ABSTRACT
For the past three years the staff of the Laboratory Preschool has studied effects of adult attention on problem behaviors in normal children. Results have indicated that the behavior was controlled by its immediate consequence, the attention of adults. Those behaviors which were immediately followed by teacher attention tended to be maintained or to increase in rate; behaviors following which teacher attention was withheld or was immediately withdrawn tended to diminish rapidly or to drop out altogether. Some of the problem behaviors modified in accordance with the above adult social reinforcement contingencies included regressed crawling (Harris et al., 1964), socially isolate behavior (Allen et al., 1964), excessive crying and whining (Hart et al., 1964) and deficits in motor skills (Johnston et al., in press). Similar results have been reported in studies of modification of pathological behaviors through use of operant techniques (Ayllon and Haughton, 1962; Wolf, Risley, and Mees, 1964; Wolf et al., 1965).
