Association for Behavior Analysis International

In the vast majority of operant experiments reinforcement magnitude (e.g., meal size) has been treated as a parameter of other independent variables that control the subject's behavior (e.g., the delivery of three food-pellets as reinforcement). By contrast, in some experiments conducted in our laboratory, we have focused on reinforcement magnitude (i.e., the number of response-produced food pellets) as the dependent variable of this type of experiment. In a first study, the rat's "natural" durations of an opportunity to eat and successive inter-opportunity periods were both altered. Shortening the feeding opportunities and lengthening the inter-opportunity periods increased the rate of eating. In a second study, the temporal location of a short neutral stimulus within the inter-opportunity period was varied. Food eaten was a decreasing function of lengthening the stimulus-opportunity interval, including either, the enhancement or suppression of eating about a baseline with no stimulus. In a third experiment, the effects of reinforcement delay in a food-accumulation situation were studied. Food accumulation (and consumption) increased as delay of reinforcement was lengthened. The general conclusion of our experiments is that independent variables commonly studied in conditioning experiments have considerable influence on the magnitude of eating by rats.

Behavior analysts interested in conditioning.

The major purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of practice and reinforcement on letter string problem solving. College students were exposed to printed letter string problems. In the first experiment correct answers could be reinforced, punished, ignored, randomly reinforced or presented without a previous example. Data showed punishment significantly decreased the number of correct answers produced by the subjects; additionally practice significantly increased the number of correct answers in one reinforced condition and lowered the number of correct answers in the punishment group. A second experiment assessed behavioral momentum theory in the solution of letter string problems. Subjects were reinforced for producing a determined answer during 12 consecutive problems; subsequently the answer selected for reinforcement changed. Results showed the probability of producing a correct answer significantly decreased when reinforcement contingencies changed. Data from both experiments suggest that approaching letter string problem solving from an operant, rather than cognitive perspective, could allow a better understanding and control of the phenomenon.

While falling short of banning the use of punitive procedures entirely, ABAI's statement on restraint and seclusion "strongly oppose[d] the inappropriate and/or unnecessary use of seclusion, restraint, or other intrusive interventions". As such, if individual and community safety can be maintained through the exclusive use of positive practices, then the need for punishment should become obsolete and its use considered unethical. Utilizing several single case studies, this paper aims to make explicit the influence and potential that positive behavior supports have in supporting adults with autism and other developmental disabilities in community settings after previously enduring extended institutional placements. While researchers have found that institutional "stayers" tend to exhibit more challenging behavior than those who transition to community placements, research regarding specific forensic challenges have not been widely studied. This paper aims to contribute to that literature. In each case study presented, a decrease in both the frequency and episodic severity of severe and challenging behavior was found following the application of an ABA model driven by the values associated with social role valorization, providing a blueprint for safe community integration for adults with a broad constellation of developmental and psychiatric challenges.

The purpose of this study is to use the Wii Video Game Consol a tool to study engagement and peer interactions with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The questions being answered are: Do children playing the Wii have increased engagement during a subsequent free choice activity? And, do Children playing the Wii game have increased interaction with peer during a subsequent free choice activity?

Given the empirically validated success of early behavioral interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, the demand for knowledgeable and skilled paraprofessional teaching staff is at an all-time high. Unfortunately, there currently exists a widely recognized shortage of such practitioners. What is needed is an efficient training curriculum that is specifically geared toward those at the paraprofessional level, one that does not require university enrollment. Such a training program must be easy to access, presented at a level that reaches anyone who may have little or no prior experience with ABA and be available anytime one chooses to access it. This paper will describe an innovative program of research and development aimed at training paraprofessionals through the use of online distance training. The focus of the program has been on teaching fundamental knowledge and skills in behavioral intervention methods by simulating typical live mentor/mentee training. To help build skills, the program makes use of unique simulation exercises, in which the user directly interacts with an onscreen child from a first-person perspective. Program evaluation data from multiple studies will be summarized that demonstrate both knowledge acquisition and transfer of computer-based skills to live performances.

Stimulus equivalence has been an active field of research in Behavior Analysis, producing robust results and important applications. Old controversies and new research problems have kept the field alive and significant research continues to be produced. The four papers in this symposium, be researchers of three different countries, explore different avenues of current research on stimulus equivalence. Two basic studies deal with the relationship between stimulus equivalence and meaning: one of them investigates how meaningful stimuli influence the probability of equivalence class formation and the other uses a semantic differential to investigate to what extent equivalent stimuli share meaning. A translational study with cochlear implant users is also relevant to the question of meaning. It investigates the use of the equivalence paradigm to impart meaning to auditory stimuli in previously deaf children. The symposium concludes with a theoretical analysis of substitutability between equivalent stimuli, proposing how equal and unequal relatedness can coexist in equivalence classes.

When equivalence classes included a meaningful stimulus together with abstract ones, evaluations with a semantic differential showed that meaning transferred to the abstract stimuli. Some experimental parameters, however, interfered with transfer of meaning. The present study trained conditional relations AB, AC, and CD (three samples and comparisons each). A1, A2, and A3 were faces expressing happyness, neutrality, and anger, respectively. The other stimuli were abstract pictures. Semantic differential evaluations showed that D1, D2, and D3 acquired meanings similar to the equivalent faces. Conditional discrimination CD was then rearranged to C1D2, C2D3 and C3D1. Classes rearranged as expected. However, semantic differential evaluations showed that meanings of the stimuli did not reverse. Mean evaluations of the D stimuli now equivalent to the angry and happy faces became similar. Although the classes appeared to rearrange, on the basis of class formation tests, the stimuli that changed class membership did not acquire the meaning of the faces to which they were now equivalent. Class rearrangement is then another experimental condition that interferes with transfer of meaning between equivalent stimuli.

This study, conducted with children users of cochlear implant, isolated two components of dictated words as sample stimuli. Stimuli in set A were video clips of a person speaking words without any sounds (lips movements); stimuli in set C were dictated words presented through the computer speakers (sounds only, without orofacial cues); stimuli in the B set were pictures. The teaching procedure was simultaneous matching-to-sample with three comparison stimuli. The order of training was AB/CB for half of participants, and CB/AB for the other half. Tests evaluated the emergence of equivalence relations (AC/AC) and of two operant relations derived from the matching training: picture naming and echoic responding, with both trained and novel stimuli. All participants learned six conditional relations (3 AB and 3 AC). The acquisition of conditional discriminations was faster with auditory sample stimuli. All participants formed equivalent classes between pictures, dictated words, and lips movements. Echoic behavior and picture naming also increased for 3 participants, but echoic responding improved more than picture naming. The results confirm previous findings that, through the implant, hearing impaired children can learn arbitrary relations between sounds and other events, and that sounds acquire symbolic meaning through participation in equivalence classes.

The traditional view of equivalence classes is that all class members are substitutable for each other, and, by implication, equally related to each other. This assumption, however, does not fully or accurately describe the strength of relations among the stimuli in an equivalence class. A growing set of post-class-formation within-class, steady-state measures of preference demonstrates that the relational strength among the stimuli in an equivalence class are strongly influenced by at least two structural properties of equivalence classes. Specifically, the strength of relations between stimuli in an equivalence class is an inverse function of the number of nodal stimuli that separate the stimuli in the class. In addition, transitive relations are preferred to equivalence relations, which implies that relational strength is also an inverse function of the number of logical operators the define derived relations. These results then show clearly that the stimuli in an equivalence classes are not substitutable for each other and, by implication, are unequally related to each other. The equal and unequal relatedness of stimuli in an equivalence class actually coexist and are expressed by different types of tests. Performances indicative of equal relatedness are expressed in the presence of cross class tests, while performances indicative of unequal relatedness are expressed in the presence of within class tests. Thus, the two views of relatedness are complementary to each other and do not reflect the effects of procedural confounds.

In this panel, the objectives for the conference attendees are to get an insight on the development and standards of operation in beginning an Applied Behavior Analysis business treating individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The presenters will review business plan development including market analysis, cost analysis, and service delivery models. Panelists will also discuss hiring procedures, theoretical and practical training protocols for service staff, and plans for ongoing staff supervision. Legal considerations including safety requirements, confidentiality, labor laws, and liability will be described. Additional emphasis will be given in the development of client policies such as financial contracts, treatment consent forms, and family requirements in treatment. A key core in successfully maintaining the operation of the business is development of the human resources side of managing the staff. All of the objectives above will be outlined in a first 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day business operation guide. This will allow participants to walk away with tangible operational forms to help with the beginning stages of running a successful Applied Behavior Analysis business.

We do not risk damnation when we espouse behavior analysis, as Copernicus did when he removed humanity from the center of the world. Yet, many still characterize behavior analysis as too simple, too dangerous and quite unacceptable. They reacted that way when Watson first espoused a behavioral approach 100 years ago, and they were not kinder to Skinner when he proposed a more all-encompassing approach to psychology while keeping true to the behavioral way. This paper will make an attempt to explain why behaviorism continues to elicit emotional responses from scientists and the public at large rather than the studied reaction that science is expected to elicit.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students and anyone interested in behaviorism.

We know that there is not psychology without philosophy are sisters sciences, gave way to one another, hence the importance of time and illustrate the contributions that were made to this. The world is full of questions and the men of the time dedicated to finding solutions to all these questionings. This paper illustrates the origins of psychology through philosophers who laid the foundations of this science. This issue is of vital importance to students of psychology, because knowing where we come from to know where we are going. This poster is a tribute to those men whose wisdom created thoughs theories that later became the major schools of psychology. It is a journey from the contributions of Socrates, Plato, Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Aristotle, among other characters whose thinking changed the world's perception. Who are we? What are we made ??of? How do we know? What if being a Tabula rasa born? Or born with the knowledge in our minds? The pedagogical usefulness of this poster lies in giving a graphical view of the early history of psychology will be of great interest to students and scholars in this field. A look from the point of view of a college student, clear dialogue, concrete, clean, straightforward. A journey through time, a lookback review of our ancestors, curious and eager for knowledge. The search for truth through a righteous life, full of sacrifices, the fight for the beautiful, the good, the right, being true to yourself and your thoughts. The philosopher gives his life for his beliefs, for his vision of life, teaches without receiving anything in return, the real world is the world of thought, because reality is constantly changing, not bathe twice in the same river. We fall in love of wisdom, never lose that curiosity, teachers emulate philosophers and question, never believe that we have all the wisdom, humility and learning from errors and right and these men. Psychology students and professors should encourage this same desire to learn, to teach, to live without fear of error, since the error opens new ground, that's how we learn. They explored the profundides of mind, toured every corner of reason, met and got to know his motives and got our own reasons. Being a student of psychology is to be a humanist, is to be interested in the physical and mental health of the patient is caring for others yet to realize their own interests. These philosophers, their life and work are an example to us today. We most emulated them.

Several studies have confirmed that stimulus equivalence is a promising behavioral model of symbolic behavior. Behavioral, psychometric, and electrophysiological studies indicate that members of equivalence classes share meaning. Some of these studies formed equivalence classes comprising abstract and meaningful stimuli and showed that meaning transferred to the abstract stimuli. There are indications that this transfer varies quantitatively as a function of parameters such as nodal distance, amount of matching to sample training and matching delay. This has suggested that equivalent stimuli may vary in their degree of relatedness, which is incompatible with the very notion of equivalence. This presentation will discuss these strengths and threats involved in the notion of equivalence and eventual interpretative alternatives.

Anyone who is interested in symbolic behavior.

The traditional behaviour-analytic approach for teaching language skills to children with autism typically includes a receptive task that follows a ?matching-to-sample? (MTS) procedure, as a pre-requisite for teaching expressive language skills. Based on Skinner?s (1957) analysis of verbal behaviour and particularly on the functional relation between motivating operations (MOs) and the mand it can be argued that receptive language training is not a condition for children with autism to acquire expressive language, and that the manipulation of the MO allows for the development of effective expressive repertoires (e.g., Michael, 1988; Bondy, 2001; Sundberg & Michael, 2001). Despite the potential beneficial implications this statement has, research has yet to be conducted. The present study used an alternating treatment design to assess the possibility of introducing attributes to the expressive vocabulary of 2 children with autism merely by manipulating the MO, without teaching these descriptors in a receptive manner first. Results suggested receptive language training should not necessarily be considered a requirement for children with autism to gain effective expressive repertoires.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are complex, pervasive, neurodevelopmental disorders that require multi-faceted, multidisciplinary, and integrated treatment approaches. Different disciplines can contribute important information that is critical in providing treatment that is customized to each individuals unique needs. Unfortunately, as experts in their discipline, many practitioners may not appreciate or understand the contributions of these other disciplines. Fully integrated treatment that addresses the unique strengths, weaknesses, and needs of an individual with an ASD requires collaboration with other disciplines. The current paper explores the ways in which neuropsychology and applied behavior analysis (ABA) can contribute to the evaluation of an individual with an ASD for treatment planning purposes. Techniques derived from ABA can enhance the neuropsychological evaluation process and procedures for individuals with ASDs, making the obtained data more clinically useful for treatment planning. Additionally, data garnered from neuropsychological evaluations can be beneficial to ABA providers who are designing individual intervention approaches and monitoring treatment effectiveness. Thus, the current paper seeks to highlight areas of overlap and potential collaboration between these two disciplines.

De acuerdo con Ribes (2004), la estructuracion de las funciones contextual y suplementaria supone el desarrollo de relaciones de condicionalidad entre eventos de estimulo y segmentos de respuesta con base en las propiedades espacio-temporales de su ocurrencia. Serrano (2009) desarrollo una propuesta para analizar el ajuste conductual de ambas funciones en terminos de endices de ajuste basados en criterios de inclusividad y desligamiento asociados a cada una de las funciones. En el presente trabajo se exponen una serie de estudios empleando a los programas temporales propuestos por Schoenfeld, Cumming & Hearts (1957) para evaluar los alcances empiricos de la propuesta y se expone la pertinencia de incorporar el analisis de las propiedades temporales de las relaciones de contingencia establecidas en estos programas como elementos definitorios del ajuste conductual.

