Sleep Deprivation, Allergy Symptoms, and Negatively Reinforced Problem Behavior

We studied the relation between the presence versus the absence of sleep deprivation or allergy symptoms and the rate and function of problem behavior. Three students whose problem behavior was negatively reinforced by escape form instruction were studied across several weeks using analogue functional analyses. Our results indicated that the extraexperimental events were associated with (a) termination of instruction functioning as a negative reinforcer, (b) increased rates of negatively reinforced problem behavior, or (c) increased rates of problem behavior across all conditions.