11.1 Functional Communication Training (FCT) and Noncontingent Reinforcement (NCR)

Foundations of Function-Based Interventions

In applied behavior analysis, behavior reduction is never treated as an isolated end in itself. Under the foundational tenets established by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) and codified across the BACB Test Content Outline, interventions targeting problem behavior must be function-based, reinforcement-driven, and socially valid. Selecting interventions based solely on the outward physical form (topography) of a behavior—such as implementing a uniform consequence for all instances of aggression—represents a profound departure from scientific practice.

Every operant behavior is maintained by environmental contingencies: positive reinforcement (access to attention, preferred tangible items, or sensory stimulation) or negative reinforcement (escape from, avoidance of, or attenuation of aversive instructional demands, physical discomfort, or non-preferred settings). Function-based interventions manipulate the establishing operations (EOs), discriminative stimuli ($S^D$), and maintaining consequences that govern these responses. Among the most rigorously validated function-based interventions in applied behavior analysis are Functional Communication Training (FCT) and Noncontingent Reinforcement (NCR).

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Functional Communication Training (FCT)

Historical Foundations and Conceptual Mechanism

Functional Communication Training was introduced in a seminal study by Edward Carr and Mark Durand (1985) titled "Reducing behavior problems through functional communication training". Carr and Durand demonstrated that severe problem behaviors (e.g., self-injurious behavior [SIB], aggression, and property destruction) frequently function as non-vocal, non-verbal communicative acts. When an individual lacks a socially acceptable vocal, manual, or graphic communicative repertoire to access reinforcers, problem behavior emerges as an operant mechanism to control the social environment.

Conceptually, FCT is a specialized variation of Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA). In standard DRA, an alternative behavior that is topographically dissimilar to problem behavior is placed on a schedule of reinforcement, while problem behavior is placed on extinction or a reduced reinforcement schedule. In FCT, the alternative replacement behavior is specifically an operant communicative response—a mand—that produces the identical maintaining reinforcer responsible for the problem behavior.

               [ MAINTAINING MOTIVATING OPERATION (MO) ]
                                  |
           +----------------------+----------------------+
           |                                             |
[ EXTINCTION CONTINGENCY ]                    [ REINFORCEMENT CONTINGENCY ]
  Problem Behavior (Hitting)                    Functional Communicative Mand
  --> Reinforcer Withheld                       ("Break Please" card / vocal)
  --> Frequency Decreases                       --> Immediate Reinforcer Delivered
                                                --> Frequency Increases

Selecting the Communicative Response Form (Mand Topography)

The communicative mand must be individualized based on the client's current behavioral repertoire, motor capabilities, and social environment. Common topographies include:

• Vocal Verbal Responses: Spoken words, phrases, or vocal approximations (e.g., saying "Help", "Break", or "Toy"). This is the most independent and universally understood form, but requires established echoic or vocal imitation repertoires.
• Sign Language / Manual Signs: American Sign Language (ASL) or modified motor signs (e.g., signing "More" or "Open"). Signs require no external materials, but their utility is restricted to listeners who understand sign language.
• Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) / Picture Cards: Handing an icon, photo, or graphic symbol (e.g., handing a "Break" card). Highly intelligible to untrained community members, but requires the client to locate, transport, and physically exchange the icon.
• Speech-Generating Devices (SGD) / AAC Tablets: Dedicated voice-output communication aids or tablet software (e.g., Proloquo2Go, TouchChat). Provides intelligible synthesized speech and scales to complex linguistic repertoires, but requires device battery maintenance, device portability, and motor navigation through symbol pages.
• Vocal-Output Switches / Microswitches: Single-press switches (e.g., Big Mac switch) that emit a pre-recorded phrase. Highly useful for individuals with severe physical or motor impairments, though limited in vocabulary flexibility.

Selection Criteria for Mand Topography

When selecting a mand topography, behavior analysts must evaluate four critical variables:

1. Learner Motor Repertoire: The response must not exceed the physical or motoric capabilities of the learner (e.g., selecting complex ASL finger-spelling for a client with cerebral palsy would violate this standard).
2. Community Intelligibility: The mand must be easily understood by naive listeners in the natural environment (family, peers, store clerks, general education teachers) without specialized training.
3. Rapidity of Acquisition: The mand should be rapidly acquirable so the client can contact functional reinforcement immediately, preventing prolonged escalation of severe problem behavior.
4. Social Acceptability: The topography should be age-appropriate and preserve client dignity across community settings.

