Incorporating Auditory and Visual Feedback and Student Choice into an Interdependent Group Contingency to Improve On-Task Behavior

Group contingencies are efficient and effective behavioral interventions that allow teachers to apply a reinforcement criterion to a large group of students. However, most research on group contingencies has not examined the impact of types of teacher feedback and student choice of teacher feedback incorporated into the use of group contingencies. The current study used a multiple baseline across participants design with an embedded alternating treatments design to explore the use of an interdependent group contingency that compared the effectiveness of incorporating auditory or visual feedback to improve student on-task behavior of three students in public elementary school classrooms. The study also explored whether incorporating student choice into the feedback would enhance the outcomes for student behavior. The results indicated that the interdependent group contingency intervention was successful in increasing the on-task behavior of all three participants. The results also indicated that while both auditory and visual feedback were effective in increasing on-task behavior of all three students, two of the students engaged in slightly higher levels of on-task behavior when auditory feedback was used. When students were given the option to choose which type of feedback would be used, two of the three students favored auditory feedback over visual feedback, and on-task behaviors maintained for all three participants. These results have implications for the use of auditory feedback and choice in the classroom setting as part of a group contingency