A COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF SCHEDULE THINNING DURING FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING

One limitation of functional communication training (FCT) is that individuals may requestreinforcementviathefunctionalcommunicationresponse(FCR)atexceedinglyhighrates.Multipleschedules with alternating periods of reinforcement and extinction of the FCR combined withgradually lengthening the extinction-component interval can effectively address this limitation.However, the extent to which each of these components contributes to the effectiveness of theoverall approach remains uncertain. In the current investigation, we evaluated the first componentby comparing rates of the FCR and problem behavior under mixed and multiple schedules andevaluated the second component by rapidly switching from dense mixedand multiple schedules tolean multiple schedules without gradually thinning the density of reinforcement. Results indicatedthatmultipleschedulesdecreasedtheoverallrateofreinforcementfortheFCRandmaintainedthestrength of the FCR and low rates of problem behavior without gradually thinning thereinforcement schedule.Key words: functional analysis, functional communication training, differential reinforcementof alternative behavior, reinforcement schedules, delay to reinforcement