Response Match and Response Efficiency (Horner & Day, 1991)

Two fundamental principles govern the clinical success or failure of Functional Communication Training: Response Match and Response Efficiency.

The Principle of Response Match

The alternative communicative response must be function-matched; it must produce the identical functional consequence that maintains the problem behavior:

• If aggression is maintained by negative reinforcement (escape from demanding academic tasks), the mand must produce task removal, a rest period, or assistance (e.g., "Break please" or "Help me"). Providing an edible or verbal praise contingent on the mand violates response match and will fail to reduce aggression.
• If self-injury is maintained by positive reinforcement (access to adult attention), the mand must produce social interaction (e.g., "Talk to me" or tapping the therapist's shoulder). Providing a break from tasks violates response match and will fail to reduce SIB.

The Principle of Response Efficiency

In their seminal paper, Horner and Day (1991) demonstrated that matching function alone is insufficient. If a problem behavior and a communicative replacement behavior produce the identical reinforcer, the organism will allocate responding according to the Matching Law based on the comparative efficiency of the two response options. Response Efficiency is determined by four interacting parameters:

$\text{Efficiency} = f(\text{Response Effort}, \text{Latency to Reinforcement}, \text{Rate/Density of Reinforcement}, \text{Reinforcement Quality})$

1. Physical Response Effort: The physical exertion, motor coordination, and calories required to emit the behavior. If engaging in problem behavior requires minimal physical effort (e.g., dropping to the floor or swiping a worksheet off a desk), while the communicative mand requires complex multi-step navigation (e.g., opening a communication binder, locating a tab, detaching an icon, walking across the room, and placing it in a therapist's hand), the problem behavior is far more efficient.
2. Latency to Reinforcement: The elapsed time between the completion of the response and the delivery of the reinforcer. If problem behavior produces immediate escape or attention (within 1 second), but staff take 15 to 30 seconds to respond to a communicative card or AAC device, the problem behavior will outcompete the mand.
3. Rate / Density of Reinforcement: The schedule of reinforcement associated with the response. If problem behavior produces reinforcement on an intermittent schedule (e.g., every second or third outburst), while the mand is placed on a thin or inconsistent schedule by busy caregivers, problem behavior will persist.
4. Quality and Magnitude of Reinforcement: The potency and duration of the consequence. If problem behavior produces a 10-minute break with removal of all materials, but the communicative mand only produces a 30-second break, the client will emit problem behavior.

The Five Stages of FCT Clinical Implementation

A comprehensive FCT protocol proceeds through five structured clinical stages:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        THE FIVE STAGES OF FCT                           |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  Stage 1: Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) / Functional Analysis
           --> Identify maintaining consequence (attention, escape, tangible)
                                    |
                                    v
  Stage 2: Mand Topography Selection (Response Match & Efficiency)
           --> Match function; minimize physical effort; maximize intelligibility
                                    |
                                    v
  Stage 3: Initial Dense Acquisition Training (FR1 Schedule)
           --> Errorless prompt fading; 100% immediate delivery of reinforcer
                                    |
                                    v
  Stage 4: Implementation of Functional Extinction
           --> Problem behavior never produces the functional reinforcer
                                    |
                                    v
  Stage 5: Systematic Schedule Thinning & Tolerance Training
           --> Transition to intermittent schedule without resurgence
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Stage 1: Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

A thorough indirect, descriptive, and/or experimental functional analysis must be conducted to isolate the precise environmental contingencies maintaining the target behavior. Clinicians must never implement FCT on subjective impressions or diagnostic labels.

Stage 2: Selection of an Efficient, Socially Acceptable Mand

Select a communicative response that matches the identified function, requires minimal physical effort, and is readily understood across natural environments.

Stage 3: Initial Dense Acquisition Training on a Continuous Schedule (FR1)

The mand is taught using errorless prompting and immediate reinforcement on a continuous Fixed Ratio 1 (FR1) schedule:

• Errorless Prompting: At the onset of the motivating operation (e.g., immediately upon presenting an instructional demand), the therapist immediately provides a full physical or model prompt for the client to emit the mand before problem behavior can occur.
• Zero-Second Latency: The functional reinforcer is delivered instantaneously upon the emission of the prompted mand.
• Prompt Fading: Prompts are faded systematically (using most-to-least, least-to-most, or progressive time delay) until the client emits the mand independently across repeated instructional trials.

