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Chapter 18: Developing Antecedent Interventions for Problem Behavior

• Behavioral interventions manage environmental conditions to eliminate or reduce problem behavior.
• Antecedent interventions manipulate events or conditions preceding the behavior.

Categories of Antecedent Interventions

• Antecedent interventions classify into default and function-based categories.
• Default interventions do not require identifying variables setting the occasion for and maintaining the problem behavior.
• Default interventions effectively address problem behaviors maintained by diverse reinforcers through methods like antecedent exercise, environmental enrichment, protective equipment, and restraint.
• Function-based interventions identify antecedents and consequences maintaining problem behavior and directly manipulate at least one component of the operant contingency.
• Functional reinforcer refers to the consequence that maintains the problem behavior.
• Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) involves scheduling delivery of the functional reinforcer on a time-based, response-independent schedule.

Mechanisms of Action

• Antecedent interventions are classified by how they decrease behavior, affecting motivating operations or altering discriminative functions.
• Motivating operations temporarily alter the effectiveness of consequences and momentary probability of behavior producing those consequences.
• NCR decreases problem behavior by abolishing the reinforcing effectiveness of consequences through satiation or habituation.
• Other interventions manage conditions/stimuli associated with differential consequences for problem behavior, thus altering discriminative control over the behavior.
• Problem behavior decreases in contexts where it fails to produce functional reinforcers, rendering the context an S-delta.
• Interventions based on discriminative control manipulate antecedent and consequent events to establish and maintain effectiveness, requiring active control of consequences to maintain the effect of the antecedent stimulus.

Default Interventions

• Default interventions decrease behavior regardless of the operant function of problem behavior, eliminating the need to identify the functional reinforcer.
• While clinically expedient, default procedures have significant limitations and can produce side effects, despite their impacts being operant.
• These interventions can alter discriminative stimuli or motivating operations.
• Identifying the contingency maintaining problem behavior is not a necessary part of the process.

Antecedent Exercise

• Research indicates antecedent exercise decreases problem behavior and involves effortful activities like aerobic exercise or strength training.
• Observations typically occur during or shortly after exercise.
• Antecedent exercise decreases SIB, aggression, inappropriate vocalizations, off-task behavior, out-of-seat behavior, and stereotypy in individuals with developmental disabilities, and is also used to treat depression, panic disorder, and pain disorder in others.
• Antecedent exercise differs from overcorrection because participants engage in it independently of the problem behavior and punishment cannot explain its effectiveness since it is not presented as a consequence for problem behavior.

Mechanisms of Antecedent Exercise Effects

• Research outcomes are inconsistent with the idea that the effects of antecedent exercise stem from fatigue.
• Increases in on-task behavior and appropriate responding along with the lack of fatigue signs suggest that the response-decreasing effects are specific to problem behavior.
• Problematic behavior decreases while socially acceptable behavior increases after exercise, correlating with the social acceptability of the behaviors affected.
• Antecedent exercise alters the reinforcing effectiveness of the consequences that maintain problem behavior.
• It may also function as matched stimulation by producing free access to stimulation like that produced by the problem behavior, acting as an abolishing operation for the maintaining reinforcer.
• Exercise reduces automatically reinforced problem behavior during and after, devaluing its consequences; it creates a paradox due to conceptual inconsistencies associated with a stimulus control account of this effect.

Strengths and Limitations of Antecedent Exercise

• Strengths include decreasing problem behavior, increasing appropriate behavior, and improving physical and psychological health.
• Limitations are its temporary effects immediately following exercise.
• Effects of exercise may be transient as demonstrated by short-term analyses, though recent studies show effects persist for several hours suggesting the need for further research to determine what alters durability.
• Implementation may also be inconvenient in some situations.

Enriched Environment

• Enriched environments may arrange antecedent conditions by providing preferred items, toys, educational materials, leisure and recreation items, activities, or social interaction on a continuous, response-independent schedule.
• It is an effective intervention for SIB and stereotypy
• While it may reduce problem behavior maintained by social reinforcement, its literature focuses on treating stereotypy, suggesting it may be most appropriate for automatically reinforced behavior.

Effects of Environmental Enrichment

• Environmental enrichment involves competition between behavior toward enriching stimuli competing with problem behavior and is more effective when using highly preferred stimuli versus less preferred stimuli.
• Rotating noncontingently available stimuli sets produced more durable decreases in problem behavior than continuous availability of one set, because participants engaged to produce automatic reinforcement as effectiveness of alternatives waned due to contact.
• It may reduce problem behavior if its consequences are similar to the enriching materials functioning as a function-based intervention due to a match between the reinforcers.
• Reinforcer effectiveness is reduced temporarily because enrichment produces the same or similar reinforcement.
• Matched stimuli suppress problem behavior more effectively than unmatched stimuli.
• Environmental enrichment can have direct and beneficial effects on the brain such as cerebral cortex plasticity and increased synaptic density.
• It may treat neurological disorders, blending conditioning and basic neurological mechanisms, though evidence for the contributions of neurological changes does not currently exist.

