The cognitive behavioral drama model as an stablishing operation for a neutral stimulus into a conditioned reinforcer

Abstract

Autism is a severe diagnosis with the presence of various impairments in language and communication, in social functioning and often characterized by unusual interests and behaviors. Among the various treatments that use reinforcement to address effectively these abnormalities, Cognitive Behavioral Drama (CBD) is a therapeutic intervention that uses widely reinforcement by motivating the children to participate in an exciting scenario, with tasks designed primary on their strengths and interests and later on the target behaviors that need to be modified. The present study investigated whether the dramatic elements used to achieve investment* in the scenario can function as an establishing operation in altering a neutral stimulus to a conditioned reinforcer; thereby changing the children’s preferences from the initial high ranked stimuli to the previously neutral stimuli. An A-B-A reversal design was used and the data suggested that participants changed their initial preference of edibles for previously neutral stimuli, napkins and drinking straws, as a result of investment in a CBD scenario.