Association for Behavior Analysis International

Participants are welcome to come enjoy a yoga and Pilates workout led by certified instructors. There is no experience necessary to participate in this moderate exercise session. Wear comfortable clothes and bring a towel or mat. You will strengthen and stretch tired conference muscles. This event is held in partnership with the Health, Sports and Fitness SIG.

State the most important issues to consider

Define and provide examples of "behavioral cusps"

Describe the importance of considering future environments

Discuss the importance of independence, work, and community participation for adults

Develop a fundraising plan for initiating programs

Measure the capacity of a leadership team in a developing country to provide sustainable services for children with autism

Conduct a needs assessment to determine training needed

Evaluate volunteers' applications to match specified needs

Develop a training program with materials and data collection systems to ensure sustainability of services to children with autism

Develop strategies and contacts for meeting with political leaders in developing countries

Identify the differences between functional and basic/conceptual skills

Identify four broad skill clusters of functional skills

Identify and assess 31 specific skill groupings of functional skills

Choose initial instructional skills for teaching functional skills

Identify methods to teach functional skills in various settings

Identify methods to measure and track progress of functional skills from initial assessment and throughout the teaching process

Use a variety of technological applications to assist learners with ASD

Use technology to teach both in a classroom setting and portably

Use technology with adolescents to promote independence

Identify specific needs of the learner with ASD and design the appropriate intervention using any of a variety of technology-based interventions

Identify research-based instructional strategies used to promote physical fitness safety, sports performance, and leisure skills for individuals with ASDs in community settings

Identify measurement procedures to promote accountability in fitness programs, including measures of social validity in a school-based running program and a community fitness center

List the necessary components of an effective leisure and fitness programs for individuals with autism spectrum disorders

Modify their consulting techniques and interventions based on a goodness of fit survey to enhance contextual fit

Describe three ways in which technology could enhance service to their clients and discuss the ethical considerations for each use

Define subtractive bilingualism, additive bilingualism, and semilingualism and provide one example of each

Describe at least five key elements of a functional common ground between behaviour analysis and applied linguistics

Develop an example of a play-based scenario to enhance social communication in the form of reciprocity, joint attention, and relatedness

Identify and respond to ethical questions pertaining to cross-cultural treatment settings and practices in accordance with BACB ethics guidelines

Use ABA methods such as extinction and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors (DRA) to decrease problem behaviors in children with autism and other special needs

Describe the effective use of additional reductive techniques, such as DRO, DRI, DRL, NRC, behavioral momentum, time out, and response cost, as demonstrated by their ability to answer questions regarding these methods

Identify various curricula targeting learning to learn skills

Implement procedures to teach learning to learn skills

Identify how learning to learn skills can help improve other behaviors (e.g., language, social skills, decrease in aberrant behaviors)

Define evidence-based practice for individuals with an ASD

Identify specific interventions and/or treatments found to have quality empirical support in the treatment literature

Describe several sources of evidence-based intervention reviews including target populations and key review standards

Identify steps necessary to systematically build capacity within a human service agency or school setting

Utilize tools provided in the workshop to initiate capacity building

List developmental concepts that relate to early behavioral intervention

Characterize skills that are present or absent in young children with autism and that are behavioral cusps for autistic development

List major therapeutic goals for the first 3 months of intervention as they relate to the precursors of autism

Describe teaching strategies to accomplish the major therapeutic goals for the first 3 months of intervention

Plan the following months of therapy

Combine the technology of ABA and the technology of an iPad to create behavior change in individuals with autism

Identify how different apps on the iPad can help learners using shaping, modeling, and imitation

Use the iPad to maximize incidental teaching opportunities via making curriculum adaptations on the iPad

Use the iPad to teach students self-management

Use the Pad as a behavior change procedure to promote stimulus and response generalization

Design and implement programs on the iPad that will help monitor treatment integrity and treatment adherence to protocols

State the behavioral and theoretical foundations on which the study of inner behavior rests

Define thoughts, feelings, and urges and name specific ones in each category

State the behavioral theory and fundamental points and their familiarity with the research on observing and changing inner behavior

Practice writing positive thoughts, feelings, and/or urges at 30–35 per minute and saying them at 50–75 per minute

Count and record some specific inner behaviors for the duration of the workshop

Discuss and develop a plan to change inner behaviors of self or clients

Identify at lease two aspects of fluency training for classroom interventions

Identify at lease two antecedent training methods to address recall deficits

Identify three behavior management techniques useful in the classroom and community

Identify contingencies (antecedents, consequences, functions, replacement skills, and reinforcers) for parent/caregiver behavior

Identify intervention strategies (preventative and reactive) to use to achieve effective implementation by parents/caregivers

Identify ethical issues in the field and their importance to the general public as well as to behavior analysts

Describe primary ethical principles that underlie the content of the Guidelines for Responsible Conduct

Identify and analyze ethical dilemmas that are often encountered by behavior analysts and other service providers

Assess and realize the usefulness of the Guidelines for Responsible Conduct as a tool in making ethical decisions

Use the six steps delineated in the ethical decision making model to resolve ethical dilemmas that are likely to occur in the service delivery process

Identify what ethical guidelines are and why they are important

Identify the BACB's 10 Guidelines for Responsible Conduct (www.bacb.com)

Identify the BACB ethics application

Accurately identify ethical dilemmas presented in video role plays

Accurately identify which guideline is addressed

Accurately identify appropriate responses to ethical dilemmas

Visual supports, including token economies and schedules, can be used with a wide variety of students to increase target skills and decrease maladaptive behaviors. Schedules can range from simple icons boards representing one to two activities, to full day written schedules and monthly planners. The use of schedules can help students better plan and predict within their environment, as well as increase independence. Token economies are used to increase target behaviors, and can be used in combination with a response cost to decrease maladaptive behaviors. The primary focus of this workshop is to teach therapists and caregivers how to create and implement visual supports for individuals with developmental disabilities, and to serve as a platform to problem solve real life challenges facing field based clinicians and parents. After a general explanation of the theories behind these visual supports, participants will break into small groups to practice creating their own visual supports and receive feedback from presenters. Materials provided will include printouts of various visual supports and their descriptions, a sample behavior support plan, a sample of a self-monitoring data sheet, and a bi-fold communication folder that can be used to create a schedule and token board.

• Describe the reasoning behind using visual supports with students with disabilities
• Identify which visual support should be used given a target behavior or skill
• Create visual schedules, ranging from basic to complex
• Create visual token boards, with and without a response cost component
• Implement a wide variety of schedule and token boards
• Discuss how to incorporate and adapt parts of the BSP development process into their current practice

Design a multiple baseline experimental design and an ABA experimental design using Excel

Move the zero off the X-axis

Eliminate lines that cross condition lines

Modify graph features

Select or create appropriate data collection tools

Interpret one data set with the support of another data set

Use multiple data sets to provide feedback to team members

Create and maintain unique databases for their schools

Define "learning efficiency"

Measure and evaluate current learning efficiencies

Describe the benefits of improving learning efficiencies

Summarize the research on learning efficiency and its application to the design of more efficient learning activities and teaching procedures

Apply functional assessment strategies to the selection and implementation of effective classroom-wide practices

Employ evidence-based methods used to train teachers in classroom-wide behavior support practices

Employ a data-based decision process used with teachers to modify classroom behavior support practices

Use instructional and behavior support practices that establish more effective interactions between teachers and students and increase on-task behavior

Conduct and apply research-based innovations in assessment and consultation in order to identify functionally relevant interventions to address clients' academic and/or behavioral difficulties

Collectively integrate stimulus preference assessments, performance deficit analyses, brief experimental analyses, and functional assessment information in the consultation process

Utilize the data through strategic and structured decision making protocols in order to maximize productivity of consultation interviews within the school setting

Apply research-based strategies that have been shown to enhance and sustain treatment integrity

Utilize performance feedback and evaluate treatment effectiveness based on fidelity and outcome data

Shape sensitivity to the learner

Train necessary teacher repertoires for high-quality instruction

Develop programs for new learners

Transform current programming/curriculum to a PT-friendly curriculum

Test for emergent repertoires

Sequence component/composite repertoires

Employ various interventions The objectives will be discussed and explained by data and key representatives from Morningside Academy and Precision Teaching Learning Center.

Demonstrate accurate implementation of the group working skills assessment(i.e., correctly complete the data sheet and understand three specific dimensions of the assessment—student learning profile, behavioral profile, andage)

Based on the results of each student's assessment, determine the appropriate tier within the six level system

Assign students with similar profiles across the three dimensions into classroom groupings

Determine classroom learning objectives (scope and sequence) for an academic year

Identify objective criteria for determining the amount and type of staff support that a student requires across curriculum content areas and settings (1:1 vs. small group formats) and group types (academic, classroom routine, nonacademic)

Develop, implement, and evaluate strategies to transition students through the levels of support

Write individualized educational program objectives based on levels of support

Promote the use of best practices and ethical standards in levels of support

Describe the importance of analyzing and managing your organization as a system

Describe three tools for identifying and assessing the host of contextual variables operating inside and outside of your organization

Describe Optimal's approach to organizational management and how it can significantly improve the quality of services delivered by your agency

Describe, in behavioral terms, common forensic activities including assessment of competence to stand trial and criminal responsibility

Assess for malingering

Functionally analyze a number of behaviors including murder, chronic fire setting, shoplifting, obscene phone calls, and repetitive return to an abusive partner

Identify skills that will help them better cope with cross-examination

State theoretical constructs of MDT

Use functional analysis of complex adolescent behavior

Describe ways in which MDT implements a complete functional analysis

Identify the steps in MDT

Define and implement key components of behavioral coaching methods

Categorize treatments related to functions for positive and negative reinforcement, and positive and negative punishment; for social, tangible, and automatic contingencies; and for when the most salient stimulus is outside or inside the body

Identify the difference between behavior reduction that occurs from presenting a larger punisher (something bigger to worry about), replacement behavior (something better to do), or extinction (absence of the historic reinforcer)

Identify the biological precedence aversive control takes over positive control

Describe covert contingencies—that is, although not completely worked out, consider the utility of covert (internal) control for the organization of information (i.e., derived behavior such as stimulus equivalence and relational framing) and the maintenance of behavior occurring in prescribed programs (typically with positive control) and without any prescribed program (typically with aversive control)

Take data—without a count of the behavior you have nothing to consider

Describe and always consider multiple control as the potential explanation for a response

Describe the importance of holding information lightly and supporting an appreciation for how much more there is to know about influencing behavior with a constant (inductive) readiness to change our understanding of past data when new information suggests what we believe is incorrect

Describe the considerations that go into knowing when to refer by understanding potential controls, the danger of the behavior, and one's own skills

Use a table to help relate form and function of a target response to determine treatment.

Participate in discussions of recognized events (e.g., melt-down, "going postal," assimilation/accommodation, self-concept, pride, depression, etc.) to offer behavior analytic explanations for these potential functions.

Rank order a list of positive and aversive experiences for their potential relevance in a program, and practice how the list changes when one of the upper items is removed.

Read a scenario that offers a condition such as showing a problem behavior occurring whenever a caretaker walks by and asking for a potential behavior analysis (i.e., social attention). Add information that the participant has had a bowel accident to see if the assessment changes (i.e., social need).

Complete a brief outline to place a response within a function, level of danger, and your own skills to determine if referral is required.

State significant events in the history of the error prevention movement and root cause analysis

Identify three methods used for conducting root cause analyses

Define sentinel events and behavioral sentinel events

Apply root cause analysis methods to a real life case study.

Demonstrate the use of the BCIRA tool

Assess current health and fitness related behaviors using industry standard metrics and functional behavioral assessment

Identify personalized health and wellness goals and break these down into achievable benchmarks via task analysis

Through preference assessments, identify preferred activities, possible reinforcers, and incentives for and environmental barriers to participating in healthy behaviors

Employ specific behavioral strategies such as self-monitoring, behavioral contracting, performance management, and public posting to achieve health and fitness goals

Use unique methods of data collection, charting, and graphing (including Internet gaming, mobile phone applications, and social media) to improve health and fitness related behaviors

Build a collaborative network of health and wellness practitioners and disseminate behavior analytic health and fitness programming through targeted marketing and public relations strategies

Identify a situation in which an individual has violated the BACB code of ethics and discuss various situations in dealing with that violation

Outline a simple ethics supervisory system to apply to their organization

Identify the six steps of behavioral systems analysis and how they can be applied to developing an ethics management system

Describe the three steps of performance-based instruction and how they can be applied to teaching ethical behavior

Develop strategies for dealing with ethical concerns when they arise during consultation or clinical services, such as addressing concerns with non-empirically based practices and procedure

Set up specific spreadsheets and input and manipulate data within an Excel 2003 and 2007 spreadsheet

Create graphs for alternating treatment, reversal, multiple-baseline designs, standard celeration, and cumulative records

Use the chart wizard, construct graphs of all data or select data sets within a spreadsheet, and update databases and graphs as data collection continues

Manipulate graph components (e.g., axes, data points, data paths, secondary axis) and use drawing tools to insert additional components (e.g., arrows, data labels, phase change lines, boxes)

Access the applications and available resources to successfully and independently use them for practice

Use iBAA for qualitative assessment, cumulative behavioral frequencies, interval recording with and without peer referencing, functional behavioral assessment, and assessment of the learning environment

Generate and export reports of behavioral data

Use Keep In Mind to develop and deliver fully customizable prompts as part of a behavior intervention plan and access feedback data to assess treatment compliance and/or fidelity of implementation

Demonstrate beginning knowledge of the complex medical, behavioral, and cognitive sequelae associated with survivors of TBI with co-occurring issues

Describe the phases of post acute TBI programming, from stabilization, evaluation, and treatment to discharge planning, preparation, and transition

Identify the ways in which the role of the behavior analyst can impact interdisciplinary treatment at all phases of planning and implementation

Describe how key behavior analytic concepts and principles can be incorporated into each phase of neurobehavioral programming

Demonstrate a beginning knowledge of the behavior analytic model established by the co-presenters to guide interdisciplinary team efforts to integrate, prioritize, and program for this challenging population

Operationalize objective, observable, measurable actions for the ongoing evaluation of interventions as outcomes for the purpose of measurement

Describe at least three single-case designs for systematically analyzing variables, and for demonstrating functional relationships, which include the basic essentials of establishing baselines and increasing inter-observer agreement in data-taking in community settings with nonprofessional observers

Identify behavioural and environmental contexts in which each type of data collection methodology would be appropriate, and identify how to ethically report the data

Identify the conceptual basis of interteaching

Identify the literature demonstrating the effectiveness of interteaching

Demonstrate a solid foundation in each interteaching component (i.e., preparation guides, teaching records)

Write effective study guide questions and follow-up lectures

Implement interteaching in their own classrooms

Connect their own current research to the origins of operant research, whether it be basic experimental work or higher level work on, for example, verbal behavior

Examine and explain the exact historical beginnings of B. F. Skinner's work (it is well known that this work is experimental, but it is also interpretative, in the sense that Skinner was all along also interested in complex human—verbal—behavior)

At the special interest group (SIG) leadership training, learn strategies for building and growing vibrant SIGs. Network and brainstorm with other leaders—from SIGs of all sizes, types, and locations. Christy Alligood, of the Applied Animal Behavior SIG, will make a presentation on “Legal and Financial Aspects of SIG Management,” describing the benefits of formally incorporating your SIG as a nonprofit organization, and will detail the steps and tools needed to establish your SIG legally and financially. Joshua K. Pritchard, of the Dissemination of Behavior Analysis SIG will present “Policies and Procedures for Ensuring Organized Succession Planning: Learning From Our Mistakes.” This presentation will provide some important techniques to ensure institutional memory, codify important aspects of your SIG and create the foundation for a successful organization gleaned from mis-steps, hiccoughs, and a few successes over the course of a SIG’s development.

Training will conclude with presenter/audience beakout sessions. Join Drs. Alligood or Pritchard in moderated discussions on the development strategies outlined in their presentations.
Although the training is free for up to three officers per SIG, advance registration is required.

This event is closed; attendance is by invitation only.

Parents and other caregivers of individuals with special needs as well as professionals and students are attending the ABAI convention in increasing numbers but may have questions about how to make the most of the experience. Furthermore, an event as large as ABAI may seem overwhelming to newcomers. Parents, professionals and students who may be attending ABAI for the first time are encouraged to participate in this convention orientation and visit our

website. We will provide an overview of ABAI and its convention and highlight the types of events that parents, professionals and students will encounter.

The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) has been in existence for 39 years. In the last 20 years, the field has diversified its scientific undertakings and has experienced accelerated demand for behavior-analysis services across various domains, most notably autism treatment. ABAI has adjusted to these demands, while growing at a rapid rate: In the last 20 years, membership has grown from 2,412 to 6,411 (266%); registration at the annual convention, from 2,894 to 4,543 (157%); chapters, from 31 to 75 (245%); and special interest groups, from 20 to 34 (170%). While adjusting to external demands, ABAI has offered a variety of specialized events, increased the number of its publications, and offered diverse new services—all highly rated by our members. During this period, ABAI has also developed a solid infrastructure that grew from 2 to more than 20 regular employees and nearly 40 seasonal staff, developed an elaborate and effective technical and process infrastructure, and acquired its own headquarters. I will share an inside perspective on the major challenges we have faced and accomplishments we have achieved in ABAI’s recent evolution and also the opportunities that lie ahead for the association and the discipline.

The first conference presentations about the Picture Exchange Communication System--PECS--were presented in the late 1980s. The first publication about PECS described its initial use in a behaviorally oriented program in Peru. Since that time, hundreds of thousands people have attended workshops on PECS and the Pyramid Approach to Education around the world. The effective implementation of PECS requires the application of many strategies developed within the area of broad spectrum behavior analysis. The popularity of PECS has helped attract large numbers of professionals (and family members) outside of the field of behavior analysis and has offered them a functional perspective on language development and a host of teaching issues. Citations of key research and review articles support its appeal. The PECS Manual has a circulation of over 300,000 copies in ten languages supported by Pyramid consultant teams in a dozen countries. Workshops, consultation and products developed by Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc. have introduced the relevance of not only focusing on observable behavior but also on the issue of behavior under what conditions. In this way, the strategies required to teach functional communication has been promoted as not only relevant to picture-based systems but to all communication modalities, and indeed, to all types of lessons.

Behavior analysis could be much more successful than it has been in dealing with many of the most pressing issues that beset contemporary society. Governments across the globe are now seeking behavior change solutions to prevent costly health, social, financial, and environmental problems. This presents great opportunities for behavior analysts to demonstrate that they have the knowledge and skills to change society for the better. Our research can be seen as an attempt to do just that. We chose the biggest public health problem of our time—obesity—and set about devising an intervention that incorporated a range of behavioral principles. The resultant program is known as the Food Dudes, and it has been uniquely successful in bringing about large and long-lasting changes in the eating habits of 2–11-year-olds and their parents. It has been adopted by the Irish government for all primary schools, and more than 300,000 children and their families have participated so far. It is now being rolled out to regions in England, initially to 50,000 children. Successful pilots have also been conducted in the USA and Italy. Recognition has come from various quarters, including the World Health Organization, which gave us an award for combating obesity; we also recently won the Chief Medical Officer’s Gold Medal Award in the UK.

The Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas has established a long tradition of leadership in teaching, service, and scholarship of behavior analysis. Its forerunner, the Center for Behavioral Studies, began in 1971 offering practicum training for UNT students through its Autism Treatment Center, its Behavior Contracting Service and its Behavior Exchange Clinic. It morphed into the Center for Behavior Analysis in 1983 when courses in behavior analysis were first introduced on the UNT campus. In 1993, it became the nation’s first stand-alone Department of Behavior Analysis, thereby initiating a long line of firsts: the first graduate program accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis, the first undergraduate degree in Applied Behavior Analysis, and the first online program to provide coursework required for professionals seeking certification by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board. Along with these “firsts,” the department has enjoyed a longstanding reputation for excellence for its work in autism and related disabilities, basic human operant research, behavior and cultural analysis, applied behavior analysis with animals, and more. The department’s stellar Master of Science program has attracted students from all across the United States as well as the U.K., Iceland, Norway, Japan, Colombia, and Brazil, to name a few. Accreditation reviews of the program have deemed it to be “rigorous and broad, focusing equally on basic and applied aspects of behavior analysis”, and have concluded that “ students who complete this program have experienced a course of study more like one might expect in a doctoral program than in a master’s level program.” The faculty has been described as “world class” and its research and service efforts as “cutting edge.” Above all, the department values community, with professors who genuinely care about their students and the people (and nonhuman animals!) they serve, as well as doing all we can to promote the viability of our discipline and sustainability of our culture. We work hard, have fun, and try to do good, and we hope to continue to build on our history of enduring contributions to behavior analysis – as well as the larger culture – for a long, long time.

In 1986, we began a program of applied research exploring how to manage the disruptive behavior of children undergoing restorative dental treatment. Over the next 25 years, In a series of small-N experiments, we demonstrated the effective application of contingent negative reinforcement in both analogue and natural dental settings, first by applied behavior analysts (JABA, 1987) and then by dentists themselves (JABA 1992). We then demonstrated more practical applications of negative reinforcement to manage disruptive behavior by using noncontingent reinforcement (JABA, 2006). Those studies became the foundation for an NIH funded grant that evaluated the NeuroCranial Restructuring (NCR) procedure in a large randomized controlled trial. In this paper we will review this program of research, including data from the completed NIH project, and show how applied behavior analysts can develop a program of research that meets the goals of our own science as well as those of the larger scientific community and their interests in generality and transportability.

Although behavior analysts are faced with contracting with insurance companies and governmental agencies, pricing strategies are not commonly understood. Selecting a profitable price for behavior analytic services is crucial for each practitioner and for our industry as a whole. Ignorance with regard to pricing is not bliss. It is costly in both the short and long run. This presentation will review the basic strategies and principles of pricing, so that behavior analysts can succeed both as business people and as clinicians. First, we will review methods to determine price, such as the use of cost analyses, pricing surveys, interviews, and competitor analyses. Second, the importance of value-based pricing will be discussed. Value-based pricing involves behavior analysts identifying the value in their service, including qualities that distinguish them from others, and then quantifying that value. Finally, we will explain the importance of communicating the value of behavior analytic service to customers and/or funding sources in order to secure a profitable price/rate. Marketing efforts to communicate the financial and psychological value of behavioral services are essential in order to be compensated appropriately. Behavior analysts must become informed on appropriate pricing strategies in order to negotiate rates that allow for quality service delivery.

In this tutorial I will review some fundamental ideas concerning the theory of probability. I will concentrate on the Poisson, Exponential, and Gamma random variables, review their properties, show how they are interrelated, illustrate their uses in modelling behaviour and learning, and simulate them in a spreadsheet. I will conclude with some notes concerning the Poisson Process and apply it to timing and concurrent choice.

Panelists will discuss their programs, expectations, and requirements for their programs. They will give recommendations and advice to those looking to attend graduate schools in the field of behavior analysis. Panelists will also answer questions and help give insight into different program types.

As many as eight percent of young children are highly aggressive, oppositional, impulsive, inattentive and difficult to parent or teach. Long-term studies show that such children are at high risk for developing conduct disorders that lead to school drop-out, delinquency, violence, and substance abuse. Because conduct disorders are the most expensive mental health disorder in this country, this is a problem of public health importance. Identifying these high risk children as early as possible in schools and helping teachers and parents work together to promote their social competence and self-regulation skills and reduce their aggression is key to preventing the development of conduct disorders. Dr. Carolyn Webster-Stratton will present an overview of her evidence-based prevention and treatment programs for teachers, parents and children including a review of research outcomes and video examples of the different programs.

Psychologists

Applied behavior analysts have been helping people to enhance the quality of their lives for decades. Its very characteristics as described by Baer, Wolf and Risley in 1968 continue to guide efforts to help clients and their significant others. Yet this knowledge often languishes unused and unappreciated. Distortions and misrepresentations of applied behavior analysis and radical behaviorism abound. Applied behavior analysis is deeply contextual and deeply concerned with social validity—with the views of clients and significant others in terms of what matters. These very characteristics make it radical in terms of shedding light on dysfunctional contingencies that some may wish to remain hidden. But given that ABA and quality of life are birds of a feather, we must become more adept at highlighting this close relationship. An agenda for accomplishing this is suggested. This agenda includes drawing on technologies such as the Internet including interactive opportunities to highlight avoidable ignorance and related harms and missed opportunities to help clients to enhance the quality of their lives. Related research in the areas of critical thinking, evidence-informed practice and social persuasion is drawn on in designing this agenda.

