Association for Behavior Analysis International

Please join participating SIG members for the the 11th running of the Fleet Feet Sports Soldier Field 10 Mile, which includes a memorable finish on the 50-yard line of Soldier Field! Event details and registration can be found at www.soldierfield10.com. (Please note that this run is not organized by the HSF SIG. Registration and compliance with all event policies and procedures is required.) Please meet us in the meeting room at 6:00 am, dressed in your running gear. The HSF SIG is happy to pick up registration packets and bibs for those traveling from outside Chicago. If you would like us to do this for you, please forward the bib number confirmation email to hsf.abai@gmail.com. In the text of your forwarded email, be sure to state that you are providing authorization for Annabelle Winters to pick-up your packet. Please be prompt as we'll depart as a group from the meeting room and walk the 0.5 mile from McCormick Place to Soldier Field.

ABAI is pleased to offer a Leadership Training Session for officers of ABAI Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for the purpose of providing strategies for guiding the growth of SIGs and providing services to members and constituents. This training is for SIG leaders only.Although the SIG training is free for up to three officers per SIG, registration is required. This event is closed; attendance is by invitation only.

The ABAI SIG Board: A New Resource for SIGs

Christy Alligood (Disney's Animal Kingdom)

This year, the ABAI Executive Council unanimously approved a proposal to establish a board specifically charged with furthering ABAI’s mission as it pertains to special interest groups (SIGs). The SIG Board will engage in activities to provide resources to SIGs with the ultimate goal of strategically promoting the diversity of interests within the field of behavior analysis. Board coordinator, Christy Alligood, will share the specific goals and current initiatives of the SIG Board, and lead a discussion with SIG leaders to gather input on board activities and the needs of SIGs.

The Role of the ABAI Program Committee

Mark Mattaini (Jane Addams College of Social Work-UIC)

Both new and seasoned SIG leaders often have questions about the role of the ABAI Program Committee and its relationship to SIGs. Mark Mattaini, senior co-chair of the ABAI Program Committee and chair of the Behaviorists for Social Responsibility SIG, will share the functions and processes of the Program Committee, current connections between the Program Committee and SIGs, and plans for promoting increased coordination going forward.

The International Reception is scheduled to welcome international members and review the international development of behavior analysis being conducted at ABAI. All members are welcome.

On behalf of all of us working to develop behavior analysis throughout Europe, Dr. Hughes said it is his great honor to accept this award. He said he has been lucky enough to work with a host of talented and motivated colleagues from all over the globe who have shared the common goal and value of promoting behavior analysis. In the United Kingdom, they focused on developing training programs that will build a critical mass of competent behavior analysts who are able to contribute across a number of areas to help improve lives. In 2003, Dr. Hughes and Dr. Steve Noone started the first BCBA accredited course in ABA in Europe at Bangor University. The course currently enrolls about 60 students a year, and now 18 similar courses across Europe are training the next generation of behavior analysts. The BACB was an important catalyst to this growth, and Dr. Jerry Shook in particular was instrumental in supporting the efforts in Europe. In this talk, Dr. Hughes describe the conditions that helped bring this about, some of the lessons they learned, and thank some of the people who helped make this happen. Behavior change has become the buzzword for politicians, policymakers, and nonbehavioral psychologists. Recently, Dr. Hughes received almost $3 million (U.S.) in funding from the Welsh European Funding Office to develop the Wales Centre for Behaviour Change. The center will bring together designers, sustainability expertise, neuroscientists, behavioral economists, and crucially, behavior analysts. This represents an exciting area for behavior analysis. However, behavior analysts remain in the minority, and there is much still to do. If we are to continue to grow we must work together, clarify and communicate our values and mission, be nice (especially to those who do not share our perspective), and think bigger in terms of where behavior analysis can have influence, Dr. Hughes wrote.

Georgia was a Soviet Republic from 1924 to 1991, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin and of Eduard Shevardnadze. The Soviet Union’s collapse threw Georgia into civil war and, eventually, a break from Russian influence. Introducing applied behavior analysis in Georgia in 1997 resulted from an invitation to teach “modern Western” clinical psychology at Tbilisi State University. Our clinical training was behavioral, and our Kansas Ph.D.’s supervised by Donald Baer, with influence from Risley, Wolf, Sherman, Sheldon, Spradlin, and Morris, prepared us to apply behavior analysis in its widest sense to systems, organizations, programs, training, and individuals. Teaching ABA Practicum led us to institutions where children languished without proper care, food, or education. We saw a need, we had the knowledge and skills, and we had to challenge and change the system at government, university, and grass-roots levels. Courageous Georgian colleagues and cooperation of other organizations helped overcome hurdles. The closure of institutions, the emergence of inclusive education, the training of foster parents, caregivers, and teachers, and the support of families with children with special needs all required ABA skills, which we provided. The future is in the hands of a new generation of Georgian psychologists keen to apply behavior analysis widely and effectively.

For more than 35 years, the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit (BPRU) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has been a leading clinical research and research training program applying behavior analysis methods to the study and treatment of substance use. BPRU research has used the perspective and methodology of behavior analysis to study substance use and abuse as operant behavior that is influenced and/or controlled by its context and consequences. Human laboratory studies have examined the discriminative and reinforcing effects of drugs, examining influences on drug self-administration, choice behavior, and other indices of drug abuse liability. Outpatient therapeutic trials have integrated incentive-based behavior therapies with pharmacotherapies to assess their individual and interactive contributions to outcome. The most enduring contribution of the BPRU program is from its National Institutes of Health-supported postdoctoral research training program. With more than 100 graduates, the program has provided a research training and scientific productivity foundation for subsequent generations of scientists in the substance use and human behavioral pharmacology fields. This presentation will summarize and illustrate several areas of research from BPRU’s history.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in learning about the winner of the SABA Award for International Publication.

In this presentation, the construct of motivation will be explored. A motivated animal is operationalized as one who engages in the training dialogue with quick response to discriminative stimuli. Historically, force and coercion were the tools used to motivate animals in zoological settings. Fortunately, those methods are being replaced with more positive approaches. But, even with the current groundswell of positive reinforcement training in zoos, much mythology and poor training practices surround the need to motivate animals. These include putting the blame on the animal, misrepresenting scientific principals, as well as lowering animals' weights to unacceptable levels. Mr. Martin's experience has shaped a training technology, based on antecedent arrangement and positive reinforcement that allows him to successfully work with highly empowered animals. This success depends on approaches such as sensitive reading of body language, high rates of reinforcement, and clear communication of criteria. With these approaches, welfare is increased as animals learn to use their behavior more effectively.

Behavior analysts working with or interested in animals in any training or management capacity.

The earliest identification of atypical development among very young infants at risk for a later diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is important to facilitate the earliest possible intervention. Existing literature generally presents that anomalous development is not identifiable until the end of the first year of life. However, this is discordant with clinical anecdotes supporting the premise that, in at least some infants, consistent anomalous behaviors may be identified very early, as early as at ages 3-6 months or even before, that may reliably predict an eventual determination of ASD. Dr. Filipek will first present the course of typical development in the first year of life through video segments to focus on the development of social communication as the hallmark target of atypical development. The existing literature pertaining to findings of anomalous development in the first year of life will be briefly reviewed, with specific attention to study designs focusing on infants who are or are not "at risk" versus infants who eventually are or are not diagnosed with ASD. The newest findings will be presented to document the existence of anomalous development as early as at 3 months of age.

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

The best designed behavioral interventions will have limited efficacy if they are not implemented appropriately. It is widely recognized that caregivers will not implement interventions perfectly, but the minimal levels of integrity necessary to obtain behavior change have not been identified for most behavioral interventions. The current symposium provides three studies that systematically assessed sub-optimal levels of treatment integrity as it related to the Hi-P instructional sequence, discrete trial instruction, and three-step prompting and evaluated procedures to promote integral implementation by caregivers.

Decreases in treatment integrity reduce the effectiveness of empirically-validated treatments such as discrete-trial instruction (DTI). Global measures of treatment integrity may mask deficits in implementing individual treatment components. Recent research has shown that decreases in the integrity of individual components of DTI can result in differential decreases in treatment effectiveness. Video modeling can be an effective and efficient method of promoting improved DTI treatment integrity globally. This study examined whether video models tailored to individual components of DTI would result in improvements in treatment integrity in individual components and globally. Four undergraduates were initially provided written instructions for implementing DTI. The undergraduates then implemented DTI with children, and researchers measured DTI treatment integrity both globally and by individual component. Deficits were found in multiple components, especially reinforcer delivery. Showing the undergraduates a video model of correct reinforcer delivery was ineffective at promoting treatment integrity for that specific component, but written feedback and behavioral skills training were effective in improving treatment integrity in individual components and globally. Clinicians should monitor measures of treatment integrity both globally and in individual treatment components to make feedback to staff more efficient and ensure the best treatment for their clients.

Noncompliance is one of the most common behavioral referrals for child psychologists. Interventions based upon response prompting, escape extinction, and differential reinforcement (collectively referred to as three-step prompting) have been demonstrated to be effective for remediating this problem repeatedly, but less attention has been provided to best practice in equipping parents with these skills. Miles and Wilder (2009) demonstrated the efficacy of behavioral skills training (BST) in teaching parents three-step prompting, but the BST approach is effortful and requires onsite coaching of a professional. Further, the effects of this training were only assessed on a target set of instructions. In application, it will be important to ensure that caregivers can implement these procedures across a variety of instructional situations. The current study served as a systematic replication and extension of Miles and Wilder. Specifically, the current study (a) conducted a component analysis of BST to assess the sufficient and necessary components that lead to skill acquisition and (b) evaluated generalization of parents implementation of these procedures across a variety of tasks. We found that the full training package including written instructions, modeling, and feedback yielded the highest levels of treatment integrity and these behaviors generalized across tasks.

Early experimentalists, such as Azrin, Ferster, Sidman and many more, had a vision of exporting laboratory-derived operant principles to clinical practice settings. Systematically exploring the possibilities inherent in behavior analytic assessments and interventions, these pioneers and their students markedly raised the standards of care, most notably in areas limited to mere custodial or restraint-based services at the time, where progress had been deemed beyond clinicians? reach. Fast forward to more than half a century later: What do consumers in general clinical practice settings need today? How are the advances in the experimental analysis of behavior used to meet our most pressing public health concerns? This tutorial will link current public health issues with advances in the operant analysis of behavior. It will illustrate how an experimental approach to clinical questions, assessments, and interventions is relevant and timely in today?s health care environment, both as a problem-solving tool and a source of clinical innovation.

Inclusive school settings for young children with autism spectrum disorder are increasingly the norm. However, we know little about how to ensure a successful transition from early intervention to public or nonpublic schooling. All too often disputes about where and how a child with ASD will be placed when beginning school lead to mediation, fair hearings, or even court. It is important to obtain empirical evidence on aspects of the classroom, the teacher, the family, and the child that could affect these placement decisions and maximize a successful transition. This presentation will draw on data from two longitudinal studies (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Institute of Education Sciences) that specifically address the role of student-teacher-relationships (STRs) in positive school outcomes for children with ASD. Predictors of STRs will be identified for children with ASD as well as for two comparison groups (typically developing children and children with intellectual disabilities). For the ASD group, the role of parent involvement and parent-teacher-relationships in determining STRs also will be highlighted. New data on the role of STRs, child characteristics, and parenting behaviors in children's emergent literacy skills will be discussed, and implications for school practices identified.

The nature of clinical practice, biomedical research, and medical education in a medical school rewards independent, entrepreneurial, risk-taking behavior by its faculty. These behaviors, while successful in many regards, also result in a fragmented, nonhierarchical, “flat” faculty structure and culture that is somewhat peculiar to medical schools. These cultural forces have been magnified at the University of Nevada School of Medicine (UNSOM) by years of economic and political assaults that left UNSOM with a particularly high level of disengagement, reduced faculty satisfaction anda highly centralized leadership structure that disempowered department chairs and detracted from faculty ownership and investment in UNSOM missions. The speakers will describe strategies used to assess and transform the culture of UNSOM using behavioral systems approaches in order to adapt to changing social demands on the organization (e.g., culturally competent physicians and community engagement). The goals are greater faculty engagement, an emphasis on faculty career development, explicit commitments to achieving individual career and institutional objectives, more decentralized leadership, and a focus on communication, investment, accountability, transparency, and partnership. The use of behavioral assessments will drive socially significant practices within and external to the organization.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students and anyone interested in how a culture can be changed by behavior analysis.

Translational research bridges the gap between basic and applied study. This area of research not only demonstrates behavioral phenomena across species and contexts, but it also provides practitioners with fresh information regarding how to more effectively treat those in need. This panel includes translational researchers who see an importance in translating behavioral findings that may have beneficial implications for applied practice.

Since the 1990s cultural competence or cultural sensitivity has been touted as integral to effective and ethical client care. Behavior analysts are expected to educate clients and their families about their options, engage them in conversations about their values and motivations, and enable clients to make their own treatment choices based on their unique understanding of their best interests. This process of education and shared decision making is undoubtedly more challenging when clients and caregivers do not share common language, world view, or belief system. Behavior analysts also have an obligation to recognize how their own cultural identities influence how they perceive, analyze, and negotiate ethical and clinical dilemmas. They also have a responsibility to recognize that clients belonging to visible minorities frequently face real barriers in accessing high-quality healthcare. Clients who have experienced these barriers may mistrust healthcare professionals, compounding communication challenges. Effectively understanding and working within the parameters of a client's self-identified culture can provide an opportunity to help build trust between the client(s) and the behavior analytic team of practitioners which can, in turn, help maximize the effectiveness of the treatment program. As such, this symposium focuses on aiding behavior analysts in understanding the world view and belief system of their clients from a theoretical and practical standpoint. In addition, this symposium offers further insight through a discipline translational presentation allowing behavior analysts to take advantage of work done in this area from clinical counseling.

As the population of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals in the United States continues to grow, so does the need to advance our understanding of cultural competency from a behavior analytic perspective. One specific area of interest is the dynamic interactions between cultural competency and ethical behavior of the practicing behavior analysts. Given that behavior-analytic settings often differ from other related psychological services (e.g., intensity, duration, location of services, and stakeholders), an analysis of cultural competency and ethical behavior in behavior-analytic settings may be warranted. In this presentation we define culture from various psychological perspectives and explore how current practitioners in behavior-analytic settings may be utilizing various concepts of culture in their daily practice. With this information, we will provide recommendations for how practicing behavior analysts may continue to adapt to changing demographics of clientele while maintaining an ethical approach to solving socially significant behavior problems.

Understanding the individual, familial, and broader cultural values clients communicate or adhere to is an important and crucial aspect of ensuring social validity of the behavior analytic services provided by practitioners of applied behavior analysis. In some instances the client, their extended family, and/or other relevant stakeholders may mand for specific target behaviors (or chains of behaviors) and for the accommodation of religious, cultural, or alternative therapies within the applied behavior analytic setting. Failing to accommodate these requests has the potential to significantly impact the practitioner-client or practitioner-practitioner relationship resulting in subsequent decrement in treatment adherence and fidelity of the outlined treatment program by those in disagreement with the behavior analyst. However, not all requests are ethically equal and acquiescing to the above mentioned client requests may result in a violation of the Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysts. As such, this presentation focuses on how the behavior analytic practitioner can correctly tact and analyze the ethical appropriateness of treatment requests premised on cultural identity, when consultation with a "cultural authority" may be appropriate, and how practitioners ought to respond when clients and families argue they are "compelled to do certain things" because of their religious or cultural identity.

As Behavior Analysts, we work with a multitude of populations in a variety of different settings. We seek to change socially significant behavior and we assert that said behavior occurs within an environmental context (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007). Critical then, is building rapport with the families, caregivers, communities, and the individuals we work with such that a broader understanding of their environment/culture can be achieved. This discussion draws from a clinical framework laid forth by the field of Multicultural Counseling/Therapy. I offer my behavior analytic interpretations of the MCT definitions of 'Cultural Competence,' 'Cultural Sensitivity,' and 'Implications for Clinical Practice' and provide recommendations for application and generalization within a behavior analytic context.

B. F. Skinner had difficulties in graduating from the Harvard University Psychology Department and his Ph.D. thesis was in fact originally rejected because of the major figure in the department at that time, professor E. G. Boring. But Boring was also the person who instigated Skinner's move back to Harvard as a professor 20 years later.This paper willanalyze the complex relationship between the two: Skinner and Boring, beginning with Boring's criticism of Skinner's thesis and relate it to Chomsky's infamous but surprisingly similar criticism. This can only be done through unpublished material hinted at in Skinner's autobiography and better revealed in the Harvard University archives. An evaluation is made of the changing relationship between the two and of Boring's original criticism, that let him to reject Skinner's original thesis outright. Finally an attempt will be made to draw out this complicated and indeed conflicting relationship and it will turn out that however harsh they criticized each other, there is in fact mutual respect between the two men: Skinner and Boring.

The concept of motivating operation (MO) is presented as a behavior analytical alternative to deal with the traditional problem of motivation and has become a wide spread verbal practice within behavior analysis over the last decades. References to motivating variables, however, can be found since the first texts from authors identified as behavior analysts, especially in the work of B. F. Skinner, the first to approach the topic and probably who most extensively discussed it. In his very first book, The Behavior of Organisms, introduces his conceptual system by presenting the compilation of an extensive research program previously carried and devotes considerable space to the motivating variables. And by presenting the drive concept he establishes the scope assigned to the traditional field of motivation in a science of behavior, as well as its place within a broader conceptual plan. Hence, understanding the origins of the treatment of motivation in Skinners work could be the basis for understanding how these variables would be handled within his explanoty system and (consequently) the analysis of behavior in general. The present study aims to conduct a systematic recovery on the development of the drive concept in Skinners work since the first reference made to the term (1930) to the first systematization of his treatment of Motivation (1938)

Verbal Behavior approaches to language acquisition have primarily focused on the basic operants described by Skinner. Despite the utility of these conceptualizations in establishing functional communication skills in individuals with ASD and other language delays, difficulties in applying the concepts of mands, tacts, echoics, and intraverbals to more complex language have been observed. While Skinner's own analysis of verbal behavior extended beyond these four concepts, few training protocols include the more advanced conceptualizations included in Skinner's analysis. Furthermore, the now traditional Skinnerian approaches to verbal behavior therapy generally fail to include contemporary behavior analytic approaches to verbal behavior such as rule-governance and arbitrarily applicable relational responding. The present symposium seeks to extend current training and assessment trends beyond the basic verbal operants with investigations into contextually controlled relational classes to train responses to "WH" questions, to examine the utility of establishing perspective-taking frames, and to analyze the validity and reliability of assessments and training curriculums that incorporate Skinner's other verbal concepts. Specific emphasis will be placed on how these approaches affect treatment outcomes, such as generativity and flexibility, in children with ASD.

Establishing social skills in Autism through perspective-taking is a pivotal behavioral repertoire essential for social interaction and basic reciprocity. These behavioral deficits are the hallmark of Autism Spectrum Disorder and can greatly impact the development of meaningful relationships. Mainstream cognitive developmental literature asserts that the social impairments characteristic of ASD result from an underlying inability to appreciate the viewpoint of others due to biological impairments; however, recent advancements in the behavioral analysis of language and cognition under the rubric of Relational Frame Theory have led to the development of a language based view of perspective-taking based on establishing deictic relational responding in typically developing children. Individuals with autism perform with less accuracy on this protocol, the scores of which correlate with some aspects of social functioning. This paper will present a functional contextual method of training perspective-taking as an alternative to the nativist model of Theory of Mind and discuss its implications for addressing a number of social behavioral deficits present in autism.

Criticisms of the verbal behavior approach to language acquisition therapy have often centered on the narrow and non-generalized repertoires produced by such trainings. In particular, the difficulty with which children acquire more complex language skills, such as those necessary to respond to non-polar interrogative questions, i.e. "Wh" questions, is an indication that the common methods used to teach these skills does not adequately convey the necessary relational or contextual functions required to form generalized responding. The present paper will review deficits in the general verbal behavior therapy approach to teaching "Wh" questions, provide a conceptualization of responding to such questions from a contextual behavioral approach, and provide a paradigm for teaching generalized responding to interrogative questions that involves the application of contextually controlled equivalence classes of noun-word and community associations. Related treatment data gathered while working with children diagnosed with ASD will be presented. Implications for future research and limitations of this approach will be discussed.

The Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System (PEAK) is an assessment and curriculum protocol which utilizes behavior analytic principles to train academic, social, and daily living skills. The PEAK program is based on research in behavior analysis and includes technologies ranging from basic developmental skills to Skinner's Verbal Behavior to modern approaches to language such as Stimulus Equivalence and Relational Frame Theory. PEAK is designed to be used with children and adults with a wide variety of functional capabilities ranging from skills required to begin the learning process to advanced language and social skills. The current study sought to investigate the relationship between scores on the PEAK Assessment and the IQ scores of individuals with developmental disabilities. Participants were administered both the PEAK Assessment and IQ tests and results were compared. The results indicated a significant, positive correlation between scores on the PEAK Assessment and the IQ scores of participants.

Everyday activities as well as great creative achievements such as those that occur in science, mathematics, and art arise from complex repertoires. Generativity and language-pervading topics in areas such as psychology and education-often lie at the heart of both everyday activities and more complex, novel performances. Within behavior analysis, a multitude of studies has derived tool and component skills that should be established in order to arrive at terminal desired performances, such as holding a conversation, reading and comprehending complex written materials, thinking mathematically, and conducting scientific experiments. Analysis of the components can also suggest promising instructional interventions for developing these terminal repertoires. This symposium will present an analysis of components involved in verbal behaviors described in the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) and in mathematical thinking. These components will be classified in terms of the learning type model developed by Tiemann and Markle (1990) and further refined by Layng (2005, 2007). Additionally, based on these analyses and on the research literature, suggestions for teaching these different verbal and generative repertoires will be offered.

