Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Psychological Science

Program

Psychological Science (MS)

First Advisor/Chairperson

Forrest Toegel

Abstract

Timeout is a signaled, response-dependent, and time limited period in which the prevailing schedule of reinforcement is suspended. Timeouts are one of the most frequently used punishment procedures in clinical and parental practices. Even though timeout is a common punishment practice, recent research suggests that implementation errors, fidelity failures, occur at high rates in practice. The present study evaluated how failures in procedural fidelity alter the efficacy of timeout as a punisher by exposing rats to conditions in which response-independent reinforcers were delivered during timeout. During baseline conditions, no timeouts were delivered and rats’ lever-pressing produced food reinforcers according to a Variable-Interval (VI) 30 s schedule. During timeout conditions, the VI reinforcement schedule remained in effect, and 30-s timeouts were overlaid according to a Variable-Ratio (VR) 2 schedule. Across timeout conditions, pellets wither were not delivered or were delivered response independently according to one of the following Variable-Time (VT) schedules: VT 15 s, VT 30 s, VT 60 s, VT 120 s. Results indicate that degrading the fidelity of the timeout by delivering response-independent food reinforcers during timeouts reduced the effectiveness of timeout punishment and in some cases turned the timeouts into reinforcers.

Access Type

Open Access

Additional Files
Haillie McDonough.pdf (31 kB)
Signed signature page
Download

Share

COinS