B. F. Skinner called Verbal Behaviorhis most important work. It is the only book entirely devoted to human behavior, a topic he had avoided in his 1938 book Behavior of Organisms. However, by 1938 Skinner had already begun work on the book that was to become Verbal Behavior. This paper traces Skinner’s comments in personal notes, correspondence, talks, and publications about verbal behavior and its importance for a science of behavior.

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In recent years, technological advances have allowed researchers to begin to investigate features of the dynamics of behavior during a response. Researchers have examined eye movements, computer mouse movement and other continuous indices of behavior. This work has primarily been done with human participants but it echoes previous work by behavior analysts on animals. The current paper reviews literature on continuous response dynamics in cognitive science in order to identify opportunities for basic behavioral research.

Over the past 20 years a new and infinitely more robust form of data analysis has been developed, and it is only now becoming an alternative methodology of choice among behavioral researchers who are familiar with the process. Neural networks finally have surfaced because of the escalating need to make sense of the barrage of new data and data types. One of the primary attributes of neural networks is, pattern recognition, the ability to aggregate, organize, and classify an astonishingly large number of diversified data types quickly, reliably, and accurately. At a time when the behavioral/scientific community is being inundated with an ever increasing highly diversified array of new data types, the data itself is quickly becoming part of the scientific problem. With the continual influx of new data and new data types, artificial neural networks are playing a critical role in disambiguating the influx of raw diversified behavioral and physiological data. The paramount feature of our newest version of the psyNet SOM artificial neural network is its ability to organize and find common behavioral patterns among extremely large, extraordinarily dissimilar, data types and datasets. We tested our version of the SOM neural network with three behavioral and neurophysiological datasets in an effort to obtain clear output patterns that would not be identifiable by way of visual inspection of the raw data or by employing any form of traditional statistical methodology. From our perspective, artificial neural networks are going to play a critical role in disambiguating the influx of raw diverse data being brought to the attention of behavioral researchers. We will provide evidence that behavior analysts will benefit from becoming more familiar with the growing possibilities provided by various types of artificial neural network procedures. Particular emphasis will be placed on the benefits of employing our version of the self-organizing map (SOM) neural network in a wide range of behavior analytic research endeavors.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may have trouble reading social cues and understanding the viewpoint of others, as well as combing fixations and obsessive compulsive behaviors. In addition, because individuals with ASD have problems with theory of mind, they may engage in inappropriate romantic and/or sexual behavior (sometimes identified as intimacy seekers or incompetent suitors in the stalking literature) and have charges of stalking brought against them. Though the prevalence of stalking behaviors among individuals with ASD is not known, it could be increasing as individuals are increasingly served in inclusive school and work settings. The purpose of the panel presentation is to provide an overview of stalking behavior in school and employment settings for individuals with ASD and to suggest possible intervention strategies. This panel will present current perspectives on what stalking is and how it applies to individuals with ASD, a general overview of legal implications for stalking in inclusive settings (schools and the workplace), and guidelines for using positive behavior supports to address stalking behaviors for individuals with ASD.

Stereotypic and/or restricted patterns of behavior are defining characteristics of autism spectrum disorders. Within this cluster is a group of behavior referred to as perseverative speech referring to the repetition of the same word, phrase or topic when it is no longer appropriate to continue speaking (about that topic). The demonstration of these behaviors can significantly interfere with the development of appropriate social and communication skills. In the current study, two participants (ages 9yrs and 21yrs) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders were referred for the assessment and treatment of persistent perseverative speech. Initially, functional analyses were conducted with each participant. It is often assumed that these behaviors persist independent of social consequences. For one participant the results of the functional analysis confirmed this assumption; however, results with the second participant demonstrated that contingent delivery of social attention maintained the perseverative speech. For each participant function-based treatments were developed where-in perseverative speech was reduced and appropriate speech increased. Results of this study support the utility of conducting functional analyses regardless of prior assumptions based on response topography, and add to existing research on the effectiveness of function-based interventions on behaviors identified as symptoms of autism spectrum disorders.

Many traditional treatment evaluations, such as withdrawal designs, are time and labor intensive. One purpose of this study was to evaluate the multiple schedule as a method to rapidly identify treatment effects when implementing response interruption for stereotypic behavior. Additionally, given that it has been suggested that response blocking can function as an establishing operation for stereotypy (Rapp, 2006), this study also examined whether consistent motivative effects were obtained in baseline components following components in which response interruption was implemented. Participants were males diagnosed with autism whose stereotypy was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Multiple schedules were arranged in which BL and response interruption components were alternated. Two types of response interruption were used for each participant. The multiple schedule analyses were then compared to the results of a withdrawal design comparison of the same conditions (i.e., ABABACAC). IOA was collected for 33% of sessions and was always above 90%. Treatment effects were detected via a proportional analysis of the treatment relative to the baseline conditions for the multiple schedule analysis. More profound treatment effects were obtained during the ABABACAC comparisons. Abolishing operations were seen in the RIRDm and RIRDv components, while establishing operation effects were seen with the RI component.

Social skills are a core deficit in children with all forms of autism. Klin, Volkmar, and Sparrow (1992) have attributed the lack of social skills to a deficit in perspective-taking abilities, or the ability to think about other peoples thinking. Developmental research on perspective-taking has utilized the concept known as Theory of Mind, an understanding of other peoples mental states. A relatively recent approach to language and cognition has emerged from the field of behavior analysis called Relational Frame Theory (RFT). McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, and Barnes-Holmes (2004) developed a perspective-taking protocol named the Barnes-Holmes protocol. The protocol consists of 62 trials assessing the relational frames of I-You, Here-There, and Now-Then across three deictic relations (Simple, Reversed, & Double-Reversed). Although research has not been published regarding the effects of the Barnes-Holmes protocol on Theory of Mind tasks, there appears to be an underlying assumption that acquiring these skills will increase Theory of Mind abilities. The current study attempts to teach deictic frames to three children diagnosed with autism using multiple exemplar training and positive reinforcement. In addition, it will evaluate the effects of this training on traditional Theory of Mind tasks.

The development of perspective-taking has attracted interest from educators and psychologists due in part to its role in developmental disabilities such as autism. The current study is using a behavior analytic approach to train perspective-taking skills using a perspective-taking protocol. In addition, the training has also incorporated a multiple exemplar design in attempt to program for generalization of the skills. In doing so, children acquired the skills by introducing one question and perspective at a time. As acquisition of the material furthers, questions and perspectives being taught will increase in level of difficulty. It is believed that through the use of the selected protocol and training design that participants will acquire both the perspective taking skills and the ability to generalize these skills to novel settings.

Research has shown that children with autism have difficulty with non-literal language, such as irony, sarcasm, deception, humor, and metaphors. To date, few studies have attempted to remediate these deficits and no studies, of which we are aware, have attempted to teach children with autism to understand metaphors. Metaphorical reasoning consists of complex verbal behavior, involving relations of reflexivity, hierarchy, and distinction, at a minimum. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate multiple exemplar training for teaching children with autism to attend to relevant features of the context in which a metaphor is used, and to engage in the required relational responding, in order to respond correctly to metaphorical questions. Participants included 3 children, ages 5-7. Results suggest that multiple exemplar training is effective for teaching children with autism to understand metaphors. Furthermore, generalization to untrained metaphors was found.

This presentation discusses the evolution of a data-driven behavioral social skills program. One of the major difficulties encountered in the development of a social skills program involves the collection of relevant data in ways that minimize reactivity and intrusiveness into the social interactions. An additional difficulty concerns the evaluation of such a program's effectivness outside of the training situation. Although indirect data involving data reported by parents or the individuals themselves are easier to collect, direct observations and data prove to be more difficult. Data suggest that the organization of activities and outings involving typical peers present one potential solution to this issue. A further difficulty encountered centers around the interdependence of measures both within and across participants. For example, procedures targeted at increasing question asking often deceased question answering and / or commenting and vice-versa. In addition, large increases in the responses of one individual, often correlate with decreases in responses from some other participants. Data suggest that interventions targeting a dependent variable that includes the whole interaction, in conjunction with goal setting, self-monitoring, may help to alleviate some of these difficulties. Future directions are also discussed.

The extensive research on video modeling has established this tool as an evidence-based practice due to its effectiveness in teaching learners to acquire a variety of new skills as well as reducing problem behaviors (LeBlanc et al., 2003; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2004). Video modeling allows teachers to emphasize critical features and reduce extraneous stimuli and it also provides a consistent model for learners so that each viewing of the model is exactly the same, every time. Video modeling is a cost-effective intervention that is easy to use and easy to individualize to your learner. The following four studies were conducted at a non-public school with a range of learners. The researchers will provide supporting evidence for using video models to teach students essential social communication skills, including manding for assistance, offering help to others in need of assistance, and reciprocal play interactions between peers. Additionally, one study will show that video modeling is also effective in teaching paraprofessional teachers to implement complex instructional practices, specifically the use of most-to-least prompting procedures

This study was designed to evaluate effectiveness of video modeling and video feedback for training 3 paraprofessionals on use of most to least prompting procedures. A multiple-baseline design across participants was utilized to determine the effects of the intervention on paraprofessionals correct use of most to least prompting procedures to teach daily living tasks to students with autism. Following baseline, each participant was required to watch a 3-minute video of a teacher demonstrating a most-to-least prompting procedure to teach a typical daily living task. Video feedback was delivered as a secondary intervention to the paraprofessional when skill acquisition was not immediately observed after the video-modeling phase. Results indicated an improvement in most-to-least prompting skills for all paraprofessionals as well as quicker acquisition of skills for the corresponding students. These findings address the need for paraprofessional training in non-public schools and have similar implications for promoting staff development in public schools.

The effectiveness of video modeling to teach social skills to students with autism has been well documented. The purpose of this study is to further this research and demonstrate that video modeling is an effective method to teach students with autism to offer help. In preliminary studies, the researchers used a multiple baseline design in which a video model with multiple exemplars was shown to 6 students across two different school settings (3 in each setting). The video models varied by people, environments and materials in order to facilitate generalization. After viewing the model, similar situations were directly presented. Offering help was measured on a per opportunity basis. Four of the participants acquired the skill by watching the video model alone. Two of the participants required either direct or indirect prompts to acquire the skill. Based on this research video modeling was then adopted into the school curriculum to teach helping behaviors. The researchers determined a follow up study expanding the video models to new helping scenarios would be valuable. Additionally the definition of the target behavior will be broadened (e.g., helping topography, latency of responding).

Individuals diagnosed with autism have difficulty developing and sustaining relationships with others due to qualitative impairments in social interaction and communication (American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV-TR, 2000). In the area of social interaction, persons with autism have problems responding to, sustaining and initiating reciprocal social interactions. In the area of communication, it is estimated that 50% of persons with autism may not develop spoken language or may have severely limited speech and language skills (Wing & Atwood, 1987), thereby increasing the difficulty for participating in meaningful social interactions. In a preliminary study, a video model was designed to teach a 9 yr. old, non-vocal child with autism to engage in basic conversation with a peer by utilizing an augmentative communication device (ACD). The peer tutor in the study, a 10 yr. old child with autism, communicated using vocalizations. The video model showed communicative initiations on the part of the peer tutor, as well as the participants responses from a point of view perspective. During the course of the intervention, two different prompting strategies were introduced (i.e., video prompting, gestures) to highlight each response for the participant, as video modeling alone was minimally effective. Ultimately, video modeling was reintroduced and mastery criteria was achieved and maintained. The authors of this subsequent study intend to expand upon these findings by conducting a multiple baseline design across 3 peer dyads with varying communication topographies. The effectiveness of a video model demonstrating reciprocal social interactions during play will be evaluated and the treatment effects on both the initiations of the peer tutor and the responses of the peer learner will be measured.

Behavioral pharmacology as a discipline was founded in large part by examining drug effects on basic schedules of reinforcement. Although this remains an important part of the field, the empirical validation of complex behavioral procedures using increasingly sophisticated technology, and the availability of improved agonists and antagonists across drug classes has greatly enlarged the scope of behavioral pharmacology. The purpose of the present symposium is to highlight several recent efforts exploring the effects of drugs on complex behavior. The first speaker will describe the ability of dopamine agonists to induce compulsive-type behavior in rhesus monkeys, and the complex environmental variables maintaining such effects. The second speaker will evaluate potential cognitive-enhancing effects of a5GABAA inverse agonists in rhesus monkeys using delayed matching-to-sample and self-ordered spatial search tasks. The third speaker will discuss drug effects on complex olfactory stimulus control in rats using an olfactory incrementing nonmatch-to-sample procedure in a custom-designed multiscented chamber. The final speaker will discuss the empirical validation of a novel isolated touch-sensitive chamber with squirrel monkeys, and initial studies with cannabinoids.

There is evidence of D2-like dopamine receptor involvement in drug addiction and compulsive behavior. Clinical reports link increases in compulsive behavior (such as pathological gambling) to D3-preferring agonists and, in nonhumans, D2/D3 agonists increase responding for cues previously paired with cocaine or water reinforcement. The current study further explored this finding in rhesus macaques with a history of responding on a PR schedule for food paired with distinct token light stimuli. Four subjects were exposed to an acute drug dosing regimen, and 4 to a chronic regimen of D3-preferring agonist pramipexole administered as a pretreatment. Pramipexole induced high levels of responding when lever presses resulted in token (CS) presentations and no primary reinforcement. When conditioned stimuli were removed from the context, responding was markedly reduced as compared to when tokens were present. Further manipulations have assessed other contextual or behavioral influences by presenting neutral discriminative stimuli, altering the reinforcement schedule, and diminishing the value of the primary reinforcer through both prefeeding and by extending the number of extinction sessions prior to drug pretreatments. Continued research is aimed at assessing whether pramipexole is indeed increasing the value of CSs or perhaps altering typical extinction processes.

It has been suggested that a5GABAA receptor (a5GABAAR) inverse agonists might serve as cognitive enhancers and potential therapeutics for cognitive impairment produced by neurological deterioration. We evaluated the effects of a5GABAAR inverse agonists and comparison drugs on delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) and self-ordered spatial search (SOSS) performances in rhesus monkeys. In the DMTS procedure, accuracy decreased as the delay between sample and choice stimuli increased. In the SOSS procedure, accuracy decreased as the number of stimuli requiring sequential nonrepeat touches increased. The nonselective benzodiazepine agonist triazolam, the cholinergic antagonist scopolamine, and the a1-preferential GABAAR agonist zolpidem reduced DMTS and SOSS accuracy. Triazolam and scopolamine, but not zolpidem, decreased trials completed. The low and medium efficacy inverse agonists PWZ-029 and RY-23 were without effect, whereas the high efficacy inverse agonist RY-24 decreased trials completed without affecting accuracy. The putative cognitive enhancers methylphenidate, a dopamine uptake inhibitor, and nicotine, a cholinergic agonist, did not improve accuracy in either procedure. Methylphenidate, but not nicotine, reduced trials completed. Future research should determine the pharmacokinetic profile of a5GABAAR inverse agonists in monkeys and also their effects in animals with neurological deterioration to clarify the therapeutic potential of a5GABAAR inverse agonists.

Complex forms of stimulus control in rodents are readily studied using olfactory stimuli. These permit the development of preparations useful for the analysis of drug effects on complex behavior. The olfactory incrementing non-match-to-sample (INMTS) procedure is designed to provide a within-session analysis of stimulus control by an increasing number of sample stimuli and is thought by some to be analogous to the digit span task in humans. Our lab is exploring this procedure as a baseline for behavioral pharmacology in rats. In the initial trial of each session, 1 stimulus cup marked with a distinct olfactory stimulus was present and responding to it was reinforced. Each subsequent trial added a new olfactory stimulus and responding to the new stimulus was always reinforced (nonmatching). A performance task was included to control for any nonmnemonic drug effects. I will present data from a series of studies of several different drugs, but only the noncompetitive NMDAr antagonist, dizocilpine (MK 801) has produced selective impairment on the INMTS task.

Despite the increasing sophistication and affordability of touch-sensitive technology, its use in the behavioral and pharmacological sciences has been limited. The present talk will describe the design and empirical validation of a novel isolated touch-sensitive operant conditioning chamber for use with squirrel monkeys. In addition, an overview of studies assessing the effects of cannabinoids on repeated acquisition and discrimination reversal will be presented, and the virtues and limits of this approach to evaluating drugs will be discussed. Results from ongoing studies show that response rates approximate those obtained using conventional manipulanda (lever or key) and provide evidence of the reliability and sensitivity of the screen as a response transducer. Results also indicate the touchscreen can be used to seamlessly transition across experimental protocols within the same session. Data from studies with cannabinoid agonists reveal dose-related effects on performance that agree with previous reports using conventional approaches, assuring the reliability of this approach. The ability to program (1) near-limitless variety of complex stimuli, and (2) variability in spatial location define 2 major advantages of the touch-sensitive operant apparatus.

Serving children with severe behavior challenges within a residential delivery system requires extensive clinical supports and resources. The direct care personnel within these homes are critical to the eventual success of these children and it is imperative that the clinical systems provide the necessary training and oversight by qualified on-site clinicians. This symposium will present three papers which focus on residential services and will emphasize programming that addresses the importance of personal welfare, on-going assessment, functionasl skill development, function based interventions and the presence of working BCBA clinicians within the group homes. Data will be presented that will demonstrate positive long-term outcomes in regards to both behavior reduction and adaptive skill development. The Discussant will generate a discussion among attendees regarding the integrity of services within residential programs, the need to ensure clinical resources are made available to the needs of our most vulnerable consumers, the role of a BCBA in providing direct supervision and training for direct staff, and the need to make sure the residential environment has been behaviorally prepared.

This paper will discuss the implementation of behavioral programming and clinical oversight within a residential service delivery system. The paper will discuss the importance of assessing the 'Rights to Effective Treatment" (Van Houten, et al., 1985), including, establishing behavior support plans, implementing a clinical operating system which emphasizes ongoing assessment and review, and the critical feature of staff training and development. The authors will discuss some of the premises of "Lessons Learned: Thirty Years of Applied Behavior Analysis in Trerating Problem Behaviors (Foxx, 2001) as it relates to residential servives including making sure the environment is proactive in its design, that behavioral expertise must be present within the setting and be an active contributor to program design and implementation, using a hypothesis-driven treatment model, employing skill building interventions, and maintaining treatment effects. A case study highlighting the critical features of the clinical model will be demonstrated by reviewing a case study that exhibits significant behavior reduction over an extended period of time and the simultaneous increase of adaptive and functional skills.

Making transitions from children's services to adult services is an area that is far too often left open for errors. There is no standard way that has found to be successful; often a transition can vary depending on the situation surrounding the need to transition. In many cases a provider has a base vacancy that needs to be filled and an individual in need will be placed within that vacancy. Ensuring effective system supports for individuals transitioning into residential programming can be a challenge for providers. System supports include family involvement, staff training, medical and clinical over site as well as funding source involvement. The following case study outlines how continuity in care is essential in creating a seamless transition from children services to adult services at the age of 22. This individual was supported within a 24 hour residential educational setting. Active transition planning and preparation for the transition to adult services begansixmonths in advance of her 22nd birthday. Although transition planning initiated six months prior to entering adult services, providers and options had been explored by family members and stakeholders prior to this time. Lead staff were identified to assist and be part of the transition. Through an overlap with service delivery, essential staff familiar with the individual's history would likewise make the conversion from working within children's services to adult services. The primary focus of the training included transferring stimulus control from familiar staff to new staff who would be supporting the individual in adult programming. Prior to the transition this individual's target behaviors were at a stable rate of responding. Initially after the transition there was a slight increase with one target behavior while the other two showed a significant decrease in rates. Through effective system management, clinical supports remained consistent across both settings. System supports that were put in place were proven to be effective in creating a flawless transition into adult services.

One case study will be presented that will demonstrate positive long-term effects of behavior intervention within a group home setting. This individual attended a nonprofit private school for children and young adults with severe behavior challenges. The young adult with autism exhibited high rates of aggression and self-injury and required 1:1 services throughout the day in the residence. A comprehensive multicomponent intervention plan was developed emphasizing functional communication training, progressive relaxation training, reinforcement contingencies and a functionally-based consequence for problem behaviors. Data exhibiting the reduction of targeted behaviors and the development of prosocial behaviors will be shown. The paper will discuss generalization and maintenance effects over a 9 year period and this individual's transition from a group home into an apartment setting with faded results. The success of this individual resulted from a comprehansive model of clinical supports within the residence emphasizing direct care training, feedback, and the presence of a skilled BCBA clinician during programming hours.

Recent American Psychological Association guidelines on empirically supported treatments (EST) suggest that treatments can be designated as "well established," "probably efficacious," or "experimental" based on the number of studies that have a good experimental design and demonstrate an effective outcome. Treatments with the most empirical support are designated as "well established." Although a multitude of reviews of behavior analytic procedures as effective treatment exist in the literature, few treatments have been examined using the EST criteria. The purpose of these studies was to apply the standard of empirically supported to several treatment areas. These areas included behavior associated with specific disabilities (e.g., autism and acquired brain injury) and specific behaviors (e.g., pica) across disorders. Results of these studies suggest that behavior analytic treatments are "well established" in the treatment of a number of behaviors. These results are discussed in reference to the larger field of psychology and the dissemination of behavior analytic treatments therein.

The scope of this meta-analysis was to complete a systematic evidence-based review of published behavioral treatment studies employing single-case designs with both children and adults with acquired brain injury. Peer-reviewed journals were searched using PsycINFO, Medline, and ERIC database search engines with combinations of terms such as brain injury, behavior disorder, behavior therapy, behavior modification, behavior analysis, and verbal behavior. A total of 115 acquisition and reduction studies met established inclusion criteria. The data extracted from each study included specific details about the participants, target behaviors, intervention characteristics, use of functional assessment, and outcome characteristics. A data extraction software program was also used to extract data from graphs to calculate multiple nonoverlap effect sizes such as the percentage of nonoverlapping data and Taunovlap. The studies were evaluated along several dimensions such as APA Division 12 guidelines, special education guidelines, and experimental control. A variety of methodological concerns and areas for future research are also discussed.

For a treatment to meet criteria as well-established and empirically validated (as defined by APA divisions 12 and 16) a large number of single-subject design studies displaying experimental control with baseline or other treatment comparisons must be examined. The current study critically reviewed 29 research articles examining the effects of applied behavior analytic treatment techniques for the severe problem behavior (e.g., aggression, self-injury, disruption) of those diagnosed with autism since 2005. The treatments included were either reinforcement based (e.g., differential reinforcement of an alternative response, noncontingent reinforcement) or included both reinforcement and punishment (e.g., time-out). Twenty-six of those studies conducted experimentally sound designs and 23 reduced problem behavior by at least 80%. Additionally, 15 of those 23 studies displayed reductions of 90% or higher. The results suggest the designation of applied behavior analytic techniques as well-established and empirically validated treatment for the severe problem behavior of those diagnosed with autism.

Pica as problem behavior is of particular concern because even one instance of the behavior may cause tremendous harm. A number of reviews have examined the effectiveness of behavior analytic treatments; however, none have done so using the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines on empirically supported treatments. The purpose of the current study was to critically examine the existing literature on the treatment of pica displayed by individuals with intellectual disabilities. Criteria for empirically supported treatments as described by Divisions 12 and 16 of APA, and adapted for studies employing single-case designs were used to review this body of literature. A total of 34 treatment studies were identified, 25 of which were well-designed and reported at least an 80% reduction in pica (21 studies reported 90% or greater reduction in pica). Results indicated that behavioral treatments in general, and treatments involving the combination of reinforcement and response reduction procedures in particular, can be designated as well-established treatments for pica exhibited by individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The use of technology for interventions involving skill acquisition has been demonstrated to be promising for students across a wide range of learning difficulties. As technology advances, it is important to investigate effective applications to teach a variety of skills to students in more efficient ways. This symposium will review three different applications of technology to increase academic and leisure skills. In the first study described, interactive, computer-based practice was used to increase sight words, color words, and number identification (11-20) in two students with moderate intensive educational needs. In the second presentation, a specific computer program, Headsprout Comprehension, was used to increase comprehension skills of six students diagnosed with mild to moderate disabilities. In the third study, an iPod touch was used to teach four children with autism to follow an activity schedule composed of leisure activities. Collectively, these three studies showed effective uses of technology in teaching a variety of skills.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether interactive, computer-based practice would increase the acquisition and maintenance of basic academic skills for students with moderate to intensive educational needs. The academic skills selected for this study were based on the each participant's Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals. Specifically, the skills selected were: sight words, color words, and number identification (11-20). The intervention consisted of interactive computer games using discrete trials and immediate feedback. Acquisition of basic skills was assessed using flash cards 1 day following each computer practice session. Results showed a substantial increase in all skills for one participant. These skills were also maintained over a period of time. The results also showed a slow, but steady increase in the skills from the second individual. Data were also collected throughout the study on the amount of times each participant became off task during the computer games. Results showed that both students remained on task during the majority of the sessions. Overall, the computer game intervention was an effective means to increasing the academic acquisition of the participants.