Service providers for children with autism and other developmental disabilities rely on behavioral assessments to determine not only clients initial repertoires, but also to develop effective treatment. The ABLLS is among the behavioral assessments that are used frequently by professionals to evaluate existing repertoires and support treatment decisions in terms of target behavior choices. This conceptual paper will present an analysis and classification of different verbal repertoires that are defined in the ABLLS according to the different Types of Learning described by Sota, Leon, and Layng (2011) and Tiemann and Markle (1990). The ABLLS areas that will be analyzed and classified include receptive language, vocal imitation, requests, labeling, intraverbals, and syntax and grammar. Within each one of these areas, tasks will be classified according to the following general Types of Learning: psychomotor, simple cognitive, and complex cognitive. Each one of these Types of Learning will be subdivided into more specific categories, and these categories will be operationally defined as a means to develop systematic criteria for classifying the different target verbal behaviors. Additionally, we hope to provide a tool that can be used for the analysis and classification of other verbal behaviors not directly addressed in this analysis.

The search for evidence-based practices to teach language for children on the autism spectrum is a growing endeavor given the number of children who are diagnosed each year. Suggestions regarding best practices for teaching language to children with autism and other developmental disabilities can be found in a myriad of scientific articles, newsletters, blogs, among other means of communication; however, only a few practices are evidence-based. The choice between different language-teaching procedures depend on the clients existing repertoire, the amount of time and resources available, and the terminal goals described in individualized educational plans. Once terminal repertoires are described, it is necessary to match teaching procedure choices to student needs. The different types of learning described in the instructional design literature can provide guidelines on how to make choices among existing language teaching procedures, since they point to stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response relations that need to be taught. This conceptual paper will propose practices for teaching receptive language, vocal imitation, requests, labeling, intraverbals, and syntax and grammar based on (a) the literature on language teaching evidence-based practices and (b) an analysis and classification of ABLLS verbal repertoires according to the types of learning.

Proficiency in mathematics entails much more than being fluent in math facts and procedures for solving equations. Proficiency involves thinking mathematically, and includes a number of component skills that span a variety of learning types. Designing instruction to help learners develop the full range of components that make up mathematical proficiency can be challenging. This presentation will discuss an analysis of mathematical proficiency based on the K-8 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and the National Research Councils report Adding It Up. This analysis will be presented in terms of the learning type model developed by Tiemann and Markle (1990) and further refined by Layng (2005, 2007) and discussed with a focus on mathematical thinking as verbal behavior. Suggestions and considerations for the design of math instruction based on this analysis and incorporating what we know from research on learning and performancefor example, problem solving, stimulus equivalence, and the development and transfer of stimulus controlwill be presented.

Function-based interventions, such as differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), are often found successful in treating problem behavior when implemented at full integrity. However, intervention effects may not maintain when treatment integrity is impaired. This symposium will include four papers on procedural refinements of function-based intervention components to enhance practical implementation. The author of the first paper will describe an evaluation comparing two differential reinforcement schedules and a fading procedure for treating automatically reinforced stereotypy. In the second paper, the author will present data on a multiple-schedule procedure for establishing stimulus control over stereotypy. The author of the third paper will describe an evaluation of demand fading without extinction, with and without DRA, for treating escape-maintained problem behavior. In the forth paper, the author will describe a comparison of different stimuli in the context of a multiple-schedule thinning procedure for attention-maintained problem behavior. Gregory Hanley, who will serve as discussant for this symposium, will comment on the symposiums topic area, integrate the speakers contributions, and offer feedback on the presented papers.

Children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit stereotypy that can be socially stigmatizing and interfere with learning objectives. Although differential reinforcement procedures have been found effective for treating stereotypy, they are often combined with multiple treatment components, making it difficult to determine their independent effects. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate two differential reinforcement interventions, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), when they are implemented independently. Two individuals with an ASD diagnosis, who exhibited high levels of motor stereotypy, participated. In all conditions, task materials required for completing an educationally relevant task were present. No reinforcement baseline, DRA, and DRO conditions were evaluated using multielement and reversal designs. Results indicated DRA was more effective than DRO for decreasing motor stereotypy, increasing productivity, and increasing engagement for both participants. Systematic schedule fading was implemented for one participant. Interobserver agreement data were collected for over 33% of sessions and averaged at least 80%

Self-stimulatory play is problematic when it competes with acquisition of important learning activities; however such play will be non-problematic if it occurs during other times. In the current study, home care staff brought the self-stimulatory sock play of a 10-year-old boy with autism under stimulus control by arranging a multiple schedule. During continuous reinforcement periods, signaled by the presentation of a bracelet the subject wore, sock play would be allowed; during extinction periods, signaled by the removal of the bracelet, sock play was manually disrupted. The durations of these components were faded such that sessions consisted of 1 min of reinforcement and 10 min of extinction with low levels of attempted sock play during extinction periods.

Demand fading without extinction was evaluated for children with problem behavior maintained by social negative reinforcement. Initially, demands were eliminated and gradually reintroduced across sessions, and problem behavior continued to produce reinforcement in the form of a break from tasks. If demand fading without extinction was ineffective in suppressing problem behavior, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) was added to treatment. Results suggest that extinction was not a necessary component of demand fading, and DRA plus demand fading without extinction was an effective alternative when demand fading alone did not suppress problem behavior.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a widely used and successful intervention for treating problem behavior. However, the intervention may be limited when implemented in natural contexts (e.g., family home) because high rates of communicative responding may occur, which can compromise treatment integrity. The current study extended previous work on the effects of a FCT intervention and schedule thinning procedure implemented in clients daily environments. Specifically, this study evaluated the effectiveness of using natural versus artificial stimuli associated with multiple-schedule components for thinning the schedule of reinforcement. Results demonstrated that both types of multiple schedules were effective for thinning schedules of reinforcement to clinically relevant levels. Artificial stimuli were found to be more effective than natural stimuli for reinforcement schedule thinning for one participant, whereas no discernible difference was observed with the second participant. Follow up phases demonstrated that results were upheld over brief periods of time (i.e., 3 weeks) without intervention.

Mindfulness is generally defined as the non-judgmental attentive awareness of the present moment. Practicing mindfulness results in significant improvements to both mental and physical well-being, even in small doses. Though mindfulness has its roots in ancient spiritual traditions, it has a number of empirically-supported applications in modern behavior therapy and everyday life. The development of assessment and intervention methodologies, however, remains in early stages. The papers in this symposium aim to contribute to the body of knowledge on mindfulness by exploring the shared perception of mindfulness, the effectiveness and feasibility of interventions on mindfulness, and the impact of mindfulness for effective communication. The first paper will explore the perception of mindfulness in the moment in untrained observers. The second paper will examine the effect of mindfulness training on stress in graduate students. The third paper will explore the effects of a mindfulness meditation intervention on attention in undergraduate students. Finally, the fourth paper will examine the impact of perceived mindfulness on public speaking behaviors. Implications for future research will be discussed.

When left untreated, pediatric feeding problems can result in poor weight gain, weight loss, malnutrition, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, impairment in cognitive, emotional, and/or academic functioning, compromised immune function, and dependency on tube feedings (Cohen, Piazza, & Navanthe, 2006). This symposium combines 4 data-based presentations on the treatment of pediatric feeding problems from 4 different feeding programs: The Munroe-Meyer Institute, The Kennedy Krieger Institute, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and The Kelberman Center. Following the 4 presentations, Dr. Meeta Patel (Clinic 4 Kidz) will discuss all of the presentations and the implications of the presenter's findings. The first presentation will focus on the relative effects of positive reinforcement and escape extinction, individually and in combination, to treat food refusal. The second presentation will focus on the evaluation and comparison of two procedures, a modified chin prompt and reclined seating, to treat expulsion. The third presentation will focus on the use of a side deposit to increase consumption in children with food refusal. The last presentation will include an evaluation of a chaser to treat packing.

A combination reversal and multi-element design was used to compare the relative effects of positive reinforcement and escape extinction, individually and in combination, to treat the food refusal of a child diagnosed with a feeding disorder. Positive reinforcement involved adult attention and preferred toys, provided differentially (contingent on bite acceptance) or noncontingently (continuously). Interobserver agreement was collected for 33% of the sessions and agreement was 96%. Bite acceptance did not increase and inappropriate mealtime behavior did not decrease with noncontingent positive reinforcement only. Differential positive reinforcement only resulted in increased acceptance, but not to clinically acceptable levels, and inappropriate mealtime behavior remained high. Acceptance increased to clinically acceptable levels and inappropriate mealtime behavior decreased only when escape extinction was used. Noncontingent reinforcement combined with escape extinction resulted in lower levels of inappropriate mealtime behavior and more stable acceptance than escape extinction only and escape extinction combined with differential reinforcement.

Re-presentation is an effective intervention for decreasing expulsion for some children with feeding disorders. However, for other children, additional treatment components may be necessary to reduce expulsion to clinically acceptable levels. In the current talk, I will describe data and the successful treatment of 2 children with persistent expulsion. First, we implemented nonremoval of the spoon and re-presentation to treat the liquid refusal for both children. When expulsion failed to decrease to acceptable levels, we used a combination multi-element and reversal design to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of two different treatment components (a modified chin prompt and reclined seating) when combined with the original treatment package. During the condition that included the modified chin prompt, the feeder placed the cup between the child's lips while supporting the chin. When the child relaxed the jaw, the feeder deposited the drink while applying gentle, upward pressure to the chin to prompt the mouth to close. During the condition that included the reclined seating, the child sat in a slightly reclined highchair throughout the meal. The conditions with the modified chin prompt and the reclined seating both resulted in lower levels of expels per drink relative to the original treatment package alone.

Research has shown that non-removal of the spoon and physical guidance procedures (e.g., jaw prompt, finger prompt) can be effective in treating active food refusal (e.g., head turning, pushing spoon) and increasing food consumption. However, these procedures alone may not be effective in treating more passive food refusal (e.g., sitting still without opening mouth). Researchers have referenced a procedure used to treat passive food refusal that includes placement of the food in the side of the mouth; however, to our knowledge, no research to date has evaluated this treatment, although it may exist in practice. Therefore, using a reversal design, we evaluated the use of a side deposit procedure using a NUK brush for 2 children who engaged in passive refusal when non-removal of the spoon with and without physical guidance procedures (i.e., jaw prompt and finger prompt) were ineffective. Results showed this procedure was effective as part of a multi-component treatment package in increasing food consumption and treating passive food refusal.

Vaz, Piazza, Volkert and Groff (2012) evaluated the use of a chaser to treat packing in three children diagnosed with feeding disorders. In the current study, we replicated and extended their findings with two children diagnosed with autism and food selectivity. The targeted texture for both participants was table texture. In the first case, the child sufficiently masticated bites of target food prior to the presentation of the chaser; thus, no further modifications were necessary to increase levels of swallowing. In the second case, the child did not masticate bites of target foods (i.e., she packed whole pieces of food) therefore; it was necessary to use a chaser in combination with a reduced texture (i.e., chopped). In a follow-up assessment we used a fading procedure to advance this participant to a more age-appropriate texture. We also evaluated the long-term necessity of the chaser across individual foods. In both cases, the use of a liquid chaser was associated with increased levels of swallowing.

Alcohol consumption among college students continues as a significant public-health concern. The development of innovative interventions and more precise measurement is needed to address this costly societal problem. The four field studies of this symposium extend beyond the measurement weaknesses of self-reported alcohol consumption (e.g., social desirability, recall bias, misunderstanding the definition of a standard drink, etc.) by sending trained researchers into at-risk drinking situations with breathalyzers. Each study makes a unique contribution to developing behavior-based interventions for reducing alcohol-related harm on college and university campuses. The first study examines "alcoholidays"- holidays strongly associated with alcohol consumption. Environmental and psychological risk factors were examined across Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, and multiple control nights. The second study explored the influence of an individual's social-drinking group on level of intoxication. The third study assessed the accuracy of various field sobriety techniques and examined the efficacy of such performance feedback at promoting safer transportation decisions. The final study is a four-year longitudinal investigation of university-student alcohol consumers. Over 10,000 BACs were examined across nearly 100 nights to examine the impact of breathalyzer feedback on intoxication awareness. The results provided implications for how and when to provide BAC feedback.

While alcohol-related harm is a recurring and daily issue on a college/university campus, alcohol consumption and concomitant at-risk behaviors are even greater on celebratory days. Indeed, it has been found that celebratory occasions can increase blood alcohol content (BAC) by over 20% (Glindemann, Wiegand, & Geller, 2007). The current study examined the environmental influence of these "alcoholidays" across four years. Research assistants were sent to a downtown, university bar setting with breathalyzers to measure student BACs. Data were collected across days when Halloween and St. Patrick's Day were celebrated and on comparison weekends. Not only was BAC measured, but also the extent a participant was wearing any attire associated with a celebrated occasion (e.g., wearing a costume on Halloween). The results addressed two research questions. First, will average BACs be higher on "alcoholidays" than on other nights? Theresults show BACs were higher on alcoholidays when the celebration night fell on a weekday. Second, will the impact of celebratory attire influence BAC? It was found that participants who dressed up in celebration-related attire drank significantly more than their peers on a given night. Thus, environmental influences play a strong role in at-risk alcoholiday university drinking.

Alcohol consumption at colleges and universities causes profound negative consequences. Social influence is a critical factor in understanding this at-risk alcohol consumption. Thus, the influence of one's drinking group on one's intoxication was explored in the present study. Specifically, this research examined whether individuals consuming alcohol reached blood alcohol contents (BACs) similar to others in their drinking group. Participants (n= 534) in a downtown field setting completed a brief questionnaire and were coded into unique groups if one or more of their friends also participated in the study. After completion of the survey, a Lifeloc FC-20 breathalyzer was administered to obtain participants' BACs. As shown in the figure, the average standard deviation of BACs within a drinking group was significantly smaller than the standard deviation of BACs across all drinking groups. This difference could be explained by peer support (i.e., individuals being reinforced for drinking similarly to other members of the drinking group) and peer pressure (i.e., individuals punished for drinking outside of their group's drinking norm) Thus, this study indicated an individual's drinking group plays a critical role in his or her consumption of alcohol and resultant intoxication. Implications for prevention intervention will be discussed.

One source of alcohol-related harm is lack of awareness regarding one's own blood alcohol content (BAC). Thus, we hypothesized providing intoxication feedback to college students in an at-risk drinking setting would reduce alcohol abuse. Accordingly, this study examined the BAC-estimation accuracy and efficacy of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) to promote safe driving decisions. The walk-and-turn and one-leg-stand SFSTs were evaluated. A third test was also evaluated- the counting-backwards test. Data were collected on three separate nights with 309 individuals participating. Three types of BAC feedback were provided: breathalyzer, nomogram, and results from the field sobriety tests. Conditions were defined by which type of feedback participants received prior to answering questions related to their propensity to engage in risky, driving-related behavior. In addition to assessing the impact of these feedback techniques at promoting safer driving decisions, the accuracy of these tests at estimating intoxication was explored.Overall, sobriety tests predicted intoxication only slightly better than chance. BAC feedback was able to provide a small shift to safer perceptions of driving risk. The SFSTs results indicated the development of more accurate sobriety tests is sorely needed.

At-risk alcohol consumption is common among college and university students. Breathalyzer feedback may help students estimate their level of intoxication more accurately, and thus serve as an effective intervention approach to preventing at-risk alcohol consumption. The current study examined the epidemiology of alcohol consumption among university students, while also exploring the efficacy of BAC feedback as an intervention strategy. A total of 12,432 breath-alcohol readings were collected across 89 nights during seven academic semesters. Individuals were tracked across multiple nights of participation with a unique subject code. This resulted in 10,225 unique individuals participating in the study; 18% of these individuals participated on at least two separate nights. Results demonstrated extreme levels of student alcohol consumption represented by a mean BAC of 0.0988mL/L. Individuals who participated across multiple nights reached similar levels of intoxication across all nights (rs .374- .853.) Furthermore, receiving BAC feedback helped students better estimate their level of intoxication. A mixed model analysis examined the discrepancy between estimated BAC and actual BAC across five nights of participation in the study. The results indicated individuals were .0171mL/L more accurate estimating their actual BAC at Time 5 versus Time 1 (p< .01).

The initial Azrin-Foxx self-initiation training protocol was both a gift and a challenge to the field of behavior analysis. It provided a robust, highly-effective, and easily replicated treatment package with broad applicability to other populations, as evidenced by results obtained in institutional, school, and community settings across the United States and in other countries. However, it also raised expectations about the range of learners who could learn to self-initiate and challenged us to create environments that accommodated these newly acquired skills. Our symposium will consider the evolution of self-initiation training protocols since their initial applications in terms of developments in the field which have required overcorrection procedures to be dropped and request procedures to be added. Data from the original Willowbrook Cohort will be contrasted against those from two present community agencies; and a data collection tool for coding these data will be presented, together with reliability and validity data. We will discuss implications for practice.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students and anyone interested in self-initiation.

The Willowbrook Sate School was an institution for individuals with developmental disabilities located on Staten Island and run by New York State. Willowbrook was made infamous as a snake pit and an incompetent environment through the reporting efforts of Geraldo Rivera and litigation and legislation by Senator Robert Kennedy and others. One of the many stipulations of the Willowbrook Consent Decree was that individuals residing at Willowbrook were to receive comprehensive toilet training. This talk will describe what conditions were like at the time of the Willowbrook Consent Decree and immediately thereafter; the presenter's experience as a team member administering and training others to administer the original Azrin-Foxx toileting protocol as part of the original intervention team; and outcome data from these efforts.

Reasonable people, even or perhaps especially professionals, can and do disagree (often vigorously, and usually beyond the available data) about the number, order, and necessity of various prerequisite skills for teaching toileting. This presentation will provide participants with a simple 16-item toileting survey that may be used to obtain a cross-section of toileting-related skills for groups of learners of any age (e.g., classes of students in schools; groups of individuals in residences or habilitation programs). Each learner is assessed for Self-Initiation, Requesting, Scheduled Elimination, and Accident Rate using a 4-point scale which is descriptive in nature and written in plain language in order to be equally accessible to paraprofessionals, direct-care workers, or professionals. Administration instructions, anecdotes about administration, inter-observer agreement data, and construct validity data will be presented, along with implications for practice.

The importance of play and leisure skills has been documented in both the behavioral and non-behavioral literature. Children without sufficient repertoires of play and leisure skills are less likely to succeed in school and more likely to engage in atypical rates of inappropriate behavior. Physical play and exercise have been specifically noted in the literature to result in global benefits, improving health and wellbeing as well as interpersonal social skills. However, cultural changes in the United States have led to a decreased emphasis on physical play and exercise in children, resulting in deficits in these repertoires. In this symposium, variables affecting children's engagement in physical exercise and play will be discussed, specifically 1) teaching water tolerance as a prerequisite skill for swimming, 2) assessments of young children's engagement with specific environmental features on playgrounds and in natural play settings and interventions to increase the intensity, variety, and total amount of time spent in physical activity, 3) the utility of and effectiveness of peer tutoring models in physical education classes, and 4) the growing body of literature citing the positive benefits of exercise for school age children with ADHD or emotional and behavioral disorders.

Swimming is an important life safety skill that children should learn for drowning prevention. Statistics provided from the Centers for Disease Control reveal that more than one in five fatal drowning victims are children 14 and younger. Some children may have difficulty learning to swim, presenting as having a fear of water, or simply refusing to get their face wet. Problem behavior associated with the water may create multiple barriers to learning to swim. There are only two main strategies for dealing with children's water avoidance. A "gentle" method associated with classical conditioning and desensitization, and a "safety first" method, which is associated with flooding and extinction. This study evaluated the "gentle" method, and introduced a third strategy that uses differential reinforcement as an effective approach for water-avoidant children. The participants included three children who demonstrated problem behavior associated with having water on their faces. The dependent measure was the child's performance of successive approximations to the final target behavior which was defined as pouring a cup of water over his/her head three times without problem behavior. Treatment results showed the differential reinforcement condition was more effective than the gentle method alone for two out of three children.

Social skills are foundation to any interaction among people, whether learning, playing, or working. Physical education, like a mirror of life, invites a myriad of social interactions children do not always know how to handle, and are only rarely formally taught to navigate. Peer tutoring is a pedagogy that can provide critical social learning opportunities, in addition to academic learning. Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT), a peer tutoring variation, is an evidence-based pedagogy initially designed for elementary students in core subjects such as reading, spelling and math, but has successfully generalized to the improvement of motor and physical activity performance in physical education settings. Despite its inherited social orientation, CWPT's contribution to students' social competence in these settings has not been fully explored to date. The purpose of this presentation is to illuminate the potential need and value of CWPT to enhance social competence in physical education. Examples of CWPT applications in physical education will be shared along with its effects on students' motor performance. Rationale for the need in a socially-based pedagogy in physical education will be discussed, and preliminary data examples of social performance gains will be shared.

College-level learners need to master complex and voluminous material in an efficient and effective manner, and to express mastered material across a variety of modalities (e.g., multiple-choice, written short-answer, and oral responding). Research has evaluated the use of equivalence-base instruction (EBI) with advanced learners (e.g., college students) across a variety of academic content domains (e.g., Fields, Travis, Roy, Yadlovker, de Aguiar- Rocha, & Sturmey, 2009; Fienup et al., 2009; Fienup et al., 2010; Ninness et al., 2005; Walker, Rehfeldt, & Ninness, 2010). However, the technology of stimulus equivalence instruction requires further empirical refinement and broader-based dissemination (Fienup, Hamelin, Reyes-Giordano, & Falcomata, 2011). The first paper in this symposium evaluated the use of EBI to teach contingencies of reinforcement and punishment to graduate students. The second paper taught graduate students to form derived relations among representations of prominent behavior analysts. The third paper used EBI to teach the concept of statistical variability to college students. The final paper investigated the influence of mastery criterion on the number of college students who successfully formed equivalence classes consisting of neuroanatomy stimuli. Collectively, these studies suggest procedural refinements in EBI and additional support for the use of EBI to teach complex academic material to advanced learners.

Bailey and Burch (2010) describe competence in identifying prominent behavior analysts among their essential skills and responsibilities for behavior analysts. The present study applied the stimulus equivalence paradigm to establish relations among the name, photograph, professional affiliation, and research interest of six prominent behavior analysts (3 men and 3 women). Participants were 15 graduate students in a Master of Arts applied behavior analysis program. A pretest-training-posttest design was used. First, three, 4-member equivalence classes (either men or women) were established using a match-to-sample software program. Selection-based responding was used during training and testing. Three relations were trained and nine additional relations emerged without additional training, thus demonstrating the emergence of equivalence classes. Participants also demonstrated response generalization by responding correctly during oral posttests. After learning the first set of behavior analyst classes (either men or women), the results were replicated within-subjects with another set of three, 4-member equivalence classes. The results were maintained in a two-week follow up. The present study extends the stimulus equivalence literature to a novel content area while also expanding research that is relevant to the field of behavior analysis (Walker & Rehfeldt, 2012).

