CONFERENCE PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS

ELIMINATING OFF-TASK BEHAVIORS DURING TRANSITIONS BETWEEN ACTIVITIES

Rafael Bejarano & Dean C. Williams

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - PARSONS RESEARCH CENTER

Developmentally disabled individuals touched icons presented on a computer screen in exchange for money delivered on two signaled schedules that alternated (i.e., on a two-component multiple schedule). In the rich component, 10 screen touches produced a quarter, and in the lean component, a larger number of screen touches (e.g., 100) produced a point that could be exchanged for one penny after the session. Four types of transitions between components were arranged: lean-to-rich, lean-to-lean, rich-to-rich, and rich-to-lean. Experimental conditions differed from one another in terms of whether or not a timeout was interpolated between the components. With no intercomponent timeouts, the longest postreinforcement pauses occurred during the rich-to-lean transitions. This effect disappeared, however, when intercomponent timeouts were arranged. These findings suggest that off-task behaviors may occur during transitions from a more preferable activity to a less preferable one, but that it may be possible to eliminate such behaviors by interpolating a short break between activities.
 

Poster presented at the 2nd convention of the Kansas Association for Behavior Analysis, Lawrence, KS, April, 2004.