Urban students with learning disabilities and behavior problems typically struggle with reading comprehension. Using technology for academic interventions has been demonstrated to be promising for children with a wide range of learning difficulties. This study investigated the effects of Headsprout Comprehension, a computer program designed to increase reading achievement. The experimenters used Headsprout Comprehension to improve the reading skills of 5 fifth-grade students diagnosed with mild to moderate disabilities and 1 third-grade student diagnosed with an emotional/behavioral disorder. A multiple probe across participants design was used to examine the effects of Headsprout Comprehension on the number of correct responses on AIMSWEB maze passages and the number of comprehension questions answered correctly on state reading achievement practice passages. All 6 students showed improvement in the number correct of correct responses on state achievement comprehension passages, and 5 out of 6 students showed improvement in the number correct on AIMSWEB Maze.

Traditionally, activity schedules are presented to learners in book form. However, this format may be cumbersome and socially stigmatizing to a child with autism. Conversely, presenting an activity schedule on an iPod touch may provide a more socially acceptable format, in that it would be more discrete and allow for easy portability, especially if supports, such as prompts, and an adult's presence, are eventually removed. The present study investigated the use of an iPod touch to teach students to follow an activity schedule composed of leisure activities to 4 children with autism. Manual prompts, time delay and reinforcement procedures were also used. To further promote independence, experimenter proximity to the participants was faded until she was no longer present. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was used. Prior to intervention, none of the participants followed the schedule and they rarely engaged in on-task behavior. Following intervention, all participants learned to independently follow a 47-step leisure activity schedule presented on the iPod touch and increased their on-task behavior. In addition, these skills generalized to novel settings and novel schedules, and maintained over time. The implications of incorporating technology to increase independence in children with autism is discussed.

In psychophysics and perception, sensitivity to differences in magnitude comes in two forms, discrimination and scaling. Animal behavioral methods show how animals scale various stimulus properties. Since there are procedures that work well with animals for obtaining scales, scaling cannot be mentalistic. Scales are important because they are useful in predicting behavior. Quantitative analysis of behavior is largely built around how animals respond relative to the rate of reinforcement, a stimulus property of reinforcement. The rate of responding is a way of scaling the perceived value of various reinforcement contingencies. Here, task difficulty may be viewed as another stimulus or contingency dimension. How difficult a discrimination is, has most often been found by varying the closeness of stimuli along some dimension. These are all flat forms of difficulty, meaning that, these are direct properties of the stimulus or the response. Here we are going to consider the order of hierarchical complexity of the task requirements, a property of the overall contingency, which is a different form of difficulty. We are also going to look separately at the dimension of the time between the reinforcer and the response. Finally, a model is presented that integrates the two. The models discussed here will be shown to have a number of applications.

The Model of Hierarchical Complexity is a quantitative behavioral-developmental theory that suggests an objective way of determining the a priori difficulty of a tasks contingencies. The model explains why stage-like performances are observed. The model proposes that stages result from the hierarchical structure of tasks. A task is defined as hierarchically more complex when it organizes, in a non-arbitrary fashion, two or more less complex tasks. Using this model, sixteen orders of hierarchical complexity have been generated. In this study, the model is used to generate stimuli in the form of either problems or stories. The stimuli within a domain consist of an ordered series of tasks, from order 1, reflexes and conditioned reflexes, up to order 12, the discrimination of efficient market. Tasks were generated in several domains, including reinforcement contingencies (economic), mathematical, scientific, moral, political, and social domains. 280 people were recruited through online groups. A Rasch analysis of the responses showed that, within each domain, items were well scaled on a single dimension reflecting the predicted difficulty of the item. Participants performances were shown to conform to the predictions of the model, with very high amounts of variance accounted for (from .73% and up).

Accounts of stage and moral action have not integrated behavioral, developmental and quantitative paradigms. This presentation integrates the three by using a mathematical model of value obtained from developmental action and from stage, as in the Model of Hierarchical Complexity. The result is a behavioral-developmental account of stage and action, rather than a mentalistic one. Both value and stage are necessary for determining actions. Each consists of a matrix. The Value matrix has a number of vectors. For humans, there are 6 Holland Code variables in the value vector. The second vector is discounting-difference ratio between change in the overall value vector and change in time. The third vector is the change in differences in value over time, or risk. The second matrix is Stage, which measures performance in meeting difficulties produced by the order of hierarchical complexity of particular tasks, as discussed in the earlier talks. A mathematical account of the value and the stage matrices and their interaction terms are used to predict moral behavior.

Dozens of studies support Precision Teachings claim that fluent behavior ensures retention of what is learned, shows resistance to fatigue, is unaffected by distraction, and can easily be developed into a more complex task. A critical feature of acquiring fluent behaviour is fast practice, however, methods used to understand the significance of fast practice have been hampered by experimental confounds as a result of using human participants (Dougherty et al., 2004). A repeated acquisition procedure, first described by Sidman and Rosenberger (1967) to study teaching methods, has shown some promise in resolving these confounds (Porritt et al., 2009). Using hens as an animal analogue of human responding, our goal is to utilize this procedure to remove these confounds in studying the effects of fast practice and clarify the relationship between practice speeds and learning outcomes.

Previous studies have identified potential sources of competing stimulus control in tests for stimulus equivalence. The current experiment employed the Nintendo Wii remote as a response device to investigate whether competition between comparison stimuli would affect suboperant action dynamics. Following one-to-many training on conditional discriminations sufficient to establish three three-member equivalence classes, participants were presented with a test for equivalence responding that included five trial types. These included, (1) traditional equivalence trial in which the incorrect stimulus had been previously presented as a correct comparison stimulus and (2), trials, in which a novel unrelated word was provided as the incorrect comparison. In the remaining three trialtypes, the incorrect stimulus was either orthographically similar (3) to the sample stimulus, phonologically similar (4) or both (5). Results suggested that the previous history of reinforcement for the incorrect stimulus in the traditional equivalence trial gave rise to greater competition than phonological or orthographic similarity between the sample and incorrect comparisons.

The present study aimed to evaluate whether differential levels of resurgence would be observed under a context of reinforcer-controlled variation and a context of extinction-induced variation. College students were required to emit sequences of 5 presses on keys F and J of a keyboard. Reinforcers were produced only by the target sequence 1 (JFJJF) in Phase 1 (Reinforcement), and by the target sequence 2 (JJFJJ) in Phase 2 (Elimination). Extinction was in effect for all other sequences in both phases. In Phase 3, the participants were assigned to 2 groups: Variation and Extinction. For the Variation Group, a variation requirement was in effect, such that infrequent and remote sequences had greater chance to be reinforced than frequent and recent ones (the target sequence 1 never produced reinforcers); and for the Extinction Group, none of the emitted sequences produced reinforcers. Resurgence of the target sequence 1 occurred mainly for the Extinction Group. Also, the level of sequence variation (U value) was higher in the last phase than in the previous ones for the Extinction Group, and it was unsystematic for the Variation Group. It was concluded that reinforcer-controlled variation may weaken resurgence due to the concurrent reinforcement of other behaviors.

Amount-dependent temporal discounting refers to the differential rates at which the values of large and small reinforcers are discounted over time. Most studies of temporal discounting involve the calculation of indifference points; the average point at which the choice between2 options switches, indicating indifference between the options. The present set of experiments aimed to measure strength of preference more directly. Participants were asked to indicate their strength of preference between hypothetical alternatives that differed in their monetary value, and in the delay at which they were available. Experiment 1 demonstrated temporal discounting and a magnitude effect using a direct measure of strength of preference that did not rely on the calculation of indifference points. Further analysis, using the matching law, confirmed greater sensitivity to changes in the delay when magnitudes were small than when they were large, consistent with the magnitude effect. In Experiment 2, the range of the delays were expanded to allow additional analysis and demonstrated that a hyperbolic temporal discounting curve could be fit to the data; demonstrating hyperbolic temporal discounting without the calculation of indifference points.

Many companies rely on punishment for managing safety violations and injuries. Behavioral approaches to safety emphasize utilizing positive reinforcement strategies focused on safe behavior, instead of punishment for bad outcomes, because of the harmful side effects of punishment. What actually happens in a company that uses excessive punishment to manage safety? This talk will describe case instances of the effects of over relying on punishment. But does that mean that punishment is never used, even for willful violations of life-critical procedures? Are there any positive effects of punishment in managing safety? The roles of causal analysis and forward accountability in safety management will be discussed.

Managers and supervisors often puzzle at the persistence of undesired behavior and the absence of desired behavior, in some cases despite the behavior analytic foundations of some of their existing business processes (e.g., behavior-based safety or behavior-based coaching systems). It is not uncommon following undesired behavior that leads to an injury or some other business impact for leaders to identify as the root cause that there was some type of human error, often resulting in the worker being blamed for the resulting incident or impact. Too frequently, why there was human error goes unexplored. This talk will describe a practical assessment tool based on the A-B-C model, its application in the work place, and its role in developing sustainable behavior-based performance solutions and in improving the culture of an organization. Opportunities for enhancing the existing tool will be discussed.

Behavior analysts analyze and interpret data as well as construct, communicate, and defend claims of knowledge with data graphics. While behavior analysts do use other inscription devices, such as tables, visual analysis of data serves as the linchpin of the science of behavior. From Skinner to contemporary behavior analysts, researchers and practitioners mostly rely on time series data graphics such as the line graph. With so much analytical and communicative power invested in line graphs behavior analysts must consider how to construct and use different types of line graphs that effect their verbal behavior. This symposium examines different aspects of presenting time series data and suggests behavior analysis pay greater attention to for the most critical practices behavior analysts engage in.

One may argue that the genesis and continued practice of all forms of behavior analysis (e.g., applied, basic, philosophical) rest upon the foundation of the careful examination of data graphics, mainly time series graphics. Time series graphics derive their name from their construction; a time series scale on the horizontal axis expresses a unit of time and some type of quantitative scale on the vertical axis shows time progressing from left to right. A quick survey of important books on behavioral research show that prominent experimental designs use time series graphics, mainly the simple line chart (e.g., Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007; Hersen & Barlow, 1976; Kazdin, 2011; Kennedy, 2005; Kratochwill, 1978; Kratochwill & Levin, 1992; Poling & Fuqua, 1986; Sidman, 1960). However, the guidelines for constructing line charts appear in very few publications. Furthermore, the field of behavior analysis does not have agreed-upon standards for line chart construction. As a result of number of systematic errors occur in published line charts. This presentation shares the results of survey examining 11 prominent behavioral journals and their graphical practices in regards to line chart usage.

Line graphs or charts have two forms, arithmetically and semilogarithmically scaled. Behavior analysts make scant use of semilogarithmic charts and use, almost exclusively, arithmetically scaled charts. As a scientific discipline Behavior Analysis would benefit from an informed explication of each data graphic. Other sources do exist which describe different types of graphics, including line charts, and explain how behavior analysts can use them (e.g., Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007; Parsonson & Baer, 1978). Comparing and contrasting the structure, hallmark characteristics and limitations of arithmetically and semilogarithmically scaled line charts, however, has yet to occur. Therefore, the present paper asks the following questions. What design attributes guide the construction of arithmetically and semilogarithmically scaled line chart? What purpose does the arithmetically and semilogarithmically scaled line chart serve? How do the technical features and purposes of line charts serve a science of behavior and the behavior analysts who use them? The research questions will not only provide a detailed comparison of the purposes of arithmetic and semilogarithmic line charts but will also offer advantages or disadvantages for behavior analysts conducting visual analysis with time series data.

An important component in the dissemination of behavior analysis is its promotion at the Bachelors level. The purpose of the present discussion is to share information and advice on the challenges commonly faced while developing behavior analytic curricula for undergraduates. Emphasis will be given to programs at small colleges and universities that lack accompanying graduate programs in behavior analysis. Panelists will discuss their experiences creating and overseeing behavior analytic coursework for undergraduates. Specific topics will include student and faculty recruitment, student involvement in research, curriculum design, internships, service delivery, and the creation of Behavior Analyst Certification Board-approved coursework and supervised experiences. The panel will consist of behavior analysts and faculty from small, liberal arts colleges and universities who were trained in basic and applied research, as well as members of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Recent trends and future directions for undergraduate behavior analytic programs and board-approved coursework will also be discussed.

The application of the basic principles of behavior analysis has been remarkably valuable in guiding researchers and practitioners to develop effective assessments and treatments. One area that warrants further development is the systematic improvement of efficiency and efficacy of those procedures. In the current series of studies, we show how typical assessment or training procedures may be systematically replicated and extended in several important ways. First, Higgins et al. show how individuals may be trained to conduct preference assessments using web-based technology. The trainees include individuals who do not otherwise have training available in vivo. Next, Kunnavatana et al. report on teaching teachers to conduct efficient, trial-based functional analyses, which may relieve teachers of the burden of finding trained professionals to conduct the assessments. Third, Kowcheck et al. show data suggesting the necessary components of a staff-training package. Finally, Vladescu et al. demonstrate the utility of video modeling for conducting procedurally correct discrete-trial training. In combination, these studies extend the literature on how to improve the efficiency and efficacy of training and have the potential to expand practitioners skills in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior and skill deficits.

The ubiquity of personal computers and the development of secure Internet technologies have led to the increased use of Web-based training in fields such as medicine and education (Ritterband & Tate, 2009). Roscoe and Fisher (2008) demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of a training package that included delayed feedback on performance and immediate feedback during scripted role-play sessions to teach direct-care staff how to implement two common preference assessments with children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The current study extends this line of research by evaluating whether delivering these same teaching procedures, as well as an information-based multimedia presentation, via Web-based technologies produces similar results on staff members' implementation of a multiple-stimulus-without-replacement assessment.Thirteen component skills were targeted, and the effects of the teaching package on skill acquisition were evaluated using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Robust and immediate improvements in the component skills were observed across participants and their performance maintained during a 1-month follow-up observation. In addition, the Web-based delivery of the teaching components was reported as highly acceptable. The benefits of Web-based technologies and other Web-based applications will be discussed.

Instructional time for children with autism may be maximized by training classroom staff to implement discrete-trial training (DTT) programs. The purpose of this study was to conduct a component analysis of an existing training package. The training package had previously been shown to be effective in teaching paraprofessionals to implement DTT programs. The training package consisted of video modeling and didactic instruction, and performance feedback. Twelve special education teachers were divided into 2 groups, and taught to implement DTT during an optional professional development session over the summer. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used. Using a performance checklist, data were collected on the accuracy with which the teachers implemented DTT programs in trainer-trainee dyads. For 11 of 12 participants, mastery criteria were met following at least one session of performance feedback. On average, correct implementation of DTT procedures increased by 20.53% following the video phase, and by 30.5% following one feedback session.

Discrete trial instruction (DTI) is a common and effective approach to teaching children with autism and related disorders. Thus, it is important to identify effective procedures to train staff to implement DTI accurately. One training alternative, video modeling (VM) involves showing a video that exhibits behaviors a viewer should imitate and demonstrate in an appropriate context. The present study evaluated VM to train three new staff members in an early intervention (EI) clinic to implement DTI. We evaluated implementation accuracy using a multiple-baseline across participants design. All participants reached the mastery criterion for accurate implementation of DTI with a confederate following the introduction of VM, and performance remained high while implementing novel teaching protocols. Following training with VM, participants used DTI to teach a child in an EI clinic. The results showed that the participants accurate implementation of DTI remained high, and both children acquired the targeted skills. Additionally, we conducted a post-hoc analysis that showed that the number of individual DTI components implemented at or above the mastery criterion increased following VM and maintained during child training. Together, these findings provide additional support that VM may be an effective method to train staff members to implement DTI.

Because language underlies most learning in the typical child and is a core deficit in children with autism, developing language skills is often a major goal of behavioral treatment (Sundberg & Michael, 2001). Additionally, research has shown that traditional operant behavioral procedures have been effective in enhancing language performance with children (Eikeseth, 2009). One behavioral approach to teaching language pays particular attention to targeting verbal operants for intervention, which upon acquisition, provide a foundation for building more advanced verbal behavior (Sundberg & Michael). The purpose of the symposium is to discuss recent advancements in evaluating teaching procedures for increasing verbal behavior of children with and without autism spectrum disorders. The first paper compared the effects of presenting the discriminative stimulus once versus re-presenting it when using least-to-most prompting to teach intraverbal behavior. The second study compared successive and simultaneous tact training on the emergence of listener skills. The third paper compared the efficiency of play-based learning and discrete-trial instruction on the acquisition of receptive discriminations. Finally, the fourth paper evaluated the effects of programmed treatment integrity errors on the acquisition of tacts and auditory-visual conditional discriminations during discrete trial instruction.

A common procedure used in skill acquisition with individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is least-to-most prompting (MacDuff, Krantz, & McClannahan, 2001). While a common recommendation is to re-present the discriminative stimulus (SD) when providing prompts (Cooper, Herron, & Heward, 2007; Lovass, 2003), few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of this recommendation in teaching language to children with ASDs. Westand Billingsley (2005) evaluated the traditional (SD was repeated) vs. revised (SD given once) least-to-most prompting and found that both methods were successful in teaching a chained response. The purpose of the present study was to further assess the effects of re-presenting the SD when using least-to-most prompting to teach intraverbal behaviors to children with autism. Results showed no reliable and consistent benefit of re-presenting the SD. Out of 6 comparisons that produced acquisition, 33% produced faster learning with the SD repeat condition, 33% faster with the SD once condition, and 33% showed no difference between the two conditions. Follow-up data also showed no difference in strength of maintenance across conditions. The presentation will further discuss these data and the implications for implementing language intervention strategies with children diagnosed with ASDs.

Besides being of theoretical interest, research on functional independence among speaker and listener behaviors could aid in the development of efficient procedures to teach verbal behavior to children with and without language delay. The current study compared two procedures to teach tacts, namely successive and simultaneous training using a multiple treatment design. During the successive tact training,1 set of 3 stimuli was taught with1 picture presented in each trial. During the simultaneous tact training, another set was trained with all3 pictures presented in each trial. Four typically developing children were exposed to both teaching conditions and sets were counterbalanced across participants. After training, listener relations' tests were conducted. Results show that the4 participants reached criterion in4 to8 sessions with each set. Corresponding listener relations emerged for both sets. In summary, there was no difference between the2 procedures in terms of trials to criterion, and emergence of untrained listener relations. Future studies should replicate the procedures with children with language delays to determine if differences during tact training and listener testing are observed

Research has shown that discrete trial teaching (DTT), has been effective in teaching language to children with autism. Discrete trial teaching uses a highly structured, fast-paced, format with skills that are selected by the teacher are taught in a one-to-one situation at a desk or table. Play-based instruction (PBI) embeds DTT procedures in the context of a game, such that language skills are targeted in a more naturalistic, play-type environment. However, all of the other characteristics of DTT (e.g., fast-paced, targets selected by the teacher) are still in place during PBI. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of DTT to PBI. Additionally, measures were collected on affect to determine if PBI was perceived as "more fun" than DTT by the participants. Finally, a concurrent-chains evaluation of preference was used to determine which teaching procedure was more preferred. Two 4-year-old boys with autism, participated in this study. Receptive discriminations were taught in either DTT or PBI. Results showed that for both boys, PBI and DTT were equally effective. For one boy, the2 procedures produced similar affect and were equally preferred. For the other boy, PBI produced more positive affect and was more preferred.

In the present study, we evaluated the effects of programmed treatment integrity errors on skill acquisition, for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), during discrete trial instruction (DTI). In Study 1, we observed5 children with ASD during academic instructions in the school to identify teaching practices that may influence skill acquisition. The results of Study 1 showed that teachers working with children with ASD do not consistently implement all components of academic instruction with a high degree of integrity. In Study 2, we simultaneously manipulated the3 most common integrity errors observed in Study 1 during DTI. Specifically, we compared skill acquisition during a high-integrity condition and a low-integrity condition, with3 programmed integrity errors, for5 children with an ASD. All participants in Study 2 showed either delayed acquisition or did not acquire target stimuli when DTI was implemented with low integrity. In Study 3, we evaluated the extent to which one or more specific integrity errors influenced skill acquisition for2 participants from Study 2. We will describe important areas of feature research related to teaching children with an ASD in an academic setting.

Reinforcer preference assessment procedures have been developed for use with humans, and have been shown to improve subsequent treatment efficacy. Little research has been conducted, however, on the use of such procedures in determining reinforcer preference among pet dogs. A variety of edible and nonedible reinforcers are used commonly in the training of dogs and treatment of dog behavior problems, yet such reinforcers often are selected without explicit testing of their efficacy prior to treatment implementation. In the first presentation of this symposium, the use of a paired-stimulus preference assessment with pet dogs is examined. In the second presentation, dogs are exposed to both single-stimulus and paired-stimulus preference assessments, followed by reinforcement assessments. In the third presentation, the use of a variety of reinforcers with pet dogs is examined and the role that reinforcer preference may play in the treatment of pet behavior problems is discussed.

Reinforcement status is often assumed in behavioral treatment plans with pets. As has been demonstrated in the treatment of behavior problems in humans, treatment of behavior problems in dogs could be improved with use of a highly preferred reinforcer, the potency of which is established prior to treatment implementation. In this study, seven dogs (Canis familiaris) were exposed to a paired-stimulus preference assessment that compared three edible items. A stable preference emerged within 16 sessions for all subjects, and all subjects demonstrated preference for the same food item (beef stick dog treats). This food item subsequently was used in a response acquisition procedure, and all subjects acquired the response on which food delivery was contingent.

Previous research has shown that the paired-stimulus (PS) preference assessment is effective in yielding a hierarchy of preference with animal participants; however, reinforcer assessments have not typically been conducted. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the use of the single-stimulus (SS) and Paired Stimulus (PS) preference assessments as predictors of reinforcer effectiveness with dogs (canis lupus familiaris). The preference assessments were followed by single, concurrent, and basis 2 progressive- ratio (B2PR1) reinforcement assessments to evaluate absolute and relative reinforcer efficacy with eight dogs. Results indicated that the PS preference assessment was able to predict preference and reinforcer efficacy across all participants. Various features of each assessment are discussed.

Use of a wide variety of reinforcing stimuli has been suggested as important because reinforcer variety may help to prevent satiation (Bowman, Piazza, Fisher, Hagopian, & Kogan, 1997). Although it is difficult to identify two stimuli that have equal reinforcing capabilities in any specific operant relationship, Taravella, Lerman, Contrucci and Roane (2000) found that stimuli identified through supplementary assessments of low-ranked items preference assessments were found to increase behavior, indicating that less preferred stimuli can function as reinforcers. However, preliminary data generated in applied settings with pet dogs suggested that delivery of a less-preferred reinforcer in a context that has previously delivered highly-preferred reinforcers can act as a punisher and can increase latency to respond, reduce response frequency and affect response topography. In consideration of these findings, a series of studies were done evaluating the effects of using a variety of reinforcers in applied settings with the purpose of identifying relevant variables. This presentation discusses the findings and offers suggestions for best use of reinforcement variety.