The stimulus equivalence paradigm has been applied to teach numerous college-level academic topics, such as algebra (Ninness et al., 2006), statistics (Fields et al., 2009; Fienup & Critchfield, 2010, 2011), neuroanatomy (Fienup, Covey, & Critchfield, 2010), and disability categorization (Walker et al., 2011). A review by Fienup, Hamelin, Reyes-Giordano, and Falcomata (2011) identified several technological variations among protocols found in the research literature. This study examined the influence of mastery criterion on the number of learners who successfully formed equivalence classes. All participants learned neuroanatomy concepts using match-to-sample training and the simple-to-complex protocol (includes learning baseline relations and derived relations probes). Researchers randomly assigned participants to a particular mastery criterion that consisted of blocks of training (e.g., Fields et al., 2009), or either of two consecutive correct responses (6 or 12) (e.g., Fienup et al., 2011). All mastery criteria resulted in equivalence class formation; however, the 12 consecutive correct criteria was most successful. The block mastery and 6 consecutive correct criteria produced more failed derived relations probes and resulted in participants spending more time completing remedial training prior to the formation of academically relevant equivalence classes. Implications for developing an effective and efficiency technology of equivalence-based instruction will be discussed.

Effective new techniques are needed to assess auditory discrimination in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and intellectual disability. This symposium will present effective behavioral methods for assessing a variety of auditory discriminations in humans and animal models. John C. Neill (Long Island University) will show how seizures early in life predispose mammals to long term and acute impairments in auditory location and quality discrimination, and how these impairments can be remediated using effective auditory discrimination procedures developed in basic research. Neill will also present a paper that shows significant dose-dependent deficits in auditory discrimination in rats exposed to cosmic rays, similar impairments in neonatal seizure models, and discuss the implications for the developing brain. Bertram Ploog (College of Staten Island, CUNY) will discuss studies using a computer game to assess stimulus control involved in receptive prosody of children with autism (including lower functioning children) also with potential for remediation. Richard Serna, (U. Mass. Lowell) will describe non-verbal methods used to assess pitch discrimination in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Data will be presented from an ongoing research project aimed at better understanding the auditory discrimination capabilities of children with ASDs and intellectual disabilities. Behavior analysts will learn some determinants of atypical behavior associated with neurodevelopmental disabilities and potentially effective remediation approaches to normalize auditory perception. A discussant, James MacDonall (Fordham University) will add insightful commentary.

The use of computer technology has been prevalent in autism research and treatment. However, many studies have not employed a systematic and rigorous behavior analytical approach, therefore proper assessment of treatment efficacy is often lacking. In this talk, I'd like to discuss the findings of three studies using a computer game to assess stimulus control involved in receptive prosody of children with autism (including lower functioning children who represent an understudied and underserved population in language research). I would also like to introduce a new game to assess stimulus control involved in emotion recognition of children with autism. This game also has the built-in potential to serve as a remedial tool for atypical attention possibly involved in emotion recognition.

We hypothesized that heavy ion irradiation causes severe impairments in auditory stimulus control and changes in the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential (BAEP) in rats. Subject: 30 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into three groups: brains of rats were exposed to either 0, 120 or 240 cGy accelerated iron ions (56Fe) of 600 MeV per nucleon at the National Space Radiation Laboratory. Eight months later, rats were deprived to 80% of ad lib, given preliminary training on a VI 22 s schedule during silence in half hour sessions until lever presses occurred at steady rates. Two auditory cues (half S+, half S-) were then introduced to signal consequences using a discrete trial procedure. S+ and S- alternated semi-randomly on a silent ITI (inter-trial interval) of 22.5 s, (range: 5 - 45 s). Controls acquired the S+/S- discrimination significantly faster than irradiated rats in a dose-dependent function. There was a dose-dependent Increase in S- response rate in all conditions. BAEPS: Fe 56 irradiation caused a dose-dependent decrease in wave I-IV latencies. Performances were compared to animals exposed to seizures early in life and similar functions were obtained. Cosmic rays are neurotoxic, causing behavioral and neurological changes in humans.

Although behaviorists often seek to generalize the principles of behavior to a diverse range of species, invertebrates seldom receive much attention in behavioral research. This is unfortunate as invertebrates are excellent candidates for research in behavior analysis for several reasons. First, invertebrate research is often less expensive and less restrictive in methods than research conducted with traditional vertebrate organisms. Second, invertebrates are practical subjects for classroom experiments and hands-on student exercises due to small size, low cost and low maintenance. Finally, many species, such as the honey bee, have significant roles in agriculture and the ecosystem. In this symposium, four presentations will discuss operant conditioning in invertebrates. The research will discuss the sensitivity of honey bees to delays of reinforcement, distinctions in drone and worker honey bee performance in avoidance and punishment tasks, spatial learning in lobsters and positive reinforcement in hissing cockroaches. The presentations will relate the findings to the behavioral ecology of the subject species, and compare and contrast the trends in invertebrate learning with what is commonly observed in traditional vertebrate organisms.

In two experiments, free-flying honey bees' (Apis mellifera L.) hole-entering responses in an artificial flower apparatus were exposed to two forms of reinforcement delays. The first experiment implemented a post-reinforcement delay by locking the bees within the apparatus and preventing them from returning to the hive after receiving sucrose reinforcement. The bees received either a 0s, 300s, or 600s delay following an A-B-C-A design. The delay produced distinct patterns of inter-session intervals but did not impact inter-response times. Generally, longer delays produced longer inter-session intervals and many bees exposed to post-reinforcement delays "dropped out" of the experiment. The second experiment implemented an inter-reinforcement delay via a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement of either 0s, 15s, 30s, 60s, or 120s. The FI schedules produced lower response rates compared to performance on continuous reinforcement schedules and also decreased inter-response-times for some subjects. However, no "scalloped" or "break-and-run" patterns of responding were observed, and no evidence of temporal control by honey bees was produced. As with the first experiment, honey bees exposed to longer delays (FI 60s and F1 120s) "dropped out" of the experiment.

Honey bees provide a model system to elucidate the relationship between sociality and complex behaviors within the same species, as females (workers) are highly social and males (drones) are more solitary. We report on aversive learning studies in drone and worker honey bees (Apis mellifera anatolica) in escape, punishment and discriminative punishment situations. In the escape experiment, individuals could terminate an unavoidable shock triggered by a decrementing 30-second timer by crossing the shuttlebox centerline following shock activation. Across all groups, there was large individual response variation. When assessing group response frequency and latency, master subjects performed better than yoked subjects for both workers and drones. In the punishment experiment, individuals were shocked upon entering the shock portion of a bilaterally wired shuttlebox. The shock portion was spatially static and unsignalled. Only workers effectively avoided the shock. The discriminative punishment experiment repeated the punishment experiment but included a counterbalanced blue and yellow background signal and the side of shock was manipulated. Drones correctly responded less than workers when shock was paired with blue. However, when shock was paired with yellow there was no observable difference between drones and workers.

While numerous demonstrations of behavioral principles have been observed in a variety of model organisms, few studies have attempted to replicate such phenomenon using the relatively cheaper and regulation free options available in invertebrate organisms. The following study sought to demonstrate positive reinforcement in the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) by exposing 5 subjects to an apparatus that provided highly preferred edible stimuli as a consequent of antennae waving on a FR1 schedule. In order to account for the presence of motivating operations, each subject was exposed to a 5min free-operant preference assessment including 4 edible stimuli prior to each session. After selection of a stimulus, the subjects were placed in the apparatus for 20min. If no stimulus was selected, the subject was returned to the colony enclosure. An ABAB design showed greater frequencies of antennae waving during FR1 (B) conditions than in baseline (A) conditions. Patterns suggesting delayed extinction bursts were observed during the return to baseline. Implications and limitations of these methodologies and in the use of hissing cockroaches as model organisms are discussed.

The present study examined spatial learning patterns in juvenile Red-Clawed lobsters (Cherax Quadricarinatus). In the present study a group of 14 Red-Clawed lobsters were trained to run through a T-maze; the number of errors and latency to complete the maze was measured. The experimental group was exposed to daily trial blocks, which consisted of 3 sessions per day, whereas the control group was exposed to the task on day 1 and day 12. Results suggest that after repeated exposure to the task, the experimental group maintained an average of 100% maze completion during the last trial block, making no errors. The control group however had an average of 52% during the last trial block. After the responding pattern in the maze was reversed, the experimental group averaged 743.75s to complete the maze compared to the control group completing the maze in 273.5s. The results suggest that a stronger learning history effects adaptability in responding with the experimental group being less adaptable in their responding after repeated exposure to the maze task.

A particular case of self-control happens when the conflict between immediate and delayed consequences are associated with consequences more favorable to the individual, or more favorable to the group. In such cases, responding under control of delayed consequences more favorable to the group can be called Ethical Self-Control. Literature on Behavior Analysis points out that the selection of self-control and ethical self-control depends on contingencies delivered by members of the group, which permits us to say that these phenomena are cultural products. This work investigated the selection, maintenance, and transmission of ethical self-control in two settings analogous to cultural contingencies: macrocontingencies and metacontingencies. Two microcultures were exposed to a task in which each participant had to choose a line in a colored 10x10 matrix. There were individual consequences according to which choices of odd lines produced three tokens that could be exchanged for money, and choices of even lines produced only one token. Cultural contingencies allowed the production of school items that would be donated to public schools. The production of such items depended up on the existence of macrocontingencies or metacontingencies. We investigated the effect of cultural consequences and cumulative product on ethical self-control responses, in situations in which the production of the cultural consequences and the cumulative product are concurrent with responses that produced a higher magnitude reinforcer, in alternate conditions of macrocontingencies and metacontingencies. Results suggest that both the cultural consequence and the cumulative product were effective in the selection of ethical self-control. The data also suggest that macrocontingencies were not effective in the selections of IBCs+APs, but were effective in the maintenance after they were selected in metacontingency conditions. In macrocontingency conditions a larger number of school items were produced, but the probability of producing items in metacontingency conditions were lower than in macrocontingencies conditions, suggesting that the former was more effective in the production of cultural consequences.

Skinner (1981) suggested that natural selection operates not only at the biological level, but is also responsible for the evolution of behavioral repertoires throughout an organisms lifetime. McDowell (2004) implemented the selectionist account in a computational theory of behavior dynamics. The theory causes a population of behaviors to evolve through time under the selection pressure exerted by the environment. It has been tested under a variety of conditions and the emergent outcomes were repeatedly shown to be qualitatively and quantitatively indistinguishable from those displayed by live organisms (McDowell, in press). The present project investigated the effects of various environmental variables (e.g. reward magnitude) on the behavior variability of virtual organisms characterized by various mutation rates. High mutation rates produced behavioral constellations similar to those displayed by ADHD-diagnosed children. These effects were counteracted by arranging richer or more structured environments (higher changeover delay). Interestingly, arranging low-value environments caused organisms characterized by low mutation rates to display abnormally high levels of variability. These findings suggest that similar high-level phenotypes such ADHD may be caused by various combinations of organismic and environmental features (equifinality), during a dynamic process governed by Darwinian forces.

Recent studies have shown differences between delay discounting (DD) of gains and losses. More specifically, some studies have suggested that the relation of value and delay may not be monotonic, but biphasic, what would not be supported by mathematical models used to describe data. We reanalyzed data of four experiments that evaluated delay discounting with losses in order to compare and evaluate two mathematical models. Experiment 1 was looking for correlations between DD and depressive symptoms, Experiment 2 was concerned on the influence of age and income on DD with losses, Experiment 3 was concerned with anxiety and Experiment 4 was testing the influence of a mood induction procedure. In this study we conducted four analyses of the 119 original individual data. The first analysis was a categorization of data in three patterns: Discounting, Stable and Revaluation (initial discounting followed by increase in value). The second analysis compared R and corrected R. The third analysis was an F-test conducted for each individual data. And the last analysis considered Akaike Information Criterion. Analyses 1 and 2 favored a complex equation, while the other two favored a simpler model. The implications of each method of data analysis are discussed.

Treatment integrity, also known as procedural fidelity, is the degree to which intervention steps are implemented with accuracy. Behavioral skills training (i.e., instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback) is an effective procedure used to train staff across a range of repertoires (e.g., implementing skill acquisition programs, verbal behavior programs). The purpose of this symposium is to highlight four studies evaluating training procedures to implement interventions with high levels of integrity. The first presentation will share findings following the training of three parents to implement variations of discrete-trial instruction (DTI) with their children with autism and parent preference for DTI variations. The second presentation will describe how the authors identified variables impacting special education teachers selection of academic interventions and discuss variables impacting integrity in classroom settings. The third presentation will describe the use of video modeling with voiceover instruction when training teachers to implement token economies with children with autism. Finally, the fourth presentation will describe the devleopment of a cost-effective pre-service training package to teach three animal shelter volunteers to implement a dog walking and enrichment protocol (DWEP) through a video training package.

Special education teachers may select interventions for their students for a variety of reasons (e.g., familiarity with an intervention) that are not yet well understood. Once the teacher selects an intervention, it remains unclear whether the teacher and classroom staff are implementing the intervention as it is described in the literature. The purpose of the investigation was to identify variables impacting special education teachers selection of academic interventions and examine whether teachers implemented the intervention with integrity. We collected survey data and conducted observations of conditional discrimination training procedures in special education classrooms in Oregon. We examined the level of integrity that classroom staff implemented trial-based instruction, with most observations including instruction delivered by instructional assistants instead of special education teachers. Results indicated that educators implemented 50% of the components of trial-based instruction with integrity at or above 80%. Variables such as the mastery level of the task being presented impacted levels of integrity. We will further discuss variables impacting integrity in classroom settings and provide recommendations for future research and practice.

The use of token economies is frequently recommended in early intervention manuals and is reported to be commonplace in clinical practice. However, limited research is available to help guide clinicians in how to best train staff to implement token economies. To help address this void, the present study evaluated video modeling with voiceover instruction to train four staff trainees to implement a token economy. Initially, we evaluated the staff trainees integrity with a simulated consumer (i.e., an adult acting as a child). Generalization was programmed for and assessed with an actual consumer (i.e., a child with autism). The results demonstrated that video modeling was an effective approach to training. Staff trainees also demonstrated high levels of integrity up to 2-months following the completion of training. Multiple measures of validity were also completed and provide evidence for the content validity of the training video and the social validity of the goals, procedures, and outcomes. Together, these results support the usefulness of video training and suggest that performance feedback may not be a necessary component of training. We will discuss these findings in light of previous research and provide suggestions for future research.

Volunteers are ubiquitous to non-profit service organizations, yet methods to efficiently and cost-effectively train volunteers are relatively underexplored in the literature. The current study aimed to develop a cost-effective pre-service training package to teach three animal shelter volunteers to implement a dog walking and enrichment protocol (DWEP). Following the shelter's traditional live training, volunteers implemented just over half of all DWEP steps correctly (M = 55.2%). DWEP integrity improved when participants completed a video-based self-training package (M = 75.3%), but did not reach the pre-established mastery criterion of 85% fidelity with zero safety errors. During coaching, which consisted of modeling and positive and corrective feedback, integrity improved (M = 90.6%), yet only two of three participants met criterion performance. High integrity performance was observed for two of three participants at 1- and 4-week follow-up observations. Though creation of the video-based training package used in the study required approximately 13.25 hours longer than preparation of live training, live training required between 30-50 minutes with a shelter staff member with wide variability and safety of content observed. When used in place of life training, the video training package could save money for the organization in as few as 13 volunteer training sessions.

The Symposium brings together a variety of international dissemination efforts. A goal of the symposium is to illustrate some of the ways Behavior Analysis is currently being offered in areas that have traditionally had little to no contact with the discipline. Furthermore, the event brings together speakers from varying backgrounds to share their perspectives on how behavior analysis can continue to bring its offerings to populations that have had limited contact with the discipline. Papers presented will concentrate the efforts currently being done in India, China, Taiwan, Russia, Belarus, and the Middle East region.

Presentations to 75 of the top Moscow psychologists included information on an introduction to behavior analysis, changing inner behavior, verbal behavior, quality assurance, employee satisfaction, and competition in industry. The presentations in Belarus also had the above areas plus a lecture on precision teaching’s standard celeration chart. The Belarus audience consisted of psychologists, teachers, and special education personnel. A part of our task was to present behavior analysis to people whose historic roots lie with Pavlov, but whose current philosophy and approach to treatment of all people lie more within the roots of mentalism. The two weeks of presentations, smaller meetings, and tours of schools were behavior analysis’s introduction to its principles and practices to this portion of the world. People from ABAI had previously spent time in St. Petersburg.

Till as late as 2004, there was no knowledge of the science of ABA in India. A large country of one billion people and nearly a million children with autism. In 2013 we have 12 Behavior Analysts, various ABA based special needs centers, a BACB approved course sequence, and innumerable parents of children with autism asking for ABA. The 9 year journey in India has been full of challenges and made possible due to various strategic & bold decisions & campaigns. The impact on the development of ABA in India is irreversible.

This paper discusses the development of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in China and Taiwan. In 2000 and 2008, the first international ABA conference sponsored by SEEK Education, Inc. was held to disseminate behavior analysis in the area of education and treatment of children with autism in Taiwan and China, respectively. Following this, there has been an increasing number of parents of children with autism looking for effective treatment based on a behavioral approach. In addition, teachers and practitioners providing direct services to this population are finding ways to receive systematic training and education in behavior analysis. These developments have been fostered by additional support from the governments of China and Taiwan for the establishment of educational programs to serve the vast populations in these regions. This paper aims to discuss the progression and challenges of ABA development over the past decade. The development of ABA intensive intervention programs, systematic training sequences, BCaBA and BCBA course sequences, and the future development of behavior analysis in China and Taiwan will be discussed.

This paper discusses the current training efforts occurring Saudi Arabia. The training efforts are predicated on the work that had been done in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Building and refining a program of behavior analytic instruction in coordination with service providers in the region will be presented as well as a hybrid supervision structure that is being employed. The paper discuses the scope and sequence of behavior analytic instruction along with how students contact ongoing supervision of clinical activities. A model of how this type of training can be replicated in other locations will be offered as well as lessons learned from attempting to bring behavior analytic training to a region that has had limited contact with the discipline. Particular considerations discussed include: cultural & language barriers and solutions, as well as distance based instructional methods and how they are being employed to solve limitations of previous attempts to bring a sustained model of behavior analytic training to the region.

While the field of applied behavior analysis is not directly involved in the diagnostic process for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it is demonstrable that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 4th Ed., Text revision, better known as DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) has influenced several aspects of the behavioral treatment of these individuals. This past Spring, the long-awaited DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was published, to mixed reviews. The structure of the manual was changed; so in particular, were many aspects of the published criteria for a diagnosis of ASD. These changes, including a brief "look-back" at the evolution of ASD diagnostic criteria since first contained in DSM-III will be presented, along with a discussion of the potential impact of the current changes on our field and the treatment of individuals with ASD. Recommendations for future lines of investigation suggested by the new diagnostic criteria will be included, which may ultimately assist Behavior Analysts in improving functional analysis and treatment effectiveness.

When parents are taught to use applied behavioural techniques family context can be addressed (Moes & Frea, 2002), twenty-four hours a day. Generalization is more likely to occur for both the parents using this coaching, and for their children receiving the training. Parental behavioural instructional methods, usually with mothers, have had positive effects on childrens behaviour, although no studies follow-ups have been monitored past a year (Bergstrom, 2013; Csapo, 1979; Muir & Milan, 1982). This study with children diagnosed with autism begins when they were four-years-old and follows their varied diagnoses and development until their nineteenth years. Voluminous behavioural techniques were utilized over the 14 years in conjunction with numerous behaviours and settings. Some of the examples being presenting include shaping and fixed ratio scheduling in toilet training, variable ratio schedules for eating, and fixed ratio with limited hold to elicit appropriate hygiene. Results indicate constant parental use of behavioural methods produce significant changes in their childrens behaviour allowing for an increase in abilities and life skills.

Individuals who manage the welfare of zoo animals seek practical approaches to caring for a diversity of species. In general, animal managers hope to understand animals' behavioral needs, how animals express their experiences of positive welfare, and how to ensure that positive experiences balance any negative ones. Research findings in several fields, including psychology, neuroscience, animal behavior, and zoo biology, indicate core behavioral needs. Combined, the evidence suggests that animals who can express these needs are psychologically and emotionally enriched. Here, Dr. Watters will describe the core behavioral needs of investigating, acquiring reward and exerting control. He will describe a developing "balance-based" approach designed to ascertain the frequency with which these needs are met and not met in an animal's life through behavioral observation. Various behaviors indicate the presence or absence of opportunities to meet the core needs and Dr. Watters will challenge the assumption that the behavioral repertoire of zoo animals should mirror that of animals in the wild. He will emphasize that animal welfare depends upon the balance individuals can obtain between meeting and not meeting their behavioral needs. Animals that are out of balance in the simple sense that they have few opportunities for positive experiences are in a state of welfare that can be improved.

Behavior analysts who have an interest in zoo animal behavior and welfare

Although a great deal of research has focused on factors that contribute to progress in early intensive behavior therapy (EIBT), few studies have refined this examination to those variables that most contribute to progress in the first six months of beginning a EIBT program. This symposium will feature three papers that examine this early progress. The first study will provide an analysis of the variable of team consistency and training of behavior therapists assigned to a case and it's correlation to child progress. The second paper examines the degree to which a child demonstrates attending skills across different stimuli arrangements. The final paper in this symposium will discuss types of stimuli classified by categories used to describe art, and measures the length of time each child spent looking at each kind of painting. These results were used to manipulate the type of stimuli used in programming and results on the effect of progress will be discussed. Several factors can effect initial progress in EIBT programs. These three papers will present findings that suggest some strategies to maximize progress in the very initial months of EIBT to shift a child's acquisition rate, which, in turn, can effect the overall developmental trajectory. A second point is that some mistakes that may be common in the early stages of behavior programs with children with autism, can be avoided if careful evaluation in consistently applied to specific factors.

