The effect of gradual withdrawal of access period to activity during consequence delay on the self-control of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to verify if the frequency of self-controlled responses is maintained with the progressive decrease of access time to the activity during the delay of the consequence of greater quantity / magnitude. Six children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder will participate in the study. After preference assessment to identify possible reinforcers, the study will be developed in seven phases: Simple Discrimination Training (Phase 1), Reinforcement Amount Training (Phase 2), Delay Reinforcement Training (Phase 3), Abrupt increase in reinforcement delay (Phase 4), Opportunity to choose between activities of high preference (Phase 5), Non opportunity to choose with activities of high preference (Phase 6), and Concurrent activity fading (Phase 7). The objective of Phase 1 is to perform the simple discrimination training between two cards presented simultaneously, where one has the function of S+ and the other of S-. Phase 2 aims to train discrimination of reinforcer amount. The objective of Phase 3 is to insert the delay to access a consequence of a bigger quantity gradually. In Phase 4 the delay of the consequence of bigger quantity will increase abruptly with the aim of increasing the probability of choices of immediate consequence and of a smaller quantity, in order to evaluate the effects of variables manipulated later on the self-controlled choices. Phase 5 and Phase 6 aims to verify the effects of different conditions, with and without opportunity of choice, on self-control behavior. The last phase aims to evaluate the effect of the progressive withdrawal of access time to the activity during the delay to obtain the consequence of greater reinforcing value on the choices of self-control. (AU)