Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysts have developed a rich technology to identify reinforcers for individuals with developmental disabilities; the studies in this symposium seek to add to this knowledge base. In Study 1, reinforcer assessments for tangible and social stimuli were conducted with 3 individuals with autism. High-preference tangible items were the most potent reinforcers for all participants, but some individuals responded more to access low-preference social interactions. In Study 2, two participants with autism participated in MSWO assessments under different schedules of reinforcement (CRF, VR2, No access). Preference hierarchies were broadly consistent across reinforcement schedules; the no access condition required the least amount of time to complete. In Study 3, the outcomes of engagement-based assessments with varied access to selected items were compared to MSWO assessments. The engagement-based and MSWO assessments identified the same highest-preferred activity for three of four individuals with autism. In Study 4, 12 individuals with no previous knowledge of preference assessments accurately implemented free operant preference assessments when provided with an antecedent-only self-instructional packet. In all studies, interobserver agreement (IOA) data were collected in at least 30% of sessions, and IOA was above 95%. The results of these studies may help clinicians better identify reinforcers for their clients

There is a wealth of research on preference assessments, but to date, no studies have been conducted to identify optimal procedures for conducting reinforcer assessments or to determine the most appropriate reinforcer assessment for tangible or social stimuli. This information is important to validate new preference assessments, to evaluate stimuli that are being established as conditioned reinforcers, and to provide evidence that the stimuli being used function as reinforcers. To address the above limitations the current study compared three reinforcer assessments with social and tangible stimuli with three individuals with autism. The items included were identified through paired-stimulus preference assessments. The tangible reinforcer assessments supported the current research as the high-preference items were the most potent reinforcers for all participants. There was more variability with the social reinforcer assessments and the concurrent-operants reinforcer assessment did not support the current research for any of the participants as findings were undifferentiated or showed higher rates of responding for the low-preference interaction than the high-preference interaction. Interobserver agreement data were obtained across 50% of sessions; mean agreement was 99%. Further research is needed to determine the best procedures to use in the reinforcer assessments and the most appropriate procedures based on participant characteristics.

Identifying preferred stimuli may be challenging for those who work with individuals with developmental disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Preference assessments have been empirically supported and can generally be categorized as approach-based (e.g., MSWO; multiple-stimulus without replacement) described as presenting stimuli to an individual for brief periods of time and recording approach (i.e., selection) or engagement-based (e.g., SSE; single-stimulus engagement) which measures engagement with a particular item. Few studies have directly compared outcomes produced by engagement-based as compared to approach-based preference assessments. The purpose of the proposed study was to compare the outcomes of a SSE preference assessment across a 30 s, 2 min, 5 min, and a duration based on the typical trade-in time per participant to a MSWO preference assessment across open-and closed-ended activities with four young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Interobserver agreement (IOA) data were collected for 50% of sessions across participants and mean agreement was 99% (range, 97%-100%) across sessions and participants. The SSE assessments indicated that some individuals may be more sensitive to access duration than others. Results from the MSWO assessments and SSE assessments identified the same activity as highest-preferred for three of the four participants.