Children with autism can demonstrate preferences for particular kinds of stimuli. The visual characteristics of such stimuli have rarely been studied. One approach to classifying types of visual stimuli is to use categories used in the field of visual art. The purpose of this study was to determine if children diagnosed with Autism have a visual preference for certain types of art paintings from different categories of art. Another purpose of this study was to see how the introduction of art paintings in a controlled versus a free operant environment affected the rate of stereotypic behaviors. This paper will present two different experiments. In experiment one, art paintings varying in feature intensiveness were presented to participants in a controlled environment. Experiment one, required the use of a projector, which the art paintings were displayed through, and video cameras, which helped determine where participants were directing eye contact. In experiment two, art paintings, from seven different categories, were displayed in a free operant environment where the participants had free access to roam the room and orient to the paintings of their choice. The dependent variable for each experiment was the duration spent orienting towards different visual art categories, and the frequency of visual attendance towards each art painting. Stereotypic behavior was measured during the waiting period, or therapy session, and during each trial for experiment one and two. Preliminary data from experiment two, provides evidence that some participants preferred attending to their own image relative to all other categories.

It is common that children with autism have trouble generalizing what they have learned from a specific person to other people. Having a team of therapists work with a child with autism is the primary method used to program for generalization across people during clinical intervention. Team variables impacting progress are often under analyzed and changes in team variables during the intervention are often not closely monitored to access immediate effects on the learning rate and measures of the child's inappropriate behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of team stability on the levels of inappropriate behavior in children with autism during EIBI treatment. Therapy sessions were sampled via video recording and coded for frequency and/or duration of a variety of inappropriate behaviors observed during treatment. Team Stability was gathered from center records. General trends were analyzed between dependent and independent variables to conclude general correlations. Preliminary results showed a negative relationship between team stability and level of inappropriate behavior during therapy, in most, but not all teams. Overall findings suggest significant positive clinical relevance to monitoring team variables throughout different stages in early intervention in children with autism, especially team stability.

Measuring attending levels during early intensive behavior intervention for children with autism can be difficult. The purpose of this study was to measure specific visual attending skills in children with autism. An analysis of the effects of environments with differentiating distraction levels on participants attending during discrete trial training (DTT) was conducted. Children with ASD were evaluated to see if they would habituate to the varying degree of distractors placed into their environment, and if it would later generalize to a typical environment. Trend lines of correct responding for each target item were compared during each stage of the study. The Wide Range Assessment of Memory & Learning Second Edition Assessment Tool was used to measure changes in clients attending level, as well as data collected of time spent gazing off-task, and measuring the number of correct responses during DTT.

Researchers and practitioners have been challenged to address three key areas of deficit identified with autism: language, play, and repetitive behavior. In this series of papers, each of these areas were investigated in unique ways, making a contribution to the applied research and aiding in our understanding of some of the features of autism. Each paper describes a particular tactic and its effects on the participants in the study, using a single case design research methodology. One paper taught divergent intraverbal responding through the use of convergent verbal prompts. One paper taught creative use of common objects for play through a combination of intraverbal responses and reinforcement for play actions. And, finally, one paper expanded the community of reinforcers through conditioning of new items and activities. These tactics contribute to the evidence-based practices available to teachers and staff who work with children with autism. And they reframe some applied research questions to engage the audience in a dialogue about how our assumptions might drive our research interests and findings.

The purpose of this study was to teach divergent intraverbal responding using verbal prompts involving convergent multiple control. The participant was a 7 year-old boy with autism. A multiple probe design across behaviors was employed. The behaviors involved categorical questions across 5 different colors (e.g., Name some things that are green). The verbal prompts used to teach divergent intraverbal responding consisted of verbal descriptions on feature, function, and class (FFC) of each target item. The objective was to increase the number of divergent intraverbal responses for each categorical question. The results showed that verbal prompts using convergent control with FFC were effective in increasing the number of divergent intraverbal responses to categorical questions. Generalization effects across people, settings, and spontaneous novel responses were also assessed.

One of the major deficits for children with autism is a lack of creative symbolic pretend play skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a verbal prompting procedure can increase the number of intraverbal responses on pretend uses of common objects. The goal was to teach children with autism creative ideas of using common objects for symbolic pretend play activities, thereby expanding their pretend play repertoires. The training procedure involved (1) presenting a target object, (2) having the child tact name and function of this object (e.g., a ring for stacking), (3) intraverbal responding on pretend uses of the object (Q: What can you pretend with this bowl? A: a hat, a bath-tub.), (4) the child engaging in pretend play actions with the object. In the pilot experiment, a 6-year-old boy with autism served as a participant. An ABAB design was originally planned to assess the effectiveness of the proposed teaching procedure with two sets of target objects. However, after the completion of training on the first set of three target objects, the child's ability for creative uses of common objects emerged and generalized to the second set of untaught objects, not allowing the return to baseline. Despite a positive training effectbeing achieved for this child, the experimental control was not demonstrated in an AB design. In experiment II, the procedure was replicated with a multiple probe across behaviors design for two preschool children with autism. Data showed that the procedure effectively increased the number of pretend uses for target objects for both children in Experiment II. During generalization probe sessions, both children were able to provide intraverbal responses of pretend uses for untaught objects and engage in play actions, suggesting the possibility to teach children with autism creative use of common objects to expand their pretend play repertoires.

Implementation of various sensory integration interventions have been observed across many types of school settings. Variations of these procedures have encompassed sensory diets which are based on the premise that individuals with autism and related disorders have an underlying deficit in sensory processing. The assumption is that this deficit results in high rates of stereotypy or self-injurious behavior due to the individual attempting to regulate its sensory input. Thus the deficit is ameliorated by providing ample opportunities for sensory-based activities. There appears to be an inverse correlation between excessive stereotypy and self-injurious behaviors and the number ofknown reinforcers for the individual. For most individuals, having a limited number of reinforcers will likely have an adverse impact on the rate of learning new skills and has social implications. By using a multiple baseline design across three participants, we tested the effects of conditioning items and activities on the selection ofsensory based items as preferred activities by the participants and the impact on the number of episodes of self-injurious behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the amount of time individuals engaged with non-sensory based stimuli in a free play setting.

As more and more interest in the field of applied behavior analysis focuses on service delivery to individuals with autism, it is critical that professionals understand the family issues that surround raising a child with autism and living the autism life. Well-intentioned behavior analysts eagerly work with children, teens and adults with autism in order to decrease unwanted behavior and/or increase deficit behavior but fail to truly understand what parents go through, day in and day out. Unfortunately, lack of empathy, unrealistic expectations and judgmental attitudes are not uncommon amongst behavior analysts. This panel, made up of parents of children with autism, will discuss the realities of raising a child with autism, who becomes an adult with autism. The autism life - from making it through the day, to how the entire family is impacted through the life-span will be discussed, in the hopes that participants will leave with a better understanding of what parents of children with autism go through.

Children with and without autism spectrum disorders experience a wide range of teaching strategies during acquisition of prerequisite learner skills. However, specific instructional methods may be selected based on instructor preference, training, or other idiosyncratic factors rather than empirical support for such methods. Thus, comparisons of instructional strategies are warranted to ensure that skills are being taught in the most efficient and effective manner. This symposium includes three presentations related to empirical comparisons of similar variations of commonly used instructional procedures with children, namely (1) simple-conditional and conditional-only methods for teaching receptive identification of sight words, (2) error correction procedures with and without a positive reinforcement component for teaching early literacy skills, and (3) the number of targets presented within session of a particular object class on the acquisition and generalization of tacts. Further evaluations of type of instructional procedure on stimulus generalization and participant preference will also be discussed.

The study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of the modified simple-conditional and conditional only methods for teaching receptive identification of sight words (i.e., an auditory-visual conditional discrimination). Myles, 5-year-old boy, diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in three comparative evaluations for the study. For each evaluation, two training sets of three sight words were randomly assigned to either the modified simple-conditional or conditional only methods. After the mastery criterion was met for each training set, a maintenance and generalization probe was conducted at a 1-month follow-up. Results suggest that both procedures were effective and resulted in maintenance and some generalization of skills. The conditional only method was a slightly more efficient procedure in that fewer sessions were required to meet the mastery criterion. The results call into question the utility of establishing component simple discriminations prior to conditional discriminations in teaching receptive identification of sight words.

We conducted a comparative analysis of two error-correction strategies on sight word acquisition with kindergarten and first grade students. Both strategies consisted of response repetition, but one strategy included only a negative reinforcement contingency and the other used both positive and negative reinforcement contingencies. We also evaluated preference for instructional procedures. The current results suggest sight word acquisition was equivalent under both instructional conditions, but participants preferred the procedure that included a positive reinforcement component.

Children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require direct programming to acquire new skills as well as generalize those skills across non-trained stimuli. The current study replicated and extended the findings of Schroeder, Schuster, and Hemmeter (1998) by evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of teaching target object classes successively (one exemplar at a time) versus concurrently (multiple exemplars at a time) on skill acquisition and generalization across multiple exemplars during tact training. Participants were five children diagnosed with an ASD. We used an adapted alternating treatments design (Sindelar, Rosenberg, & Wilson, 1985) embedded within a concurrent multiple baseline across participants. Consistent with Schroeder et al.s results, all of our participants acquired the target tacts more quickly in the concurrent condition. By contrast, there was little difference in generalization for either condition for all of our participants. Inter-observer agreement was collected for at least 35% of sessions, and the total mean interobserver agreement was 97.3 (range, 91.7% to 100%) .

Precision teaching is an underused technology for measuring behavior and making data based decisions. While research indicates a wide array of applications for improving learner performance using precision teaching, behavior analysts and educators often do not make use of this research or limit the use of precision teaching to certain skills. When reviewing literature published in popular behavior analytic journals, very few include research using precision teaching technologies. Additionally, within the Journal of Precision Teaching, there is a lack of recent research related to a variety of populations or aspects of precision teaching. Most of the research focuses on typically developing children or learning disabilities and fails to include more significant disabilities or novel aspects of precision teaching such as endurance. In this symposium, the presenters will share their experiences with broad applications of precision teaching. The presentations will specifically focus on reading endurance for at risk children and improving fluent body movements for moderate to severe students to improve performance on daily living skills.

Precision teaching has a wide range of applications (Kubina & Yurich, 2012). Earlier researchers in the field of precision teaching such as Eric Haughton focused on teaching students with intensive disabilities to fluently perform compound motor movements. However, current research within the field focuses more on academic skills and learners with mild disabilities. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the need to focus on bringing component motor movements to fluency for students with intensive disabilities and the impact this can have on their ability to perform daily living skills, academic tasks, and/or indicating preferences. Students with intensive disabilities often have limited range of movement and long latencies to respond during instruction that requires motor movements. Based on the existing research regarding the Big 6 movements (Twarek, Cihon, & Eshleman, 2010) and increasing fluency on component skills for task analyses, the presenter will discuss the benefits of including more of a focus on motor movement fluency within this population.

Last year, I talked about the breadth of Pavlovian processes before discussing the different types of Pavlovian stimuli and how they might not all be equally amenable to intervention. This year, my focus is on how Pavlovian processes may be a driving force in a number of areas in which people are failing to properly regulate, leading to such problems as obesity, drug addiction, immune system dysfunction, and disorders of attention. These problems are likely the result of exposure to stimuli that were not present in the environment in which modern humans evolved. Because a characteristic of Pavlovian learning is an indifference to instrumental contingencies, dysfunction relating to Pavlovian conditioning is likely going to be ill-served by current behavior analytic methods. Although it is not clear how to treat most dysfunctions driven by Pavlovian processes, recent advancements from basic research provide powerful new methodological and conceptual tools of which few outside the field are aware. General options for moving forward will be discussed in light of these recent advancements.

School mental health programs and services reflect a "shared agenda" involving schools, families, and other community systems working together to promote student health and wellness and reduce nonacademic barriers to learning. With its emphasis on research-proven intervention strategies and low-inference decision-making, behavior analysis (and behavioral psychology more generally) plays a key role in school mental health. A main focus of school mental health programs is to help schools adopt and sustain evidence-based practices with a focus on prevention and intervention. School mental health has received increased attention in recent years, because of wider recognition of difficulties students can face and policy changes reflecting renewed interest in social behavior interventions and data-based decision-making. In this presentation, key themes facing the school mental health movement will be described. In addition, strategies for assisting schools in the identification, adoption and high fidelity implementation of evidence-based interventions will be described. Dr. Weist will review prominent policy directions and describe the National Community of Practice and its initiatives and resources.

Master's and doctoral level behavior analysts conducting research or practice supporting typically developing students in school settings.

An emerging convergence in the human sciences can guide the evolution of more caring societies. Biological and behavioral research has produced an integrated understanding of the biological and social conditions needed to ensure the successful development of children and adolescents. A growing body of experimental evidence has identified family, school, and community interventions that are capable of nurturing development from the prenatal period through adolescence. Increasingly research is turning to how these interventions can be widely and effectively implemented. At the same time, research in economics, political science, and sociology has delineated key features of the larger social context, including especially the recent evolution of corporate capitalism, that are more distal, but nonetheless critical influences on the wellbeing of young people. This converging understanding provides a framework for intentional efforts to evolve societies that have fewer psychological and behavioral disorders, less crime, less academic failure and much higher levels of prosociality. This session will focus on how we can organize the educational, nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental organizations to evolve cultural practices that achieve a society that sees to everyone’s wellbeing.

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

There are socially compelling reasons for organizational leaders who value safety to also be concerned about employee health and wellness. For example, co-morbid obesity is associated with an 80% increase in cost and lost work time for compensated injuries. In response to such issues, the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health created the Total Worker Health research initiative, and has funded four Centers of Excellence in the area. Total Worker Health is broadly defined as the simultaneous attention to both protecting (injury prevention) and promoting (health promotion) worker health. While there are previously published theoretical, physiological (for some types of exposures), and economic rationales for interventions to improve Total Worker Health, little attention has been paid to the distinctive organizational levels of possible implementation, nor to behavioral logic for integration at the individual level of analysis. To address these gaps and provide guidance to leaders and scholars, the author proposes a multi-level and behavioral logic for Total Worker Health. This includes rationale for changes at organizational, process, leadership, and line levels in companies, as well as behavioral theory relevant to predicting when the integration of health protection with health promotion could magnify (or maim) intervention acceptability and effects.

"Holding people accountable" is a term heard widely within organizational cultures in the past year with the Harvard Business Review even headlining the phrase, "What Ever Happened to Accountability?" on one of its 2012 publications. CLG has been working with a Canadian mining organization to help make this "accountability system" work. According to the Saskatchewan Mining Association, "Without an expectation of effective consequences, accountability is not believable and has no credibility. No consequences--no accountability," and that is where behavior analysis comes in. By using something called visual management, we were able to work with the client to create a system for consequence delivery that was easy, salient, used at every level of the organization, and most importantly, worked to modify behavior in the direction needed to get the results intended. Visual Management involves the use of line graphs and other behavior and results tracking methods to display trends over time to help see the direction of performance for both leading and lagging indicators and provides a platform for consequence delivery based on performance. Finally, with behavior contingency management in place, meaningful impacts emerged throughout the organization in a variety of ways.

Don Baer was a master at viewing applied behavior analysis as a philosophy of life. This was exemplified in his writings, in the manner in which he mentored students, and in his discussion of its application to varied topics, some of which were well outside the common behavioral realm of investigation. His model has guided Dr. Judith R. Mathews’ clinical practice and opened her to looking beyond the strictly behavioral literature to learn from other disciplines. This paper will discuss practical applications of applied behavior analysis in the field of pediatrics. It will present unusual clinical cases, including, problems of attachment and parenting skills, and unique challenges in medical adherence, habit reversal, pain management, and feeding disorders. More recently, this curiosity for the intersection between ABA and other disciplines has led Dr. Mathews to investigate the field of public health, in terms of social determinants of health, community-based participatory research and global public health. In this context, applications of ABA in the field of public health will then be discussed. The paper will conclude with discussion of the difficulties that practitioners and public health providers face in conducting practical research and finally will propose ways to disseminate unique ideas in need of empirical validation.

ABA practitioners.

Given the growing diversity of the individuals receiving behavior-analytic services in the United States and abroad, a behavior analysis of cultural competency is becoming increasingly important. In this presentation, we will discuss the role of cultural values and the influence they may have on language acquisition and the overall quality of behavior analytic services. The first presentation will describe the role of cultural values in applied behavior analysis. Then, we will expand upon this idea and discuss the verbal aspect of culture, with particular attention to rule-governed behavior and Skinners third level of selection. Then, based off a review of the last 10 years of language acquisition research, we will provide conceptual, research, and practical applications of, and describe the importance for, understanding the role of cultural and linguistic diversity in language acquisition research. Finally, we will end with a discussion about how an increased understanding of cultural variables that affect human behavior will allow behavior analysts to further enhance the quality of services they provide.

As Skinner indicated, the third level of selection occurs at the level of culture and includes the construction of repertoires of behavior via a verbal community. While progressive in looking to verbal behavior in the maintenance of cultural practices, we must continue the discussion to the level of understanding how those cultural practices my influence the behavior of individuals--especially those with whom we may be charged with influencing their behavior or the behavior of significant others. This paper will address how verbal behavior may affect delivery of services to those of other cultural backgrounds.

In language interventions for children who have severe language delays due to autism or other developmental disabilities, clinicians must often make decisions regarding an appropriate verbal response modality (e.g., vocal speech, manual signing, or picture-based communication). Establishing vocal speech has obvious advantages, but may be complicated by limited prerequisite repertoires, such as low frequency of speech sound vocalizations and lack of echoic control over vocalizations. Thus, the benefits of vocal communication may, at least initially, be outweighed by a need for quickly establishing efficient mand repertoires for minimally verbal children. The first two studies in this symposium describe assessments developed to identify an optimal response modality for early mands on an individual basis. The third and the fourth study addressed prerequisites for vocal communication by comparing procedures for increasing free-operant speech sound production and establishing echoic control over vocalizations, respectively.

Mands have been successfully taught to children with autism and intellectual disabilities using many response modalities. A few studies have compared the effectiveness of modalities such as the Picture Exchange Communication System and sign language. Some of these studies have found that the usefulness of either modality varied across students without a clear indication of the relevant child characteristics that might predict effectiveness. Thus, one modality is unlikely to prove optimal for all children. This study examined the utility of an assessment of prerequisite skills for three response modalities (i.e., vocal, sign language, exchange based communication) to determine if performance on the skills assessment predicts the rate of mand acquisition in each modality. The three pre-requisite assessments (motor imitation, vocal imitation, matching) each consisted of 20 trials. Subsequently, three equally preferred items were selected from a preference assessment and one item was assigned to each condition. The speed of acquisition during mand training was evaluated using a multi-element design. If one response modality was acquired more quickly than the others, the other two responses were trained in the successful modality. Four 2-year-old participants were included in the study and data illustrate typical response patterns and the assessments predictive value.

There is limited investigation of procedures for establishing echoic responses. This study evaluated three commonly used teaching procedures for establishing an echoic repertoire with three students with autism or related disabilities. Preference assessments were conducted to identify highly preferred items, including edibles, tangibles and social stimuli. At least two sets of three target sounds were then selected for each participant. Stimulus-stimulus pairing, echoic training and a mand-model procedure were compared. Data were collected on the percentage of correct vocalizations during training sessions and on the frequency of target vocalizations during play sessions completed prior to and after training sessions. These data, in addition to the participants performance during probes assessing the function of their vocalizations were compared to assess the efficacy of each teaching procedure. Interobserver agreement data were collected on over 33% of all sessions above and have averaged above 90% agreement. The results of this study suggested that the most effective teaching procedure may differ across participants thus supporting the need for additional research focusing on the development of assessment tools to identify learning profiles instead of generally effective teaching methods.

We applied CABAS-based interventions in learning centers, in schools, and at home for 21 children with autism and other disabilities, comparing their performance and their development with criterion-based assessment tools at different intensivity conditions (25 versus 12 hours a week). Participants were 24 male and 6 female, 3 to 11 years old, born and living in Italy, ranging from emergent-listener emergent-speaker to emergent-reader emergent-writer levels of Verbal Behavior (Greer & Ross, 2008). Dependent variables were monthly number of objectives and rate of learning (Learn Units to Criterion) for each participant. Parents and teachers' written answers to questions were used to compare parents' verbal behavior about low versus high intensivity and home versus school or center based interventions preferences. The independent variables were individualized center-based or school plus home plus center-based treatments, with a multielement design for each Participant. Early data suggest that despite low intensivity center-based treatments and high-intensivity home-based treatments were labeled as "more effective" by most parents and teachers, center-based 12 to 25 hours a week interventions seemed to be consistently the most efficient treatment option. We will discuss the significance of these data in terms of researchers' need to collect and spread data on different treatment "packages" costs and effects.

Beginning with Ivan Pavlov, dogs have historically been an important research subject and model organism. Dogs' popularity as a model organism for behavior has been recently renewed in the scientific literature. In this talk, we will explore the applications of behavioral principles to enhance canine welfare, and how canines can help us answer basic behavioral questions. In the first talk, we will show experimenters can use elicited behavior to increase appropriate behavior in shelter dogs. By simply paring the visual stimulation of an adopter with food, we successfully decreased inappropriate behavior of shelter dogs, such as barking. In the second talk, we will apply behavioral momentum theory to increase resistance to disruption for dogs performing an olfactory-based task. We will explore if Pavlovian conditioning of an odor increases canine's resistance to disruption when detecting the conditioned odor. Last, we will explore how dogs show similar cognitive heuristics to humans, and identify the evolutionary implications for behavior this may have. Together, this symposium will show how behavioral research can enhance canine welfare, and how canines can advance the study of behavioral principles in real-world settings.

When trying to provide the most effective ABA Therapy to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), what happens outside of the session is often as important as what happens within. Sleep deprivation, school environment, and general home environment need to be considered and addressed by the BCBA to create the most conducive environment for behavior change. In this symposium, two case studies are presented in which the BCBA advocated for schedule changes that, in turn, produced significant behavioral benefits for their clients. The first presents a case of insomnia in a child with ASD. When a sleep study was conducted, the sleep experts claimed that nothing could be done. An ABA intervention provided relief for the parents and produced a normal sleep pattern in the child. The second case study presents a child with ASD who changed from a school with an Autism program plus twelve hours of outside ABA Therapy to home schooling with forty hours of ABA Therapy. This move produced a notable change within the first two weeks and other behavioral results that might not have been achieved had the child been kept in the former program.

