A Comparison of Stimulus‐Stimulus Pairing and Operant Discrimination Training to Establish Conditioned Reinforcers

Individuals with developmental disabilities may be sensitive to a limited number of conditioned reinforcers. Stimulus‐stimulus pairing, a common strategy used to establish conditioned reinforcers, has demonstrated inconsistent results. Operant discrimination training involves conditioning reinforcers by presenting them as discriminative stimuli during operant conditioning. The effectiveness of establishing conditioned reinforcers using both methods was evaluated. Eight consecutively admitted individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities participated in the study. While both methods produced stimuli that induced above‐baseline levels of responding, only four participants demonstrated moderate‐to‐high treatment effects, and no relative advantage could be established for either procedure.