Se avaluaron los efectos de variar la duración del intervalo entre estímulos sobre el ajuste efectivo en ratas. Para dos grupos de ratas se utilizó un ciclo T de 15 s; mientras que para otros dos el ciclo T fue de 60 s. Los sujetos de uno de los grupos T= 15 s y de otro con T= 60 s no recibieron entrenamiento explícito para el establecimiento de la respuesta mediadora. El ciclo T se subdividió en dos subciclos (TD y T?), durante TD se presentó una luz verde que se podía cancelar por la emisión de la respuesta y activaba el dispensador de agua. Durante T? se presentó una luz roja, los sujetos se mantuvieron en estas condiciones durante 20 sesiones. Los resultados permiten identificar que el establecimiento explícito de la respuesta mediadora contribuyó en la proporción de relaciones contextuales mediadas por la respuesta. Al parecer, una mayor duración del intervalo entre estímulos contribuyó de manera favorable en el responder, particularmente en los sujetos que no recibieron entrenamiento explícito de la respuesta mediadora. Los resultados del presente estudio son consistentes con otros en los que se han empleando los programas definidos temporalmente como estrategia para identificar el ajuste efectivo

El presente estudio se dirigi a explorar los efectos del intervalo entre estimulos contextualizadores sobre el ajuste diferencial en ratas. Se conformaron cuatro grupos de sujetos que se distinguieron por la duracion del intervalo entre estimulos (15 s o 60 s) y por contar o no contar con una historia de entrenamiento. En todos los casos el estimulo contextualizador se presente de manera independiente de la respuesta. Los resultados permiten identificar que la ausencia de una historia de entrenamiento (i.e., haber tenido contacto con el evento contextualizador) favoreci que los sujetos tuvieran ajustes diferenciales mos elevados. Al parecer, una mayor duracion del intervalo entre estimulos tambien favorecia en el responder. Los resultados de este estudio son consistentes con aquellos en los que el evento contextualizador es dependiente de la respuesta.

Se avaluaron los efectos de distintos tipos de moldeamiento de los segmentos de respuesta contingente y requerida sobre el ajuste efectivo en ratas empleando programas definidos temporalmente. Se emplearon 8 ratas wistar albino divididas en tres grupos. El Grupo 1 paso por dos condiciones de moldeamiento. La primera condicion fue moldeamiento a bebedero empleando un programa TF60s. Posteriormente, pasaron por una condicion de moldeamiento a palanca empleando un programa concurrente IV60s TF60s. El Grupo 2 se sometio solo a moldeamiento a palanca empleando el mismo programa que el Grupo 1. Por altimo, el Grupo 3 no fue sometido a ninguna condicion de moldeamiento. Los tres grupos pasaron por un programa temporal con duracion del ciclo T de 60 s durante 30 sesiones. El ciclo T se subdividi en dos subciclos (TD y T?), los cuales fueron secalizados diferencialmente. Los resultados sugieren que el tipo de moldeamiento influye en la estabilidad del endice de ajuste efectivo y en las propiedades temporales de los segmentos de respuesta asociados a la contingencia.

Recent empirical and conceptual developments (e.g., Wasserman & Frank, 2005; Urcuioli, 2008) have suggested that the failure to observe derived relational responding in nonhuman subjects is the result of irrelevant stimulus properties such as the spatial location of the stimuli gaining control over the response. Procedures that preclude the development of control by irrelevant features have begun to produce reliable evidence of associative symmetry in pigeons. This symposium brings together presentations from four different laboratories investigating derived relational responding with nonhuman subjects using this procedure. Campos & Debert present data on pigeons- working with compound visual stimuli and ask whether the resulting performances are conditional discriminations. Vaidya & Hinnenkamp present some data on stimulus-parameter manipulations and their effects on pigeons-acquisition of baseline relations and performance on tests for associative symmetry. Galizio, Prichard, and Bruce's report presents data on rats-acquisition of baseline relations and emergent symmetry using olfactory stimuli. Finally, Urcuioli, Campos, & Swisher present some data on the necessity of identity matching in the emergence of associative symmetry in pigeons' go/no-go performances.

The Go, No-Go procedure has recently attracted attention for its use in establishing symmetrical relations/responding in pigeons (Frank and Wasserman, 2005, Urcuiolli, 2008). In our attempts to utilize the Go, No-Go procedure in a systematic replication of Urcuioli (2008), we found that several of the pigeons failed to respond in accord with the experimenter defined baseline conditional relations despite extensive training with visual stimuli. A closer analysis of the pigeons' performance revealed anomalies in the birds' interaction with the stimuli. The procedure was altered to further constrain the pigeons' interactions with the visual stimuli. All four subjects readily acquired the baseline go/no-go performances under these conditions. In addition, all four birds showed evidence of symmetry as measured globally. Closer analyses, however, revealed that the subjects' performances were not equally accurate on the two trial types that assess symmetry. Follow up analyses to explore the source of the discrepant performance are currently underway. Nonetheless, these results highlight the important role of control by relevant stimulus features in organizing go/no go performances and facilitating or blocking the development of symmetry.

Pigeons show associative symmetry after concurrent training on arbitrary successive matching and two identity matching tasks involving the stimuli appearing in the arbitrary task. They also show emergent "antisymmetry" when one of the two supplemental tasks involves oddity rather than identity matching. Here, we report that pigeons show associative symmetry after concurrent training on arbitrary successive matching and two oddity tasks. These data confirm a prediction derived from Urcuioli's (2008) theory of pigeons' stimulus-class formation and underscore that learning identity matching is not necessary for the emergence of other derived stimulus-stimulus relations.

The objectives for the symposium attendees are to apply the foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis such as motivation, rule-governed behaviors, and differential reinforcement (DRO, DRA, DRI) to be able to analyze treatment integrity. A synopsis of the literature review for established treatments based on the result of the National Standards Report on Autism Spectrum Disorders released by the National Autism Center will be discussed. A portion of the emerging treatments identified in the study are music therapy, developmental relationship-based treatment, exercise, massage/touch therapy, and theory of mind training. The potentially effective components of these emerging treatments should not be stand alone treatments but, rather, part of the established treatment interventions. The behavior analysis field has established procedural guidelines for practitioners to identify the core components of evidence-based treatment for the protection of our consumers and our field. The best way to make an informed decision as a practitioner and consumer is to analyze the details and components of all literature published in peer-reviewed professional journals.

This presentation will identify the key component of motivation in treatment effectiveness. Motivational intervention packages are a key component in behavior interventions and have been found to have collateral positive changes in imitation and rapid speech acquisition in "nonverbal"children (Koegel, O'Dell & Koegel, 1987), decreases in disruptive behaviors without needing to directly target them (Koegel, Koegel & Surratt, 1992) and increases in happiness, interest and enthusiasm (Vismara & Lyons, 2007). Emerging treatments claim the use of novel strategies. Further detailed analyses reveal that the foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis are the root of these treatment claims.

This presentation will identify the key component of rule-governed behavior in treatment effectiveness. Rule-governed behavior is behavior that is maintained via the obligation of maintaining order, which is verbally mediated. Emerging treatments claim the use of novel strategies such as theory of mind training and social interventions. Further detailed analyses reveal that the foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis are the root of these treatment claims.

The objective for this presentation is to review the strategies to replace behaviors competing with the maladaptive behaviors. A portion of the emerging treatments identified in the National Standards Study are behavior reduction treatment, exercise, and massage/touch therapy. The potentially effective components of these emerging treatments should not be stand alone treatments but, rather, part of the established treatment interventions. Further detailed analyses reveal that the foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis are the root of these treatment claims.

We have a greater understanding of the experiential sources for the social and language deficits in children with autism. Moreover, we know more about what to do to improve their social and verbal prognosis. These advances in the science of behavior are based on converging basic and applied research findings on: (a) emergent behavior (i.e., learned responses that emerge indirectly from directly teaching other operants or respondents), (b) verbal behavior and verbal behavior development, as well as (c) applications in schools with more than 300 children. One set of findings concerns how a single stimulus comes to control different verbal behaviors and how a single response comes to be useful for different functions. Still others show how children come to learn language incidentally (i.e., without direct or indirect instruction). Still other findings identify the role of conditioned reinforcement underlying language as a social tool and social reinforcer. These findings, and extensive replications with children, provide new and advanced expertise to bring children's verbal behavior under the natural reinforcers for language functions. The reinforcers for verbal behavior are the keys to what makes language social, and vice versa-these reinforcers are learned. We have identified many key learned reinforcers and how they are learned incidentally. Better yet, we now have protocols to condition them if they are missing in a child's reinforcement repertoire. True verbal and social behaviors accrue from changes in reinforcers for language.

Anyone interested in experiential sources for the social and language deficits in children with autism.

This symposium will address several areas of recent research for children with autism. The first presentation will address how defining and measuring anxiety in children with autism can be challenging particularly in treatment development. The second presentation will look further into anxiety responses by using neuroimaging to evaluate neural responding to pictures of stimuli that are associated with phobia in two children with autism. The third presentation is based on the demonstration that using a behavioral economics approach one can evaluate the relative value of social and nonsocial reinforcers for children with autism.

Research has yet to identify biomarkers in ASD associated with abnormal fear responses that may be associated with increased risk for anxiety disorders such as specific phobias. The purpose of the current study was to examine the neurocircuitry that supports excessive fearfulness in ASD. Two young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, mild intellectual disability, and Specific Phobia participated in the study. During pre-scanning Subjective Units of Distress Scale ratings of phobogenic stimuli (i.e., bugs and spiders, respectively), Brian engaged in vocal verbal mediation (e.g., its just a picture) while Sean only engaged in avoidance (e.g., looking away, shutting eyes) or startle responses. Both participants were shown (a) phobogenic and (b) neutral pictures in a Skyra T3 MRI scanner. Sean showed increased activation only in the amygdala for phobogenic stimuli. However, Brian exhibited significant activation in the left frontal lobe suggesting verbal mediation in response to phobogenic stimuli. Additionally, Brian demonstrated increased average fractional anisotropy for both the left and right uncinate fasciculus, providing evidence of a higher level of connectivity between the frontal lobes and the amygdala. Implications for future research on pre-post treatment neuroimaging data to better understand biobehavioral mechanisms underlying response to behavioral treatment will be discussed.

El acoso escolar o bullying es un subtipo de violencia que se presenta en contextos escolares entre pares que trae consigo problematicas tanto para el receptor como para el emisor de la agresion. Es debido a esto que la literatura se ha dedicado al diseno de intervenciones orientadas a detener esta problematica derivando en el descuido del diseno de modelos explicativos. El presente documento propone el uso combinado de dos teorias conductuales (la teoria de la coercion y la teoria del control del recuro) que permiten un acercamiento a la obtencion de un modelo explicativo de la genesis y funcionamiento de esta conducta. La teoria de la coercion por medio del entrenamiento coercitivo puede explicar la conducta bullying en casos donde el agresor presenta habilidades sociales deficientes; sin embargo, no cubre la existencia de agresores que poseen habilidades sociales. Esta situacion puede ser explicada a traves de la teoria del control del recurso la cual postula involucramiento en conducta antisocial por parte de un individuo con suficientes habilidades sociales probablemente cumple la misma funcion que la conducta coercitiva cumple en los en individuos con menores habilidades en terminos de proveer al adolescente de insumos y manejo de la situacion social.

La inclusion erronea del termino bullying al lenguaje ordinario, en el que se considera que practicamente todo acto de agresion es bullying, hace imprescindible su conceptualizacion para diferenciarlo de su empleo en ambientes academicos. Ademos de ello, se puede conocer si la definicion empleada en lenguaje ordinario se asemeja o distingue de otros terminos menos susceptibles de provocar efectos negativos en las muestras empleadas para el abordaje de dicha problematica. Para el presente documento se realize la aplicacion de 600 cuestionarios (200 solicitando la definicion conductual de bullying, 200 del termino agredir y 200 de molestar) a adolescentes de secundaria. Los resultados indican que no hay diferencias significativas en las conductas identificadas para cada termino. No obstante, en ninguno de los terminos se reporta consistentemente la situacion de repeticion focalizada de la agresion, por lo que se concluye que al abordar las situaciones de bullying pueden utilizarse como sinenimos los terminos agredir y molestar, especificando explicitamente que la conducta debe ser repetida a lo largo del tiempo hacia la misma victima, para asegurar que lo evaluado coincida con el fenemeno bullying empleado academicamente.

For the past 10 years, the Global Autism Project has been providing training to autism centers around the world. In this symposium, we will discuss what has worked well and where we have had challenges along the way. Speakers from the Global Autism Project as well as our service partners will speak about the particular challenges of working with individuals with autism in their home countries. In addition, we will discuss various models of international training and how we have built collaborative and sustainable partnerships. Presenters will offer suggestions to those working cross-culturally in other countries as well as with culturally diverse clientele here in the U.S. Time will be reserved for attendees to ask questions.

Visiting another culture can always be challenging, and even more so if you are providing training. Volunteers from the Global Autism Project's SkillCorps program will speak about these particular challenges and ways to meet them when providing training in other cultures and when working with culturally diverse clientele locally

The dissemination of behavior analysis is one of our obligations as behavior analysts. This presentation focuses on the models commonly used by international non-governmental organizations. The specifics of each model is explained along with advantages and disadvantages of each model. The focus is on models which have the greatest chance of providing lasting behavior change on the part of participants and that demonstrate the greatest cultural sensitivity.

Indirect functional behavior assessment instruments are used to preliminarily identify potential functions of behavior and have only been available in English. This study developed a Spanish version of the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) indirect assessment instrument. Forward and back-adaptation committees were used in the translation process. Subsequently, the QABF and the QABF-Spanish (QABF-S) were administered to a group of 80 bilingual participants to assess both the reliability and validity of the assessments. A factor analysis yield four factors that were consistent with the four subscales examined in this study. Reliability coefficients were good for the attention, escape, and tangible subscales on both the QABF and QABF-S, but were poor for the nonsocial subscale on each instrument. A second experiment was conducted to analyze the convergent validity between the QABF-S and functional analyses results with clients in the natural setting. Results, limitations and future research is discussed.

El area de la formacion de conceptos, la abstraccion y su dependencia de la conducta verbal implicada, ha tenido un desarrollo relativamente escaso en la tradicion conductual. Este simposio pretende reunir algunos trabajos experimentales sobre este asunto, que incluyen tres distintos paradigmas: igualacion de la muestra, tareas de clasificacion y tareas receptivas de eleccion de ejemplares. As mismo, todos indagan por la influencia de variables linguisticas de diferente forma: por un lado, su papel posibilitador de logros abstractos, su dependencia de contingencias y su promocion a partir de ciertas morfologias de estimulo. Tienen en comon, ademas, estar inspirados en las categorias de la psicologia interconductual, como alternativa contempornea al analisis de la conducta humana. Los hallazgos presentados seran discutidos por un experto en el area, con al proposito de identificar veas prometedoras de indagacion conceptual y experimental, que abra paso a un nuevo capitulo sobre la conducta humana compleja en la tradicion conductual.

