photographic reproductions of records made directly by the rats them-
selves” (Skinner, 1938, p. 60).

(2). Objective and reliable. “At no point does the experimenter inter-
vene for purposes of interpretation” (Skinner, 1938, p. 60).

256 257 Lindsley

(3). Slope. Slope is performance which has 2 dimensions (number per
minute).

(4). Slopes are standard. The cumulative response recorders were
standardized for the three major species studied in free operant conditioning
(see Table 1). This was achieved by changing the speed gears that turned
the paper drums, thus changing the bottom time lines of the charts. Standard
grids were printed for pasting on the cumulative records for publication.

(5). Displays major changes. Note that the grids above represent about
equal angular changes (12 to 18 degrees) for major changes in frequency
(doublings). Skinner often said this keeps you from wasting your time at-
tending to trivial changes in behavior.

(6). Frequencies displayed on a multiply scale. Note also that the ap-
proximately equal changes in angle represent doublings in the frequencies
(rate/min). This means that the cumulative records display frequencies on a
times 2 multiply scale. Equal angles of grid lines represent a times 2 scale.

The main advantage of standard slopes is that you eventually learn
the value of each slope and do not have to make measurements from charts or
refer to grids to see frequencies, assess learning, and estimate the magnitude
of change.

A cumulative response record always should be read with a frequency
grid calibrating the exact number per minute for different angles of slope.
Cumulative records published without grids show that the author is not
really reading slopes, but is simply using his/her cumulative record to display
total number (up the left) and total time taken (across the bottom). This is
using the cumulative record as little more than a graphical table of number
and time.

PRECISION TEACHING’S EXTENSION OF CUMULATIVE
RECORDING

Precision Teaching took the slope (number per minute) of Skinner’s
cumulative records and charted it up the left of the standard celeration
chart on a logarithmic scale. Calendar days were charted across the bottom,
taking 140 days (20 weeks) to cover one school semester. The chart was
made to fit landscape form, the horizontal on the 11-inch side of an 8.5 by
11-inch page. The size was designed to fit on the projection stage of
overhead projectors and computer display screens.

The frequencies up the left of the chart went from 1 per day through 1
per minute up to 1000 per minute. This covered six times ten cycles (log

Precision Teaching

Fig. 1. Sample standard celeration chart. Ann’s daily chart of her learning to hear-write her
spelling words correctly over two weeks of practice.

cycles) on the chart. The size was adjusted so that a line from the lower
left corner to the upper right corner (an angle of 34 degrees) represented a
doubling in frequency every seven days. This is a celeration of times 2 per
week. The reason we call the charts standard celeration charts is because a
diagonal corner to corner slope is times 2 and 34 degrees on all the charts.
The standard is in the meaning of the slope just as was the case with the
cumulative record. In fact, the cumulative record would more properly have
been called the standard frequency record, describing it by its slope rather
than by its vertical scale.

As an example, Figure 1 displays Ann’s standard celeration chart for
her 40 spelling words from lessons 3 and 4 of her spelling book (from Mc-
Greevy, 1981). Ann is 9 years old, in 4th grade, and calls this “my learning
picture chart.” Her aim is 40 words spelled correctly in 2 minutes. Her
daily countings began Monday, and were as follows: Mon.-4 correct and
12 incorrect; Tue.-8 and 10; Wed.-6 and 4; Thur.-12 and 5; Fri.-10 and

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the extension of free operant
conditioning’s cumulative response record to Precision Teaching’s
standard celeration chart.

4; Mon.-14 and 4; Tue.-20 and 3; Wed.-16 and 0; Thur.-31 and 2; and
Fri.-40 and 0.

Standard charting symbols are used in the figure. The dates at the top
of the chart at two of the wider Sunday lines synchronize the days with the
calendar. The “A” symbol indicates her aim with the point located on the
Monday line on which she set her aim. The elongated arms of the “A” rest
on the frequency line of her set aim of 20 words correct per minute. The
number of words written correctly per minute is charted with a “dot” on
each day of practice. The number of words spelled incorrectly each day is
charted with a small “x” on the day line. The duration of the practice
sessions is indicated by a horizontal dash drawn between the Tuesday and
Thursday line of the week at the frequency of one in that practice period.
This is called the “record floor,” and in this case of 2 minutes of practice
the floor is on the 0.5 per minute line. Ann wrote her name, age, grade,
practice subject (spelling words), and channel used (hear-write) on her
chart for identification.

Ann’s learning picture is called “Jaws Crossover” (All, 1977). Since
her chart shows she can learn rapidly when entering a curriculum with only 1
correct for every 3 incorrect (25% correct), she knows that she has the
courage to leap up the curriculum. Ann has broken the bounds of “accuracy
addiction” which cripples the majority of our public school teachers and
students. Accuracy addicts cannot enter curricula at accuracies below 4 correct
for every 2 incorrect (60% correct).

