Association for Behavior Analysis International

Massage Therapy is increasingly being used as a complementary/alternative therapy not only because many people with psychological, behavioral, and physical problems are touch-deprived but also because of its therapeutic effects. Recent research suggests that massage therapy: 1) facilitates growth and development; 2) reduces depressive behavior and anxiety patterns and related stress hormones; 3) enhances sleep; 4) reduces pain; 5) reduces autoimmune disorders; and 6) enhances immune function. These effects have been noted in samples, for example, of preterm neonates, depressed children and adults, chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and migraine headaches, autoimmune problems including asthma and diabetes and immune disorders including HIV and cancer. A potential underlying mechanism is enhanced parasympathetic activity (increased vagal tone) following massage therapy, decreased stress hormones (cortisol) and increased serotonin (the bodys natural pain killer and antidepressant), in turn, leading to increased natural killer cell activity (front line of the immune system) warding off viral and cancer cells. In addition, cognitive performance is enhanced by massage therapy which may relate to changes noted in EEG patterns that are indicative of heightened alert behavior patterns. These data highlights the therapeutic effects and potential underlying mechanisms for this complementary/alternative therapy.

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How did quantitative behavior analysis begin? What is its relation to the rest of psychobiology? What has it accomplished and where has it failed? I describe the scientific movements that influenced the development of the quantitative analysis of behavior, and a few that did not, but should have.

We live in a time of unprecedented change in education. General education has been overtaken by NCLB, accountability seems to be everywhere, and we now have IDEIA 04 with a series of new provisions. What does it all mean? The answer is: It depends on what we make of it. Most of the opportunities we now find ourselves with are the culmination of a 30-year history of evolution in education. Being proactive in our response to this evolution is critical to schools and students meeting the increasing demands. For us to be successful, our past cannot be our future. This presentation will examine the foundations undergirding the movement toward Response To Intervention systems in our schools. A rationale for evolving structures in our schools will be set forth and a picture of possible futures will be painted with logic, case studies, systems data and a little self-deprecating humour. Specific topics addressed will include a different and smarter system structure for service provision to all students (3-Tiered Model), Response to Intervention (RTI) provisions in IDEIA 04 and the newly released Federal Regulations, Response to Intervention on the Ground (what does it look like in schools?)

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The assessment of efficient and effective procedures to train employees is a priority for agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities. Providing training that helps to ensure that employees fulfill their many job responsibilities has a number of benefits including, but not limited to: (1) possible amelioration of burnout often experienced by direct care staff, (2) responsible allocation of needed resources (e.g., costs associated with training), and most importantly, (3) the promotion of excellent service delivery. The purpose of the present symposium is to share findings from three studies that examined ways to improve staff performance through different models of training. The behavioral training procedures employed were varied, yet all produced beneficial outcomes for staff and students.

This symposium presents three empirical papers on specific teaching variables used during discrete trial instruction. The first two papers offer an examination of specific therapist variables related to social effect and physical orientation during teaching. The Kisamore paper examines the results of high and low quality social attention on problem behavior. The Rivera paper extend this analysis to include therapist effect and teaching position (i.e., in front, behind, beside) on rates of maladaptive behavior, percent of time on task and skill acquisition. Finally, the Valentino paper examines the effect of pace of instruction on problem behavior.

With the rise in demand for autism services utilizing approaches in applied behavior analysis, traditionalABA providers have been called to become organizational administrators, designing systems and programs that can meet the needs of a broad population. Some administrators have found replicating other empirically validated intervention programs an option that brings efficiency, efficacy, and credibility to the table right from the start. Two such programs are discussed in this symposium. The first authors evaluate the process of replicating the Walden Program that was originally established by Gail G. McGee in 1985. Data both pre- and post-replication of each program component will be reviewed. The second talk introduces the Walden Programs own within-group data on the increases in language and social skills in children with autism. Between group data is also explored across replication sites. The final presentation will review successful dissemination of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) with children with autism in Nova Scotia, Canada. Further and ongoing plans for replication of both of the programs mentioned above will be discussed.

Behavior analysis and modification was hailed in the late 1960s as a way of rehabilitating prisoners. By the mid 1970s, California reported that behavior modification could no longer receive crime prevention funds. At this period APA launched an investigation as to standards for behavior modification in prisons. What went wrong? The first presenter will review the history and discuss the errors with an eye to behavior analytic policy for the future. The second presenter will offer approaches to treat adolescent offenders who would typically be placed into juvenile detention based upon recent advances in applied behavior analysis to address problem behaviors exhibited by these youth. The third presentation will familiarize the participant with Mode Deactivation Therapy (MDT) as an enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) for treating adolescent males who have problems with opposition, conduct, personality, including physical and sexual aggression. The data concerning MDT, as an evidenced based psychotherapy, will be discussed as well. Lastly, Sex offenders! Those two words can evoke fear and apprehension in the community. Thankfully, a skillful integration of the best practices sex offender assessment and 3rd wave behavior therapies couples what works (evidence-based practice) with what matters (empirically-derived risk factors).

In applied behavior analysis, social validity refers to society's judgment about the appropriateness and importance of behavior analytic goals and practices. Although social validity has been touted as a critical dimenson of applied behavior analysis since the 1970's, it remains an under-researched area. The presenters attempt to address this void by discussing the use of social validity measures in the existing literature, as well as reviewing three new research studies that assess the social validity of behavioral procedures for classroom use.

The current symposium consists of four empirical papers that explore various analogue models of anxiety. The first paper sought to examine the issue of expectancy bias in irrational fear through two experiments which used self-reported expectancy to test for derived relational responding. The second paper comprised two experiments designed to examine approach-avoidance conflict in a group of adult subjects. The third paper used an extinction procedure, and subsequently an ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) protocol to reduce laboratory induced avoidance. The final paper sought to demonstrate the transformation of aversive respondent elicitation in accordance with sameness relations. The findings of all four papers have implications for understanding human fear and anxiety.

Token schedules have been extensively examined by both "basic" and "applied" researchers. However, these two research traditions have developed largely independently of one another. This symposium is an attempt to foster contact and highlight research on tokens that tells us something new about the schedules and also has important implications for their application.

This symposium will consist of three presentations that describe experimental studies on parent and peer tutoring for students with diverse learning needs. First Allison Kretlow will describe how parent tutoring with audio prompting was used to improve English vocabulary of young children with Limited English Proficiency. Next, Sara Moore Mackiewicz will discuss the use of peer tutoring with an audio prompting device to improve vocabulary acquisition of struggling readers. Finally, April Mustian will describe a computer-based peer tutoring program to promote middle school students acquisition and generalization of vocabulary words.

Public schools are fertile grounds for behavior analysis interventions ranging from restructuring environments to teaching staff about scientific principles of human behavior. Oftentimes the focus of behavior analytic interventions is the reduction of severe problem behavior encountered across a variety of school settings. In contrast, the focus of the current presentation is on building appropriate behavior and teaching teachers to teach reading. This symposium includes 4 presentations on varied interventions for 3-5 year olds at risk for failure in kindergarten. Interventions will be presented demonstrating BATSS procedures for teaching literacy skills at various points on the learning continuum. Assessing and training component skills in programs designed for children with special needs also improves teaching efficiency and learner performance. A comparison between current reading scores for this particular group of children and data collected during the prior academic school year will reflect BATSS innovative changes to this technology. Data and video will be shown exhibiting training procedures for teaching reading for this special needs, specific age group of students.

There are many times we go to bed at night wishing we would have asked a question or posed a comment. These burning questions may be the very questions that, upon answering, would help Organizational Behavior Management grow. You may ask these questions to one or a few of your colleagues during coffee, drinks, or whatever "water coolers" you feel comfortable with. By limiting the conversations to few, OBM as a field may lose sight and touch of the key questions that can drive our field forward. The panel consists Judy Agnew (ADI), Bill Hopkins (Auburn Emeritus), Allan Quiat (Chevron Corporation), and Tracy Thurkow (CLG). This panel will address your burning questions. Come with your questions and thoughts that are burning to come outand be prepared to have fun while doing it.

