Association for Behavior Analysis International

Come join us for what has become an annual tradition at ABAI. This Pilates/Yoga session is led by certified instructors and is designed for every level and participant. Wear comfortable clothing. Participants may wish to bring a towel to use while in class. Relax, refresh and recharge!

The annual report of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis will be presented, followed by the discussion of editorial policies and issues. We encourage past and present associate editors and board members, authors and prospective authors, and any other interested parties to attend. Questions and suggestions EW encouraged.

Behavior analysts involved in clinical practice recognize that we owe much to parents of children with autism who have been staunch advocates for higher quality services for their children. The synergy that can arise from parents and professionals working together creates exciting opportunities and possibilities. The Parent Professional Partnership SIG is one such opportunity. A business meeting will be held to provide a forum for networking, to outline the PPP SIG's goals and objectives, and to discuss ways to improve upon the SIG's joint website with the Autism SIG. All interested parents and professionals are encouraged to attend this meeting chaired by Co-Presidents David Celiberti and Pamela Gorski and visit our webpage at www.AutismPPPSIG.org.

This will be the annual business meeting of the Positive Behavior Support Special Interest Group.

Members of the Standard Celeration Society will congregate to discuss all business-related matters regarding the society, including but not limited to membership, finances, and the annual International Precision Teaching Conference.

Please join us for the Northwestern Association for Behavior Analysis annual business meeting. Also, please review our website for upcoming regional events and conferences. The association serves the Pacific Northwest: Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia

We invite all those on the Education and Treatment of Children journal editorial review board and those interested in becoming involved to attend. We will be discussing policies and initiatives that strengthen and maintain the journal. Data on manuscript flow and subscriptions will be presented and discussed.

The New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA) is the official representative for behavior analysis across New York. NYSABA is the state affiliate of the Association for Behavior Analysis International and the Association for Professional Behavior Analysts. NYSABA represents families, practitioners, and scholars committed to research and practice of behavior analysis. All behavior analysts and consumers residing or practicing in New Yorkare encouraged to attend.

The is the annual Business Meeting forthe Multicultural Alliance of Behavior Analysts.

Provides intellectual, clinical, and organizational support to other professionals interested in aging and to foster behavior analytic research in aging. The goal of this year's meeting is to discuss issues in the field as well as issues of professional development. In addition, members will provide feedback on student presentations on research in the area of aging, which will be used to award the student researcher award. Finally, new officers will be chosen for any vacated positions in the special interest group.

This meeting will cover important components of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), including information on BACB credentials, eligibility requirements, approved course sequences, examination administration, and applying for examination. The presentation also will offer information regarding BACB growth and development. This meeting is intended for individuals who are planning to become certified.

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The applied analysis of animal behavior is a promising area of research and practice within the field of behavior analysis. Applied behavior analysts improve the lives of animals and their human caregivers in many settings, including homes, shelters, and zoos. Although this work is interesting to many students of behavior analysis, the path is not always clear. Students often wonder where and how to pursue graduate study in this unique specialization. This panel will be comprised of graduate students studying applied animal behavior in several different university programs. Panelists will discuss how they chose a graduate program, as well as their actual graduate school experiences. Topics will include coursework, research and practicum opportunities, life as a graduate student, long term goals, and other advice for interested students and prospective students. Audience members will have opportunities to pose questions to panelists.

Polls, presidential politics, and relentlessly increasing greenhouse gas emissions expose an environmental movement that is running on 20th Century metaphors in a 21st Century world. All of the land protection in the world will do little good if 7 billion people do not move to "green behavior." By dissecting past failures, we can learn where to go in the future with how we talk about and do conservation. We need to stop overstating doom and gloom, and recognize that opportunity, not despair, motivates people. Luckily, we have the science to support a new message of a resilient earth, which can then be a foundation for leaving behind worshipping at the false temple of pristine nature.

Background: Impulsivity is a central behavioral feature of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and many other psychiatric and substance use disorders. In recent years, the multi-dimensional nature of impulsivity has been recognized with cognitive processes including risk and reward evaluation, response inhibition, and delay discounting implicated in impulsive behavior. The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) system has long been recognized for its role in regulating attention. Understanding the role of nAChR function in impulsivity has widespread clinical implication including providing a novel pharmacological treatment target. Methods: Data from human experiments using pharmacological manipulations of nAChR function and measuring response inhibition, risk taking and delay discounting will be presented. Studies using acute pharmacological challenge in combination with fMRI will illustrate potential mechanisms for nAChR regulation of impulsivity. Results: Acute nicotine and novel nicotinic agonists improve response inhibition and delay aversion in ADHD. Nicotine and mecamylamine (a nicotinic antagonist) have rate dependent effects on risk taking regardless of diagnostic group. Both nicotine and a novel nicotinic agonist significantly decrease the cognitive and clinical symptoms of ADHD. Conclusion: Targeting nAChR function may provide a novel treatment target for ADHD and other disorders involving impulsive behavior. The use of reliable laboratory measures of different facets of impulsivity will allow for refined treatment strategies targeting precise cognitive mechanism related to impulsivity.

Although the health benefits of consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables are well documented, few Americans consume the recommended amounts of these foods. The results of these food choices are many and varied (e.g., increased costs of health care resulting from higher rates of cancers and obesity). A preventative approach targets elementary school children because food-choice patterns in childhood are predictive of these patterns in adulthood. The Food Dudes program was developed by behavioral psychologists Fergus Lowe and Pauline Horne at Bangor University in Wales. The program targets food choices made in primary schools and iterations of it have been successfully implemented for some time in the United Kingdom. These successes will be summarized and data will be shown illustrating the effects of three different versions of the Food Dudes program that have been tested in the United States. These different versions were designed to adapt to the unique characteristics of U.S. schools

Panelists will discuss their personal and professional experiences in developing training programs for students of behavior analysis (within their area of expertise). They will discuss how far the rest of the world has come in recognizing behavior analysis in practice (i.e., political and public recognition of behavior analysis as an evidence-based field of practice; credentialing issues; current barriers impeding further recognition; and future directions). Panelists will also discuss their personal training experience, how it has shaped their area of expertise, and whether or not their training enables them to practice outside of the United States and Canada (practitioner vs. academia). One question panelists could address is what should students of behavior analysis know before committing to a BA training program if they plan to practice outside North America? And/or what can training programs do better to ensure employability of their graduates? Finally, panelists will give recommendations and advice to those looking to expand the professional domains of behavior analysis.

This symposium will be comprised of data-based presentations that describe innovative research on functional analysis of disruptive behavior in children with autism in school settings. In the first study, the authors customized the experimental design, conditions, and session length of a functional analysis to determine the function of aggressive behavior. Findings indicated only when sessions were lengthened to an entire school day (i.e., 6 hours) and attention in the form of physical restraint was evaluated were clearly differentiated functions determined. In the second study, the authors evaluated the effects of pre-session exposure to putative reinforcers prior to functional analysis sessions. Results showed that pre-session exposure resulted in differential levels of problem behavior during functional analysis sessions. The third study included a functional analysis and an evaluation of functional communication training for aggressive behavior maintained by escape from demands. Results showed that over time, positive practice (i.e., direction following) could be faded and functional communication training (i.e., requesting a break) alone was effective.

An Analog Functional Analysis was conducted to identify the environmental conditions maintaining the aggressive and self-injurious behaviors of a 12 year old boy diagnosed with autism (Iwata, et al, 1982; Iwata, et al, 1994). The assessment was conducted in a school setting using first a multi-element research design, which was later changed to a reversal design to control for potential carryover effects. Over 70 sessions were conducted. Initially, sessions were 10 minutes, then 20 minutes in duration. Due to a lack of clearly differentiated results, sessions were extended to six hours in duration, with the exception of needed bathroom and lunch breaks. The experimental conditions consisted of a control condition, escape from demands, no interaction, denied access to tangible items, divided attention, and a series of customized attention conditions. Results suggested that the aggressive and self-injurious behaviors were primarily maintained by two variables, escape from the presentation of demands and physical attention in the form of modified, partial, or full restraint. Based on these results, a treatment package consisting of Extinction, Non-contingent Attention, FCT and Protective Equipment was designed. This individualized treatment entailed the termination of the response-reinforcer contingency maintained by physical restraint and escape from demands. Upon the occurrence of aggressive and self-injurious behavior, there was no immediate, contingent cessation of instructional demands or increased attention in the form of restraint or blocking. Protective equipment was applied as necessary to maintain the safety of the participant. In addition, throughout the participant’s day at school, non-contingent physical attention in the form of play (e.g., hugs, firm shoulder squeezes) and functional communication training, was provided.

An Analog Functional Analysis was conducted to identify the environmental conditions maintaining a student’s aggressive behaviors (Iwata, et al, 1982; Iwata, et al, 1994). Over 70 sessions were conducted during the functional analysis. Sessions were 10- minutes in duration. The experimental conditions included in this study consisted of a control condition, escape from demands, no interaction, denied access to tangible items, and an attention condition. Results suggested that the aggressive behavior was primarily maintained by escape from the presentation of demands. A function based intervention in the form of functional communication training and positive practice decreased aggression and increased appropriate requests for a break from demand. Implications for conducting functional analyses and conducting in-session treatment analyses in a school setting are discussed.

The incidence of autism continues to increase to 1 in 88 individuals. The majority of services that exist now focus on the 0-21 age group and are provided through public education. Over the next several years, services for adolescents and adults are going to be severely needed, and as of right now, few such services exist. The need for these services is extremely critical for two primary reasons. First, the sheer number of individuals with ASD is likely to overwhelm the existing service structure. Second, more information is coming to light that the needs of these older individuals will be intense and dramatic. As these individuals enter the community and adult world, there will need to be a focus on three primary issues – functionality of the activities in which they engage, their happiness, and, subsequently, an enhanced quality of life. These are the three goals that community programming must strive to achieve in order for adolescents and adults with autism to maximally function in their communities. The papers in this symposium will address the conceptual issues involved in community programming and specific research studies that investigate issues surrounding the determination of functional goals and the relationship between preference and affect.

As adolescents and adults with autism leave the public school system and enter the world of work and community, the goals of training change. At this point in their lives, these individuals have goals quite different from those being pursued in the 0-21 public school education system. Now, integration into the community is the ultimate criterion to achieve. But what that means has never been well defined. This presentation will discuss three major areas of importance to community-based individuals. The functionality of the activities in which they engage is of primary importance. In addition, the activities both work and leisure must make the individuals happy and satisfied. Lastly, the quality of life for these people must be taken into consideration when care providers consider training targets. A review of the literature in these three areas will be presented, as well operational definitions of these areas that can be used by service providers to enhance the quality of service provision in the community.

The advent of the Board Certification for behavior analysts has generally been considered a positive development in the field of behavior analysis. In fact, the certification process has resulted in increasing numbers of individuals with autism being provided evidence-based interventions across their lifespans. Unfortunately while instructional priorities for young children are fairly well established, the same cannot be said for adolescents or adults. With this population, there is an increased importance in targeting functional skills and activities for engagement in their lives. The current study investigated the potential effectiveness of newly developed tool, the Functionality Index (FI), in identifying individual specific instructional priorities for this group of learners. By assessing six, operationally defined parameters of potential goals, the FI is intended to aid competent behavior analysts in the identifying contextually appropriate and socially important instructional targets for older learners.

One of the essential and widely applied principles of human behavior is positive reinforcement. Preference assessments can be used to aid in identifying potential reinforcers and their potency. They should also be considered when identifying potential preferred environments or activities. Another component in identifying potential reinforcers is to consider the momentary effectiveness of any stimulus change as reinforcement indicated by the existing level of motivation. Motivating operations (MO) include both establishing operations (EO), a MO that increases the current effectiveness of a reinforcer, as well as abolishing operations (AO) a MO that decreases the current effectiveness of a reinforcer. Prior to determining educational and residential placements, job matches, and leisure activities, a preference assessment and analysis of affect and behavior should be conducted to determine if environments are preferred or non-preferred. This study conducted a preference assessment of various activities available in both the day program and a leisure environment with adolescents and adults with Autism. Data targeting affect and maladaptive behaviors were then collected in those environments. Results showed an inverse relationship between preferred activities and rates of maladaptive behavior. Results indicate that a consideration should be made of individual preferences prior to determining placements for individuals with disabilities.

Learning to observe the behavior of others has both educational and social benefits. Joint attention requires the ability to shift attention among various social and environmental stimuli, and observational learning requires attention to the model and the ability to discriminate the consequences of the model's behavior. The three studies in this symposium have evaluated strategies for addressing specific topographies of both joint attention and observational learning with children with autism using both typical peers and adults as social partners. Responses related to joint attention, such as gaze shifting and commenting were successfully taught in the first study using multiple exemplar training and social reinforcers. Observational learning repertoires, such as selective imitation and the discrimination of reinforced from non-reinforced responses were addressed in the second study. The third study evaluated procedures for teaching children with autism to observe (i.e., monitor) an instructional interaction of a typical peer and teacher and measured the learning of new academic targets by the participants with autism. All three studies have vast implications for improving the ability to learn by observing the behavior of others.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of multiple exemplar training and social reinforcement on the acquisition and generalization of joint attention initiations across toy classes. Participants were 2 typically developing children (TDC) and 2 children with autism spectrum disorder (CWA). After analyzing typical samples of joint attention initiations, a composite score was developed and used to evaluate joint attention initiations of the CWA. Gaze shifting and commenting were taught using social reinforcement in a multiple exemplar format. Training sessions were followed by probes of untrained stimuli both within and across toy classes. Results showed that the CWA acquired both gaze shifting and commenting using social consequences as reinforcers. Multiple exemplar training was also effective in facilitating acquisition within classes and joint attention maintenance during follow-up probes. Additionally, both participants generalized the acquired skills to a class of untrained stimuli. The implications of multiple exemplar training as a way to establish maintenance and generalization of training effects are discussed.

Little research has explored procedures for teaching children with autism observational learning repertoires such as discriminating the consequences of others' responses or the prerequisite skills necessary to do so. To assess possible prerequisite skills, we measured selective imitation as a child's immediate performance of known responses following reinforced and non-reinforced responses of a model. In another series of experiments, a multi-element design was used to determine the effects of teaching a child with autism to discriminate reinforced from non-reinforced responses modeled by an adult on the acquisition of new word labels. Discrimination training was conducted during training sessions with one set of pictures. Discrimination training was not used during probe sessions and the participant was merely exposed to the adult model's reinforced and non-reinforced responses using a different set of pictures. Test sessions conducted 10 minutes after each session revealed that the participant learned new picture labels, but simply imitated the adult's responses regardless of whether or not they were reinforced. Once the target set of words was reduced and the reinforcer made more salient in Experiment 2, the participant quickly acquired the novel word labels as well as the discrimination between reinforced and non-reinforced responses.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a peer-yoked contingency on the acquisition of two types of observational learning: changes in performance and the acquisition of new operants via observation, as well as the Naming capability. Three male K-1st grade students with disabilities were selected as participants because they did not have observational learning for performance or acquisition, nor did they have the Naming capability in their repertoires. Three other male K-1st grade students were chosen to serve as peers during the intervention because they had performance observational learning in repertoire but lacked the Naming capability and acquisition observational learning. A delayed multiple probe design was used to measure participants acquisition of both types of observational learning and Naming. The independent variable in this study was a peer-yoked contingency game board involving a task requiring the participants to observe their peers. Results showed that the peer-yoked contingency game was effective for inducing both types of observational learning and Naming for the target participants. The intervention was also effective in the induction of Naming and the acquisition of new operants via observational for the peers.

This symposium includes four research papers involving the assessment and treatment of problem behavior evoked by demands. In the first presentation, Lauren Pepa will present a study on the application of behavioral economics to increase compliance with non-preferred tasks in individuals with escape-maintained problem behavior. In the second presentation, Kyung Mo Nam will discuss the relationship between noncompliance and prompt dependence as well as strategies to increase independent compliance during tasks for two individuals. In the third presentation, Jillian Planer will present a study evaluating the effects of including relevant or irrelevant tasks in high probability instructional sequences on decreasing noncompliance. In the last presentation, Rebecca Schulman will present a study on the assessment and treatment of problem behavior maintained by escape from demands in the context of classroom noise.

Autism is characterized by difficulties in communication, social functioning, and the presence of stereotyped behaviors/restricted interests. While not inherent in autism, maladaptive behavior is common in this population. Research suggests that challenging behavior is most effectively addressed with sound functional assessments and function-based treatments. Escape-maintained problem behavior presents a unique challenge as best practice dictates that escape extinction be used to prevent problem behavior from contacting reinforcement. However, attempting to physically prompt older, stronger individuals may put staff and the individual themselves at risk for injury. One potential way to increase engagement in low-probability activities without physical prompting is through the manipulation of pay rates of less-preferred tasks and the cost of preferred reinforcing items. The current study explored the utility of manipulating economic variables to address escape-maintained problem behavior in two adults with autism. Specifically, the cost of reinforcers and the pay for different jobs were altered to encourage the participants to make more cost-effective choices (selecting a less preferred task that pays more over an easy task that pays less). The results from the investigation indicate that the manipulation resulted in the voluntary selection and completion of previously low-probability tasks without physical prompting or the occurrence of challenging behavior.

Independent engagement with activities is a common goal for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities (Hall, McClanahan, & Gast, 1995). However, this independence may be hindered when individuals are reliant on external stimuli (e.g., the presence of or acknowledgement from an instructor) to complete a task. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a stimulus control procedure on decreasing noncompliance and increasing independent task completion. Participants were two males referred for the assessment and treatment of noncompliance during independent activities. Specifically, both students would pause for extended periods of time (e.g., 10 minutes) during independent activities. Assessments indicated that task completion was dependent on staff proximity and/ or delivery of prompts (e.g., keep going). Treatment involved teaching the participants to exchange an all done card to staff members. Next, training took place during independent activities that were correlated with lower levels of noncompliance and prompt dependence to promote successful card exchanges. That is, staff placed a stimulus cue (all done) at the bottom of independent tasks and instructed the participants to a) work until they reached the card and b) exchange card to staff members. Results showed that appropriate card exchanges increased and noncompliance and prompt dependence decreased. Baseline data are currently being collected in the classroom setting for both participants. Treatment will be implemented across activities associated with high levels of noncompliance and prompt dependence.

Non-compliance can sometimes be prevalent in children with autism and related disorders and can often impede skill acquisition for these individuals. Antecedent interventions such as providing high probability requests sequences are viable alternatives to consequence procedures and have been shown to be effective with individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. High-probability request sequences and their implications for increased compliance are well researched with this population. However, previous literature has not evaluated the specifics of the high-probability requests involved in thesequence. Second, previous literature has not evaluated a fading procedure that incorporated variable presentations of high-probability requests. The current study compared the effects of relevant and irrelevant high-probability tasks on compliance to low-probability requests in children with autism. After high levels of compliance were achieved in both relevant and irrelevant conditions, fixed and variable presentations of the high-probability requests were compared. The results show that the relevant high-probability requests increased percentage of compliance more than irrelevant high-probability requests. Additional results and social validity of procedures, goals, and outcomes will be presented.