Another way to look at the relationship between cumulative records
and standard celeration charts is that the charts are the first derivative of
cumulative records. The slope of a cumulative record is number per minute. It
has two dimensions and records performance. The slope of a standard
celeration chart is number per minute per week. It has three dimensions
and records learning.

Figure 2 diagrams the extension of Skinner’s legacy, the cumulative
record, to its derivative, the standard celeration chart.

Both scales of the cumulative record are add scales, that is, equal
distances represent equal additions or subtractions on the scale. The
horizontal time scale on the standard celeration chart also is an add scale
but the vertical scale on which frequencies (number per minute) are
charted is a multiply scale. Equal distances on this scale represent equal
multiplications or divisions. The frequencies are plotted on a multiply scale so
that the celeration slopes will project as straight lines (Koenig, 1972).

If we could locate environments interested in maximizing learning,
and could generate high celerations over and over again in the same
learners, we would be in a position to study and display the learning of
learning. Then, we would need the second derivative of cumulative records
which would be the first derivative of standard celeration charts. The slope of
the standard celeration chart, number per minute per week, would be up
the left of the chart, and months or years along the bottom of the chart. The
slope of this standard celeration of celeration chart would have four
dimensions: number per minute per week per month.

There is so little current interest in major learning gains in public
schools, however, that we can’t even get the standard celeration chart in
wide use (Watkins, 1988). Interest in producing large performance gains is
also weak in the scientific literature. The pay-off to the academic scientist is
number of pages published rather than magnitude of behavior change
produced. Indeed, even the standard cumulative record has disappeared
from behavioral journals (Barrett, 1987; Skinner, 1976). Therefore, it will
probably be a very long time before we see a need for four dimensions on
standard celeration of celeration charts.

WHAT IS PRECISION TEACHING?

Precision Teaching is adjusting the curricula for each learner to max-
imize the learning shown on the learner’s personal standard celeration
chart. The instruction can be by any method or approach. For example, the
most effective applications of Precision Teaching have been when it is
combined with Direct Instruction (Johnson, 1989; Maloney & Humphrey,

1982). The materials are derived from Direct Instruction and the curricular
change decisions, fluency aims and one-minute practice sessions are from
Precision Teaching.

The precision comes from making curricula changes based on changes in
the weekly learning of each student. The weekly learning changes are seen
on standard celeration charts. The frequencies of correct and incorrect
responses of each subject are recorded daily on separate standard charts.
Because of the normal daily variation in performance frequency, it takes
one to two weeks (5 to 10 daily frequencies) to project a learning course
and to determine a change in learning. Details of Precision Teaching tech-
niques, timing and charting have been described extensively in previous
publications (Binder, 1988; Lindsley, 1990a, 1990b; McGreevy, 1981; Pen-
nypacker, Koenig & Lindsley, 1972; West, Young & Spooner, 1990; White
1986) and in a special issue of Teaching Exceptional Children (spring, 1990),
and will not be repeated here.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRECISION TEACHING

We began Precision Teaching, in 1965, in self-contained special
education classrooms of the Children’s Rehabilitation Unit at the University
of Kansas Medical Center (Lindsley, 1964, 1966). The first pupil behaviors
that were self-monitored were mostly the handicapping conditions selected
for rehabilitation (Koenig, 1967; Slezak, 1969). These projects were so
successful that soon the teachers were working on the special education
children’s primary and elementary academic skills (Edwards, 1969; Fink,
1968).

In the early 1970s, mostly through the work of Eric Haughton and
his students at the University of Oregon, self-monitoring of academic
products moved into class-wide regular elementary classrooms (Haughton,
1972; Johnson, 1971; Starlin, A., 1971, 1972; Starlin, C. M., 1970).

In the middle 1970s, large scale district- and state-wide projects at-
tracted federal government funding and trained large numbers of teachers in
Precision Teaching (Beck, 1976; Sokolove, 1978; Willis, 1974). The
projects moved up through high school and state-wide and nation-wide dis-
semination projects (Beck, 1981).

HOW COSTLY IS PRECISION TEACHING?

By 1984, Precision Teaching was well established in many kindergarten
through 12th grade regular education classrooms. Albrecht (1984) sur-

veyed 10 Precision Teaching programs and found that 276 (57%) schools
out of 477 in the sample were using Precision Teaching. Of the teachers,
848 (8%) out of 10,540 were using Precision Teaching. Of the pupils, 15,085
(8%) out of 178,434 were using Precision Teaching. The costs for the first
training year ranged from $25 to $8000, with a median of $300 per year
per teacher. The costs for subsequent years ranged from $5 to $400, with a
median of $60 per teacher per year, or only $3.50 per pupil per year
(Albrecht, 1984).

HOW WIDESPREAD IS PRECISION TEACHING?

