USING NEUTRALIZING ROUTINES TO REDUCE PROBLEM BEHAVIORS

Establishing operations can alter problem behaviors by changing the mo mentary value of reinforcers associated with those problem behaviors. If establishing operations (EOs) precede the presentation of discrimin ative stimuli (S(D)s) for problem behaviors, it may be possible to int roduce neutralizing routines that both reduce the value of reinforcers associated with problem behaviors and decrease the occurrence of prob lem behaviors. The present study examined this logic with 3 adolescent s with severe intellectual disabilities. Initial functional analyses i ndicated that problem behaviors were motivated by either escape or tan gible items. Functional assessment interviews identified possible esta blishing operations that were associated with the occurrence of proble m behavior and indicated that-these establishing operations occurred o ver 1 hr before presentation of the S-D for problem behaviors. We used an alternating treatments design to examine problem behaviors during instruction under four conditions: EO+S-D, S-D only, EO only, and neit her S-D nor EO. For all 3 participants, problem behaviors occurred alm ost exclusively during the EO+S-D condition. A further analysis compar ed the EO+S-D condition when neutralizing routines were embedded betwe en the EO and the S-D. Results from an ABAB reversal design supported the effectiveness of neutralizing routines to reduce these problem beh aviors. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed.