An approach to identifying the conditions under which response interruption will reduce automatically reinforced problem behavior.

Response interruption is a common intervention for problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, but this intervention is challenging for caregivers to implement with consistent fidelity. In the current study, we challenged the integrity of response interruption across two participants by examining carry over into conditions in which the procedure was not implemented, by removing the presence of an interventionist, and by introducing delays to implementation. The results indicated that these challenges severely compromised treatment efficacy. Conditions under which response interruption procedures are likely to be effective and possible strategies to increase the effectiveness of response interruption are discussed.