We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S‐deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a consequence for a new response. The results demonstrated that previously neutral praise words functioned as reinforcers and nonsense words did not. As in previous studies on establishing reinforcers, the effects were transitory, and praise words did not continue to function as reinforcers after repeated exposure without discrimination training. Recommendations are provided for future research and maintaining reinforcement effects.

中文翻译：

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对建立表扬作为强化物的歧视训练程序进行评估

我们评估了歧视训练程序的效果，该训练程序将表扬作为三名患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童的强化剂。在将两个赞美词建立为判别性刺激、两个无意义词作为 S-delta 后，我们通过将每个刺激呈现为新反应的结果来评估刺激是否起到强化物的作用。结果表明，以前中性的赞美词可以起到强化的作用，而无意义的词则不能。与之前建立强化物的研究一样，效果是短暂的，在没有歧视训练的情况下重复接触后，赞美词不会继续发挥强化物的作用。为未来的研究和维持强化效果提供了建议。