Timeout As a Punishing Stimulus in Continuous and Intermittent Schedules

Overview

Journal J Appl Behav Anal

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 1973 Oct 1

PMID 16795427

Citations 12

Authors

H B Clark

T Rowbury

A M Baer

D M Baer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The effectiveness of a brief period of isolation (timeout) in the control of disruptive behavior emitted by a retarded child in a preschool classroom setting was examined. Timeout was shown to be an effective punishing stimulus, and its control of the child's disruptive behavior was investigated under four schedules of intermittent timeout. The results suggest that as a larger percentage of responses were punished, a greater decrease in the frequency of that response occurred. This inverse relationship between the percentage of responses punished and the frequency of the response did not appear to be linear, but rather a non-linear function. This function suggests that some schedules of intermittent punishment may be as effective as continuous punishment, at least in the case of the continued suppression of a response that has already been reduced to a low frequency.

Citing Articles

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An evaluation and comparison of time-out procedures with and without release contingencies.

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