ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a variety of behavioral strategies, based on the principles of reinforcement, which can be used to increase adaptive responding in applied settings. It explains shaping and chaining techniques that can be used to establish new behaviors or complex sets of behaviors. In addition to increasing the frequency of behaviors or establishing new behaviors, it is equally important that these gains are maintained over time, and, in many cases, can be demonstrated across different settings other than the treatment setting. The chapter describes the use of negative reinforcement, which produces increases in behavior to avoid or escape stimuli, in applied settings. Reinforcement strategies can also be used to decrease maladaptive behavior. These techniques are typically described as differential reinforcement strategies because selected responses or levels of responding are reinforced while other behaviors are placed on extinction. A number of techniques can be used to systematically fade response and stimulus prompts.
