Student Ability, Task Difficulty, and Inappropriate Classroom Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a mismatch between student ability and task difficulty upon inappropriate classroom behavior in children with behavior disorders. The mismatch condition was evaluated both with and without a reinforcement contingency on task accuracy. An experimenter-constructed pretest was used to assess the level of math functioning in the 15 subjects. Variations on the A-B—a single-subject experimental design were used to evaluate the independent variables. An increase in inappropriate behavior was found during the mismatch condition both with and without a reinforcement contingency on task accuracy. Results suggested that failure-level academic tasks resulted in significant increases in inappropriate behavior for some students. Implications of this study for special educators are discussed.