Environmental enrichment and stereotypic behavior

ABSTRACT

Environmental enrichment has been used as a control condition during experimental functional analysis assessments and as a procedure to decrease stereotypic behavior and other aberrant behavior. Interestingly, in some studies, environmental enrichment has been found to increase stereotyped behavior, rather than decreasing it. Currently, there is no cohesive explanation of why this may occur, and the aim of this paper is to explore some behavioral mechanisms that might explain this type of stereotyped behavior. Studies showing increased rates of stereotypic behavior under enriched environment conditions, and studies evaluating procedures to reduce this type of stereotypic behavior are reviewed. Although it cannot be determined empirically which mechanisms are responsible for this type of stereotypic behavior, potential mechanisms include complementarity of reinforcers, establishing operations, arousal interpretation, suppression and response allocation, respondent behavior, and schedule-induced behavior. The extent to which there is sufficient empirical evidence to favor one over the other is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Stereotyped behavior
• self-stimulatory behavior
• environmental enrichment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.