Stage 4: Implementation of Functional Extinction

Functional extinction must be applied concurrently to the problem behavior:

• If problem behavior is escape-maintained, implement escape extinction (non-removal of task / guided compliance; demands are maintained calmly, and problem behavior does not terminate the task).
• If problem behavior is attention-maintained, implement attention extinction (planned ignoring; withholding eye contact, verbal reprimands, and emotional reactions).
• If problem behavior is tangible-maintained, implement tangible extinction (withholding access to the desired item or activity following problem behavior).

Empirical research (Fisher et al., 1993; Hagopian et al., 1998; Wacker et al., 1990) demonstrates that FCT implemented without extinction is significantly less effective than FCT combined with extinction. When problem behavior continues to produce even intermittent reinforcement, the client's historical learning history will cause problem behavior to persist, particularly when reinforcement for the mand is subsequently thinned.

Stage 5: Systematic Schedule Thinning and Tolerance Training

An individual who emits a communicative mand on an FR1 schedule in the natural environment will quickly overwhelm caregivers (e.g., requesting a break every 10 seconds or demanding attention continuously). However, abruptly withholding reinforcement or abruptly increasing response requirements induces resurgence of the problem behavior and ratio strain. Schedule thinning must be conducted systematically using empirical protocols:

1. Delay-to-Reinforcement (Progressive Delay):
   • Introduce progressive, calibrated delays between the emission of the mand and reinforcer delivery (e.g., 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute).
   • Clinicians pair the delay with visual countdown timers, verbal contingency statements ("First wait, then break"), or bridge stimuli.
   • Limitation: During the delay interval, the client remains under the influence of the establishing operation, creating an evocative window where problem behavior frequently re-emerges.
2. Hanley et al. (2014) Skill-Based Treatment (SBT) / Delay and Denial Tolerance Training:
   • Gregory Hanley and colleagues revolutionized FCT schedule thinning by integrating tolerance training directly into the instructional sequence.
   • Step A: Omnibus Mand: The client is taught a simple, omnibus communicative response (e.g., "My way please").
   • Step B: Denial Tolerance Response: The clinician introduces denial prompts ("No", "Not right now", "You need to wait"). The client is explicitly taught and reinforced for emitting an affirmative tolerance response: looking at the therapist, nodding, maintaining calm hands, and saying "Okay" or "No problem."
   • Step C: Progressive Demand Reintroduction: Following the tolerance response, the clinician requires the client to complete small, unpredictable amounts of work (e.g., 1 instruction, then 3 instructions, then 8 instructions) before delivering "their way" (reinforcement). This approach has produced large, durable reductions in problem behavior because it teaches tolerance and cooperation under delay and denial conditions.
3. Signaled Availability / Multiple Schedules with Discriminative Stimuli ($S^D$ / $S^\Delta$):
   • Multiple schedules alternate between reinforcement and extinction components, each correlated with distinct, salient visual stimuli.
   • $S^D$ Condition (Green Stimulus): A green card or wristband is displayed. Communication is reinforced on an FR1 schedule. Demands are absent or minimal.
   • $S^\Delta$ Condition (Red Stimulus): A red card or wristband is displayed. Communication is on extinction (placed on hold). Instructional demands are present. Problem behavior is on extinction.
   • Thinning Process: Clinicians begin with long green intervals (e.g., 60 seconds) and very short red intervals (e.g., 5 seconds). Over time, the clinician systematically lengthens the red ($S^\Delta$) intervals while maintaining or gradually compressing the green ($S^D$) intervals until realistic classroom or domestic work-to-break ratios are established (e.g., 15 minutes of work to 3 minutes of break).

Resurgence and Treatment Relapse

A critical exam concept is resurgence—the re-emergence of a previously extinguished target behavior (problem behavior) when an alternative behavior that replaced it (the communicative mand) encounters extinction, delayed reinforcement, or reduced schedule density. Resurgence is governed by behavioral momentum and the matching law. Behavior analysts prevent resurgence by conducting robust tolerance training, ensuring high treatment integrity among all stakeholders, and never thinning reinforcement schedules faster than clinical data support.

