WORKING FROM A POPULATION OF SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY RETARDED RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL PATIENTS, AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO DEVISE AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM FOR TRAINING SUBJECTS ON SELECTED WORKSHOP TASKS. TASK ANALYSIS WAS EMPLOYED TO DESCRIBE THE RESPECTIVE VOCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS AND TO SPECIFY BEHAVIORAL REQUIREMENTS. TRAINING PROGRAMS BASED UPON THE…

Five adolescents with autism, 5 control participants, and 4 child controls received rewards for varying their sequences of responses while playing a computer game. In preceding and following phases, rewards were provided at approximately the same rate but were independent of variability. When reinforced, variability increased significantly in all…

Manipulation of mechanical restraint properties were conducted in separate studies with two profoundly retarded adolescents who exhibited both self-restraint and self-injurious behavior. Techniques included prompting, differential reinforcement, and stimulus fading. Results suggested that stimulus fading and transfer may be valuable components in…

University graduate students worked as counselors with delinquent prone youths to develop and define means of identifying and re-orienting delinquent prone youths in a high school community setting. Diagnostic and evaluative instruments and techniques used included the computer analyzed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the…

This study investigated the effects of between-trials variability on the alternation discrimination of retardates. Brightness and size were variable between trials and irrelevant. Initial response outcome and mental age were also independent variables. Neither between-trials variability nor mental age produced a significant main effect, while the…

Three case studies demonstrated excessive alcohol drinking in adolescents could be reduced by self-monitoring and extrinsic reinforcement procedures. Behavioral interventions resulted in complete abstinence for a male with 10 years of excessive alcohol abuse. However, alcohol abuse increased markedly for two females once intervention procedures…

This paper describes a social-learning approach to counseling as it is developed at Valley View School for Boys, Illinois Department of Corrections. (Author/SM)

Twenty mildly and moderately retarded boys (age 12 to 18 years) participated in a behavior modification program in which adaptive behavior was rewarded through tokens or privileges, while maladaptive behavior was controlled through the use of fines and removal from the situation. The preliminary results (based on four months of operation) showed…