Sleep deprivation can have a detrimental effect on a wide range of social and academic behaviors and can severely impede learning. Often, childrens sleep patterns impact entire families, making sleep problems that much more important to address. Delayed sleep onset, night awakenings, and early awakenings combined with other issues presented by ASD can be especially difficult for families to manage. Piazza and Fisher (1991) found a lack of methodologically rigorous solutions in the literature that addressed insomnia in children. They effectively approached sleep problems using a protocol of faded bedtime with a response cost. A case study will be presented which used a protocol partly based on Piazza and Fishers with a child with ASD. However, in the present protocol, no response cost was used. Over a four-month period, nightly sleep increased and the time of sleep onset was reduced. In addition to the development of the current protocol, various impediments to the protocol, including parent compliance and addressing sleep as a non-operant, will be discussed.

Insurance companies often restrict the authorized number of hours of ABA Therapy based on the other activities in a childs schedule: school, other therapies, etc. Parents are also known to make such arguments. This and other arbitrary limiting of ABA Therapy seriously impede the progress that can be made with target behaviors not just in the short term, but perhaps at all. A case study will be presented of a child with ASD whose ABA Therapy had been restricted to twelve hours per week due to school and related activities for several years. The parents decided to home school the child so that ABA Therapy hours could be increased to forty. This increase in weekly ABA hours had a dramatic effect on targeted academic behaviors, articulation of speech, independent play skills, and the frequency and duration of tantrums in just a short period of time. It is questionable if the child would have ever reached the current level of responding if ABA Therapy hours had continued to be restricted. That the school environment might have also been hindering some of the target behaviors will also be discussed.

Each study will touch on challenges relating to Autism and related interventions. Including training staff, improving intervention, and social skills for individuals with Autism and Aspergers childhood to Adulthood.

There is an increasing need for therapists who can provide effective evidenced-based therapy for individuals with autism, who often have significant delays and require additional support. In order to improve therapist implementation of evidenced-based practices, effective training techniques are needed. One training method that is emerging is a system of self-monitoring. The literature suggests that allowing therapists to examine their own performance and provide self-initiated feedback may be an effective training method. The current study examines the effects of video self-monitoring procedures used to teach therapists to implement multi-element therapy with a high level of accuracy. Specifically, the intervention included self-monitoring forms used to self-assess therapists implementation of Pivotal Response Treatment. In addition, this study examines the use of performance-based feedback and in-vivo coaching to improve implementation of treatment. A multiple baseline across three participants was used to assess variables of interventionist performance. Results indicate that using a self-monitoring procedure within a training package yields dramatic and immediate results in helping the therapist meet fidelity of implementation that generalizes to other children and environments.

ndividuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display a marked impairment in social interaction and often exhibit difficulty in maintaining social conversations with peers. These deficiencies can manifest in low levels of question-asking initiations and inappropriate pragmatics in social conversation that persist throughout the developmental lifespan. The purpose of this study is to assess whether or not young adults with ASD can increase their use of question-asking initiations in social conversation and measure possible immediate collateral gains in targeting the pivotal area of initiations in young adults with ASD. Using a multiple-baseline across-participants research design, this study examines whether video feedback will be successful in teaching question-asking initiations in social conversation for each of 3 college student participants with ASD, measures generalization across peers and settings during social conversation, and assesses collateral gains. Data suggest that the video feedback intervention for question-asking initiations results in gains in appropriate question-asking initiations, ability to maintain fluid conversation, the participants interest/affect and perceived confidence in maintaining social conversation, overall pragmatic ratings, and a decrease in perseveration on restricted topics of interest.

Difficulties engaging in social activities are considered to be a core symptom of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Both the literature and our clinical observations suggest that most individuals with ASD have a desire to engage in social activities, but social skill deficits make social interaction challenging, and in turn can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Currently there are few resources to support adult students with ASD in forming friendships and involvement in the college community. Using a multiple baseline design over a 33 week period, this study evaluated the effectiveness of structured social planning for college students with ASD. Intervention included weekly sessions that included providing step-by-step social planning related to their interests, and feedback regarding their participation in social activities. In addition, training in specific organizational skills was implemented, such as determining activities, using a planner to ensure participation in the activities, inviting peers to activities, arranging for transportation, and so on. Results demonstrated that participants were not attending any social events throughout the baseline period. Following intervention, all participants increased the number of social events attended per week. Further, quality of life and satisfaction questionnaires all reported a higher satisfaction with their college experience and peer interactions following intervention. Finally, improvements were seen in other untargeted areas, including increases in non-structured social interactions, improvements in grade point averages, and employment. Results are discussed in regards to a creating a social support program for college students with ASD.

A common problem encountered by parents of toddlers involves how to increase healthy eating and how to decrease unsafe behaviors. The application of applied behavior analysis has been utilized to understand and treat such challenging behavior in young children. Each of the current papers addresses challenging behavior displayed by toddlers by directly manipulating antecedent dimensions to augment treatment effects. First, Lauren Melen and Michele Wallace will present data on the effects of time-in and time-out procedures on the reduction of dangerous behavior exhibited by toddlers in the home. Results of their study indicated that an enriched environment combined with time-out procedures decreased unsafe play behavior in toddlers. Next, Brooke Holland, David Wacker, Linda Cooper-Brown, and Ashley Willms will discuss an evaluation of the interaction of response effort and food preference to increase food consumption in a 14-month-old boy with feeding difficulties. The authors demonstrated that directly manipulating the effort of the meal resulted in increases in oral eating. Collectively, these papers show that the addition of an antecedent-based procedure can augment the intervention for challenging behavior in toddlers.

Although child safety is a large concern, only one previous study has been conducted examining a treatment package that consisted of positive attention, preference assessments, and timeouts to teach parents how to keep their children safe in the home (Mathews, Friman, Barone, Ross, & Christophersen,1987). The purpose of the current study was to expand the literature in this area and examine each part of the treatment package examined by Mathews et al. by conducting a component analysis. Parents were taught to conduct brief preference assessments and to provide positive attention during time-in (i.c., to provide an enriched environment). Parents were then taught to implement a timeout contingent on unsafe behavior. Results of the study indicate that the enriched environment combined with timeout decreased unsafe play behaviors for toddlers. Implications of this simple procedure as well as future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interaction of variablesresponse effort and preferenceon food consumption. The participant, Edward, was a 14-month-old male who had a history of gastroesophageal reflux disease and feeding difficulties. Interobserver agreement was assessed across 41.7% of sessions for Phase I and 35.7% of sessions for Phase II and averaged 91.8% for Phase I and 98.8% for Phase II. Phase I evaluated bites accepted when manipulating response effort. Response effort was defined as the combined and regulated oral-motor manipulations required to consume different types and textures of food. Phase II evaluated bites accepted when manipulating response effort and food preference. Preference was defined as the individual choosing to consume a food of a similar type and/or texture over another food. The results of Phase I and II (Figure 1) demonstrated that effort influenced bites accepted. When we decreased the effort (i.e., offered an empty spoon) to accept a bite of a less preferred food, bite acceptance increased.

While the introduction of functional analysis (Iwata et al 1982/1994) forever changed the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, modifications to behavior analytic procedures are a necessity to have true utility in developing effective treatments for all individuals in all settings with a wide variety of problem behaviors. Individuals with disabilities may exhibit problem behaviors that are difficult to analyze using typical analogue assessments due to intensity or rate (Davis et al, 2012), or the problem behavior may be maintained by idiosyncratic variables that are observed in the natural setting but not during a standard functional analysis (Hanley, Iwata & McCord, 2003). Finally, undifferentiated results may require additional analysis to determine a function. Hagopian et al. (2013) reported that the percentage of functional analyses with differentiated results increased from 47% to 87% when modifications to standard analogue conditions were made. This symposium seeks to extend recent research on modifications to functional analysis methodology to result in more accurate identification of behavioral function. First, the utility of a mand assessment to clarify inconclusive functional analysis results is examined. Second, an assessment of idiosyncratic variables evoking problem behavior during transitions is described. The third presentation focuses on elopement, a behavior that is difficult to address via functional analysis. This study is a systematic replication of the Lehardy et al. (2013) single-room functional analysis of elopement. The final presentation presents data comparing functional analyses of single and multiple response topographies to identify behavioral function of multiple problematic behaviors.

Mands often precede problem behavior and the responses may be related in several ways. Specifically, (a) mands may be one response in a response chain with problem behavior, (b) mands may be the first behavior in a response class hierarchy with problem behavior (Lalli, 1995), or (c) problem behavior may be a precurrent response increasing the probability that future mands will receive reinforcement (Fisher et al. 2001). In this study, functional analyses of problem behavior either failed to evoke problem behaviors or yielded undifferentiated results for four participants with autism. An assessment was then developed to empirically identify the relationship between repetitive mands and problem behaviors. Following a functional analysis to identify the specific reinforcer maintaining mand responses, the consequences for mands (e.g. specific reinforcement, extinction, verbal No, and nonspecific reinforcement) were experimentally manipulated (as potential antecedents to problem behavior), while problem behavior produced access to reinforcement for the mand. Across all participants, problem behavior reliably occurred in one or more of the test conditions relative to conditions during which mands produced specific reinforcement. Data suggest that the problem behaviors for these individuals served as a precurrent contingency for mands.

Although problem behavior during transitions is a commonly described occurrence and various strategies to reduce these problem behaviors, a limited number of studies have analyzed the function of problem behaviors during transitions. Previous research has suggested that problem behavior during transitions may be reinforced by escape from an environment with demands or low attention (Kern and Vorndran, 2000), the unpredictability of the transitions (Flannery & Horner 1994), initiating or terminating an activity or changing locations (McCord et al. 2001). In the present study, a functional analysis was conducted for two participants, during which demands to transition to a room containing academic materials were provided. Problem behavior produced escape from the transition. Both participants exhibited problem behavior during the escape from transition condition relative to a control condition, resulting in no contact with the work in the room. After examining variables specific to the transition, data suggested that it was not the presence of academic materials evoking the problem behavior, but specific features of the environment that may have served as conditioned aversive stimuli (e.g., presence of people and, small spaces). Results will be discussed in terms of conditioned motivating operations, as well as implications for treatment.

The functional reinforcers maintaining problematic behavior may vary across different response topographies. Several studies have recommended that clinicians graph functional analysis data for each topography separately when multiple responses are reinforced during the assessment (e.g., Derby et al. 2000) or conduct separate functional analyses for each topography (e.g. Mace et al. 1986). However, no studies have directly compared assessments reinforcing a single topography with assessments reinforcing multiple topographies of behavior. It is possible that conducting separate functional analyses may unintentionally obscure the results of functional analyses (e.g. by placing one response topography on extinction during the assessment). In the current study, we conducted functional analyses with 3 participants, each displaying at least 2 topographies of problem behaviors. In two separate assessments, either all topographies of problem behavior or a single topography of problem behavior produced reinforcement. Assessment order was counterbalanced across participants. Results indicated that the functions of separate topographies were identified in both the single and multiple topography functional analyses. In fact, data for all three participants showed that reinforcing only one topography of behavior in an assessment also provided a clear identification of function for a second behavior, not producing reinforcement.

Video technologies have been used to teach students with intellectual and developmental disabilities a wide array of skills. In this symposium, two studies and an empirical review of the literature will be presented and the implications of this information discussed. Data will be presented in the two studies related to how to use technology within an instructional framework to prepare students with intellectual and developmental disabilities for community-based employment. The review of the literature will provide an update on the status of using video prompting to teach new skills to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each of these presentations will discuss implications and directions for future research in this area.

In this study, two students with intellectual and developmental disabilities were taught basic vocational and daily living skills using video prompting. In the first phase, continuous video prompting, in which a video of each step of the task was shown on a continuous loop until the student completed the step. A multiple baseline design across tasks was used to maintain experimental control. In the second phase of this study, we compared continuous video prompting to standard video prompting, in which the video of each step was shown only once. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to determine which method was more effective. Implications for practice and future research will be discussed.

Video prompting has been shown to be an effective prompting tool for teaching a variety of tasks to individuals with developmental disabilities (Banda, Dogoe, & Matuszny, 2011). Generalization programming and maintenance measurements in the video prompting literature are a limited topic of investigation when teaching tasks to individuals with moderate to severe disabilities. The following review explored 22 studies in the video prompting literature that incorporated generalization programming and/or maintenance measures. This review highlights concerning limitations such as the use of generalization techniques, inconsistent maintenance measures, and a limited range of target behaviors. Implications suggest a need for future research on the generalization and maintenance effects of video prompting.

The goal of the Anger Management group offered by the Behaviour Management Services of York and Simcoe (BMS-YS) is to assist adults with intellectual disabilities to increase their understanding, recognition, and ability to cope with anger. In 2012, BMS-YS initiated a pilot project that integrated the use iPod touch devices into our Anger Management group curriculum. The preliminary findings of our 12-week treatment program were encouraging: participants responded positively to the use of iPod touch devices as a coping strategy by using applications that focus on relaxation, distraction and mindfulness. Post-test results demonstrated training effects for all participants in terms of increases in knowledge scores. The present study builds on the findings and limitations of our previous group session and includes a number of methodological improvements: increase in the duration of the course and the curriculum content from 12-weeks to 22-weeks; implementation of generalization probes using videos to assess participant knowledge and skills learned with the previous modules; self-report and electronic data collection on iPod usage; and information sessions for caregivers and support staff on strategies discussed with participants. Results from post-test data will be reviewed during our presentation along with considerations for future research.

Independent toileting skills are one of the most vital repertoires required for independent living. For students with special needs, parent driven attempts at toilet training are often unsuccessful, thus leaving the onus for teaching these skills for special educators and clinicians. In the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, the Rapid Toilet Training procedure first introduced by Azrin and Foxx (1978) is often the first tactic implemented, and often leads to independent toileting skills. This paper, however, examines useful tactics for when Rapid Toilet Training does not lead to the acquisition of independent toileting skills. Stimulus fading from a diaper to underwear, a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement for remaining dry, and stimulus fading from the bathroom to the desk have all been used successfully with students to lead to independent toileting skills. Additionally, a prompt fading procedure has been implemented to teach independent mands for the toilet to increase independence for students who have been successful with the Rapid Toilet Training Method but have not moved beyond an interval schedule of toileting.

Animal research has long been a part of behavior analysis, however the vast majority of this research has been conducted with relatively few model organisms, i.e. rats and pigeons. While these organisms have helped to reveal behavioral principles and educate future behavior analysts, their use has become increasingly regulated and financially unfeasible. These obstacles however do not apply to arthropods, as research with invertebrate organisms is relatively unregulated and requires far less maintenance than research with warm-blooded organisms typical in behavioral studies. The current symposium will present two discussions on behavior analysis involving invertebrate subjects. The first will discuss aspects of invertebrate learning from a behavior analytic perspective and address issues in the literature that are the result of researchers having little or no behavior analytic training. The second presentation will discuss the logistical aspects of developing and managing an invertebrate learning lab with an emphasis on in house design of apparatuses, methods, and protocols. Further discussion will be provided on the implications of invertebrate research to the field of behavior analysis and behavioral sciences at large.

Over the past two decades the study of invertebrate learning has taken on greater importance as aspects of the nervous system have been revealed. Unfortunately, much of this research is conducted by neuroscientists with little or no training in the comparative analysis of behavior. As a result, several issues in the analysis of behavior have either been ignored and/or discounted by the present generation of scientists interested in invertebrate learning. This presentation outlines several of these issues including: 1) the extent of phyletic differences between vertebrate and invertebrate learning investigated, 2) inconsistencies in the definition of learning phenomena, 3) the use of taxonomies of learning, 4) the need to report individual data, and 5) restrictions on the use of cognitive terminology.

Over the past 30 years our field has seen a decline in the number of graduate training programs that offer animal laboratories. Rising costs, reductions in grant funding, and tighter animal welfare regulations all have resulted in once thriving animal research facilities to close their doors. Most if not all of these setbacks can be avoided by using invertebrates. This presentation will showcase how, after 35 years of closed animal facilities within SIU's Behavior Analysis Program, we were able to once again reinstate animal research using the invertebrate species of the African Hissing Cockroach and the Australian Red Claw Lobster. The process of laboratory creation and management from innovative apparatus building, experimental protocol development, and motivating the rising number of applied behavior analysts to find value in basic operant research will be discussed. The utility of training applied behavior analysts to become proficient in animal research will also be discussed.

Interpreting common child behavior problems as evidence of psychopathology is routine in mainstream psychology. The practice is so widespread that when investigators fail to obtain clinically significant levels of behavior problems, as indexed by standard scores on assessment instruments, they usually (almost always) reanalyze their data in terms of raw scores and then argue that any statistically significant elevation is evidence of pathology. Four representative common child behavior problems are encopresis, enuresis, thumb sucking, and hair pulling and psychopathological interpretations of each are easy to find. Three of the most common tests of psychopathology are: 1) clinically significant levels of co-occurring behavior problems; 2) resistance to direct treatment; and 3) symptom substitution. An abundant amount of research shows that each of the four representative behavior problems fails all three tests. Two possible reasons for the existence and persistence of the psychopathology interpretation, despite readily available data to the contrary, are Berkson’s and textbook case biases. Berkson’s bias involves the influence data obtained from hospitalized subjects with compound problems has on the interpretation of isolated problems in outpatient or nonreferred subjects. Textbook case bias involves textbook reliance on complex, resistant, multiproblem cases for teaching while the majority cases are simple, responsive, and involve relatively isolated problems. Regardless, the routine interpretation of child behavior problems as pathology presents an enormous opportunity for behavior analysis. Specifically, most parents of children with common behavior problems are reluctant to seek professional help from clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, due in no small way to their aversion to the pathological view. Because the conceptual framework for behavior analysis does not include a pathology construct, behavior analysts could focus on the assessment and treatment of common child behavior problems and potentially capture a virtually unlimited market for their services.

Translating science into application is a major challenge for OBM consultants. Behavior analysts working as OBM consultants are faced with the challenge of performing applied projects with enough rigor to supply meaningful data from which important business decisions can be made while functioning in environments where strict experimental control is simply not realistic. The application of behavior analysis in real-life settings, even when conditions are less than perfect, can permit detailed data about phenomena of social importance. The symposium includes a study that analyzes how leaders respond when provided the opportunity to view other leaders. In everyday setttings, leaders routinely interact with other leaders who they observe and evaluate, frequently to ascertain if the person observed is an effective leader. This study examines whether leaders can identify leadership behavior in other leaders. The study is based on Komakis taxonomy of operant leadership.

Translating science into application is not the only challenge for OBM consultants. In fact, the bigger challenge is performing applied projects with enough rigor to supply meaningful data from which important business decisions can be made while not being handcuffed by desires for experimental control that are just not possible in real-time action research. This talk will provide some insights in to how to find this balance without abandoning the strategies and tactics of behavioral science that are the hallmarks of OBM. Examples from a career that has included both a full-time academic teaching and research position at a major university and nearly 20 years of private consulting will be provided.

In everyday setttings, leaders routinely interact with other leaders who they observe and evaluate, frequently to ascertain if the person observed is an effective leader. This study examines whether leaders can identify leadership behavior in other leaders? The study is based on Komakis taxonomy of operant leadership. Over one hundred managers were shown three films of an actress performing real-life dialogue which contained low, medium and high frequency use of monitors and consequences. The participants were given the task of pressing a button each time they believed that the actress exhibited a leadership behavior. The participants also rated the three films in terms of overall leadership. The results from more than 100 participants indicate that managers overall ratings match the density of monitoring and consequences in the films, but that they identify only a fraction of these behaviors as they occur. The findings have implications for the selection and training of leaders.

The quality of education is critical to producing knowledgeable citizens able to adapt to a changing world. Students’ education and cultural influences set the stage for their future professions, and as leaders or educators in an increasingly interconnected global community. By drawing upon their pioneering work in the area of education, panelists will provide comments regarding this theme of the Seminar on Leadership and Cultural Change. The seminar is designed to aid educational leaders to create new models of stewardship and open opportunities for innovation while adjusting to growing social upheaval, technological advances, and environmental concerns, as well as crises in the global economy, health, education, and environment. It will address how behavior analysis finds common ground with other sciences by investigating the behavior of leaders who influence organizations and society.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in creating new models of education through behavior analysis.

R. Kevin Grigsby, MSW, DSW, is senior director of leadership and talent development at the Association of American Medical Colleges. He served as vice dean for faculty and administrative affairs from 2000–09 at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA, where he continues to hold an academic appointment as clinical professor of psychiatry. Dr. Grigsby’s clinical experience includes a history of program planning, implementation, and evaluation in the area of innovative home- and community-based health and mental health services. His clinical practice experience has been primarily in underserved rural and inner city areas and includes perinatal intervention with substance-abusing women, mental-health service delivery to children and adolescents in shelter care, provision of home-based services to parents and children with HIV-related illnesses, and the use of advanced telecommunications technology in health services delivery. During the past decade, the focus of Dr. Grigsby’s work shifted to organizational development in academic health centers including developing a future-oriented perspective in academic leaders and the alignment of resources with missions. Dr. Grigsby remains active in promoting effective interpersonal communication within academic health centers and in implementing alternative conflict resolution/management strategies at the department and institutional levels. The use of teams and other nontraditional organizational models in higher education settings is another area of scholarship. As an expert on the use of teams in academic health centers, Dr. Grigsby has presented at regional and national conferences and has consulted with a number of academic health centers and professional organizations. He and his colleagues published an account of the use of teams to unify the clinical, academic, and research enterprises in an academic health center. This approach was instrumental in breaking down barriers that typically separate academic departments and resulted in reducing traditional barriers between employees and management, promoting faculty and staff participation in decision-making processes, and solving organizational problems that seemed to be intractable in the past. At the AAMC, he and his team offer programs to improve organizational and leadership performance at medical schools and academic medical centers, address the needs of women and underrepresented minorities at academic medical centers, and link individual professional development to improved organizational performance.

