Effects of Synchronous Reinforcement within a Group Contingency for Increasing Toy Cleanup in Preschoolers
A synchronous schedule of reinforcement (SSR) is a schedule of covariation in which the onset and offset of the reinforcer is synchronized with the onset and offset of behavior (Diaz de Villegas et al., 2020; Ramey et al., 1972). Historically, SSR has been used as a tool to study behavioral and developmental phenomena. However, recently, researchers have evaluated its use for increasing socially relevant behavior (e.g., mask wearing, McHugh et al., 2022; on-task behavior, Diaz de Villegas, 2020]). To date, SSR has been evaluated for behavior change at the individual level; however, this may not be feasible in all settings (e.g., for a teacher with 15 children in a classroom). Group contingencies are often used in classroom management systems (Groves & Austin, 2017; Maggin et al., 2012) and are advantageous as they are relatively easy for teachers to implement (Hine et al., 2015). In the current evaluation, we extended research on SSR by evaluating the efficacy of synchronous music access implemented within an interdependent group contingency for increasing toy cleanup after play of small groups of preschool children. Additionally, we analyzed peer-directed vocalizations (i.e., positive and negative vocal interactions) that occurred during the evaluation. Results demonstrated that SSR within the group contingency successfully increased toy cleanup for all participants; however, additional modifications (i.e., SSR contingency training and an individualized SSR contingency with preferred videos) were necessary for two participants.
Behavioral sciences, Group Contingency, Interdependent Group Contingency, Schedule of Covariation, Synchronous Reinforcement, Toy Cleanup
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