Formation of equivalence classes and naming are basic language processes frequently studied by behavior analysts. The experimenters will present four studies examining various aspects of equivalence relations and naming.

Equivalence classes consist of arbitrary stimuli that come to share functional and symbolic relations partially through contingencies and partially as a product of emergent processes. Three studies have begun to document the differences between older and younger adults in the formation of equivalence classes. The purpose of this study is to clarify methodological factors that may account for, or contribute to, the differences reported in the literature. Twenty-eight adults ages 65 and older were exposed to two matching-to-sample training procedures and subsequent testing using a personal computer with a touch screen and a 0-s delay. Half of the participants experienced a many-to-one (MTO) training procedure followed by a one-to-many (OTM) procedure and the other half experienced the reverse order. Differences in trials to criterion, errors during training, emergent relations were minimal between the two conditions, replicating the effects of Saunders, et al. findings with 0-s delay. The majority of elders demonstrated the expected emergent relations with clear differences in training performance patterns for those who subsequently performed well on tests and those who performed more poorly.

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by core impairments in social and communicative behavior. Though behavior in these domains can be subjective and difficult to measure, diagnostic assessments and outcome measures rely on accurate estimation of these skills. This lecture will review current research utilizing eye-tracking technology and recordings of brain electrophysiology to discretely measure aspects of visual attention and brain function related to social perception. The objective of this research is to develop indices of brain function and behavior that will enable assessment of social perception in infancy and will offer sensitive and discrete measures of progress during intervention.

Economists and behavioral scientists share an interest in behavior maintained by goods/reinforcers. What have economists discovered that behavioral scientists have yet to study (and vice-versa)? A broad overview will be provided with emphasis placed on the applied utility of behavioral-economic findings.

Massage Therapy is increasingly being used as a complementary/alternative therapy not only because many people with psychological and physical problems are touch-deprived but also because of its therapeutic effects. Recent research reported by Dr. Tiffany Field and others suggests that massage therapy: (1) facilitates growth and developmen (2) reduces depressive behavior and anxiety patterns and related stress hormones, (3) enhances sleep, ( 4) reduces pa, (5) reduces autoimmune disorders, and (6) enhances immune function. For example, these effects have been noted in samples of preterm neonates, depressed children and adults, chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and migraine headaches, autoimmune problems including asthma and diabetes, and immune disorders including HIV and cancer. Some potential underlying mechanisms are enhanced parasympathetic activity (increased vagal tone) following massage therapy, decreased stress hormones (cortisol), and increased serotonin (the bodys natural pain killer and antidepressant), which in turn lead to increased natural killer cell activity (front line of the immune system) that wards off viral and cancer cells. In addition, cognitive performance is enhanced by massage therapy which may relate to changes noted in EEG patterns that are indicative of heightened alertness. The data will be reviewed by the panelists highlighting the role of environmental contingencies in these findings. The therapeutic effects and the potential underlying behavioral mechanisms will be discussed.

Functional Analysis has much to offer in clinical settings. This symposium looks at several applications of behavioral principles to those with mental health conditions.

The utility of partial-interval recording (PIR) and momentary time-sampling (MTS) for detecting changes in simulated events was evaluated using single-subject experimental designs. Colby-Dirksen et al. evaluated the extent to which various interval sizes of PIR and MTS detected the same functional control that was demonstrated with continous duration recording (CDR). Michalski et al. evaluated whether various interval sizes of PIR and MTS detected changes in various event-rates. In this sense, both Colby-Dirksen et al. and Michalski et al. evaluated the probability that interval methods produce false negatives (i.e., failed to detect effects that were evident with CDR) when evaluating the effects of independent variables. To this end, Carroll et al. evaluated the possibility that interval methods depict false positives (i.e., depict functional control that is not evident with CDR). Finally, Devine et al. evaluated the extent to which the length of observation periods influenced the sensitivity of interval methods for detecting various changes in duration events.

Functional assessment methods have clear utility for developing efficacious interventions for problem behavior. Although most research on functional assessment has been conducted in clinical settings by researchers, a growing body of research documents (a) methods of functional assessment applicable for non-clinical settings and (b) the link between functional assessment and positive outcomes in diverse settings such as schools and the community. In this symposium we present results of recent studies focused on delineating effective strategies for conducting functional assessments in schools.

