NEGATIVE SIDE-EFFECTS OF NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) has emerged as a treatment package f or severe behavior problems. Although concerns about potential side ef fects (such as incidental reinforcement) have been raised, there have been few reported negative side effects in published studies to date. In this article, we report an NCR treatment evaluation for severe aggr ession that produced (a) an extinction burst and (b) incidental reinfo rcement. These side effects were evaluated by examining within-session response patterns and response distributions. As a solution, a brief omission contingency was added to the reinforcement schedule. The omis sion contingency resulted in decreased aggression rates.