Every marriage is its own little economy, a business of two with a finite number of resources that need to be allocated efficiently. In their book, Spousonomics, authors Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson apply bedrock economic principles to some of the most common conflicts in domestic life. Some examples include: Division of Labor (Or, Why You Should Do the Dishes): Exposing the fallacy of the 50/50 marriage split. Some people are better at, say, making school lunches, while others panic at the sight of a vacuum cleaner. Here’s a tip: Do what you’re “relatively” good at and “trade” the rest. Incentives (Or, Getting Your Spouse to Do What You Want): How getting your spouse to finally pay the bills on time is simply a matter of finding the right incentive. Trade-offs (Or, The Art of Getting Over It): The simple beauty of the cost-benefit analysis. Let’s break down that four-day trip to Cabo with your friends. Costs: A grumpy wife, $700 airfare, kids that miss you. Benefits: a savage tan, enough Don Julio to inflict permanent damage, uninterrupted sleep. Verdict? Supply and Demand (Or, How to Have More Sex): Talking your sex life to death, waiting until the kids are asleep and you’re both catatonic, not admitting that lingerie turns you on—all bad habits that raise costs and lower demand. The key to keeping your sex life hot is keeping it affordable.

The lecture will target a general audience and will specifically focus on translating concepts from behavior economics to areas of concern for everyday living and clinical practice. Specifically, clinicians will become familiar with the relevance of behavior economic concepts to interpersonal and family relationships. This introduction will provide an empirically based conceptual framework for clinicians to expand their practice.

• Recognize the relevance of behavior economic concepts to interpersonal and family relationships.

Up to 25% of the pediatric population experiences a feeding problem at some point across the span of childhood and this percentage has been found to be even higher among children with special needs and/or chronic health problems. While behavior analysts have been working with children with feeding problems for decades, the number of behavior analysts who work in this area of practice is still limited. There are two main goals of this talk. The first is to review the role behavior analysts have played in the treatment of childhood feeding problems and discuss need for behavior analysts to expand their presence in this area of clinical need. The second is to advocate for the spread of our methodology and interventions to the other disciplines toserve children with feeding problems. While there may now be over 5,000 certified behavior analysts, there over 100,000 occupational therapists and 120,000 speech pathologists in the United States. Providing behavior analytic tools to our colleagues in other allied health disciplines will allow for a larger number of children with feeding problems to receive effective treatment.

Quantitative models of conditional discrimination performance, based on well-established behavioral processes such as matching to relative reinforcement, effects of reinforcement on resistance to change, and stimulus generalization, can account for many findings of studies with nonhuman animals in signal-detection and matching-to-sample paradigms. This tutorial will provide a guided tour of these models as they have developed since 1978, explain their quantitative structures, and discuss their strengths and limitations in their confrontation with systematic data sets. The models to be discussed will be available as spreadsheets so that students and researchers can explore their properties and apply them to their own data.

Behavior typically becomes more variable in the face of a drop in the value of a motivating outcome, such as food. Dr. Blaisdell will review converging lines of evidence for this relationship from studies in his lab. He will describe the negative relationship between found between the signaled probability of food and variability in behavior. This relationship is quite general: Observed in both temporal and spatial behavioral dimensions, in both rats and pigeons, and in both the operant chamber and in open-field settings. Behavioral variability is also greater under conditions involving smaller or delayed food rewards compared to larger or immediate rewards. Dr. Blaisdell will describe some manipulations of the response-outcome contingency that reveal interesting relationships between Pavlovian and instrumental processes. These data support a general conclusion that signaled outcome value is an important determinant of behavioral variability in a wide variety of conditioned behaviors.

basic researchers

Our understanding of the neural structures involved in processing reward-related information has its foundations on a rich animal literature and classical theories of learning. More recently, advances in methodological approaches, particularly neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have allowed for the extension of these investigations to the human brain and helped delineate a basic reward circuit in humans. Central to this circuit is the role of cortico-striatum loops connecting regions involved in cognitive control (prefrontal cortex) and motivational processes (striatum). In this talk, we will discuss how the human brain learns about rewards and creates reward representations, via conditioned reinforcers, that can influence behavior. Additionally, we will highlight how cognitive strategies can effectively control neural responses to reward elicited by conditioned reinforcers (e.g., cue paired with a drug reinforcer), and its potential application of helping attenuate maladaptive decision-making (e.g., drug seeking behaviors).

Practitioners and researchers who are interested in mechanisms controlling behavior; those interested in brain and behavior relations

• Recognize what fMRI findings have to offer the science of ABA.
• Idenitfy how the human brain learns about rewards and creates reward representations, via conditioned reinforcers, and how that can influence behavior

Behavior analysis has broad applicability, but the lions share of our collective effort targets a relatively narrow range of social problems. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight efforts to expand the scope of behavior analytic interventions by addressing social problems that are outside the mainstream of modern behavior analysis. This symposium features three areas of inquiry that behavior analysts have been quietly tackling for decades, and it has become clear that behavior analytic interventions have the potential for massive impact in each of these domains. Attendees will receive updates on drug abuse intervention, behavioral gerontology, and the treatment of sexual offending as examples of research and practice outside the mainstream of behavior analysis. Each of these domains has benefited from the solid scientific foundation provided by mainstream applied behavior analysis. Importantly, the work in each of these unique contexts may provide useful lessons of general interest to all applied researchers and practitioners in behavior analysis. In addition, the presentations will feature brief descriptions of the opportunities for future research and service delivery in the featured domains. The ensuing discussion will include additional examples of novel applications and extensions of behavior analytic interventions.

Contingency management for drug abuse is an application of operant principles and procedures that has been developing in the context of medical science for over30 years. Early work in this area proceeded much like any other area of behavior analytic inquiry. But for the last several decades, much of the work of researchers in this field has been dedicated to demonstrating the effectiveness of the behavioral approach using research strategies that are more valued and better understood in the medical community. This practice has brought worldwide attention to contingency management interventions for drug abuse, and placed behavior analysts in a position to take part in an even broader movement to produce positive behavior change by the careful deployment of money as a reinforcer. The therapeutic workplace is an employment-based contingency management intervention for drug addiction born of operant research that dovetails with the current pay-for-performance movement. Details of intervention, evidence for its effectiveness, and ongoing attempts to disseminate it will be discussed.

We live in a mobile, digital age. Exciting new technologies (e.g., software development, social networking, smart phones, interactive whiteboards, tablet computers, remote controllers) are used in education, medicine, organizational behavior, self-management, personal improvement, and numerous other domains, but rarely with the benefit of a thoroughgoing behavior analytic model. The panelists have successful history of using behavioral contingencies to build and support products, and will offer perspectives on the current and future interaction between behavioral technology (based on a thoroughgoing contingency analysis and rooted in solid instructional design) and emerging hardware and software technologies made possible through advances in computer science, robotics, engineering, neurology, and many other fields. Opportunities and options for advancing both behavioral science and the applications of new technologies will be discussed.

Behavior analysis has had many successes in education and some notable difficulties sustaining lasting impact on educational practice. One the foremost challenges to broader success has been poor fidelity or low levels of treatment integrity. Our first presentation describes challenges associated with the adoption of a behavioral consultation model and its positive impact (reduction of costs and improved academic instruction), while the second describes some challenges and successes associated with the adoption of computerized reading assistance (i.e., Headsprout) in urban afterschool programs. The unifying theme in this presentation concerns the importance of maximizing implementation fidelity and the many challenges associated with achieving levels of fidelity sufficient to meet program benchmarks. The third presentation suggests that the adoption of Industrial Organization Standardization (ISO)-- a science-based technology of implementation-- could result in significant improvements in education outcomes but has yet to be widely adopted. The presentation concludes with an examination of the contingencies that might support adoption of ISO as well as those that might oppose it.

The current status of IDEA (2004) mandates the use of functional behavioral assessment for students whose behaviors impede their learning or the learning of others. Unfortunately, this current mandate lacks clarity on the actual implementation of an effective functional behavioral assessment within our schools (Asmus, Vollmer, & Borrero, 2002). This lack of clarity in conjunction with inadequate teacher training frequently poses a research-to-practice disconnect within our public schools (Sasso, Conroy, Stichter & Fox, 2001). Operating under negative constraints, educators are often left to select methodologies that may or may not mirror best practices within the field of functional behavioral assessment research. Treatment integrity remains a critical concern for researchers and teachers, and is often considered the confounding variable in treatment effectiveness within public schools. This symposium will focuses on the implementation and assessment of functional behavioral methodology in three public school settings. Treatment effects for all fifteen participants in the three schools were assessed with single-subject ABAB methodology. These database presentations selected for this symposium will discuss the results of the school-based studies, the fidelity of treatment and reliability measures that were employed by classroom teachers to ensure research to practice implementation of functional behavioral assessment methodology. Attached are graphic representations of the data for all three presentations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of functional behavior assessment to identify the function of off-task behaviors exhibited by middle school students receiving special education services. Upon determining the functions of the observed behavior(s), a researchbased intervention, self-monitoring was selected to treat the problematic behavior and replaced it with functionally equivalent socially appropriate behaviors. An ABAB single-subject design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the self-monitoring intervention with each participant. The results indicated that the self-monitoring intervention was associated with increased levels of on-task behavior and decreased levels of off-task behavior for all five participants. The mean percentage of on-task behavior across all five participants was as follows: 75.6% during baseline (A1), 94.5% during first phase of treatment (B1), 64.5% during return to baseline (A2), and 95.2% during return to treatment (B2). These results demonstrated a functional relationship was established between the implementation of the self-monitoring intervention and the mean level of on-task behavior for the five participants. Data was obtained from direct and indirect functional behavioral methodologies to determine the function of problem behavior as well as an experimental analysis conducted within the classroom environment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a teacher directed functional behavioral assessment to identify the functions of undesirable behaviors in elementary students receiving special education services in a public school. The participants in this study consisted of two males in fifth grade, two males in fourth grade and one female in second grade. All the students in this study were receiving special education services and displaying problematic behaviors in their learning environment. The results of the direct and indirect observations as well as the formal functional analysis indicated that the maintaining variable for disruptive and off-task behavior for all five participants was maintained by teacher and/or peer attention and escape. To address both, escape and attention functions with each participant, a function-based treatment consisting of DRA of specific-praise (Sutherland et al., 2000) on continual reinforcement schedule, self-monitoring (Lloyd et al., 1989), and a FI schedule of Premack reinforcement of free time (Azrin et al., 2007), was employed. A single-subject multi-element reversal design was employed with each participant to assess the hypothesis and treatment effects of the intervention. All five participants increased their on-task behaviors to over 90% during both treatment phases.

This teacher directed functional behavioral assessment study was conducted in a high school self-contained special education classroom in a public school. The population of the study included five students diagnosed with disability categories of Other Health Impaired (OHI), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID). A series of single-subject ABAB design was employed with each participant. The Intervention implemented was a multi-element treatment designed to meet the needs of each participant based upon their results from a comprehensive functional behavioral assessment (direct observations, indirect assessments and functional analysis) conducted within their classrooms. The function-based intervention phases utilized Functional Communication Training (FCT) as well as, Self-monitoring components to teach to function of attention and escape-motivated behaviors. During the FCT phase, the students were given a break card and an I need help card and were taught how to use these cards appropriately. The second element of the treatment required the students to self monitor their on-task and off-task behavior on a fixed interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement. The data illustrated a functional relationship between participants on-task behaviors and the functionally based intervention of FCT and self-monitoring. Increases in on-tasks behaviors averaged 90% and above for all five participants.

Recent research has indicated much higher prevalence of anxiety/fear for children with autism compared to typically developing children. The presentation will briefly review the prevalence, differences with typically developing children, and implications for social and emotional development in children with autism. The relationship between anxiety, fear, and phobias will be discussed in the context of atypical development and conceptualization of assessment and intervention practices. Specifically, concordance of differing assessment procedures will be discussed with regard to the problems and complexity of assessment of emotional and private events with individuals with limited language skills. Finally, examples of specific outcome data will be presented with discussion of cost-benefit analysis and the challenges of providing services to this substantial sub-group of children with autism.

Much has been written during the last half of the twentieth century concerning the philosophical foundations of behavior science. Some maintain that contemporary behaviorism is best conceived as a mechanistic scientific enterprise. Others argue that our science is rooted in the pragmatic approaches of Pierce, Dewey, and James. Still others suggest that different strains in behavior science have different philosophical cores and that this is not a bad thing provided we are careful to articulate our assumptions to avoid unnecessary and counterproductive wrangling. In this symposium, we will reconsider the categorical constructs designed by Steven C. Pepper (1942) that organize contemporary philosophies into 4 relatively adequate world hypotheses. Presenters will advance 3 distinct approaches, each of which aims to resolve philosophical misunderstandings that currently divide our field.

Contextualism and mechanism have both been posited as philosophical foundations underlying behavior analysis. The distinctions between these positions have gained considerable attention over the last couple of decades, with both sides claiming their view as the proper foundation for research in the field. This paper will review the various aspects of each perspective and how these competing visions have resulted in distinct programs of research. The discussion will conclude with a nuanced pathway through the conceptual thicket, resolving contradiction between the 2 views and providing a space for coexistence and possible synergy.

A distinction has been proposed between 2 types of contextualism: functional and descriptive. This distinction is generally made on the basis that the 2 forms of contextualism exist side-by-side. We will argue that the primary distinction between the 2 forms of contextualism is that scholars of functional contextualism believe in cause-and-effect relations (erroneously referred to as functional relations) between events in nature, whereas scholars of descriptive contextualism do not. Further, we will argue that interbehaviorism, the prototypical example of descriptive contextualism, is a more basic philosophical system within which investigational systems, such as functional contextualism, operate. For this reason, it is not valid to criticize descriptive contextualism as not being useful for experimentation-that is not its purpose nor is it the purpose of any philosophy of science. Descriptive contextualism, and interbehaviorism in particular, provides the basic foundation upon which investigational constructs, such as the notion that changes in behavior are caused by contact with environmental events, can be contrived and used to aid in basic and applied research. In this light, functional contextualism is probably not properly called a philosophical system. It is a set of constructs created to aid in experimental investigation.

It has been nearly 2 decades since the terms descriptive and functional contextualism were coined as extensions of Pepper's (1942) contextualist world hypothesis to denote interbehaviorism and radical behaviorism, respectively. Although these terms may have once been useful, philosophy of science is not a static discipline, and recent discourse has led to a reevaluation of the positioning of interbehaviorism as the philosophical system most characteristic of the descriptive contextualist construct. We suggest that the intellectual forbears of interbehaviorism are not the same as those of radical behaviorism, nor are its foundational assumptions about scientific enterprise, and therefore interbehaviorism cannot adequately be characterized as a contextualist philosophy. Further, we posit that Pepper's model of 4 world hypotheses can be extended to include a fifth approach, Fieldism, of which interbehaviorism is the prototypical philosophical system. In this talk, we will discuss the unique dispersive, synthetic, and integrative qualities of field philosophies as well as the difference between field and contextualist research agendas. It is our view that understanding our points of intersect and departure will help us to communicate more effectively and build bridges within the field of behavior science where currently there are barricades.

As behavior analysts, we pride ourselves on the precision of our language. Unfortunately, it takes only a cursory examination of the extant literature to identify terms that are used haphazardly. For instance, the use of feedback in the behavioral world typically implies something such as providing information to individuals or groups about the quantity or quality of their performance (Prue & Fairbank, 1981). Though this definition often provides a good general view of the procedures involved in an intervention, all too often the description stops there. Peterson (1982) emphasized just how insufficient the term feedback is in identifying functional variables affecting behavior. Now, 30 years after this publication, the term feedback is still being utilized in an imprecise manner. Even worse it is often in place of a more accurate description with operant principles. This talk will focus on the various ways in which feedback can be misused, and the implications this can have. Further parallels will be drawn between this and other commonly misused terms such as manding and reinforcement (in which we will revisit the debate on the utility of the positive/negative distinction).

Single case research design is frequently implemented in applied behavior analysis research. Implementation of this design requires the ability to collect data in a manner in which progress can be monitored effectively. Researchers must be capable of designing rigorous single case research. To do so, a researcher must be knowledgeable in single case design, data collection methodologies, and data analysis options. Mentoring is an important means of disseminating this knowledge. Single case design research mentorship with graduate students will afford them the opportunity to learn how to create rigorous research designs as well as assist them in developing skills to collaborate with schools, families, and other agencies for research opportunities. Through guided practice, graduate students will gain a better understanding of the multiple methods for conducting single case research as well as analyzing data. Partnering with graduate students will not only give them a thorough understanding of the criteria for single case research methodologies, design, and analysis options but will also establish invaluable connections and opportunities for future endeavors. This panel discussion will include 3 researchers who are experienced in working with graduate students in designing, implementing, and publishing single case research studies. Panel members will discuss how they have structured experiences for graduate students, pitfalls to avoid, best practices, and suggestions for graduates seeking mentorship in single case research. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session.

Behavior analysts often work with medically fragile people, and these people sometimes die. Even seemingly healthy clients and students sometimes die. Family members of clients and students die, colleagues die, and each of us will die., Unique ethical and practical challenges are presented by the death of one's student or client, or of the family member with whom one has been working in the service of a client; or when one's colleague or colleague's loved one is terminally ill or dies; and certainly when a behavior analyst dies. This panel discussion will introduce some of these scenarios and issues, and will guide discussion such that participants will gain greater clarity as to ethical and practical actions to take with regard to death and the practice of applied behavior analysis.

In early behavioral intervention for young children diagnosed with autism, attempts are typically made to establish vocal communication before considering alternative or augmentative communication systems. However, efforts to establish functional vocal speech may be complicated by the absence of various prerequisites; for example, in the case of children who do not have an echoic repertoire and perhaps display a low frequency and limited variability of vocalizations. In this symposium, we will present2 empirical studies that evaluated procedures for expanding the phonemic repertoires of nonverbal children diagnosed with autism. In addition, a novel procedure for inducing early echoic responding will be introduced and illustrated with data and video recordings.

This study sought to compare the effects of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure (SSP) and an operant discrimination training (ODT) procedure on target vocalizations of 3 preschool aged boys with autism, as well as to identify individual preference for each procedure. During SSP, auditory stimuli were presented in a manner that reliably predicted the delivery of a preferred stimulus. During ODT, auditory stimuli were presented in a manner that signaled the availability of reinforcement for engaging in an arbitrarily selected response. A control condition was also included that involved presenting auditory stimuli explicitly unpaired with the delivery of the preferred item. The procedure preference evaluation involved selecting color cards that were used as discrimination aids during the experimental procedures from a multiple stimulus array. Each selection led to 4 trials of the procedure associated with the color selected. Preliminary results indicate that both procedures were effective for increasing the target vocalizations in 3 out of 4 completed cases, and that for the only participant to complete the procedure to date, the preference evaluation suggested that ODT was preferred.

Young children with autism sometimes do not use words to communicate, but do engage in vocal stereotypy. If vocal stereotypy is characterized by the use of a small set of phonemes (i.e., basic sound units), shaping words can be difficult. Several interventions, including stimulus-stimulus pairing and echoic training, have been evaluated to address this problem but with limited success. The current study investigates the effects of reinforcement for variability on the phonemic repertoires of young children with autism who engage in limited vocalizations. Five participants were exposed to lag reinforcement for producing varied vocalizations. Increases in number of phonemes occurred as the restrictiveness of the reinforcement schedule (i.e., the lag value) was manipulated. This expansion of the repertoire occurred even when the overall percentage of novel vocalizations per session did not increase. Smaller increases in repertoire size were noted for participants with larger baseline repertoires. The clinical utility of this procedure will be addressed.

The foundation to emit vocal verbal operants is the presence of echoic repertoire. Without this ability one cannot acquire vocal verbal behavior. Some children with language delays may need to be taught this ability in a very specific manner and many of them learn it with procedures that have already been proven effective (e.g., behavioral momentum, automatic reinforcement). However, there are children who do not acquire the skill, even with these procedures. It is the purpose of this paper to present a new procedure, Echoic Extension, a procedure that has worked with some children who otherwise have not acquired echoic repertoire. We will analyze the components that may make it effective. We will also discuss how to develop the skill into true verbal operants and show data and video-tapes.

Children diagnosed with High Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome present with social skills deficits that include: difficulty shifting their attention to a social stimulus, inadequate eye contact, difficulty understanding emotions of others, problems with the initiation of social interactions in play and conversation, difficulty interpreting social cues, difficulty making inferences, poor problem solving skills, struggles to take anothers perspective, and lack of empathy skills. Long term outcomes for individuals with High Functioning Autism and Aspergers Syndrome who continue to struggle socially indicate they struggle to develop and maintain friendships, rarely marry, and there is increased prevelance of psychiatric disorders. Therefore, early intervention is called for to teach these pragmatic language skills. We evaluated the effects of Natural Environment Teaching, Precision Teaching, and Role Playing on Social initiations, social inferencing, identifying and solving problems in social situations, and teamwork skills. Data collection involved daily data collection for all skills taught. Data-based decisions were made weekly, and teaching strategies were modified as needed. Curriculum Based Measurement was designed and implemented to measure effects of intervention, and maintenance and generalization probes took place with untrained tasks.

Many children with autism fail to establish and maintain meaningful friendships with their peers. Identifying a common interest, initiating social interaction, responding to initiations of other peers, making compliments, and taking perspective of others are just some of the component skills for developing relationships with peers and are among many that children with autism struggle with. Talking about their friends is something that typical peers do readily and frequently but can be a challenging task for a child with autism. This study evaluated a program for teaching children to identify interests or other peers and to initiate social interaction based on their interests. The intervention was implemented with 3 preschool age children diagnosed with autism and their typically developing peers in context of an inclusive early education classroom. Creative activities and naturalistic behavior strategies were used to facilitate teaching opportunities. Data was collected during each teaching session and generalization probes took place in novel social contexts.

Children diagnosed with high functioning autism or asperger's syndrome often present with social skills deficits that include: difficulty shifting their attention to a social stimulus, inadequate eye contact, difficulty understanding emotions of others, difficulty interpreting social cues, difficulty making inferences, poor problem solving skills, and struggles to take another's perspective. These are commonly referred to as pragmatic language skills. Within the field of applied behaviour analysis, we have limited curricula that sufficiently program for these language skills. However, speech and language pathology offers our field some reliable assessment measures, and programming tools for pragmatic language skills. In this study, we used the "Social Language Test: Elementary" as an assessment tool for a boy diagnosed with high functioning autism as a norm-referenced measure of pragmatic language. With the baseline measurement, we completed component analysis, and developed an individualized curriculum to teach him how to: understand emotions and respond appropriately to peer's emotions, make inferences in social situations; and how to identify problem situations and generate socially appropriate solutions. Precision teaching, Natural Environment Teaching and Incidental Teaching were used to teach component skills. Curriculum-based measurement was used to measure generalization across settings and stimuli.

Teaching social skills to students with autism has received increased attention but little research focused on teaching students to work together as a team. Completing team projects is a common practice in elementary and secondary classrooms and therefore teaching teamwork skills is critical for successful inclusion. Teamwork is the ability to work together with others as a member of a group. Accepting assigned role, engaging in assigned task, accepting ideas of others, negotiating, and problem solving are just some of the key component skills necessary for effective team work that many students with high functioning autism and Aspergers syndrome struggle with. This study evaluated an effect of prompting, reinforcement, peer and adult feedback on teaching teamwork to school age children diagnosed with autism. Intervention was implemented in the context of a social group taking place once a week after school. Teaching activities were carefully designed to facilitate opportunities to respond. Data was collected during each teaching session and percentage of component skills demonstrated was calculated. Maintenance and generalization probes were conducted at one month follow up with untrained task.

There is a growing body of intervention research to address the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders, but the effectiveness of these interventions when implemented in natural settings (e.g., classrooms) by natural change agents (e.g., teaching staff) is less clear. In this symposium we present three comprehensive meta-analyses of the intervention research literature that advance our knowledge of the effectiveness of school-based intervention for children with autism. In the first paper, Greg Lyons will present the results of a meta-analysis of 91 single-case research design studies assessing the effects of school-based interventions aimed at addressing challenging behaviors. In the second paper, Jenna Lequia reviews 18 single-case research design studies assessing the variables contributing to the effectiveness of activity schedules to decrease challenging behavior. Sarah Kuriakose presents the results of a meta-analytic review (n = 15 studies) of intervention conducted during school recess. All papers analyze non-overlap of all-pairs scores to determine the effectiveness of interventions. Finally, the results of these three studies will be analyzed and discussed by Dr. Mandy Rispoli of Texas A&M University, a scholar whose research focuses on applied behavior analytic interventions for children with autism in natural settings.