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Noncontingent Reinforcement (NCR)

Core Mechanism and Historical Framework

Noncontingent Reinforcement was systematically conceptualized and evaluated by Timothy Vollmer, Brian Iwata, and colleagues (1993) in their foundational paper "The influence of noncontingent reinforcement on problem behavior". NCR is defined as an antecedent intervention in which a known maintaining reinforcer is delivered on a time-based schedule (Fixed-Time [FT] or Variable-Time [VT]), completely independent of the client's behavior.

Despite its name containing the word "reinforcement", NCR does not function as an operant reinforcement procedure. In operant conditioning, reinforcement is strictly defined by a response-contingent relationship that increases the future probability of a behavior. Because NCR delivers stimuli independently of behavior, its behavioral mechanism is an Abolishing Operation (AO):

1. Satiation / Diminished Value: Delivering the maintaining reinforcer on a rich, time-based schedule provides continuous or near-continuous contact with the stimulus. This induces satiation, dramatically attenuating the value of the reinforcer (e.g., satiation on adult attention or relief from task demands).
2. Abolishing the Evocative Effect: Because the establishing operation is abolished, the motivation to engage in problem behavior to access that reinforcer is extinguished.
3. Contingency Uncoupling: Delivering the reinforcer independent of behavior breaks (uncouples) the contingent relationship between problem behavior and the consequence. The learner learns that problem behavior is no longer required to produce the reinforcer, as the reinforcer arrives freely on a time-based schedule.

[ FIXED-TIME (FT) CLOCK RUNNING: e.g., Every 60 Seconds ]
                         |
                         v
[ INTERVAL ELAPSES (Independent of Client Behavior) ]
                         |
                         v
[ REINFORCER DELIVERED (Attention, Break, or Tangible) ]
                         |
                         v
[ ABOLISHING OPERATION (AO) INDUCED ]
  --> Client reaches satiation on functional reinforcer
  --> Value of reinforcer drops to near-zero
  --> Problem behavior abolished (zero motivation to emit)

Establishing Initial Schedule Parameters: Baseline Mean IRT

A universal rule tested on the BCaBA exam is how to establish the initial time interval for an NCR schedule. The initial Fixed-Time (FT) or Variable-Time (VT) schedule must be set equal to or shorter than the client's baseline Mean Interresponse Time (IRT):

$FT_{\text{initial}} \le \text{Mean IRT}_{\text{baseline}}$

Calculating Baseline Mean IRT

To calculate baseline Mean IRT:

$\text{Mean IRT} = \frac{\text{Total Duration of Baseline Observation Session}}{\text{Total Frequency of Target Problem Behavior}}$

Applied Clinical Calculation Example

• A client engages in property destruction maintained by access to tangible items.
• During a 30-minute (1,800 seconds) baseline observation session, the client engages in 15 episodes of property destruction.
• Baseline Mean IRT is calculated as:

$\text{Mean IRT} = \frac{1800 \text{ seconds}}{15 \text{ responses}} = 120 \text{ seconds (2 minutes)}$

• Setting the Schedule: If the clinician sets the initial FT schedule at 3 minutes (180 seconds), the client will emit property destruction on average 60 seconds before the timer elapses. Therefore, the clinician must set the initial FT interval below the Mean IRT—such as FT 90 seconds (1.5 minutes) or FT 100 seconds. By delivering the reinforcer every 90 seconds, the client contacts the reinforcer before the motivation to engage in property destruction accumulates.

Systematic Schedule Thinning for NCR

Once problem behavior is suppressed to near-zero levels under the initial dense NCR schedule, the clinician must thin the schedule to make it manageable in natural environments. Three primary thinning strategies exist:

1. Proportional Thinning: Increasing the FT/VT interval by a fixed percentage (typically 10% to 20%) after each block of successful sessions meeting stability criteria (e.g., increasing FT 60s $\to$ FT 72s $\to$ FT 86s).
2. Fixed Time Increments: Adding a constant duration to the interval (e.g., adding 15 or 30 seconds to the FT interval after every two consecutive sessions with zero problem behavior).
3. IRT-Adjusted Thinning: Recalculating the client's emerging IRT across thinning sessions and resetting the schedule to match the new, lengthened latency between responses.

