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Reinforcer Choice as an Antecedent Versus Consequence During Skill Acquisition

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Abstract

Providing a choice of reinforcers is a commonly used strategy with children with autism spectrum disorder; however, less is known about the differential effectiveness and efficiency of providing choices before or after responding during acquisition tasks. Therefore, we evaluated reinforcer choice using untaught targets prior to and following responding. Results showed faster acquisition of targets in the consequence condition for 2 of 3 participants. These data provide preliminary support that providing choice prior to responding may not result in the most efficient acquisition for some individuals.

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Correspondence to Danielle L. Gureghian.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Gureghian, D.L., Vladescu, J.C., Gashi, R. et al. Reinforcer Choice as an Antecedent Versus Consequence During Skill Acquisition. Behav Analysis Practice 13, 462–466 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00356-3

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