The Effects of Rationales, Differential Reinforcement, and a Guided Compliance Procedure to Increase Compliance among Preschool Children

Previous research suggests that rationales, or statements describing why a child should comply with a caregiver-delivered instruction, are ineffective at increasing compliance. In the current study, we compared the effects of rationales to a differential reinforcement procedure and a guided compliance procedure. The results indicated that rationales and differential reinforcement were ineffective for both participants; the guided compliance procedure increased compliance for these children. Problem behavior varied within and across conditions, but was generally higher during the rationales and guided compliance conditions.