The Superstitious Reinforcement Hazard and the Momentary Reset Delay

A critical clinical risk inherent in NCR is accidental (superstitious / adventitious) reinforcement. Because the FT or VT delivery is governed strictly by the clock, a situation will inevitably arise where the client engages in problem behavior (e.g., screaming or hitting) immediately before the scheduled timer elapses. If the therapist delivers the reinforcer precisely when the timer rings, the reinforcer immediately follows problem behavior in close temporal contiguity, adventitiously strengthening the problem behavior.

The Momentary Reset Delay Solution

To eliminate the risk of adventitious reinforcement, clinicians incorporate a momentary reset delay (also termed a contingency delay or safety window):

• If the client engages in problem behavior within a pre-established window (e.g., 5 seconds or 10 seconds) of the scheduled reinforcer delivery, the delivery is withheld.
• The timer is suspended or reset until the client has engaged in zero problem behavior for the duration of the delay window (e.g., 10 consecutive seconds of calm behavior).
• Only after the clean delay window elapses is the scheduled reinforcer delivered. This prevents temporal pairing between the problem response and the consequence.

Advantages, Limitations, and Contraindications of NCR

Advantages

• Rapid Behavior Reduction: NCR frequently produces immediate, dramatic reductions in severe problem behavior, often suppressing rates faster than differential reinforcement alone.
• Absence of Extinction Burst: Because the client continues to contact the reinforcer densely, NCR rarely produces the aggressive or emotional extinction bursts associated with pure extinction.
• High Treatment Integrity & Social Validity: Caregivers and teachers find NCR easy and pleasant to implement because it involves noncontingent delivery of positive stimuli rather than withholding reinforcement or executing complex physical prompts.
• Facilitates Positive Learning Environments: Enriches the overall instructional climate, transforming instructors into conditioned appetitive stimuli.

Limitations & Contraindications

• Does NOT Teach Replacement Repertoires: NCR is an antecedent management strategy; it does not teach a functional communicative response, adaptive replacement skill, or coping strategy. When NCR is removed, the client remains without a functional mand.
• Risk of Satiation on Instructional Reinforcers: If attention or edibles are delivered noncontingently throughout a session, the establishing operation for those same reinforcers during academic skill acquisition is abolished, reducing instructional engagement.
• Disruption of Instructional Flow: Extremely dense schedules (e.g., FT 30 seconds) require constant staff interruption of tasks to deliver reinforcement.

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Comprehensive Comparative Analysis: FCT vs. NCR

The following structured comparative table details the vital clinical, conceptual, and operational distinctions between Functional Communication Training and Noncontingent Reinforcement:

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Common BCaBA Exam Traps: FCT and NCR

• Trap 1: Confusing NCR with Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO): On certification exams, questions frequently describe delivering a reinforcer on an interval timer and ask candidates to identify the procedure. In DRO, delivery is strictly contingent on the absence of problem behavior throughout the interval; if the behavior occurs, the timer resets and no reinforcer is delivered. In NCR, delivery is noncontingent and time-based (independent of behavior), occurring whether the client engaged in the behavior or not (with only a brief momentary reset delay to avoid superstitious pairing). DRO is a consequence intervention; NCR is an antecedent intervention.
• Trap 2: Assuming FCT Can Succeed Without Extinction: Exam items often describe a scenario where FCT is implemented with high fidelity, yet the client continues to engage in aggression. The stem reveals that when aggression occurs, caregivers occasionally provide the reinforcer (e.g., "just to keep him quiet"). Candidates must recognize that without extinction, problem behavior remains on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, which the matching law directly sustains.
• Trap 3: Selecting a High-Tech AAC Device Without Considering Response Efficiency: When a scenario features a client with severe fine-motor deficits engaging in rapid aggression (1 second latency), selecting a complex 84-location dynamic-display speech device that requires navigating multiple sub-folders will fail. The exam expects candidates to identify that the mand must be more efficient than the problem behavior.
• Trap 4: Setting the Initial NCR Schedule to an Arbitrary Interval: Any multiple-choice distractor that proposes setting an initial NCR schedule at an arbitrary round number (e.g., "Start with an FT 5-minute schedule because 5 minutes is standard") is incorrect. The initial schedule must always be derived mathematically from the baseline Mean Interresponse Time (IRT).