Strengths and Limitations of Environmental Enrichment

• Benefits include simplicity, straightforwardness, easy implementation, and cost-effectiveness.
• Provides a source of competing or alternative means to access reinforcement, making it especially effective against stereotypy and automatically reinforced behavior.
• Providing alternative forms of stimulation makes sense when understanding problem behavior operant function is unclear or difficult to directly access.
• The effectiveness of finding alternatives can be increased by looking stimui mirroring sensory experience.
• Enrichments do not directly teach new behavior, alternative items and activities improve target selection (Horner, 1980).

Restraint, Protective Equipment, and Other Forms of Response Restriction

• Evaluates the effects of restraint, protective equipment, and other means to prevent injury with problem behavior.
• Physically impede the occurence or completion of problem behavior.
• Are effective in decreasing or eliminating problem behavior.
• Are intrusive, and only used in emergencies or serious risks to the participant, or to prevent the damage of the property

Types of Restrictive Procedures

• Procedures involve physical restriction of problem behavior according to their form.
• Personal restraint: caregivers physically securing and holding body parts, used as a consequence-based or antecedent intervention.
• Mechanical restraint: securing limbs and body parts with devices for example, arm splints and straightjackets.
• Protective equipment: allows unrestricted motion but prevents damage (e.g., padded helmet to prevent trauma from head banging), and are usually used for SIB.

Restraint Considerations

• Restrictive restraint procedures (e.g., four-point restraints, straightjackets fail to teach or encourage alternative, because they actively impede acquisition of alternative behavior.
• Restraints have aversive properties; therefore, it's important consider issues associated with aversive intervention before its application.
• In an emergency and some individuals who engage in SIB actively see opportunities to be placed in restraints.
• Restraining an individuals' abilities to behaviors may interfere desirable behaviors and motivation.
• Restraing may postpone or exacerbate some behaviors in certain situations.

Function-Based Intervention

• Function-based interventions are developed by knowing the function.
• Function-based interventions can alter the contingency and can manipulate motivating operations.
• Tactical variations can be associated with different types of maintaining contingencies.

Noncontingent Reinforcement

• NCR involves presenting the reinforcing consequence for problem behavior on a time-based schedule.
• The behavior analyst often withholds the functional reinforcer, often creating a dense delivery time.
• Goal to reach a managaeable schedule.
• NCR has shown effective intervention for SIB, aggression, disruption, food refusal, inappropriate vocalizations, pica and pseudoseizures.
• Some analysts criticize the term of "noncontingent reinforcement" because reinforcement is defined in part by a contingency however others have established its utility.

NCR Properties In Behavior

• NCR procedures vary according to the function of the propblem behavior.
• for postive reinforcement, NCR would exist with presenting attention and witholding the problem behavior.
• therapists provide continuous attention with extinction to decrease SIB, and bizarre speech
• several studies presentstimuli and withholding functional reinforcement can decrease behavior.

NCR Considerations

• in the arrangements where the researcher present the other stimilu
• in the cases where the time presentation of a stimulus identied as the same thing to decrease two behavior in the participant
• Researchers have used results assessment to select time for the arrangements stimuli, which are associated with engagement, researchers presented pool behavior while reinforcing stimuli.
• The stimuli allows the level engaging is assess.
• Noncontingent of stimilu represents more better alternative
• Limitted stimilu

NCR for Behavior

• the type of break stimilu and or activites consist.
• NCR involves and indicated the SIB when the adult escape the training due to the problem, time-based breaks and behavior independent

NCR for Maintained Behavior

• the auto involves an attempt to identify the reinforcer to the stimilu that
• for example, iberally provide to stimuli to topographics participant with toys that provide the access, more effective that produce substantial behavior.
• for certain participation
• some of the research indicates of that providing stimuli stimilu properties in automatic behavior.
• they should evaluate for each effects
• stimilu

Limitations of Selectin that and Behavior

• the effects can get the attention to the literature
• is one way of frequent the reinforcers this class with a more in depth research as opposed to extinction.
• however they effect of one aspect of a certain variable
• it can also change from one situation to one location
• habituatin to an important part.

Limitations from to Select

• to avoid the minimum
• may avoid a lot in the situation based
• if one time to one stimilu to type with with an analysis a time
• the way one analysis effect the study to the way to certain
• by more.

Properties in Limitation by by with the Schedule

• Regardless of how in the stimulus this
• these
• can effect depending
• can influence or effect.

The Effects of The

• it can also effect with some types of behaviors
• they could act that more effect but it.
• other can also be that the behavior but what.
• it

Stimuli and The

• the person is in the different type of the environment that can effect and show more.

Stimulus Control Strategies

• In 1970 was when people started to show that
• they were showing food
• Summary of Stimuli*
• They shows some types of behaviors
• It can do with any change of the behavior that
• They also can change that behavior as well.

Antecedent of Intervention

• Researchers were testing behaviors negative
• and or in bad and the behaviors could get so bad that
• They make
• Researchers also did
• It effects
• (End of OCR)*