Some estimates indicated that from 2,000 to 20,000 teachers and
34,000 to 340,000 pupils internationally have used Precision Teaching
(Beck, 1981). A. Starlin (1986) surveyed 15 principals previously well-
trained in Precision Teaching to see if they were still charting and whether
they had introduced Precision Teaching into their schools. Seven (47%)
had discontinued charting, and seven (47%) had one or more of their
teachers charting. Only one had a building-wide program with all teachers
and all students charting. The principals who charted reported significantly (p
= .02) more rewards from staff and parents for student learning than those
principals that discontinued charting (A. Starlin, 1986).

The currently most effective state-wide Precision Teaching program is
in Utah. Because of its low tax base, Utah has fewer dollars per student for
education than other states, yet its students perform better on national tests
than most other states. The most secure Precision Teaching programs are
located in four private for-profit schools. The Learning Center, Belleville,
Ontario; Morningside School, Seattle, Washington; Ben Bronz Academy,
Hartford, Connecticut; and the Haughton Learning Center, Napa,
California, all have comprehensive Precision Teaching programs. According to
the administrators of these private schools, it takes about 2 years to establish
a stable referral base in the community. They found that the best start was
through a summer school catch-up program, and later including full-time
elementary grades. The best advertising was local weekly newspapers
combined with word of mouth recommendations from parents of successful
students.

Private Precision Teaching schools seem able to charge the highest
tuitions in their region because they regularly produce four times greater
student gains than the other local private and public schools. Most promise
money back if students do not gain at least two years in performance in
one year at the school. Private schools can give learning commissions to
pupils, teachers, staff and parents when pupils reach their aims. Further

they also can develop their own curriculum and are free to exceed the
lock-step scope and sequence of public school curricula.

Computer-based Precision Teaching programs require high frequency
operation (above 60 per minute) to reach fluency aims. They also require
separate recording of both the number correct per minute and the number
incorrect per minute. To date, 17 Precision Teaching-based computer
programs are available: five are authoring systems, five are tutorials, four
are teaching aids, and three are classroom management aids (Spence &
Maloney, 1990).

PRECISION TEACHING’S INDUCTIVE DATA BASE

Skinner’s (1950, 1956) laboratory research on free operant conditioning
was data-up to conclusion (inductive) rather than theory-down to data
(deductive). Skinner’s three research areas (free-operant conditioning with
rats, schedules of reinforcement with pigeons, and programmed instruction
with humans) were all data-up or inductive.

Precision Teaching follows Skinner’s data-based laboratory research
strategies. This research was perhaps the richest body of inductive be-
havioral research conducted since Pavlov. We can assign numbers to the
ratio of induction by dividing the number of records that were collected
by the number that were published.

The need to maintain thousands of charts that provide many teachers
and scientists ready access to valuable data prompted a computerized data
base. Beginning in 1967, the Behavior Bank collected information on
precise management projects. The projects were recorded on five optical
character read forms and deposited in a main frame computer. The infor-
mation included: individuals involved in projects, behaviors recorded and
their frequencies, situations in which the projects took place, improvements in
performance, and procedures used in the projects. The students were
identified by social security numbers and/or initials and full names (Koenig,
1971).

The Behavior Bank provided scientists access to a standard data bank
from which they could obtain effective procedures and check out ideas on
each other’s data. It also tested the observation that all behavior perfor-
mance frequencies lived in the multiply world. The spread of performance
frequencies within groups of learners was approximately the same multiple,
independent of the behavior. The up-spread of a distribution of frequencies
within a school classroom was an equal multiple to the down-spread of the
class. Daily frequencies bounced by equal multiples, and frequencies ac-
celerated and decelerated by multiplying. These data justified charting be-

havior frequencies on standard celeration charts with a multiply (logarithmic)
scale. A summary of the Behavior Bank data base from 1967 through 1971
was published as the Handbook of Precise Behavioral Facts (Lindsley et al.,
1971).

The major conclusions from the data stored in the Behavior Bank
were:

(1). Behavior frequencies celerate, bounce and spread in multiples,
and should be charted on multiply scales (Koenig, 1972).

(2). A split-half check of the reliability of the data showed that little
more was found by doubling the size of the data base from 6,000 projects to
almost 12,000. Therefore, there was no need to further enlarge the data base
to make these general conclusions.

(3). The results based on the 11,436 directly banked projects were
similar to those based on 511 journal projects. This showed that the banked
projects were as valuable as the refereed journal data and 35 times more
numerous.

(4). Many different programmed and arranged procedures were
equally effective on the same behavior. There were no best stimuli and no
best rewards. This stopped our search for the ideal procedure for a par-
ticular behavioral problem, and sparked our axiom “different strokes for
different folks.”

PRECISION TEACHING’S ACADEMIC BASE

In the 25 years that I taught at the University of Kansas, School of
Education, I have advised 44 doctoral dissertations, 28 Ph.D.s and 16
Ed.D.s. Of these, 38 (86%) related to Precision Teaching or standard
celeration charting. Of the 38 chart-related doctorates, 15 (39%) are now
charting.