Within school settings, challenging behavior can negatively affect students with autism and their teachers, resulting in impeded learning and socialization, and teacher burnout. To assess the effects of interventions aimed at addressing these challenging behaviors, this paper employed a systematic meta-analysis of the research intervention literature. Reviewed studies employed single-case designs to assess challenging behavior interventions for students with autism, ages 3-21, in classroom settings. Systematic searches were conducted, resulting in the inclusion of 91 studies. Studies were coded in terms of design, participant, assessment, intervention, and contextual variables. Effectiveness of interventions was determined by, a) calculating non-overlap of all-pairs (NAP), b) rating the final-phase treatment levels, and c) calculating percent clinical change. Preliminary results indicate positive effects across intervention categories, with function-based, replacement skill packages resulting in the largest mean effect size. Additionally, research conducted in general education settings employs antecedent manipulations more frequently than research conducted in special education settings. Implications toward understanding the translation of evidence-based practices to natural settings are discussed.

School recess is an opportunity to include students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with their typically developing peers and is a setting in which instruction can occur. However, the educational opportunities for children with ASD within recess are often overlooked and recess time is being reduced or eliminated in the United States. This review involved a systematic search and analysis of 15 studies that utilized recess to implement academic, social, or behavioral interventions for students with ASD. Each identified study that met pre-determined inclusion criteria was analyzed and summarized in terms of: (a) participant characteristics, (b) intervention procedures, (c) dependent variables, and (d) intervention outcomes. This review has three main aims: a) to evaluate and synthesize the evidence-base, b) to inform and guide teachers interested in utilizing recess time for educational purposes, and c) to stimulate and guide future research in this important area. Results demonstrate that recess time can indeed be used to teach target behaviors to students with ASD.

School recess is an opportunity to include students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with their typically developing peers and is a setting in which instruction can occur. However, the educational opportunities for children with ASD within recess are often overlooked and recess time is being reduced or eliminated in the United States. This review involved a systematic search and analysis of 15 studies that utilized recess to implement academic, social, or behavioral interventions for students with ASD. Each identified study that met pre-determined inclusion criteria was analyzed and summarized in terms of: (a) participant characteristics, (b) intervention procedures, (c) dependent variables, and (d) intervention outcomes. This review has three main aims: a) to evaluate and synthesize the evidence-base, b) to inform and guide teachers interested in utilizing recess time for educational purposes, and c) to stimulate and guide future research in this important area. Results demonstrate that recess time can indeed be used to teach target behaviors to students with ASD.

The session reviews the progress of behavior modification dealing with tobacco use prevention, and treatment during past decades. In comparison and adjusted with other techniques, behavioral techniques become the main treatment methods. Additionally, how to include new information related to nicotine addiction to health issues, such as gambling addictions have an extremely high correlation with smoking behavior will be also highlighted. This session, in contrast with past sessions, focuses from the present to future prevention and treatment needs of behavioral treatment with nicotine addictions. Case studies will be presented in conjunct withthe general discussion. The relationships between other drug use and tobacco use will be discussed. It is our experience that other drug use and smoking is as high as 95%. This prevalence has been long ignored by state funding sources. The reasons of why other drug users refused tobacco use will be reported. These include being afraid of weight gain, etc. The spouses who also smoke tend to reinforce their smoking behavior.

Video-based modeling offers a practical method for capitalizing on the principles of observational learning as the method allows for exposure to a variety of examples. Given this, video-based modeling has been a prevalent topic in peer reviewed research addressing interventions for individuals with disabilities and has been labeled as an evidence-based practice for individuals with autism. However, video-based modeling is an umbrella term used to identify a variety of intervention protocols targeting distinct outcomes for a heterogeneous group of participants. The purpose of this symposium is to provide clarity regarding the most effective treatment protocol as well as identify for whom and under what circumstances video-based modeling yields the greatest results. Meta-analytical methods were utilized to aggregate the results of peer-reviewed video-based modeling studies for participants with a variety of disabilities and to address an assortment of targeted outcomes. The included presentations will identify protocol, participant, and outcome variables that yield differential effects. Further, the quality of the video-based modeling research methodology will be evaluated.

Evidence-based practice requires empirical studiesthat implement rigorous methodological standards in addition to achieving desired outcomes on targeted skills. Examination of the quality of research for a given intervention allows for more definitive statements regarding functional relationships between the intervention and targeted outcomes. Video-based modeling is an emerging treatment for individuals with disabilities warranting an evaluation of the quality of the existing literature base. This study evaluates peer-reviewed video-based modeling research utilizing a 4-point Likert scale based on seven indicators of quality single-case research. A total of 56 single-case studies implementing video-based modeling with individuals with disabilities were evaluated. Of those studies, only 18 studies met minimal criteria for quality research with an overall average rating of 3.70. Issues related to delivery of the independent variable, particularly measures of fidelity, was a common omission across the studies. Quality research standards will be discussed as they relate to video-based modeling, including an overview of the strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, implications regarding the efficacy of video-based modeling and areas of future research will be addressed.

Transfer of research into practice requires explicit description of the intervention protocol to allow for replication in practical settings. However, video-modeling with other as model and self as model are2 distinct interventions frequently discussed in the literature without clear delineation of the differences. Additionally, specification of whether or not the video-based modeling intervention was delivered alone or as a component of an intervention package rarely occurs. Such grouping inhibits the transfer of research into practice and fails to identify differential effects that are likely to occur when delivery methods differ. Through a meta-analysis of improvement rate differences this study proposes to quantitatively analyze the video-based modeling literature base to provide further specificity regarding the implementation factors that yield the greatest magnitude of change. Preliminary results indicate a large overall effect size of .81 CI.834 [.80, .82] with a range from -.26 to .96. Statistically significant differences (p = .05) occurring based on type of model as moderator were obtained. Quantitative differences as it relates to implications for practice and future research will be discussed.

The differing needs and required skill sets of older populations, when compared to elementary populations, necessitates research explicitly designed for this population. However, a limited number of evidence-based practices have been identified for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. Video-based modeling interventions, consisting of other, self, and point of view, have shown promise across a variety of skills and for a broad array of participant characteristics. Additionally, many studies have been conducted implementing video-based modeling with older participants. The purpose of this presentation is to establish the efficacy of video-based modeling with secondary and postsecondary individuals with disabilities using meta-analysis of improvement rate differences across participants. Additionally, differential effects based on type of video-based modeling implemented are explored. Results indicate overall large effects (.71, CI.84 .69, .72). Effects based on type of video-based modeling indicate statistically significant discrepancies (p =.05) between type of video-based modeling with highest effects on targeted outcomes occurring with the implementation of video self-modeling (.86, CI.84 .82, .90).

This study examines a video self-prompting strategy to teach 3 high school students daily living and vocational skills. Three students with autism were recruited for the study. Two of the students were able to learn to self-prompt with video on an iPhone while a third student required teacher assistance. Students then used these prompting procedures to learn new skills. The effects of the prompting systems were evaluated in the context of a multiple probe across behaviors, replicated across students. Results indicate that participants increased performance across all behaviors by increasing the percent of steps performed independently. This study introduces a novel approach to using instructional video, in that 2 of the students were able to learn how to self-prompt with the iPhone and ultimately teach themselves the target skills.

This investigation examined the ability of four adults with moderate intellectual disabilities to complete multi-component tasks using continuous video modeling. Continuous video modeling, which is a newly researched application of video modeling, presents video in a looping format which automatically repeats playing of the video while the individual completes a task. Four adult males, ages 29 to 35 years, with a diagnosis of Down syndrome and a moderate intellectual disability, were participants in the study. A multiple probe design across three sets of multi-component tasks (folding multiple sizes of towels; sorting an assortment of recycling materials; preparing a buffet table with multiple serving stations) and replicated with four adults was used to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous video modeling. Overall results suggest that this newly explored method for presenting video models was an effective presentation mode for three of the four participants.

Palyas bipolar model predicts both an initial negative gradient as well as a terminal positive gradient across a fixed temporal interval. The initial demonstration of the bipolar effect was on observing behavior to a fixed interfood clock (CFT) schedule with an added concomitant variable interval (VI) schedule (Palya, 1993). The present research used what was in effect a chronic summation test across 42 groups to assess the effect of 9 different VI/CFT ratios on the key-pecking directly maintained by the concomitant schedule itself. In general, across all ratios the clock stimuli modulated the response rate across the fixed interfood interval even though VI reinforcers occurred at an equal rate throughout the entire interfood clock and could occur during any clock stimulus. Experiment I consisted of 2 phases. Phase 1 implemented ratios from (1/8) to (2) across birds. Phase 2 changed the range to (1/4) to (4). Experiment II varied the ratios from (1/4) to (8) and subsequently from (1) to (32). Results showed a greater suppression of first half behavior at higher ratios and the highest second half response rate between ratios of (4) and (8).

The state of the art in examining the post-reinforcement pause (PRP) has been the selection of 4 to 5 fixed ratio (FR) or fixed interval (FI) schedules with pigeons responding to stability. Pausing is then measured and plotted as a function of FR or FI value. The present work examined PRP in variable ratio schedules using a response counter in predictable or unpredictable conditions. The results suggest a new conceptualization of the PRP based on the predictability of the upcoming response demand. In addition, the study yielded new data regarded a breakpoint for the PRP.

We investigated the effects of signals on causal attribution to a temporally distant event, using pigeons exposed to a conditional discrimination procedure. During a sample component, a variable-interval schedule was assigned to 1 of 2 side keys, both transilluminated the same color. Completing the schedule requirement initiated a delay period, followed by a choice component in which reinforcement required that the pigeon selected the choice key corresponding to the side key on which a response started the delay. In Experiment 1, in different conditions, both side keys changed to a different color for the entire delay (full signal) or not at all (unsignaled). Discrimination accuracy was higher for the full signal and generally decreased as a function of delay value. In Experiment 2, the key-color change occurred for the entire delay or only for the first 1-s period (partial signal). The partial signal was either less or as effective as the full signal. The experiment currently is being extended by manipulating the location within delays that is signaled.

Humans, like pigeons, tend to make errors while learning simple and complex discriminations. Errors are particularly problematic for humans recovering from strokes and re-learning language. These errors cause frustration and aggressive behavior that disrupts rehabilitation. An aspect of language rehabilitation resembles a matching-to-sample procedure. Last year I reported on an experiment designed to reduce errors when learning matching-to-sample tasks. In a single-subjects design, pigeons pecked the sample, which presented the comparisons. Pecking the correct comparison was reinforced. Errors were reduced by presenting the incorrect comparison very briefly and gradually increased how long it was present. In that experiment, 10 pecks at the sample were required to produce the comparisons and there was a variable 30 sec intertrial interval. In control conditions pigeons made 53-208 errors during acquisition and in the experimental condition they made 3-50 errors during acquisition. Within-subject comparisons showed large differences in errors between conditions. The present experiment used procedures that are expected to increase the errors in the control condition: 1 peck to the sample produced the comparisons and the intertrial interval was 5 sec. In control conditions pigeons made 393-431 errors and in the experimental condition they made 0-6 errors. Additional data is being collected from these 4 pigeons.

We investigated the effect of prior investment on choice in a concurrent-chains procedure with pigeons. Initial links were VI15–VI15 and terminal links were FR15–FR15. Two types of trials in each session, signalled by red and green, were identical except for one aspect. In red trials, the initial link was preceded by an initial investment of 20 pecks on the left key, whereas in the green trials the initial link was preceded by an initial investment of 20 pecks on the right key. If there is an effect of prior investment on choice in the direction predicted by the sunk cost error and the work-ethic effect, left should be preferred on red trials and right on green trials. Conversely, equal preference would result if there is no effect of prior investment on choice, as shown by studies that unsuccessfully tried to replicate the work-ethic effect. The results of several experiments in which we manipulated size of the initial investment, and the relative size of the terminal-link FR have a bearing on both the sunk cost error and the work-ethic effect.

When given a choice between varying and repeating response sequences, humans and nonhumans tend to choose the repeat alternative, mainly when the vary one is highly demanding. Considering that rigorous vary requirements generate sequences with several switches between operanda, the present study investigated the influence of the number of switches (response cost) upon choice. College students were required to choose between two alternatives. In Experiment 1, sequences had to differ from the previous five ones (VAR contingency) and include two (VAR 2 alternative) or five (VAR 5 alternative) switches. In Experiment 2, reinforcers were contingent to the emission of a unique sequence (REP contingency) with two (REP 2 alternative) or five (REP 5 alternative) switches. In Experiment 3, choice was between one vary (VAR 2 or VAR 5) and one repeat (REP 2 or REP 5) contingency. Participants preferred two to five switches under both the VAR and REP contingencies of experiments 1 and 2. Preference for the REP alternative in Experiment 3 increased as a direct function of the number of switches in the VAR alternative. These results suggest that response cost may ascribe aversive properties to vary contingencies, thus affecting choice between varying and repeating response sequences.

Research has shown that choice adapts rapidly to dynamic changes in the relative rate of food delivery arranged by concurrent random interval schedules. Most theories of choice, however, would predict exclusive preference for one of two alternatives providing food according to concurrent random ratio schedules. We explored this possibility in a choice situation that arranged 7 pairs of probabilities in two levers (0.16-0.02, 0.16-0.04, 0.16-0.08, 0.16-0.16, 0.08-0.16, 0.04-0.16, & 0.02-0.16), defining 7 unsignaled components that occurred in random order within the session. Each component arranged ten-food deliveries and was followed by a 1-minute black out. Choice adapted rapidly to dynamic changes in the relative probability of food delivery that occurred in the levers. Although the rats showed a bias for the left lever, pressing on the right lever tracked the probability of food delivery in that lever. The generalized matching law provided of good fits to the logs of response ratio explaining more than 80 percent of the variability. An almost perfect match between obtained and arranged food ratio was observed. Overall preference favored with more responses the lever with the highest probability of food delivery. The implications of these results to theories of choice will be discussed.

The effect of various sounds on the behaviour of domestic hens was examined. The effect of white noise on hens' performance under multiple-concurrent schedules was compared with the effects of an alarm call, the sounds of hens feeding, and a food call. All sound biased hens' responding away from keys associated with them, and the magnitude of this bias was largest for white noise and the food call. White noise suppressed the responding of hens when it was present, however, the other sounds did not. Next, a concurrent-chains procedure was used to assess the same hens' preferences for the same sounds. In the equal initial-links (with no sounds played) hens chose between "sound" and "no sound" terminal-links. Initial-link response biases were away from the key associated with sound for the food call for all hens and the directions of the other biases varied over hens. Terminal-link entry pauses tended to be longer in terminal-links associated with sounds where the longest pauses were with white noise and the food call. Thus, the two procedures gave some similar and some conflicting results. The various measures of behaviour, including response biases, response rates, and terminal-link pauses, will be compared and discussed.

In an ever evolving business community, the need for behavior analysis in organizations continues to be great. Organizations continue to struggle with similar challenges that can often seem ongoing. In addition, new technologies continue to arise in the environment that can better enable organizations to be more effective, if applied correctly. Organizational behavior management (OBM) is well positioned to help leaders and organizations navigate these challenges to effectiveness. This symposium will explore three fronts where OBM can emerge as the leading philosophy for true organizational effectiveness.

Increasingly, we are seeing many organizations challenged by a new set of pressures. These organizations find themselves in an uncertain business and social environment, where speed and nimbleness are keys to success. In this environment, leaders need ways to implement the traditional business levers in a much more rapid and effective fashion. Leaders in these organizations are looking for tools to help them manage within those environments. They are searching for ways to drive accountability, ownership, innovation, and collaboration. We will present our understanding of current and future business needs, solutions we have found effective, and the future opportunities that they suggest for the field of Organizational Behavior Management.

Over the years companies applying the principles of behavior analysis have consistently demonstrated an ability to change employee behavior. The use of feedback, for example, has been 1 element routinely leveraged to bring about significant behavior change. However, behavior change is sometimes achieved for behaviors that may not add value to an organization. As the economy continues to struggle and budgets continue to be scrutinized, it becomes more important for consulting firms to demonstrate the financial value they bring. This paper will discuss ways in which financial value can be demonstrated to clients. In addition, the authors will explore how a disciplined adherence to behavior data and results can help distinguish service providers who use the principles of behavior analysis from service providers who only claim to do so.

The application of lean manufacturing, six sigma and lean sigma efforts have been increasing in the past few years and with that increase we have seen a steadily growing demand for a behavioral approach to the efforts. Over the course of several client projects, we have worked to marry an understanding of behavioral science with that of the various process improvement efforts. We will share an overview of the methodologies, as well as the importance of behavioral science in effectively executing them. Further, we will discuss the implications of our learning for the future of the field of Organizational Behavior Management.

When teaching college students, professors use a variety of strategies, ranging from traditional lectures to hands-on experiences and demonstrations. Although much has been written about the general need for evidence-based practice in education, relatively little has been published regarding instruction on the college level. In order to determine how to best structure college courses, it may be useful to conduct experimental evaluations of common teaching methods. Three technologies that are often used in college settings, but have not been sufficiently studied are (1) the use of flashcards to teach concepts, (2) the use of vocabulary banks to teach a foreign language, and (3) the use of online study games for quiz preparation. In this symposium, we will present evidence on each of these educational practices, and discuss the implications of these findings for college teaching. Specific recommendations will be made regarding ways to improve the efficiency of each procedure, and how they can be combined with traditional teaching methods.

Because college students often use flashcards as a tool for learning concepts, it may be useful to determine the most effective format. Fox and Ghezzi (2003) evaluated the effects of practicing with definitions versus examples. Although training with examples led to superior performance on a subsequent quiz, it was unclear whether examples were superior in general, or if the similarity between the formats of the quiz and flashcards produced this effect. A group of 19 college students enrolled in an introductory course on applied behavior analysis participated in this study. On the first day of classes, students were given a set of flashcards containing 10 key terms from the course. In each set of cards, 5 of the terms had definitions on the back, while the other 5 had examples. After practicing with the cards, students were tested on whether they could name the term when looking at the definition or example. Once they mastered this, the students were given a quiz in which they had to provide examples and definitions for all 10 terms. Students performed better on quiz items that were taught using examples, but were also more accurate on items that matched the format used in the flashcards (i.e. asked for a definition of a term they practiced with a definition).

There is a paucity of behavior analytic research on second language acquisition, yet now more than ever there is a need for societies to become fluent in at least one additional language. The current study seeks to find efficient methods to teaching a foreign language by applying behavior analytic principles in a college classroom setting. The researchers compared two study methods and the effects on Italian language acquisition, retention, generalization, and conversational fluency. The first study method was vocabulary banks, which are frequently used but there is no empirical support for their utility. The second method was scripted conversations, based on observations from a cultural immersion program in which Italian and American students worked together to produce a play in both languages. Cihon and Stephens (2011) observed students using lines from the play to initiate conversations and overcome the language barrier. Preliminary results indicate that participants engaged in more Italian exchanges in vocabulary bank testing sessions than in script testing sessions; however participants emitted more Italian words during script testing sessions. This indicates that exchanges were more complex after studying scripts than after studying vocabulary banks. However, these patterns were different when we divided participants based on prior exposure to Italian language. Students who had no prior exposure to Italian engaged in more exchanges in script testing sessions and emitted more words during script testing sessions. Participants who had at least two classes in Italian prior to the study engaged in more exchanges and emitted more words during vocabulary bank testing sessions. This finding suggests further research is needed to determine efficient teaching methods and the role of prior experience in using these study methods.

The science of behaviour analysis is applied in a wide range of contexts by those working with individuals, families or at the organisational level. A related area is Clinical Animal Behaviour, where the focus is the animal's behaviour within a human context, and where both animal and human behaviour change is addressed. This latter field is the author's background. Recently, there has been a growing trend to use animals as intervention tools in human therapeutic programmes. The benefits of horse riding for those with physical disabilities, for example, are accepted, and considered to have clear scientific foundations. This is not the case where animals are used in psychological intervention programmes. Indeed, many consider such animal facilitated therapy to have little or no scientific validity and simply to provide a "feel-good" factor. This paper will consider; a. how behaviour analysis may explain much of what happens in animal facilitated therapy; b. how animals can be a specific tool in the behaviour analyst's therapeutic armoury; c. the potential for further roles of animals in human-health provision; and d. some issues to consider when planning therapeutic programmes involving animals. The talk will draw on examples of practice and critical consideration of evidence of outcome.

Neuroimaging techniques have led to significant advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of drug-taking and the treatment of drug addiction in humans. The presentation by Dr. Leonard Howell describes the utility of neuroimaging toward understanding the neurobiological basis of drug taking, and documents the close concordance that can be achieved among neuroimaging, neurochemical and behavioral endpoints. The study of drug interactions with dopamine and serotonin transporters in vivo has identified pharmacological mechanisms of action associated with the abuse liability of stimulants. Neuroimaging has identified the extended limbic system, including the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate, as important neuronal circuitry that underlies drug taking. The ability to conduct within-subject, longitudinal assessments of brain chemistry and neuronal function has enhanced our efforts to document long-term changes in dopamine D2 receptors, monoamine transporters, and prefrontal metabolism due to chronic drug exposure. Dysregulation of dopamine function and brain metabolic changes in areas involved in reward circuitry has been linked to drug-taking behavior, cognitive impairment and treatment response. Experimental designs employing neuroimaging should consider well-documented determinants of drug taking, including pharmacokinetic considerations, subject history and environmental variables. These integrative approaches should have important implications for understanding drug-taking behavior and the treatment of drug addiction.

We don't want this talk to be considered for C.E. credit, but there's no way to by-pass these fields. Please disregard anything to do with CEUs.

Altruistic acts may been defined as costly acts that confer economic benefits on others. (In behavioral terms: punished acts that reward others.) In prisoner's dilemma games, with human players, a significant number of players behave altruistically; their behavior benefits each of the other players but is costly to them. I propose that such altruism is based on a straightforward balancing of undiscounted costs to themselves against discounted benefits to others (social discounting). I will describe two experiments, using prisoner's dilemma games, that test this explanation of altruism. In one experiment, costs were held constant but the number of others (benefiting from cooperation) varied. In another experiment, with only two players, costs were again constant but the amount of other player's benefit varied directly. In both experiments, cooperation increased as benefits to the other player(s) increased.

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) had previously been taught to use English count words ("one" through "sih" [six]) to label sets of one to six individual items (Pepperberg, 1994). He had also been taught to use the same count words to label the Arabic numerals 1 through 6. Without training, he inferred the relationship between the Arabic numerals and the sets of objects (Pepperberg, 2006b). In the present study, he was then trained to label vocally the Arabic numerals 7 and 8 ("sih-none," "eight," respectively) and to order these Arabic numerals with respect to the numeral 6. He subsequently inferred the ordinality of 7 and 8 with respect to the smaller numerals and he inferred use of the appropriate label for the cardinal values of seven and eight items. These data suggest that he constructed the cardinal meanings of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" from his knowledge of the cardinal meanings of one through six, together with the place of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" in the ordered count list.

This symposium will present research related to the establishment of new conditioned reinforcers, through both classical and operant conditioning procedures, and will also present research related to how children come to learn new things, such as incidental language or perspective taking, as a function of acquiring new reinforcers. The first paper will outline how new reinforcers are acquired in a comparison of classical and operant conditioning procedures and will present results from a study where books were conditioned as reinforcers, leading to faster acquisition of reading behaviors. The second paper will present a study to condition praise as a reinforcer for a young child with autism, a necessary component of the acquisition of other developmental cusps, such as listener and speaker behaviors. The third paper will discuss how language is learned incidentally, via the joining of the speaker and the listener when Naming is acquired, and will present procedures to induce Naming by exclusion when it is missing. The fourth paper will discuss procedures for inducing level 2 of visual perspective taking and the implications for children who lack social listener reinforcement.

