TIME-BASED SCHEDU LES AS TREATMENT FOR SEVERE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

Abstract

This paper describes some recent work involving the application of time-based schedules as treatment br severe behavior disorders. ln time-based schedules, reinforcer delivery depends on neither the occurrence or nonoccurrence of behavior. For example, in a fixed-time (FT) schedule, reinforcer presentation is at set time intervals whether or not behavior occurs. Such schedules are a logical form of treatment because they disrupt preexisting response-reinforcer relations when problem behavior is maintained by socially mediated reinforcement. Numerous applied studies en time-based schedules have been published in the past five years; this paper is intended primarily te introduce the logic of using such schedules as treatment, but not te proVide an exhaustive literature review.