Aberrant repetitive behaviors (e.g., stereotypies, compulsions, and rituals) are diagnostic for autism and frequently observed in related neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite this, relatively little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the development and expression of these repetitive behaviors. This lack of knowledge precludes effective early intervention and prevention strategies. Clinical studies have provided only very limited findings based on a small number of neuroimaging and genetic studies. Moreover, there is little evidence for the efficacy of pharmacotherapy for repetitive behaviors in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Valid animal models can aid substantially in identifying pathophysiological factors mediating aberrant repetitive behavior and aid in treatment development.The talkwill review findings from animal models of repetitive behavior, highlighting environmental factors and the role of altered cortical-basal ganglia circuitry in the development and expression of these behaviors. Dr. Lewis also will review pharmacological studies that have identified novel potential therapeutic targets for clinical drug development.

Although the current world population is about 7 billion behaving human organisms, only very few of these are trained in behavior analysis, fewer practice behavior analysis, and most are located within the borders of the United States. Need exists all over the world. This panel will discuss efforts of a number of United States-based behavior analysts to equip others in areas outside of the United States to help fulfill this need. We will discuss issues pertaining to funding, training, credentialing, travel, cultural learning opportunities, translation, and other areas. We will also related experiences pertaining to each of these areas regarding our work in China, Russia, Belarus, and Middle Eastern countries.

This symposium includes four papers describing recent advances in skill acquisition research with children with autism. The first paper evaluated the effectiveness of a multiple exemplar training package to establish a generalized repertoire of predicting the cause of others' emotions. The second paper evaluated the use of self-monitoring in the reduction of multiple stereotypic motor behaviors using a multiple baseline across behaviors experimental design with two children. The third paper evaluated a multiple exemplar training package to teach children to respond to disguised mands. The fourth paper evaluated the use of a percentile schedule of reinforcement to teach appropriate waiting skills. The symposium will conclude with a discussion by Dr. Amanda Adams from California State University, Fresno.

Numerous studies on perspective taking have suggested that children with autism are distinctively deficit in understanding that others' perspectives are different from their own. These studies often suggest that children with autism may be unable to learn to take another's perspective, but current research in the field of applied behavior analysis suggests otherwise. The current study evaluated a behavioral teaching procedure in one area of perspective taking: inferring and predicting others' emotions based on met or unmet desires. The procedure included a multicomponent training package using multiple exemplar training across scenarios in which three children with autism were asked to predict how others may feel given a met or unmet desire or non-desire and why others may feel this way. Results were analyzed using a multiple baseline across participants design and suggest that the multiple exemplar training package was effective for teaching the prediction of others' desire-based emotions and generalization was observed across novel exemplars.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-monitoring intervention on the reduction of stereotypic behaviors in children with autism. Research has shown that stereotypic behaviors are maladaptive and can have negative effects on social interactions. Previous research has indicated that self-monitoring may be an effective intervention for decreasing these behaviors but most previous research has used multiple treatment components (e.g., differential reinforcement, rules, etc.) and little is known about the efficacy of self-monitoring in the absence of other treatment components. The present study involved teaching self-monitoring techniques in a home setting to identify if self-monitoring alone would result in a reduction of stereotypic behaviors without other treatment components. The results of the study suggest that the self-monitoring component was effective in decreasing stereotypic behaviors. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Skinner's concept of the "disguised mand" is a verbal response, wherein the speaker's mand does not directly describe its reinforcer. Children with autism often have difficulty with detecting and reinforcing disguised mands. Given that a high number of mands in every day interactions consist of disguised mands, it is important to teach children with ASD to detect these and respond appropriately. The purpose of this study was to determine if multiple exemplar training and the use of rules, role playing, and feedback could teach children with autism to detect and respond appropriately to disguised mands. The results indicated that the procedure effectively taught participants to detect and respond appropriately to disguised mands. Additionally, generalization was demonstrated to novel, untrained disguised mands and to other people who were not involved in training.

Despite the social importance of teaching young children with autism to withstand a delay to reinforcement, little research has been conducted to determine how to teach this skill in applied settings. As such, a procedure was developed to examine how a percentile schedule of reinforcement may be used to teach young children with autism to wait appropriately for preferred edible items. All participants experienced a contingency-only phase where the edible item was presented following a wait duration that met the reinforcement criteria as determined by the percentile schedule, a phase that introduced the use of corrective feedback for those wait durations that did not meet the reinforcement criteria, and, finally, the addition of social praise statements that accompanied the delivery of the edible reinforcer. Two types of generalization probes, one conducted by the participants' parents and the other using preferred leisure activities, and one-month maintenance probes were also conducted. Results and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

Evaluating the efficiency of procedures used to teach children with autism is a critical component of applied research. The studies presented in this symposium all focus on evaluating both the effectiveness and efficiency of various teaching strategies. The first study evaluated prompt dependence resulting from varying teaching procedures. The second study evaluated the emergence of reverse intraverbals. The third and fourth studies are comparison studies; one comparing computer-assisted and person-based tract training and one comparing teaching procedures with and without instructive feedback stimuli. All presenters will discuss their findings in terms of applied implications and future research.

Using a modified alternating treatments design, the present study compared the effects of a prompt only condition and a prompt plus instructive feedback (IF) condition on the emergence of several untrained category relations in 3 pre-school aged boys diagnosed with autism or other related disorders. A progressive time delay procedure was used to teach receptive identification of object, while probes for three untrained categorical skills (i.e., expressive identification of object, receptive identification of category, and intraverbal of category) were conducted every 2-3 teaching sessions. Results showed that for all participants the inclusion of one IF stimulus per target response was more efficient than standard teaching procedures as it a) promoted the emergence of multiple untrained skills without direct teaching, and/or b) primed participants to learn untrained skills faster once introduced for direct teaching.

Behavior analysts continue to develop a rich technology of reinforcer identification, and the present symposium explores new areas of preference assessment research. Study 1 was designed to further evaluate the role of differential consequences on pictorial preference assessment outcomes, by comparing the results of a pictorial-without-access assessment to the results of a progressive-ratio reinforcer assessment. The pictorial-without-access assessment successfully identified reinforcers with only some participants. When access to the selected item was necessary, schedule thinning was used to establish conditioned reinforcement properties for pictorial stimuli. In Study 2, efficacy of and preference for different parameters of positive reinforcement was evaluated. Preliminary results showed that one participant exhibited similar rates of responding with constant versus varied reinforcer delivery, but preferred constant reinforcer delivery. In Study 3, preference for work activities was assessed using duration-based and response-restriction assessments. Results demonstrated that the response restriction format produced more reliable and differentiated results across participants. In the final study, preference for function-based treatments with contingent and noncontingent schedules of reinforcement with individuals whose problem behavior was maintained by social-negative reinforcement was evaluated. Two children preferred a differential negative reinforcement treatment over a noncontingent reinforcement treatment, while one preferred a multiple-schedule and chained-schedule treatments.

Pictorial preference assessments are a potentially valuable tool because they allow clinicians to assess preferences for complex stimuli that cannot easily be presented on a tabletop. Past research has demonstrated that pictorial preference assessments are effective for individuals with developmental disabilities only when access to the stimulus is provided contingent on a pictorial selection. The purpose of this investigation was to extend this line of research by assessing the feasibility of the pictorial format with children on the autism spectrum. The role of contingent reinforcer access was assessed by comparing the results from the pictorial format without access to the results of a progressive-ratio reinforcer assessment. If access was found to be necessary, the effects of schedule thinning were evaluated to determine if a pictorial format could be made more practical for those participants. Second, matching and mand assessments were conducted to further evaluate the role of hypothesized prerequisite skills. In general, results indicated that the pictorial format without access was only successful with some participants. However, schedule thinning was found to be an effective method to establish conditioned reinforcement properties for pictorial stimuli to create a more practical preference assessment for a subset of participants.

Previous research has shown that immediacy, quality, and magnitude are parameters that influence the efficacy of reinforcement procedures. Variation, predictability, choice, and reliability are parameters that have not been thoroughly studied, but may prove to be relevant aspects of behavior change procedures. It is important to understand the efficacy and preference of these parameters to improve outcomes associated with skill acquisition and behavior reduction programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of and preference for these different parameters of positive reinforcement. There were four conditions: the constant reinforcer condition where the same stimuli were delivered for each response versus a condition where the stimuli delivered were varied, and the reliable reinforcer condition where a reinforcer was delivered for each responses versus an unreliable condition where a reinforcer was delivered for approximately 50% of responses. Preliminary results showed that one participant exhibited similar rates of responding for constant reinforcer and varied reinforcer delivery, but demonstrated a preference for constant reinforcer delivery. Additionally, responding in the reliable reinforcer condition was more efficacious, but a preference was observed for unreliable reinforcer delivery. Interobserver agreement was collected for 43% of sessions, and averaged 97%, with a range of 75%-100%.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the most reliable and sensitive method for determining preferences for work activities, and to determine whether or not preference would shift when assessed under more naturalistic conditions. First, a reversal design was used to compare two assessments methods: a single presentation format where various work activities were available singly for a 5-min interval, and a response restriction format where all activities were simultaneously available and then restricted following a selection. Across conditions, item contact, functional engagement, and indices of happiness and unhappiness were measured to identify the most accurate measurement method. The response restriction format produced more reliable and differentiated results across participants. Functional engagement was determined to be the most sensitive method of measurement. The second part of the study assessed individuals' preference for work activities with and without the presence of reinforcement and prompting. A reversal design showed that relative preference among work and non-work activities was affected by the addition of prompting and reinforcement for working. Interobserver agreement data were collected in at least 20% of sessions and conditions for all participants; agreement was at or above 80%.

Luczynski and Hanley (2009, 2010, & 2013) have shown that children prefer social-positive reinforcement arranged via contingent rather noncontingent schedules under dense and leaner schedule arrangements. The current study evaluated the generality of this preference outcome across function-based treatments with contingent and noncontingent schedules designed for children with autism whose problem behavior was maintained by social-negative reinforcement. The schedule comparisons involved time-based breaks from work (noncontingent escape; Vollmer, Marcus, & Ringdahl, 1995), differential reinforcement of requests for a break (DNRA; Vollmer & Iwata, 1992), and signaled periods of work and extinction for break requests that alternated with signaled periods with a continuous reinforcement schedule for break requests (multiple schedule and chained schedule). To date, two children preferred to experience a treatment with differential negative reinforcement of break requests over a treatment with noncontingent escape. For one child, we evaluated preference for more practical treatments, and he preferred to experience multiple-schedule and chained-schedule treatments over treatments with noncontingent escape with a yoked amount of reinforcement. These preliminary results support the generality of preference for treatments with contingent reinforcement.

We are besieged by daunting societal problems. Thanks to the internet, smart phones and tablet devices, we know more than perhaps wed like about the nations online scams and identity theft, violence and interpersonal conflict in schools, terrorism, political gridlock, and alcohol abuse. Human behavior contributes to each of these issues; and must be part of the solution. The first two research papers in this symposium reveal challenges in promoting an actively caring for people (AC4P) culture. Each demonstrates strategies to make an AC4P culture happen, and thereby promote win-win interdependence and a systems mindset over win-lose independence fueling, interpersonal conflict and suboptimal performance. The second two papers report community-based research that analyzed behaviors crucial to preventing identity theft and excessive alcohol consumption. Each of these studies demonstrates behavioral benefits of their research; the potential for large-scale, socially-valid application of the findings will be evident and discussed. The Discussant will be Timothy D. Ludwig, Professor and Director of the Industrial/Organizational Graduate program at Appalachian State University. As former Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, Dr. Ludwig will provide valuable insight regarding the potential of the research presented here to benefit organizations and communication in the U.S., and beyond.

This study examined the impact of Actively Caring for People (AC4P) wristbands and reflective writing on students' commitment to thank others for their AC4P behavior. In one class, students (n=304) were offered AC4P wristbands (Wristband class), while students in another class (n=341) were not. Within each class, students were randomly assigned to one of three writing conditions: 1) Describe situations where you thanked others. 2) Describe situations where you were thanked by others. 3) Describe three meals you have recently eaten (Control condition). All students were asked to commit to thank a person for AC4P behavior with a special "Thank You Card." A greater proportion of students in the Wristband class made a commitment than did students in the No Wristband class (p < .001). In the Wristband class, the writing conditions had no effect on intentions or reports of thanking behavior. However, in the No Wristband class, significantly more students in the two writing conditions made a commitment than did students in the Control condition (p < .001). The three tables summarize these results. This is the fifth in a series of investigations to study ways to increase interpersonal thanking of AC4P behavior. The informative results of these other studies will be reviewed.

Victims of credit-card fraud experience financial and psychological distress, and millions of dollars are drained from businesses and our economy. Instances of credit-card fraud could be reduced substantially if cashiers checked customers for their identification (ID) during credit-card purchases. In an attempt to increase cashiers' ID-checking behavior, the present study compared the impact of three messages placed on the back of a consumer's credit/debit card: an Antecedent Only ("Check my ID"), an Antecedent with a Positive Consequence ("Check my ID to PROMOTE identity security"), and an Antecedent with a Negative Consequence ("Check my ID to PREVENT identity theft") with credit cards containing no prompt. Research assistants made credit-card purchases in various stores in Blacksburg, Virginia, and used one of four cards while noting the cashier's ID-checking behavior. As depicted in the figure, cashiers checked customers' ID most when the credit/debit card contained the prompt with the positive consequence (i.e., 53.8% of 26 purchases), second most often when the prompt contained the negative consequence (i.e., 38.5% of 26 purchases), less when the prompt mentioned no consequence (i.e., 26.9% of 26 purchases), and never for the 26 cards without a prompt. Implications for large-scale application will be discussed.

Alcohol consumption among college/university students accounts for nearly 1,800 deaths, 600,000 injuries, and 97,000 sexual assaults each year (Hingson, 2005, 2009). Indeed, 20 to 25% of college/university students are estimated to have drinking problems (Berkowitz & Perkins, 1986). While research has demonstrated a link between high-school and college/university drinking (Weschler, 2002), little research has shown how parenting in high school can impact alcohol consumption among college/university students. A total of 238 undergraduate students (72.0% male) were recruited randomly over two nights in a downtown setting. Participants answered survey questions regarding their: a) parental punishment for underage drinking, b) alcohol consumption with their parents, and c) own drinking behaviors. The participants were then administered a breath alcohol test (Lifeloc FC-20 ? .005 g/mL). As depicted in the figures, positive correlations were found between parental punishment and college drinking (r =.329, p < .01) with the most alcohol consumption occurring among students punished for drinking by parents who consumed alcohol. Consuming alcohol in high school was positively correlated with BAC (r = .195, p < .01) with an average downtown BAC of 0.100 g/mL. Results indicated a need for change in parental patterns in handling alcohol consumption among high-school students.

Reinforcement that is not socially mediated presents with unique properties for assessment and intervention. Often the reinforcer and the specific reinforcing consequences are not clear. In addition, the reinforcer in question either cannot be directly manipulated and the behavior and the reinforcing consequences cannot be separated (Piazza et al., 2 000). Due to individual idiosyncratic preferences that often emerge in the assessment of automatically maintained behavior, novel utility of these methods are required to effectively assess and treat the interfering behaviors. Also, while numerous studies have examined various assessments and treatments in relation to this topic, systematic extensions of these methods are still needed in pursuit of understanding: (a) the effects of duration and number of exposures to stimuli in assessment, (b) how competing stimuli are selected for treatment, (c) how to control for the effects of stimuli over time, and (d) the differential effectiveness of stimuli in treatment. This symposium presents four studies related to the assessment and/or treatment of behavior that is demonstrated to be maintained by non-socially mediated forms of reinforcement and interfere with daily functioning. Results from these studies suggest extension of methods for assessment and treatment for automatically maintained behavior can: (a) accurately identify auditory stimuli that effectively decrease levels of vocal stereotypy and are compatible for use with ongoing academic demands, functional analysis methodology can successfully identify the reinforcing properties of property destruction, competing item s identified via an MSWO procedure can be comparably effective to those identified using a competing stimulus assessment, and earlier competing stimulus assessment sessions with matched and unmatched stimuli provide differential results when compared to latter exposures.

Previous research has shown that access to auditory stimuli has been effective in the treatment of vocal stereotypy (e.g., Lanovaz, Fletcher, & Rapp, 2009; Rapp, 2007; Taylor, Hoch, & Weissman, 2005). However, previous research has not evaluated the compatibility of auditory stimuli with academic demands. Furthermore, research has typically evaluated the stimuli during brief exposures (e.g., 5 minutes). Thus, the extended effects of access to auditory stimuli is unknown. This presentation includes three studies on the effects of competing auditory stimuli on vocal stereotypy. In Study 1, we evaluated the effects of various types of auditory stimuli on automatically reinforced vocal stereotypy in four students with autism. Preferred music resulted in decreased levels of vocal stereotypy for 3 out of 4 participants. The three participants for which auditory stimuli resulted in lower levels of vocal stereotypy participated in Study 2. In Study 2, we evaluated the compatibility of access to auditory stimuli with ongoing academic demands. Results showed for all participants that auditory stimuli resulted in decreased vocal stereotypy and was compatible with academic demands. In Study 3, we evaluated extended exposure (i.e., 90 minute sessions) to auditory stimuli for two participants to assess if habituation to the stimuli occurred over time. Results showed for both participants decreased effects of auditory stimuli over time.

Intervention based in applied behavior analysis is widely recognized as a standard approach for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Following from research findings that intervention effects are more robust with younger children, the current best practice position is to provide intervention as soon as an ASD diagnosis can be made, and perhaps even earlier at the first reliable signs of characteristic deficits and excesses. Given that emerging technologies are aimed at identification of the disorder in infancy, the behavior analyst working with children with autism is likely to be faced with requests to work with infant children, a population that most behavior analysts are likely unfamiliar with. This symposium will address the following primary questions facing the practitioner considering working with infants and their caregivers: What is the current status of the evidence supporting early identification ASD-related deficits? How should the behavior analyst view the process of infant development, a concept most commonly described within other fields? What behavior analytic interventions have been investigated for this population, and for which infant and caregiver behaviors? And finally, what are some key ethical issues facing the behavior analyst working with infants and caregivers?

Behavior analysts working with young children, particularly those identified with or suspected of meeting criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

Behavioral intervention initiated early in childhood is associated with positive outcomes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As such, early identification of ASD-related behavioral deficits and excesses is viewed as central to achieving the best long-term intervention outcome, with the goal for treatment professionals being to intervene from the moment a diagnosis is confirmed. Current validated diagnostic procedures are based in observation of behavior and do not allow for diagnosis any earlier than 18 months of age. However, behavioral deficits indicative of high-risk status for ASD can be identified at 12 months of age, and technologies utilizing potential biomarkers in infants younger than 12 months are emerging. Therefore, ABA practitioners are likely to face demands to work with infant populations in the future. This presentation will provide a review of established and emerging technologies for identifying behavioral characteristics and biological associations of ASD, with a critical review of methods of identification for children younger than 12 months.

Previously defined by DSM IV-R as a "developmental disorder," DSM 5 now categorizes autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as a "Neurodevelopmental Disorder." Although evidence of specific neurological dysfunction is lacking, the developmental basis for behavioral development in autism is not. Behavioral Systems Theory provides a framework for understanding the development, prevention, and treatment of the constellations of behaviors that characterize ASD and explains how multiple factors, including neurological, historical, and current environmental ones lead to the emergence of patterns seen in individuals. This paper will outline the basic principles of development ininfancy as viewed from a behavior analytical perspective. It will focus on processes that produce typical development as well as the acquisition of the behavioral excesses and deficits characteristic of ASD. Among the key developmental concepts involved in understanding typical and atypical are skills learning, "hidden" skills and deficits, and behavioral cusps. Some of the crucial early hidden skills and deficits in infant development will be identified and the implications for early intensive behavioral intervention discussed.

In the U.S. alone, more than 1 million children are on record as having some form of autism or learning disability. This number continues to increase. Researchers have begun to recognize the enormous value of behavior analysis and early interventions in encouraging children to focus attention and shaping their early social behavior. Dr. Pelaez will present interventions with infants "at risk" of later developmental delays using specific forms of social reinforces like synchronized touch and cooing that increase infant's eye contact and gaze at mother's face. Infant massage provides the occasion for synchronized mother-infant interactions that include many of the social reinforcers outlined in this presentation. She will explain a procedure where a caregiver's vocal imitation and motherese speech increases infant vocalizations, smiles, and directs infant attention. In older infants, maternal social contingencies in the form of gestural expressions can work as signals (Sds) for the infant on when and how to respond toward an ambiguous object in the context of uncertainty--a phenomenon known as social referencing. In summary, these techniques developed for early interventions with infants have shown to be effective in improving their social behavior and explain early social learning phenomena as attachment, joint attention, and social referencing.

Applied behavior analysis has been demonstrated to be the most effective intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Following recommendations for intervention for ASD as early as possible, means of identifying infants at risk for ASD are emerging. For example, researchers have determined that younger siblings of children with ASD are at a much higher risk of developing the disorder than the general population. Additionally, biologically based tests purported to identify infants at risk for developing ASD are becoming commercially available. As a result, behavior analysts working in the field of ASD education and treatment can anticipate an increase in requests for ABA interventions for infants. This presentation will outline some of the practical and ethical issues behavior analysts must address in providing services to at-risk infants and very young children. Topics include the competencies of the behavior analyst working with infants, working within the bounds of evidence-based practice, and the potentially multifaceted role the practitioner may need to serve for caregivers through the child's infancy and into early childhood.

Since Sidman and colleagues landmark studies on stimulus equivalence were published over 40 years ago, stimulus equivalence procedures have been used to effectively build novel and complex behavioral repertoires in both typical adults and children (e.g., Fields, Reeve, Adams, & Verhave, 1991; Connell & Witt, 2004; Lynch & Cuvo, 1995; Ramirez & Rehfeldt, 2009) and individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities (e.g., LeBlanc, Miguel, Cummings, Goldsmith, & Carr, 2003; Rosales & Rehfeldt, 2007). In this symposium, four papers that used EBI to teach socially relevant stimulus classes or concepts across a variety of learners will be presented. One study evaluated the use of EBI to teach identification of emotions by young learners with autism. The second study used EBI to teach the mathematical concept of multiplication to typical third grade children. The third study taught college students to form derived relations among representations of musical symbols and to play the piano in the presence of these stimuli. The last study investigated the teaching of verbal operants, typical of those found in ABA coursework, to graduate students. Collectively, these studies extend the scope of complex behavioral repertoires that can be taught to a wide variety of learners using EBI.