We tested the effects of conditioning books on the rate of acquisition of novel textual responses for 4 nursery school students at risk for developmental delays (3) or without developmental delays (1), aged 2 years, in two experiments. Two males and 2 females were selected for participation because they did not have book stimuli as a conditioned reinforcer for observing. The independent variables were the establishment of books as a reinforcer for observing responses and as a preferred activity in a free play area. The dependent variable was the rate of acquisition of novel textual responses. A matched-pairs with pre- and post-intervention probes with a nested multiple probe design was used; the participants were paired based on the number of learn units to criterion for a set of sight words. In Experiment I, Participants A and B acquired conditioned reinforcement for observing books as a function of mastering one set of words. Experiment II differed in that more sets of sight words were taught, and that the participants received the book conditioning intervention. Results indicated that the participants learned a novel set of sight words 2.20 to 7.25 times faster as a function of having books as a conditioned reinforcer. In another experiment we compared the effects of two conditioning procedures, operant conditioning versus classical conditioning, on the conditioning of peg boards as reinforcer. Toddlers, ranging in ages from 2-3 years old, in an early intervention school participated in the study. Participants were matched and paired. One child in each pair was exposed to an operant conditioning procedure, while the other matched pair received stimulus-stimulus pairings via a classical conditioning procedure. Preliminary findings show that for some participants the operant conditioning procedure was more effective for conditioning peg boards as a reinforcer, and for other participants the classical conditioning procedure was more effective. Future research will continue to compare the effects of the two conditioning procedures and also study potential prerequisite repertoires that affect the emergence of conditioned reinforcers for operant or for classical conditioning procedures.

The limited influence of social stimuli as reinforcement for the behavior of children with autism is well documented. Reinforcement by social stimuli, such as attention and praise, is required for the maintenance and generalization of a multitude of social behaviors, most notably verbal behaviors (e.g., tacts, intraverbals) maintained by generalized conditioned reinforcement. The purpose of this study was to systematically replicate recent findings showing the praise can be conditioned as a reinforcer. The participant was 5 years old, diagnosed with autism, and nonverbal. A preliminary functional analysis demonstrated that button-pushing was consistently more frequent in a contingent tickle condition that in contingent praise and no consequence conditions. Contingent pairing of praise and tickles was then administered in 2-min sessions and praise alone was evaluated before and after pairing sessions each day. Results indicate that button-pushing increased in the contingent praise condition following the pairing condition. Interobserver agreement of button-pushing was 99.4% across 50% of sessions in the study. One interpretation of the data suggests that the motivating operation linked to the unconditioned reinforcer must be in effect in the conditioned reinforcement condition. Future research should continue refining the procedures for conditioning attention as a reinforcer as well as examine more closely at the role of motivating operations in the process.

We conducted a study to see whether children who had the Naming capability (incidental learning of language) also had the capability of Naming by exclusion. First, we tested whether children could respond as both speaker and a listener to an array of objects on a table top except one that was novel. We counterbalanced the order of the stimuli presented within session and across students. If the child was determined to have Naming by responding correctly to the last 10 trials consecutively we then probed the child on the untaught responses after 2 hours on listener responses (10 trials) and speaker responses (10 trials) without any consequences, to see whether he had Naming by exclusion. Criterion was set at 80% accuracy. If the child did not demonstrate Naming by exclusion, we used another set of stimuli with 4 known items and 1 unknown to teach to criterion (100% accuracy) before we probed for listener and speaker responses. Participant A did not have Naming by exclusion during the pre-probe and was taught one instructional session to criterion and he demonstrated mastery in the post-probe in both listener and speaker responses. Participant B had Naming by exclusion, as evidenced by the pre-probe, and she had 70% accuracy in the listener and speaker responses in the post probe.

Level 2 of visual perspective taking (VPT) consists of responding differentially according to the visual perception of oneself and other person, when both people are seeing the same object from different perspectives. We have identified how to induce skills of Level 2 VPT, evaluated with verbal and selection responses in typically developing children. In this procedure we intermixed trials of the Level 2 VPT probe with verbal responses and selection responses of photos and objects. The goal of this study was to replicate the procedure of probes to induce these skills in children with autism. One participants results replicated the data obtained in typically developing children, but the other participant showed that the performance in the probe with selection responses of objects depends on the type of verbal stimuli of the instruction. These results replicated partially those obtained in typically developing children, and added the specificity of the stimuli employed in the case of children with autism to succeed on some probes.

The area of contextual behavioral science grew from the field of behavior analysis and the two remain interconnected today. Contextual behavioral science is rapidly growing into an internationally recognized approach for the prediction and influence of human behavior. The body of empirical evidence for acceptance and commitment therapy with adults has extended across an array of areas including, but not limited to, chronic pain, psychosis, anxiety, and depression. Even more recent, however, is the increasing application of this approach to the behavior of children and families. This panel intends to explore the research findings in this area with a focus on how contextual behavioral science might enhance traditional applied behavior analysis. After a brief introduction to the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of contextual behavioral science, we will focus on how an analysis of child behavior, parenting, and overall family functioning might benefit from this approach. Particular attention will be paid to how contextual behavior therapies with parents, when used in addition to applied behavior analysis for children, can benefit the family as a whole. A significant portion of time will be protected for audience questions after the initial discussion.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and professionals in applied behavior analysis (ABA) frequently participate as members of support teams for children with autism. Collaboration between these professionals can enhance the teams work, since each professional brings valuable resources to the table. However, overlapping areas of expertise, different terms used for similar instructional elements, and variations in addressing the same problems may complicate the collaborative process unless each professional understands the others framework. Failure to effectively collaborate often results in professionals working in isolation or even worse, working in opposition. The purpose of this panel is to clarify similarities and differences between the developmental and behavioral models used by SLPs and ABA professionals, respectively. In addition, panel members will highlight strengths that SLP and ABA professionals each bring to an autism support team. Finally, the panel will conclude with recommendations for addressing issues that may be viewed differently by SLP and ABA professionals.

In their seminal longitudinal study Meaningful Differences (1995), Betty Hart and Todd Risley established that, across a range of demographic variables, infants and toddlers in enriched language environments were far more likely to develop excellent language skills. These important findings have been widely publicized, helping to contribute to what appears to be a trend toward more behavior-analytic methods in mainstream pre-K and K-12 education in the United States. In this symposium, reviews of3 mainstream trade books offer an integration of educational developments, nature-and-nurture advances, and expertise studies (such as Anders Ericsson's), and how they build on Hart and Risley's classic. Schneider covers Shenk's The Genius in All of Us, which makes the case for the extensive malleability of behavior that we behavior analysts have long known to exist. Watkins summarizes Tough's Whatever It Takes, a history of the early years of the Harlem Children's Zone projects, based explicitly on Hart and Risley. And Slocum brings us the adventures of much-honored inner-city fifth-grade teacher Rafe Esquith, author of There Are No Shortcuts, as he (unintentionally) discovers and incorporates behavior analysis methods into his teaching. Detrich will discuss how we can build further on these encouraging developments.

David Shenk's bestseller, The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong, makes the case for the extensive malleability of behavior that behavior analysts have long known to exist. Citing Hart and Risley's Meaningful Differences early on, Shenk integrates research on: enriched early environments, nature-and-nurture relations, the modifiability of "intelligence," problems with interpretations of "heritability" and the twin studies, and Anders Ericsson's research on the development of expertise through practice (as opposed to innate "talent"). Shenk even includes a brief chapter on epigenetics. In short, the book is a primer on (a) why genetic determinism fails, and (b) the inspiring implication for education and parenting: We all have far more potential than we'd dreamed. While Shenk does not include behavior analysis principles explicitly, they are implicit throughout.

Whatever It Takes is the operating principle at the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ). It is also the title of Paul Tough's book describing HCZ President and CEO Geoffrey Canada's comprehensive and controversial approach to education reform. According to Canada, "There's no reason that all of our children in this country are not able to learn at higher levels." Making that happen is the goal of Harlem Children's Zone, which provides a complex set of educational and social services and supports for children and their families. For example, based in part on the work of Hart and Risley, the HCZ includes programs such as Baby College and Three Year Journey, which teach parents about developing language skills, and Harlem Gems, a preschool program that emphasizes language. Dobbie and Fryer (2009) published an evaluation claiming that the HCZ "is enormously effective at increasing the achievement of the poorest minority children." Whitehurst and Croft (2010) offer an alternate analysis. Paul Tough states, "There aren't yet air tight data to prove that Canada's model works." However in 2010 the U.S. State Department of Education awarded 21 organizations planning grants of up to a half million dollars to create plans to reproduce the HCZ.

Rafe Esquith, a 5th grade teacher at an inner city elementary school in Los Angeles, is one of the most widely recognized and honored classroom teachers in America. His books, including There Are No Shortcuts and Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, are best sellers and articulate a distinct approach to improving education. Esquith offers no easy answers; the titles of his books epitomize his main themes—the educational mission must be engaged with unrelenting urgency and total dedication. He extends his teaching day to more than 11 hours and his school year with summer school and multiweek field trips. He constructs his own curriculum in academic subjects as well as social skills and character. Esquith's vision of education overlaps behavioral approaches in their shared focus on academic achievement and social behavior outcomes, increasing academic engaged time, the importance of building skills, and the great power of supportive environments for behavior change. Esquith also departs from behavioral approaches in important ways: For him, the critical variables in education are more in the character, intelligence, and dedication of teachers.

This symposium comprises four papers outlining studies investigating Headsprout Early Reading (HER) and Headsprout Reading Comprehension (HRC). The first paper reports the use of HER with children with mild to moderate Intellectual Disabilities within a state funded special education school. Paper two reports the use of HER with two nonverbal children with cerebral palsy accessing the programme through communication aids. Paper three reports on the ongoing studies using both programmes with children with autism. Paper four reports on the effects of introducing a look-back contingency in HRC.

Reading instruction for individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) has typically focused on a sight word reading approach. However, there is increasing evidence that individuals with IDD can benefit from phonics-based reading instruction. Previous case studies suggest Headsprout Early Reading (HER, an online, phonics-based programme) can be used to help improve reading and language skills in children with moderate to severe IDD. This reports on the individual progress of four children with mild to moderate IDD, outlining reading and language assessment scores after an initial 10-month teacher-led intervention and after subsequent completion of the programme. Some of the challenges for future research implementing and evaluating HER in special education settings will also be discussed.

There is little research on the acquisition of reading and the use of text as a means of communication in children who are nonverbal. The presenting author, a specialist senior speech and language therapist, has been working with two teenage girls with Cerebral Palsy. Both have acquired communication aids at the same time as beginning to use Headsprout Early Reading. One of the children uses a hand held communication aid operated with a stylus and the other uses a wheelchair mounted communication aid operated by eye gaze. Both communication aids can be operated by using pictures or text. Data has been kept both on progress with reading and global language skills as well as the frequency of functional use of the respective communication aids. Additionally, Headsprout frequency building materials have been used to address their ability to spell accurately and to use a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Over the last several years we have been conducting several studies using Headsprout Early Reading (HER) and Headsprout Reading Comprehension (HRC) with children with autism in the context of early ABA-based intervention programmes. Here we describe the findings from 5 studies using HER or HRC. The research used single subject, pre/post test designs. A number of standardised tests were taken prior to and following the Headsprout interventions in all studies to assess the effects on the participants key reading repertoires. HER had a positive impact on participants reading accuracy, and HRC had similar effects on comprhension scores. Across all studies, additional procedures derived from ABA were used to support the children in the programme. Results are discussed with reference to increased reading ability in this population and the practical strategies required to support children with Autism in order that they may benefit from Headsprout reading programmes.

This presentation will address the effect of the look back procedure implemented in the Headsprout Reading Comprehension. Headsprout Reading Comprehension is an online program that teaches students to answer reading comprehension questions in four categories: literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, main idea (summative) comprehension, and derived meaning (vocabulary) comprehension. In the first version of the program, learners 1) read a narrative or expository passage, 2) read a reading comprehension question and possible answers, 3) identified a question type, and 4) selected an answer. The second version of the program has one more contingency between identifying a question type and selecting an answer: they are asked to find necessary parts in the passage to answer questions (we call this contingency look back). We compared learners performances, based on the program version they used. That is, the first version (without look back) is a control condition and the second version (with look back) is an experimental condition. Learners in the look back condition demonstrated better performance in questions than learners in the other condition. We then extended this analysis to learners in schools. This presentation will address the results of learners who use Headsprout Reading Comprehension at school.

Educational policy in the United States advocates for empirically validated teaching procedures to be utilized in the classroom. As educational systems continue to be levied with added responsibilities and diminishing resources, it becomes imperative to identify Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) that are efficacious and easily implemented in educational systems. Additionally, empirically based teaching is not frequently observed when considering University level instruction. This symposium presents recent research on evidence-based practice in both primary and University level teaching with a focus on functional changes in both teacher and child behavior. Data-based presentations will outline the critical features of EBP in educational settings, summarize methods for effectively training teachers on EBP, identify critical features for implementation of EBP, and evaluate the effects on student behavior.

We examined the effectiveness of a Behavioral Skills Training (BST) package to instruct 3 parents to teach manding skills to young children with autism. Sessions included 5 bi-weekly modules with instructions, video modeling and role plays. Following completion of each training module, we observed parents implementing procedures in family homes or at a university-affiliated autism treatment center. Data were collected on the accuracy of implementing training steps for parents and the frequency of manding responses in children. We provided feedback and modeling of correct procedures following training. A changing-criterion design was used to evaluate the effects of the training. Results showed the training was effective for all parents, and findings were maintained during 1- and 2-month probes. We observed variable increases in manding responses for the children. Findings are discussed in terms of future applications of a BST model for enhancing parent skills to teach verbal behavior.

Behavior Skills Training (BST) typically consists of an initial informational component presented to the learners either vocally, through a handout, presentation, or both. Results from the active student responding literature indicates these methods as the least effective means of conveying important information to learners. This study sought to utilize an alternative instructional component, fluency training, and to evaluate if any effects are observed on implementation of the behavior chain of Discrete Trial Training (DTT). Teachers had previous training and experience on implementing DTT prior to this studyhowever, all teachers implemented strategies with low integrity. Teachers were trained to fluent levels on verbally stating the component steps of DTT and were then observed during probe sessions to evaluate percentage of steps implemented correctly. The probes indicate an initial improvement, but decreases over time that are consistent with results on other passive in-service trainings. Teachers then took part in a single session of Modeling, Role-Play, and Feedback. Results suggest that while fluency training had an impact on participants verbal performance on discrete trial information, and affected overt performance during subsequent probes, the effects were small and transient. Performance improved only after training on the components of BST and additional training had been completed in-situ.

This project assessed the use of behavioral momentum on the latency and accuracy of math problems. Behavioral momentum involved the sequencing of high probability tasks (e.g., two single digit math problems) before a student was presented with a low probability behavior (e.g., triple digit math problem). Assessment modules (3 to 5 sessions each) were used to assess baseline measures: (1) ten 3+3 digit math problems, and (2) twenty 1+1 digit math problems. Following assessment, students were given a 30 problem math test with 3 + 3 digit math problems embedded with a sequence of 1 + 1 digit math problems. Latency to each keystroke, duration of problem completion, and accuracy of each problem was monitored and analyzed. The use of behavioral momentum resulted in a decrease in latency in the completion of triple-digit addition problems with a concurrent increase in accuracy of triple-digit addition problems.

Meeting professional and personal goals can often seem like an insurmountable challenge. The increasing need for professionals in the field of behavior analysis to conduct research, teach, train, and provide service delivery presents new challenges for individuals pursuing careers in the field; there is never enough time to get everything done. With the incredible demand and workload that is often faced by professionals in academic as well as private settings, activities such as planning ahead, creating monitoring systems, and achieving personal and professional goals may not seem like a priority in the face of everyday, more immediate contingencies. The science of behavior analysis offers tools to help establish, manage, and promote self-management. This panel includes both faculty members and individuals working in the private sector who have employed behavior analytic strategies to help balance and achieve their professional as well as personal goals. They will share their experience, recent goals, and procedures for attaining these goals. The panel discussion will conclude with an open discussion with audience participants on creating an environment that promotes both professional and personal well-being.

While many behavior analysts consider mentalism a taboo way of explaining behavior, many other behavioral professionals and students may stop the progress of their concern on the subject there. But mentalism is more than just a nonbehavior-analytic way of speaking it can also act as an obstacle to applying basic behavioral principles to areas of human behavior that are significant; not only for the individual, but also for society. Behavior-environment interactions work both ways, though. Mentalism may slow the progress of expanding the application of behavioral concepts and principles into new areas of study, but successful research and applications based on the principles of behavior analysis might, in turn, change the way people speak and think about the causes of behavior. Panelists will discuss their experiences within less mainstream, still developing areas of behavior analysis and how mentalism has affected, and been affected by, behavior-analytic practice and research in these areas.

Perception is perhaps one of the most eluded topics in our science do its subtlety. In psychology, very few explanations have been provided where no internal processes are used; making perception an impossible subject of study from a naturalistic point of view. Nevertheless, perception seems to occur prior any organismic interaction with the environment, and it seems paradoxical that the study of this behavior has been avoided on our field. Some authors have theorized on how perception can be the subject matter of a naturalistic science without violating its basic principles. In this symposium three different perspectives will be presented based on the theories developed by Dewey, Gibson and Kantor, hoping to bring the importance of the study of this behavior to the table. It would be examined how although perception is subtle, it does not make it internal or inaccessible for empirical research, moreover it would be suggested how empirical research can be performed and interpreted from these three angles.

In 1930, psychologist, philosopher and educator John Dewey wrote a relatively unknown chapter entitled Conduct and Experience where he purported to revise the meaning of both concepts as central to what at his time were the two main psychologies, behaviorism and introspectionism. In his revision he proposed a sort of middle ground by emphasizing that sensation, memory, and perception could be better understood as modes of behavior, in a manner not unlike that used by Skinner some decades later, and even closer to that of more recent molar approaches to the study of behavior. Despite these attempts at reconciliation, current psychologies including -behavior analysis- can still be seen as perpetuating this dichotomous separation of the subject matter of psychology. This presentation will introduce the main arguments developed by Dewey, and analyze them in the light of recent perspectives on the relation between perception and action, so as to argue about the importance of understanding perception to obtain a more complete picture of behavior, in wholly empirical, non-mentalistic terms.

The study of perception has been controversial in the history of science (Kantor, 1966, 1969). It is a subtle phenomenon that has encouraged philosophers and psychologists to create different theories to explain it. J. R. Kantor makes an analysis of perception and attention from a naturalistic perspective, where stimuli and stimulus functions become fundamental to its understanding. The present work aims to provide an introduction to attentional and perceptual systems from a Kantorian perspective, and to examine how substitution of functions may be considered at a perceptual level. This review of perceptual substitution aims to open the discussion about non-linguistic perceptual substitution of words. Words are commonly used in the study of verbal and other complex human behaviors but little has been said about their perceptual functions that may be hindering the development of certain relations, not considered by the experimenter. Finally, it is suggested how the understanding of perceptual functions and substitution would allow us to orient to the study of subtle behaviors such as slips of the tongue, reminiscing, etc. from a naturalistic perspective.

The organism-environment relationship is a fundamental unit of analysis for any behavioral description in psychology. Such a relationship has been described as reciprocal by the ecological approach to perception (Gibson, 1979), and entailed the concept of affordance; that is, what the environment provides as a reliable support for a particular behavior to an organism. Although compatible with a behaviorist viewpoint, affordance perception has not been considered into the analysis of behavior domain. This presentation proposes a comparative analysis of affordance perception employing the intrinsic metric analysis (Warren, 1984) in order to facilitate generalization between the experimental analyses of behaviors findings and the perception-action approach. Our results and discussion suggested that the concept of affordance perception is valuable to account for the operant-level performance in typical operant procedures.

There is very little research on the use of applied behavior analysis (ABA)to teach children with disabilities how to swim. To date, the current research in this area is almost3 decades old. Following an initial swim assessment,6 children with various disabilities and various swimming experiences were enrolled in a swim program that utilized the American Red Cross curriculum. Swim skills were taught using ABA strategies. At baseline, clients demonstrated a range of between2 to 11 different skills. Following 10 swim lessons, the clients demonstrated a range of between5 to 29 different skills. These results suggest that teaching swim lessons using ABA strategies may be a quick and efficient method of teaching children with various disabilities how to swim.

The high prevalence rate of autism and need for service delivery is reported from many developing countries (Grinker 2007; Wong & Hui, 2007). Effective treatment methodologies are primarily published in English and autism professionals are trained predominately in North America. There are many North American professionals traveling to developing countries to promote effective interventions and influence the field of autism service delivery. Application of evidence-based practices within diverse cultures, language/translation barriers and maintenance of skills and behaviors with itinerant models of consultation are just a few of the considerations that professionals must consider when working in cultures outside of their own. The panelists for this presentation have been providing itinerant consultation in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East for several years. The panelists will share lessons learned and protocols for increasing effectiveness when providing itinerant consultation in developing countries. Practical considerations of international work will be described. The audience will be invited to engage in discourse to promote increased access to quality intervention for those living with autism, regardless of geography.

Currently, the BACB provides a list of 12 items pertaining to ethics that practitioners ought to be aware of and demonstrate competency within in order to attain certification as a BCBA or BCaBA. As a result, many educational programs offer education and training on the items represented on the BACB Task List without providing an overarching functional process that guides practitioners through clinical ethical decision making once they are in the field. Efficient processes for clinical ethical decision making have a robust history in many other health care fields and offer well-laid out processes for efficiently making effective ethical decisions. An overview of processes for clinical ethical decision making from a variety of health care fields will be outlined and compared to the present literature on clinical ethical decision making in the field of applied behavior analysis. A working model for making ethical decisions within the ABA clinical realm will be offered as well as discussion of how educational programs can better teach such a process as we move into the future of education within the field of applied behavior analysis.

In 1974 Israel Goldiamond published a seminal work on constructional approaches to social problems, outlining a therapeutic process to help individuals achieve their goals. When reviewing his constructional approach, it now appears that Goldiamond was not only a great behavior analyst but also a clairvoyant! His constructional approach is clearly is a forefather of both positive behavior support, designed to facilitate better lives for individuals with an intellectual disability who exhibit challenging behavior, and psychiatric rehabilitation which has been developed to help individuals diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illnesses have better lives. Each of these models, a constructional approach, positive behavior support, and psychiatric rehabilitation, is described and similarities and differences are discussed. For example, all three models have a number of similar strategies, including client developed goals, a focus on achieving those goals rather than removing symptoms/problems, and an emphasis on using clients strengths as a building block for success. One significant difference is that only the constructional approach and positive behavior support consider the function of the problem behavior.

The paradigm example of Pavlovian conditioning is a dog salivating to a cue that occurs before the delivery of meat powder. Because conditioned salivation (the conditioned response or CR) reflects an association of the cue and the meat powder, Pavlovian conditioning became a favorite method of scientists whose primary interest was to elucidate the mechanisms of association learning. I will argue that this focus on a target conditioned response or respondent misses the broader biological significance of Pavlovian conditioning, which is to enable organisms to interact more effectively with significant biological events or unconditioned stimuli (USs). The broader perspective suggests that Pavlovian conditioning produces a wide range of behavioral and physiological adjustments that enable the organism not only to better prepare for the impending occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus but to also deal with the US more effectively at both the behavioral and physiological level. Thus, Pavlovian conditioning produces a reorganization of the biobehavioral system that is activated by the US. This broader perspective will be illustrated with examples from appetitive, aversive, and sexual conditioning.

The best advice for those undertaking any adventure comes straight from the mouth of those with first-hand experience. A panel of leaders in organizational behavior management (OBM) research and consultation will discuss their personal accounts of becoming successful and maintaining status as an expert in the field. Each will provide advice for those with goals of expanding the applicable domains of behavior analysis utilized in their personal and professional lives. Limitations in application, and potential career paths in OBM will be also be discussed to provide students and interested others the insight on relevant goals and objectives deemed most important by those who utilize the methods successfully in their careers today. This event is organized on behalf of the ABAI Student Committee as part of the Professional Development Series to increase student participation in ABAI and enhance personal knowledge and professional growth.

A common characteristic of the language deficit of children with autism (or other developmental disorders) is their failure to acquire a complex intraverbal repertoire. These children may learn a number of mand, tact, and listener skills, and some simple intraverbal responses, but fail to acquire more complex intraverbal relations. The difficulties with learning intraverbal behaviors may, in part, be related to the fact that the stimulus control for such behaviors is highly complex. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the type of antecedent control involved in the type of intraverbal behaviors typically taught to individuals with language delays. We will discuss3 types of antecedent control; discriminated operants, compound stimuli and conditional discriminations. Moreover, we will suggest a teaching curriculum that is specifically designed to establish these types of stimulus control. This teaching curriculum targets both speaker and listener skills, and is designed to establish the necessary prerequisites for the learning of complex intraverbal behaviors.