Se evaluo el papel de la conducta verbal y su retroalimentacion en el aprendizaje y transferencia de una tarea de discriminacion condicional de segundo orden. Se hicieron cinco experimentos con estudiantes de psicologia de diversas universidades de Bogota cuyas edades oscilaron entre 18 y 22 años, con el fin de indagar si existen diferencias en la ejecucion de los participantes en función de: a) impedir a los participantes hablar sobre la tarea durante el entrenamiento; b) recibir retroalimentacion por elaborar instrucciones sobre la forma correcta de resolver la tarea; c) La frecuencia con la que se recibe esta retroalimentacion; d) El tipo de retroalimentacion que se recibe y e) si esta retroalimentacion es dada por el experimentador o si se le pide al participante mismo. Las diferencias en las ejecuciones se midieron en terminos del numero de ensayos requeridos para aprender la tarea, el porcentaje de aciertos en las pruebas de transferencia y el grado de abstraccion de las instrucciones que produjeron los sujetos. Los principales hallazgos indican que la retroalimentacion directa asociada a la produccion de instrucciones favorece ambos tipos de aprendizaje, mientras que, el hecho de no contar con un punto de referencia externo directo, para establecer la adecuacion de las mismas, parece entorpecerlos. Los resultados se discuten a la luz de la taxonomia de niveles de aptitud funcional de Ribes (1990) y la nocion de conducta gobernada por reglas.

Los estudios sobre categorizacion suelen distinguir criterios perceptuales y conceptuales pero no se encuentran datos sobre los desempenos cuando se presenta una transicion entre estos tipos de criterios en las tareas experimentales, as como no es comin encontrar estudios que indaguen sobre desempenos que implican comparaciones entre objetos simbolicos y no-simbolicos. Se realizaron dos estudios con nios, el primero comparando criterios bi-atributos perceptuales y conceptuales, y el segundo manipulando el tipo de coleccion de objetos, simbolica y no-simbolica. Los hallazgos sugieren que responder categorialmente no corresponde univocamente con una forma, entidad o rasgo, lo que apoya la propuesta interconductual que sostiene que es una forma de ajuste que corresponden a las demandas especificas de la situacion y no a principios formales necesarios. Se concluye con la necesidad de avanzar en las preparaciones experimentales y en la maduracion conceptual de lo que est implicado ene este tipo de ajuste.

Se presentar una integracion terica basada en una serie experimental que ha indagado sobre la relacion entre complejidad conceptual y diversos tipos de interaccion linguistica, que incluyen la interferencia de la misma, la descripcion de contingencias, la propuesta de ejemplares y la formulacion de criterios. La serie ha permitido concluir que si bien la interaccion linguistica es un factor necesario para el logro de conceptos complejos, no es suficiente. Adems, no es la densidad de las interacciones linguisticas sino principalmente su cualidad, la que habilita el logro del concepto. Se expondre el paradigma experimental, los supuestos implicados, los principales hallazgos, y se avanzar hacia la definicion de una integracion terica de base conductual para su interpretacion.

This presentation suggests that Israel Goldiamond's constructional approach can contribute to improvements in behavioral systems with profound social impact. The emphasis will be on contributions constructional behavioral systems analysis (BSA) can bring to understanding the dynamics of violence, and to supporting human rights through the construction of peaceful communities and social structures. (Similar analyses may be valuable in areas like achieving sustainable lifestyles, or constructing effective justice and policing systems.) Examples analyzed for current or potential contributions from constructional BSA will include: initiating and sustaining cultures of recognition and respect in schools; community action to construct peaceful neighborhoods in Chicago, IL, and North Charleston, S.C.; construction of cross-national cultures of youth activism for peace with the American Friends Service Committee; implementation of communitarian policing in Colombia; and sustainment of unity and nonviolent discipline in self-liberation movements globally. Some of these examples have explicitly incorporated BSA; others are well enough documented that probable systems dynamics can be extracted for further rigorous exploration. Both successes and struggles offer data that can contribute to our understanding of BSA, and crucially to campaigns for liberation from violence. Analytic tools from the author's recent book, Strategic Nonviolent Power, will be used throughout.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in contributions from constructional behavioral systems analysis.

This symposium shows the utility of functional descriptive analysis to research in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP). This is going to develop in four main actual issues and its future implications. First, it describes the kind of requirements and training that people needs when making the analysis and data collection in functional descriptive analysis with FAP. Second, it refers the assessment process in FAP, the functional descriptive analysis develop and it shows its use for establish the kind of variables have to be intervene. Third, it will show outcomes intervention based on functional descriptive analysis of interactions in session between therapist and client and suggest some issues to future research in this area. Finally, it is present a methodological propose about translational research in FAP based on functional analysis and its relevance to validate therapies into clinical behavior analysis.

Training for coders Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) requires a care process consisting on different elements to guarantee valid results in assessment therapy. At the beginning it was propose a codification training that needed 110 hours of rehearsal coding sessions, clinical experience by coders and handling manual FAPRS (Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Rating Scale) created by Callaghan, Summers and Weidman, (2003). After adopted functional descriptive analysis to coding therapeutic sessions it was implemented training in behavior analysis principles and main issues of functional analysis, this in order that coders learned to make functional relationships and to identify variables that influence in problem and goal behaviors occurrence (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). This was carry in meetings where was presented cases to code, establishing codes of each consultant, exercises of functional analysis and behavioral analysis of each case, making arrangements between encoders to verify the process and the resolution of questions related with the analysis.

One of the moments of clinical practice is the evaluation. Kohlenberg and Tsai (2007) argue that the FAP evaluation methods are no different from those generally used. Interviews are used, records, session recordings, among others, to define a problem, generate a hypothesis and an intervention plan. In FAP, once identified the problem, it initiates an evaluation to look at if the problem appears in session and as it does. Evaluation is not a standard procedure in the context of behavior modification and FAP, functional analysis is the most used tool, because the interventions developed around this have shown a high probability of success (Vollmer, Marcus & LeBlanc, 1994). With regard to the measurement, in 2012, Mangabeira, Kanter and Del Prette conducted a literature review of 80 scientific articles on FAP between 1990 and 2010. They found that while is a large number of publications, it needs more empirical research, which has a high control variables and objectivity in measurement to understand the processes and effectiveness of therapy.

Identifying mechanisms underlying exchange functional analytical psychotherapy has set a major interest in Applied Research for Clinical Behavioral Analysis. Studies on the effectiveness of PAF in various problems (Velandia, 2012; Esparza, 2013) indicate the importance of specific manipulation of variables involved in the therapeutic relationship as a central element of change in verbal interaction by applying principles of behavior analysis . (Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991 Novoa & Guzman, 2008; Tsai, Kohlenberg, Kanter, Holman & Plummer, 2012; Rodriguez - Naranjo, 1998; Dougher & Hayes, 2000). This study shows the relationships identified between client's behavior and therapist's conduct through descriptive functional analysis and discusses relationship between the basic mechanisms of intervention and predictability on the elements that must be manipulated to generate changes in consultants. The results show favorable changes in client's behavior in and out of session through their manipulation by the therapist of variables identified in session across functional analysis.

Previous studies have shown that matching printed words to dictated words and matching pictures to the same dictated words engendered the formation of equivalence classes and also fostered derived textual behavior and dictation taking. The percentage of correct (derived) reading was systematically higher than dictation taking; an obvious question was whether this effect was a direct result of the tasks used in training. The present study investigated the effects of training spelling (through matching printed letters to a sample stimulus - CRMTS) on reading. The sample could be a dictated word, a picture, a printed word, or a compound (picture and printed word). Participants were 7 typically developing students with reading difficulties at school. A multiple baseline across two sets of 15 words each was used. All students completed the training with the two word sets. Reading and spelling increased across training for trained words, and also for novel words that combined elements of the trained words. Compared to the results of a previous study, this study generated more correct spelling than correct reading. The presentation will explore individual results and also, for comparison purposes, averaged data from this study and the previous study will be compared and discussed.

Child behavior problems defined as behavior that occurs in a high frequency as tantrums, lying, stealing, noncompliance, physical aggression and/or verbal towards peers and/or figures of authority, etc. and also represent a problem for the family or society. Currently in Mexico most prevalent behaviors in childhood are restlessness, irritability, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, noncompliance, fights and impulsivity(Caraveo, Colmenares & Martinez, 2002). These behaviors are considered a problem because they have an impact on the development of the individual, family, school and society in general. There is broad agreement in considering that the explanatory models of behavior problems should have ecological and/or systemic (Dishion, French & Patterson, 1995; Rutter, Giller& Hagel, 2000), in the sense considering that such behavior is determined by a complex combination of factors that interact and specifically affecting the various subjects.In this senseis necessary to identify variables associated moderators between parenting and child behavior problems and testing alternatives for prevention and treatment. Therefore, this symposium describes a series of studies that illustrate the factors and variables involved in this area.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the covariation between maternal responsivenessand the use of instructions in promoting prosocial behavior (include compliance) in dyads mother-child with history of behavioral problems.The sample consists of 14 dyads (mother-child), the ages of the children oscillated among 4-9 years old, while the average age of mothers was 31 years old.An experimental design of the type ABC was used, where A represents the baseline, B treatment and C following. Treatment sessions were delivered once a week with duration of 60 minutes, which were used in the following strategies: instructions, modeling, modeling, role play and visual feedback. The results show the value as a moderator of the instructions in relationship maternal responsiveness and child prosocial behaviors (include compliance).

The aim of this study is testing the efficiency of a programto promote positive parenting practices in child emotion regulation. Participated five dyads mother-child, whose children were diagnosed withbehavioral problems and low emotional regulation. The ages of children ranged forth to eight years old, two girls and three boys, while the average age of the mothers was 34years old. Used an experimental design was a single subject of ABC, where A represents the baseline, B treatment and C following, and applied instructional procedures such as molding, modeling, visual feedback and instructions. The results are analyzed and discuss in relation to the importance of the positive parenting practiceswith regard to the child emotion regulation, and the importance of structuring the social contingencies mother's that lead to promote prosociales behaviors.

The objective of this studio is to develop self-control based on the matchinglawin children with conduct problems and impulsivity. The participants were 10 children (3 women and 7 men, mean age = 9.2 years). The baseline phases, evaluation, treatment and following, were conducted in a computer lab at an elementary school. To test the behavior of experimental software was used Assessment System Impulsive behavior (SECI; Negrete, Cuevas &Vite, 2009). Employed a changing-criterion design(Kazdin, 1982). The dependent variable was the time allocated and the number of choices of operations by children regarding competing dimensions, the independent variable was the procedure to develop self-control, based on the model of fading delay (Mazur &Logue, 1978), which was used in the dimensions of immediacy, schedule of reinforcement or effort. Results are discussed in terms of relevance to assess the construct of impulsivity from a paradigm of choice in child behavior problems and impulsivity.

The Gambling Special Interest Group (G-SIG), previously named the BIG-SIG, is a member-supported organization of researchers, instructors, practitioners, and students who study gambling behavior and the treatment of pathological gambling from a behavioral perspective. The G-SIG publishes two issues of the journal Analysis of Gambling Behavior (AGB) every year, which contains peer-reviewed articles related to the scientific study of gambling and the treatment of pathological gambling. The recent issues contain articles from many distinguished gambling researchers on topics including the modeling of gambling using animal subjects, motivating operations in laboratory gambling environments, delay and probability discounting, and the gambling functional assessment tool. The G-SIG also hosts an annual gambling conference and organizes symposia at the national and international ABA conferences. This symposium contains talks on the recent developments in studying gambling behavior in a laboratory setting and in the assessment of gambling behavioral function within a clinical or laboratory setting.

Simulated-gambling tasks that closely model the temporal game play and contingencies found on real games of chance have been used to collect behavioral measures of gambling under laboratory conditions for more than half a century. These tasks can be played with game credits or chips that are exchangeable for real money, however, for ethical reasons the credits are usually given to participants freely prior to gambling and the researcher pays participants for remaining credits at the end of a session. Whether this standard-stake procedure establishes a game-credits market that simulates a natural game-credits market remains unclear. Computerized gambling tasks have been recently developed to study whether the validity of the laboratory game-credits market can be improved by allowing participants to earn game credits within a session rather than providing staked credits prior to gambling. The findings from two experimental investigations will be discussed.

The Balloon Analog Risk Task is a computerized assessment developed to estimate individual propensity to take risks. We explored the utility of analyzing local response patterns to assess the relationship between BART scores and choice between a guaranteed cash reward and an uncertain reward of the same average value. After random assignment to 1 of 3 choice tasks, young adults played the BART and then were offered a choice between $5 in cash and betting to win $0 to $15. The mean number of adjusted responses per balloon in the BART predicted choice for the riskier monetary option. In addition, specific task offered to participants in each group significantly contributed to the choice between assured and uncertain cash. As a group, betting was associated with higher pumping rate and longer balloon duration. Consistent patterns of responding between explosions and within-balloons differentiated risk takers from those who took the safe choice. Throughout the session, responding became more effectual for both groups, but remained sub-optimal. These results show that the higher number of pumps and explosions that characterize risk takers, result from particular forms of adaptation to the positive and negative outcomes of risk taking behavior seen at a more molecular level.

The Gambling Functional Assessment - Revised (GFA-R) was designed to determine whether the respondent's gambling behavior was maintained by positive reinforcement and/or escape. This measure has been shown to have sound psychometric properties and to be both internally and temporally reliable. Research on the GFA-R, however, has primarily been conducted on university populations. Thus, the present study recruited adult citizens from across the U.S. to complete the GFA-R on Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk. Four hundred participants completed the GFA-R along with two other measures of potential gambling problems. Results demonstrated that the psychometric properties and internal consistency of the GFA-R remained good when tested on this diverse sample. Likewise, the new results also replicated previous ones in that A) respondents endorsed gambling for positive reinforcement to a significantly greater extent than they did gambling as an escape and B) that endorsing gambling as an escape was more strongly associated with the reporting of gambling problems than was endorsing gambling for positive reinforcement.

Mexican Network for Research on Animal Behavior is a psychological research group with the following objectives: (a) promote the development of scientific research on animal behavior in Mexico, (b) contribute to the training of high-level human resources on animal behavior research, (c) sharing different kinds of research resources, (d) promote the inter-institutional exchange of researchers as well as students, and (e) organize an annual event in which our members could release their research objectives in order to increase peoples interest on animal behavior research. In this context, the talks in the present symposium are about the experimental analysis of behavior from a parametric point of view. Our principal objective is to release some Mexican research interests to the international behavior analysis community.