Since the publication of the seminal article by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis, issues of and strategies for generalization and maintenance have grown in importance but have yet to become standard practice. This symposium will address the status of generalized programming with in the field of ABA, the status of generalization and maintenance within instructional programming for student with disabilities, and implications of omitting generalized outcomes for effective programming.

It is sometimes not appreciated that research in behavioral pharmacology can have, and has had, implications for the experimental analysis of behavior, especially its conceptualizations and theory. In this presentation, I outline three general strategies in behavioral pharmacology research that have been employed to increase understanding of behavioral processes. Examples are provided of the general characteristics of the strategies and of implications of previous research for behavior theory. Behavior analysis will advance as its theories are challenged, and behavioral pharmacology is one source of such challenges.

Understanding decision-making involves many disciplines, including Evolutionary Biology, Economics, Psychology and Quantitative Behavioural Analysis. In this tutorial I review recent experiments on choice between different combinations of amount and delay to food that used starlings as experimental animals. The results are contrasted with predictions from theoretical models originating in these disciplines (including those advocated by B. Franklin). I show that while ome models are better at data fitting they can be weaker in other respects. My overall message is that the worth of theoretical models is not identical to their predictive performance (how well they fit the data): Theories and models are validated by the accuracy of their predictions but should be judged by many additional criteria, including their value to guide research, and to place observations within broader fields of knowledge.

During the past 40 years, behavioral systems analysts (e.g., Tom Gilbert, Dale Brethower, Geary Rummler) developed models of organizations that help us understand behavior in context and suggested that behavioral interventions are far more powerful when the total system is considered as a backdrop for individual performance. Unfortunately, most applications at the systems level are described in terms of metaphors or principles, rather than practical, replicable approaches. Few lasting, large-scale applications of behavioral technology in working organizations have been implemented under realistic circumstances. Most published accounts of behavior change in organizations focus on a limited environment (e.g., one department or unit) and are driven by researchers or consultants who implement contrived circumstances to incubate and sustain the changes. This is no sin: many of these approaches have led to powerful changes and improved bottomline results. However, they often fall short of documenting reliable ways of changing the behaviors of hundreds or thousands of people--behavior analysis and change on a scope and scale that has the potential to move entire organizational cultures. This presentation will provide an example of large-scale, long-term behavioral intervention in a Fortune 100 business at the cultural level and describe how behavior analytic methods were used to functionally embed new practices that have been sustained over a period of 8 years with the promise of continuing indefinitely (i.e., becoming a way of life for leaders throughout the company). The approach and results will be discussed in terms of a whole-system application with reference to early work of behavioral systems analysts. The intervention involved teaching leaders (including the CEO and 20 top level executives) applied behavior analysis and supporting their use of the skills with extensive coaching and feedback. The model was subsequently extended to the 200 most senior leaders (Phase II) and then to another 700 general managers (Phase III). Plans call for training and coaching more than 2,000 managers and supervisors over the coming year to complete skill development (phase IV). To embed these practices in the ongoing culture, each leader receives a leadership scorecard (ratings and comments) from his/her direct reports every 6 months and completes an upward feedback dialogue session where the direct reports describe what they see as more effective practices (to be...

The studies collected in this symposium examine a variety of quantitative variables, based on principles of behavioral economics and the matching equation, as they apply to the behavior of individuals in applied contexts. The general emphasis is on how choice responding is influenced by basic process through manipulations of unit price, opportunity costs, schedule-correlated stimuli, and the like. The impact of these variables is examined across an array of applied contexts that includes educational settings, clinical settings for individuals with developmental disabilities, and in the treatment of substance abuse. Collectively, the studies exemplify how findings imported from basic behavioral science can be brought to bear on clinically relevant behavior in these contexts.

