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Behavior Modification with Low-Level Mental Retardates

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Abstract

Ward technicians in a state residential institution were trained to reinforce a set of “positive” behaviors with social rein-forcers (verbal and physical attention) and to extinguish selected “negative” behaviors (by not attending to them) in 15 severely retarded young Ss. Changes were statistically significant with improvement on 11 of the positive behaviors and 12 of the negative behaviors. The training value to the technicians for general ward programs was noted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California Department of Mental Hygiene, Pacific State Hospital, USA

    Jack Wright, Jean Clayton & Clara Lee Edgar

Authors
  1. Jack Wright
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  2. Jean Clayton
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  3. Clara Lee Edgar
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Additional information

This study was supported by a Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Hospital Improvement Program Grant, Research Grant Number S-R20-MR, 02043-04, administered through the State of California Department of Mental Hygiene (DMH). The views expressed are those of the authors and are not to be construed as necessarily reflecting the policy of HEW or of DMH. The authors wish to express their appreciation to Arthur Silverstein for his editorial assistance.

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Wright, J., Clayton, J. & Edgar, C.L. Behavior Modification with Low-Level Mental Retardates. Psychol Rec 20, 465–471 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393967

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393967

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