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Operant principles were used to design an activity for a group of handicapped, elderly women in a home for the aged; the activity was monitored to study its impact on their levels of participation and social interaction. The results indicated that the residents' presence in the activity area fluctuated systematically with occurrence and nonoccurrence of the activity. Social interaction between residents increased on activity days with especially high rates of interaction in the activity area.
Blackman et al. (Sun,) studied this question.