Doctoral and Masters degrees, specializing in Precision Teaching, can
be obtained from over ten major universities, including East Tennessee
State, Florida, Florida State, Fullerton State, Jacksonville State, Kansas,
Lincoln, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, Utah State, Victoria BC.,
Washington, Western Washington, West Virginia, and Youngstown State.

Research on Precision Teaching is published in the Journal of
Precision Teaching, as well as in other journals. This journal has published
158 articles on Precision Teaching to date. Precision Teaching’s scientific
literature contains 45 doctoral dissertations and 423 published references
(Eshleman, 1990). Precision Teaching has held annual international con-
ferences for the past twelve years, with 300 to 500 participants. Over the
past 25 years, a total of 799 presentations have been made, with 368 at

the Association for Behavior Analysis conventions and 381 at the Interna­
tional Precision Teaching Conferences (Eshleman, 1990).

SUMMARY

B. F. Skinner’s legacy to education was a sound behavioral scientific
base in place of philosophical conjecture and fads. His unique legacy to
Precision Teaching was rate of response and the cumulative response re­
corder. The self-charted cumulative recorder displayed performance (number
per minute) on standard slopes for real time decision making . Precision
Teaching continued the exclusive monitoring of performance frequency,
and extended cumulative response recording to standard celeration charting.
The self-charted standard celeration charts display learning (celeration or
number per minute per week) on standard slopes for real time educational
decision making by learners and by teachers.

REFERENCES

Albrecht, P. L. (1984). Summary of ten major school Precision Teaching programs. Unpublished
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Kansas.

All, P. (1977). From get truckin’ to Jaws, students improve their learning picture. Unpublished
master’s Thesis, University of Kansas.

Barrett, B. H. (1987). Drifting? Course? Destination?: A review of research methods in applied
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289 COMMENTARY

ACHIEVING PARITY: THE ROLE OF
AUTOMATIC REINFORCEMENT

DAVID C. PALMER

SMITH COLLEGE

The central insight of Horne and Lowe’s
article is the importance of the role played by
the discriminative effects of one’s speech
upon one’s self. Informed by this insight,
Horne and Lowe provide a parsimonious and
coherent interpretation of the behavior said
to show equivalence relations, exploiting only
established concepts of behavior analysis. I
am enthusiastic about both the goals and ac­
complishments of the article and therefore
will confine myself to suggesting an elabora­
tion or refinement of one or two ideas lightly
covered by the authors, particularly the role
of automatic reinforcement in the shaping of
the speaker’s behavior (cf. Skinner, 1957, p.
164, 1979, p. 283; Sundberg, 1980;Vaughan
& Michael, 1982).

Speech is special in that we stimulate our­
selves in just the same way and at the same
moment we stimulate others. This is a char­
acteristic not entirely shared by sign lan­
guage, because the appearance of a sign var­
ies with the location of the viewer; typically
the speaker and the listener view signs from
opposite sides. Although subtle, this differ­
ence should impair the acquisition of naming
in sign language relative to that of speech,
because listener behavior is under the control
of stimuli that the speaker can never quite
reproduce. Moreover, we might expect more
idiosyncrasies, or accents, among signers than
among speakers.

The auditory feedback from one’s speech
can play a special role for a speaker who is
already a competent listener. Horne and
Lowe allude to the discriminative control that
such feedback exerts over orienting behavior
and note that this control contributes greatly
to our understanding of performance in re­
search on equivalence classes. They also refer
to the potential reinforcing function that

Correspondence concerning this commentary should
be addressed to the author at the Department of Psy­
chology, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
01063 (E-mail: dcpalmer@science.smith.edu).

such feedback can provide, assuming that the
verbal stimuli already function as conditioned
reinforcers. A stimulus may be automatically
reinforcing if it has been paired with uncon­
ditioned reinforcers; thus, as Horne and
Lowe observe, “the sounds and words uttered
by parents may function as potent classically
conditioned stimuli that have strong emo­
tional effects on the child so that when she
hears her own replication of these vocal pat­
terns she generates stimuli that have similarly
strong reinforcing consequences” (p. 198).
Presumably, then, there may be a reinforcing
effect of hearing one’s self say, “Good job,”
because such expressions from parents are
likely to serve a reinforcing function.

Horne and Lowe do not make much of this
point, and rightly so: We would expect only
a relatively few verbal stimuli to function as
conditioned reinforcers. Moreover, presum­
ably one quickly discriminates between the
praise of another and one’s own; the former
is far more precious. The reinforcing effec­
tiveness of verbal stimuli quickly becomes
conditional on other variables.