Research has shown that background noise may influence problem behavior (e.g., O'Reilly, Lacey, & Lancioni, 2000). O'Reilly and colleagues conducted a functional analysis of aggression and disruption with and without background noise. Results showed increased rates of problem behavior in the presence of noise, especially in the escape from demands condition. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of background noise on problem behavior. Participants were two children diagnosed with autism. Both individuals were referred for the assessment and treatment of aggression and disruption, which was reported by staff to be correlated with classroom noise (e.g., peers engaging in tantrums or loud vocalizations). First, a traditional functional analysis was conducted in a quiet environment using procedures described by Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, and Richmand, 1982. Next, a modified functional analysis was conducted comparing conditions presented with background noise recordings to conditions with no noise recordings. During the noise conditions, the noise recordings remained on throughout the entire session while specific consequences were in place (e.g., escape from demands). Results indicated the frequency and intensity of problem behavior was increased in the escape from demands (noise present) conditions. A treatment analysis including functional communication training and differential reinforcement using noise recordings decreased inappropriate behavior for both participants. However, behavior remained low for both participants when a reversal to baseline was conducted indicating the participants may have habituated to the noise recordings. Descriptive analyses of events preceding problem behavior in the classroom were conducted for both participants. Results indicated that problem behavior was correlated with classroom noise. Treatment analyses in the classroom are ongoing. Implications for assessing and treating problem behavior evoked by peer vocalizations will be discussed.

Due to increased awareness for assessment and treatment for autism in Korea, more attempts have been made to accumulate scientific knowledge for this population. Along with their core issues such as restricted social interaction, children with autism also show difficulties in sleeping, eating, and problem behaviors. Developing and establishing a valid and reliable assessment tool is a must, for both research and clinical purposes. In this symposium, psychometric properties of the Korean version of few assessment instruments will be introduced, along with their application to autism population. Both parent-proxy reports and computerized tests will be covered and issues related to their use in clinical settings will be discussed.

Cultural differences between countries may produce differences in parent feeding style and children's weight status.The present study investigated cultural differences in parent mealtime actions and children's weight status for 496 US preschool children(261 male, 228 female, 7 unreported) and 325 Korean children(167 male, 158 female). The mean age of US children was 4.06 years (SD=.72) and for Korean children it was 3.88 years (SD=.79). Children's parents were asked to respond to complete Parent Mealtime Action Scale(PMAS; Hendy et al., 2009) with 798 parents completing the nine PMAS dimensions, and with 475 parents providing height and weight information to calculate their children's body mass index percentile (BMI%). Independent sample t-tests were conducted fornine PMAS dimensions to examine the differences between the two countries, with significant differences reported for all dimensions except SPECIAL MEALS and MANY FOOD CHOICES. Korean parents used more PMAS actions of USE OF REWARDS, FAT REDUCTION and INSISTENCE ON EATING, and US parents reported more PMAS actions like DAILY FV AVAILABILITY, SNACK LIMITS, POSITIVE PERSUASION and SNACK MODELING. Also, participants were divided into weight status categories of normal weight(BMI% = 1-85%), overweight(85-95%) and obese(over 95%). For US children, 13.3% were overweight and 35.1% were obese whereas for Korean children 11.4% were overweight and 12.1% were obese. The difference in ratio of overweight and obese children between the two countries were statistically significant(x2=39.094, df=2, p<.001).

CSHQ (Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire) is an instrument to measure the parents’ perception of children’s sleep behaviors. It has been used to identify sleep patterns of children with PDD, showing that more than half of children with PDD have sleep problems (Honomichl, Goodlin-Jones, Burnham, Gaylor, & Anders, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine how parents of the children with PDD perceive their children’s sleep behaviors in Korea. Participants were 122 mothers of children with PDD, 77.9% (n=95) of the children were male and 22.1% (n=27) were female; and the mean age was 7.4years (SD=2.4 years, range from 4 to 12). The results showed that 52.5% (n=64) of parents reported their children have problems with night waking; 22.1% (n=27) had sleep onset delay problems; 14.8% (n= 18) had problems with sleep resistance; 10.7% (n=13) had sleep duration problems. Also, 9.8% (n=12) had problems with sleep anxiety; 9% (n=11) had daytime sleepiness; 3.3% (n=4) had Sleep disordered breathing and only 0.8% (n=1) had parasomnia. Gender differences were not significant (p>.05). Compare to the research by Liu, Hubbard, Fabes and Adam (2006), Korean children with PDD have problems with bedtime resistance, insomnia, parasomnia and sleep disordered breathing less than U.S. samples (53.9%, 56.3%, 53.3%, and 24.6%, respectively). The results implicate that children with PDD in Korea have problem with maintaining sleep during the night while not many of them suffer from sleep disorders. Also, Korean children with PDD seem to have sleep disorders less than U.S. children with PDD.

The purpose of this study is to investigate out the perceptual thresholds and sensitivity of facial emotion among children with ASD. Two basic emotions, Happiness and anger, were tested. Five children with ASD (Age Mean=8.58(1.52), IQ Mean=102.40(28.48)) and their age and IQ matched typically developing children (controls; Age Mean=8.72(1.50), IQ Mean=95.40(10.53)) were participated. Via use of neutral and full-valenced pictures, 11 levels of gradually intensifying facial expressions were created by a photo-morphing program with 10% increment ranged from 0% to 100%. Participants were asked to identify the emotion (e.g., happy or unhappy) after looking at the picture presented randomly on a computer screen for a very brief time. Psychometric function (bootstrapping) was used to calculate the threshold and the sensitivity. ASD group showed significantly lower thresholds compared to the control group in happy valence. For both groups, the thresholds for happiness were significantly lower than those for anger. Also, both groups responded more sensitively to happy valence than anger valence. Research and clinical implications and limitations are discussed.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are acknowledged as highly heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition to core diagnostic features of ASD, people diagnosed with ASD often exhibit diverse types of aberrant behaviors with varying intensity, including self-injury, tantrums, and aggression (Emerson et al., 2001a). Prevalence rate of challenging behaviors are reported to be very high, and studies report that severity of ASD may be associated with severity of problem behaviors (Matson & Wilkins, 2009). Despite the fact that these behaviors pose significant risk to childrens safety and to their parents mental health (Hartley et al., 2012), relatively few research has focused on problem behaviors among ASD population. The Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) developed by Aman and Singh (1994) is one of the most widely used assessment instrument that assesses problem behaviors of developmentally delayed individuals. The purpose of the study is to standardize the ABC-C in Korea to provide an understanding of current problem behaviors, and guide treatment direction. The present study recruited 169 children and adolescents with ASD (142 male, 27 female). Parent reported data were analyzed by Principle Axis Factor (PAF) with a Varimax rotation. Eigenvalue greater than two were selected and five factors explained 52.32% of the variance in the items. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between factors and items. There was a significant correlation between each factor and its items (r > .30, p < .001). The internal consistency was good with a Cronbachs coefficient alpha of .95. ABC-C seems to be an effective instrument in providing more continuous measures of ASD.

Multiple parent- and practitioner-oriented websites describe pre-session exposure to reinforcers as paramount in order for learning to occur (e.g., Barbera, 2009, "What does an ABA session look like?" 2005). The main proposed benefit of pre-session access to reinforcers is an increase in the student's readiness or motivation to learn (e.g., sitting at the work table, complying with instructions, etc.). Practitioners have also cited a lack of effective pairing between reinforcers and the teacher or context as one explanation for increased problem behaviors such as crying, fleeing from the environment, and protesting during one-on-one teaching sessions (Barbera & Rasmussen, 2007). To date, few published studies have evaluated the effects of pre-session access to reinforcers on subsequent behavior of children with autism (i.e., behavior-altering and value-altering effects of exposure or deprivation). This symposium includes three experiments which examine the relation between pre-session exposure to reinforcers and subsequent performance of children with autism.

As a result of being paired with work demands, the presence of an instructor may signal a worsening set of aversive conditions (i.e., reflexive conditioned motivating operation; CMO-R). The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of presession pairing of the instructor with preferred stimuli on disruptive behavior and correct responding. Functional analyses indicated a primary or combined escape function for three children diagnosed with autism. For participants with multiply maintained challenging behavior, attention was also a co-occurring function. The investigator conducted preference assessments to identify preferred items for each participant. In the presession pairing phase, the experimenter engaged playfully with the participant with a highly preferred item for 2-4 minutes immediately prior to the instructional session. The discrete trial training used to teach math and spelling skills was the same across the baseline and presession pairing sessions. Results in a multiple baseline across participants design indicated that presession pairing was effective in reducing disruptive behaviors, increasing latencies to challenging behavior, and increasing inter-response times of challenging behaviors. Interobserver agreement collected on 30% of sessions, averaged 97.6% (91.1% - 100%); procedural integrity collected on 30% of sessions, averaged 98.5% (97-100%). Future research recommendations and implications are discussed.

Reinforcer sampling has been demonstrated to increase correct academic responding during teaching sessions (Park, Pereia Delgado, Choi & Greer, 2008) and to increase the frequency with which adults with developmental disabilities exchanged tokens for reinforcing events (Ayllon & Azrin, 1968). The current study evaluated effects of pre-session exposure to reinforcers on academic skill acquisition, academic skill maintenance, and problem behavior. To date, one child with autism has participated in the study. Data were collected on percentage correct performance (acquisition and maintenance) and percentage of trials with problem behavior. Interobserver agreement (IOA) was collected for 25% of sessions with mean agreement of 98.6% (range 97-100%). Pre-session exposure to edible and social reinforcers was associated with slower acquisition than a no-exposure comparison condition. Results for problem behavior and academic skill maintenance were undifferentiated between conditions.

Laraway, Snycerski, Michael, and Poling (2003) discussed two effects that motivating operations have on behavior. First is the behavior-altering effect, in which the occurrence of behavior is momentarily altered. Second is the value-altering effect, in which the value of some consequence as a reinforcer is altered. Studies have demonstrated changes in behavior that can be attributed to the behavior-altering effect, but few studies have analyzed the value-altering effect. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of deprivation or satiation on the value of edible reinforcers. Participants were children aged 5-10 diagnosed with autism. During conditioning, pre-session edible access was manipulated and paired with neutral stimuli to create conditioned motivating operations. Participants clicked on a red or blue box that moved around a screen; the colors were differentially associated with the deprivation and satiation conditions. Accurate clicking was reinforced via edible delivery, and reinforcers were yoked across conditions. Probes were conducted under extinction, and both colored boxes were concurrently available. During the probes, participant 1 allocated more responding to the box associated with deprivation, which suggests that deprivation from edibles may increase their value as reinforcers. Data collection with additional participants is under way.

Clinical behavior analysts have been working as licensed psychologists and certified mental health professionals for decades. Applied behavior analysis training programs outside of clinical and counseling psychology are currently facing pressures to produce students who are credentialed, and eligible for third-party payment. While training leading to eligibility for BCBA certification is one path that a program can take, there are other credentialing options that have existing training infrastructures and credentialing bodies. Members of this panel will discuss their experiences exploring these other credentialing options: the challenges, opportunities, and potential long-term implications for their programs, staff, and students.

This event specifically targets doctoral level academics who serve as administrators or instructional faculty for behavioral analysis training programs.

This symposium will present four data-based presentations focused on the teaching, maintenance, and generalization of social skills of children or young adults diagnosed with developmental disabilities (e.g., autism spectrum disorder). This topic is important because individuals with developmental disabilities often show deficits in social communication behaviors and may benefit from a variety of teaching strategies. Specifically, presenters will show data depicting the use of differential reinforcement and behavioral skills training to teach social communicative beahviors. The social skills taught range from vocal and non-vocal conversational skills to peer mands. Theses papers also investigate strategies to increase maintenance and generalization of the skills. In addition, one presentation will discuss the effects of teaching multiple social communicative responses (e.g., mands) versus a single response on resurgence of problem behavior and maintenance of the communicative responses. Together, these data demonstrate strategies for increasing and maintaining social communicative behaviors with individuals with developmental disabilities.

Sometimes interventions that eliminate problem behavior during initial implementation become less effective during maintenance. One reason for this might be that caregiver treatment fidelity is lower than that of the original therapist. For example, a failure to reinforce appropriate responses could result in the resurgence of problem behavior. Resurgence is the reemergence of an extinguished response when an alternative response is placed on extinction (Leitenberg, Rawson, & Mulick, 1975). In our study we evaluated whether increasing the total number of responses in a response class would decrease the magnitude of target response resurgence. In Experiment 1 we established target responding in two different contexts. In one context we placed the target response on extinction and we trained a single alternative response. In the other context we trained three alternative responses. Finally, we placed the alternative responses in both contexts on extinction and measured the magnitude of target response resurgence. In all cases alternative responses resurged before the target response. Additionally, the magnitude of target response resurgence was smaller in the context in which three alternatives had been trained. In Experiment 2 we replicated our procedures with the problem behavior (target) and appropriate communicative responses (alternative) of two children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Results and implications for the use of differential reinforcement of alternative responses or similar interventions are discussed.

Previous research has evaluated procedures for teaching non-vocal children with autism to engage in peer-directed mands using alternative forms of communication such as pictures (Paden, Kodak, Fisher, Gawley-Bullington, & Bouxsein, 2012). Despite the importance of teaching individuals with autism to approach and interact with their peers, few studies have examined the generalization of peer-directed mands to other peers in the classroom. The current investigation evaluated the effects of extinction and prompts on training and generalization of peer-directed mands for preferred items with two children diagnosed with autism. Children engaged in peer-directed mands using a picture exchange communication system. 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. IOA for all dependent measures exceeded 80%. We will discuss the implications of these results for practice and suggest areas of future research.

We taught social responses to young children with autism using an adult as the recipient of the social interaction and then assessed generalization of performance to adults and peers who had not participated in the training. Generalized performance across new recipients was assessed repeatedly while holding constant other irrelevant aspects of the training that may have exerted stimulus control over responding (e.g., setting, materials). Although the participants performance was similar across adults, responding was less consistent with peers. A subsequent probe, in which we assessed generalization across adults and peers using novel materials and in a novel setting, suggested that the recipient of the social behavior (i.e., adult versus peer) controlled responding. We then evaluated the effects of having participants observe a video of a peer engaged in the targeted social behavior with another peer, who provided reinforcement for the social response. Together, the findings suggested that generalization of social responses may be more likely to occur across certain irrelevant, potential sources of stimulus control (setting, materials) than others (adult vs. peer recipient) and that video viewing may be an effective and efficient way to promote generalization to peers.

Behavioral skills training was used to teach vocal and non-vocal conversation skills to three young adults with autism spectrum disorders. A task analysis identifying various necessary steps for conversations was created. Skills that were included on the task analysis were both vocal conversation skills, such as making comments related to the conversation topic, and and non-vocal conversation skills that included maintaining eye contact with the peer and appropriate distance. The behavioral skills training package included instructions, modeling of an appropriate conversation, and role-playing with the participants in a private training room. In-situ training followed each successful role-play. Access to a preferred item/activity was provided for performing at or above the previous session. The training package was shown to be effective and effects maintained during four to eight week follow-up observations. Implications of behavioral skills training with young adults with developmental disabilities will be discussed as well as areas for future research.

Function-based treatment for challenging behavior often includes Functional Communication Training (FCT) to replace the behavior with a desirable communicative alternative, but for people with intact functional communication repertoires alternative assessment and intervention approaches are often necessary. Study 1 involved a young child with autism and an evaluation, across functional analysis (FA) and FCT sessions, of his destructive behavior, screaming, and manding that each functioned to gain access to preferred items. Results indicated a preference for manding even when the other members of the response class were reinforced. In Study 2 a stimulus control procedure was developed to reduce the rate of requesting in a child with Smith-Magenis Syndrome whose denied requests to escape or alter tasks were reliably antecedent to self-injury. The intervention effectively controlled rate of requesting. Study 3 describes the use of a progressive-ratio schedule to identify demand limitations for a child with autism whose aggressive behaviors functioned to escape tasks. Results will be discussed in light of generalization challenges, determining the momentary likelihood of members of a response class, and the importance of antecedent assessment and interventions.

We evaluated changes in a childs destructive behavior, screaming, and manding to gain access to preferred items across functional analysis (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) sessions. The participant was a preschool-aged boy with an Autism diagnosis. Previous studies have suggested that manding is unlikely to replace problem behaviors within the same response class if problem behaviors continue to obtain reinforcement (Horner & Day, 1991; Shirley, et al., 1997). This study evaluated persistence of destruction, screaming, and manding within multielement designs when: (a) only destruction was reinforced, (b) both destruction and screaming were reinforced, and (c) destruction, screaming, and manding behaviors were all reinforced. Initial results showed the persistence of screaming and destruction when only destructive behavior was reinforced, but only screaming occurred when it was also reinforced. Thus, screaming appeared to occur prior to destruction. However, during FCT when manding was also reinforced, neither destruction nor screaming occurred, suggesting that mands occurred first in the hierarchy. IOA for child behavior was at least 90% and was collected for 30% of sessions. Results will be discussed in relation to the conditions under which extinction, effort, and response history may interact with mands when mands are selected as a replacement behavior.

A functional analysis of self-injurious behavior (SIB) was conducted for an 8-yr old child (Erik) with Smith-Magenis Syndrome. Results suggested denied requests for activity change during seated work were reliably antecedent to SIB, while escape from work was the maintaining consequence. The research team, in-home clinical team, and Eriks mother agreed on a stimulus control approach to intervention, targeting a reduction in requesting during seated work. Results demonstrated that requesting occurred at a steady rate in the presence of an sD (blue work lists) and at a diminished rate in the presence an s-delta (gold work lists). Self-injury occurred at a low rate across conditions, attributed by clinical staff to the structured task presentation. Task completion data indicate increased success following denied requests as the study progressed. Generalization of stimulus control was initially unsuccessful and disrupted stimulus control in the training setting, but stimulus control was regained at the conclusion of the study. Clinical staff and parent social validity ratings indicated good contextual fit of the intervention. Results are discussed in light of generalization challenges and the use of this type of intervention for children whose frequent requests for items and activities are associated with denial and challenging behavior.

The current study describes the use of a progressive-ratio schedule to identify favorable conditions for compliance in an 8-year-old male with autism and severe aggressive behavior. A functional analysis of precursor behaviors to aggression (e.g., Smith & Churchill, 2002) indicated this response class was multiply maintained by access to food and escape from task demands. The progressive-ratio schedule involved increasing the number of matching tasks required for reinforcement incrementally across trials while holding the quantity of the reinforcer constant. Results demonstrated the childs success covaried with the reinforcement schedule. He chose and successfully completed work (without challenging behavior) on a majority of trials when the number of tasks to be completed was 15 or less. When the number of tasks exceeded that amount, the number of trials in which the participant selected a break and/or engaged in challenging behavior increased. This type of analysis may be effective for identifying the conditions under which children with escape-maintained problem behavior will comply with task demands.

This paper suggests that Maslow's hierarchy of needs may be interpreted from the perspective of behavioral developmental stage and value. "Needs" can be understood as primary and secondary reinforcers that change with behavioral developmental stage. At different behavioral developmental stages, there are different sources of reinforcement. This generates the hierarchy from simpler to more abstract reinforcers. Higher order reinforcers would be relatively high in the Maslows hierarchy of needs. In addition to changes of source of reinforcement, what contingencies make contact with behavior also change. Individuals who understand complex contingencies may be more likely to act on long term benefits. Contingencies may not make contact with behavior in three circumstances. First, is that the consequence itself is not valued by the individual. This could be because the consequence a) requires too high a behavioral developmental stage to appreciate or b) is not of interest to the person. A more typical reason is when c) they occur too far away in time, and more short term consequences are perceived as more valued. It is predicted that individuals who score higher on Maslow's hierarchy will also be higher in their behavioral developmental stage of social perspective taking.