Husbandry procedures with captive animals are important for their daily management, health, and welfare. While most husbandry training involves positive reinforcement, some husbandry procedures occasionally result in aversive consequences. For example, oral syringe acceptance must commonly be retrained after dosing with medication. However, it is unclear whether such dosing is punishing due to flavor novelty or the animals flavor preferences. The present study assessed the effect of novel and non-preferred flavors on oral syringe acceptance in four captive animals: two ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) and two capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). A free operant (capybara) or paired-choice (ring-tailed lemurs) preference assessment was conducted to identify approached (preferred) and avoided (non-preferred) liquids for each animal. An ABACD multiple baseline across participants design was used. Following a stable baseline of syringe acceptance with one preferred liquid (A) a preferred but untrained liquid was substituted to test for the effect of novelty (B). Baseline conditions were reinstated (A) and then a non-preferred untrained liquid was substituted to test for the effect of an aversive consequence (C). Procedures to address either novelty or aversion were implemented (D). This research may improve oral syringe training with captive animals by suggesting procedures for enhancing response maintenance. Results pending.

It is well known that high rates of reinforcement are important for learning new behaviors. One way to achieve this is to use a direct method of increasing reinforcement; shaping. However, at some point the behavior has been divided into so many approximations that it cannot be divided any further. Are there other methods of achieving higher rates of reinforcement? In what ways do indirect reinforcers improve learning and the strength of the response? In the first phase of this experiment, two equally difficult novel behaviors were trained. Using a multiple-element design, one behavior was trained following the usual shaping schedule and the other was trained similarly but an easy behavior was interspersed during shaping to further increase the rate of reinforcement. In the second phase of this study, extinction was implemented to analyze the strength and variability of behavior produced from of each method of reinforcement. Finally, the conditions for each behavior were switched. The subjects of the experiment were an 11-year-old female dog and a 1-year-old male dog. The acquisition data for the first subject show little difference between the two methods of reinforcement. Data for the extinction phase and the reacquisition phase are pending.

The present study is a follow-up on a previous study that showed that multiple exemplar training produced partial generalization across trainers. The behavior only generalized to different trainers that had already taught two or more behaviors, but did not generalize to familiar people that had not conducted any training with the participant. This suggests that past training experiences are relevant variables for generalization across trainers. The current study examines that possibility. Two Labrador retrievers (1 year old and 5 years old) are the subjects of the current study. Baseline probes were conducted to verify that generalization still did not occur with the previously trained behaviors. The intervention consisted of the training a new behavior by trainers with a history of non-generalization. After the new behaviors were trained, probes were performed with all trainers across all behaviors. These probes test for generalization of the newly acquired behaviors in the presence of trainers that did not train that behavior, but with history of training other behaviors. Further probes tested the previously ungeneralized behaviors for generalization after training a different behavior. Baseline data show that the previously acquired behaviors did not generalize to the new trainers. The remaining results are pending.

Biting and chewing by horses on crossties can result in injury to the handler and damage to equipment. The classical and operant conditioning techniques most commonly used to eliminate undesirable behaviors in horses involve aversive stimulation. These techniques are often effective in reducing target behaviors, but may result in undesirable, and sometimes dangerous, avoidance behaviors. Operant-conditioning techniques that involve positive reinforcement have been used to effectively train behaviors in horses (e.g., trailer loading). Positive-reinforcement techniques may also be effective in reducing horses biting and chewing when on crossties. Presently, positive reinforcement was delivered according to a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) schedule, in the context of a reversal design, to effectively reduce biting and chewing in two horses. Initial DRO intervals were 20 s and 30 s for the two horses and were successfully increased to 94 s for both horses. Based on the present findings, positive-reinforcement techniques can be effective in reducing undesirable behaviors in horses. Relative to aversive-stimulation techniques, positive-reinforcement techniques may have the added benefit of being less likely to result in potentially dangerous avoidance behaviors in horses; thus likely improving horse welfare and trainer safety.

Although reinforcement often is delivered after a delay in naturalistic situations with pet dogs, little research has been conducted on the ability of dogs to acquire new responses under delayed reinforcement conditions. In this study, the nose-poking response of six dogs (Canis familiaris) was exposed to a contingency in which reinforcement was available after a 10-s signaled non-resetting delay following each touch of the subjects nose to a small buoy. Once established, nose-poking was then exposed to extinction. All subjects acquired the response, and rates averaged between 3 and 10 responses per minute across subjects. One subject required prompting in order to contact the contingency. Two subjects began destroying the operandum in extinction, necessitating that one subject be dropped from participation. Difficulties in using this particular operant under these conditions will be addressed. Procedural difficulties notwithstanding, these results suggest that dogs can acquire new responses under 10-s signaled reinforcement delays.

Polydipsia is an important clinical issue in that it has been used as an appropriate means of understanding the etiology of compulsive behavior. Polydipsia is the excessive drinking that occurs when an organism is exposed to food delivered on a fixed-time schedule, resulting in consuming three to four times of their daily water intake. This study has examined the rate with which three experimentally nave Sprague-Dawley rats, reduced to 85% of their free-feeding weight, acquired polydipsia. All experimental sessions were conducted in standard operant chambers. Food pellets were delivered into a food cup by mechanical food dispensers. A clicking sound was made when each pellet was delivered, thereby, providing rats with an immediate signal that food will be available. The rats had unlimited access to water through an electrical contact drinkometer. Drinkometers were used to measure the duration, frequency, probability, and post-food latency of drinking tube contacts. The results indicate individual differences in timing, the overall amount of water consumed, and frequency of drinking tube contacts. Given that only three rats were used, the results of this project should be reviewed with caution. This study should be replicated with more subjects to assess the generalizability of these results.

Many dogs have irritating behaviors that their owners attribute to the dogs personality. However, for larger dogs, these annoying behaviors can pose a real problem when the dog grows up. Puppies jumping up on their owners can be cute, but a 120 lb Rottweiler is a different story. Puppies mouthing hands can be a nuisance. American bulldogs biting hands can be dangerous. This experiment investigates the use of a stimulus control technique to reduce undesirable behaviors using a multiple-baseline design across behaviors. The subjects were two large breed dogs that displayed undesirable and potentially dangerous behavior. During baseline the experimenter approached the dogs as the owners and visitors would and recorded the occurrence of target behaviors. The intervention consisted of reinforcing the target behavior in the presence of a cue, ignoring the target behavior in the absence of the cue, reinforcing incompatible behavior in the absence of the cue, ignoring incompatible behavior in the presence of the cue. Data was analyzed using Green and Swets (1966) signal-detection theory. The results show that this intervention was sufficient to eliminate the behavior. Generalization data is pending. Stimulus control of behavior seems a viable way to reduce behavior without punishment.

When captive animals are fearful of people, routine husbandry or medical procedures are stressful for the animals and training for these procedures is difficult. These activities also have a high potential for injury for animals or staff. This study extends the generality of the Constructional Aggression Treatment procedure (Snider 2007), which is based on the assumption that fearful and aggressive behaviors are maintained because they increase distance between the subject and threat. This study uses CAT in a situation where animals are loose in a large enclosure and when two animals must be worked with together. The subjects are two Patagonian cavies (Dolichotis patagonum) who are extremely wary of people. Baseline observations of behavior were taken when keepers entered the enclosure. Intervention consists of shaping and differential reinforcement to replace fearful behaviors with alternative relaxed behavior, using distance as a reinforcer. During trials, a person approaches until one cavy alerts or freezes and retreats when both animals return to normal behavior. Proximity was increased once criteria were met at the previous step. The aim of the study is to shape the cavies to approach trainers and to increase relaxed interactions between the cavies and people. (further results pending)

Developed by Jennifer Sobie and augmented by Lori Watson and Stacy Engebretson, the purpose of the applied animal behavior practicum is to allow psychology majors to have supervised, professional hands-on experience training dogs using humane and reward based behavior modification techniques. This training not only increases the animal's potential to be adopted but also provides dogs with an enriched kennel environment. The core of the practicum is hands-on work with shelter dogs to teach basic behaviors, resolve common behavioral problems or to maintain favorable established behaviors. At the conclusion training sessions, data collection on each behavior and response acquisition are reported then charted. Each animal's record of progress throughout its training may be shared with staff or potential adopters. Weekly training course meetings and weekly on-site supervisor evaluations offer an analysis of the techniques being applied during training as well as a behavioral definition of these techniques. Finally, supplemental readings on training techniques are given to students on which they are tested. The students gain access to a professional setting in which they implement their skills while the partnering facility gains free animal training along with extra stimulation, affection, and exercise for each dog. Using behavior modification techniques, students have the ability to turn stray or unwanted dogs into adoptable pets.

The Autism Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at Children's Medical Center provides a multidisciplinary treatment and support program for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and their families. The IOP provides families with psychiatryand psychology oversight and consultation, therapeutic family support group with a licensed professional counselor, and individualized behavioral treatment in a peer setting. This individualized 15-week program is designed for young children and incorporates empirically-proven behavioral techniques, parent training, and care coordination. The program empowers parents to effectively guide and interact with their children, specifically focusing on motivation, reinforcement, shaping, and prompting in the areas of communication, attending, play skills, and managing behavior. As behavior analysts are now entering the more traditional medical arena, collaborative efforts are necessary and the importance of understanding the strengths of other sciences as related to the target population is imperative. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the efficacy of treatment provided in the parent training components of this initiative and the treatment outcomes for the patient.

Early intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a topic that has gained attention in politics, education, science, and the media. Earlier detection and treatment has led to an increase in demands for the provision of effective early intervention services. Many treatment approaches to ASD have emerged and a number of them have been shown to be effective in research settings with some children, while other methods lack evidence of effectiveness. Behavioral, developmental, model-based approaches, and structured strategies that address specific domains (i.e., language, social, play skills, etc.) have reported varying levels of success. Clinicians and researchers have expressed concern about the divide between evidence-based methods and the techniques that providers and parents choose to utilize. This study examined the accuracy of parents' and providers' knowledge of the existing research support for popular autism interventions. The results of the investigation demonstrate that neither the parent group nor the provider group correctly rated the efficacy of any of the treatments. The provider rankings were consistently more correct than the parent ratings. A notable trend was displayed by the parents' tendency to rank less-efficacious treatments more highly than the treatments with demonstrated efficacy.

This poster summarizes the final report of the OPWDD/FAR Fund Collaboration, a person-centered planning (PCP) alliance representing state government, private foundation support, and seven voluntary service provider organizations in the New York City area. The project began in 2003 with three voluntary developmental services agencies and 30 individuals with autism who experienced PCP. After 3 years of assistance and a one-year hiatus, four more agencies and 35 more individuals with autism were added in 2007. The latter four agencies developed formal PCP goals. Two-hundred seventeen goals were established in 13 goal areas, and 143 goals, or 66%, were met. We used the Person-Centered Planning Quality of Life Indicators questionnaire to measure aspects of an individuals life that might be affected by PCP. In the five agencies that permitted comparisons to a contrast group, we found no difference in QOL for any of the five agencies. A number of organizational practices arose during the project to support PCP.

This study investigated integrating functional analysis and sensory profile results into an intervention for aberrant behavior within two different sensory profile categories (i.e. sensory seeking and sensory avoiding). Our participants were a two-year-old boy with pervasive developmental disorder and a six-year-old boy with autism. This study attempted to extend the previous literature which supports the use of stimulus substitutability to relieve problem behaviors maintained by sensory reinforcement. We hoped to expand the selection of substitutable stimuli by combining sensory integrative therapies commonly used for treatment of children with sensory processing disorders and autism with functional analysis outcomes. Using the Sensory Profile, the two participants were assessed for sensory processing deficits and a treatment was matched to the results of a functional analysis. Treatment was implemented for both sensory seeking behaviors (Phase B) and sensory avoiding behaviors (Phase C). The study utilized an ABCBCB reversal design to evaluate the effectiveness of matching intervention to the participants sensory profile and functional analysis results. The results demonstrated that treatment, which matched functional analysis to a sensory profile, successfully decreased aberrant behavior.

This poster reviews a successful data management system and accompanying behavior intervention plan that were implemented by parents. The data collection system consisted of a partial interval per activity mood rating system. The child's moods were operationally defined based upon observable behaviors that were associated with the following moods: (1) happy, (2) anxious, (3) threatening, and (4) unsafe. The parents rated each activity of the day by the highest mood. Goals for the child included increasing participation in family activities, increasing independence in homework completion and decrease of unsafe behaviors. Results indicate that parents were able to take accurate and consistent data, demonstrate mastery of targets by prescribed criteria and, in combination with training in deescalation and coaching techniques, reduce unsafe behavior. This program demonstrates a simplified manner of collecting data which was successful in achieving and demonstrating goals of the home program. Further studies include replication with additional families to demonstrate further effectiveness.

This study assessed the effectiveness of teaching abduction prevention skills to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). A multiple baseline design methodology was used to compare the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) plus in-situ training (IST) versus IST alone when presented with a lure by an abductor. Once a child in either condition demonstrated 100% accuracy of the target behavior across three consecutive in-situ assessments, their training was terminated. Follow-up maintenance probes were conducted at six and twelve weeks following intervention. This study attempted to extend previous findings of Miltenberger et al., (2009) and Gunby et al. (2010). Results will be important for identifying effective training procedures to decrease the risk of abduction for children with autism.

Parent adherence with behavioral strategies is widely researched. Problems with adherence are often the result of a prior history of lack of success and the social stigma of managing behaviors in the community (Allan Warzak, 2000). Parent education has been shown to increase generalization and maintenance of treatment gains (Feldman, Case, Garrick, MacIntyre-Grande, Carnwell, & Sparks, 1992) so the implications of overcoming these challenges to adherence are significant. Research on the use of technology to facilitate independence in individuals with disabilities has been conducted by Satriale, Nepo, Genter, and Glickman (2010); however, little research has been conducted on the use of technology to promote parent independence with behavioral strategies and interventions. The present study presents the findings of the use of Bluetooth technology to increase parent adherence of behavioral strategies. A multiple baseline across settings design was used to evaluate whether (a) Bluetooth technology allowed instructors to fade their proximity to the parent; (b) Bluetooth technology was effective in increasing parent adherence with treatment recommendations; (c) generalization of parent teaching skills occurred from trained settings to novel settings; and (d) changes in parent's acquisition of skills were accompanied by decreases in child's maladaptive behaviors.

Using the Buddy Skills Program, this study implemented a peer-mediated social skills program in a child care center and junior kindergarten classroom. The peers were taught methods to interact with their peers with autism spectrum disorder, and adults prompted peers in using these skills in naturally occurring situations. Social interactions with peers and adults were measured for 3 children with ASD in both a classroom and child care center. Results demonstrated the greatest improvement in social skills in structured settings, with less improvement during free time. Educators also reported changes in various areas on a social skills questionnaire.

In many developing countries, individuals with autism and related disabilities are still often stigmatized (possessed, and/or black magic.) Because of limited knowledge of autism and effective treatments, unsubstantiated approaches often prevail. The importance of disseminating evidence-based treatments is intensifying as the number of autism diagnoses grows. Four organizations came together to increase sustainable evidence-based interventions in Kenya, and to develop a model useful in other countries. Global Autism Project, an International NGO with partners in Africa and Asia provided the initial consultation to Kaizora and conducted training that increased competencies. As the lead agency, it coordinates these collaborative efforts. Kaizora Consultants provides one-on-one ABA services for children with autism and other developmental disorders, and consults to families, caregivers and teachers/schools. The founder is invited to speak to schools, parent groups and disability-related organizations as an emerging leader within Kenya. UMassBoston provides BCBA-approved coursework to Kenya through a scholarship to Kaizoras Director to meet the BCBA training requirements. Collaborating with a Kenyan university will create a sustainable way for other Kenyans to achieve the BCBA certification. A BCBA is providing the required supervision leading towards certification of the first BCBA in Kenya, who will eventually provide supervision to others directly.

Children with autism are known to have difficulty in "reading other's minds." The basis of "reading other's mind" behavior contains equivalent relations among social stimuli, such as other's facial expressions, emotion-words, prosody, and contexts. We developed an integrated program for establishing equivalent relations among social stimuli and enhancing "reading other's mind," Face Expression Expert Program (FEEP) (Matsuda, Yamamoto, 2011). Based on FEEP framework, the present research examined the conceptualization of emotion-word (spoken name) and facial expression (picture), and the condition for forming equivalent relation in children with autism. In the training, we presented emotion-word (spoken name) and the corresponding facial expression (in vivo) as a paired sample stimuli. The participants were required to choose a picture of facial expression corresponding to a given sample stimuli. After the training, we evaluated both the conceptualization (arbitrary matching-to-sample) and the equivalent relations (naming facial expressions). The results showed that both the conceptualization and the equivalent relations emerged through the training.

In previous generations it was imperative that children learn to tie their shoes before kindergarten. These days there is a wide variation in shoe design (i.e., velcro shoes, zip up shoes, slip on shoes, flip flops), making mastering the skill of shoe tying at a young age less important. The authors aim to teach an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with autism to tie his shoelaces. Methodologies taken from earlier studies (Matson, Taras, Sevin, Love & Fridley, 1990) with some adaptations will be used to teach the child to tie his laces in fewer sessions than those previously required (84 sessions). Treatment procedures will include a total task presentation consisting of modeling and imitation, the use of within-stimulus prompts, and reinforcement of each successive step within the chain. Training will consist of: (a) modeling and verbally describing the target behaviour of each step in the whole chain; (b) modeling each step in the chain while the child imitates each step; (c) the child instructed to tie his shoe independently.

Rumination is the effortless regurgitation of food or drink. Christy, a 33-year-old female diagnosed with autism, 64 tall and weighing 86.8 lbs (BMI 14.2) was admitted to a crisis stabilization unit for the assessment and treatment of persistent vomiting and dehydration. Functional analysis suggested a socially mediated escape/avoidance function. Christy was taught to discriminate between 2 conditions: a yellow card was paired with Christys mands being reinforced (i.e., Christys Way), and a red card was paired with mands being denied but contingent delivery of flavor spray was provided for compliance with directives (i.e., Staffs Way). Timers and structured routine were used to help transition between conditions. Planned ignoring of rumination occurred across conditions. An interdisciplinary approach was used to develop a dining plan to further reduce the likelihood of rumination. Following treatment rates of regurgitation dropped nearly 81% from baseline. Christys weight increased to 129.8 lbs (BMI 22.1), and Christy was reintegrated back into the community.

Discrimination among visual stimuli is a common variable that interferes with the acquisition and use of visually-based communication systems (e.g., PECS). As response effort increases when arrays of visual stimuli become larger, acquisition of functional communication may be adversely affected. In the current investigation, a 10 year old boy was referred for the assessment and treatment of aggression and self-injury. The functional analysis revealed that problem behavior was maintained by restricted access to tangibles. The treatment package consisted of teaching a general access response (touching a please card) that resulted in access to a variety of reinforcers. Following the acquisition of the please response, the student was then taught to discriminate among three different types of preferred items: music, food, and toys. The intervention resulted in a 95.5% decrease in maladaptive behavior and maintained high levels of communication.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT; Eyberg & Robinson,1982) is an evidence-based treatment (EBT) for young children with disruptive behavior disorders (Zisser & Eyberg, 2008/2010). The effectiveness of PCIT has also been demonstrated with families of children with Autism, intellectual disabilities, and a range of clinically significant behavior problems (e.g., Bagner & Eyberg, 2007; McDiarmid & Bagner, 2005; Solomon, Ono, Timmer, & Goodlin-Jones, 2008). Following baseline toy play observations which yielded data demonstrating the absence of appropriate and positive parent initiated interactions and the presence of certain behaviors considered to be negative interactions, parent training sessions were conducted which targeted discrete behaviors modeled from those targeted in PCIT. Using a multiple baseline design across target skills, the following parent behaviors were targeted using role-play and in-vivo training: praise, behavior descriptions and reflections, imitations and reciprocal play, positive physical interaction, and planned ignoring of problem behavior. Results demonstrated the rapid acquisition of each skill and increases in skills correlated with decreases in negative interactions. This study demonstrated the utility of focused and programmatic parent training based upon discrete skills similar to those targeted during PCIT to increase appropriate and positive parent behaviors for a parent with a child with severe intellectual disabilities.

In the present study, we replicated Hanley, Iwata, Thompson, and Lindberg (2000) treatment component analysis with an adolescent diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, and extended this research by (a) conducting comparative analyses of differing ways to implement the contingent access to stereotypy, (b) by progressively increasing the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the response requirement to earn access to stereotypy in order to increase the developmental appropriateness of the resultant activity interaction (c) by arranging for objective measures of client preference for using stereotypy as reinforcement versus other relevant treatments for their automatically-reinforced stereotypy. It was demonstrated for this participant, that it is possible to use stereotypy as a reinforcer for more desirable, alternative behavior. Results of Hanley et al. (2000) were replicated by showing that the presence of activities, prompting by the therapist, restriction of the reinforcer while in session, and providing access to that reinforcer contingent on another behavior can be used as an effective treatment for automatically-maintained stereotypy. In addition, the results were extended with this participant by demonstrating that by implementing the treatment package an alternative behavior can be increased by amount and then shaped by complexity.

Although noncontingent music has been shown to reduce engagement in vocal stereotypy, researchers have generally used parental reports of preference or arbitrarily-selected music to reduce engagement in the behavior. However, whether experimentally identified preferred music would be more or less effective than nonpreferred music at reducing vocal stereotypy remains unclear. To examine the effects of musical preference on engagement in vocal stereotypy, we used a multielement design to expose four children with autism spectrum disorders to preferred and nonpreferred music as identified by a stimulus preference assessment (see Horrocks & Higbee, 2008). The results suggest that preference may alter the effects of music on vocal stereotypy. For3 participants, preferred music produced stronger abative effects on vocal stereotypy than nonpreferred music whereas the converse was observed for1 participant. The clinical implications of the results will be discussed in terms of improving the use of noncontingent music in the treatment of vocal stereotypy in applied settings.

Noncompliance defined as an incorrect response or a failure to respond to a request is one of the most common problems reported by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. The two currently dominant approaches to increase rates of compliance are the high-probability request sequences approach and Errorless Compliance Training. Both approaches are associated with problems with treatment fidelity and poor social acceptability. Alternative effective procedures to manage noncompliance and teach compliance are required. This study examined the effects of (i) effective instruction delivery and (ii) a self management intervention (self monitoring) on compliance. The two participants were seven and five-year-old boys both diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, who exhibited low rates of compliance. A multiple baseline across settings design was used. Improvement rate difference analyses revealed medium effect sizes for effective instruction delivery with both participants and large effects for the self-management intervention, increasing compliance to a level that was not clinically significant in both training and generalization settings. Social validity was high and treatment integrity data indicated that the self-management intervention could be readily implemented by parents. Significant changes on pre- and post measures of parenting stress were observed.

The purpose of this study was indentify an activity that participant talked a lot, increase functional verbal behavior by using time-delay and model prompt procedure, and examine that frequency of verbal behavior was maintained without intervention. A participant was first grade boy with autism and moderately intellectual disabilities. He was able to talk a few words at one sentence. In the assessment sessions, we identified that he talked a lot during making his favorite dish in home setting. Therefore, following task analysis of cooking, we conducted time-delay and model prompt procedure as the intervention for each steps. As a result, percentage of interval that functional verbal behavior occurred was increased by intervention. The percentage of probe condition also showed higher level than baseline. We discussed that assessment of natural home setting was very important. Direct intervention in his home setting was effective to improve functional verbal behaviors in his everyday life situation.

Research suggests that treatment integrity errors impact student acquisition. The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend these findings by examining the impact of errors of commission (i.e., reinforcement for incorrect responses) on student acquisition of nonsense shapes both in the short and long term. We altered errors of commission during reinforcement procedures as part of discrete-trial training for two children with autism. Participants were instructed to point to shapes, each of which was associated with a different level of integrity (0%, 50%, and 100% commission errors) during the consequence manipulation condition. The conditions were intended to simulate situations during which teachers would make various amounts of errors during instruction. Next, errors of commission were removed and the long-term impact on acquisition was examined during the high integrity condition, in which we examined the degree to which previous instructional errors impacted acquisition when integrity errors were no longer committed. During baseline, participant performance was within chance levels and was not well differentiated. During consequence manipulation, one participant showed decrements in performance under the 100% errors condition, which replicates previous findings. In addition, he continued to show delayed acquisition when the errors were removed; he required 26 sessions to reach mastery criterion within the high integrity condition. The other participant's performance did not appear to be impacted by errors in instruction and reached mastery criterion within 6 sessions. These findings suggest idiosyncratic variables may moderate the impact of treatment integrity errors on student outcomes.

