Use of Aversive Stimulation to Elicit Vocalization in Mute Schizophrenics

Abstract

2 mute schizophrenic females were treated by eliciting verbal responses with aversive stimulation (hand-in-face) then reinforcing these responses by terminating the aversive stimulation and presenting positive reinforcement in the form of candy and verbal approval. Individual and group settings were employed. Patient A became conversational after 12 days. Patient B began emitting words, phrases, and sentences after 3 mo. but had not become conversational at the end of the study. Differences between the two patients were further explored in a conventional operant conditioning setting. As predicted Patient A conditioned much faster on fixed ratio schedules than Patient B.