With the increasing number of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, parents have been struggling to find treatments to help their children. In response to this need, a proliferation of professionals (e.g., Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, Educators, Board Certified Behavior Analysts, etc.) with a wide variety of experiences has hastened to provide treatments for this population. However, not all have been reportedly recommending and providing scientifically supported ABA services and many have been providing fad treatment Of special concern is when BCBAs knowingly or unknowingly endorse or recommend fad treatments. This panel discusses parental responses to treatment recommendations, Board Certified Behavior Analysts uses ABA and fad treatments, the ethical responsibilities of behavior analysts, and ways of ensuring that fad treatments are not recommended or endorsed.

Skinners (1957) functional analysis of verbal behavior has garnered more attention in recent years than it did when it was first published. One variable responsible for this has been the success of behavior analysis in teaching children with verbal deficits. There has been much interest in identifying critical variables for teaching communicative responding and validating teaching techniques. Skinners analysis of verbal behavior has been useful to clinicians for functionally categorizing verbal operants but there has not been enough systematic research of verbal behavior in applied and natural settings. This symposium will discuss several studies of verbal behavior conducted in educational environments. The first paper compares the effects of textual and echoic prompting for teaching intraverbal responses. The second paper examines the role of problem solving in complex intraverbal repertoires. The third paper presents a procedure for functionally assessing established vocal-verbal behavior. The final paper examines prompted and pure mands following mand training.

The applied behavior analysis of Intensive Early Intervention for children with autism is conducted at many different levels of resolution. All levels of ABA are necessary to effectively manage the best possible outcomes for the greatest number of children. In order to build a sustainable program, numerous issues in accountability and management must be addressed. This symposium will present the results of four different organized systems for delivering and managing treatment efficacy. The management procedures of the organizations will include the molecular levels of ABA (single-subject analyses of all facets of treatment; component and package analyses of all facets of treatment; analysis of maintenance of treatment effects; analysis of the limits of generality of the treatment); the intermediate analysis of staff training, parent training, consumer responsiveness, and the organizational management necessary to sustain the treatment; and long-term traditional epidemiological analyses of consumer validity, cost-effectiveness and social validity to provide overall guidance to organizational design. Cultural and language issues will also be addressed. Current results of these organized systems will be presented.

We present four papers describing publicly-funded regular education classes based entirely on teaching as applied behavior analysis for grades 1, 2 and 3 (CABAS Accelerated Independent Learner Model for regular education). We identify the components of the model and the outcomes according to standardized tests and direct measures of achievement of educational standards. Paper 1 describes the outcomes for children in the class that has received the model for 2 years (mean grade equivalent 4.43, 84th percentile nationally). The outcomes for this class are presented by percentage of students in the class according to demographics: 23% English as second language (performed 3 years above grade level), 23% autism diagnoses (grade level to 2 years above grade level), 35% minorities (4 years above grade level), free lunch 42% (4 years above grade level), and 23% middle and upper middle class with none of the other demographic classifications (6 years above grade level). The second and third papers catalogue the tactics and curricula, verbal developmental interventions for different grade levels. The fourth paper catalogues components that resulted in academically successful inclusion for children with autism.

The papers in this symposium will describe methods of assessing and teaching verbal operants to children with developmental disabilities.

The BACB Guidelines for Responsible Professional Conduct by Behavior Analysts represent a comprehensive and high set of ethical standards for practitioners. Many professionals encounter ethical conflicts in their efforts to abide by these guidelines or are at least familiar with such conflicts in the actions of others. Panel members will discuss challenging ethical situations they have dealt with and discuss situations posed by members of the audience.

Stephen Wolframs massive self-published tome, A new kind of science, has been criticized by various reviewers as overwrought, repetitive, egocentric, insufficiently documented, megalomaniacal, too Mathematica-focused, nothing new, self-indulgent, the raving of a crackpot, and false. Whether or not one wishes to believe Wolframs occasional extravagant claims, such as that continuity and motion in the physical world are illusions, or that the universe is a simple computer program, his manic but endlessly fascinating 6 lb behemoth of a book is a treasure trove of mathematical and computational ideas and techniques that is well worth mining for its possible relevance to problems in quantitative behavior analysis. Wolframs point of departure is that complex behavior can be produced by the repeated application of simple rules (nothing new); the rest of the book is a rococo elaboration of this theme. From cellular automata and Turing machines to iterated function systems and prime number sequences, there is enough raw material in this volume to keep a scientific miner digging and happy for a long time. In this tutorial I will discuss some of the raw material I have mined from Wolframs book that might be of interest to quantitative behavior analysts, with a special focus on cellular automata.