Following the parametric approach in behavior analysis, I have been conducting two research projects in the area of choice behavior and decision making. Specifically, in the first project the emphasis in the operant/choice behavior between rewards to be delivered is compared with the emphasis in the consummatory behavior that occurs in the presence of the reward already delivered, as two complementary strategies to study self-controlled behavior in pigeons. In the second project with the purpose of clarifying the contribution of the uncertainty involved in the sunk cost effect, the variables involved in this type of choice behavior are being systematically explored also with pigeons as subjects. In general, the research derived from these projects is showing the up-to date power of the parametric approach in behavior analysis, to study choice behavior.

Observational field studies usually does not controls nor manipulates the introduction or elimination of variables; however, its importance falls on the direct observation of organism's behavioral repertoire in its "actual/natural" environment, either wild or captivity conditions. Assuming that the psychological behavior imply the development of functions in ontogeny, in which the relation with objects, events and other organisms of the environment are differentiated, reorganized and diversified beyond the fixed biological patterns (e.g. Ribes, 2011), we could stand out the importance of describing, in a detailed way, the elements that constitute the organism's environmental configuration. Thus, we propose a methodological analysis, from a psychological point view, regarding the relevant environmental and organismic elements pertinent to the organism adjustment, that can be framed in four categories: a) Adaptive and survival circumstances (i.e. feeding, reproduction, protection), b) description of ecological milieu (i.e. geophysical, geoecological, intra-interspecific interaction), c) interactive processes (i.e. intraindividual, interindividual dependency and interindividual) and, d) interaction-situation relationship (i.e. specific to, required for, functional to, irrelevant to the contingency). We show some examples about the ways that our system works.

Within the experimental analysis of behavior, the primary data using traditional reinforcement schedules is obtained from the time distribution of responses under specific conditions of reinforcement (Ferster & Skinner, 1957). The rate and frequency of response have been used as units of measurement necessary for sustaining the reproducibility criteria defining the strength in an operant class. Meanwhile, temporal schedules are primarily structured on the temporal properties of the events involved in these procedures, including the temporal properties of behavior. The timing of response related to stimulus events with which it interacts enables fullfilment of necessity and sufficiency conditions for their production. This paper aims to develop a proposal for the analysis of effective adjustment based on the conditional relations prescribed in temporal schedules.

According to some conceptual developments of the interbehavioral proposal, psychological behavior may take place in five different, progressively complex and progressively inclusive levels. The most complex levels of psychological behavior are possible only humans due to language, whereas the remaining levels are possible in both humans and animals. The present talk discusses some conceptual implications of mentioned progressively inclusiveness and progressively complexity assumptions of the taxonomy, as well as different methodological approaches to analyze them in an empirical fashion. It is concluded that although most evidence comes from research on behavioral adjustment with animals, both the theoretical and the predictive value of the taxonomy are supported.

Cultural practices are maintained by social contingencies that prevail in a given society, group, or organization. They may be in vigor for variable lengths of time, from some months, as in fashion, to some centuries, as contingencies that are part of the identity of ethnic groups. Most human operant behavior may come under the classification of cultural practices. Even behaviors common to all humans, like eating, are linked to social contingencies that determine what and how to eat. Such behaviors are acquired by newcomers to any given group, either a child or a stranger, by learning processes that may involve modeling, rules, and/or direct exposure to the contingencies. So contingencies, more than behaviors or consequences, are better to characterize any event as cultural.

Anyone interested in cultural contingencies.

Behavior analysts generally recognize that the operation of behavioral principles in the everyday world is constrained by the biology of behaving organisms and, in the case of humans, by the particulars of the cultural environment in which behavior occurs. In this paper, we distinguish between process and content in behavioral and cultural domains. We explore the constraints on behavior imposed by culture, conceived here as that part of the environment constructed by multiple people over extended time periods. It is suggested that "cultural practices" is not a technical term in a behavior analytic analysis of cultures, but rather is an everyday term used for a multiplicity of phenomena. The phenomena commonly called "cultural practices" are examined as products of various combinations of behavioral and cultural level contingencies of selection.

In contrast to many social sciences, behavior analysis offers a technical conceptual framework that is generic in the sense that it is valid in different contexts and for a variety of organisms. The selectionist perspective adds value to the analysis of behavior at different levels of complexity. The systems' perspective extends the scale and scope for behavior analysis to explain such phenomena as emergent behavior, self-organizing behavioral systems and the consequences of cultural cusps. The complex (functional) relations between behaviors and systems contingencies might be relevant when exploring both cultural selection and the selection of cultures.

Collective violence (war, terrorism, violent political conflicts, genocide, repression, organized criminal activity, disappearances, torture, and a range of other abuses of human rights) killed at least 200 million people, and injured an incalculable number during the 20th century. The problem clearly continues into the present in many parts of the world, and offers a rich field for exploring the dynamics of cultural systems. This paper explores the roots of such violence from the perspective of the natural science of behavior, which in combination with historical observation at least suggests potential approaches for understanding and challenging patterns of violence perpetrated among interlocking cultural entities and populations. Examples explored here will be drawn from post-colonial states, in which the dynamics of collective violence can be particularly challenging. The analyses that will be presented suggest that policy makers and communities often rely on politically manipulated strategies that are inherently weak or counterproductive. Constructional options (as sketched here and developed in detail in the authors recent book Strategic Nonviolent Power) offer alternatives drawing on recent advances in the selectionist analysis of cultural practices, networks of interlocking behavioral contingencies, and metacontingencies within behavioral systems. Behavioral systems/cultural analysts face enormous challenges and opportunities in this work, meriting the commitment of substantial scientific resources.

El estudio de la relacion entre conducta verbal y contingencias puede realizarse desde diferentes perspectivas. Una de ellas se relaciona con el estudio del rol de una estructura contingencial en el establecimiento de cierto tipo de intercambios verbales. Otra posibilidad puede ser la inversa, es decir, la exploracion de como la conducta verbal puede ser critica en la estructuracion y modulacion de contingencias. El simposio tendra tres ponencias sobre el tema: una de ellas abordara el tipico desde la primera perspectiva y sera de caracter experimental; las dos restantes lo abordaran desde la segunda perspectiva, y seran analisis conceptuales sobre el lenguaje como modo de responder y como diferenciador de las relaciones contingenciales. En el estudio experimental, participaron 36 estudiantes y se empleo una tarea de armado de rompecabezas virtuales, desplegados en dos computadoras que podian estar o no interconectadas en red dependiendo de la condicion experimental. En general, se encontro que el tipo de contingencia a la que los participantes fueron expuestos se relacione de manera directa con la cualidad de los intercambios verbales que estos mismos establecieron. Un invitado experto en el tipico discutire las ideas propuestas esperando dinamizar la reflexion conceptual y la respectiva indagacion experimental.

El presente estudio evalua el papel de la exposicion ante diferentes tipos de arreglos contingenciales (no compartido individual, no compartido colectivo y compartido) en el establecimiento y la cualidad (en terminos de su caracter particular, general o estratagico) de los intercambios verbales que los participantes experimentales establecieron asa como su efecto en la eleccion de alternativas compartidas de altruismo parcial. Para ello, se emplea una tarea de armado de rompecabezas virtuales, mismos que fueron desplegados en dos computadoras que podian estar o no interconectadas en red dependiendo de la condicion experimental en turno. Los participantes fueron colocados en una misma sala o en salas experimentales diferentes, a fin de tener el maximo control sobre la posibilidad o no de que establecieran intercambios verbales de cualquier tipo y de esta manera sopesar su efecto en la eleccion de alternativas compartidas de altruismo parcial. En general, se encontro que el tipo de contingencia a la que los participantes fueron expuestos se relacione de manera directa con la cualidad de los intercambios verbales que estos mismos establecieron, y que la eleccion de alternativas compartidas de altruismo parcial se vio favorecida por la presencia de intercambios verbales de cualidad predominantemente estrategica.

El discurso sobre la educacion basada en competencias se ha vuelto cada vez mas popular y se ha convertido en el fundamento de las modificaciones curriculares en el mundo. Sin embargo, tal nocion ha carecido de un tratamiento conceptual y experimental sistematico, alimentado por la ciencia del comportamiento. De acuerdo con lo anterior, se presenta una propuesta conceptual y metodologica para el estudio del desarrollo de competencias que involucran leer y escribir como modos de respuesta. La propuesta indaga por algunas condiciones de necesidad y suficiencia de ciertos tipos de contingencias sobre el desarrollo de competencias que involucran un componente verbal y que son caracteristicas en la mayoria de situaciones de ensenanza y aprendizaje. Con este analisis se pretende superar la vision de las competencias como capacidades generales, homogeneas en cuanto su desarrollo y configuracion, y pretende tambien aportar un paradigma para su analisis experimental en condiciones de laboratorio, aplicable a diferentes dominios de conocimiento.

En el caso de la conducta humana, ciertos episodios interactivos entre dos personas, involucran un cambio conductual que no depende del contacto directo con las contingencia presentes en una situacion sino del contacto con nuevas contingencias mediadas linguisticamente. Este tipo de fenomenos se puede ejemplificar mediante algunas instancias de rumor, persuasion, engano, insinuacion y fenomenos linguisticos similares (Ribes, 1991). Para que una persona pueda afectar linguisticamente la conducta de otra persona, se requiere la habilidad de ponerse en el lugar de usta e identificar las circunstancias bajo las cuales opera. Algunas aproximaciones de tipo cognitivas como las de Teoria de la Mente (ToM) postulan que el individuo debe ser capaz de explicar, predecir e interpretar el comportamiento en termino de los estados mentales de otro individuo (Premack y W oodruff, 1978). La Teoria de los Marcos Relacionales (RFT) identifica como condicion necesaria la adquisicion de Marcos relacionales deicticos (Mchungh, 2004). Se propone una alternativa de analisis que involucra la aptitud de un individuo de explicitar e introducir linguisticamente nuevas relaciones de condicionalidad cambiantes momento a momento, las cuales son desligadas situacionalmente, es decir, no dependen de las propiedades fisico-quimicas presentes.

Typically, undergraduate psychology majors have difficulties writing complete and accurate descriptions of information presented in graphs that depict the interactive effects of two variables on behavior. Training visual-visual conditional discriminations between graphs and written descriptions did not improve the written descriptions of graphs. The graphs and corresponding textual descriptions have many elements that must be attended to if they are to influence writing behavior. Traditional conditional discrimination training does not require attention to all of those pictorial and textual elements. Training of conditional discriminations designed to ensure attention to all features of the graphs and printed text resulted in dramatic improvements in the written descriptions of these complex graphs. The establishment of joint stimulus control by all elements of graphs and their corresponding printed texts (a selection-based repertoire) induced accurate written descriptions of complex graphs (a production-based repertoire). Thus, students learned to write without writing.

The presentation will be of interest to those who are also interested in equivalence class formation, stimulus control, and behavioral implications for education, and secondarily, relational frame research.

The symposium consists of four studies on equivalence class formation. In the first presentation, Lian and Arntzen present a study in which eight adult participants experienced an extended number of test trials. The results showed that one participant responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence in all test blocks. Three participants, despite two of them showed high accuracy on maintenance of directly trained conditional discriminations in the first test block, did not respond in accordance with stimulus equivalence and showed by chance level responding in the last test blocks. Four participants did not respond in accordance with equivalence in the first test block, but did so in the second or third test block. In the second presentation, Vie and Arntzen present an experiment with talk-aloud protocols in delayed matching-to-sample tasks, which involved participants talking aloud while performing tasks. The results showed an increase in number of talking episodes from training to test. In the third presentation, Steingrimsdottir and Arntzen present a study with two adult participants whom were exposed to arbitrary MTS tasks. The purpose was to titrate the delay to an asymptotic level when the length of the delay was determined by the participant's correct/incorrect responses. The results from Experiment 1 showed that for one participant, the maximum titration delay was 11.000 ms whereas it reached up to 21.500 ms for the other. Hence, considerable individual differences were observed. Therefore, to study some of the variables that affect responding a single subject design was employed in Experiment 2. Here, the same participant was exposed to TDMTS to asymptotic level with two conditions. In A condition, the delay increased or decreased by 500 ms whereas in the B condition the delay increased/decreased by 100 ms. In the last presentation, Hansen and Arntzen present study in which the purpose was to explore the differential outcomes among eye-response topographies, when using head-mounted eye-tracking technology equipment during the formation of both three 3-member as well as six 3-member stimulus equivalence classes, respectively. Singe-subject designed, five university-college students, all between 20 and 35 years of age are scheduled to participate in this study. A discussion will draw specific attention to the operant selection of certain topographical eye-responses (i.e., fixations and movement patterns).

In the present study, the participants experienced an extended number of test trials. Following the establishment of 12 conditional discriminations in three five-member classes, the participants experienced test for symmetry, transitivity and equivalence test trials in random order with directly trained conditional discriminations interspersed. Each trial type was presented five times during this test block, yielding 300 test trials. This test block was repeated five times, constituting a total of 1500 test trials per participant. Participants were offered a 10-15 minutes break in between the test blocks. All of the trial types in all test blocks were presented without programmed consequences. The results show that one participant responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence in all test blocks. Three participants, despite two of them showed high accuracy on maintenance of directly trained conditional discriminations in the first test block, did not respond in accordance with stimulus equivalence and showed by chance level responding in the last test blocks. Four participants did not respond in accordance with equivalence in the first test block, but did so in the second or third test block. In all of these participants, responding was stable and accurate for the remaining test blocks. The latter results are not consistent with Sidman's Big Bag theory, proposing that all derived relations should immediately emerge following the establishment of the baseline conditional discriminations.

Talk-aloud protocols involve that participants is saying out loud what they are thinking while preforming tasks. Talk-aloud protocols have not widely been used in behavior analytic research. There are several valid reasons for this. First and foremost, talk-aloud protocols, can at best, produce an indirect measure of on-task performance, which can be measured directly. Another problematic aspect is that the interpretation of talk aloud data is challenging, and since the data is not collected automatically, there is room for subjective bias from the experimenters that are systemizing the data. In the current study, what the participants are talking about is not the main focus, but when they are talking. This removes some of the challenges with the systemization of talk-aloud data. A Delayed matching-to-sample procedure was used, were the participants were asked to talk-aloud for the first 18 training trials, and then stop talking until the phase with 0 % programmed consequences was initiated. The participants then talked-aloud until the end of the experiment. The results in general, so far, show that there is an increase in talking from training to test.

