Behaviors are considered instrumental when they produce opportunities to engage in other activities (i.e., contingent actions). By manipulating opportunities to engage in instrumental/contingent activities, practitioners can alter the direction and magnitude of instrumental behavior using principles of disequilibrium theory. Though previously unexplored, these models may have utility in clinical contexts involving automatically maintained behavior. In the current study, we sought to provide a brief demonstration of the potential generality and applicability of this model to clinical contexts involving automatic behavior, schedule thinning, and novel response dimensions.

当行为产生机会进行其他活动（即或有行动）时，就被认为是有帮助的。通过操纵参与工具性或偶然性活动的机会，从业者可以使用不平衡理论的原理来改变工具性行为的方向和程度。尽管以前尚未开发，但是这些模型在涉及自动维持行为的临床环境中可能具有实用性。在当前的研究中，我们试图简要说明该模型在涉及自动行为，时间表稀疏和新颖的反应维度的临床环境中的潜在普遍性和适用性。