The Behavioral Research Program (BRP) initiates, supports, and evaluates a comprehensive program of behavioral research ranging from basic behavioral research to research on the development, testing, and dissemination of disease prevention and health promotion interventions in areas such as tobacco use, screening, dietary behavior, and sun protection. Our goal is to increase the breadth, depth, and quality of cancer prevention and control behavioral science. Dr. Paige McDonald will present the scientific mission of the program, highlight research priorities, and discuss funding opportunities for the scientific study of behavior in a cancer control and population science context.

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The incidence of autism has increased considerably. With it, a corresponding development of programs serving individuals with autism has occurred. These programs are essential to meet the needs of the autism community, but attracting, training and retaining a qualified workforce is very difficult. In addition to the competition among programs serving individuals with autism, these agencies also compete with employment opportunities that are less stressful and less demanding than working with individuals with autism. Although empirically-based teaching techniques are used in the field of special education, few providers apply these same principles to address staff behavior change. Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), also referred to as Performance Management (PM), is the application of Applied Behavior Analysis to organizational improvement. The purpose of this panel is to address common challenges within the field of human services, and more specifically, to programs serving individuals with autism. Topics to be addressed include issues of staff retention and turnover, staff development,and quality assurance and improvement.

Forty years ago Fred Keller published his now classic paper that introduced the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) to the teaching world. PSI, or the Keller Plan, as it is sometimes called, gained immediate widespread popularity. Indeed, college and university professors from many disciplines adopted the technique for use in their classes. Researchers published numerous articles showing PSI to be superior over traditional teaching methods in terms of student learning outcomes (i.e., final grades). Interestingly, now, in 2008, few college and university professors have ever heard of PSI, or for that matter, other forms of behavioral instruction. In this presentation, I will discuss the current state of college and university teaching against the backdrop of Keller's and others' work with behavioral approaches to college and university teaching. I will provide an overview and theoretical analysis of prevailing teaching techniques and the key elements of "master teaching" in an attempt to suggest effective practices for improving one's teaching.

I have long been confused by attempts to distinguish emitted operant responses from elicited Pavlovian reflexes and will describe a new theory based on control by reinforcement over levels of response variability. The theory states that a voluntary response has two defining attributes: functionality and potential unpredictability. A voluntary response is functional in the sense that it can be explained, it happens for a reason, it is goal oriented or, in behavior analytic terms, it is an operant, controlled by reinforcement. A voluntary response must also be at least potentially unpredictable (or free, self-generated, not determined). In other words, voluntary responses can be functionally unpredictable. There are two sources of that functional unpredictability: natural variability and learned variability. Natural variability is seen in baseline operant responding, during exploration of novel spaces, and under concurrent reinforcement schedules. Learned variability is seen in Karen Pryors reinforcement of novel responses in porpoises, Don Bloughs reinforcement of random interresponse times in pigeons, and reinforcement of more-or-less variable sequences that has been studied in my lab and others. I will describe psychophysical evidence in support of an operant variability theory of voluntary behavior and discuss implications for self control.

Few studies have attempted to identify the functions of noncompliance, and common interventions for noncompliance (e.g., 3-step prompting) assume that noncompliance is maintained by escape. In the present study, we describe a method for conducting a functional analysis of noncompliance. Two typically developing toddlers, aged 2 and 4 years old, participated. The functional analysis consisted of two conditions, which were evaluated in a multielement design. In the escape condition, noncompliance resulted in a break from the task. If the child complied with the demand, the experimenter physically guided him to complete the demand while providing verbal praise. The contingencies were reversed in the attention condition; noncompliance resulted in attention (e.g., encouragement) and continuation of the demand, and compliance resulted in a break with no attention (escape). Interobserver agreement was collected for a minimum of 30% of sessions, with equal distribution across conditions, and was above 90%. For both participants, noncompliance was maintained, at least in part, by social attention. Functional analyses of noncompliance such as the one described here may be valuable for treatment development.