In a matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure, the stimuli can be presented simultaneously on the screen (simultaneous MTS) or with a delay between the offset of the sample stimulus and onset of the comparison stimuli (delayed matching-to-sample or DMTS). The delay can remain constant throughout training (fixed DMTS) or vary as a function of correct/incorrect responses (titrating DMTS or TDMTS). In the current experiment, two adult participants were exposed to arbitrary MTS tasks where the purpose was to study which value the longest delay would be when the length of the delay was determined by the participant's correct/incorrect responses. Training started with 0s DMTS and when the participant did 6/6 correct responses, the delay increased with 500ms. If the participant got 5/6 correct or less, the delay decreased correspondingly. The criterion for asymptotic level was met when the participant mastered a given value, and did not master the value above, six times in a row. The results showed that for one participant, the maximum titration delay was 11.000ms whereas it reached up to 21.500ms for the other. Hence, there are considerable individual differences when using TDMTS to asymptotic level. Therefore, to study variables that affect responding during TDMTS to asymptotic level a single subject design was employed in Experiment 2. Here, the same participant was exposed to TDMTS to asymptotic level with two conditions. In A condition, the delay increased or decreased by 500ms whereas in the B condition the delay increased/decreased by 100ms. Based on current findings, suggestion to future studies will be made.

Accompanying eye-tracking technology with matching-to-sample performance, it has been shown that distinguishable observing behaviors, or eye-response topographies (i.e., fixation-duration, fixation-frequency, as well as saccade pattern), vary among different conditional discrimination procedures (i.e., Dube, 2006). Furthermore, an unknown number of dependent molecular variables, which potentially could contribute to the establishment of stimulus equivalence class formation when introducing the most used training structures (i.e., Many-to-One, One-to-Many, or Linear Series), as well as increasing classes from three to six, with 3 members in each, have yet to be established. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to explore the differential outcomes among eye-response topographies, when using head-mounted eye-tracking technology equipment during the formation of both three 3-member as well as six 3-member stimulus equivalence classes, respectively. Singe-subject designed, five university-college students, all between 20 and 35 years of age, are scheduled to participate in this study. Based on the procedural fact that the three training structures (i.e., MTO, OTM, and LS) not only present sample stimuli but also comparison stimuli differently, we also expect to find significant differential results in observing behavior topography. Finally, a discussion will draw specific attention to the operant selection of certain topographical eye-responses (i.e., fixations and movement patterns) in the applied analysis of behavior.

Este symposium presentan tres investigaciones desde la Teoria de Marcos Relacionales (RFT), que analizan tres fenemenos psico-educativos: la transformacion de funciones derivadas a travos de diferentes marcos (coordinacion versus oposicion), la facilitacion de relaciones derivadas de equivalencia-equivalencia, y el papel de la regulacion verbal. Un primer estudio aborda la dificultad que tienen algunas personas para cambiar o transformar comportamientos. El objetivo es establecer una historia experimental para generar respuesta relacional de simetria y equivalencia en un marco de coordinacion para luego intentar que tales funciones sean transformadas a un marco de oposicion en base a consecuencias aplicadas. Un segundo trabajo analiza el razonamiento analogico o la habilidad de establecer relaciones de equivalencia-equivalencia. Se aplican distintos procedimientos de facilitacion de la equivalencia-equivalencia y se muestra la necesidad de ciertas habilidades prerrequisitas en poblacion infantil, concretamente el repertorio de redes relacionales y abstraccion de series. Ademes, aporta un software informatico (patentado como INCOLE) para implementar dichos procedimientos. Un tercer estudio evalua si la historia instruccional de los sujetos, entendida como tipo de Regulacion Verbal con el que se responde al ambiente (si responde a contingencias sociales -pliance- vs. contingencias directas -tracking-), se relaciona con la facilidad para cambiar su tendencia de comportamiento.

Esta investigacion aborda la dificultad que tienen algunas personas para cambiar o transformar patrones de comportamiento, desde el analisis experimental del comportamiento y, especificamente, desde la Teoria de Marcos Relacionales (RFT). El objetivo es establecer una historia experimental necesaria para generar repertorios de respuesta relacional de simetrea y equivalencia en el marco de coordinacion, y ver como son transformadas las funciones a un marco de oposicion con base en las consecuencias. Para ello, se realize un primer estudio cuyos resultados condujeron a un segundo experimento. La muestra estuvo compuesta de 16 sujetos, 7 en el primer experimento y 9 en el segundo con edades comprendidas entre 20 y 40 anos, quienes debean realizar una tarea de igualacion a la muestra, compuesta por dos fases y una evaluacion final de relaciones derivadas. La variable dependiente se definie como la ejecucion del sujeto (numero de ensayos) y la variable independiente como la introduccion de imagenes aversivas y agradables a fin de transformar funciones. Los datos muestran que las consecuencias obtenidas por los sujetos generaban cambios y nuevas relaciones de equivalencia, transfiriendo aso funciones diferentes que competian con la tendencia existente. Se discuten los resultados en relacion con la psicopatologia y la personalidad.

Diversas investigaciones abordan el razonamiento analagico como la habilidad de establecer relaciones de equivalencia-equivalencia. Este estudio analiza distintos procedimientos de facilitacion del comportamiento de equivalencia-equivalencia, as como las habilidades prerrequisitas para entrenarlo en poblacion infantil, concretamente el repertorio de redes relacionales y abstraccion de series. Se realize un estudio cuasiexperimental con comparaciones entregrupos e intrasujeto. Nueve participantes entre 7 y 10 anos fueron divididos en dos grupos en funcion del nivel de prerrequisitas. En cada grupo se contrabalances el momento de evaluacion de las prerrequisitas y el procedimiento de facilitacion con los siguientes niveles de ayuda: (1) entrenamiento de relaciones de linea base AB-AB y BC-BC en igualdad arbitraria; (2) entrenamiento de relaciones AB-AB y BC-BC en relacion de no-igualdad arbitraria; (3) test de equivalencia; (4) entrenamiento de relaciones BA-BA; (5) instrucciones dirigidas a resaltar la relacion entre los elementos de los estimulos multielementos; y (6) instrucciones dirigidas a resaltar lo anterior mos la relacion entre las relaciones. Para implementar dichos procedimientos se utiliza un software informatico elaborado al efecto (INCOLE). Los resultados muestran que solo los ninos con alto nivel de prerrequisitas se benefician de las ayudas para derivar la equivalencia-equivalencia y la evaluacion de prerrequisitos minimiza las ayudas.

Este estudio se enmarca en el ambito de la Teoria de los Marcos Relacionales (RFT), especificamente en la linea de investigacion denominada Regulacion Verbal. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar si la historia instruccional de los sujetos, entendida como el tipo de Regulacion Verbal con el que la persona responde en su ambiente (si responde a contingencias de tipo social -pliance- vs. contingencias directas tracking-), se relaciona con la facilidad para cambiar su tendencia de comportamiento, cuando las consecuencias as lo favorecen. Para este fin, se diseno un analogo experimental compuesto por un entrenamiento en seguimiento de reglas y contingencias, con linea base y postest. Dado los resultados obtenidos, se diseno un segundo estudio. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 123 sujetos que deban pasar un criterio de exclusion, por lo que la muestra final fue de 39 sujetos para el primer estudio, y de 9 para el segundo, con edades comprendidas entre los 12 y 14 aos. Los resultados mostraron que los sujetos con una tendencia inicial Pliance, tuvieron mos dificultades para cambiar su tendencia despus del entrenamiento, comparado con los sujetos con tendencia inicial Tracking. Se discuten los resultados en relacion con la infancia y la personalidad.

Animals exposed to uncontrollable aversive stimuli have subsequent difficulties learning escape (i.e., Learned Helplessness - LH). Antidepressant drugs, administered at shortly before escape training generally hinder LH, but little is known about the maintenance of this effect. This experiment explored the short- and long-term effects of imipramine on escape learning by rats exposed to uncontrollable electric shocks. Forty eight rats served, half of which was exposed to uncontrollable shocks while the other half remained in their homecages. After 24 hours, they were distributed in groups that received an injection of imipramine (6mg/kg), saline or no substance. The rats underwent two escape learning tests (30 minutes and 168 hours after the injection). Among the rats exposed to shocks, those treated with saline or no substance presented LH in both tests. Those treated with imipramine showed two types of result: most presented absence of LH, similar to experimentally-nave rats, whereas others presented LH. The effects of short- and long-term imipramine administration imipramine were similar. We discuss the drug effects based on different behavioral patterns produced by a history with uncontrollable shocks.

The present study assessed the possibility that rats exposed to response independent food deliveries would increase lever pressing rates correlated with the presentation of noise and stimulus changes that were previously paired with primary reinforcement. Seventy two male na?ve rats were exposed to ten 30 minute sessions where a FT 60-s schedule presented food correlated with a 3-s blackout and the operation of the food delivery magazine for the same amount of time. After the training phase was over, an acquisition phase began; subjects could receive one of four different schedules for twenty consecutive sessions: 1) CRF; 2) RF1, FT 2-s; 3) FR1, FT 5-s or 4) FR1, FT 10-s; nine subjects were exposed to each schedule. Results produced by the conditioned reinforcement conditions were compared with conditions where: 1) Primary reinforcement was delivered during the acquisition phase, 2) Blackout and magazine operation occurred during the training phase but in the absence of food, and 3) Subjects remained in the experimental chamber without any programmed stimulus presentation during the training phase. Both the primary reinforcement and the conditioned reinforcement conditions produced delay gradients; the latter was considerably steeper than the former.

Conditioned and then extinguished responses will reappear by changing background contexts. This renewal effect has been demonstrated in a variety of conditioning preparations in rats. However, to our knowledge, there have been no published studies on renewal of avoidance behavior. Because renewal effect has been considered as a source of relapse of maladaptive behavior, demonstration of renewal of rats avoidance behavior has clinical implications for relapse of pathological avoidance in phobic people. The present study consists of 2 single-subject experiments with Wistar rats in shuttle boxes. The standard signaled avoidance procedure was employed, where a warning tone was followed by an electric shock. In the acquisition phase, rats could escape and avoid the shock by moving to the opposite side of the box: the moving response stopped the tone and the shock in case of escape, while it stopped the tone and cancelled the to-be delivered shock in case of avoidance. During the extinction phase 1, the moving response stopped the tone, but the shock was never delivered. During the extinction phase 2, the tone continued for 20 s whatever the animal did, and no shock was delivered. Changing the background contexts renewed the moving responses extinguished by these procedures.

Number of Skills Assessment in Autistic Students. Camila Straforin Oliveira* (Universidade Paulista, campus Araraquara/SP), Joo dos Santos Carmo (Universidade Federal de So Carlos, SP e Instituto Nacional de Cincia e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognio e Ensino). This study investigated numerical skills in autistic students through a software tasks which provided the format pattern matching to sample and response built. The participants were four students who attended the 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school. The tasks were: identity numeral-numeral; counting numerals and quantities; numeral-quantity relationship; discrimination of numerals and quantities; comparison sets, comparing quantities, with production quantities and sequence numerals; numerical estimate; solving problems with a digit and different positions of the unknown. The tasks that generated greater accumulation of errors were: numeral-quantity relationship, comparison of sets; numerical estimate. The most common errors were: following command from the previous task to the detriment of the change in the task, not produce sequence of 2 on 2 and 3 on 3; counting inadequate, failing to identify the difference between square and rectangle. Tasks that showed lower latency and higher were, respectively, discrimination of numerals and production sequence from highest to lowest. The data suggest that tasks assist in the evaluation of numerical skills and obtaining baseline from which to practice schedule steps of generating gains mathematical of repertoire. Keywords: Numerical Skills, Autistic, elementary school, behavior analysis., behavior analysis.

The addiction researchhas been approached from different perspectives, one of which is the experimental study of the psychological processes related to the development, maintenance and modification of addictive behavior.The impulsivity and its relationship to substance use has been widely studied. Rachlin (2002) defines self-control as the ability to choose the reinforcer of greater magnitude in the long term over the less immediate reward (i.e., choose to stay sober and good health in the future on the immediate positive consequences related to alcohol). It has been identified that the mediation of a significant person through language can promote the abstinence, the moderateuse or the abuse ofsubstances. The present work aims to develop an experimental model for the study of substitutive interactions and their effect on impulsivity from the Psychological Model of Biological Health (Ribes, 1990) and the research proposal made by Pérez-Almonacid et al. (2012) .It is proposed and A-B-A design. The first phase will aim to identify the subjects responding impulsively, for what will be exposed to solve a task. In the experimental phase, subjects will be exposed to different forms of linguistic mediation by the significant other (confederate). In phase 3, subjects will be exposed to theimpulsivity scenario, in order to see if the confederate'slinguistic mediationeffectprevails. The data will be analyzed from the categories proposed by the Psychological Model of BiologicalHealth. The goals of this study is toidentify linguistic mediationsthatsignificantly reduces impulsive behaviorandthat could be used in future intervention programsthat treatsthe abuse of alcohol and other substances.

Behavior analysis has produced an increasing amount of data about cultural practices evolution. This tendency has increased due to concept of metacontingency and some experimental demonstration of cultural selection in the laboratory setting. Cultural selection usually demands a contingent relationship between interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBC), an aggregate product (AP) and a cultural event that provides selection (CE). This study aimed to experimentally investigate in a laboratory microculture the effects of two procedures of contingency suspension between AP and CE in a reversal design. The basic task consisted in selecting lines of a matrix by three participants per experimental trial (cycle). One participant was replaced by a new one each 10 cycles. Individual contingent consequences are presented due to the choice of odd lines. CEs were programed subsequently to sequences of lines formed by the individual choices (aggregate products - AP). In contingent conditions, the CE was presented contingent to AP (formed by lines with different colors) until the culture attended to the performance criterion in 80% of the last twenty cycles. The CE distribution of the last twenty cycles of first Contingent Condition was applied in the Noncontingent Condition, for 40 cycles, subsequently but not contingently to AP. Suspension Condition consisted of no presentation of CE during 40 cycles. In first Contingent Condition, predominated individual choices of odd lines and an interlocking pattern of choices. This indicated cultural and operant selection. The rate of coordinated choices found in previous condition decreased during Noncontingent Condition. However, this pattern continued to occur at a rate above chance (Rate of occurrence = 0.37 / Rate by chance = 0.22) and with an increasing tendency (35% of the first 20 cycles and 40% of the last 20). By suspending the presentation of CE, the practice became even less frequent than in Noncontingent Condition (70% of the first 20 and 50% of the last 20 cycles). In returning to Contingent Condition, the stability criterion was quickly reached. The results indicated operant and cultural selection, cultural transmission, maintenance of a cultural practice by a noncontingent cultural event and also selection and maintenance of a cultural practice by accidental relationship with cultural events

The generalized matching law (GML) is a quantitative model that describes an organism's response allocation as a function of reinforcer ratios (Baum, 1974). The equation has been used to evaluate the social sensitivity of human, for instances individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Forget & Rivard, 2010). However, few studies have investigated to which extent the GML accounts for behavior of typical preschool children in natural settings. The current study tests the equation on three 4-5-years-old children in a day care. An experimenter observed their behaviors and their associated social reinforcers according to Caron's scale (2012) adapted from Forget's and Otis'(1984) scale. Sessionss lengths were nine minutes. Each child was observed for 240, 180 and 198 minutes over a period of two months. Results show that the GML accounts for 94%, 73% and 90% of the variance. The sensitivity values varied from 0.67 to 0.88 confirming that children allocated their responses as a function of changes in social reinforcer ratios. The study suggests that GML can be an adequate method to assess the function of social attention and is a step forward the comparison of social sensitivity of typical individuals compared to individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Risk sensitivity tasks study preference between at least two alternatives, one of them offering variable consequences, and the others always the same consequence. Usually, variability can be in magnitude or in the delay to the consequence. Experimental evidence shows increase preference for variable alternative with more deprivation time, specifically when the delay to the consequence is the manipulated variable. These results show the effect of the state organism over the preference, and this has been in the background of the most of theoretical explanations of the phenomena. But it is possible that other variables can explain or contribute to explain experimental evidence. In this work, we explore the novelty seeking as theoretical variable to explain risk sensitivity. With this goal, some rats were classified a priori in a novelty seeking test in LR and HR rats. After that, both groups were exposed to a risk sensitivity task manipulating deprivation level. The results show different response patterns considering LR and HR rats, but contrary to expected LR rats show more preference for variable alternative. The data contribute to a more complex map of internal and external variables that account for risk sensitivity.

