Effects of fixed-ratio schedule values on concurrent mands in children with autism

Interventions with children with autism often involve more than one concurrent schedule or reinforcement. Manipulation of one schedule of reinforcement may affect responding on a second. We demonstrated the effect of manipulating the schedule of reinforcement for a single high-rate mand on alternative concurrently available mands with two children with autism. Teachers conducted sessions in the participant's usual teaching environment. When the schedule value for all mands was FR1, a single mand occurred at a high rate while all other mands occurred at low rates for both participants and response variability was low. When the schedule of reinforcement for the high-rate mand increased to FR10 for one participant and to FR25 for the second participant, and all other mands remained on FR1 schedules, the high-rate mand decreased while the combined rate of all other mands increased. There was also some evidence of increased response variability. We discuss the affects of schedule values during concurrent schedules and implications for increasing variability in manding.