People show different preferences for stories involving the formation of religious or atheistic beliefs. Such preference represents the value people give to each of the vignettes. This study analyzed the relationship between preference for vignettes to help determine the relationship between Rasch scaled stages of development, which is also the value, and the hierarchical complexity of the items. The Causing Religious Belief and Causing Atheism instruments were administered to 46 participants and to 34 participants, respectively. Participants rated the quality of the arguments on a 1 to 6 scale. A Rasch analysis produced stage scores for each of the vignettes, which were regressed against the order of hierarchical complexity of the vignettes. The study showed that among these Atheistic and Religious dilemmas, there is a strong relationship between the order of hierarchical complexity of the items and Rasch measured Atheistic and Religious person development scores, r(140) = .603, p (1-tailed) = .000. The higher stage vignettes received higher Rasch-scaled scores, and therefore were preferable.

Empirical evidence has demonstrated the validity and reliability of moral development instruments such as Model of Hierarchical Complexity vignettes (item reliability .97), Defining Issues Test (DIT, reliability .95) and Moral Judgment Test (MJT, reliabiltiy .95. ). One purpose of the current study is to demonstrate that the newer behavioral developmental Model of Hierarchical Complexity does at least as well as more traditional developmental stage measures. Rasch scores of responses to each instruments' items correlated well with the items' measure of hierarchical complexity: Right to bear ( r = .-286, p < .027), Defining Issues Rasch Scores (r= .372; p < .003), Moral Judgement (r = .557, p < .005), and Political-voter problem (r = .767, p < .000). Test items used to measure moral reasoning were significantly correlated. None of the three instruments, stage of moral development predicted political affiliation or voting. This supports Kohlberg's claim that structure, not content, underlies stage. Sometimes stage and value may be independent of one another.

The evidence-based practice (EBP) movement has become a significant force in a many of human service disciplines and among important funding agencies. Applied Behavior Analysts interact with many of these disciplines and agencies but to date the EBP movement has not gained much traction within applied behavior analysis (ABA). Perhaps, because of the long tradition within ABA for basing intervention recommendations of empirical research and data-based decision making, EBP is perceived as being redundant and therefore has little to contribute to ABA. The papers in this symposium argue that, when thoughtfully conceived, EBP is supportive of the fundamental values and orientation of ABA and EBP can be a means of further strengthening ABA practice as well as reaching out to important disciplines and agencies outside of ABA. This symposium will offer an analysis of the major components of EBP (best available evidence, professional judgment, and client values and context), describe how these components articulate with the fundamental values and orientation of ABA, and suggest reasons why it is necessary for ABA to adopt the EBP framework.

In this paper we will propose that evidence-based practice (EBP) of applied behavior analysis (ABA) be defined as a decision-making process that integrates (a) the best available evidence with (b) professional judgment and (c) client values and context. We will discuss the historical precedence for this definition and how the definition relates to the fundamental tenets of ABA. We will point out features of the definition that are critical if EBP is to be fully supportive of the best ABA practice. We will then discuss the meaning of the key term best available evidence. We will argue that EBP can be most powerful and most supportive of ABA if best available evidence is understood to indicate that many kinds of evidence may be used in EBP, and that the practitioner should be most influenced by the evidence that has the highest validity and most relevance to a particular decision.

While adoption and implementation of empirically supported treatments is critical, so is facilitating the fidelity of implementation of these practices to ensure their effectiveness. This is not a new consideration for behavior analysts. Wolf’s (1978) seminal article on Social Validity highlighted the importance of the subjective side of applied behavior analysis. Specifically, Wolf defined social validity as focusing on the social significance of the goals, the social appropriateness of the procedures and the social importance of the effects. More recently, Sacket et al (1997) refocused scientific practice on client values as a key component of evidence-based practices. This session will identify the continued importance of client values to applied behavior analysis, both from a research and a practice perspective. Additionally, the session will include information on contextual factors including contextual-fit, culture, politics, race and ethnicity.

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is critical in education, psychology, and other fields in which we participate. Systematic reviews have served as the method for determining treatment efficacy in EBP. Instead of adopting EBP, ABA has largely ignored this approach, with many behavior analysts remarking weve always make decisions on evidence. Unfortunately, our lack of understanding and participation in EBP has consequences. Our failure to keep pace with EBP means we do not communicate effectively with colleagues and leaders in our work settings, thus limiting practitioners ability to produce the greatest client gains. States may pass laws requiring insurance companies to reimburse services for specific conditions but if we do not provide evidence that these treatments are efficacious, insurance companies can deny services immediately or after years of service delivery. In the latter case, practitioners can anticipate returning hundreds of thousands of dollars per client as a direct result of our fields inability to participate in EBP. Further, our scientists will not be competitive for federal funding geared toward increasing the identification and full-scale implementation of EBP. If we seek to avoid punishers for all members of our field, we must become well informed about EBP and participate fully in this approach.

The field of behavior analysis has made remarkable progress in analyzing and intervening on a large variety of problems of human behavior, including autism, education, sports and fitness, business and industry, psychopathology, and many others. However, the more complex the behavior, the less time the science of behavior analysis seems to dedicate to the problem. This relation may be the reverse of what is desirable, if progress is to be made in areas of complex human behavior. Thus, more behavior analytic work on complex human behavior is needed. This symposium consists of three conceptual papers grappling with topics of complex human behavior. The first paper, by Jonathan Tarbox, presents a pragmatic approach to research and practice in improving behavioral repertoires labeled as cognitive by the general psychology community. The second paper, by Maria Munoz Blanco, presents a conceptual analysis of creativity. The third paper, by Linda Hayes, presents a conceptual analysis of dreaming. The symposium concludes with a discussion by William Potter.

Psychology has historically been considered to be responsible for explaining a number of concepts frequently used to describe ordinary behavior. As a result, scientists are pressured to provide an explanation for these concepts although many remain insufficiently defined. This is the case for creativity. People are inclined to identify that which is not considered to be “creative”, yet few have attempted to define what the phenomena of creativity actually is and how it occurs. Creativity has been described as magical and mysterious, perhaps related to geniuses who are able to engage in this behavior (Marr, 2003). For behavior analysts, creative behavior presents a problem based on our standard methods of analysis: Creative behavior, by definition, is not dependent on a history of reinforcement. Several authors have tried to define creativity in terms of multiple stimulus control (Epstein, 1991) or informal stimulus control (Sloane, Endo and Della-Piana, 1980); however, these explanations hinder the study of the complexity of creative behavior by reducing it to variability and novel behavior training (i.e. Pryor, Haag and O’Reilly, 1969). In this presentation, the author attempts to explain creativity without reducing this phenomenon to simple novel problem solving activities.

Although B. F. Skinner himself never replied to N. Chomsky's infamous Review (1959) of Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957), many have since attempted to do so. Behaviorists regard the responses as more than adequate, in fact most would argue that they demolish the review. In the filed of philosophy, linguistics and even in cognitive psychology, the view is quite different. This is strange indeed. This paper attempts to interpret both the view of Skinner and of Chomsky by entertaining their respective basic assumptions, so as to be able to understand why there is this gap in understanding between the fields. Actually Chomsky often simply misunderstands or even misrepresents Skinner's views, but I argue that one can still regard the review as constructive criticism. This is difficult to do, due to the disrespectful attitude obvious in Chomsky's remarks, but still it should be done, so as to give both views the full respect they deserve. For it has to be admitted both that Skinner regarded his book, Verbal Behavior, as his most important book, and further that Chomsky was not known when he wrote the review, but it has since become a defining character of his position. He often returned to the review, and he regards it as absolutely crucial in giving cognitivism the space it needed to develop alongside behaviorism. Many startling conclusions emerge from a sympathetic approach such as this one, in both directions, for although Chomsky viciously attacks Skinner, he does admit his importance and Skinnerians should realize that the basis assumption shared by both Chomsky and Skinner, that the theory of verbal behavior is extrapolated from basic animal research, is in fact not correct. Although not yet established, Skinner's first attempts at verbal behavior began very early in his career, and in fact in totally forgotten experiments on humans.

In Behavior and Social Issues, 14, 86-91 (2005), Joao Claudio Todorov describe laws as metacontingencies. Capitalizing on his work and on Sigrid Glenn`s conceptualization of metacontingencies, I will discuss the so called Nota Fiscal Paulista in Brazil and the Italian initiative to fight tax evation, Scudo Fiscal as systems of reinforcement. In theory, the two systems represent respectively a positive and a negative reinforcement approach. I will discuss the two approaches from a behavior analytic perspective, and also try to pinpoint some results of the two efforts to combat tax evation.

Behavioral interventions for children with severe language deficits often incorporate teaching basic skills under contrived conditions and progress to developing spontaneous complex language that is socially-directed and maintained. Previous research has shown that applied behavior analytic procedures result in acquisition of tact and intraverbal skills in children with language delays. However, many procedures promote acquisition of these behaviors in the context of a specific discriminative stimulus (i.e., what is it?) and may result in inflexible responding. Procedures to enhance tact and intraverbal behavior under more naturalistic conditions that are socially-directed and enhance variability in responding are needed. This symposium will present data from three studies investigating procedures to promote tacts to initiate and reciprocate conversational exchanges and promote variability in intraverbal responding. Contreras and Betz utilized a lag schedule to evaluate variability in intraverbal responses and compared two methods to analyze the findings. Shippee, Shillingsburg, Kliebert, and Discalfani taught participants to emit novel tacts embedded in a vocal exchange and used naturally occurring activities to promote generalization. Perry, Kelley, and Peterson employed an intervention to increase spontaneous tacting to initiate a conversational exchange and assessed for generalization. Results are discussed in terms of promoting spontaneity and variability of verbal behavior.

Tacting is prerequisite for beginning conversational skills in young children. Though tacting programs are a common feature of early intervention programs for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), most programming does not target socially-directed tact behavior. Therefore, we evaluated an intervention to increase spontaneous tacting in preschoolers with ASD who emitted impure tacts (i.e., following the discriminative stimulus, "What is it?" or if a therapist held up an item), but did not do so when in less contrived conditions. Treatment consisted of teaching participants to share an item with an adult while simultaneously labeling it using a progressive prompt-delay. Generalization probes were then conducted, in which untrained, known items were available within a naturalistic setting. Results indicated that all participants were successfully taught to initiate conversation with others with six objects; however, one participant required specific training for each object and generalization did not occur. In contrast, another participant mastered all objects during generalization probes after teaching was conducted with one item only and these gains were effectively generalized to another classroom setting with novel targets.

Tacts embedded in natural reciprocal conversation, as opposed to tacts following a specific vocal discriminative stimulus (e.g., when directly asked what is it?) may have added benefit in establishing complex conversational skills in individuals with language delays. One potential way to establish conversational tacting is embedding instruction within a vocal exchange. In this study, two children diagnosed with autism were taught to engage in tacts embedded in a vocal exchange during common activities (e.g., reading a book, looking through a toy box). The therapist initiated the exchange by tacting an item present (e.g., I see a fish!). A conversational tact was scored if the participant then tacted a different item present (e.g., I see a frog!). Treatment in the form of prompt fading was implemented at the teaching table first using an array of pictures. Following mastery for both participants, probes for generalization were conducted in novel settings. Generalized responding was seen in one participant to a novel activity in 2 different settings. Generalized responding in the second participant was seen in one novel activity but not another. Treatment was implemented during a variety of naturally occurring activities to promote generalized responding for the second participant.

Within the past few decades, researchers have shown that variability is a dimension of behavior that can be directly reinforced. In other words, variability itself is an operant (Page & Neuringer, 1985). Additionally, Neuringer (2002, 2004) stated that the term variability may refer to a continuum from stereotypic to stochastic. One method of directly reinforcing variability within this continuum is the use of lag schedules of reinforcement, in which a response is only reinforced if it differs from a specified number of responses. The purpose of the current study was to more precisely evaluate the level of response variability produced by lag schedules by measuring both responses varied and number of different responses emitted per session. An additional purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which analyzing both response measures alter the interpretation of result. Results showed that lag schedules of reinforcement were effective at increasing response variability for 2 out of 3 participants, and were effective for the third participant following variability training. Evaluating both response measures allowed the researchers to identify different levels of variability within and across the participants and also allowed the researchers to make appropriate treatment decisions.

In collaboration with the Student Committee, the Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest group presents a panel discussion with behavior analysts working in applied animal behavior in a variety of settings including zoo/aquarium, university, and private practice. Panelists will discuss their experiences in applied animal behavior with regard to training, opportunities and challenges in various settings, and the market for behavior analysts in the field of applied animal behavior.

Rats selectively bred for high (HiS) vs. low (LoS) saccharin preference exhibit high and low vulnerability, respectively, for cocaine-seeking behavior. Also, rats selected for high (HiI) vs. low (LoI) impulsivity, based on a delay-discounting task for food, show similar high vs. low vulnerability, respectively, vulnerability for drug seeking. These findings agree with those of other laboratories that have selected or selectively bred rats for high or low reactivity to novelty or sign-tracking vs. goal tracking. These phenotypic markers for drug addiction also are related to age and sex differences in which adolescents and females are more avid drug-seekers than adults and males, and the vulnerability markers appear to be additive. This presentation will discuss how HiS vs. LoS and HiI vs. LoI rats differentially respond to behavioral (exercise), and pharmacological treatments, and their combinations, to reduce drug seeking. It also will discuss how high and low drug seekers respond to aversive drug effects of drugs such as withdrawal and punishment. Overall, the results suggest commonalities among the drug-seeking phenotypes, and that drug-addiction-prone rats are more sensitive to reward and less sensitive to aversive effects, while drug-resistant phenotypes are more responsive to aversive effects of drugs and less motivated by reward. This information is valuable for developing strategies for prevention and designing treatments for drug abuse. Supported by NIDA grants: R01 DA003240, R01 DA019942, P20 DA024196.

The target audience are researchers and practitioners that deal with populations at risk for developing substance abuse and dependence problems.

This tutorial will outline the steps required to create, expand, and integrate an Accelerated Independent Learners (AIL) model of learning into general education settings. AIL is the general education initiative of CABAS, a systems-based model of schooling at the center of the Teaching as Applied Behavior Analysis programs at Teachers College, Columbia University. These efforts have included teaching district-based staff to implement basic principles and tactics from the science of behavior. The completion of CABAS ranks are part of the training for teachers and teaching staff in AIL programs. The learn unit is the basic method of instruction and learning pictures provide the visual display of learning in AIL classrooms. TPRA observations, and decision protocols assure the accuracy of instructional presentations and related decisions. The VBDA and C-PIRK assessments provide curricular and protocol based objectives and criterion referenced measures of learning for both at-risk and advanced students. Furthermore, the AIL model has been effective in raising performance outcomes for included students with disabilities, students considered at-risk, and students at advanced levels of achievement.

This moderated panel discussion considers cross-science collaboration on issues in environmentalism, human behavior, and sustainable communities within the boundaries of a resilient planet. Mobilizing action for large-scale behavior change might be accomplished by forging linkages across scientific, community, business, and community organizations. Our panelists will provide unique perspectives on this opportunity.

Delayed reinforcement, lag-N contingencies, and multiple exemplar training have all been applied in many behavior-analytic studies. The papers presented in this symposium are concerned with looking more into the details of how behavior is affected under variations of these well-known procedures.

Variation is the raw material on which selection operates. Behavior variability is a prerequisite for learning to occur, as operants are selected from variation by their consequences. Some well-known experiments have suggested that variability can be directly reinforced and can function as an operant class of its own, and that organisms can engage in the strategy of a quasi-random generator. One aim of the present study was to investigate the occurrences of increased and decreased response variability under different lag contingencies in rats. A second purpose was to study the immediate effect of reinforcement of new responses. After a baseline of reinforcement of four different response topographies according to a lag 3 contingency, we introduced a fifth operandum and changed to a lag 4 contingency. The results indicate that reinforcement typically produces stereotypic responding, while response variability increases during extinction. When reinforcement was contingent on a novel response, immediate subsequent responding was not novel or varied, but repetition of the response topography that produced reinforcers.

Delays to reinforcement are ubiquitous in the natural environment and as one of the main parameters of reinforcement can affect both response acquisition and maintenance. As such a greater understanding of the effects of delayed reinforcement is important in broadening our knowledge of behavior. The speakers in this symposium will present some of the most recent research on the effects of delayed reinforcement. Ezra Hall will present on response acquisition and the development of temporal control on tandem fixed interval fixed time schedules. Robin Kuhn will present on the acquisition and maintenance of sequences of responses when reinforcement is delayed. Rogelio Escobar will present research on the effects of signaled delays on the maintenance of patterns of responding. James Cook will compare the effects of fixed and mixed delays to reinforcement on responding previously maintained by immediate reinforcement. The research presented in these talks will expand our knowledge of the effects of delayed reinforcement and indicate new directions for future research.

The development of responding without response shaping and prior training has been shown to occur under various conditions of immediate and delayed reinforcement. The current research further investigated response acquisition while simultaneously examining development of temporal control of behavior under conditions of delayed reinforcement. Three experimentally nave White Carneau pigeons are being maintained at 75% of their free feeding body weights. Pigeons were magazine trained in operant chambers with no illumination except for white hopper lights turned on during 4-s presentations of mixed grain. Sessions following magazine training last for 2 hours or until fifty 4-s hopper presentations occur according to a tandem fixed-interval fixed-time schedule. All pigeons acquired responding, two have developed positively accelerated response patterns over the course of numerous sessions and the third pigeon is showing a linear pattern of responding as of session 52. The results of the experiment thus far extend response acquisition to tandem fixed-interval fixed-time schedules of reinforcement and have allowed a more detailed look at how temporal control develops throughout the delay period under extended exposure to such conditions.

While the effects of delays to reinforcement on acquisition of single responses are well established, little is known regarding how delays effect on the acquisition of response sequences. The results of four experiments examining acquisition of a left-right response sequence (LR) in rats are presented. Results from the first experiment, a parametric analysis of LR sequence acquisition with resetting, delayed reinforcement in 30 rats with a history of left-lever pressing, indicate that rats can acquire a LR sequence with unsignaled, resetting reinforcement delays of up to 5 s. Results of Experiment 2 extend the findings of Experiment 1 to 8 nave rats. Results from Experiment 3, suggest that maintenance of the LR sequence at increasing delays is improved when the LR sequence is acquired with a longer delay to reinforcement, and that typical delay-of-reinforcement gradients are obtained with sequences. Results from Experiment 4, conducted with 12 nave rats, show that signaled delays facilitate LR sequence acquisition, and increase resistance to extinction, relative to unsignaled delays. Taken in sum, these findings indicate that LR sequence acquisition mirrors acquisition of a single response with resetting delays to reinforcement, and highlights the reorganization of behavior due to the selective effects of delayed reinforcement.

Delays to reinforcement are ubiquitous in the natural environment, where those delays often vary; yet most research that has examined delayed reinforcement focused only on fixed delays, and little research has examined the effects of variable delays. Nonresetting fixed and mixed delays to reinforcement were imposed on the responding of 4 pigeons previously maintained on a multiple variable-interval (VI) VI schedule of immediate reinforcement. Mixed delays consisted of two alternating delay values, the mean of which equaled the value of the fixed delay. A progressive delay procedure was used, in which delay values increased across sessions. Conditions included using unsignaled (Condition A) and signaled delays (Condition B) in which both mixed delay values changed across sessions, and Condition C involved using unsignaled delays in which one of the mixed delay values remained constant across sessions. Response rates decreased more and changes in interresponse times were greater with unsignaled than signaled delays. With unsignaled delays, changes in responding were found to be a function of the average obtained delay within each component of the multiple schedule, regardless of whether the delays were fixed or mixed, though obtained delays tended to be shorter in the mixed delay component.