However, the feedback from one’s own
speech plays a different sort of reinforcing
function that I will argue is far more impor­
tant in the shaping and development of ver­
bal behavior. One’s own utterances can shape
and maintain one’s behavior, not because of
the specific stimulus properties of the verbal
stimuli, but because of the parity of such stim­
uli with practices of the verbal community.
That is, a speaker who is already an accom­
plished listener can detect when he or she
conforms or deviates from typical verbal prac­
tices. Under most circumstances, people find
parity of their speech with that of others to
be reinforcing and deviations from parity to
be punishing. The child who says “Tarry
me!” does not have to receive explicit differ­
ential consequences from the verbal com­
munity when she eventually learns to utter
“Carry me!” She knows instantly that she has

mailto:dcpalmer@science.smith.edu

290 COMMENTARY

achieved parity, because, as Horne and Lowe
observe, her repertoire as listener typically
precedes her repertoire as speaker.

Achieving parity is a conceptually awkward
sort of reinforcer. It is not a stimulus. It is a
particular kind of response, a recognition
that one has conformed. It is difficult to mea­
sure, even to operationalize; thus, in our in­
terpretations of the acquisition of verbal be­
havior it is seldom given the emphasis it
deserves. But, although difficult to measure,
the reinforcement is real enough. The effects
of achieving, or failing to achieve, parity are
particularly conspicuous in endeavors in
which social reinforcement is clearly absent
or irrelevant. The boy who tries to imitate the
sound of a locomotive, an airplane, or a vac­
uum cleaner does not need differential feed­
back from his parents or siblings; the child
who picks out the tune to “Mary Had a Little
Lamb” on a xylophone may succeed without
instruction or approval; the girl trying to
learn how to wiggle her ears or to wink profits
more from the mirror than from a tutor. In
each case, the person already knows what the
behavior should look like or sound like, and
any behavioral variant that approaches parity
is strongly reinforced.

Why is the achievement of parity reinforc­
ing for children? First, it must be acknowl­
edged that it isn’t invariably reinforcing in all
areas of conduct, as legions of mortified par­
ents in restaurants and supermarkets can at­
test. However, one of the surest ways to opti­
mize one’s behavior in a novel situation is to
do what others do, and children quickly learn
to model their behavior after that of their el­
ders. Nonconformity is often punished with
staring, silence, or ridicule. The contingen­
cies for achieving parity in verbal behavior
are doubtless subtle, but the embarrassment
of those who stutter, lisp, or suffer from other
speech impediments suggests that they are
nonetheless powerful.

The implications of this source of rein­
forcement are profound. A staple criticism of
behavioral interpretations of the acquisition
of language, by linguists and cognitive psy­
chologists, is that the reinforcing practices of
verbal communities do not seem to be ade-

quate to shape the many subtleties of verbal
behavior that children learn to respect. The
child who begs to be “tarried” may be car­
ried many hundreds of times without protest;
it is not the parents who insist that she get it
right. Moreover, as Brown and Hanlon
(1970) point out, parents tend to reinforce
the content of children’s utterances, not the
syntax or pronunciation. Despite Moerk’s
subsequent reanalysis of their data, revealing
many sources of reinforcement overlooked by
Brown and Hanlon (Moerk, 1983, 1990), the
critique is trenchant: Although people re­
spect countless verbal conventions, most of us
are unaware of many of them and are in no
position to tutor others about them. For ex­
ample, donate and gi,ve are roughly synony­
mous words. One might say, “I gave the mon­
ey to the Jimmy Fund,” or “I donated the
money to the Jimmy Fund.” But, although
one might say, “I gave the Jimmy Fund the
money,” one is unlikely to say, “I donated the
Jimmy Fund the money.” Our language is re­
plete with such anomalies. To argue that the
verbal community explicitly shapes respect
for such distinctions would be fatuous. The
exquisite subtlety of our verbal repertoires is
shaped by the contingencies of automatic re­
inforcement of which Skinner spoke; there
are countless such contingencies and they are
optimally arranged. To the competent listen­
er, a deviation from parity is instantly detect­
ed; one need not wait for the lumbering ma­
chinery of social reinforcement to swing into
action. Identifying units of listener behavior
that are relevant to cadence, intraverbal
frames, and the other dimensions of syntax
remains a formidable problem, but one that
is within the scope of the kind of interpreta­
tion pioneered by Skinner and extended
here by Horne and Lowe. (See Donahoe &
Palmer, 1994, pp. 312-319, for a fuller treat­
ment of this theme.)

The foregoing analysis does not weaken
Horne and Lowe’s thesis, but it suggests that
their interpretation of language development
resorts more frequently than necessary to social
reinforcers. Second, it suggests that a new mem­
ber needs to be added to their family of effects
of a speaker’s behavior on him- or herself.