The purpose of this experiment was to examine transference of feature using a sensory preconditioning procedure. Several authors have noted that features are specific to a particular CS-US association. Moreover, studies have reported effect of feature on a novel CS only if the new CS has been a target in a separate discrimination procedure. But, if a neutral stimulus becomes CS for its association with a first-order CS and this has been target in a discrimination procedure then the feature could control responses to the second-order CS. This experiment used a between-subjects design. In the first stage, rats were exposed to neutral stimuli. One group of rats (Paired) was exposed to a serial compound stimulus (AB), and a second group (Unpaired) received intermixed presentations of A and B, while the Control group did not have any training. In the second stage, all subjects were trained on a feature-positive discrimination in which B was reinforced only when the feature was present (XB+, B-). A transfer test examined whether the feature (X) modulated responding to A. The results indicate that all three groups learned the discrimination. Nevertheless, differences in the performance of subjects were not observed during the transfer test.

The resource control theory is a proposal that explains the functionality of some types of social conduct, both aggressive as pro-social. This proposal parts from an analysis of moral conduct from the perspective evolutionary, where is discussed the functionality of this type of conduct moving away with it of the traditional stance which assumes that behaviors morally adequate part of the internalization of social rules while the issuance of aggression proactive arises from the disconnection with such standards. So the resource control theory understands the moral conduct in terms in remuneration which obtains (resource control). From this perspective there are four styles of obtaining resources: aggressive, pro-social, bistrategic (which involves the use staggered of the first two) and not-controller. The present work presents an experimental task who are looking for locate the strategy employed by different participants to obtain material and social resources. This task is carried out in a video game specially developed where the participant must obtain material and social resources. It presents a series of behavioral options between which the participant must choose in order of achieve a goal specified by the game.

Competence is a recurrent concept in higher education. However, it should be noted that reflection on the field of education is hardly based on principles from behavioral science. According to the interbehavioral paradigm, the term competence describes a tendency to execute varied and effective acts based on the history of interactions of an individual in specific circumstances. A competence links aptitude and skills since it demands practice according to an efficacy criterion. In this experiment, it was evaluated the effect of contingencial situation variability while learning a competence on the transference to a more complex competence. Two tasks were designed taking into consideration differential procedures in order to promote competences with different complexity (one being more complex than the other). Participants were exposed to training with the less complex contingencial situation with different degrees of variability throughout trails. Then, it was evaluated the effect of this learning on the acquisition of the more complex task. Preliminary results showed that training in the less complex competence facilitates learning of the more complex one. Data not only would provide empirical evidence on behavioral science but also have a potential value in education specially when designing appropriate learning situations on competence educational models.

There are some evidence showing that changes in the background contextual cues in which a target cue is learned may influence retrieval of information. This experiment was designed to reproduce results reported by Leon, Callejas-Aguilera and Rosas (2012) that shows context specificity of taste aversion learning in rats. Four groups of rats received a single pairing between saccharin and a LiCl injection in context A, and then were tested either in the same context (group S) or in a different but equally familiar context (group D). Two more groups (PS and PD) were pre-exposed to the context before conditioning, and then treated as the two groups described earlier. Results are analyzed in the framework of contextual learning theories.

This experiment was designed to evaluate the contribution of low acquisition reinforcement rate on instrumental renewal. Two groups of rats were trained to press one of two response levers in a concurrent schedule. During acquisition phase, all groups were trained in context A, while the reinforcement percentage for one of the levers was 50% for Rich group and 30% for the Poor group. In extinction phase one of the responses were extinguished (50%-lever for Rich group and 30%-lever for Poor group) while the other response was reinforced with an VI 240s schedule in context B. Finally, in test phase all groups were exposed to context A whereas the reinforcement conditions of extinction phase remained. Results showed higher response rates in the Rich group than in the Poor one, suggesting that higher response rates during acquisition phase results in lever-pressing renewal.

This experiment was designed to analyze the effect of extinction plus reinforcement of discrete alternative response on instrumental renewal. Two groups of rats were trained to press one of two response levers in a concurrent schedule. During acquisition phase groups were trained in context A, while the reinforcement percentage for one of the levers was 90% and 10% for the other. In extinction phase responses to 90%-lever were extinguished, while responses to the other lever were reinforced under a VI 30s (group 30s) or 240s (group 240s) schedule in context B. Finally, in test phase groups were exposed to context A whereas the reinforcement conditions of extinction phase remained. Results showed lever-pressing renewal in both groups, suggesting that reinforcement of a competitive response during extinction does not affect instrumental renewal.

There is evidence that shows history effects (e.g. resurgence, spontaneous recovery) are controlled by previous rates of responding. In order to evaluate this kind of effects in the renewal of an extinguished lever-pressing response, two groups of food-deprived rats were trained to press two levers that delivered food on a variable interval (VI) schedule. During the acquisition phase the reinforcement percentage for one of the levers was 90% and 10% for the other in context A. In extinction phase, one of the responses were extinguished (90%-lever for Rich group and 10%-lever for Poor group) while the other response was reinforced with a VI 240s schedule in context B. Finally in test phase, groups were exposed to context A while the reinforcement conditions of extinction phase remained. Results showed ABA renewal in the Rich group, these results suggest that renewal is controlled by previous rates of responding, as well as other history effects.

It's been reported that the speed of temporal control acquisition depends on the type of training prior to Fixed-Interval introduction. However, evidence of the factors involved in the reported differences is scarce. In two experiments we evaluated the possible role of reinforcement rate and contingency during training as possibly responsible factors of the observed differences in speed of acquisition during testing on FI schedules. Groups of rats received experience with contingent or non-contingent variable interval reinforcement during training. During testing, a fixed-interval was introduced with time signaled by the reinforcer or by a tone. The prior contingent reinforcement greatly interfered with temporal control acquisition during testing with reinforcement as a signal. The most accelerated acquisition occurred with the tone-initiated interval and with prior non-contingent reinforcement, with the two other combinations producing intermediate speed of acquisition. These results are interpreted in the context of a dual-function of reinforcement in temporal control acquisition.

This study explores the use of a conditional discrimination procedure on the establishment and emergence of equivalence relations through the use of a matching to sample task that have an auditory sample stimulus, seven musical note related with its ascendent and/or descendent semi-tone, and two arbitrary visual stimuli as comparison stimuli. Ten psychology undergraduates participated in the experiment. The participants were initially divided into two groups, G1 Experimental Group, and G2 Control Group. Each participant of these groups was then randomly assigned to one of two groups G1 Exposure to feedback (correct answer/wrong answer) in the training phase and G2 don't have feedback in the training phase. The preliminary results show that in although is more difficult the establishment and emergence of equivalence relations between musical sounds and arbitrary images is possible that the stimulus equivalence could be achieved for the subjects. The findings could suggest that the use of a conditional discrimination procedure of this kind is effective and highlight the theoretical meaning of equivalence classes.

Caffeine is a common drug that is consumed by humans and nonhumans; humans consume it after processing, and non-humans ingest as a byproduct of horticulture. As such, its effects are readily available for study without adversely affecting an organism through long-term health sequelae or permanent behavior change. Behavioral pharmacology allows researchers to examine the effects of drugs on behavior. Dews (1955) pioneered the methodology for these types of examinations in behavioral pharmacology by linking the study of drug effects to operant techniques. The typical subjects for these drug studies include rats, pigeons, and humans; as such, there have been little to no research to date on the study of drug effects on goldfish using operant methodology. This poster will provide an overview of caffeine as a drug, techniques used in behavioral pharmacology, and the effects of caffeine on goldfish responding on a fixed-ratio schedule. Currently, caffeine appears to affect goldfish differently than in mammalian species.

This study investigates the properties of bubbles as a unconditioned reinforcer for the common goldfish, Carassius auratus. Previously trained responses, hoop swimming to receive food, are then placed in a contingency in which bubbles are delivered on fixed and variable ratios to determine While visual stimuli have been demonstrated as conditioned reinforcers for many marine animals, this experiment investigates the primary reinforcing qualities of bubbles through a component analysis to determine whether the bubbles do so through visual or tactile modalities Discussion of the results and the implication of using two different reinforcers for a response will be discussed regarding potential bridge studies into areas such as conditioned motivating operations and concurrent operant arrangements.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of varying the signaling and the spatial location (order and place of occurrence) of no contingent stimuli events over differential adjustment. Nine rats were exposed to three experimental conditions that were characterized by the manipulation of the spatial coordinates in which water (contextualizing stimulus) was delivered using a Fixed Time 20s schedule. In Phase 1 water was delivered only in a spatial location. In Phase 2 the water was delivered in three different spatial locations in sequential order, while in Phase 3 was delivered in random order. Three groups were differentiated depending on the signaling conditions (contextualized stimulus): (1) without signaling, (2) variable spatial contiguity between signal and water, (3) spatial contiguity between signal and water. The results suggest that the differential adjustment is affected by: (a) the consistency of the occurrence of stimuli in fixed spatial coordinates through time; (b) the conjoint occurrence of signal and water delivery location; and (c) the spatial contiguity between these stimuli. Several measurement units to identify the differential adjustment related to contextual function were proposed.

The study was conducted to extend the generality of differential outcomes effect using different sensory dimension as outcomes (visual and auditory) and a many-to-one matching-to-sample task. The group with differential outcomes showed a higher rate of acquisition and higher levels of accuracy than the group with nondifferential outcomes. The results demonstrated the differential outcomes effect when we provided sensory outcomes for correct choices rather than the usual outcomes than have hedonic values.

People with drug addiction show steeper delay discounting and probability discounting of drug and money than people who don't use drugs. Even for drug-users, drugs of abuse delayed in time are discounted more steeply than money delayed in time in a hypothetical choice task. The aim of this study was to examine whether steeply discounting of drugs relative to money might be related to the function of problematic level with drugs. Twenty adults who smoked marihuana and cocaine participated, with an age range of 18-35 years old from a lower middle socioeconomic status, all in pre contemplation stage of change, through a factorial design of two by two (type of substance per use frequency). The results showed that the discount function is more pronounced in cocaine users with severe dependence, followed by the same substance abusers, dependent on marijuana and ultimately for marijuana abusers. There were also differences between temporal curves off to money and drugs, with a steeper discounting for drugs than money. It seems that the substance can be explained and predicted by the model of temporal discounting and this measure could be a metric of impulsivity.

This work is framed in the interbehavioral approach held by Ribes and collaborators of interactive styles as an alternative to the study of personality. One of the contingencial situations proposed by these authors to analyze personality is persistence of achievement which has been defined as maintenance of performance in a signaled situation. In this ongoing experiment, a progressive ratio schedule task was used to evaluate the effect of the ratio requirement increase in the maintenance of performance. The breaking point (when participants decline responding) was used as a measure of persistence. As proposed in this line of research, participants were exposed to the task in two different moments with a time lapse of a month between them and it was not established an answer requirement (open condition). A close condition was designed in which participants were explicitly required to win the maximum of possible points. This close condition was used as an experimental control phase. Therefore, an experimental design considered two groups: one exposed to an open close condition sequence in both sessions and another exposed to the close condition at the end of session two. Data will be plotted to evaluate intraindividual consistencies across time.

The aim of the present study was to explore the differential outcomes effect in a feature ambiguous discrimination task employing same outcomes for the non-differential group. In a previous study it was reported that using mixed outcomes for the non-differential group might have caused a delay in learning the task, deriving in higher indexes for the differential outcomes group. In the present study, for the Differential Outcomes Group each lever press during A in X A type trials produced a drop of sucrose solution and during B in B type trials, each lever press produced a 45mg pellet. Lever presses during X B and A type trials were not followed by a consequence. For the Same Outcomes Group, the arrangement was the same except that during A in X A type trials and during B in B type trials, each lever press was followed by a drop of sucrose solution. Results were not consistent with the ones reported by Nakajima and Kobayashi (2000), in which subjects from the differential outcomes group had higher correct responses compared to subjects from the non-differential outcomes group (or mixed outcomes group). Sistematic research could help identify the conditions to facilitate learning in this type of discrimination task.

The aim of the present study was to identify the effects of exposing undergraduate students to technical terminology and ordinary language in order to explain psychological phenomena. Forty-five psychology students participated, distributed according to the semester they belonged to (15 from the first semester, 15 from intermediate semesters and 15 from last semesters). Participants from each grade level were assigned randomly to one of three sub-groups: G1, Technical Language Explanations; G2, Ordinary Language Explanations, and G3, Control group, no explanations. During the experimental procedure: 1) Participants were exposed to two psychological phenomena descriptions, 2) then, they were exposed to explanations about the phenomena (in terms according to the group they were assigned to), 3) participants had to write a paraphrase and 4) chose, from four different options, the best description to each phenomenon. Preliminary data suggest that students in the first and last semesters tend to use ordinary language to explain psychological phenomena, whereas most intermediate semester students tend to use technical language. The importance for Psychology students to master the technical language of their discipline is discussed.