Can behavioral variability be negatively reinforced? To answer this question, we performed two experiments in which negative reinforcement was contingent on response variations. In one, rats could poke their noses across three holes to terminate electric shock. Shocks (1mA) were delivered according to a VT 60-s schedule. Under different phases of the experiment, each shock episode was terminated by a sequence of two poke responses according to FR2, LAG1 or LAG3 contingencies. Under FR2, shock offset (negative reinforcement) was independent of response location, i.e., any 2 responses terminated the shock; under the LAG contingencies, negative reinforcement was contingent on nose-poke sequences differing from the previous single (LAG 1) or three sequences (LAG 3). In the second experiment, three groups of graduate students were exposed to aversive tones. For two groups, interruption of the tone was contingent on variable sequences of four responses on a computer screen under a LAG 0 or Lag 8 contingency; for the third group, the tone was interrupted independent of the response variation (yoke procedure). For both rats and people, negative reinforcement contingent on variation increased levels of variability. These data provide important evidence of a parallel between positive and negative reinforcement of behavioral variability.

Variability in some types of motor behavior, e.g., eye movements, has conventionally been viewed as resulting fromnoise (that is, stochastic variability arising from the central nervous system). This noise is thought to be insensitive to environmental contingencies. However, experiments have shown that operant response variability is, in fact, controlled by reinforcers directly contingent on that variability. We recently extended the operant research by manipulating contingencies of reinforcement based on saccadic eye movements and, in particular, the variability of saccade amplitudes (i.e. distances moved) (Paeye and Madelain, 2011). Saccades are rapid eye movements allowing the eye to quickly move the image of a visual stimulus from an eccentric retinal location to the center of the retina. Our results clearly demonstrate that the spread of the amplitude distributions (or variability of distances moved) was controlled by reinforcement. Control over variability was independent of average saccadic amplitudes. We also shaped saccadic reaction time variability, further confirming that variations in saccades is, at least in part, a learned phenomenon (Madelain et al., 2007). We will discuss these results and contrast them with conventional models that predict a necessary relationship between the mean and the variance of response distributions.

Variability is an operant dimension of behavior, contingencies for which can specify the amount of variability required to produce reinforcement (e.g. Lag schedule). Experimental studies have explored different variability requirements with lag schedules (Page & Nueringer, 1985), stimulus control over variable response patterns (Denny & Neuringer, 1992), and the relation between variable responding and learning (Neuringer, Deiss, & Olson, 2000). Although reinforcement has been used to increase variation in applied research, few studies have explored other aspects of operant variability in applied settings and most applications have occurred only within the autism population. This presentation will provide an overview of experimental research on operant variability and highlight data from several translational research projects on 1) lag schedules and operant variability, 2) stimulus control, 3) generalization, and 4) preference for Lag schedules. Implications for individuals with lower baseline levels variability will be discussed (e.g., autism, depression) and the need for continued translational and applied research on operant variability will be highlighted. Specifically, the data will highlight the need for 1) well controlled, translational research informed by the experimental literature and 2) well controlled translational research that is designed to answer questions that arise during the clinical application of contingencies for variability.

In this symposium we present research regarding popular treatments for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that may be considered alternative and/or are lacking in empirical support. Parents of children with ASD face a multitude of treatment choices, which represent a wide range of experimental support and popularity of use; therefore, it is imperative to not only identify the effectiveness of all treatment options, but understand the treatment selection process. The first paper examines the effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy. Specifically, research regarding the effectiveness of treatment incorporating non-human mammals to improve core characteristics of ASD is systematically reviewed. The second paper investigates the popularity of Social Stories, one of the most frequently-implemented interventions among ASD. A survey among parents of children with ASD reveals the appeal of Social Stories utilizing concepts of social validity. The third paper systematically evaluates the use of sensory integration therapy, the third most utilized treatment among individuals with ASD. Results discuss the variety of intervention procedures, outcomes, and certainty of evidence.

Animal-assisted therapy is the inclusion of an animal into individual and/or group interactions for therapeutic purposes. Animal-assisted therapy has been utilized across therapeutic contexts, including a range of participant characteristics, disabilities, and diagnoses. One such application of animal-assisted therapy is among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We conducted a systematic search to identify studies that (a) included non-human mammal(s) (b) as part of a treatment or treatment package (c) among participant(s) with ASD (d) aimed to ameliorate at least one of the core symptoms of ASD (i.e., communication skills, social skills, and/or repetitive and stereotyped patterns on behavior). Results were analyzed in terms of (a) participant characteristics, (b) treatment characteristics, (c) study outcomes, and (d) certainty of evidence. Results conclude that a wide variety of animals have been incorporated into the treatment of ASD, with horses, dolphins, dogs being most frequently utilized; however, the majority of evidence contains significant methodological limitations.

Intervention studies involving the use of sensory integration therapy (SIT) were systematically identified and analyzed. Twenty-five studies were described in terms of: (a) participant characteristics, (b) assessments used to identify sensory deficits or behavioral functions, (c) dependent variables, (d) intervention procedures, (e) intervention outcomes, and (f) certainty of evidence. Overall, 3 of the reviewed studies suggested that SIT was effective, 8 studies found mixed results, and 14 studies reported no benefits related to SIT. Many of the reviewed studies, including the 3 studies reporting positive results, had serious methodological flaws. Therefore, the current evidence-base does not support the use of SIT in the education and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Practitioners and agencies serving children with ASD that endeavor, or are mandated, to use research-based, or scientifically-based, interventions should not use SIT outside of carefully controlled research.

The focus of the symposium will be the evaluation of handheld mobile devices, such as the iPod and iPad, and the application Proloquo2Go as a voice output communication aid in children with autism. The symposium will evaluate data comparing acquisition rates between picture exchange and the mobile device, the use of within stimulus prompts in the training of discrimination between pictures on the screen of the device, and the effects of using a peer-assisted communication application training procedure on the acquisition of communicative behaviors.

The focus of this study was to compare mand acquisition using PE and the iPad as a VOCA, in terms of acquisition rate and participant device preference. Three participants acquired the ability to communicate using the iPad as a VOCA more readily and two participants acquired the ability to communicate more quickly using PE, while the overall rate of independent manding was higher for four participants using the VOCA. Regarding device preference, four participants demonstrated a clear preference for the VOCA device and one for PE.

The focus of this study was the use of within stimulus prompts in the training of discrimination between pictures; using the application Proloquo2Go and the iPad as a voice output communication aid. The training procedure involved a multiple step sequence of stimulus manipulations on the screen of the iPad and within the application Proloquo2Go. Three preschool aged children with autism participated in the study. Following training, the participants demonstrated the ability to discriminate between the pictures presented on the screen of the iPad, during mand training sessions.

This study evaluated the effects of peer assisted communication application training to increase communication and social interactions for children with autism. Four children with autism across two schools were taught how to use a communication application to mand using a 2-step sequence and respond to the questions, What do you want? and What is your name? using a 2-step sequence. Using a multiple baseline design, data were taken on the number of independent mands, independent responses, social initiations, length of social interactions, problem behaviors, and verbalizations. The implications of the study are analyzed in regards to the effectiveness of peer assisted communication application training to teach sophisticated communication skills and increase socialization.

One of the diagnostic criteria for an autism spectrum disorder is a qualitative impairment in social behaviors, which can range from failure to develop meaningful social relationships to rejecting others in his or her environment. These impairments in social behavior can lead to negative long term outcomes (e.g., depression). Today, there are several interventions that are being implemented to increase social behaviors for individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum. In this symposium three papers will be presented that evaluate different interventions to improve social behaviors for individuals diagnosed with autism. The first paper will present data that compares two social interventions (i.e., social stories and the teaching interaction procedure) for increasing social behaviors for three young children diagnosed with autism. The second paper will describe the results of the implementation of conjugate reinforcement as it relates to increasing social and other behaviors (e.g., motor skills) to children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The third paper will describe the results of a social skills group that was implemented for children diagnosed with autism who were more cognitively impaired (e.g., lower IQ and limited language) and who have more aberrant behaviors.

Autism spectrum disorders are marked by qualitative impairments in social behavior, which can lead to failures in developing meaningful social relationships, depression, negative views towards school, and problems in school. Over the past 30 years, a variety of methods have been implemented to teach social behaviors to children with autism. Two of these interventions include social stories and the teaching interaction procedure. In this study we compared social stories to the teaching interaction procedure to teach social behaviors to three children diagnosed with autism. Each participant was taught three social skills with social stories and three social skills with the teaching interaction procedure. All skills were taught in a group instructional format. Using an adapted alternating treatment design, we compared the two teaching procedures in terms of skill acquisition, maintenance, efficiency, and generalization of skills across settings or people. The results, clinical implications, and areas for future research will be discussed throughout the presentation.

The effect of a reinforcer on behavior is largely determined by the schedule in which it is implemented. One type of reinforcement schedule that has not been explored extensively in applied settings is conjugate reinforcement. Previous research (Lindsley, 1962; Rovee & Rovee, 1969) suggested that various topographies of behavior reinforced on a conjugate schedule are maintained at high rates across a variety of reinforcers. The current study extended application by exploring the effectiveness of conjugate reinforcement across a variety of responses, across different reinforcers, in a wide range of participants diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, and implemented by several interventionists. The results indicated that delivering social, audio, visual, and tangible stimuli on conjugate schedules resulted in increased durations of various target responses (e.g. social skills, motor skills) and non-targeted measures (e.g., approach, social bids, speed) across participants. Considerations regarding reinforcer and response selection in implementing conjugate schedules are provided.

Today, there are several studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of social skills interventions to increase social behaviors exhibited by "higher functioning" children with autism. Additionally, social skills groups are now commonly implemented to "higher" functioning children and adolescents diagnosed with autism as part of a comprehensive intervention plan. There are few studies, however, that have evaluated social skills groups for those students who have lower IQ scores, lower language capabilities, and who display more aberrant behaviors. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a description of a summer social skills group that was implemented for children diagnosed with autism who had lower IQ scores and who displayed several aberrant behaviors. The presenters will describe the curriculum that was utilized, the various teaching strategies that were implemented, the reinforcement systems that were put in place, as well as preliminary results. Suggestions for clinicians, steps to run successful social skills groups, and areas for future research will be discussed.

The purpose of this symposium is to present studies in the use of a comprehensive set of programming and management skills that have been developed and validated to both establish and maintain childrens skills consistently throughout the child's life. A particular challenge is to train staff to use independent clinical judgment and make the dynamic programming decisions on a daily basis that support optimal rates of child behavior development. In addition, the team leaders must possess the skills to organize and progress programming as the child's behavior rapidly develops. The skills necessary in the third year of programming are much more complex and varied than are those in the first year of programming. A dynamic system requires functional data-collection system for staff management at the child and programmatic levels. Dynamic self-feedback systems give staff daily, weekly, and 6-month feedback on the success of their treatment decisions, enabling the most cost-effective therapy for achieving the best outcomes.

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of agencies implementing organized service delivery systems to treat children with autism. Organizational management features designed to manage staff and child progress are critical in producing the highest quality outcomes in the children served. The current study seeks to identify a system for management of clinical outcomes. Four children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the four teams of staff implementing their ABA treatment program participated in evaluating the effects of a system for management of clinical outcomes. During baseline, typical systems were in place to manage the childrens learning. The clinical management system, known as Dynamic Programming was introduced via a multiple baseline design across children. Dynamic Programming is an intervention package that includes: (a) therapist self-monitoring while teaching new program exemplars, (b) therapist public posting of child mastery (c) probes of child behavior to test or confirm therapist self-monitoring and public posting (each therapist reports their results on the Dynamic Programming sheet and team members check one another). After treatment implementation, each childs rate of learning increased and maintained 5-10 weeks post treatment. Results suggest that the childrens rate of learning was accelerated through the implementation of Dynamic Programming. The parents of the children were satisfied with the implementation and outcome for their children.

Social comprehension refers to the ability to understand social concepts which entail the interactions between two or more individuals. The present study utilized commercially-available children's books to evaluate the effectiveness of a dynamic social comprehension training procedure that utilized multiple exemplars to develop generative social comprehension in children with autism. A multiple probe design across five common childhood social concepts (e.g, sharing) was employed for each of the three children who participated in this study. Probes were conducted on the first presentation of novel books and the proportion of correct responses to the questions was measured. Training on each social concept continued until a generative mastery criterion was met in which the child responded correctly to at least 14 out of 16 questions on three consecutive novel books. The results showed that all of the children were able to answer an increasing proportion of the questions correctly on novel books. However, only 2 of the 3 children were able to meet the generative mastery criterion on 4 out of the 5 social concepts. Generalization probes across untrained in-vivo social scenarios were also assessed. Here, all of the children responded to a high percentage of questions following social comprehension training.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is one of the most widely used treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this presentation is to examine the research on EIBI, based upon a series of reviews, including a recent Cochrane review (Reichow, Barton, Boyd, & Hume, 2012). It is believed that the Cochrane review may be the most rigorous meta-analysis of EIBI to date, given the requirements of the process. The Cochrane review, for example, found a total of five studies that compared EIBI to generic special education services for children with ASD in schools. Only one study randomly assigned children to a treatment or comparison group, which is considered the 'gold standard' for research. The other four studies used parent preference to assign children to groups. A total of 203 children (all were younger than six years old when they started treatment) were included in the five studies. The Cochrane review found that children receiving the EIBI treatment performed better than children in the comparison groups after about two years of treatment on tests of adaptive behavior (behaviors that increase independence and the ability to adapt to one's environment), intelligence, social skills, communication and language, autism symptoms, and quality of life. The evidence supports the use of EIBI for some children with ASD. However, the Cochrane review concluded that the quality of this evidence is low as only a small number of children were involved in the studies and only one study randomly assigned children to groups.

The evaluation of treatment outcomes across all clinical disciplines is based almost exclusively in group-based designs. Randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and expert panel evaluations of empirical evidence are considered the highest standards for the ascertainment of evidence-based treatments. Behavior analysis, with its long tradition in single-subject design is a relatively newcomer to this methodological scene. Behavior analysis focus on non-standardized outcomes and individualized treatment places the field in a disadvantage when confronted with a scientific standard that promotes standardization of outcomes and interventions. In this presentation, I will discuss common methodological limitations of ABA-based intervention studies following group-based designs. Also, I will describe approaches to controlled trials design and treatment outcome measurement that may help to reconcile ABA interventions with traditional methods for the evaluation of treatment outcomes.

A misimpression stands that the treatment of autism lacks evidence-based approaches. However, in actuality, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) are possibly the best examples of evidence-based behavioral health care. In contrast to the folklore that one hears, independent reviews consistently agree that ABA and EIBI treatments for autism are effective, and that the extensive body of research meets high standards of evidence. A variety of such independent reviews will be analyzed for the relative quality of research from the perspective of both ABA criteria (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968), and criteria for RCT Randomized Clinical Trials. It is clear that expert pane reviews typically will restrict their analysis to a small range of the available research, and that this selectivity will affect public policy decisions. This paper will review the pyramid of available research, presented here in rough order of strength of evidence: o Independent Expert Panel Reviews o Peer Review Papers o Multi-site Group Outcome Studies o Between-Group Outcome Studies o Long-Term Outcome Studies o RCTs Randomized Controlled Trials o Non-Randomized Matched Trials o Clinical Registries o Comparison Data Reviews o Meta-Analysis Studies o Cost-Effectiveness Analyses o Service Delivery Research o Program Evaluation Research o Component Analysis Research o Within-Subject Experimental Studies o Quasi-Experimental Large N Analyses o Individual Case Studies o Pilot Studies o Descriptive Papers The implications of various selection criteria will be examined.

One major limitation of the traumatic stress literature is the reliance on retrospective reporting. Showing participants films with distressing content is one strategy that may be an appropriate analogue for real-life trauma (Holmes & Bourne, 2008). The current study investigated the ability of a one session computerized mindfulness intervention to mitigate PTSD-like symptoms in response to a video analogue. Ninety-two participants were randomly assigned to receive either mindfulness training or no treatment. Participants assigned to the mindfulness training completed a one hour computerized mindfulness training, and practiced the skills learned for one week. After one week, all participants were exposed to the video analogue, and were followed for two weeks. A linear mixed model procedure was utilized to analyze the data. Participants assigned to the mindfulness condition exhibited significantly lower levels of PTSD-like symptoms at two week follow-up in comparison to the no treatment condition. This finding has implications for individuals who work in occupations that put them at risk for exposure to traumatic events, such as military personnel and first responders, The utility for using an analogue for studying PTSD-like responses in the laboratory as well as the limitations will be discussed.

Panelists will discuss their personal account of becoming an expert in ACT. They will give recommendations and advice to those looking to expand their knowledge and professional domains of ACT and clinical behavior analysis. Panelists will also discuss progression and personal research interests in the field.

Behavior Analysis has concentrated on contingencies of reinforcement and reinforcement value. We present a series of analyses and data showing that behavioral developmental stage and value of reinforcers obtained strongly interact with each other. This is especially important for interventions. For example, only about 20% of persons designated as Autistic are mainstreamed. This may be largely due to ignoring developmental sequences. Prerequisite behaviors have to be acquired first. Otherwise, one starts with too high a behavioral stage behavior for interventions to be successful. Behavioral developmental stage on one hand and amount and value for reinforcement interact in at least two ways. First, the stage required for contingencies between one's own behavior and the consequences to be discriminable may exceed the stage of performance of the person. A second way is that stage has an influence on the effective value and amount of events.

Despite the growth of school-wide positive behavior supports and IDEA mandates for function-based assessment, schools still have difficulty supporting students with challenging behavior. A continuum of supports, with primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions in place, helps schools effectively meet the needs of students by providing a structure from which to approach assessment and intervention of challenging behavior. Wilcox and Lewis present the results from semi-structured interviews of school personnel on the barriers to implementing function-based assessment, along with data demonstrating the impact of systems-level changes at one school spurred by interview results. The remainder of papers in the symposium examine the efficacy of the Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) procedure, a secondary intervention designed to support students with mild challenging behavior. Charlton and Ross discuss the outcomes of a study examining a modified CICO procedure at the high school level. Ross and Sabey present results from a study on the implementation of social skills training within a CICO system. This supplemented-CICO procedure, implemented with students in elementary school with social deficits, resulted in increases in behaviors related to self-control, assertiveness, and cooperation. Finally, Snyder and colleagues systematically review the quality and quantity of research supporting Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) and related procedures, discussing the implications of the review for the treatment of challenging behavior within systems of tiered supports and future research on the prevention, assessment, and treatment of challenging behavior in school settings.

The efficacy of the Check-in/Check-out (CICO) procedure has been examined in elementary and middle schools (Davies & McLaughlin, 1989; Campbell & Anderson, 2008; Davies & McLaughlin, 1989; Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino, & Lathrop, 2007) using a variety of research designs (Simonsen, Myers, & Briere, 2011). These studies support the efficacy of this approach when addressing the needs of students with attention maintained problem behavior (Campbell & Anderson, 2008; Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino, & Lathrop, 2007). Unfortunately, there is no research to date on the efficacy of CICO in secondary schools and very little focused on tier 2 intervention in general. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a modified version of the CICO procedure in a secondary school setting. Modifications to the procedure include a focus on emphasizing access to peer attention as an important reinforcer for the targeted students and an opportunity to fade out potentially aversive elements of the intervention including regularly checking in with adults at the school and receiving teacher feedback. These components are systematically faded and elements of self-management are implemented (Shapiro, DuPaul, & Bradley-Klug 1998; Young, Smith, West, & Morgan, 1978).

Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) and Check, Connect and Expect (CCE) are secondary interventions designed to address challenging behavior within a framework of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS). As secondary interventions, CICO and CCE are intended to reduce challenging behavior in a manner that requires low teacher effort and is rapidly accessible for students who need extra support (Mitchell, Stormont, & Gage, 2011). CICO and CCE share similar features, such as providing students with prompts about behavioral expectations, frequent monitoring and feedback about performance via daily report cards, and reinforcement contingent upon meeting daily behavior goals. Although CICO and CCE are widely used, the literature supporting these interventions has yet to be summarized. In this paper, we systematically review both the quantity and quality of empirical evidence supporting CICO and CCE. Results of the 22 reviewed studies suggest that CICO and related interventions are particularly effective for students with challenging behavior maintained by attention, and that their effectiveness can be enhanced for students whose behavior is maintained by other consequences with the addition of functionally-matched reinforcers. The implications of the results, in terms of the implementation of CICO in school settings and future research on CICO, will be discussed.

This symposium brings together four experiments that apply behavior analytic skill acquisition procedures to teaching under-addressed skill areas to children with and without autism. In the first experiment, by Angela Persicke and colleagues, children with autism were taught to identify when others were lying to them for the purposes of excluding them or taking their possessions. The second presentation, by Megan St. Clair and colleagues, describes an experiment in which children with autism were taught to shift attention to socially relevant changes in environmentally stimuli. The third paper, by Mei Ling Joey Chen, consists of an experiment on a procedure for teaching abduction prevention skills to typically developing preschool-age children. The final paper, by Michele Bishop and colleagues, describes an experiment using stimulus fading procedures to teach tooth brushing to children with autism who show resistance and anxiety-related behaviors when presented with this task.

Research has shown that children with autism often have deficits in deception, both in the ability to lie to others and in the ability to detect when they are being lied to. Additionally, children with autism are often the target of bullying and it is conceivable that deficits in their ability to detect and respond appropriately to peers who lie to them makes them easy targets. The purpose of this study was to teach individuals with autism to identify when others were lying to them, specifically when peers lied to exclude them or to take their possessions. The results of this study indicated that a treatment package including rules, modeling, role-play, and immediate feedback across multiple exemplars was effective for teaching three children with autism to identify and respond appropriately to the deceptive behavior of others. Additionally, generalization was demonstrated to novel, untrained lies and with same-age peer confederates.

Research has shown that children with autism often fail to attend to relevant stimuli in social situations, likely resulting in unsuccessful or absent social interactions. The purpose of this study was to teach children with autism to attend to stimuli with socially relevant features. Specifically, this study evaluated a teaching package including rules, modeling, role play, and specific feedback across multiple exemplars to teach children with autism to attend to and respond to others' bids for social attention (e.g., "Whoa!" or "Ouch"). Three participants successfully learned to shift attention towards others and mand for information in response to a socially relevant stimulus. Furthermore, generalization was observed across novel exemplars and people.

Child abduction, although rare, is a serious safety issue for children in the United States. The consequences for the child and their family are so horrific that research on abduction prevention is vital. The current study examined the effectiveness of instructions and video scoring on teaching children abduction prevention skills. Also, a social validity questionnaire was included to identify any possible negative side effects. Participants were 6 children between the ages of 4-6 years old. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across subjects was used. Assessments were conducted within 48 hr of training and at 3-5 weeks follow up. Five out of six participants acquired the targeted skills. Three out of five children that completed follow up assessment maintained the skills. All parents returned the questionnaires and only one parent reported negative side effects. Behavioral mechanisms, implications, and future research are discussed.

Resistance and anxiety-related behaviors can occur during toothbrushing, and have also been observed to occur at the sight of materials associated with toothbrushing (e.g., toothbrush and toothpaste). Some behavioral interventions, such as escape extinction, which involves continuous presentation of the aversive stimulus, may be inappropriate for teaching compliance with toothbrushing because there is an increased risk of injury when attempting to place a toothbrush in the mouth of a child who is actively resisting it. Alternatively, stimulus fading interventions involve gradually increasing the size, proximity, and/or duration of a stimulus while reinforcing compliance; thereby reducing or eliminating the need for escape extinction. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a stimulus fading procedure for increasing compliance with toothbrushing in three children with autism. The toothbrushing task was divided into 30-34 smaller steps starting with showing the toothbrush to the child, placing the toothbrush in the child's mouth, moving the toothbrush around the mouth, and ending with the terminal goal brushing teeth for 60 s. Results indicate that the stimulus fading procedure was successful at increasing compliance with toothbrushing for all three children. In addition, pre and post generalization probes reveal increased compliance with caregivers following the intervention. A discussion about the practical implications of stimulus fading interventions and their application to other dental procedures will be provided.

In this presentation, the essential features of a Multi-Level System of student evaluation and progress monitoring at Morningside Academy will be described. The process by which target behaviors are selected that mirror the scope and sequence of the Morningside Instructional Model will be briefly introduced. The defining elements of each level of the measurement model will be illustrated to demonstrate how each tier yields data that have been used to empirically validate the Morningside Model. At the heart of the system is the Micro Level of assessment, or the daily measures of component and composite skill mastery that are included in Precision Teaching at Morningside. In 1995, a new measurement component was added to the Model the Meta Level of assessment, which has been used to help document the effectiveness of Precision Teaching at Morningside by offering a long-term measurement paradigm that is unique from the Micro Level, yet blends seamlessly into a user-friendly and highly sensitive progress monitoring system. Finally, the third tier of the Multi-Level Assessment System, the Macro Level, will be discussed in terms of a fundamental assertion - that the integration of both norm-referenced and individually referenced decision-making is vital to comprehensive behavioral assessment in education.

Over the last decade there has been a movement in education emphasizing progress monitoring and other data collection procedures using a Response to Intervention (RtI) approach. RtI procedures aid in decision making for special education eligibility, help to determine the intensity of interventions needed, and can also be used to judge the effectiveness of instruction. This presentation will focus on the evolution of the Morningside Multi-Level Assessment Model from 2007 to the present, including the conceptualization of the Morningside Assessment Model into an RtI framework. Audience members will be informed of new policies that have been implemented to ensure that the Model continues to guide instructional decision making in a manner that is conceptually sound, as well as cost effective and sustainable over time. Notable modifications and additions to the Model will be described, including new curriculum placement tests, the integration of a computer-based system for assessing reading comprehension skills, and updated progress monitoring administration schedules.

This professional development panel discusses the design, development, delivery, administration, and research strategies in online behavior analytic instruction. Online education is growing and, with several options available to a student pursuing education in behavior analysis, it is critical that those delivering this instruction consider a variety of factors to better ensure a quality experience and high performance standards. Panel members will speak to their individual efforts addressing these factors and propose future directions in online instruction and education.

The degree to which staff implement teaching procedures, behavioral interventions, or other job tasks as instructed is known as procedural fidelity. Research has shown that staff fidelity impacts organizational outcomes. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight research on the range of training and feedback considerations necessary to promote desired staff, client, and organizational outcomes. This symposium will span use-inspired basic research and applied research akin to a bench-to-bedside framework. The first presentation will share findings from a human operant task evaluating the effects of feedback accuracy on short- and long-term learner outcomes with a college student sample. In a more applied evaluation, the second presentation will describe a two-part study of the prevalence and effects of errors in forward chaining procedures to teach with children with autism self-care skills. The third presentation will summarize the results of an evaluation of the effects of training procedures on the fidelity with which volunteers implement a multi-component dog-walking procedure. Finally, the symposium will conclude with an analysis of the effects of types of feedback on workplace performance.

Feedback commonly plays a strong role in educational and organizational settings. Research has shown that in both settings, the implementation of prescribed procedures does not always occur as planned or intended. Previous studies have shown that the imperfect implementation of reinforcement and prompting procedures negatively impacts outcomes. Additionally, inaccurate instructions have been show to control participant behavior even when following instructions does not maximize reinforcement. Further research is needed, however, to determine whether these findings might extend to feedback procedures. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of varying levels of inaccurate feedback on task acquisition among 64 college undergraduates. An arbitrary match-to-sample task was presented under varying levels of feedback accuracy and acquisition of the task was recorded. The results demonstrated a weak linear relation between accuracy and rate of acquisition with the highest rates occurring under perfectly accurate feedback. A second condition was implemented in which only accurate feedback was provided to determine if prior exposure to inaccurate feedback would inhibit future learning. A consistent delay to acquisition was obtained for participants previously exposed to 25% and 50% accurate feedback. Implications for research and practice are highlighted.

When embarking on the endeavor to design a successful behavior analysis private practice it is advantageous to examine different segments of the health care industry. Medical practitioners, as an example, experienced a momentous shift in their operating practices due to the introduction of universally accepted standards of practice and the involvement of third party funding sources. These key variables required practitioners to either join the ranks of large health care organizations (i.e., hospitals and medical research centers) or design and operate efficient private practices. Practitioners could no longer just deliver high quality health care in their community and expect their practice to survive. Just as the introduction of these variables required clinicians to become knowledgeable of best business practices (e.g., finance, management, human resources), so too has the implementation evidence-based practice guidelines for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and health insurance reform made similar demands on professional behavior analysts. This symposium will show 3 recent applications of Human Performance Technology (HPT) and OBM tools used to identify and address critical business issues in human service agencies. After seeing Optimals approach to system management and seeing the results of its applications, audience members will leave with a rudimentary understanding of how HPT can help managers improve productivity, solve performance problems, and realize opportunities related to the performance of people.

Optimal encourages the employment of evidence-based approaches, which enlists tools from human performance technology (HPT). These tools drive the analysis and design of performance systems that can be maintained by employees within the organization. When designing performance systems, we strive to equip agencies with a strong infrastructure that will support highly proficient & sustainable services, prevent inefficient waste, and minimize costs. While working with a California-based organization, we identified an opportunity to reduce their rate of staff turnover. Through the improvement of key processes such as scheduling, billing, hiring & recruiting, and progress reporting, the setting of clear expectations, and the alignment of staff and organizations goals; we were able to significantly reduce the agencys turnover rate in a short period of time. As a result, we observed a substantial improvement to employee moral as well as an increase in profit margins.

An organization's survival rests entirely on its ability to adapt to change. Companies are constantly adapting to change, through the revision their processes to meet new state & federal regulations, the amendment of their policies to meet funding source requirements, or the training of their staff to implement improved protocol, to name a few. However, do to so successfully requires effective management of organizational structures, processes and performers. It is these internal structures that define your company's service delivery, and in turn your corporate identity. The creation of new services not only requires an existing infrastructure to support it, but will also requires the design and implementation of new internal support structures. In this presentation, we will show you an example of how we collaborated with a company to improve their strategic planning; project management, and product development processes to help them create a viable and needed service. We will show an actual example of how to take an idea from inception to fruition.

A hallmark of behavior-analytic research and practice is the use of direct observation in measuring the behavior of interest, which leads to high level of accurate data collection. The papers in this symposium, collectively, represent a move toward evaluating more efficient measurement systems while maintaining high levels of accuracy. Sellers and Bourret examined the accuracy and efficiency of discontinuous and continuous measurement systems for discrete trial training during early intervention programming. Lesser et al. assessed the accuracy and reliability of a nighttime camera with motion-detection technology for conducting videosomnography in an analog sleep setting. Machado et al. conducted a discovery-oriented comparison on the accuracy and efficiency of using different fast-forward speeds in scoring problem behavior during parent-child interactions. We are fortunate to have Dr. Dorothea Lerman, the editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, serve as the discussant for this set of papers, given her exceptional scholarship in the area of evaluating measurement systems.

The current set of studies sought to identify a fast-forward speed for scoring in-home problem behavior with sufficient accuracy and efficiency in comparison to scoring at normal speed. In Study 1, two groups of participants scored instances of programmed problem behavior from video records using several fast-forwarding speeds (3.5x, 4.0x, 4.5x, 5.0x) in ascending (n = 6) or descending (n = 6) order. Omission and commission errors and the total duration of scoring time were used to evaluate accuracy and efficiency, respectively. In Study 2, repeated measures were obtained for three groups of participants who scored instances of problem behavior from video records using either 3.5x (n = 5), 4.0x (n = 5) or 5.0x (n = 5) fast-forwarding speeds. Results from both studies suggested that scoring problem behavior 3.5x faster than normal speed consistently produced the fewest errors overall and produced similar efficiency scores across participants. These data suggest that fast forwarding could have marked implications for scoring measures of interest from large video records (e.g., 4 hr) if a speed is chosen at which observers maintain an acceptable level of accuracy and efficiency.

Parent diaries and actigraphy are commonly used to measure sleep disturbances with young children at night, although both have been shown to introduce some measurement error (Sadeh, 2011). Recent advances in infrared-nighttime cameras with motion-detection technology may provide a practical means for obtaining direct measures of in-bed movements with little to no error. We evaluated the accuracy and reliability of a cameras motion-detection capabilities across two studies. In Study 1, we systematically moved standard-shaped objects at different distances in an attempt to quantify the proportion of the video feed required for motion to be detected. Next, we evaluated the effects of systematically introducing artificial light and additional objects on the accuracy of the camera. Depending on the size of the object, movements that changed 2% to 7% of the video feed were detected. In Study 2, we assessed the generality of the finding across human motor-movements varying in size (e.g., from mouth movements to a whole-body turn). Based on the results from Study 1, we were able to predict the type of movements that would be detected; in addition, by decreasing the size of the video feed, we able to reliability detect movements as small as the turning of a single hand. The results of these preliminary evaluations suggest that the motion-detection technology is a viable measurement system for detecting in-bed movements. In addition, although the results are germane to the specific camera model we assessed, the procedures provide a methodology for evaluating other camera models.

Previous literature has examined data sampling in the context of free operant responding. However, relatively few studies compared the effects of data sampling to continuous recording in discrete trial teaching. Thus, continuous and discontinuous data collection methods were compared in the context of discrete trial programming. Archival data sets were analyzed using trial sampling techniques (first five trials, first three trials, and first trial only) and session sampling techniques (every other session, every third session, and every fifth session). Results showed trial sampling to systematically underestimate the number of sessions and days to mastery and overestimate the number of sessions and days to the first independent response. Session sampling systematically overestimated sessions and days to mastery and sessions and days to the first independent response. A time-savings analysis was included to empirically test how much time would be saved by using the sampling methods. Results suggested that data sampling would produce relatively minimal time savings.

The mand and the tact are two of the elementary verbal operants described in Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior. Skinner's analysis implies that these verbal operants should be functionally independent of one another. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of empirical studies on the independent acquisition of mands and tacts, mostly among individuals with developmental disabilities and young, typically developing children. Many procedural variations can be found in this literature, and the results have been quite variable across studies. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the procedures that have been used to promote the presence of appropriate motivating operations when mands are tested following tact training, and consider the extent to which variable results can be attributed to this procedural variable. We will also review the types of evidence that researchers can present to support the presence of a motivating operation during mand testing.

Complexity science is rapidly becoming the "spoiled child" of the scientific community, promising to dissolve interdisciplinary barriers and open a new chapter in our understanding of the natural world (Mitchell, 2009). Complex systems are dynamic, adaptive systems, composed from a large number of interconnected parts, and governed by simple, low-level rules that can give rise to novel, emergent features or behaviors. High-level, emergent properties are not readily reducible to the rules that produce them. They appear to be stand-alone entities and behavioral and psychological sciences have traditionally studied them as such (e.g. impact of divorce on children's risk of depression). However, if they are emergent features of a dynamic system, the relations between them cannot, in principle, be causal (divorce "influences" depression). Their co-occurrence is incidental, both being produced by underlying simple rules reiterated over long periods of time. In order to fully understand an emergent property, one must identify the rules that govern the system and the specific conditions under which the property emerges (McDowell & Popa, 2009). This implies a complete shift in focus, from high-level properties to low-level rules and characteristics, opening a fascinating doorway for scholars interested in the behavior of organisms.

Teaching structures (Linear, Sample as Node - SaN and Comparison as Node - CaN) have an important role on teaching strategies and depends upon the concepts of nodal distance and isomorphism, under the Graph Theory approach to Stimulus Equivalence. This paper presents and discuss those concepts and how they affect the efficiency of the training part of experiments based on Stimulus Equivalence and Matching-to-Sample procedures. A review on how the Graphs builds the equivalence classes (the stepwise process of growing the classes members after each MTS procedure session) is shown too . According to the theory, if all three tests (reflexibility, symmetry and transitivity) applies, then there is the emergence of equivalent stimuli classes. When Graph Theory is applied, the equivalent class is built as a Graph, nodal distance and isomorphism may apply and the Matching procedure can be treated as an addition Graph Operator. It is also shown that the isomorphism can explain why SaN and CaN have similar efficiency on training part of experiments and why the nodal distance is the main reason for Linear teaching structures is the worst case on efficiency.

Research on novel and varied verbal behavior responses has spanned across multiple contexts (including the original training conditions and generalization settings, as well as physical locations) and populations (including typically developing children, and children/adults with autism and intellectual disabilities). The talks in this symposium span across these domains. Talks will include establishing mands across EOs and in generalization settings, the emergence of novel intraverbal responses via tact instruciton and auditory imagining, development of hierarchical responding as a result of conditional discrimination instruction and multiple exemplar instruction, and utilizing script training and fading procedures to increase the variability of mands.

Individuals with autism often display rote and repetitive responding across behavioral topographies. One area that is often affected is the individual's verbal repertoire. In an attempt to remediate this deficit, script training and fading procedures have often been implemented to teach individuals new and varied verbal behavior. One area of verbal behavior that has not been extensively examined in the context of increasing variability is an individual's mand repertoire. A lack of variability in mands can limit an individual's access to desired and/or needed items as well as social interactions. Antecedent only procedures, including script training and fading, can teach skills needed to engage in new and varied behavior without the risk contacting the aversive consequences and potential negative outcomes of consequence based procedures (e.g. extinction of current response form). The purpose of this study was to implement simultaneous script training and fading procedures to increase the variability of mands used by young children diagnosed with autism. Three preschool aged children, one male and two females, participated in this study. Low levels of mand variability were initially observed which prompted the inclusion if an extinction condition. The combination of the antecedent only procedures and extinction further increased variability across participants.

The current investigation extends the mand-for-information literature by comparing the effects of teaching the What is it? mand for information in the presence and absence of the establishing operation (EO), and assessing generalization of the mand from visual to auditory stimuli. One child with autism was taught to emit the mand using pictures of unknown items. After responding reached the mastery criterion, probes were conducted to test for emission of the mand when presented with new pictures of unknown items and acquisition of the tacts of the originally targeted pictures. Tacts were reinforced in the EO-present condition and not reinforced in the EO-absent condition. Probes to test for generalization from visual to auditory stimuli were conducted using behavior chains. The EO-absent condition was presented before the EO-present condition. Acquisition and generalization of the What is it? mand for information and acquisition of tacts was observed in both the EO-absent and EO-present conditions. Generalization of the mand for information from visual to auditory stimuli was also observed with this participant. Data collection with a second participant is currently in progress.

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) measures the putative strength of verbal relations among stimuli in an individual's verbal behavioral repertoire. These verbal relations, as measured by the IRAP, have commonly been termed "implicit," as opposed to other methods of assessing verbal relations, such as surveys and questionnaires, which have been labeled as "explicit" measures. The IRAP is not the only assessment tool which claims to measure implicit attitudes (i.e., verbal behavior), but it is the only tool based on and analyzed with a behavior analytic perspective. To date, IRAP research has focused primarily on validating IRAP results against those of other implicit attitude measures (e.g., IAT), and has done so using group-based designs, as has been the precedent in implicit attitude research. However, consistent with behavior analytic thinking, emerging IRAP research has begun to draw on within-subject research designs and explore the potential utility of application of the tool in a variety of settings, including but not limited to clinical and organizational settings. The papers presented in this symposium discuss empirical work aimed at addressing these advances, and implications for further research and pragmatic application involving the IRAP.

