Department of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2024 Nov;122(3):351-361. doi: 10.1002/jeab.4222. Epub 2024 Oct 24.
One of the most common treatments for severe challenging behavior involves placing the challenging behavior on extinction and differentially reinforcing an alternative response (DRA). However, extinction is not always feasible and may be unsafe or impractical to implement in some circumstances. Thus, implementing a DRA without extinction intervention may be necessary for some cases. Currently, the extent to which DRA without extinction produces durable treatment outcomes, particularly as it relates to the resurgence of challenging behavior, is unclear. The present study investigated resurgence following DRA with and without extinction using a three-phase resurgence evaluation in a translational human operant model with college students as participants. All participants demonstrated resurgence across both experimental groups. Although there were no statistically significant differences in the prevalence, magnitude, or persistence of resurgence between groups, levels of resurgence magnitude were relatively higher in the DRA-without-extinction group than in the DRA-with-extinction group. Clinical implications of these findings and directions for future human operant investigations of resurgence are discussed.
一种常见的治疗严重挑战性行为的方法是对挑战性行为进行消退，并对替代反应进行差异强化（DRA）。然而，消退并不总是可行的，在某些情况下实施可能不安全或不切实际。因此，在某些情况下，可能需要在没有消退干预的情况下实施 DRA。目前，尚不清楚不进行消退干预的 DRA 在多大程度上会产生持久的治疗效果，特别是在挑战性行为复发方面。本研究使用大学生作为参与者的转化人类操作性模型中的三阶段复发评估，调查了 DRA 有无消退的复发情况。所有参与者在两个实验组中都表现出了复发。尽管两组之间在复发的普遍性、幅度或持续性方面没有统计学上的显著差异，但在无消退的 DRA 组中，复发幅度的水平相对较高。讨论了这些发现的临床意义和未来人类操作性研究中对复发的方向。
