Employing Negative Reinforcement to Establish and Transfer Control of a Severely Retarded and Aggressive Nineteen Year Old Girl

Negative reinforcement in the form of experimenter-administered finger pressure on the inside upper bicept area of the subject's right arm was employed to increase task-initiated responding on a prevocational task, collating a booklet. Termination of the finger pressure was contingent upon the subject's touching the cover to open the booklet and begin to collate. When compared with two other conditions, tapping on the subject's hand to prompt her to begin work and repeating a verbal cue while ignoring aggressive responses, the finger pressure procedure not only increased response rates but also resulted in a decrease and elimination of self-biting and hitting the experimenter. When a teacher aide applied the procedure on the same task but at a different time in the day, the subject's response rates similarly increased and her self-biting and hitting remained at low levels.