EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF SELF-IMPOSED TIME-OUT, POSITIVE PRACTICE, AND RESTITUTION ON AN ADULT'S ROOM SLOPPINESS

In the present research, the efficaq of self-imposed time-out, positive practice, and restitution were compared with a suaightening-up schedule and no-treatment conditions within the context of a counterbalanced multi-element design (3) in the management of a college student's difficulty in keeping her bedroom neat. The student, Karen, was 22 yr. of age at the time of the study, was enrolled in one of the first author's classes at an urban university, and felt that her sloppiness presented an "unsightly appearance." Karen agreed to record the number of articles of clothing, e.g., socks, blouses, pants, etc., left on her bedroom floor, dresser, or bed, using an event-sampling procedure (2) each evening prior to retiring for 25 nights. Each piece of clothing was counted as one, so that, e.g., a pair of socks were scored as two. Reliability observations, undertaken by one of Karen's three roommates who was unfamiliar with all aspects of the project, were completed during the morning hours prior to Karen's awakening. In all 21 checks, divided equally across all experimental conditions, were undertaken, and the Pearson correlation method (1) yielded a coefficient of .85. All conditions were in effect for five days and counterbalanced, so the order of treatments was always different. Under the no-treatment conditions, Karen agreed to follow the observational procedures and not to attempt to alter her cleaning. During days in which the straightening-only conditions were in effect and all subsequent experimental conditions, Karen continued to self-record and used an agenda that detailed minimal cleaning requirements per each of three time periods per day. That was op erationalized by requiring that successive thirds of the total number of articles recorded the prior evening be straightened, e.g., put in the appropriate closet or dresser by 11 a.m., 5 p.m., and 7 p.m., respectively. On days when the time-out, positive practice, or restitution contingencies were in effect, if Karen did not meet the cleaning or follow the schedule requirements, she agreed to cease all activities and to stand in her apartment hallway for 5 min., complete a 10-min. variant series of functional movements including, straighten magazines 2y2 min., make her bed 5 min., fold towels 2% min., or straighten her roommates clothing for 10 min., respectively. Under the no-treatment schedule, positive practice, time-out, and restitution contingencies, the number of clothing articles averaged 8.2, 6.0, 6.2, 5.2, and 1.8, respectively. Karen reported that she implemented the time-out and restitution contingencies each three times and positive practice on two occasions. These findings showed that she was willing to implement the overcorrection procedures previously untested with nonhandicapped populations, and that one of these contingencies, restitution, was functionally related to substantive decreases in the target responses. Nevertheless, the reader is cautioned to consider that: the results may ,be specific to this subject, there were no fol10,w-up data, unidentified external variables may have potentiated the punishment contlngencles.