The IRAP has been used as a means of measuring implicit attitudes, or assessing implicit verbal relations, for several years. Much of the early work with IRAP consisted of validating the results obtained using the IRAP with those of another well-documented tool used for measuring implicit attitudes (i.e., IAT; see Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, and colleagues). Findings in this vein have been promising, leading researchers to begin asking the next logical set of empirical questions; primarily, to what extent are the measures captured by the IRAP indicative or predictive of more overt, probable patterns of behavior in naturalistic settings, such as the home, the workplace, or the community at large. Recent work has begun to address this question and more research is needed. The present study investigated this question, as it relates to patterns of behavior in organizational settings, by asking participants to complete an IRAP assessment comprising target stimuli related to the workplace and workplace behavior, and then exposing participants to an analog data entry work task, with dependent measures related to those concepts assessed in the IRAP. IRAP results are correlated with more overt, persistent behavior patterns in the analog work task to evaluate the extent to which IRAP results are predictive of such behavior, in this particular setting.

Both behavior analysts and ethologists are aware that observable changes in facial expressions and body postures provide invaluable information about behavior. This presentation will include slides and videos illustrating subtle changes in expression in humans and canids that are not only similar, but are often predictive of future behavior. This perspective is not new: Charles Darwin wrote an entire book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, about the predictive value and comparative similarity of emotional expression in man and selected mammals. However, recent advances in visual analysis and neurobiology have greatly advanced our understanding of the link between expression, emotion, and future behavior. This information can be used by analysts working with either species, who are interested in improving their ability to notice, evaluate, and act on subtle but observable changes in facial expressions or body postures.

Behavior analysts interested in improving their skill in interpreting facial expressions and body postures as predictors of future behavior and suggestions about internal emotional states.

Quantum behavioral change refers to sudden, distinctive, and benevolent experiences resulting in enduring changes in a broad range of emotions, cognitions and behaviors. Although the phenomenon of quantum change has been well described for more than 100 years, it has rarely been addressed within modern psychology and there are few meaningful prospective experimental studies because such experiences usually occur at low rates and often unpredictably. Recent rigorous double-blind studies at Johns Hopkins have shown that under carefully controlled conditions psilocybin, the active component of hallucinogenic mushrooms, can occasion profound personally and spiritually meaningful experiences (i.e., mystical-type or insightful-type experiences) in the majority of healthy participants. The experiences mediate sustained positive changes in behavior, attitudes, and personality. As assessed with questionnaires, most volunteers had a "complete" mystical-type experience after a high dose of psilocybin, although more than a third of volunteers also had experiences characterized by some fear, anxiety, or unpleasant psychological struggle. The finding that psilocybin can occasion, in most people studied, quantum change experiences indicates that such experiences and the behavioral changes they produce are now amenable to rigorous prospective scientific study. An exciting direction for future research is the exploration of possible therapeutic benefits of such experiences in treatment of various psychological and behavioral conditions (e.g., anxiety and depression among patients with life-threatening medical conditions such as cancer; treatment of behaviorally based public health problems such as drug dependence disorders).

In this presentation, the author will describe two projects that have successfully transferred functional analysis procedures to community settings. The first example is a 4-year project in which the Iowa Department of Education teamed with the University of Iowa Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) to train educational teams to conduct and interpret functional analyses in local schools. The second example summarizes National Institutes of Health- and Maternal and Child Health-funded projects that have shown how functional analyses can be conducted by parents in local outpatient clinics and in their homes. Behavior analysts at the CDD teleconsultation center remotely guided the parents as they conducted the functional analyses. For both projects, functional analyses were conducted within multielement designs, and IOA was conducted for approximately 25% of all sessions and averaged more than 80%. Following the summary of the projects, the author will discuss the results in terms of why it is critical for applied behavior analysts to continue to share their procedures with local staff and parents and how this practice of sharing sets us apart from most other professional groups.

Classroom management consists of instructional classroom procedures and routines implemented by teachers for the purposes of increasing students' positive behaviors and minimizing problematic behavior. Social ShapeUp (SSU: Singletary, 2009) was initially developed in 1997 as an intervention for students engaging in high frequency and challenging behaviors. The components of SSU are based upon the research that demonstrates the efficacy of behavioral principles and child behavior change. SSU recently evolved into a complete system that includes a web application to facilitate data collection, progress monitoring and reporting. The preliminary data showed student achievement gains were higher compared to the previous year without SSU implementation.

Anxiety and depression are characterized by paying more attention to negative rather than positive experiences/information. This behavioral allocation should be related to the relationship between threat stimuli and approach-avoidance responses. Here, we used a laboratory approach-avoidance model developed to examine the relationship between threat stimuli and shifts between positively reinforced behavior and avoidance. Sixteen healthy adults were engaged in a task in which button pressing was reinforced with money on a fixed-ratio schedule (approach). Pressing a concurrently available observing button also produced a threat meter displaying the current threat of losing money (0=none to 100=certain) and a reduce button that when pressed lowered the threat level (avoidance). Instructions clarified the function of buttons, meaning of threat levels and stated threat would always increase. In three randomly presented conditions, the threat information was either present, inaccurate or absent (baseline). Relative to baseline, threat information enhanced performances and produced an increase in approach responding and earnings and an increased probability of avoiding at lower threat levels. In contrast, inaccurate threat information degraded performances and produced a decrease in approach and avoidance responding, earnings and an increased probability of avoiding at a higher threat level.

Most verbal and social behavior is maintained by the social consequences like smiles, nods, comments, and praise. Children with autism have impairments in reciprocal social interaction and, often, such typically reinforcing social stimuli do not work as reinforcers. If such stimuli can be established as conditioned reinforcers for the behavior of these children, important social behavior is more likely to be established and maintained in a natural environment. Holth et al., (2009) showed that through an operant discrimination procedure, a previously ineffective stimulus became a conditioned reinforcing stimulus. In contrast, in a pairing procedure, a previously ineffective stimulus was presented just prior to the presentation of the reinforcer, and did not acquire any reinforcing effects. The current study is a systematic replication of Holth et al., (2009) with four rats. This experiment established cue lights above the levers in a standard operant chamber (previously ineffective stimuli) as conditioned reinforcers, respectively by pairing and by operant discrimination. Tests discovered whether the paired cue light or the SD light had acquired a reinforcing effect, and was conducted under a VR schedule. The results support Holth et al. (2009) that SD-procedure establishes conditioned reinforcers more effectively than does the pairing procedure.

The "near-miss" effect, a phenomenon in which gamblers respond to plays that almost won as being closer to a win than a total-loss, has been the subject of much research. However, the majority of studies examining this phenomenon have been conducted utilizing slot-machine games. The current studies were conducted to demonstrate the presence of near-miss effects in Scratch-off card game play. Across both studies, college students with no history of pathological gambling were asked to play scratch-off tickets. In exp. 1, participants were provided a series of game cards and simply asked to rate how close they felt they were to winning after each play. In the second study, participants were repeatedly given the choice between two separate decks of cards which varied in the probability of near-miss outcomes (0% vs. 30%). After each scratch-off ticket, participants were asked to rate how close they felt they were to a win using a Likert-scale. Results indicate that participants were more likely to rate a "near-miss" outcome as being closer to a win and distinct from a total loss. Furthermore, participants showed a preference for cards with high-rates of near-misses over identical cards without near-miss outcomes.

The effects of delays to reinforcement on responding tend to vary as a function of certain variables, such as delay length and delay type. There is preliminary evidence that another variable, delay signal duration, also modulates the effects of reinforcement delays. The present between-subjects experiment explored left lever press acquisition with 30-s signaled delayed reinforcement in four groups of nave rats exposed to differing types of reinforcement delays and delay signal durations: (1) fully signaled non-resetting delays, (2) briefly signaled non-resetting delays, (3) fully signaled resetting delays, and (4) briefly signaled resetting delays. Rats exposed to fully signaled reinforcement delays acquired the left lever response more quickly than the rats in the briefly signaled delay groups, regardless of whether the delays were resetting or non-resetting. Consistent with previous studies, resetting delays retarded acquisition relative to delays that did not reset. These findings contribute to the literature on response acquisition with signaled delayed reinforcement by directly comparing the effects of fully and briefly signaled delays. Furthermore, they provide a framework for integrating the experimental results from previous delay-of-reinforcement studies that differ in terms of delay signal duration or delay type.

Stimulus compounding, in which two or more stimuli are presented simultaneously, allows for the exploration of the important properties of stimulus control and discrimination. The purpose of this study was to produce the stimulus compounding effect of additive summation (Weiss, 1972) using stimuli that, during training, change daily rather than within the session in order to allow the future study of interoceptive stimuli (such as drug states) as components of the compound. Six rats were trained to respond on a variable-interval 60 seconds schedule in the presence of either a light or a tone in separate sessions. Sessions of extinction, in which no light or tone were present, occurred between each session featuring either tone or light. When presented together, the light and tone compound did not produce the additive summation that is typical in stimulus compounding studies. Moreover, examination of responding during the beginning of the sessions revealed little or no differences in responding during the light, tone, extinction, or compounded sessions. Rather than being controlled by the presence or absence of light or tone, the data indicate that responding was under the control of the amount of time elapsed without reinforcement during the beginning of the sessions.

The sunk cost effect is the tendency to persist in the higher-cost alternative because of its past investment, even when the lower-cost one is available. The present study examined the influence of subjects experiences in the sunk cost effect. After establishing certain preference for the higher-cost key to the lower-cost one, we exposed four pigeons to three conditions,?(baseline), ?, and ?, and compared choice percentage to the higher-cost key in three probes, A, B and C. In Probe A, red (higher-cost) and yellow (lower-cost) keys were concurrently presented. In Probe B, pigeons were exposed to Probe A just after the red-key component. In Probe C, they were exposed to Probe A just after the green-key (unrelated to any colors of choice) component. We found almost no preference for the red-key in Probe B under condition ? where we extinguished responses to the single yellow-key component. On the contrary, we found strong preference in Probe B under condition ? where responses to the single red-key produced the large reinforcer. The results suggest that non-human subjects show the sunk cost effect when they have the experiences that responses to the higher-cost alternative produced the large reinforcer.

Recent studies have shown that preference controlled by various parameters of reinforcement can be acquired rapidly (e.g., within a session). Most of this work has been with pigeons. In the present study, acquisition of preference controlled by reinforcement amount was investigated in rats. Fifteen rats were exposed to a choice procedure in which each session consisted of 3 blocks of 12 trials each. The first two trials of each block were forced trials, and the remaining trials of each block were choice trials. Presses on one lever resulted in a larger reinforcer and presses on another lever resulted in a smaller reinforcer. The levers associated with the larger and smaller reinforcers alternated every 5 sessions. Acquisition of preference was observed both within and across sessions. On the first session following a lever switch, choice adjusted across trials such that most rats chose the larger reinforcer on over 75% of the trials in the third trial block; choice adjusted across sessions such that most rats chose the larger reinforcer on 80-90% of the trials by the third session. This type of procedure could prove useful in studying effects of a variety of variables (e.g., drugs) on sensitivity to reinforcement in rats.

In a discrimination-training session children were trained to reproduce or not a TV video presented on a computer-screen illuminated in green or gray, respectively. In a second session with the screen illuminated in gray the video was presented during the last 32 s of a 64-s time cycle. A second video could be presented during 8 s once the cycle elapsed, according to the following contingency. Trying to watch the first video interrupted it and cancelled the second video presentation. Otherwise, the screen illumination changed from gray to green and watching the second video could occur. There were 25 time cycles in the session and a distracting bottom could be added during each time cycle. Therefore, the combination of 40, 20 or 0 discrimination-training trials with the presence or absence of the distracting bottom defined a 2 x 3 factorial design with 9, 6, or 9 and 15, 15 or 14 children assigned to each cell, respectively. The number of first-video presentations interrupted was considered an index of impulsive behavior and it was found that discrimination training facilitated the acquisition of this behavior only when a distracting activity was absent. The implications of this procedure for self-control theory are discussed.

This study examined the effects of performance feedback as a staff training intervention to improve the teaching behaviors of paraprofessionals in a secondary classroom for students with multiple disabilities. Four empirically validated classroom management behaviors used to increase on-task behaviors of students were targeted using a multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design. Momentary time sampling was used to measure the on-task behavior of students as a collateral intervention outcome. The intervention included two sequential phases: Phase 1 consisted of visual feedback alone in the form of staff behavior definitions and graphical displays of staff performance, and Phase 2 was an abbreviated performance feedback condition with the same visual feedback as in Phase 1 and a specific verbal feedback component that included verbal clarification of expected staff behaviors and verbal direction (i.e., praise and corrective statements) individual to each staffs performance. Results indicate that the abbreviated performance feedback condition was an effective training method for improving the teaching behaviors of one of the two paraprofessional participants. Visual feedback alone was less effective with varying results across behaviors and participants. As hypothesized, the on-task behavior of students improved when staff performance improved. The benefits of using performance feedback as a staff training method for paraprofessionals within the classroom setting are discussed as well as collateral effects on the on-task behaviors of students.

The authors investigated the effects of an operant conditioning procedure on the acquisition of observing responses to books. The design used was a delayed multiple pre and post-intervention probe across participants. Three children with developmental delays aged from 2.5 to 2.10 years-old participated in the study. Pre and post-intervention probes were conducted in a free play area to evaluate if the participants emitted observing responses to books. The operant conditioning procedure consisted of 20 training and test trials. Reinforcement was delivered at the end of the training trial if the participant emitted observing responses to books after a whole interval (e.g., 5 seconds, 10 seconds). A training trial was followed by a test trial. Correct or incorrect responses were recorded during the test trial. The results indicated that the operant conditioning procedure increased looking at books or emitting observing responses to books for one of the participants, who met the final criterion (90% accuracy of looking at books) in post-intervention probes. The intervention is ongoing for the other two participants. The authors discussed the data in terms of competing responses, such as stereotypy emitted by the participants that did not meet the criterion during post-intervention probes.

A modified system of least intrusive prompting was used to teach elementary school students with moderate intellectual disability to comprehend social studies text. Text passages were read aloud to students from a grade appropriate social studies textbook. A graphic organizer was used to provide students with WH question words, the text section heading, and a self-monitoring sheet. Using a modified system of least prompts, two classroom teachers taught three participants to generate questions prior to hearing the text read aloud. After reading the brief portions of the text aloud to the participants, the teachers taught participants to identify if the answer to the question was in the book or not in the book. Finally, participants were taught to answer the literal questions that could be answered from the book. All participants improved the number of questions generated and answered from baseline to intervention. Additionally, probes collected in a general education setting indicated students improved their question generation and comprehension skills during lessons taught in a fifth grade classroom using the Universal Design for Learning.

Cross-cultural friendships and peer interactions are important skills for Latino students to become socially adjusted in U.S. schools. Culturally responsive social skill instruction allows educators to teach essential social skills while attending to the native culture of the students. This presentation is based on a study which examined the effects of culturally responsive social skill instruction through a peer-mediated format on the social interactions of 8 Mexican-heritage elementary Latino male participants with non-Latino students during recess. Four participants were trained to serve as tutors to deliver 12 computer-assisted social skill lessons with embedded video models on friendship building to their peers. Using a single case, multiple probe across student dyads design, the results of this study indicated that all four dyads increased the number of verbal social interactions with non-Latino peers. Implications for practice and future research can be discussed in relation to culturally responsive social skill instruction for Latino students. Additionally, how to develop and implement peer-mediated social skill instruction on friendship making for Latino students, and how social skill instruction can be employed within the classroom without increasing instructional demands of classroom teachers can be a focus of discussion during the presentation.

The current study examined the effectiveness of a behavior skills training based system for training staff to create single subject design data summaries and graphs in Microsoft Excel 2007 . Participants consisted of staff members of an agency providing intensive behavioral intervention and transition services to children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Participants were provided with hypothetical data sets for both single independent variable AB design and two dependent variable ABAB design interventions, and required to create data summaries and graphs both pre and post training. Training was provided for the creation of data summaries for single dependent variable AB design scenarios only and consisted of a 3-4 hour session which included didactic instruction, modeling of the creation of data summaries and graphs, rehearsal, and individualized in situ performance feedback. 127 participants completed baseline assessments and a total of 83 participants completed training and post-training assessments. Performance increased pre to post training from a mean of 51.0% (SD = 24.4%) to a mean of 94.9% (SD = 6.2%) for single dependent AB design scenarios, and from a mean of 48.6 % (SD = 20.7%) to a mean of 82.8% (SD = 16.8%) for two dependent variable ABAB design scenarios.

A self-instructional manual for conducting multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment was evaluated with undergraduate university students. Experiment 1 compared the effectiveness of the Manual with a description of the MSWO assessment procedure extracted from the Method sections of published research articles using an unbalanced, crossover design. Within each group, the intervention was implemented in a multiple-baseline across participants. The comparison was replicated in Experiment 2 with the addition of generalization assessments following training. The results from both experiments showed that the Manual was more effective than the Method description and generalization was observed for all participants in Experiment 2.

Since the advent of social networks like Facebook, the number of followers of this network is growing at a dizzying pace, it is estimated that in October 2012 the number of members reached one billion. An important part of these people are between 13 and 30 years old. These young people are called net generation named so for his remarkable skills in the management of information technology, communication and social interaction. Currently teaching psychology employs different technologies with their devices for achieving academic goals, service, research and social, among many others. The study reported here describes all the activities carried out on a course of cognitive behavior modification in clinical undergraduate level conducted in a learning platform (LMS) and supported with academic activities carried out within the Facebook social network. In conclusion we suggest using social media not only as spaces for social interaction and communication but also as a way of teaching various scientific and professional competencies.

Applied behavior analysis has grown dramatically over the past ten years. This coincides with a dramatic expansion in the number of board certified behavior analysts (BCBA; there are now over 10,000 BCBAs) and graduate programs that educate them. Possibly due to its coverage of the BCBA exams task list, Cooper, Heron, and Hewards (2007) Applied Behavior Analysis text has become a leading text for courses in applied behavior analysis. With many budding behavior analysts contacting this text, its content may greatly influence the field. The current project analyzed the reference section (n> 1400) of Cooper et al.s book. Specifically, data on the (a) authors, (b) titles, (c) publication type and source, and (d) year of publication were collected. Interobserver agreement data were collected for 33% of the references. Analysis of these data show that most of the literature cited came from peer reviewed journals, with the highest number of citations coming from the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), that recent literature is heavily cited (see attached figure), and that a wide array of authors have contributed to the literature. The potential influence of the literature cited by Cooper et al. is discussed.

The assessment of the effects of reinforcement and punishment on children with callous and unemotional traits (CU) has been deemed essential in identifying appropriate intervention strategies. The Child Psychopathy Scale (CPS) has been utilized to operationalize the construct of psychopathy in preadolescents. The scale has a total score of 55, with higher scores indicated as directly proportional to severity of psychopathic traits, including behaviors such as demonstrated aggression. The present study sought to analyze CPS scores as inclusion criteria for an assessment of punishment in children with CU traits. A cut-off score for stratification was set at 30 and above as this was considered to constitute a severity of behavior that could be categorized as callous and unemotional. Data was collected on 80 children displaying a range of conduct disorders, 70% male, ranging from 5 to 12 years old. Results showed an expected normal distribution of scores, with a mean of 25.7. The cut-off score yielded 20 children meeting criteria for inclusion in the punishment assessment, which was considered clinically appropriate given the reduced prevalence of psychopathy in similar populations. These data suggest that the CPS may be an appropriate discriminative measure for inclusion in the proposed punishment assessment.

