Instructional control is best understood as reliable cooperation with teachers while preserving assent. Motivating operations (MOs) are events that shift the value of consequences and momentarily alter the likelihood of behavior. When practitioners arrange abolishing operations that reduce the value of escape and establishing operations that raise the value of appropriate responding, cooperation reliably improves (Edwards, 2020).
Antecedent arrangements that target MOs can make demanding situations feel easier and more reinforcing. Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) that provides pre-session access to preferred stimuli or attention often decreases the value of escape and increases task engagement, including in natural school contexts (O’Brien et al., 2023; Phillips et al., 2017). Demand fading, which gradually reintroduces work after brief relief, also reduces escape-maintained behavior while maintaining participation (Gerow et al., 2019). Together, these strategies shift the value of staying with instruction before a single demand is placed.
During instruction, reinforcement strategies that contact the right MOs produce the largest gains in cooperation. The high-probability instructional sequence (high-p) uses a rapid series of easy requests followed by a more challenging request. Recent single-case research and meta-analytic findings show reliable increases in compliance for autistic learners when the sequence is paired with immediate reinforcement and brief inter-instruction intervals (Rosales et al., 2021; Russo & Blair, 2023; Sayar et al., 2024). Practically, this means delivering two to four quick, easy requests, followed by the target request, and reinforcing both the easy and target responses.
Differential reinforcement procedures also help translate altered MOs into durable cooperation. Differential reinforcement of compliance can rapidly increase following adult directions, while functional communication training (FCT) teaches appropriate ways to request a break. Recent work shows that chaining these procedures can produce high compliance with low levels of challenging behavior, while maintaining learner preference for communication options, and sustaining outcomes during fading (Ferris et al., 2025).
Clinical Takeaways
Begin by scanning for motivating operations that raise the value of escape, such as fatigue, pain, or task novelty, and address them first. Use brief NCR, enriched teaching spaces, and demand fading to lower aversiveness. During teaching, embed high-p sequences with dense, high-quality reinforcement and short pauses. For escape-maintained behavior, combine differential reinforcement of compliance with FCT, then fade logically while monitoring assent and outcomes.
References:
Edwards, T. L. (2020). Motivating operations and negative reinforcement. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 43(3), 567–581.
Ferris, E. L., Howard, A. R., Baker, E., Craig, A. R., Roane, H. S., & Sullivan, W. E. (2025). Chaining differential reinforcement of compliance and functional communication training. Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 25.
Gerow, S., Radhakrishnan, S., Davis, T. N., & Rivera, G. (2019). A comparison of demand fading and a dense schedule of reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 52(1), 58–72.
O’Brien, M. J., D’Onofrio, K., & Morano, S. (2023). The effects of noncontingent reinforcement on task disengagement. Behavioral Interventions, 38(4), 685–700.
Phillips, C. L., Karsten, A. M., & Beavers, G. A. (2017). Noncontingent reinforcement for severe problem behavior: An evaluation of treatment integrity. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 10(2), 124–135.
Rosales, M. K., Wilder, D. A., Montalvo, M., & Fagan, B. (2021). High-probability instructional sequence for multiple low-probability instructions. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 54(3), 1023–1037.
Russo, D. A., & Blair, K. C. (2023). Using the high-probability instructional sequence to improve completion of low-probability instructions. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 134, 104398.
Sayar, K., Gulboy, E., Yucesoy Ozkan, S., & Baran, M. S. (2024). High-probability request sequence to increase compliance of children with autism spectrum disorder. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 39(1), 33–42.