Pervasive social deficits are a defining characteristic of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). As such, children with an ASD are less likely to display pro-social behavior and more likely to display maladaptive behavior than typically developing children in social settings (Cohen& Sudhalter, 2005). Researchers have demonstrated that enriching a child's environment with structured group activities can increase the display of pro-social behavior (DeKlyen & Odom, 1989; Taubman, Leaf, & McEachin, 2011). However, most of the literature demonstrating these benefits has been conducted in integrated settings with typically developing peers (Dunlap & Powell, 2009). The purpose of this poster is to present a demonstration of the benefits of making structured games available to a group of children comprised exclusively of children with pervasive developmental disorders. An ABA withdrawal design was used to demonstrate the causal relation between the availability of structured games and increases in pro-social behavior and decreases in maladaptive behavior across the group. Additionally, replications across time and individuals are planned. Discussion will focus on results of the intervention as well as considerations when developing and utilizing group-based structured activities in a school setting.

Bruxism, the grinding or gnashing of teeth, is a serious challenging behavior. Persistent bruxism may lead to abnormal wear on teeth, oral–facial pain, headaches, and potentially tooth loss. Individuals with developmental disabilities experience a higher prevalence of oral health concerns than the general population, and the assessment and treatment of bruxism is a major priority. A systematic review of11 bruxism intervention studies found that an analogue functional analysis has never identified a case of bruxism maintained by a socially mediated function (Lang 2008). Although previous intervention research has involved behavioral modification, researchers used only indirect functional assessments methods and always concluded that function was self-stimulatory or automatic reinforcement. This case study is a description of a functional analysis on a 4-year-old boy with autism who engaged in bruxism. The functional analysis demonstrates that the behavior was reinforced and maintained by adult attention. A function-based intervention involving the manipulation of attention was then evaluated in a multiple baseline design across caregivers.

A 10-year-old-boy with a diagnosis of autism was taught to tell time from an analog clock, using a Fluency Based Instruction teaching arrangement. The goal was for him to develop the fluent time-telling skill for ultimate benefit in time management and organization at home and at school. The targeted frequency aim was set at 20-30 answers per minute, but empirical validation of that frequency aim was planned to be measured according to the methods of Fabrizio & Moors (2003). Instruction was designed using two learning channels: See/Say and Hear/Do. In the See/Say condition, the student was shown the clock and asked to vocally name the time. During the Hear/Do condition, the student was given a time and expected to move the hands on the Judy Clock to produce the correct hour and minute on the clock. Additional critical features of instruction included: (1) duration of timing intervals and (2) slices of instruction (e.g. quarter, half, whole hours). Instruction occurred in his home one-two nights per week. Session data were collected and charted on a Timing Chart and the daily best was charted on a Standard Celeration Daily per minute Chart. A daily improvement goal was identified each time the skill was practiced. Using 30-second timings, successive timings were completed until the daily improvement goal was met or 10 minutes had elapsed. The poster will display two Daily Charts of charted student progress toward achieving a fluent performance as well as data displaying empirical validation of the frequency aim.

Children with autism have difficulty talking about complex pictures, especially generating pragmatic statements about the interactions between people. This poster will show charted data on teaching a 4-year-old boy with an autism diagnosis to make statements about the interactions in pictures occurring between characters. Instruction was designed controlling such critical features of instruction as the number of agents in the photo, the familiarity of social situations, and the complexity of statements the student was expected to say. Fluency Based Instruction was utilized to ensure efficient instruction with respect to the students progress per unit of instructional time. Student performance data were charted on the Standard Celeration Chart and session data were charted on the Timing Chart. Daily improvement goals along with differential reinforcement of higher rates of behavior were employed as part of the independent variables. Discussion of results will include the students success in reaching predicted frequency aims as well as demonstrating agility across instructional sets. Charted data will further show empirical validation of the frequency aim as evidenced by passes on retention, endurance, stability, application checks (RESA) (Fabrizio & Moors, 2003).

The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the effects of Peer Networks Interventions for young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Kindergarten and first graders with ASD participated (n=31 in years 1-2 and an additional 15 in the current year). School staff in over 40 elementary schools in Kansas, Missouri, and Washington State implemented the networks. Social Peer Networks occurred for 20-30 minutes, 3 times per week. Communications between children with ASD and their peers increased during Social Peer Network treatment sessions, averaging 25 initiations and responses per 10-min (n=215 probes), compared to baseline observations (mean, 13.6, n= 96 probes). Specific behaviors included: asking for and sharing items, showing interest by commenting on what a peer is doing, complimenting and using social pleasantries, and taking turns. Figures represent probes for two kindergarten participants (see Figure). Literacy Peer Networks occurred for 30 minutes 4 times per week. In kindergarten, students who were beginning readers enrolled in the Reading Peer Networks showed gains in known vocabulary words from the Reading Mastery curriculum, from fall (mean, 16.7 words) to spring assessments (mean, 116.1 words). Data for students in peer networks intervention will be compared to students not enrolled in intervention.

We are a new center in Perth, Australia with a mission to provide evidence based instruction to children with Autism. We use assessment of behavior to drive therapy and data to drive decision making. As part of our initial assessment, we administer the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment (VB-MAPP) to determine a starting place for designing an individualized program. The method for designing instruction to meet goals from this assessment tool are typically straight forward. However, a subset of our children use assistive technology, with varying degrees of success, to communicate. This has caused us to have to think outside the box when designing effective strategies. This is particularly true for programs meant to teach Tacts, Intraverbals, and Mands. In the process of designing instruction to incorporate the use of assistive technology, we have found that teaching other verbal operants, such as Listener Responding related to feature, function, and class, through assistive technology has resulted in more fluent use of the technology. This poster will include examples of how assistive technology was used in conjunction with goals derived from the VB-MAPP at our small, but growing center in Perth, Australia.

Children with disabilities have fewer opportunities to engage in quality literacy experiences that can support the development of critical early literacy skills than their typically developing siblings and peers. When implemented in a consistent manner, dialogic reading intervention strategies improve early literacy skills in children with language delays and those from at-risk populations. There is, however, a dearth of information exploring the potential utility of dialogic reading strategies for students with more significant disabilities, including young children with autism. The present study employed a multiple baseline design across participants with a wait list control to examine the effect of dialogic reading on early literacy and language outcomes for young students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The research design allowed researchers to compare the effectiveness of dialogic reading strategies to standard reading on standardized measures of oral language development and print knowledge. Furthermore, weekly measures were conducted on participants' verbal participation during book readings, as well as performance on vocabulary tests created for targeted books.

The purpose of this study was to teach kindergarten students with autism dressing/undressing for the winter outdoor recess in their clothing. Using a forward chaining task analysis pictorial sequence in a structured learning classroom in a public school, students were taught the dressing skills. Using the prompting hierarchy, the objective was to move from the highest level of prompting to the least level of prompting. The NAC National Standards (10/09) report lists structured learning teaching and visuals supports) as emerging treatments for students with autism. For the study, baseline data was taken on four students. A sequence of dressing steps was created visually for each student. Data was recorded twice a day for dressing and undressing during natural times of the day. Natural environmental cues and classroom materials were implemented as reinforcers. The results of this study concluded students, using visuals, dressed/undressed in a decreased amount of time and their overall independence for dressing increased while the verbal prompts decreased. Data will begin again for maintenance and generalization to a different environment in this upcoming winter.

This study was replicated after a previous study by the author that demonstrated that the implementation of a reverse demand fading protocol may reduce the occurrence of maladaptive behaviors while increasing the rate of skill acquisition. This poster examines the effects of a reverse demand fading protocol on the occurrence of the target behaviors of physical aggression toward others and self-injurious behavior as well as the rate of skill acquisition for a 15-year-old boy with autism. After initial baseline recording of the occurrence target behaviors and baseline testing of the subject's skill set, goals and objectives for behavior reduction and skill acquisition were determined for one school year following the implementation of the demand fading protocol. Demand sets were determined through a hierarchical ranking of the projected yearly goals and objectives. Criteria for subsequent demand set implementation was determined to be3 consecutive days of target behavior occurrence within a range of 0% to 10% below average baseline percent per target behavior. Rate of skill acquisition was determined by the number of newly mastered targets per week across all skill acquisition programs.

A large proportion of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit circumscribed interests (CI) (Danovitch, Paul, Volkmar, & Klin, 2009). Despite the prevalence of CI in this population, the phenomenon remains poorly understood (Atwood, 2003; Klin, Danovitch, Merz, & Volkmar, 2007). Furthermore, the majority of studies in this area have focused on the topography of CI speech, rather than the function of this behavior (e.g., Bashe & Kirby, 2001; Danovitch et al., 2009; Klin et al., 2007; South, Ozonoff, & McMahon, 2005). The present study aimed to assess the function of CI speech in 5 children with ASD. A brief functional analysis was conducted with all 5 participants. Four of the 5 participants exhibited the greatest levels of CI speech during a modified attention condition. The CI speech of the other participant appeared to serve an automatic function. Additional brief assessments were conducted to further identify the controlling variables of CI speech and develop hypotheses for possible intervention strategies. Thus, modifying functional analysis methodology appeared to be useful in assessing the functions of CI speech and in generating potential treatment recommendations for the reduction of problematic levels of CI speech. Limitations and future directions will be presented.

Functional analysis methodology has been useful for identifying the functions of a range of problem behaviors. More recently, functional analysis procedures have been applied to analyze the functions of appropriate verbal behavior (Lerman, Parten, Addison, Vorndran, Volkert, & Kodak, 2005). In the current study, the functions of the repetitive vocal responses that appeared to be mands were assessed using functional analysis methodology for 3 children with autism. Results indicated that responses were maintained by access to adult attention and not by the reinforcement specified by the mand response. A functional communication training treatment package with extinction was effective in teaching an alternative, appropriate response to access attention and reduce repetitive verbal responses.

Individuals with autism can often struggle with different components of their daily lives. A particularly difficult area can be in the area of medical procedures. Various types of avoidant or aggressive behavior can be seen throughout a variety of medical procedures, especially around injections or other procedures involving the use of needles. This study involved a 20-year-old young man diagnosed with autism who displayed severe aggressive behaviors when encountering medical procedures involving needles. Due to an extreme case of psoriasis, it was medically necessary for subject to undergo treatment via weekly injections. Additionally, the medication required blood to be drawn quarterly to monitor the levels. A plan for desensitization involved differential reinforcement of appropriate behaviors and graduated exposure to the medical procedures. The participant participated in a number of sessions designed to closely resemble the actual procedure. Reinforcement and graduated exposure to medical procedures was effective in increasing the participants tolerance to medical procedures involving needles.

Children with autism have deficits in joint attention, specifically they are more likely to engage in reaching, pointing, and eye gaze shifts to get things that they want (i.e., to mand) than engage in these same behaviors to label or comment on an item (i.e., to tact; Goodhart & Baron-Cohen, 1993; Loveland & Landry, 1986). This study uses the same technology as a functional analysis of challenging behavior to assess the purpose of joint attention behaviors (Iwata, et al., 1982/ 1994). Three young children with autism were exposed to multiple 5-minute sessions of each of three social conditions: mand condition, tact condition, and play/ control condition. In the mand and tact conditions, joint attention topographies were reinforced with access to preferred items and access to a verbal description of the item, respectively. The play condition served as a control, in which the children had free access to both types of reinforcement. The levels of joint attention behavior between conditions were compared using a multielement design in order to determine the purpose/ function of joint attention behavior. This type of assessment can be used to more precisely determine deficits in joint attention and ensure that joint attention behaviors serve a tacting or commenting function following intervention. Goodhart, F., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1993). How many ways can the point be made? Evidence from children with and without autism. First Language, 13, 225 233. Iwata, B. A., Dorsey, M., Slifer, K., Bauman, K., & Richman, G. (1994). Toward a functional analysis of self-injury. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27, 197209. (Reprinted from Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 2, pp. 320, 1982) Loveland, K. A., & Landrey, S. H. (1986). Joint attention and language in autism and developmental language delay. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 16, 335 349.

Children with autism often have difficulty making appropriate social initiations, which severely limits their opportunities for social interactions. While many individuals with autism do acquire functional language, much of this language is restricted to requesting desired items and answering questions. Previous studies have shown script-fading to be an effective method of teaching social language to individuals with autism. Several studies have used typically developing peers as conversation partners for children with autism during script-fading interventions. However, a very important subset of peers has not been included in any of these studies: siblings of the children with autism. This study seeks to examine the effects of having typically developing siblings implement a script-fading procedure with their sibling with autism.

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills. About imitation skills, adults contingent imitation was effective for facilitating social behavior in children with ASD, such as eye contact, proximity and touching to adult. However, few studies examined the effect of adult contingent vocal imitation on children with ASD. In the present study, we examined whether contingent vocal imitation increased childrens vocal imitation, spontaneous vocal response, and social interaction. We used A-B-A-B reversal design across typically developing children and children with ASD. Each session consisted of baseline phase and intervention phase. In baseline, the experimenter didnt imitate but responded with contingent response for childrens vocal response. In intervention phase, the experimenter did imitate and extended the childrens vocal response. The results demonstrated that adult contingent vocal imitation increased the rate of childs vocal imitation rather than non-imitative contingent response. Furthermore, adult contingent extended vocal imitation changed the childs prosody. These findings suggest that contingent vocal imitation become important intervention method for language acquisition in children with ASD.

One important component of early language training is the development of a mand repertoire. A variety of intervention strategies have been used with children diagnosed with developmental delays to increase mands. The current investigation evaluated the effects of extinction and prompts on training and generalization of peer-directed mands for preferred items with two non-vocal children diagnosed with autism. Teaching peer-directed mands may provide opportunities for children with developmental delays to engage in positive interactions with peers and could assist in establishing friendships. Participants engaged in peer-directed mands using a picture exchange communication system (PECS). Participants completed PECS training prior to beginning the evaluation. Results showed that peer-directed mands increased during treatment for both participants. In addition, peer-directed mands generalized to a novel peer and maintained in a more naturalistic setting that simulated a free-play activity in a classroom. Interobserver agreement was calculated on a trial-by-trial basis and exceeded 80% for all dependent measures.

As the prevalence rates and interest in autism increase, there has been a corresponding increase in treatment options presented to parents of children with autism. Unfortunately, many treatments options have gained popularity in practice before gaining empirical evidence of effectiveness. This purpose of this study is to systematically review the use of chelation as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders. Each study was analyzed and summarized in terms of participant characteristics, specifics of the chelation intervention, and results in terms of effects on the three core symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorders. Results suggest a lack of evidence to support the use of chelation to treat symptoms associated with autism.

Point-of-view video modeling has been used to teach social and functional skills to individuals on the autism spectrum. The purpose of the current study is to explore the use of point-of-view video to teach street crossing skills to2 teenaged young men diagnosed with ASD. Using a controlled crosswalk area, the 2 young men were evaluated for current street crossing skills. They were then shown point-of-view videos of crossing the street at that crosswalk. Two separate videos of each of the critical street crossing actions at the crosswalk were made. In the first video there is no vehicle moving toward the crosswalk. In the second a vehicle is shown driving toward the cross walk and stopping at the edge of the crosswalk. These videos were shot from the point of view of the person crossing the street and included approaching the street and stopping at the curb, panning left then right to mimic a person "looking" left and then right. A third video showed an approach to a playground on the other side of the street mimicking how it would look from the point of view of the person crossing the street. When there was no vehicle the student could cross at their leisure. When the vehicle is in sight the video showed the vehicle coming to a complete stop and then the view would show the approach to the playground. Results using the first and second video have shown no change in student behavior. The next phase of the study will include a change to the videos; the videos will include a model. The model will demonstrate safe pedestrian skills. The model will be used to determine whether this addition improves acquisition of the pedestrian skills. If the student's performance improves, the inclusion of a model demonstrating the correct skills may be a factor that determines the success of using a video as a teaching tool.

Shaping procedures have been used in the treatment of avoidance behaviors for children with autism (Riccardi et al., 2006). The effectiveness of choice as an intervention has also recently received attention in the behavioral literature (Ulke-Kurkcuolgu & Kircaali-Iftar, 2010). However, the combined effect of shaping and choice to treat avoidance behaviors in children with autism has not yet been studied. A changing-criterion design was used to assess the added benefit of choice into a shaping procedure for a 6-year-old boy with autism who displayed extreme avoidance of toe nail trimming. The shaping procedure included positive reinforcement for calm behavior while successively trimming more toe nails. The choice procedure allowed the boy to choose which toe-nails would be trimmed. By the end of the intervention, the boy was able to stay calm while all10 of his toe nails were trimmed by either his mother or the school nurse. Although the results only show the effectiveness of this intervention for one individual, the data are encouraging and highlight the need for future research in this area. Discussion will focus on the development of effective procedures for the treatment of avoidance behaviors for children with autism.

Applied Behavior analytic treatment (usually people think DTT) has been named the gold standard for treating those with autism. Although a DTT approach has been extremely successful at training a wide variety of skills to learners with ASD, there are some potential problems with the approach prompt dependency and lack of generalization. Another behavior analytic approach to teaching is based on a free operant model, fluency training (Lindsley,1992; Binder,1996). Most of the research on fluency based instruction has included several other variables and has been conducted under the moniker precision teaching (Holding, Brae, and Kehle,2010) . The current study aimed to compare modern DTT practices against FT in regards to teaching learners with ASD to receptively identify colors and shapes. The results of the study will be discussed in relation to practice for behavior analysts and a brief discussion will be presented on free operant versus discrete trial formats.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been marketed as nicotine delivery devices that reduce the toxic effects of cigarette smoking; however, there is a paucity of research literature about these devices. The present study used the Multiple Choice Procedure (MCP) to evaluate the reinforcing value of e-cigarettes among nicotine-dependent smokers when compared to money or use of their usual cigarette. Participants completed two smoking sessions (cigarette and e-cigarette) and three MCP sessions where they chose between cigarette, e-cigarette, and money. Subjective ratings of smoking effects were also obtained using the original and adapted versions of the Direct Effects of Smoking Scale. 23 e-cigarette nave adults who were not attempting to quit smoking were evaluated. Results indicated significantly higher levels of self-reported direct effects of smoking the cigarette than the e-cigarette when in acute nicotine withdrawal. 74% of participants reported they preferred their regular cigarette brand to the e-cigarette. Preliminary results indicated that the crossover value on the MCP was higher for cigarette (M = $3.45) than e-cigarette (M = $2.74), suggesting participants found cigarettes to have a higher reinforcing value. Results of this pilot study will be used to inform future behavioral (e.g. contingency management analog studies) and pharmacological studies with e-cigarettes.

Few studies have functionally evaluated extinction of the discriminative stimulus functions of interoceptive stimulus control with drug states. The current study assessed extinction of a nicotine (0.3 mg/kg) vs. saline discrimination. 32 rats were trained to respond differentially between nicotine and saline. For 16 rats nicotine functioned as SD for reinforcement (3 pellets) of nose pokes (VI-30 sec) on some sessions, whereas saline functioned as S-delta for non-reinforcement on alternating sessions. The stimulus roles were counterbalanced for the remaining 16 rats. 16 rats then received a diminishing reinforcer magnitude over 16 sessions (2 pellets then 1 pellet) in the SD condition. The reinforcer magnitude was held constant for the other 16 rats. All 32 rats underwent explicit extinction training in both interoceptive conditions and were then tested immediately or following a 5-day delay. There were no differences between groups and no differences as a function of the delay for spontaneous recovery. Two weeks later there was no further evidence of spontaneous recovery. 3-pellets at the start of the final 4 sessions reinstated discriminated responding. Most interestingly, the S-delta state inhibited reinstated responding. The data show temporal stability in extinction of the discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine.

Four OVX rats were provided one hour access to an alcohol solution either during an FI 30 food schedule (polydipsia) or while in their homecage. On selected days rats were injected with peanut oil (vehicle) or estradiol (.02-15 ug/kg) in peanut oil. Polydipsic alcohol consumption was nearly twice the amount as homecage consumption. Administration of estradiol did not increase either polydipsic or homecage consumption of alcohol, instead slight decreases in alcohol consumption resulted.

Non-pharmacological variables play an important role on tolerance. Associative tolerance theories explain its development, when the administration of a drug is associated with a specific context. The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the associative tolerance to the sedation effect of ethanol (E) in Male Wistar rats (200 g). Ss were assigned to three independent groups: saline group (S), pretreated with ip injections for 14 days (1.5 ml/kg). Two groups received 14 trials of the association of E, in same context of laboratory (L); all groups were injected on day 15 with ethanol (L), to a contextual sign (noise of 70 db). Latency of sedative response was recorded. Testing abstinence syndrome was made three days after tolerance test (day 18), following same procedure, except E administration. Results demonstrated that associative tolerance to sedation response to E depends on the context where it is tested. Influence of contextual clues and chronic treatment in loss of tolerance, is a major conclusion. Also, strong implications emerged, such as the importance of context signs in availability of the drug, in maintaining its use, and in shooting relapses during abstinence period; this might difficult treatment for controlling the use of any kind of drug.

Several procedures have been developed to establish ethanol drinking in rodents. Two commonly used are the "sucrose-fading" procedure (Samson, 1986) and the intermittent-access procedure (Simms et al., 2009). Though both procedures have advocates, there is little work directly comparing their effects. The purpose of the present experiment was to compare the procedures in a within-subject design. Six rats were trained to drink a 16% (w/v) ethanol solution via intermittent access; ethanol was available in the home cage 24 hrs per day for 3days each week. Once rats began drinking reliably, rats were moved to lickometers to measure drinking and the daily access reduced to 8% ethanol for 30 min per day. After 30 days, rats were exposed to a sucrose fading procedure, where 10% (w/v) sucrose was added to ethanol and faded out completely over ten sessions. Following intermittent access, rats drank pharmacologically active doses of ethanol (0.5 g/kg per 30 min). Addition of sucrose substantially increased intake. Interestingly, as sucrose was faded from the solution, intake levels dropped below those established via intermittent access and did not recover after 30 days. The results suggest that training with sucrose may be detrimental to alcohol initiation in rodents.

Impulsive choice is often examined using a delay-discounting procedure where choice is between2 reinforcers of different magnitudes presented at varying delays. Individual discounting rates can be influenced by many factors, including the addition of a response requirement to both alternatives. The current experiment used a modified Evenden and Ryan (1996) procedure, and choice was examined under conditions where the response requirement for both outcomes was a small fixed interval (FI 0 s), an intermediate FI (FI x/2 s), and a large FI (FI x s). Steeper discounting functions were obtained when the small FI was in effect, shallower functions were obtained when the large FI was in effect, and intermediate functions were obtained when the intermediate FI was in effect. This suggests that manipulating response requirement within this procedure can generate different rates of discounting within subjects. Different baseline rates of discounting have been shown to determine effects of stimulant drugs on impulsive choice using between-subjects designs. Generating different rates of discounting within subjects allows examination of drug effects on different baseline rates of discounting using a within-subject design. Therefore, acute effects of d-amphetamine on choice were examined upon replication of the small and large FI requirements.

The unilateral rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD) consists of chemically lesioning the substantia nigra (SN) of the right or left hemisphere. In the present study, hemi-parkinsonian rats (n = 8) were produced using 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). After recovery, rats were tested for rotational bias following d-Amphetamine injections (1.78 mg/kg). After bias testing, rats underwent 17 1-hour sessions of behavioral acqusition and maintenance, using reinforcement, of full rotations (360 degree turns) to the side of the observed bias. Reinforcement via successive approximations was delivered until the rotational behavior was acquired. Once the behavior was acquired it was maintained under a continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule. Rats were deprived of water between 24 and 35 hours prior to each training session. Following the 17 sessions, the number of rotations was observed under 3 conditions: CRF without d-amphetamine, CRF and lowdose d-Amphetamine (0.56 mg/kg), and d-Amphetamine (1.78 mg/kg) alone. It was found that the CRF and low dose d-Amphetamine produced considerably more correct responses than either the CRF or the d-Amphetamine (1.78 mg/kg) test, F(2,12) = 8.4,P < 0.05. The results of the study suggest that reinforcement can be considered as part of the treatment for disorders such as PD and may contribute to a reduction in drug treatment.