A 10 week behavioral parent training (BPT) course was conducted in which the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) was administered at weeks one, three, five, and 10. Data include consecutive referrals, though participants who dropped out of training prior to completion, had fewer than three weeks of PSI data, and/or had total PSI scores that were below the 75th percentile were not included in the analysis. For the qualifying participants (N = 17) group statistical analyses were compared to individual visual analysis. PSI total scores for each qualifying participant were plotted on individual graphs with the clinical cutoff (90) and sample mean (69) lines identified. Results from the group statistical analysis suggest a large statistically significant decrease from initial to final PSI scores, F(1,16) = 17.79, p = .001, ?2 = .527. However, when the PSI scores were plotted individually for each of these qualifying participants, individual analysis suggests only 10 of the 17 (59%) showed a meaningful clinical change from initial to final measures of stress (defined as a decrease of 18 points pre to post, which is equivalent to a mean .5 decrease per item). The importance of performing individual analyses of data even in the face of large group differences is highlighted and discussed as the large group differences do not adequately capture the reality that over 40% of the participants did not make meaningful improvement. Trajectory and rate of change in PSI scores over a 10 week-BPT session are also discussed.

Evidence from nonhuman and human neuroimaging studies suggests avoidance of threat is supported by a frontal-limbic-striatal brain network. However, little is known about how regions in the network respond over time to a prolonged threat. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize the temporal dynamics of the network while subjects (N=17) responded on a multiple FR avoidance-extinction schedule (16 s of threat-avoidance alternated with 16 s of extinction). Subjects consistently avoided money loss and did not respond during EXT. Transitioning from EXT to avoidance (initial threat-avoidance) prompted phasic responses in regions that support behavioral regulation and contingency sensitivity (frontal-striatal circuitry) and threat recognition (amygdala, insula). Subsequently, regional activation declined to baseline levels even though a threat remained and avoidance continued. Our approach involving tracking regional changes in activation reveal two important behavioral characteristics of human avoidance neurocircuitry. First, when transitioning to a threatening context a past history of successful avoidance does not suppress threat responses. Second, continued or sustained threat and avoidance responding is not associated with sustained activation in the network.

Diabetes Mellitus Type I (DM1) is an autoimmune disease that is the second most common chronic illness in children (Anderson, et. al., 2009). Previous research targeting adherence within the population suggested that SMS text messaging and internet monitoring can result in significant reductions in HbA1c from enrollment to posttest. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of positive feedback and monetary incentives on improving glycemic control in the pediatric population, specifically teenagers. Children between the ages of 13 and 18 were recruited from a Midwestern children's hospital diabetes clinic and randomized to one of three conditions including text messaging only, text messaging with monetary incentive, and waitlist control. This study utilized text messaging, a contemporary technological advance that most teenagers use daily. Participants were instructed to send text messages containing results of all blood glucose checks obtained that day to an automated response system for a period of three months. The first intervention group received instant SMS text message feedback contingent upon submitting blood glucose reports. The feedback provided included a confirmation that the glucose reports were received and a brief positive message such as a joke or link to a website. The second intervention group received the same intervention, but also earned weekly vouchers contingent upon submitting daily blood glucose reports for five out of seven days during the week. These two treatment groups were compared to a control group receiving standard diabetes care. The primary dependent variables in the study were the frequency of blood glucose checks obtained via the child's blood glucose monitor and level of glycemic control via the HbA1c obtained at a three month follow-up appointment. Preliminary results suggest that participants are more likely to report their blood sugars if they were members of the incentive group. Statistical analyses will also be conducted at the completion of the study to examine if the intervention yielded statistically significant changes in HbA1c between groups.

Previous research has shown that pediatric food refusal is often reinforced by escape (removal of the bite of food). Thus, many interventions to treat food refusal include escape extinction procedures, such as nonremoval of the spoon. Escape extinction procedures have been demonstrated to be effective in increasing food acceptance and decreasing food refusal; however, one common side effect of extinction procedures is an extinction burst. An extinction burst has been defined as an increase in responding during any of the first three -treatment sessions above previously recorded baseline responses. We evaluated the use of escape extinction procedures with two children, admitted to a pediatric feeding disorders program, for whom escape was identified as a reinforcer for food refusal. In addition, we examined levels of food refusal for overall session and minute-by-minute within session patterns to determine if an extinction burst was observed.

Finding effective interventions for individuals who are dual-diagnosed with developmental disabilities and Borderline Personality Disorder can be very difficult. In a group home setting, we have utilized a response cost level system package for several of our individuals. This package provides a clear level (red or green) which specifies whether the individual has engaged in certain targeted inappropriate behaviors (i.e., aggression, property destruction, self injury, etc.). When an individual is on red level, they have limited attention from staff, are not allowed out in the community, they have their electronic equipment taken away, and their supervision is increased to visual sight at all times. When on green level, they would receive one-on-one attention from staff every 10 minutes, they can be alone in their rooms for fifteen minutes at a time, are allowed out in the community, and have access to all electronic equipment. Contingent on the occurrence of inappropriate behavior, the individual will be on red level for 48 hours. Red level is extended an extra 24 hours if the target inappropriate behavior occurs within the initial 48 hours. We have found this methodology to be extremely helpful and successful with several individuals in our group homes.

For years, behavior analysts have focused much of their research with intellectually disabled individuals on the reduction of behaviors that are problematic in the work area, home, or classroom. Many of these behaviors are escape-maintained, or occur when demands are presented. Various treatments for escape-maintained behaviors have been proposed and utilized in research and clinical practice, such as escape extinction and choice. Romaniuk and colleagues (2002) found that offering individuals a choice between two tasks resulted in a decrease in problem behaviors maintained by escape. However, very few studies have examined the effects of offering choice to individuals with problem behaviors maintained by escape from demands or tasks (Romaniuk et al., 2002; Vaughn & Horner, 1997), and although offering choice to individuals with escape-maintained problem behaviors has seemed to prove effective in problem behavior reduction, it is important to examine what function choice serves. Williams (1977) examined the use of an attending response in promoting cooperative work between dyads of individuals with intellectual disabilities. He found that arranging for such a response had an effect of reducing escape-behaviors and increasing participation of learners. To date, there has not been any research specifically examining the use of this attending response, or time-in response, as a possible treatment for escape-maintained behaviors. The current research aims to assess whether a time-in procedure is useful in reducing problem behaviors maintained by escape as well as to re-visit the issue of time-in responses and the general conceptual area of attending and attention. Three intellectually disabled children between the ages of 7 and 11participated in the study. Results show that escape behavior occurred solely in the no time-in condition for one of three participants. Future research should further examine the use of a time-in response in the classroom setting.

Sequential analysis methods are used to evaluate whether the occurrence of one event or behavior is associated with the subsequent occurrence of another event or behavior. Types of sequential analysis differ in terms of how the two-event sequence is defined, which impacts the organization of coded units in 2 x 2 contingency tables. We applied three types of sequential analysis to the evaluation of associations between (a) interactions by peers without disabilities and (b) interactions by students with significant disabilities in inclusive high school classrooms. These data were collected as part of a randomized control trial evaluating the effects of two peer-mediated interventions on social and academic participation of students with autism and/or intellectual disability. To evaluate which method of sequential analysis may be most appropriate given these observational measures and research design, we assessed the results of each method in terms of sensitivity to change from pre- to post-assessment for two treatment groups and one control group. Results indicate the type of sequential analysis method impacts both the interpretability and sensitivity of sequential associations.

Individuals diagnosed with genetic syndromes are often at increased risk for showing particular forms of self-injurious behavior. In this study, we examined the frequency, severity, and circumstances surrounding the occurrence of skin picking behavior in individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). Data were collected on 52 individuals with PWS who displayed skin picking using the Self-Injury Trauma (SIT) Scale (Iwata, Pace, Kissel, Nau, & Farber, 1990) and the Functional Analysis Screening Tool (FAST; Iwata & DeLeon, 1996). Experimental functional analyses were then conducted with 10 participants who showed high rates of skin picking. Results from the SIT scale indicated that skin picking in PWS occurred primarily on the extremities (i.e., arms, legs, hands, and feet) at moderate to high severity. Data from the FAST suggested that for most participants, skin picking was maintained by attention and sensory consequences and 70% of participants reported that skin picking occurred at least daily. Results from the experimental functional analyses showed that high rates of skin picking occurred predominantly in the alone and ignore conditions, suggesting that skin picking was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Additionally, increased physiological activity occurred during episodes of skin picking in these participants. The implications for intervention will be discussed.

Response interruption is an effective, but challenging-to-implement treatment for problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. There is evidence that even minimally compromised treatment integrity (e.g., interrmittent or delayed response interruption) can result in the re-emergence of problem behavior. In the current case, we evaluated the effects of intermittent response interruption with a 9-year-old male with autism referred for the treatment of trichotillomania and bruxism. The therapist implemented response interruption at 100% integrity in a multiple-baseline design across behaviors. She then sequentially compromised the integrity by interrupting only every fifth response (20% integrity) across both baselines. Target behaviors maintained at low levels with implementation at 20% integrity.

Empirical research supports Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) based on the principles and practices of applied behavior analysis (ABA) as the most effective intervention for children with ASD. Studies of the effects of EIBI have reported increases in areas of language, cognition, academics and adaptive behavior after 2-3 years of children receiving intensive treatment defined in most cases as children receiving 30-40 hours per week of ABA services. Additionally, the majority of EIBI studies examined treatment outcomes on those children who were of preschool age (3-5 years old). Few studies have looked at treatment gains for children under the age of three when EIBI treatment is less intensive. This study examined the effects of EIBI treatment in the areas of communication and adaptive behavior in children under the age of three. Changes in scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (AVBS) were evaluated at baseline and at an initial six months of treatment. The data demonstrate gains exceeded those expected in typical development in the areas of communication (both receptive and expressive) as well as adaptive behavior were achieved.

The sentence imitation has been used for the assessment of communication skills in children with specific language impairment. However, there are few studies which have applied sentence-imitation for establishing higher-ordered linguistic function for children with autism spectrum disorders. In this study, we examined whether the sentence imitation-training was effective for facilitating functional verbal behavior with correct grammatical structure. Two children with ASD (HARU, DAI) participated in this study. Experimental design was pre- and post training design. In pre- and post training, the child was required to tact for the presented picture cards which includes several persons and various behaviors. In the training, the child was required to imitate the sentences corresponding to the presented picture spoken by the experimenter. The length of the training sentences was longer than the childs MLU (mean length of utterance) level in naturalistic situation. Dependent measure was the length of sentences which the child correctly emitted tact for the presented picture cards. The result showed that the length of the sentences in tact increased in both children. This suggests that the sentence-imitation training was effective not only for the emergence of tact, but also for promoting the MLU level in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This study utilizes differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI) and video self-monitoring interventions to increase the duration of conversation, appropriate conversational behaviors such as sufficient response to others questions, spontaneous questioning, attending and chair posture. Inappropriate behaviors during conversation (i.e., hiding face) will be targeted to decrease. The study was conducted under naturalistic conditions (in their home environment) for three male school-aged boys with Autism who attend school for the majority of the day. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to measure the effectiveness of the interventions. The conversation will be initiated and maintained by asking eight questions about the school day.

It is important to assess the efficacy of less intrusive treatments on problem behavior prior to implementation of aversive conditioners. A multiple treatment design comparing the use of least-to-most intrusive procedures comprised of antecedent interventions, exclusionary time-out, and an aversive conditioner paired with a DRA was implemented for an 8-year old boy with autism in a center-based, applied behavior analysis program to treat self-injurious behavior, aggression and elopement. Data collection indicated that less intrusive methods of intervention did not produce a considerable reduction of behavior. The use of a cross-arm protective hold contingent upon demonstration of problem behavior yielded a significant decrease in rates of target behavior. Technical details and results will be described.

The study shows the use of script and script fading procedure in teaching initiation of conversation to two four -year old boys with autism. Scripts (names of objects and activities) were recorded on voice recorders and attached to the three different objects. Two four - year old boys with autism participated in the study. They received four and half hours of therapy daily at Institute for Child Development in Gdansk, Poland. At the time of the study, the boys had been a student at IWRD for 12 months. A multiple-probe design across materials. (Play Doh, a car, a game) was used to assess the effects of scripts, script-fading, and prompting procedures.The behavior measurement the consisted of counting the correct reactions (movement, eye contact plus sound). The data was graphed as a percentage of correctly performed components of initiation of conversation (giving an object, eye contact and saying the name of object or activity). The IOA conformity test was conducted during all sessions. During baseline measurements the student did not give an object to the teacher (e.g. Play Doh, a car, a game) and look at the person and say the name of activity or object. In order to master the ability to initiate conversation each boy needed average 20 sessions. Following script fading procedure, the number of acquired social behaviors remained at a steady level with regard to all three activities. This tendency was also visible during generalization.

Individuals with autism experience pervasive impairments in development across many systems and skills. Included amongst these deficits of varying severity is verbal and nonverbal communication, both instrumental elements of social engagement. The prevailing and universal feature of autism is a deficit in social skills, including an inability to initiate and to sustain conversation with others. A recent study suggests interventions that apply the most recent innovative interactive technology to social communication interventions for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), like touch-screen technology, are very favorable (Wainer & Ingersoll, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interactive video-self modeled (VSM) Social Stories using the iPad2 on the frequency of social communication with peers for verbal students with autism. A single-subject, multiple baseline design across two behaviours, replicated across two subjects was used to assess changes in the expressive social communication of the research participants. Results indicate that an intervention combining interactive video-self modeled Social Stories using the iPad2, and priming, was effective in increasing the observed frequency expressive social communication behaviours, verbal initiation and verbal responding, in five students with autism as they interacted with peer participants. A concomitant behaviour change, the increased frequency of social engagement, was also observed. As an N = 1 with subject design, the external validity and generalizability of the study�s results can only be established through additional replication. Recommendations for future research and practice associated with interactive social communication interventions for students with autism are presented.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to test the effect of exclusion learning based multiple exemplar instruction to induce Naming by Exclusion across speaker and listener responses using a time delayed multiple probe across participants design. There were two male middle school aged students diagnosed with autism who participated in the study. The participants were not able to demonstrate Naming by Exclusion, and were chosen based on the presence of Naming. First, a probe was conducted for each student to assess the presence of Naming by Exclusion. If the participant was unable to meet 90% criteria on point to and tact responses during the probe, exclusion based multiple exemplar instruction was employed. This procedure repeated until the student met the set criteria for the emergence of Naming by Exclusion across speaker and listener responses. Results from the study demonstrated that there was an increase in listener and speaker responses during probes; however, listener responses were higher across both participants. Naming by exclusion emerged for one participant after receiving exclusion based multiple exemplar instruction. Keywords: naming by exclusion, naming, multiple exemplar instruction, verbal behavior

The purpose of this study was to investigate the integration of a function-based intervention procedure into the Autism Peer Networks Project (APNP) to reduce the disruptive behavior of a first-grade student with autism. Preliminary intervention sessions targeting literacy and social skills with typically-developing peers included frequent disruptive behaviors (M = 24.4 per 10-minute session), including perseveration, elopement, adult-directed aggression, and placing items in mouth. Following analysis of baseline sessions and teacher interviews, attention and escape-to-attention (ETA) were hypothesized to maintain disruptive behaviors. A modified intervention procedure was introduced into APNP sessions, in which token reinforcement and praise were delivered to the target student and peers contingent upon appropriate sitting and attending. Occurrences of disruptive behaviors were followed by differential reinforcement delivered to peers, and withholding attention and reinforcement from the target child. An A-B design was implemented and followed by an ongoing changing criterion design in which the function-based intervention procedure was removed from sessions to demonstrate experimental control. Frequency of disruptive behaviors decreased across settings following the modified intervention (M = 9.4). Strategies to incorporate function-based intervention strategies into inclusive educational programming will be discussed.

Self-stimulatory behavior is one of common problem behaviors in Autism. However, there are few studies have focused on vocal steretypy behavior. The current study examined the effect of DRA, positive practice and DRL with a 4 years old boy with Autism in order to decrease his vocal steretypy behavior. The target behavior is defined as Ryan making clicking noises with his tongue, humming for more than 1 second, or emitting non-functional sounds. Each self-stimulatory behavior is considered separate if the interreponse time is at least 1 minute. The frequency data was collected over 50 sessions. The setting was a home-based DTT therapy. Each session lasted 2.5 hours and 2 sessions were scheduled a week. Each procedure was introduced separately. The outcome shows DRA plus positive practice produced more decrease than DRA itself. However, DRA plus positive practice was not enough to eliminate the behavior. Therefore, DLR was implemented and it successfully eliminated the behavior.

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the effects of self-management on the adaptive behaviors for one adolescent with autism. The independent variable was self-management. The dependent variable included five adaptive behaviors, i.e., being on time to class, finishing home work, brushing teeth after lunch, cleaning up study table, quiet walking on stairs in which the student with autism agreed with. Self-monitoring, which included self-recording and self-evaluation were taught to the student for controlling appropriate behaviors. A contingency following the recording, with 5 starts (appropriate behaviors ) on the sheet, was arranged as to play his favorite computer game for 1 hour. The reinforcement was gradually faded out to social praises. After introducing self-management strategy, the results showed positive outcome not only on the DV, but also on other adaptive behaviors, i.e., washing hands before lunch, washing dishes after lunch, helping other autism students to clear up table, etc. Social validity data also displayed positive support for this result. Conclusion and suggests were also included at the end of the paper.

There has been a considerable increase in research in the area of Social Stories with students with autism spectrum disorders over the past 10 years. A literature review of social stories and autism spectrum disorders was conducted in order to examine the efficacy of wide spread clinical applications of this intervention. In addition, the review was completed to identify current areas of study as well as identify gaps within the literature to assist with the direction of future research.

Several articles indicated that using self-monitory and discriminative training can improve variable behaviors of autism children. The goal of this study is going to exam if the procedures of self-monitory and discriminative training can increase the eye contact of children with autism. The whole study will be executed in an environment where the participants engaged in their favorite activities and the researchers asked participants WH questions randomly; we expect that the percentage of childrens eye contact with the researchers will increase and maintain stably when they answer the questions.

Informed activism and advocacy supporting human rights, sustainability, and democracy is a crucial contemporary need with high visibility, whether in the Middle East, where the question of armed or nonviolent civil resistance is paramount; in phenomena like the Occupy movement challenging failed economic systems, where questions regarding "diversity of tactics" has been an obstacle to collective action; or in stalled efforts to achieve sustainable cultures. For example, last year at the ABAI convention, Erica Chenoweth reported on her research demonstrating that nonviolent civil resistance is twice as effective as armed alternatives for challenging dictatorship or repression, and in most cases produces much more promising long-term outcomes. Yet the armed option continues to be chosen, in part because the resources dedicated to the development and dissemination of rigorous science supporting nonviolent alternatives have been vanishingly small. Even less attention has been given to the strategic exercise of power addressing issues of sustainability or structural injustice. The moment now appears to be right, however, for behavioral systems science to contribute to the development of effective activism and science-based advocacy in all of these areas. This tutorial will briefly review the current state of knowledge regarding nonviolent activism, advocacy, and civil resistance, drawing on examples of more and less successful campaigns from every inhabited continent. Drawing particularly on current work in cultural analysis and organizational behavior management,the presenterwill then provide detailed explorations of behavioral systems science principles that have promise for supporting strategic civil resistance and leveraging "people power." The tutorial will offer practical analytic approaches for exploring behavioral systems dynamics that obstruct cultural change, and those that might support it. Examples for analysis will be drawn from current work being done by the presenter and others involved in activism and advocacy. Particular but not exclusive attention will be paid to "constructional" (Goldiamond's term) alternatives. While acknowledging the limits of current knowledge and the ethical challenges involved in working as a scientist-activist, the presentation will offer resources for immediate application, suggesting directions for the next generation of behavioral systems science advancing sustainability, human rights, and structural justice.