_______________________________________________________________________________

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2012, 45, 149–153 NUMBER 1 (SPRING 2012)

USING HIGH-PROBABILITY FOODS TO INCREASE THE ACCEPTANCE
OF LOW-PROBABILITY FOODS

AIMEE E. MEIER AND MITCH J. FRYLING

CHICAGO SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

AND

MICHELE D. WALLACE

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES

Studies have evaluated a range of interventions to treat food selectivity in children with autism
and related developmental disabilities. The high-probability instructional sequence is one
intervention with variable results in this area. We evaluated the effectiveness of a high-probability
sequence using 3 presentations of a preferred food on increasing acceptance in a child with
autism who refused a few specific foods. The high-probability sequence increased acceptance of 3
foods. We then systematically faded the intervention for 2 foods.

Key words: antecedent manipulations, behavioral momentum, fading, food selectivity, high-
probability sequence

One antecedent intervention that has re-
ceived relatively little attention in the feeding
disorders literature is the high-probability
(high-p) instructional sequence. The high-p
sequence involves instructing an individual to
engage in a task for which there is a high
likelihood of compliance just prior to instruct-
ing that individual to complete a task with
which he or she is not likely to comply. Results
of feeding research on this strategy have been
inconsistent. For example, Dawson et al. (2003)
evaluated the high-p sequence with a 3-year-old
girl who engaged in total food refusal and found
that the high-p sequence alone did not increase
food acceptance. Food acceptance increased
when escape extinction also was used. However,
the high-p instruction (e.g., touch ear) was
dissimilar to the low-p instruction (take a bite of
food).

Patel et al. (2006) evaluated the effects of
adding the high-p sequence to escape extinction

This study was Aimee Meier’s MA thesis at the Chicago
School of Professional Psychology.

Address correspondence to Mitch J. Fryling, the
Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 617 W. 7th
St., 8th Floor, Los Angeles, California 90017 (e-mail:
mfryling@thechicagoschool.edu).

doi: 10.1901/jaba.2012.45-

149

for two children, one with total food refusal and
one with food selectivity, and found that the
addition of the high-p sequence increased
acceptance for both participants and decreased
problem behavior for the child with food
refusal. In addition, Patel et al. compared the
high-p sequence combined with escape extinc-
tion to escape extinction alone with a 2-year-old
girl who received 100% of her nutritional needs
via gastrostomy tube. The high-p sequence
alone was ineffective, escape extinction alone
improved acceptance but had no effect on
problem behavior, and the high-p sequence
combined with escape extinction increased
acceptance and also decreased problem behav-
ior. Patel et al. (2007) evaluated the high-p
sequence in the absence of escape extinction
with a 4-year-old boy who engaged in food
selectivity and no problem behavior and found
that acceptance immediately increased from 0%
to 100%. Interestingly, Patel et al. (2006, 2007)
used high-p tasks (e.g., presentations of an
empty spoon) that were topographically similar
to the low-p task (e.g., presentations of food on
spoon). However, to our knowledge, taking
bites of preferred foods has not yet been used as
the high-p task.

149

mailto:mfryling@thechicagoschool.edu

150 AIMEE E. MEIER et al.

The goals of the current study were to extend
this line of research in the following ways: (a)
to further examine the effects of the high-p
sequence in the absence of escape extinction; (b)
to use a topographically similar high-p task
involving a preferred food; (c) to fade the
intervention systematically; (d) to evaluate the
intervention in a home-based natural setting;
and (e) to apply the procedure with a child who
ate many foods but refused to eat a few specific
foods targeted for treatment.

METHOD

Participant, Setting, and Materials
Ronee, a 3-year-old girl with autism, partic-

ipated in the study. Her parents reported that
she was a picky eater and frequently refused to
eat fruits and vegetables. For example, Ronee
shook her head, said ‘‘no,’’ and turned her head
away when nonpreferred foods were presented.
However, these behaviors were not difficult for
her parents to manage, and they rarely occurred
during the analysis. Ronee received early in-
tervention services, and a trained therapist
conducted all sessions in her home at the
dining room table. Ronee sat in a regular-sized
chair, was a self-feeder, and used a regular fork
or spoon. She did not have difficulty chewing or
swallowing foods after they had been accepted.
Sessions were conducted three to five times
per week, and one to two 10-trial blocks were
completed per session. Sessions were conducted
during Ronee’s regular snack times, which were
no less than 1 hr after her last meal.

Data Collection and Interobserver Agreement
Observers collected pencil-and-paper data on

acceptance for low-p and high-p foods. Acceptance
was defined as Ronee picking up the fork or spoon
and putting the food in her mouth within 6 s of
the instruction with no subsequent occurrence of
expulsion (i.e., spitting out the food). During each
session, we calculated the percentage of acceptance
for both high-p and low-p foods by dividing the
number of presentations with acceptance by the

total number of presentations of the high-p or
low-p food and converting this ratio into a
percentage. Sessions were videotaped, and a
second observer independently scored 48% of
the sessions. Interobserver agreement was calcu-
lated by dividing the number of agreements for
each of the 10 trials for each session by the total
number of agreements plus disagreements and
converting this to a percentage. We considered an
agreement as both observers agreeing on the
occurrence of acceptance for the entire high-p
low-p sequence. Mean total interobserver agree-
ment for acceptance was 99.7% across all
conditions (range, 90% to 100%).