If a constant-duration feeding opportunity is accompanied by a signal that precedes a long period without food, rats may eat more than when a different signal precedes a short period of abstinence. This effect has been called anticipatory hunger but previous research has failed to reproduce it reliably, possibly due to non-essential procedural complications. For this study, the procedure was stripped to its bare minimal operations to ascertain its existence. Three rats remained 24/7 in their respective chambers. For all rats after 3-hours of food deprivation, a 1.5-hour feeding period was allowed. Co-terminal with the feeding period, either one of two signals was presented. One signal preceded a 10-hour period of abstinence and the other a 3-hour period. After either period of abstinence free-feeding was allowed until the following day, when the procedure was repeated. The experiment lasted 20 cycles. The three rats ate more or less the same quantity of food during the daily feeding periods, regardless of the stimuli. These results add to other failed attempts to reproduce anticipatory hunger which as a set questions the existence of the phenomenon.

The language training effect in the reactive modes was evaluated on three different conditions: observing, observing-listening and observing-listening-reading on writing active mode, on a second order matching-to-sample task. This effect has been called habilitation. Twelve 4th graders of both sexes aged 9 to 11 experimentally naíve, participated in the experiment. It was used a design with a pretest, a training phase and a habilitation posttest. The results showed that the effect of habilitation was higher in writing mode when the training condition was observing-listening, this effect was lower in observing-listening-reading, and small in the observing mode when is used alone. The results suggested that the habilitation effect is greater when the three reactive modes are trained simultaneously and was included the complementary active mode. The analysis of the habilitation as a type of learning from Ribes and Lopez (1905) proposal is an alternative approach to Skinner (1957), Sidman (1994) and Hayes and Hayes (1992) among others, who have studied the verbal behavior based on morphological characteristics or from the conditions that enable its emergence. The study of this problem is important theoretically and methodologically and its applications can be extended various fields, especially education.

The current study investigated if the valence of faces expressing emotions has differential impact on latencies registered by the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). On each IRAP trial, one sample- either the word "happy" or "angry", one target- either a happy or an angry face, and two response options- V (for true) and F (for false)- were displayed on a computer screen. In consistent blocks, trials presenting the word "happy" and a happy face, and trials that presented the word "angry" and an angry face as target demanded the choice of the option V (true). In the inconsistent blocks, the choice of the option F (false) was required for the same display. Participants yielded a positive IRAP effect: They were faster in consistent blocks. Moreover, the IRAP effect for trials involving "happy" and a happy picture was four times larger than the IRAP effect for trials involving "angry" and an angry face. A possible whole of the valence of emotional stimuli on the semantic relatedness between words and pictures is discussed.

The purpose of present research was evaluated the effect of the type of text in reading comprehension. This research is based on behavior theory, proposal for Ribes and Lopez (1985). Two types of text were used: a) the definitional text, which refers to the conventional properties of the objects, and b) the constative text, which describe the situation in which the reader interacts with the text. Six experimentally naïve students participated, both sexes, between eight and nine years old from a public elementary school. It was used a replication inter subjects design with a pretest, a training phase, a transference test and a posttest. The participants were training in reading comprehension using the five functional levels of the taxonomy of behavior theory. The correct responses of the Participants received feedback. The results suggest that students who read constative text get percentages of correct responses higher than those who read definitional texts. These results suggested than characteristic of the type of text were an important factor in the acquisition level achieved.

The purpose of the research was evaluate the effect of three learning strategies -underline, look up words in the dictionary and write notes- based on the concept of competence. It was used an experimental design with inter and intra subject groups with a pretest, a training phase and a posttest. In each test it was used a adjustment criteria to evaluate intrasituational and extrasituational aptitude levels. Twenty children experimentally naïve participated, both sexes, between ten and twelve years old from a public school from the city of Xalapa Veracruz. The results showed positive differences on the experimental group. In the posttest, it was observed higher percentages of correct responses in the differentially and precision aptitude levels than in the effectiveness level. The underline and take notes strategies showed higher percentages of performance that strategy to look up words in the dictionary. The results are discussed in the context of functional levels of the taxonomy proposed by Ribes and Lopez (1985).

The objective of the research was to develop self-control in children with overweight and obesity based on the matching law, through a choice paradigm, by manipulating the dimensions of reinforcer (Neef et al., 2001) such as reinforcer rate (R), reinforcer quality (Q), reinforcer immediacy (I), and effort (E), on the students' choices between two concurrent sets of additions that were equal on two dimensions but competed on two other dimensions. Participated 14 children aged 8 to 10 years old. The sample was divided into two groups third and fifth grade. The results indicate that the children in the third and fifth grade had a change in their preferences for healthy unhealthy foods and changes in dimensions (immediacy, effort or schedule of reinforcement). In conclusion, children of third and fifth grade with overweight and obesity were sensitive to the model of self-control based on matching law.

Research in behavior analysis has produced data showing the possibility of selection of behavior from a temporal relationship with environmental changes. Coincidences between actions and noncontingent events can also help to provide a contingency-based description to a similar effect, known as illusion of control. The objective of the present study was to investigate the motivational and instructional variables on behavior acquired and maintained by accidental relationship with reinforcement and on estimatives of control. Participants engaged in a computer task in which points were presented according to a multiple schedule with variable time (non-contingent) and extinction components (mult VT 8s EXT). In Experiment 1, two experimental conditions differed: in the first, participants received points during experimental sessions and these points were not exchangeable for nothing; in the second, points obtained in experimental sessions where exchangeable for tickets for photocopies at the end of the session. In Experiment 2 points were exchangeable for photocopies for all participants, but an incorrect instruction was introduced in a multiple baseline design. This instruction suggested that it was necessary to respond to get points. The results showed that points exchangeable for photocopies produced a higher frequency of responses, but it was not enough for consistent occurrence of accidental selection, although participants that responded at higher rates presented higher estimatives of control. Superstitious behavior was generated by incorrect instruction in Experiment 2. It has been shown that motivational and social variables can interact with the noncontingent presentation of reinforcers and facilitate both the occurrence of superstitious behavior as the overestimation of control by participants.

The academic demands coupled with low levels of social skills may indicate the onset of psychological conditions such as stress. The social skills limited repertoire can enhance the environmental stressful variables effect. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress levels and social skills of Brazilian undergraduate students. For this purpose it was applied the Brazilian version of the Stress Symptom Inventory by Lipp, a questionnaire on specific academic context stressors and Social Skills Inventory. Participated in this study 25 students of the Universidade Federal do Recencavo da Bahia psychology course. The results indicated that over 80% of the participants presented stress. Furthermore, over 80% of participants had high scores on social skills. The questionnaire data showed that the items mentioned as most stressful were related to classes' hour amount and schedules besides evaluation activities schedules, aspects not directly related to students' social skills. Additionally, items related to interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers when appointed as stressful were mild or moderate intensity. These data suggest that high levels of stress may be related to high levels of social skills when the most stressful factors relate to changes that do not depend on the undergraduate students' social skills individually.

Mathematics learning difficulties may appear in the first years of schooling. In behavior analysis, the number of studies on the teaching of mathematics is still small, but there are contributions that indicate relevant variables to the formation of the number concept and arithmetic skills. The present study aimed to draw up a program of assessment and teaching addition and subtraction skills. The participants were nine children in the second to fifth year of elementary school. Initially, a battery of tasks assessed the pre-arithmetic skills and the results showed that tasks involving estimative and ordering of sets produced less correct responses. The program for assessment and teaching of addition and subtraction skills was divided into three units. In unit 1, we used values from zero to ten; unit 2 involved values from ten to twenty; and unit 3, values from twenty to fifty. All tasks were conducted in computerized MTS and CRMTS formats. The program made it possible to map the participants' arithmetic skills, as well as complementing gaps in the repertoire. Teaching intermediate responses to solving arithmetic algorithms proved necessary to improve the participants' skills.

Some properties of the additive problem may cause difficulties to solve it, like: problems' presentation form, semantic structure and position of the unknown. Two experiments were conducted to investigate if the formation of sets of equivalence classes between different problems' presentation forms could reduce difficulties of students, from the 2nd to the 5th year of elementary school, with low percentages of correct responses in pretest. Eight students participated in Experiment 1. After the equivalence class formation between different forms of presentation of addition problems (numeral-problem, word-problem, collection-problem and balance-problem), there was an increase in the percentage of accuracy for all types of problems in Post-test 1. It was also assessed, in different sessions, the effects of teaching addition and subtraction algorithms for solving additive problems, followed by Post-tests 2 and 3 and generalization test. Four participants showed an increase in the percentage of correct responses at Post-test 2 and six at Post-test 3. Participants achieved 100% correct responses at generalization test. In Experiment 2, three forms of presentation (numeral-problem, word-problem and balance-problem) were used. It was produced the formation of two sets of equivalence classes (addition and subtraction). Two sessions were designed to teach participants about balance-problems operation. Eight students participated. After the formation of classes, participants increased the percentage of correct answers in Post-test 1. It was then assessed whether a practice in solving balance-problems could further improve this performance, which was confirmed. In Generalization Test 1, participants reached percentages above 75%. Then, we performed a single session for teaching addition and subtraction algorithms, which was followed by Post-test 3; there was an increase in correct responses. The generalization test was reapplied; all participants achieved 100% accuracy. The teaching procedures adopted could reduce learning difficulties in problem solving.

Many universities fail to integrate didactic teaching of new technologies of information and communication, in the curriculum proposals based on the development of generic and professional skills, it requires that teachers and students have the skills that allow them to meet the demands of society. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of a program of digital skills of two English professors about their academic, communication, digital and English teaching skills. These skills were evaluated by 26 students using a scale. A experimental design with two groups randomized subjects with pre-and post-assessments (Ary, et al 2006), was implemented. Teachers and students were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: experimental and control. The results and statistical analysis show that the professor and the students of the experimental group had higher scores on academic skills than the control participants.

We studied the effect of antecedent manipulation on aberrant behavior within a competitive game, aiming to create an opportunity to practice, rather than avoid, challenging situations. Four versions of the "Are You Square" game (Eldar, Morris, Da Costa, & Wolf, 2006, Eldar, 2008) were played for 16 weeks by 16 male high-school students. The dependent variable, aberrant behavior, was defined as: Rule violations; Passivity; Physical violence; and Verbal violence. A Multielement Design presented the aberrant behaviors emitted under the various conditions. Overall, misbehaviors were differentially affected by the different versions of the game. The highest levels of aberrant behaviors, mainly in the form of rule violations, occurred when the Intensity of the game was increased. Data from this study will be presented, followed by data revealed from similar studies, demonstrating a relation between the manipulation of game conditions and the change in participants’ behavior. An educational procedure for diagnosing and treating aberrant behavior, based on these findings, will be suggested.

In Mexico, establishing of competences in relation to health is formally initiated by Secretariat of Public Education in Preschool Education Program (PEP) 2004-2011. The study designs a Program of Health Promotion in Preschool level (PHPP), to establish and assess competencies related to health in PEP (2011). The independent variable was Program of Health Promotion in Preschool level, approach based on competencies of Tobon (2006); the dependent variable was level of achievement in the execution of competences in preschool children in second grade, obtained in the Matrix of Competencies founded in PEP (2011). The hypothesis was, if level of achievement in the execution of competencies in health promotion for children in second grade preschool, exposed to PHPP would be higher, in comparison to achievement in children who not receive PHPP. The PHPP used an experimental design of Pre and Post-test with two randomized groups: control and experimental group with 8 children of second grade from preschool, both groups chosen at random from a kindergarten in Xalapa city, Ver. Results showed in graphical analysis the difference between groups. Two-Sample t-Test for Correlated Samples reported p<0.001, proving the hypothesis of the study.

Reading and numeracy teaching programs in natural environments rarely apply the concept of equivalence paradigm and matching to sample procedures to teach basic skills in these two areas. The present study presents an individualized behavioral teaching program with a 7 years old boy with atypical development at his own home, four days a week. The objective of the program was teaching gradually basic skills in reading and numeracy that were not present in the repertoire of the child. Baseline data showed systematic errors and random performance in reading, as well as in counting and identifying numbers. The procedure included trial type learning with matching to sample, through computer presentation. Eleven words were taught in three months, in the following relations: 1) match the oral name of words (spoken by the teacher), with its written names (AC relation); 2) match oral name of words with its picture (AB relation); 3) match pictures of written words with the correspondent written words (BC relation); 4) match written words with its correspondent pictures (CB relation); 5) say the name of written words loud (CD relation); 6) construct anagram of the name of written words (CE relation); 7) match oral name of pictures with pictures (relation BD). A token system for reinforcement of correct responses (FR5) was applied. Results of the first month on reading show an average of 85% of correct independent responses in four relations (AB, BD, AC, CD) and difficulties in BC, CB and CE relations (around 20% of correct responses); in the second month, the good scores were maintained and the low ones changed to 60% of correct responses; in the third month all the scores reached an average of 90% of correct responses. For numeracy program an even quicker progress was obtained. It is concluded for the efficiency of both programs and a process of learning set emerged in child’s reading behavior.

Indirect functional behavior assessment instruments are used to preliminarily identify potential functions of behavior and have only been available in English. This study developed a Spanish version of the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) indirect assessment instrument. Forward and back-adaptation committees were used in the translation process. Subsequently, the QABF and the QABF-Spanish (QABF-S) were administered to a group of 80 bilingual participants to assess both the reliability and validity of the assessments. A factor analysis yield four factors that were consistent with the four subscales examined in this study. Reliability coefficients were good for the attention, escape, and tangible subscales on both the QABF and QABF-S, but were poor for the nonsocial subscale on each instrument. A second experiment was conducted to analyze the convergent validity between the QABF-S and functional analyses results with clients in the natural setting. Results, limitations and future research is discussed.

Social network advertising is a term that is used to describe a form of online advertising that focuses on social networking sites. This study seeks to expand our understanding of the impact social network advertisements has on a target segments behavior. Skinner (1957) defined verbal behavior as behavior that is reinforced through the mediation of another person's behavior. Verbal behavior is, therefore, operant behavior. By this means that verbal behavior refers to all vocal, written and signed behavior where this particular behavior is reinforced by another person. A social network advertisement campaign was arranged (A-B-A-B design) to increase traffic from a social network site to a website that provide the public with information and counseling service regarding alcohol, drugs and substance abuse. The website's target group is youth experimenting with drugs and their parents. Results shows that traffic to the website was significantly higher in the campaign weeks (week 10 and 12) compare to the weeks without any advertisements (week 9 and 11). We also find that the verbal stimuli that were used had different impact with regards to traffic increase. The results will be discussed in relation to the concept of verbal behavior.

