Effects of Response-Independent Food Delivery During Timeout on Timeout Punishment

<p>Timeout is a signaled, response-dependent, and time limited period in which the prevailing schedule of reinforcement is suspended. Timeouts are one of the most frequently used punishment procedures in clinical and parental practices. Even though timeout is a common punishment practice, recent research suggests that implementation errors, fidelity failures, occur at high rates in practice. The present study evaluated how failures in procedural fidelity alter the efficacy of timeout as a punisher by exposing rats to conditions in which response-independent reinforcers were delivered during timeout. During baseline conditions, no timeouts were delivered and rats’ lever-pressing produced food reinforcers according to a Variable-Interval (VI) 30 s schedule. During timeout conditions, the VI reinforcement schedule remained in effect, and 30-s timeouts were overlaid according to a Variable-Ratio (VR) 2 schedule. Across timeout conditions, pellets wither were not delivered or were delivered response independently according to one of the following Variable-Time (VT) schedules: VT 15 s, VT 30 s, VT 60 s, VT 120 s. Results indicate that degrading the fidelity of the timeout by delivering response-independent food reinforcers during timeouts reduced the effectiveness of timeout punishment and in some cases turned the timeouts into reinforcers.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychological Science

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• McDonough, Haillie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Forrest Toegel

• Timeout
• Procedural Fidelity
• Punishment
• Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/906

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1969