Antecedent Control Procedures

The Law of Effect

Antecedent control procedures started with a cat in a box. In 1898, Edward L. Thorndike published the following observation concerning a cat placed in a cage (puzzle box) containing dangling ropes, levers, and latches: When the cat made the proper response with these manipulanda, the cage door would open and the cat would exit and eat the food placed just outside. Over the following trials, the cat would less and less frequently make irrelevant responses and more and more quickly make the door-opening response, exit, and eat the food.

Over the following decades, Thorndike would develop and evolve his famous law of effect. Here is a modern statement of that law of effect: The results of our actions determine whether we will repeat those actions; some results will cause the frequency of those actions to increase, and other results will cause that frequency to decrease. (The cat will more and more frequently make a response that results in food, and it will less and less frequently make a response that results in water mist sprayed in its face or results in nothing.)

Thorndike's simple but profound law of effect now serves as the foundation of essentially all behavior analysis, including applied behavior analysis (behavior modification): To increase the frequency of desirable behavior, make sure that behavior results in a reinforcer (reward) or the removal of an aversive condition. (When the autistic child properly completes a puzzle, give him or her a hug. When the disruptive child properly asks permission to take a break from a difficult task, allow him or her to escape that task.) And to decrease the frequency of undesirable behavior, make sure that behavior results in an aversive condition, the loss of a reinforcer, or the withholding of a reinforcer. (When the child plays violently with a toy, briefly remove the toy.) The traditional applied behavior analysis intervention has been to apply the law of effect in a very straightforward manner, by directly reinforcing or punishing the behavior of interest, either to increase or to decrease the frequency of that behavior. However, in recent years, behavior analysts have been developing two related, integrated approaches that provide some alternatives to this traditional, straightforward application of the law of effect.

Two New Approaches

Primarily, these two new approaches address the reduction in the frequency of challenging behavior for clients classified as autistic, mentally handicapped, or emotionally impaired. Challenging behavior (problem, dysfunctional, maladaptive, inappropriate behavior) includes self-injury, aggression, property destruction, inappropriate or interfering self-stimulation, and disruptions. However, the goal is not just to reduce challenging behavior but to do so in a way that will also increase functional, adaptive, appropriate behavior, including behavior that facilitates learning, behavior such as orienting toward the trainer or the instructional materials. (Giving a sedative to a disruptive child might reduce the frequency of disruptive behavior, but it might also interfere with increases in the frequency of functional behavior.)

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