In this moment many companies at Mexico are planning to downsize their labor force but, what happens with the people that remain in the company? When the organization suffers structural changes the employee is forced to move from their comfort zone and to relearn new behavioral codes. The employees can have a different perception of their tasks and about themselves within the organization; causing a serious behavioral and emotional outbursts. This make stress level up in the organization and they must have to cope with stress of the new task the must do and the old ones. A coping plan designed to specific positions in the company can make the area more productive in the case of errors.

The purpose of this case study was to showcase the monetary value of using behavior management, and hopefully for different Norwegian organizations to obtain a broader understanding of the benefits. Traditionally banks operate with goals for the present year based on last year's figures. In January 2011, the Norwegian consulting company, Maze, implemented a performance management intervention in a Norwegian bank. The behaviors of sales advisors with the highest number of meetings and sales represented best practices and were used to set the standard for what was expected of every sales advisor. The intervention, initiated by the new region bank manager included an assessment of key behavior indexes and incorporating these in measurable goals of e.g. ten weekly costumer meetings for every sales advisor across all offices in the region. Independent variables used were computer based feedback system, monetary incentives and antecedents. The number of beam products sold in costumer meetings and number of costumer meetings were the dependent variables. The analysis indicates an upward tendency after the implementation in both number of meetings held, and goal attainment in terms of beam products sold.

The purpose of this research was to analyze binge eating behavior and the quality of life in obese adults. There were 94 participants (24 adult male and 70 adult women) who were recruited in a health center, with an average age of 39.05 years (SD = 8.98) and with an average body mass index of 35.2 (SD = 4.7). The participants were asked to answer the Questionnaire of Eating and Weight Patterns and the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire. The results showed that 29% of the sample reported binge eating behavior (30% women and 29.2% men). The level of quality of life for total sample was moderate, people with binge eating presented significantly low scores in physical and psychological domains of quality of life in comparison with people without binge eating behavior. Quality of life domains were strongly negatively correlated with measure of binge eating in the group with binge eating behavior, highlighting the association with the physical and psychological domains and the total score. In conclusion, quality of life was significantly impaired among obese people with binge eating, compared with obese people without binge eating.

In this campus (UNAM), there are six careers related to biological and health sciences. There has been an increase in the rate of consultations at the Psychology Clinic service, required by students. Depression in college students might become a relevant problem, due the hopelessness of an adequate academic performance, coupled to the psychological and emotional malaise. On the other side, according with Beck, Rush and Shaw (1979), the etiology implied into a suicide attempt is a continuum, in which special attentiveness must be focused on desire and plans to commit it (suicide ideas). Thus, the major goal for this study was to know the current prevalence of depression symptoms and suicidal ideation in students of this campus (4th and 8th semester grades), as well as the correlation between variables and other characteristics (N= 251). BDI and IOS were administered to volunteers. Statistical analysis showed a negative moderate correlation between variables (r=-.404; p<.01); mostly, normal and mild levels are present in depression, and moderate and high levels in sucidal ideation, ponting quite differences among careers.

Today the health problems related to sexual behavior of young people has captured the attention of various specialists, given the significant increase in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV / AIDS. The health psychologists have responded by promoting healthy behaviors among youth and generating research that explains the behavior of risk. Researchers in the health field have proposed various models (Health Belief Model, Reasoned Action, etc), which allow to know the psychological variables associated with risk behavior. The Psychological Health Model Biological proposed by Ribes (1990) and Contingential Analysis (Diaz Gonzalez 2002, Rodriguez, 2002) as analytical system, both development on a interbehavioral support, allow us to study the competences of an individual against a risk situation, specifically environmental and individual factors that facilitate or interfere with the occurrence of risk and preventive behaviors. The main purpose of this work was to assess the relationship between dispositional factors of the individual and the environment (place, socially expected behavior, social circumstances, propensities and inclinations), mediational behavior and beliefs as elements of macrocontingential analysis, with the consistency and inconsistent condom use as an indicator of preventive behavior. 939 sexually active college students participated. We assessed variables related to dispositional factors, mediation and beliefs. Also the participants were classified as consistent and inconsistent in the condom use. The results showed differences in the role played by each of the elements of the microntingential analysis and mediation for condom use in consistent and inconsistent participants. The concept of competence allows us to study these factors as interactions, that is, as factors that interfere or facilitate the occurrence of healthy behaviors.

Stimulus equivalence demonstrates untrained stimulus-stimulus relations that emerge from stimulus-stimulus training (Sidman, 1971). His research proved to be influential in basic and applied research in a many areas such as reading, language arts, and mathematics; however little research exists on using stimulus equivalence training to teach a second language to children with Autism. The current study uses stimulus equivalence to teach a second language, to a child with Autism in order for her to communicate with her monolingual parents. The participant is a 7-year old girl diagnosed with Autism who primarily communicates in English. A pre-test was administered to determine Spanish-vocabulary baseline. During baseline, the participant demonstrated the use of only two Spanish words. Parents were surveyed to determine which Spanish words would be used most commonly in the natural context. Sixty words were identified and categorized into six subsets: numbers, foods, actions, emotions, clothing items, and essential household items. Participant was directly tested to show the trained relations in the presence of an auditory stimulus. In Phase 1, the participant was trained from the spoken word in English (A) to the picture of the word (B). In Phase 2, the participant was trained from the spoken word in English (A) to the written word in English (C). In Phase 3, the participant was trained from the spoken word in English (A) to the spoken word in Spanish (D). Once the participant demonstrated acquisition of the Spanish word based on mastery criteria, new words were then introduced. The results of using stimulus equivalence to teaching a second language to children with Autism are useful and promising. The participant expressively states her age, date of birth, address, and telephone number in Spanish upon request in the presence of her parents. Limitations and future research should include training more children, training children of different ages, and/or using stimulus equivalence to teach another language other than Spanish.

Although there is little experimental research about verbal behavior as context or consequence to other behaviors, usually they are regarded as part of the "verbal regulation" area of research. This study aimed to replicate the experiments performed by Valdivia et al. (2006). The subjects were four participants aged between 6 and 7 years. The procedure consisted in the use of two experimental protocols, made of two stories, one about physical restraint and the other about itch, both contextualized and decontextualized. Both stories contained autoclitics. The results showed that both contextualized and decontextualized experimental protocols evoked, with few variations, verbal and nonverbal responses related to sensations of itch and physical restraint, respectively. These findings indicate that the different verbal contexts manipulated by Valdivia et al. (2006), and replicated here, did not produce difference in motivational states of the four participants across the two experimental sets. Thus, the responsible variable for producing changes in subjects' motivational states was the use of autoclitics, maintained on both experimental protocols.

Those studying perspective taking do so from several different theoretical frameworks, most of which view this skill as a function of biological or natural development (Howlin, Baron-Cohen, Hadwin, 1999; Selman, 1980; Yeates & Selman, 1989). Theory of Mind (ToM) is a construct researchers have been investigating since the 1970s which suggests that perspective taking is based on an ability to see oneself and others in terms of mental states of mind (e.g., desires, intentions, emotions, beliefs, etc.). Behavior analysts have developed protocols to train deictic relational frames to those who have deficits. Of these there are three studies that best demonstrate a behavioral account of perspective taking abilities (McHugh, Barnes-Holmes & Barnes-Holmes, 2004a; McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes & Stewart, 2006; Weil, Hayes & Capurro, 2011). At present, a number of studies have used computers to assess or train deictic relational responding (McHugh et al., 2004a; Rehfeldt, Dillen, Ziomek, & Kowalchuck, 2007). The goal of this research project is to systematically extending Weil et al. (2011) by investigating whether deictic relations can be trained via a computer, and secondarily the implications such training may have (e.g., developing a theory of mind).

The Tower of London (TOL) is a tool that involves moving a series of disks based on an initial model to end in a final state. This task was developed with the primary purpose of investigating different cognitive resources that people use to solve the task such as planning behavior and executive behavior. The objective of this research was to compare in adults and children, their verbal strategies through retrospective protocols and the executions to the task, using a computerized version of the Tower of London. Participants were exposed to a session of 24 trials of training in three levels of difficulty and continuous feedback, and two test sessions of 12 trials each. In test 1 performance was evaluated without feedback, in two difficulty levels not trained; while in the second one, transfer was tested to untrained figures. At the end of each session were asked the participants the following questions: 1. What was the best strategy used to reach the goal, 2. If he thought something before responding and, 3. How would you explain to another task. The results showed significant differences in the dependent variables as well as the quality of verbal report.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of community-based job training on the acquisition of apartment management skills of a student with intellectual disabilities. The participant was a high school student with intellectual disabilities who showed behavioral patters of autism. The target behavior which was the acquisition of apartment management skills consisted of three sub-skills: apartment cleaning, managing skills of entrance and exit, and parking management skill. The multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to investigate the effectiveness of the training program. The community based job training program used multiple instructional strategies such as task analysis, direct instruction, prompting, video modeling, role playing, self evaluation, token enforcement. The training program consisted of both community based teaching and classroom teaching. The result of the study indicated that all three sub-skills of the target behavior were successfully acquired by the participant. Also, the newly acquired skills were maintained following the termination of the intervention and generalized to different environmental settings. The result of the study were discussed in the perspective of transition education and functional life skills for students with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Establishing communicative repertoires in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is an important issue mainly for two reasons: in first place, because deficits in communication skills is an indicative of the difficulties in the adulthood; in second place, it permits an improvement in social interaction with parents, relatives and teachers. The present experiment aimed to teach repertoires of mands in an experimental setting and evaluate generalization skills in two different environments, namely, at school and at home. Repertoires of mands were established using the first three phases of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Four children with ASD and ages raging from seven to 12 years old were recruited as participants. The procedure consisted in a systematic teaching of the first three phases of PECS and subsequent evaluation for generalization skills at school and at home. Data in the environments used in the generalization tests were obtained using teacher and mother speechs. The results showed that three children were capable to acquire repertoires of mands when the variability of visual stimuli and the reinforcers effectiveness were controlled. Repertoires of mands learned in the experimental setting were generalized to school and home. Our findings suggest that a greater variable control in teaching procedure is needed to establish mands and generalized skills in the repertoire of children with ASD.

In the current research, we explored the efficacy of using video modelling to teach parents of children with autism to use effective instructional methods when teaching functional daily routines. We also examined the cultural responsiveness of video modelling. Parents from three distinct cultures residing in Canada and Hong Kong were recruited to teach their children with autism to complete the hand-washing routine independently using visual supports. We used a multiple baseline across participants design, and conducted a general case analysis to create three short video models. A researcher met with each participant at the outset of the study to view the videos together, to clarify the procedures, and to address any questions. Participants were then asked to view the videos daily and implement the strategies with their children over a two-week period. Researchers visited the participants home twice a week for data collection, during which time no further consultation was provided. We sought to demonstrate a functional relation between video modeling and the participants acquisition of the instructional technique. In addition, data on generalization, social validity, and family quality of life were collected. Implications of this research, in terms of establishing an effective and culturally responsive parent training tool, are discussed.

Given the universal coverage of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in rehabilitation centers in Quebec (Canada) and the growing number of immigrant families receiving these services (around 20%), it is crucial to document the factors leading to an optimal application of EIBI for these families, children and stakeholders. Those families experience more challenges in their access to services as well as during the implementation of services. It is important to develop ways to better support and encourage their involvement to maximize their child's response to intervention. This research consists of three consecutive studies, which will be completed in two rehabilitation centers that have experienced large waves of immigration. The first study aims to portray families from ethnic minorities with respect to their immigration context, their trajectory services and their perceptions on various aspects related to ASD services. The second study aims to document the perceptions of managers, professionals and educators on different aspects related to EIBI and work in multiethnic family background. A third study has the objective to build and evaluate a support program that is responsive to the needs of families from ethnic minorities in the process of receiving EIBI services. This poster present the context and the design of the three studies and presents the preliminary results of the first one. The first study begin in summer 2013.

Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have impairments associated with the use of verbal communication. As a result, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) methods are frequently utilised. Research investigating the acquisition and use of AAC is emerging however, few studies have identified whether these newly acquired skills are then generalized, and whether this is associated with rate of acquisition and/or student preference. The purpose of this study was to compare the acquisition of three different AAC methods, to examine children’s preference for the use of these methods, and to assess generalised use of each of these methods across settings, and people. Using a multiple baseline alternating treatments design across participants, four children with ASD were taught to mand for preferred items using a Speech-Generating Device (SGD), Picture Exchange (PE), and Manual Sign (MS). Preference assessments were conducted in order to determine whether the participants had a preference for either of the three methods of communication. Generalisation to a novel setting and people, was then assessed for each device. This paper will present the findings of this study. This study extends upon previous research in this field by identifying whether there is a relationship between acquisition, preference, and the likelihood of generalisation.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of the graduated guidance with video modeling and only video modeling for teaching pretend plays to children with autism. An adapted alternating treatments design was used in this study. Each participant was taught a couple/a pair of pretend plays preferred by the teachers and parents in this study. One of the skills was taught via graduated guidance with video modeling, another skill was taught via only video modeling. The effectiveness results of the study showed that three of the four participants learned the target pretend play skills via both of the teaching procedures as to meet the criteria. Although the fourth participant met the criteria in a pretend play delivered by the graduated guidance with video modeling, he showed only limited learning via the delivery of only video modeling. When the two teaching procedures were compared in terms of efficiency, graduated guidance with video modeling was found to be more efficient than only video modeling. Families and post graduate students reported positive opinions about the teaching process used in this study. In accordance with the results of the study, suggestions were made for procedures and future studies.

Training staff in human service agencies to reliably and accurately implement behavioral-based skill building programs and behavior plans is critical for ensuring client success. Most new staff have varying degrees of skills and are required to participate in all of the agencies training and orientation protocol, regardless of individual competence. This approach may ensure a shared base-level of competence, but may not be the most efficient. This study examined the effects of a protocol that matched new staff members training needs to their level of competence upon hire. Fifteen staff members completed the experimental training protocol which consists of a) independently viewing 11 video modules, b) completing guided notes, and c) taking quizzes on basic behavioral practices. Skill proficiency was re- assessed during in-vivo observations and a behavioral skills training package (i.e., instructions, modeling, rehearsal and feedback) was administered if needed until competency was achieved (i.e., 90% or greater over all targeted skills across 2 clients). Staff all successfully met the proficiency criteria and maintained the skills. Results will be discussed in relation to the efficiencies that were obtained from the new staff training protocol in comparison to the agencys previous protocol.