Stimulus equivalence-based instruction is an efficient and economical way to teach complex repertoires, and has been used to teach learners of different intellectual functioning levels and ages. In this study, EBI was used to teach the mathematical concept of multiplication to six elementary school aged learners. A pretest-training-posttest-maintenance design was used. Participants lacked multiplication skills during the paper-and-pencil, oral facts assessment, and computerized pretests. Next, participants were trained using a match-to-sample procedure via a computer program. During match-to-sample trials, sample stimuli were presented followed by four comparisons in which one was the correct response. Four classes were trained. The stimuli in each class consisted of graphical representations, multiplication and addition facts, and the correct product. Following training, all participants demonstrated acquisition of trained relations, as well as the remaining untaught relations among the multiplication stimuli. Additionally, all participants demonstrated generalization and maintenance of both taught and untaught emergent relations in a follow up paper-and-pencil and oral multiplication fact assessments presented two weeks later.

In the research literature, few strategies have been investigated to teach behavior analytic concepts. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of stimulus equivalence procedures to a traditional study method when learning Skinner's taxonomy of verbal behavior. Graduate-level professionals participated via a web-based learning management system known as Desire2Learn (see http://www.desire2learn.com). Specifically, we used the stimulus equivalence paradigm to teach relations among the operant names, antecedents, consequences, and examples of each operant. The comparison group studied a portion of a chapter on verbal behavior (Cooper, Herron, & Heward, 2007). Generalization of responding to novel stimuli was assessed, as was the production of generative examples of verbal operants. On average, the participants in the equivalence group performed at a level that was 10 percentage points (i.e., a full letter grade) above that of the participants assigned to the traditional method of study. Thus, stimulus equivalence procedures can be used to effectively teach concepts related to Skinner's taxonomy of verbal behavior.

Individuals tend to discount the value of outcomes as a result of the probability it will occur or the delay until it does. Quantitative models for measuring the degree to which probability and delay affect such discounting have been developed and examined by many researchers. However, although probability and delay discounting are becoming well understood phenomena, there is still much about them that can be learned. This symposium will present some of the most recent research on the topic of discounting that spans from basic research, to translational findings, to applications, including: Recent work examining how the discounting of outcomes that are both delayed and probabalistic; results from a study demonstrating that individuals may differ in how individuals vary in how they value delayed gains versus delayed losses; two experiments examining the generality of delay discounting in smokers across commodities; and a series of studies that have applied delay discounting methods and to study how parents discount the value of treatment outcomes for their children with developmental disabilities as a result of delays to those outcomes.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the US. Higher degrees of impulsivity are one personality factor that is frequently associated with smoking and delay discounting is one measure of impulsive behavior. The generality of higher degrees of impulsivity, or steeper discounting, is less well known. This paper will address the generality of steeper discounting in smokers when compared to non-smokers. Two experiments will be discussed. The first experiment compares the rate of discounting across several commodities (money, alcohol, entertainment, and food) between smokers and non-smokers. Differences between groups will be discussed as well as correlations within groups. The second experiment compares delayed health outcomes in smokers and non-smokers to address methodological issues in prior studies and to try and determine what differences exist between the two groups. Implications and future directions will also be discussed.

Traumatic brain injury is a major problem that affects approximately 1.7 million people annually in the United States alone. Brain injuries result in long-term disabilities for a number of people. Animal models of brain injury have been used for the last 25 years to test numerous pharmaceutical agents. However, despite the many years of research, to date, all clinical trials have failed. One potential cause of this is a lack of behavioral characterization in experimental models. In particular, models of frontal brain injury have been underutilized despite a robust literature of operant behavioral tasks that directly assess frontal function. Additionally, these frontally-mediated behaviors have direct relevance to everyday function in human patients. This symposium will examine some of the operant measures that are currently being used to assess animals with frontal traumatic brain injury and highlight the potential for using these behavioral models as a rigorous screen for pharmaceutical agents.

The present study assesses the effects of TBI using a single subject operant conditional discrimination technique as a novel assay. Rats were trained on a conditional discrimination task that involved 200 discrete 10-s trials, separated by a 25 s inter-trial interval (ITI), where either a high pitch or low pitch tone was presented. Milk delivery would reinforce correct responses when a single left lever press occurred in the presence of a low pitch tone or a single right lever press occurred in the presence of a high pitch tone. Incorrect responses would result in transition to the ITI without milk delivery. Following 85% or higher accuracy, subjects received either a frontal TBI or a sham surgery. Following recovery, subjects resumed training on the discrimination until reacquisition occurred and then we reversed the lever-tone contingencies. Relative to the sham subjects, the TBI subjects showed an initial reduction in completed trials, a loss in the discrimination accuracy, and an increase in side bias. Reversals produced reduction in accuracy for both groups, but the sham group showed slightly better accuracy. This experiment demonstrated that single subject operant procedures might provide a sensitive tool to assess the effects of TBI.

We have previously demonstrated large deficits in discrimination performance following traumatic brain injury (TBI) across previously learned discriminations, novel discriminations and reversals. In a frontal model of TBI, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is severely damaged and has been implicated in many behaviors, including set-shifting and contingency detection. In the current study, rats were given mPFC lesions and then tested on a scent discrimination. Lesioned rats readily acquired the discrimination. However, after acquisition, differing reinforcement schedules were presented across the two choices. Choice 1 (previously reinforced at FR-1) was gradually tapered up on an FR schedule, while Choice 2 (previously unreinforced) was available on an FR-1 schedule. The lesioned rats took longer than controls to switch to Choice 2. This suggests that the damage to the mPFC may contribute strongly to some of the deficits in sensitivity to contingencies after TBI. However, given that the TBI-induced deficits are much larger and more pervasive, contributions from other cortical and subcortical regions still need to be investigated.

Disinhibition is a symptom resulting from TBI and the present study assesses response inhibition using a successive discrimination procedure. Experimental conditions exposed rats to a multiple schedule using LED flash rates as component stimuli correlated with a reinforcement contingency (SD) and extinction (S?). First, multiple schedule acquisition phase was conducted until 85% of responses occurred only in the SD component. Second, a series of generalization test probes were conducted to assess graded stimulus control. Third, a frontal TBI or sham surgery was administered followed by seven days of recovery. Finally, post-injury multiple schedule reacquisition sessions, interspaced with additional generalization probes, were run. Generalization probes involved components with flash rates that vary in resemblance to the SD component flash rates to establish generalization gradients. Injured subjects showed an abrupt reduction in response rates and poor discrimination performances in initial reacquisition. Generalization probes prior to injury showed generalization decrement around the SD. Injured subjects generalization gradients were less steep, however, still showed decrement around the SD. These results suggest that following a TBI incident there are slight but enduring errors in successive discrimination performances in comparison to rats experiencing a sham surgery.

The quality of education in the U.S. is substandard, due in part to a school climate of interpersonal conflict and bullying, and few reinforcement contingencies to support prosocial behavior, cooperative education, and behaviors relevant to improving teaching and learning. The four data-based research papers address aspects of the educational crisis, two by implementing a positive approach to successfully prevent bullying in elementary schools (Study 1) and middle schools (Study 2), a third by attempting to motivate student engagement with interteaching, and the fourth by promoting an actively caring for people (AC4P) culture in a university classroom and beyond. Three of the studies (i.e., 1, 2, & 4) demonstrate large-scale potential to benefit educational settings with AC4P principles based on applied behavior analysis. Study 3 reveals a university culture institutionalized to expect and appreciate PowerPoint lectures rather than interactive discussions. The Discussant is Derek Reed, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Board Certified Behavior Analyst Doctoral (Certificate Number 1-07-3903). An Assistant Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at University of Kansas, Dr. Reed will offer valuable insight regarding the conclusions of the presentations, especially the social validity of the AC4P approach to improving the teaching/learning culture. His credentials enable us to provide CEU credits for attendants.

This paper will summarize the intervention outcomes of the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) approach in two middle schools, which promotes prosocial behaviors and character strengths, as well as prevents undesirable behaviors, including aggression and bullying. Undergraduate research assistants (i.e., AC4P Coaches) delivered an AC4P curriculum to increase prosocial behaviors, using lesson plans, contingencies, behavior-based feedback and goal setting. Coaches taught weekly lessons to develop behavioral skills: a) performing prosocial behavior, b) expressing gratitude, and c) recognizing peers for prosocial actions. Students were told: If you observe a prosocial behavior of a classmate and document it on a notecard, you might be selected to receive an AC4P wristband to wear for the week. Plus, a group contingency was stated: If everyone wears the wristband once, everyone gets a wristband to keep at the conclusion of the lessons. Sixth and seventh-grade students completed surveys as part of the Intervention group (n= 292) and Control group (n=278). These students self-reported their prosocial behaviors as well as perpetration and victimization of aggression and bullying. The attached graph shows a 50% reduction in reported victimization for one intervention school (i.e., C). Further analysis of the data will be discussed, as well as follow-up research.

Interteaching was applied in a classroom by periodically encouraging student discussions in dyads prior to an instructor's lecture. The 62 students enrolled in an undergraduate learning course received Lecture-Only versus Lecture-plus-Interteaching on alternating days. We hypothesized: 1) students would perform better on exam questions based on material presented in lectures preceded by interteaching, and 2) interteaching would increase class participation. Two research assistants recorded independently the number of students using laptops, with on-task behaviors defined as typing notes and off-task behaviors as browsing websites. Results indicated interteaching was not a significant predictor of exam scores due to low variance in grades. Laptop users were generally on-task at the start and end of each lecture and off-task at the midpoint of lectures. As the semester progressed, more off-task behaviors occurred for laptop users. On interteaching days, students asked more questions. Compared to other classes, students reported feeling more comfortable participating in this class. However, students ranked PowerPoint lectures and the textbook as most valuable (n=21). We hypothesize the interteaching approach was judged unfavorably (n=22) because students are institutionalized to listen to PowerPoint lectures and not to actively interacting in class. The sample graphs reflect the behavior analysis leading to this conclusion.

After discovering the AC4P Movement at ABAIs Behavior Change for a Sustainable World conference, we chose to integrate aspects of the Movement in our college class in order to promote a culture of compassion among our students. We introduced aspects of the AC4P Movement to our students and campus community through our ABSC 100 course at the University of Kansas. An introductory course in applied behavioral science, ABSC 100 focuses on the scientific foundations and applications of behavior analysis. To integrate AC4P into the course, we break the assignment into two activities: (1) students select and define an instance of AC4P they will watch for throughout the semester, and then (2) follow the four steps of the AC4P process (See-Act-Pass-Share). We use a major portion of our operating budget to purchase AC4P wristbands for every student in the class. Thus, students can fully experience the AC4P approach. The response to this assignment was astoundingly positive. We will share our experiences and lessons learned, including use of the new book: Actively Caring for People: Cultivating a culture of compassion edited by Scott Geller. The figure shows the impact of our class on visits to the ac4p website.

This symposium will present four topics related to school-based assessment and intervention, ranging from individualized analysis and intervention strategies to large-scale training. The first paper will examine how selective mutism can be effectively analyzed and treated with school-based intervention. The second paper will examine peers perceptions regarding the fairness of individualized reward programs for children with challenging behaviour. The third study will discuss a large-scale training initiative in Iowa, which aimed to improve the quality and quantity of pre-treatment assessments. The fourth presentation will provide a comprehensive review of the school-based functional assessment literature and provide several suggestions for future research areas.

Selective mutism is a rare childhood disorder characterized by a persistent failure to speak under one or more environmental conditions despite speaking under other environmental conditions (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). If left untreated, selective mutism can limits opportunities for academic involvement and social interactions (Grover, Hughes, Bergman, & Kingery, 2006). The participant was a five-year-old typically developing child who rarely spoke in her preschool classroom; however, when she did it was typically one-word whispers. We developed a comprehensive methodology to assess the antecedent conditions (e.g., setting, familiarity of people present) under which vocal-verbal responses were unlikely to occur, and results showed that the presence of peers and number of peers present was the environmental variable influencing the non-occurrence of vocal-verbal behavior (i.e., answering questions using two or more words at conversation level). Based on these results, we implemented a stimulus-fading procedure in which we slowly increased the number of peers present. In addition, generalization probes were conducted to determine the point at which responding generalized to the classroom environment that contained approximately 20 peers. Results showed that the stimulus fading procedure was effective for increasing vocal-verbal responding and generalization to the typical classroom environment.

One common concern among teachers is the degree to which such individualized reinforcement systems are fair to other children. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which peers noticed the individual programs designed for their peers and whether they believed those programs were fair or unfair. We interviewed 199 children across seven classrooms in five primary schools. In each classroom, one or more children engaged in challenging behavior that was deemed significant enough to warrant an individualized reinforcement or reward program. We found that most children did not report individualized reinforcement/reward systems for their peers, but rather focused on class-wide reinforcers that were differentially available to all pupils. When children did identify reinforcers/rewards for the target children, most children reported that these rewards were fair. We discuss these results in terms of variables that might influence childrens perceptions of rewards and directions for future research.

The Iowa Department of Education initiated a 5-year contract with behavior analysts at the University of Iowas Center for Disabilities and Development in the fall of 2009 to provide a statewide training program for challenging behavior teams who practice in school settings. Training was offered via didactic lectures (e.g., behavioral principles, behavior assessment) and by directly assessing students who were referred to the challenging behavior teams for engaging in a variety of challenging behaviors (e.g., work refusal, aggression, self-injurious behaviors). Training focused on designing, conducting, and interpreting preference assessments, functional analyses, antecedent analyses, and concurrent operants assessments. Trainees are using these assessments in their practice. During Year 4 of the contract, trainees reported that they conducted, on average, 11 preference assessments, 5 functional analyses, 3 antecedent analyses, and 3 concurrent operants assessments outside of training sessions. Functional behavior assessment summaries have been reviewed each year of the project. At the end of Year 1, 29% of the summaries included one of the taught assessments. At the end of Year 4, 89% of the summaries included one of the taught assessments. With the inclusion of these assessments, we are observing an improvement in the quality of functional behavior assessments.

Behavior change is hard for humans. From discrete trial training to parent training we see humans trying to change their own behavior in such a way as to foster behavior change in another. From discrete trials to parent training, we see humans struggling with changing and with being changed. Integrating components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training (ACT) may be a way to direct and dignify the hard work of behavioral interventions. This symposium will explore the conceptual and practical implications of this idea. The first paper focuses on understanding the detrimental role relational responding can have on application and integrity of implementation of behavioral parenting techniques. The second paper reviews a method of using ACT bibliotherapy to help supercharge a behavior analytic approach to severe problem behavior with people diagnosed with developmental disabilities. The third presents a parent training program that integrates ACT with practical, research-based parenting tools. The final paper discusses the utility of values, acceptance, and mindfulness techniques.

The literature on Behavioral Parent Training is extant; however, it is well know that there is a wide chasm between parents' ability to learn the skill sets and their subsequent ability to implement the skills when the going gets tough. This paper is designed to focus clinicians' efforts towards understanding the detrimental role relational responding can have on application and integrity of implementation of behavioral parenting techniques. Through work in the area of values identification and viewing rules that may function as motivative operations (motivative augmentals), it may be possible to positively affect parents' views of parenting ability in difficult situations, and improve parenting skills implementation. Following this paper, audience members will understand the role and impact that values and rule governance may have on our performance and be able to identify how to work with parents on established self-rules in an effort to impact motivative function (motivative augmentals) and result in performance change in parenting interventions.

Sometimes it feels that reinforcement just isnt working, and in these times we might consider infusing language to amplify our traditional behavioral approaches. Behavior analysts have a long history of being some of the only few people who can help improve the lives of those diagnosed with developmental disabilities and autism. However, there are some folks with good language skills who sit on the cusp of this population that often present with little to no disability. These are tough cases, even for an experienced behavior analyst. The persons verbal behavior can often become a barrier to the good implementation of typically effective behavior analytic treatment or may even hamper its efficacy. In this paper, we will examine a particularly case in which this has happened and explore (through role-play and discussion) how to use ACT tools with people in this population to increase the efficacy and efficiency of behavioral treatment.

Behaviorism is often regarded as the philosophy of the science of behavior ( Skinner, 1974). Within behaviorism there are a wide range of viewpoints on the philosophical assumptions and how they relate to the subject matter of behavior analysis. This symposium will outline several various philosophical positions found across the schools of behaviorism. Many of the earlier positions on behaviorism presented the subject matter in a mechanistic or linear fashion. These approaches have plagued the conceptual understanding of the philosophy of the science of behavior since the early days of behavior analysis. However, there are several systems of behaviorism that do highlight the various factors involved with complex event interactions. The primary focus of these presentations will be on the dynamic systems of behaviorism that often have contextual flavors to them. The authors will pay particularly close attention on the work of Zing-Yang Kuo, Israel Goldiamond, Paul Schiller, and J. R. Kantor.

Behaviorism is often regarded as the philosophy of the science of behavior ( Skinner, 1974). Within behaviorism there are a wide range of viewpoints on the philosophical assumptions and how they relate to the subject matter. The current presentation will outline several various philosophical positions found across the schools of behaviorism. Many of the earlier positions on behaviorism presented the subject matter in a mechanistic or liner fashion. These approaches have plagued the conceptual understanding of the philosophy of the science of behavior since the early days of behavior analysis. There are several systems of behaviorism that do highlight the various factors involved with complex event interactions. The primary focus of this presentation will be on the dynamic systems of behaviorism that often have contextual flavors to them. The stage will be set for a discussion to be followed by other presenters on various schools of behaviorism that often are neglected and forgotten.

The variables that control behavior are not an amalgamation of static stimulus conditions. Rather, behavior is “changing, fluid, and evanescent” (Skinner, 1953). This conceptualization is described by Israel Goldiamond whose pragmatic nonlinear approach to behavior recommends a multidimensional analysis. That is, one must acknowledge that the topography, function, history, and detection (measurement) of behavior may all yield varied accounts. An advantage to such a system is that it can bring the behavior of the scientist under multiple sources of control, engendering more effective technology. The purpose of this presentation is to highlight some of the key considerations presented by Israel Golddiamond, primarily from his comprehensive text entitled simply “The Blue Books.”

Social behavior in dogs has received attention from ethologists but less attention from behavior analysts. Thus, despite a general interest in dog play and dog-human interactions, the variables that control and produce such ubiquitous behaviors are not clearly delineated. In the three papers presented in this symposium, we address common dog behaviors that, despite being common, have not been typically explored in a behavior analytic fashion. Conspecific (dog-dog play) and heterospecific (human-dog) interactions are investigated using behavioral techniques to elucidate the variables that produce dog-dog and human-dog social interactions. Mehrkam and Wynne investigated the role of human attention for conspecific dog play, teasing apart antecedent and consequent functions for dog play. Feuerbacher and Wynne investigated dogs' preferences for types of human social interaction and whether owner return after an absence functions as a reinforcer for dogs. Finally, Muir and Feuerbacher investigated whether dogs who show separation related problem behavior are more sensitive to human attention as a reinforcer than dogs not showing such problem behavior.

Play in nonhuman animals is of great interest to animal behaviorists, but proves difficult to study scientifically due to a lack of knowledge about the immediate stimuli that influence play (Bekoff & Byers, 1998; Burghardt, 2005). Domestic dogs are widely cited as a species that engage in play at high levels and are accessible, and regularly engage in social play in the presence of their caretakers, especially when caretaker attention is available (Mehrkam, Verdi & Wynne, in press; Mehrkam & Wynne, under review). We aimed to determine if the relationship between owner attention and social play could be accounted for using a behavior analytic approach. We conducted three experiments to determine if owner attention serves as a discriminative stimulus, establishing operation, or a reinforcer for social play in dogs. In addition, a functional analysis was conducted of social play in which various antecedents and consequences were presented that would be expected to increase social play levels. Finally, we investigated whether breed influenced the topography and motivation to engage in social play. Our results indicate that social play is highly sensitive to environmental variables; the specific role of owner attention is highly dependent on individual intraspecific and interspecific relationships.

Domestic dogs in Western society are often treated like family members. Research demonstrates they show attachment behaviors to adult humans similar to those shown by human infants (Gacsi, Topal, Miklosi, Doka, and Csa'nyi, 2001; Topal, Miklosi, Doka, & Csa'nyi, 1998). We investigated dogs' preferences for their owners compared to strangers using concurrent choice in familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Dogs were more likely to engage with a stranger in a familiar context than in an unfamiliar one, in which dogs preferred owners. We then assessed whether, after an absence, owner return to the dog would function as a reinforcer for the dog's behavior. We tested this by investigating whether we could shape an arbitrary response (movement away from the departure door and towards a target location) by making owner return contingent on successive approximations toward the target. If dog behavior can be shaped by owner return, separation related problem behaviors might have an operant component and be amenable to an operant treatment. We measured latency to respond (move toward the target) and used an escalating criterion based on distance to shape the target response. We also investigated within session dynamics to detect possible satiation effects.

Separation related problem behavior is a severe behavioral disorder in domestic dogs. Differences between normal dogs and dogs exhibiting separation related problem behaviors are relatively unknown. Previous research has found that brief social interaction is a relatively poor reinforcer compared to food for a nose touch (Feuerbacher & Wynne, 2012). We hypothesized that dogs exhibiting this problem behavior might be more sensitive to owner attention as a reinforcer than normal dogs. We used the same paradigm to assess normal dogs and dogs exhibiting separation related problem behaviors to investigate whether brief social interaction from the owner would maintain more responding in dogs with the problem behavior than normal dogs. Dogs received a minimum of 12 sessions in which either 4 s of social interaction or a small piece of food was delivered contingent on a nose touch. Each dog experienced alternating sets of three sessions of each condition (social interaction or food). We compared the total number of nose touches per condition and per session that normal and problem behavior dogs emitted, as well as the latency to respond.

Much of the research in training verbal skills to children with autism or language delays is largely centered around establishing a basic repertoire of echoics, mands, tacts, and intraverbals leaving much to be desired. Skinner's own approach to verbal behavior extended far beyond these basic concepts, and more advanced verbal operants included in his analysis have been utilized in language training only minimally. Additionally, behavior-analytic investigations of verbal behavior have since extended into stimulus equivalence and relational frames which both offer many benefits to establishing a verbal repertoire and may have further implications for teaching verbal skills to children with language delays. The PEAK Relational Training System, a verbal behavior and academic curriculum for children with autism that incorporates all of these basic and more advanced learning areas, holds promise in extending the current methods of behavior analytic language training. The present research examines the psychometric validity and reliability of PEAK, as well as barriers, agency satisfaction, and practical utility of the system. Approaches such as these may further allow behavior analysts to promote verbal skills in children with autism that are more generative and more broadly applied to enhance functioning in the natural environment.