Design and Procedure
We evaluated the effectiveness of the high-p

sequence using nonconcurrent multiple baseline
and reversal designs. Ronee’s parents identified
plums, raspberries, and eggplant as foods that
the family ate but Ronee refused. We used these
foods as the low-p foods.

Ronee’s parents identified bananas and baked
beans as foods that she consumed consistently.
Thus, we determined whether we could use these
foods as high-p foods with a compliance
assessment. During the assessment, the therapist
conducted two 10-bite sessions for each food,
presenting one food in each session. The therapist
presented the bite on a utensil on a plate in front
of Ronee and provided the verbal prompt to ‘‘take
a bite.’’ Verbal praise was provided for acceptance,
and another bite was presented after 3 to 5 s.
Ronee accepted the bananas and baked beans on
100% of presentations; therefore, we used these
foods in treatment.

During baseline, only low-p foods were
presented, and sessions consisted of 10 bites
or trials of the same food. All foods were
presented in their regular texture (approximate-
ly 1 to 1.5 cm cubed). To begin a trial, the
therapist placed the utensil with the low-p food
on Ronee’s plate with the instruction to ‘‘take a
bite.’’ After acceptance, the therapist waited
approximately 15 s to begin the next trial. If
Ronee did not accept the bite within 6 s of the

151 HIGH-PROBABILITY FOODS

instruction, pushed the plate away, or said
‘‘no,’’ the therapist removed the plate and began
the next trial after approximately 15 s. Brief
praise (e.g., ‘‘nice eating’’) was provided for
acceptance, and expelled bites were ignored.

During the high-p sequence treatment, the
therapist presented three bites of high-p foods,
one at a time, followed by one bite of the low-p
food. Thus, each trial consisted of four bites, for
a total of 40 bites per session. We conducted
low-p and high-p bite presentations in the same
manner as in baseline, with a few exceptions.
The therapist waited approximately 3 to 5 s
between high-p bite presentations. Ronee had
very efficient chewing skills, and this interval
was based on her pace of eating. Mean length of
the entire sequence was approximately 15 s,
with about 15 s between trials. We used banana
as the high-p food for plums and raspberries,
and we used baked beans as the high-p food for
eggplant. We chose to pair baked beans with the
eggplant because this was a more naturally
occurring food combination. Brief verbal praise
was provided following acceptance of both
high-p and low-p foods. If acceptance of low-p
foods was at 80% or higher for three consec-
utive sessions, we reduced the number of high-p
bite presentations by one systematically (i.e.,
two bites of high-p food: one bite of low-p food;
one bite of high-p food: one bite of low-p food)
until the high-p sequence was completely
removed; as a result, trial length varied
throughout this process. When acceptance was
at 80% or higher for three consecutive sessions
in the absence of the high-p sequence, we
discontinued the intervention and conducted a
follow-up session without the high-p sequence
12 days and 15 days after the last session for
plums and raspberries, respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 1 depicts Ronee’s acceptance of low-p
foods. For plums, acceptance was 10% during
each baseline session. When the high-p sequence
intervention was implemented, mean acceptance

of plums increased to 93% (range, 80% to 100%).
During the reversal to baseline, mean acceptance
decreased to 53% (range, 10% to 100%). After
reintroduction of the high-p sequence, mean
acceptance increased to 98% (range, 90% to
100%). The intervention then was faded by
systematically reducing the number of high-p bites
in the sequence. During follow-up, Ronee’s
acceptance of plums was 100%. With raspberries,
mean acceptance was low during baseline (M
510%; range, 0% to 30%) and increased to 97%
(range, 90% to 100%) afer the high-p sequence was
introduced. The intervention was faded successful-
ly, and the high-p sequence was removed com-
pletely with acceptance at 100%. Moreover, these
results were maintained at follow-up. For eggplant,
acceptance was low during baseline (M 5 12%;
range, 10% to 20%) and improved when the high-
p sequence was introduced, with acceptance of the
low-p food averaging 67% (range, 10% to 100%).
Although we attempted to reduce the high-p
bite presentations to two, we were not able to
accomplish the first step of fading because
acceptance decreased. Acceptance of high-p foods
was 100% across all foods (data available from the
second author).

