Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior

Description of the Strategy

Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI) is one of several procedures used to decrease the frequency of a problem response (e.g., tantrums), but it is unique in also increasing another response (e.g., appropriate play). Central to understanding differential reinforcement are the principles of reinforcement and extinction as related to the concepts of response differentiation and differential reinforcement, first explicated in the Skinner classics The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis and Science and Human Behavior, respectively. When only responses with particular properties are selectively reinforced, other operating principles being equal, all responses in that class increase in probability, decreasing the probability of all other responses. In DRI, purported reinforcers are delivered contingent on response topographies that are physically impossible ...