Verbal skills curriculums and assessments for children with autism hold value for a practitioner or agency only if the implementation of such a system is feasible, sustainable, and produces the outcomes desired from such a package. This presentation focuses on one community provider's attempts at implementing the PEAK Relational Training System on persons with autism. We will highlight the initial identified barriers to implementation of the system, discuss further training needs for successful implementation, showcase outcomes of children with autism who were engaged with the system, and discuss social validity measures of the PEAK Relational Training System, including reported ratings of implementer and agency satisfaction, feasibility of use, and long term sustainability. Finally, we will present a model of how to attain optimal PEAK outcomes based on the results of mass implementation throughout one service agency with children with autism. Overall, staff reliably reported that the PEAK Relational Training System and assessment were easy to implement, that children were demonstrating visible progress, and that they were highly satisfied with the curriculum and assessment.

Despite the number of assessment protocols available to practitioners in a data-driven field, measures of validity and reliability of these assessments remain a rarity. The purpose of the present research was to examine psychometric properties of the PEAK Relational Training System, a comprehensive assessment/curriculum for verbal and academic skills. First, 13 children with autism completed the PEAK assessment and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a measure frequently utilized to assess verbal skills in children, before and after training using the PEAK curriculum. A Pearson correlation showed a significant (p < .01), strong relationship between the measures at pre-training (r=.9) and post-training (r=.89), establishing convergent validity for the PEAK assessment. Next, 36 students with autism completed both the PEAK assessment and the Receptive and Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Tests. Strong correlations were observed between scores on PEAK and the receptive test (r=.834), and the expressive test (r=.824), further supporting the convergent validity of the PEAK assessment. To investigate social validity, ABA implementers rated the PEAK assessment and VB-MAPP on ease and length of implementation, and the likelihood of future use. Results indicated that practitioners found PEAK easier and quicker than the VB-MAPP, and 66% reported a preference for PEAK.

The current presentation will showcase how a normative sample of typical developing school children were captured using the PEAK Relational Training System Assessment. Over 100 students of various age ranges with no known or documented disabilities were administered the Direct Training Assessment of the PEAK Relational Training System and their aggregate scores were compared to children with autism across similar age ranges. Each child was administered the PEAK Direct Training Assessment which evaluated the presence or absence of 184 skills which focused on academic, verbal, cognitive, and social development shown to be aligned with Common Core Standards, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and IQ. Performances were then evaluated and compared to children with Autism exposed to the same assessment. This normative technique provides for a comparison of children with autism to typically developing peers, and also expands beyond developmental milestones hypothesized to be constant across children within a given age group.

Although an overwhelming amount of effective treatments for children with autism are based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, there still exist many differences and variations in the methods and procedures used by practitioners to develop verbal behavior for children with autism. Current behavior analytic research in the field of autism continues to evaluate and advance verbal behavior intervention designed to improve the lives of individuals with the disorder. Research continues to evaluate the most effective strategies for presenting distracter stimuli during skill acquisition programs, the effect of sequence for training receptive and expressive skills, and the optimal number of intervention targets.

Language acquisition is typically described in two forms in the applied behavior analytic field. When a child responds to a stimulus event (SD) with a non-spoken response and reinforcement is socially mediated, the response is classified as receptive. When a child responds with a spoken response, the response is classified as expressive. Behavior curriculums designed to address communicative issues recommend that language acquisition programs begin with non-spoken (receptive) tasks followed by spoken (expressive) tasks. However, these recommendations have little support in the literature and some studies even indicate the reverse sequence would be more efficient. This study evaluated the sequence effects of training receptive verbal behavior prior to expressive and vice versa. Results were mixed with regard to overall efficiency but participants generalized in the expressive before receptive condition with almost no generalization occurring in receptive before expressive tasks. These findings suggest expressive before receptive training might be the preferred method more often than not with specific populations.

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) offers a functional account of human language and cognition, and has developed a vibrant program of research since its introduction to the behavior analytic community in 1985 (Hayes & Brownstein, 1985). Research on perspective taking has been especially influential, offering a functional account for Theory of Mind with clear clinical implications. According to RFT, perspective taking involves a specific type of relational framing, deictic framing, which develops through a well-developed relational repertoire and sufficient multiple exemplars (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001). Deictic responding abilities are positively correlated with higher cognitive ability, less delinquent behavior, and a more secure sense of self (Leader & Barnes-Holmes, 2001). Research shows that deictic framing plays an important role in typical development, while a deficit in deictic framing ability can result in the development of clinical difficulties such as social anhedonia and schizophrenia (Vilardaga et al., 2012, Villatte et al., 2010). Research on perspective taking could translate beyond clinical interventions, to cultural, community, and organizational contexts This panel will discuss updated research on deictic framing and perspective taking, with particular emphasis on the implications of basic research to the development of interdisciplinary intervention programs that can foster social change.

Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field including the sciences of biology, psychology, physiology, nutrition, and nursing, to name a few. While the definition varies between professionals and sciences, behavioral medicine is largely defined as the environmental approach to treatment of disease and other health related conditions. Behavior analysts, while having huge potential to contribute to the growing field of behavioral medicine, publish most of their work in behavior analytic journals, exclusively. This soloed approach to the science of behavior analysis makes dissemination and collaboration between fields challenging, especially a field like behavioral medicine, where the contributions are largely interdisciplinary. This paper presentation examines the recent trends in behavior analysis with regard to behavioral medicine, behavioral medicine journal publications, and presentations at the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the Association for Behavior Analysis International conferences. An analysis of Behavioral Medicine as an independent science will be provided and recommendations for conducting and disseminating interdisciplinary behavior analytic work between will be discussed.

Pediatric encopresis is a childhood disorder that is extremely debilitating for children and their families, and it can be very difficult to treat successfully. Many children are resistant to initial treatment efforts, and currently there are no well-established evidence-based treatment recommendations for pediatric encopresis (van Dijk et al., 2007). The limited evidence on encopresis treatment suggests that protocols that include comprehensive behavioral interventions as well as intensive medical management strategies are the most successful (McGrath, Mellon, & Murphy, 2000). Additionally, there is little research about the influence of factors such as comorbid behavior problems, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and parental tolerance of the child on the course and the treatment of chronic encopresis. The present series of data analyses served to evaluate the effectiveness of a manualized, parent-administered treatment protocol for chronic encopresis and also investigate changes in important contextual factors (e.g., behavior problems, parental tolerance, quality of the parent-child relationship) across treatment. Eleven parents of children meeting diagnostic criteria for encopresis were included in the present research. Participants reported that their children (age range 4 to 10 years old; M = 7 years; SD = 2.12; 63% male) had been struggling with soiling for an average of about 36 months (SD = 20.94). Following one month of parent-administered treatment, all participants (100%) reported improvements in their child's soiling. Overall, participants reported an 81% reduction in soiling from baseline. The present research is associated with a cure rate of 45% (5 participants were accident-free for the last two weeks of data collection). Findings suggest that a parent-administered treatment for encopresis may not only be effective, it may work very quickly to reduce soiling episodes and to increase independently-initiated bowel movements. Results also indicate that the treatment of encopresis is associated with a reduction of parent-reported behavior problems (both internalizing and externalizing), changes in parental perceptions of the child's soiling, and stability in the parent-child relationship at post-treatment. The present research employed novel data collection techniques (with participants tracking behavior daily online), and findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of the encopretic child and his or her family.

Individuals with disabilities frequently use visual supports as a method of improving skill acquisition. The types of visual supports may be simple, such as pictures or photographs, or high tech, such as the presentation of videos to learners on portable devices. The studies in this symposium expand the current research base on the application of visually based instruction on the improvement of recreation/leisure, fitness, and functional life skills of adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. The first study examined the use of a picture schedule to teach three adults with intellectual disability to use iPads in the context of playing the game Angry Birds. The second study utilized a video modeling approach on iPod Touches to teach three high school students with autism and intellectual disability to independently complete a workout routine in a community setting. The third study compared the efficiency and effectiveness of video prompting with iPod Touches across three types of skills: multi-component skills (single-step behaviors that are repeated during a session), multi-step tasks (a behavior that consists of multiple steps), and sequential tasks (a series of multi-step tasks that make up a larger task). Data from all three studies indicate that visually based instruction led to improvement in target behaviors. Implications for practice and directions for future research will be discussed.

Individuals with developmental disabilities have limited opportunities to participate in leisure activities, frequently due to lack of skills. The purpose of the current study was to teach three adults diagnosed with intellectual disability to use an iPad in the context of playing the video game Angry Birds. The steps of the task included opening the cover of the iPad, unlocking the device, opening Angry Birds, playing the game, and putting the iPad away. Instruction took place during breaks in a private room at a sheltered workshop where the participants were employed. During intervention, participants had access to a picture-based activity schedule to aid in completion of the task. In some cases, extra prompts were provided to increase participants' attention to the activity schedule. All three participants showed improvement in the target skill with intervention and gains were maintained during post-intervention follow-up.

A multiple-baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a video-modeling intervention delivered on an iPod Touch to teach three high school students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability to compete a workout routine at the local community fitness center. The video modeling intervention resulted in an increase in the number of steps completed independently by each participant. In addition, each participant showed an increase in the correct use of form associated with specific exercises.

In this study, three students with intellectual and developmental disabilities were taught basic vocational and daily living skills using video prompting. Three different types of tasks were targeted. The multi-component task was defined as a single task completed repetitively. For example, folding a basket of towels or stacking up chairs from around a table would be multi-component tasks. The multi-component task selected for this study was folding long-sleeve t-shirts. A multi-step task was defined as completing a single task made up of many steps. For example, washing dishes, cleaning a table, or washing windows would all be multi-step tasks. The multi-step task selected for this study was making lemonade. Finally, a sequential task was defined as completing a group of tasks that make up a larger task. For example, putting away the groceries would be a sequential task. The sequential task selected for this study was loading dishes. Using a multiple probe across participants for each task, we examined the effectiveness and efficiency of video prompting in skill acquisition across these tasks. Implications for practice and directions for future research will be discussed.

This symposium encompasses three studies that emphasize the evolution of applied behavior analysis. Each study is focused on investigating problem behavior that occurs under idiosyncratic circumstances, which due to the complexity of the stimulus conditions under which the behavior is evoked, often produces inconclusive assessment and treatment results. The first presentation will describe an indirect measure for identifying specific stimuli that are likely to evoke problem behavior called the Nonpreferred Events Interview Form (NEIF). Correspondence between the NEIF and other more direct assessments indicated that it is an acceptable tool to identify potential negative reinforcers of problem behavior that can be evaluated during treatment. The second presentation focuses on assessment and treatment procedures for pica, with a particular emphasis on teaching alternative behaviors that reduce the opportunity for the behavior to occur. The final presentation is a retrospective study that summarizes data from 28 participants over a 15-year period related to various assessment and treatment procedures for individuals who engage in problem behavior to increase the likelihood that others with comply with mands. For each study, extensive data have been collected and interobserver agreement is appropriate.

Pica, the ingestion of non-nutritive substances, is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening behavior that is often displayed by individuals with developmental disabilities. Although it is well established in the literature that pica is most likely to be maintained by automatic reinforcement, there is a void related to interventions regarding teaching alternative behaviors that reduce the opportunity for pica to occur. For the current study, pica displayed by three participants with developmental disabilities was targeted for assessment and treatment. Results of functional analyses indicated that for all participants, pica was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Treatment focused on establishing a controlling prompt to clean up the area, response interruption and redirection, and differentially reinforcing multiple alternative behaviors for each participant, such as picking up and discarding or vacuuming up pica items. With treatment implemented, significant reductions were obtained for all participants. Effects were also maintained over time after thinning the schedule of reinforcement. After finalizing the comprehensive treatments in a contrived setting, extensive generalization occurred across settings and people.

Domestication as a special form of evolution offers valuable insights into how genomic variation contributes to complex differences in behavioral and morphological phenotypes. The genetics-centered view of the domestication is supported by experimental selection of farm-bred foxes (Vulpes vulpes) that begun at the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics in the 1950s. Selection of foxes for either tame or aggressive behavior, has yielded two strains with markedly different, genetically determined behavioral phenotypes. Tame-strain foxes communicate with humans in a positive manner and are eager to establish human contact. Foxes from the aggressive strain are aggressive to humans and difficult to handle. Although the foxes were selected solely for behavior, changes in physiology, morphology, and appearance with significant parallels to characteristics of the domestic dog, were observed in tame-strain foxes. These two fox strains provide a rich resource for investigating the genetics of complex social behaviors. Although the focus of our work is on the genetics of domestication in the silver fox, there is a broader context. In particular, one expectation of the silver fox research is that it will be synergistic with studies in other species, including humans, to yield a more comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms and evolution of a wider range of social interactive behaviors.

The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group invites you to formally recognize the contributions of Dr. Harry MacKay. Dr. Mackays research examines behavioral processes, particularly forms of conditional discrimination, that are relevant to teaching rudimentary aspects of preacademic skills to people with and without developmental disabilities. Dr. William Dube, a former student, longtime friend, and colleague of Dr. MacKay's, will review and reflect upon Dr. MacKay's career and his many contributions toward advancing our understanding of complex human behavior. Subsequently, Dr. MacKay will deliver a data-based award address in which he will review the current state of his research program with an eye toward future directions. Please join us to appreciate and celebrate the career of Dr. Harry MacKay.

On the occasion of Dr. Mackay's acceptance of the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior SIG Career Award, I will briefly review his career and contributions. Dr. Mackay played an important role in the ground-breaking Lavers Hall Project in 1965, when he and other members of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service started to apply the methods of behavior analysis for the first time with institutionalized boys with severe intellectual disabilities. Dr. Mackay's subsequent contributions include the development of methods to teach conditional discriminations to individuals with severe intellectual disabilities, the constructed-response matching-to-sample technique, analysis of sequential stimulus classes and ordinal class membership, and studies in several areas relevant to stimulus equivalence research.

This Professional Development Series (PDS) event is hosted by the ABAI Student Committee. With the ever increasing number educational programs in Behavior Analysis, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, it is logical to apply the subject matter to the study of the subject matter! This panel will allow established Behavior Analysts to share their wisdom with current students who are studying Behavior Analysis. This panel will consist of three doctoral level Behavior Analysts from around the United States. Dr. Greer is from Columbia University Teacher's College where he trains hundreds of Behavior Analysts. Dr. Bruce has taught many graduate students at West Virginia University and the Florida Institute of Technology. Finally, Dr. Miguel actively teaches and supervises graduate students at California State University, Sacramento. Their combined experience and expertise promise to make an excellent panel. This event should attract undergraduate and graduate students alike! This is Student Committee Professional Development Series event.

The first two studies tested (1) the effects of video Instruction on new teachers performing protocol procedures and (2) the emergence of the correspondence between saying and doing as it related to the complexity of task completion for staff employed at a day school which applied the strategies and tactics of behavior analysis to teaching. The last study showed how the teacher training packets (e.g., TPRA, completion of teacher training modules, etc.) affected students outcomes in terms of the amount of weekly instructions, short term objectives met, long term objectives met, and strategic decision makings to accelerate student's learning.

We tested the effects of a training video that demonstrated how to implement a Generalized Imitation protocol on new teachers performing the procedures accurately, using a non-concurrent multiple probe design across participants. The participants were 14 first-year master students from a major university who had never conducted instruction on generalized imitation prior to the study. The dependent variable was the number of teachers performing protocol procedures with 100% accuracy. The independent variable was the training video that demonstrated procedures for: (a) pre-intervention probe, (b) generalization imitation training, and post-intervention probe. We found that the participants could not perform the procedures accurately during baseline condition, and watching the training video significantly increased their accuracy.

A comprehensive application of behavior analysis collectively termed CABAS (Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling) was applied to a specialized, publicly funded day school program for children with autism. The CABAS model is an example of a systematic application of behavior analysis to a school setting in which the science of behavior analytic organizational systems are applied to both the education of students and the training of staff and parents. We analyzed the positive relations between teacher training and student outcomes by using three school year data. The implementation of these components showed that the organizational schooling system improved the quality of science based-teaching and students' learning.

Change in large organizations is a complex and lengthy process. Many people with different interests are involved and the multiple decisions that must be made can substantially influence intended outcomes. These decisions are made by leaders, either established or emerging, who rely on a variety of techniques to determine the best course of action. Decision making at the leadership level requires information that may not be readily accessible. This symposium will outline the creation, adaptation and adoption of three tools used at the University of Nevada School of Medicine (UNSOM) during an organization-wide curricular restructuring. Leadership from UNSOM and the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno collaborated to create an emerging leader interview project to address faculty concerns regarding the curricular change and to adapt the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to guide aspects of curricular development regarding implicit biases in students. Leadership adopted the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Faculty Forward Engagement Survey to evaluate faculty engagement and development.

The impact of medical practitioners implicit biases on the quality of care provided to patients perceived as different from themselves has been well documented. Medical education has frequently addressed these biases in classroom settings, but there is evidence that in some cases, simply teaching about cultural differences may only reinforce some negative stereotypes. Therefore, understanding the nature of implicit biases and acknowledging the potential negative effect on doctor-patient relationships may offer a more effective approach to enhancing the cultural competence curriculum in medical education. At UNSOM, the IRAP has been adapted to measure implicit bias in this medical student population, with the intent of shaping the curriculum to address these biases. This presentation will discuss the process of developing the IRAP for this specific population, the current work being done and the intended outcome of integrating the IRAP into future curriculum development.

Medical schools employ large numbers of faculty in both the clinical and basic sciences, averaging about 500 faculty members per medical school. The assessment and evaluation of large numbers of faculty makes it difficult to pinpoint areas for development and opportunities to increase faculty engagement. The AAMC recognized this issue and created the Faculty Forward Engagement Survey which measures faculty satisfaction with numerous aspects of their work environment. Faculty members survey responses are aggregated and benchmarked against responses at cohort schools to create an institutional report detailing actionable areas for improvement. Identified areas can then be targeted by leaders to improve faculty development activities and engage faculty in problem solving. This presentation will detail the events at UNSOM leading up to the implementation of Faculty Forward, the reasons this survey instrument was chosen, how it was customized to this institution and how the results are being used to guide organizational change.

This talk will cover core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder and will discuss the current pharmacological approach to targeting symptoms of ASD. Educating caregivers is important when considering medication, and it is helpful to remember the medical contributors to disruptive behavior. Behavior analysts can help to identify the function of behavior and how the environment may be arranged to improve outcomes. Physicians can help treat symptoms of a disorder and identify interfering medical issues. Both have common goals for an individual client and the family’s improved quality of life. When doctors and behavior analysts can work together, they can improve the support they provide to families and children.

Continued refinements in training method is a hallmark of Applied Behavior Analysis. The papers in this symposium represent further efforts to evaluate effective teaching procedures with children diagnosed on the autism spectrum and typically developing children. Manding, tacting, and intraverbaling will be discussed with a focus on how to affect performance in efficient ways.

Teaching using matrix programming has been shown to result in recombinative generalization. However, this procedure has not been compared to more standard discrete trial training formats such as DTT. This study compared acquisition and recombinative generalization of two-component tacts using each procedure. Matrix training was found to be more efficient than the DTT format. Half the amount of teaching was required to teach roughly the same number of targets using matrix training as compared to DTT.

Although numerous instructional strategies can produce skill acquisition for children with and without developmental disabilities, these strategies do not necessarily produce similar outcomes across participants. It may be the case that certain repertoires mediate the effects of intervention, such as an echoic repertoire. The proposed symposium includes three studies that evaluated the role of echoic behavior in the acquisition of novel skills. In the first study, Anthony and colleagues evaluated the role of echoic behavior during instructive feedback. The authors attempted to prevent the occurrence of echoic behavior by requiring participants to engage in an alternative task immediately following the presentation of instructive feedback. In the second study, Zemantic and colleagues measured echoic and attending behavior during instructive feedback. Participants who did not demonstrate echoic or attending behavior did not benefit from instructive feedback, but they responded positively to intervention when they were subsequently required to engage in these behaviors. In the third study by Carp and colleagues, the authors evaluated whether requiring echoic behavior facilitated acquisition of auditory-visual conditional discriminations. This collection of studies will present data on the role of echoic behavior during skill acquisition programs and provide recommendations for future research and practice

Previous studies have evaluated the usefulness of presenting additional stimuli during learning trials. When presenting additional stimuli, responses to these stimuli are not required and if a response is provided, no feedback is given. This procedure has been associated with increases in instructional efficiency for some learners but not others. Although this approach may be an attractive option for teachers, little is known about the types of learners that are likely to benefit from this procedure. Along this line, it may be important that learners engage in an echoic response following the presentation of the additional stimulus. An echoic response may be considered a mediating response that may play a role in the learners acquisition of additional stimuli. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a procedure aimed at blocking the occurrence of an echoic response to help determine the necessity of this response during teaching that incorporates additional stimuli. Results indicate that acquisition of the secondary targets was delayed for two of the three participants in the condition that involved attempts to block the echoic response. The discussion of results will further consider operant mechanisms and learner characteristics that could be explored in future studies.

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.

Despite the efficacy of reinforcement-based procedures for increasing appropriate behaviors, there is still reluctance to adopt them, especially within educational settings. This reluctance is due to a popular Social Theory concept called the Overjustification Effect. Researchers have suggested that reinforcement procedures reduce intrinsic motivation to perform a behavior after reinforcement has been terminated. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine the prevalence and magnitude of the overjustification effect when token reinforcement is withheld following a period of reinforcement. There have been additional suggestions that the expectancy of rewards increases the likelihood of the overjustification effect; therefore, this study also compared expected and unexpected reinforcement conditions. A reversal design was used to analyze the experimental conditions in which undergraduate students were presented with basic math problems under different reinforcement contingencies. The overjustification effect was observed in 2 of the 12 participants (once in the unexpected condition; once in the expected condition). Overall, the results of the study did not show a significant prevalence of the overjustification effect, and there does not appear to be a difference as to the expectancy of rewards.