These data extend the feeding literature in
several ways. First, the high-p sequence effec-
tively increased acceptance of all three non-
preferred foods in the absence of escape
extinction. These results are consistent with
those of Patel et al. (2007), who also found the
high-p sequence to be effective in the absence
of escape extinction. Second, the intervention
involved high-p foods and might be considered
a relatively novel variation of the high-p
sequence. Third, the high-p sequence was faded
effectively for two of the three foods. Fourth,
the intervention was conducted in the home
setting. Finally, the intervention was imple-
mented with a child with autism who consumed
a variety of foods, but who had a few specific
targets for feeding intervention. Patel et al.’s
study involved a selective child who did not
engage in problem behavior during feeding and

BL 3 HP BL 3HP 2HP l HP BL FU

I I I I

JOO ri y-+! y:r •

90

80

70

60

so
4-0

30

20 Plums

10 ……..
“‘ 0 1-.—,-~ !-.—-.- ‘—,
~
iri BL –, 3 HP 2 HP I HP BL FU

I ……………………………. -~ 100 1r :.s 90 “‘ I .D
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,….l … 60
~ ., 50 u
~
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<
'- 20 I Ro,pberrics 0
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100

90

80

70

60

50

40 2HP
30 ~
20

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••• Eggplant

.: I I
10 • • I I

I I I
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2 1 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Sessions

152 AIMEE E. MEIER et al.

Figure 1. Percentage of acceptance of bites across low-probability foods during baseline (BL) and high-probability
treatment (HP) phases. FU 5 follow-up.

153 HIGH-PROBABILITY FOODS

exhibited a less severe feeding difficulty. The
current study also supports the hypothesis that
the high-p sequence may be more effective in
the absence of escape extinction for children
with less severe feeding difficulties.

As an antecedent-based intervention, the
high-p sequence was easy to implement. Ronee’s
parents reported that they would be comfort-
able implementing this intervention on their
own. Furthermore, although parent training
was not conducted, Ronee’s parents reported
that she began eating the three foods in natural
settings after the experiment, and they also
observed generalization to other previously
nonpreferred foods (e.g., other fruits).

Several limitations must be noted. First, we
did not collect data on procedural integrity.
Second, naturally occurring motivating opera-
tions may have altered the effectiveness of the
high-p sequence. In the current study, the only
measure taken to control this variable was a
requirement that the child not consume any food
for at least 1 hr before the session. Third, because
we did not conduct probes prior to each phase of
the fading sequence, the extent to which fading
was necessary or could have been implemented
more quickly is unknown. Fourth, we did not
conduct formal generalization probes. Thus,
objective information about generalization is
not available. In addition, we increased accep-
tance of only three foods. Finally, because the
high-p sequence involves relatively rapid bite
presentations, the procedure may be less appro-
priate with high-p foods that are of a higher
texture if a child has inadequate chewing skills or
difficulty swallowing.

The high-p procedure employed in this study
might be considered to be a variation of the
sequential presentation method (e.g., Piazza et al.,
2002), and the success of these feeding interven-
tions may be a product of stimulus–stimulus
pairings and subsequent function transfer. There-
fore, the lack of a full reversal with the first food
may have been the result of a relatively short history
of stimulus–stimulus pairings (three 10-trial

blocks). Moreover, it is possible that a difference
in hierarchy of preference may have contributed to
the difference observed between the banana as a
high-p food and the baked beans as a high-p food.
Although both foods were identified as high-p
foods through the compliance assessment and
were recommended by the parents as being highly
preferred, a preference assessment was never
conducted. Thus, it is possible that bananas were
a more preferred food. Similarly, it is possible that
eggplant was relatively less preferred than the plums
and raspberries; thus, the differential success of
the intervention could possibly be attributed to
differences in preference for the targeted foods.
Future research should evaluate these possibilities.
Although Patel et al. (2007) also used a topo-
graphically similar high-p response, the extent to
which this aspect of the high-p sequence is critical
for success is still unknown. Thus, future research
should continue to examine the circumstances in
which less intrusive, antecedent-based strategies are
most effective.

REFERENCES

Dawson, J. E., Piazza, C. C., Sevin, B. M., Gulotta, C. S.,
Lerman, D., & Kelley, M. (2003). Use of the high-
probability instructional sequence and escape extinc-
tion in a child with a feeding disorder. Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis, 36, 105–108.

Patel, M. R., Reed, G. K., Piazza, C. C., Bachmeyer,
M. H., Layer, S. A., & Pabico, R. S. (2006). An
evaluation of a high-probability instructional se-
quence to increase acceptance of food and decrease
inappropriate behavior in children with pediatric
feeding disorders. Research in Developmental Disabil-
ities, 27, 430–442.

Patel, M., Reed, G. K., Piazza, C. C., Mueller, M.,
Bachmeyer, M. H., & Layer, S. A. (2007). Use of a
high-probability instructional sequence to increase
compliance to feeding demands in the absence of escape
extinction. Behavioral Interventions, 22, 305–310.

Piazza, C. C., Patel, M. R., Santana, C. M., Goh, H.,
Delia, M. D., & Lancaster, B. M. (2002). An
evaluation of simultaneous and sequential presenta-
tion of preferred and nonpreferred food to treat food
selectivity. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35,
259–270.

Received November 29, 2010
Final acceptance August 24, 2011
Action Editor, Valerie Volkert

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