Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Reinforcement Of Compliance With Postitive And Negative Commands And Its Effect On Inappropriate Behavior In Children, Mary Jacobs Zielinski, Howard Levine, Daniel Houlihan

Psychology Department Publications

This study examined reinforcement of compliance with positive (''do'') and negative ("don't") commands, along with its effects on inappropriate behavior in children. The design of the study was A-B· A-C-B-C counterbalanced across two subjects. In both subjects, reinforcement of compliance to .. do" commands resulted in increased compliance to this type of command. Similarly, reinforcement of compliance with "don't" commands resulted in increased compliance to "don't" commands. In addition, a tendency for compliance with the reinforced type of command to generalize to the nonreinforced type was observed in some phases. Response covariation was.also observed in some phases. Response covariation was …