Panelists will discuss their personal accounts of behind-the-scenes activities in nonhuman animal research both inside and outside a university setting. A major topic will be how they effectively deal with universities, animal care and use committees, federal regulatory boards, and/or funding sources. Panelists will give recommendations and advice to those wanting to start or maintain their own animal labs. They also will discuss progression and limitations in conducting animal research. This discussion will include a comment on current practices in basic and/or applied animal research and speculation on where those practices are headed in the future.

Effective practice of applied behavior analysis requires carefully targeted and efficient intervention procedures which lead to meaningful and generalized behavior change outcomes across circumstances and time. Informed by evidence-based research, the ABA practitioner in the field is presented with pressures to deliver services effectively within the fee-for-service business environment, while being responsive to consumers and to the constraints of insurance and payment plan competitive forces. Practice requires acumen in the behavior analyst's ability to analyze and assess functional variables quickly and implement procedures that require practical data systems, while avoiding complicated intervention variables and implementation strategies for therapists, teachers, and parents. The strong practice movement toward interprofessional collaboration and communication among professionals across multiple disciplines also may be a perplexing challenge. These issues will be presented within the context of case examples focusing on outcome assessment and data-based planning and adjustment in procedures as treatment continues from initial focused changes to generalized outcomes. Case examples will include oppositional defiance related to sensory defensiveness, leukemia with excessive hospital visits resulting from pain, interpersonal-focused interventions based on teacher and parent-child interaction therapy protocols, sibling interaction for children with autism, and interprofessional treatment merge in coordination of services for children with autism.

Although extinction in Pavlovian learning is highly context-dependent, less research has investigated the role of context in the extinction of operant learning. This talk will fill this gap and explore a number of parallels between Pavlovian and operant extinction. Recent research has studied the "renewal" effect after operant extinction, in which extinguished responding returns when the context is changed. We have produced clear evidence of ABA, ABC, and AAB renewal (where the letters correspond to the contexts of conditioning, extinction, and testing, respectively), even when the learning history of the contexts is controlled. We also have demonstrated renewal in nondeprived rats working for sucrose or sweet/fatty food pellets--the rodent equivalent of junk food. The ABC and AAB renewal effects suggest that operant extinction is more context-dependent than operant conditioning. Other experiments have studied "resurgence," in which a behavior that is extinguished while a second is reinforced recovers when the second behavior is extinguished. Resurgence can be viewed as another renewal effect. Contextual cues have a general role in the control of operant behavior. But the extinction of operant behavior, like the extinction of respondent behavior, is especially sensitive to the context, with a number of interesting implications for understanding behavioral inhibition, lapse, and relapse.

This panel will discuss effective strategies for teaching behavior analysis to different levels of students in different contexts. The topics to be discussed include planning course content to promote understanding of principles and procedures, active learning strategies to promote participation by all students in the classroom, strategies to teach undergraduates knowledge and skills related to certification, incorporating research into classroom instruction, strategies to program and implement effective distance learning in applied behavior analysis.

Operant principles apply everywhere from simple invertebrates to Wall Street. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of behavioral psychology, it's reassuring to observe how scientists and practitioners in related fields are increasingly discovering "our" operant principles and applications--with or without discovering our field of behavior analysis and its established terminology, methodology, and practices. Like other sciences, ours has always been part of a larger interdisciplinary effort. John B. Watson performed original work in a variety of disciplines, and, while the days of the generalist may be gone, interdisciplinary work is arguably more important than ever: We now know how fully operant principles interact with others in the large and complex nature-and-nurture system, for example. This talk will take stock of our field's current interdisciplinary extensions, with boundless opportunities. Our biological context includes significant advances in operant-related genetics and epigenetics as well as sophisticated neuroscience. When it comes to higher-order skills, the functional linguists are among many fellow travelers. In application, ever more randomized controlled trials are expanding our reach in the mainstream, even as our small-n designs are increasingly accepted (and adopted). The presentation will summarize selected advances in all of these areas, and discuss what behavior analysts can learn and how we can contribute. While interdisciplinary work entails some barriers to be surmounted, the benefits can be considerable, and they flow in both directions.

General

Children with autism can have difficulty acquiring discrimination and communication skills. These difficulties can slow the overall learning process making gains slow to non-existent. Three presentations will explore the use of educational strategies that can help learners with ASD possibly overcome these difficulties. The first, discusses the use of an auditory-visual discrimination procedure and the use of sign language, most notably LSF (French sign language) as prompts to teach conditional discriminations. Results indicate the use of LSF rather than images is an effective prompt in teaching these important conditional discriminations. The second presentation proposes a conditional discrimination procedure for teaching receptive language skills through the use of preferred items and a visual prompt presentation. The results indicate that use of a visual prompt coupled with an auditory discriminative stimulus is effective in teaching receptive skills. The third presentation explores the use of a stimulus pairing procedure and echoic training to develop sentence structure and increase spontaneous requesting. Each strategy was used individually to teach a request and a third request was taught using both strategies together. Results indicate that the when echoic training and stimulus pairing where used together, participants increased the number of spontaneous requests during the learning and generalizations phases.

The purpose of the study was to show that using French Sign Language (LSF) as temporary prompts rather than pictures of objects was an effective prompt to establish the verbal stimulus control and help the student discriminate between words. Using the conditional-only method, a procedure was developed for teaching auditory-visual conditional discriminations to an 8 year old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders who communicates with French Sign Language (LSF). The stimuli consisted of three reinforcing objects the student was able to request using sign language, and were based on items already present in the reinforcement repertoire. Items were also chosen based on the number of syllables required to name the item. Names of items containing more than 2 syllables were eliminated in order to facilitate auditory discrimination. The student was engaged in a prompted observing exercise then followed by presentation of an auditory stimulus every second until the child selected the correct object. The LSF gestures for the items were used as prompts and a most to least prompting strategy was used. The gestures were systematically faded until the student could select the object independently. Once the student was able to emit a correct independent response, during three consecutive session probes, a retention probe was carried out one week later. The student acquired two of the three items targeting for teaching. The results indicate that use of the LSF, rather than images, as prompts was an effective way to teach conditional discrimination.

A modified conditional discrimination procedure was used to teach receptive identification skills to an autistic 6-year-old girl who presented a severe language delay (five-word repertoire). Initially, stimulus preference assessment for items was used to identify strong reinforcers. A conditional discrimination was implemented involving a sample stimulus (reinforcer), an auditory discriminative stimulus associated with a two second visual prompt presentation (photograph of reinforcer), and a comparison stimulus, response and consequence for which the child directly accessed the preferred item. Combination of the two sensorial modalities for discriminative stimulus auditory and visual decreased the probability of an incorrect response. Visual prompts were quickly faded in order to transfer stimulus control to the auditory discriminative stimulus only. Finally, reciprocal trials were applied involving trials with the child's choice of item to identify, and trials with adult's choice of item, which provided information of verbal stimulus, control and decrease motivation bias. The results indicated that combination of auditory discriminative stimulus and visual prompt facilitated receptive skills learning for preferred items and transfer of stimulus control to auditory stimulus. This method appeared to be successful in training receptive skills and probably could be used in training other receptive skills as daily objects or environments.

Many children with autism and developmental disorders have great difficulty to acquire and develop functional verbal language. Scientific studies have reported that 50% of children diagnosed with autism have developed no vocal language. The subject of our study suggests that the effectiveness of echoic training combined with a procedure called "stimulus pairing on the vocal" can develop syntax structure and increase the number of spontaneous demands * in the natural environment. For each participant, and depending on their motivation, three requests, each of about 4 to 7 words, were taught initially in the classroom and then generalized in the natural environment. The first demand received an "echoic training" procedure. A second request was taught using a stimulus pairing on the vocal procedure. A final demand was taught with an echoic training combined with a "stimulus pairing on the vocal" procedure. The results indicate that the combination of an echoic training combined with the stimulus pairing on the vocal procedure was the most effective teaching, and enabled each participant to increase the percentage of formulating target spontaneous demands during the learning phase and to increase the number of spontaneous requests in the generalization phase.

Effective communication is a common goal of instruction with children with autism as the developmental disability itself is characterized by significant deficits in communication (APA, 2000). Therefore, much research has been conducted to determine the most effective strategies of instruction to target this deficit. This symposium addresses two common areas lacking in the research literature: assessment of communication modality for a particular learner, and transferring stimulus control of manding to naturally occurring stimuli. Two papers will address determining the most appropriate communication modality (vocal speech, sign language, Picture Exchange Communication System, or a speech output device) for individual learners by assessing acquisition and preference across the different modalities. This type of modality assessment was conducted across learners at three different sites and data will be presented on acquisition of and preference for the various modalities. The third paper will address the topic of transferring stimulus control of mands to naturally occurring discriminative stimuli.

Deficits in communication are displayed by individuals with Autism, and many other intellectual disabilities (APA, 2000). Therefore, in the field of special education, many families, clinicians, teachers, and speech pathologists are faced with the task of providing effective methods of communication since many individuals with autism do not communicate vocally (Frankel, Leary, and Kilman, 1987). Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of many types of communication modalities and augmentative or alternative communication devices such as speech (Carr & Durand, 1985), sign language (Mirenda, 2003), Picture Exchange Communication System (Bondy & Frost, 1994), or speech output devices. While research has shown each to be effective, there is a lack of research in determing how to choose a specific modality for an individual learner. Decisions about which type of modality is appropriate for a particular learner are often left to clinician preference, or philosophical groundings of an agency. The current study seeks to expand on recent research (Hansford, et al, 2011) to use systematic assessment techniques to determine the most appropriate communication modality for a particular learn based on rates of acquisition and preference.

Autism is a developmental disability characterized by difficulties in communication, social interaction, and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors (APA, 2000). Looking at the communication domain, individuals with autism have significant impairments in their ability to communicate wants and needs, as well as using verbal and nonverbal language to navigate social situations. Further, estimates indicate that about fifty percent of children with autism are entirely nonvocal (Frankel, Leary & Kilman, 1987). To address these deficits, several supplemental/ alternative communication strategies have been developed. Different topographies of trained communication responses have included vocal speech (Carr & Durand, 1985), communication cards/ picture exchange (Bondy & Frost, 1994; Horner & Day, 1991), and sign language (Mirenda, 2003). While these communication modalities have all been shown to be effective in specific clinical instances, the selection of communication modality for individual learners has generally been based on subjective guidelines, such as the learners developmental level, motor skills, and the recommendations of a speech-language pathologist. This is particularly problematic as the selection of communication modality for learners with autism can be a contentious issue. Parents often fear that vocal ability will be diminished by the provision of an alternative strategy, and many also fear that other modalities will not generalize outside of school settings. Disagreements among parents and professionals can delay the intervention process and adversely affect individuals in need of intervention. To this point, relatively little research has evaluated procedures to determine which modality represents a "best fit" with individual learning styles. The current study explores an individualized assessment for informing communication modality selections, specifically looking at rates of acquisition and preference within individual learners with autism.

Several studies have demonstrated the effects of teaching multiply controlled mands and transferring control of those mands to the establishing operation (EO; e.g. Charlop, Schreibman, & Thibodeau, 1985; Guiterrez, Vollmer, Dozier, Borrero, Rapp, Bourret, & Gadaire, 2007). Teaching appropriate environmental controls over mands may be an alternative to teaching "spontaneous" or "pure" mands, only under control of the EO. In the current study,a rolling tine delay (RTD) procedure (Sweeney-Kerwin, Carbone, O'Brien, Zecchin, & Janecky, 2007) was used to transfer control of mand responses from an intraverbal prompt in the presence of the item (tact) to a more naturally occurring discriminative stimulus in the natural environment. Results indicated that the RTD procedure successfully increased mands in the presence of the naturally occurring discriminative stimulus. However, a mand test suggested that responses continued to occur in the absence of the EO, and may have functioned as tacts for two of the three participants.

A training model from two school based programs will be described. The first model, derived from a large scale public school training and technical support system, will demonstrate training methods and outcome data for large group trainings that prepare teachers and other staff to deliver instruction derived from an applied behavior analysis and an analysis of verbal behavior. The training method includes a competency based model to teach a mixed and varied approach to discrete trial training of the verbal operants and for skills to be used in mand training. Data will be presented demonstrating outcomes from participant responses across an array of response forms including timed trials, choral responses, written and oral conceptual checkouts, and analogue demonstration of instructional processes. Specific skills taught over the course of the three day intensive training include fluency in tacting the verbal operants, stating definitions for key concepts in behavior analysis, demonstrating errorless teaching procedures and error correction procedures, demonstrating materials management during teaching procedures, transferring operant control from prompted to unprompted conditions in the mand frame and mand training error correction procedures. Data will suggest the efficacy of the pre-implementation training on the initial degree of instructional fidelity on a measure of implementation. An additional program evaluation study compiled at a school for students with Autism will review processes for training staff using direct feedback including a transcription of instructional interactions. This study will include demonstration and data derived from treatment fidelity measures.

Critical review of a multiple method 3 day competency based training for staff providing educational services for students with autism derived from the field of applied behavior analysis and including an analysis of verbal behavior. The descriptive study will provide an example of training methods that allow rapid acquisition of teaching skills for discrete trial training, mand training, and basic conceptual skills needed to deliver effective instruction for students with autism. Specific data related to participant competencies for both conceptual skills and procedural skills will be reviewed. Additionally data related to instructor behavior such as cues for choral responding and guided notes and the density of opportunity to respond will be discussed. Training methods for assuring basic conceptual acquisition for concepts related to reinforcement, motivating operations, discriminative stimuli and prompts will be described. Training methods derived from the work of Fred Keller and Siegfried Englemann will be briefly demonstrated. This session will provide a demonstration of advantages of active participant responding during all phases of the training package.

Deriving outcomes for training participants in an analogue test to specific levels of competency does not necessarily mean that the skills taught will be implemented in actual teaching environments. Initial competency-based training may assist classroom teams in implementing effective practices sooner than if training only occurs in situ. Through use of a site review process, this session will present data documenting levels of implementation of specific skill sets trained in a competency based analogue format. Included will be a comparison of initial evidence of implementation criteria for discrete trial training, mand training and aspects of classroom organization such as data collection and materials organization with implementation of the same criteria after approximately six months of consultation. Comparison of outcomes will be presented across two school years and multiple autism support classroom settings. The site review tool used to assess implementation will be described with an emphasis on components most relevant to analogue training competencies.

Challenges in addressing problem behavior could be due to difficulties with altering the stimulus conditions under which the behavior occurs and is maintained, and identifying potent reinforcers for the absence of problem behavior. In the first study, the frequency of problem behavior evoked by noise (i.e., coughing) changed reliably with the introduction and removal of the stimulus shaping, video modeling, and reinforcement procedures. Additionally, exposing the participant to gradual increases in the number of coughs provided the opportunity for reinforcement for the absence of problem behavior during the initial phases of treatment, possibly facilitating the reduction in problem behavior to zero levels throughout treatment. In the second study, non-contextual vocalizations were brought under the control of environmental stimuli (e.g., the presence and absence of a bracelet) using discrimination training. The stimulus that acquired control over occurrences of non-contextual vocalizations was then used contingently for the absence of non-contextual vocalizations within a differential reinforcement procedure. The third study found that the opportunity to engage in stereotypy was a more effective reinforcer than edibles for increasing appropriate engagement with leisure activities. Following this experimental demonstration, the use of stereotypy as a reinforcer will be used within a DRO procedure to help reduce stereotypy.

For an adolescent girl with autism, non-contextual vocalizations (NCV) consisted of making repetitive comments about unusual topics during work and leisure tasks. A functional analysis indicated that NCV were maintained by social attention in the form of reciprocal comments made by teachers and other adults about these topics. Non-contextual vocalizations were first brought under the control of environmental stimuli (e.g., the presence and absence of a bracelet) using discrimination training. A reversal design was then used to examine the effects of a differential reinforcement procedure on reducing NCV. IF NCV occurred during baseline, teachers responded as they normally would by making one reciprocal comment and directing the learner back to work. During intervention, the learner wore the bracelet that was discriminative for “quiet” for a specified interval. If the learner completed tasks during that interval in the absence of NCV, the bracelet was removed and she was provided with the opportunity to engage in NCV for a short period of time. Levels of NCV changed reliably with the introduction and removal of the DRO in baseline and intervention phases. In the most recent intervention phase, the DRO interval was systematically increased and timed access to NCV was decreased.

A ten-year-old child with autism engaged in high rates of object-related motor stereotypy and low rates of engagement with leisure activities. A multi-element within a reversal design was used to examine the effects of two types of reinforcement, edibles and access to motor stereotypy, on increasing independent engagement with leisure activities. During baseline the percentage of 10-s intervals in which the participant was appropriately engaged was low with both puzzle types. During intervention, appropriate engagement with Puzzle A was reinforced with 5-s access to motor stereotypy while appropriate engagement with Puzzle B was reinforced with edibles. Responding was differentiated in that higher rates of engagement were observed with Puzzle A than with Puzzle B. During the second baseline phase, appropriate engagement with Puzzle A was more resistant to extinction than engagement with Puzzle B. Additionally, post-intervention preference assessments showed a learned response allocation to the puzzle paired with stereotypy further demonstrating the effectiveness of stereotypy as a reinforcer for appropriate engagement in leisure activities.

A 15-year-old girl displayed high rates of problem behavior evoked by others coughing. Antecedent assessments determined that problem behavior occurred at high rates when exposed to in-vivo coughing and did not occur at all when exposed to coughing presented on video or audiotape. A reversal design was used to assess the effects of video modeling, stimulus shaping, and reinforcement to reduce problem behavior in the presence of coughing. During 15-minute baseline sessions, the participant was exposed to in-vivo coughing every minute and frequency of problem behavior was scored. During intervention, the participant viewed a video segment of a model encountering someone coughing and receiving reinforcement for working quietly in the presence of the cough. Following the video model, the participant was exposed to one in-vivo cough during the first three intervention sessions. The number of coughs presented was systematically increased throughout the phases of intervention. During the second baseline phase, problem behavior increased and returned to zero levels again with the reintroduction of treatment. Video modeling, reinforcement, and the gradual exposure to coughing via stimulus shaping, was effective at decreasing problem behavior.

Despite the large body of research on the effectiveness of ABA for autism, the focus tends to be on early childhood and on school, clinic, or home-based treatment settings. To achieve the highest level of generalization and independence, it is important to provide interventions within the community. In addition, although early childhood research has had a dramatic impact on how interventions are delivered for autism spectrum disorders, research needs to shift toward how to adapt effective ABA practices for adolescents and adults. This symposium will present recent data on an intervention designed to teach community and safety skills to a more severely impacted adolescent with ASD, an intervention utilizing iPad and video technology to teach vocational sills to teens and adults with ASD, and an intervention using an inclusive model with peer mentors to teach employment skills to teens with ASD. All presentations focus on the importance of teaching skills in the generalized setting and providing opportunities for individuals with ASD to participate in the community. The importance of moving the field of ABA into adolescence and adulthood will be discussed, along with a discussion of the importance of teaching in community settings, and educating the community about ASD and how they can learn to work with and accept these individuals as part of their community. Presentations will include video examples, participant outcome data, fidelity of implementation, reliability, generalization, and social validity outcomes. Best practices for adolescents and adults will be discussed including an analysis of how ABA needs to evolve to better serve individuals beyond childhood.

The dearth of services and supports for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who are aging out of public school is a fast-growing concern. Research shows that skills learned in school and vocational centers do not often generalize to community and life contexts. We propose a model for training community and life skills directly in the environments in which those skills will be used. Components of this model include selecting training targets that will be naturally reinforced by the community settings, training in ways that will results in long-term generalization and maintenance, and developing behavioral interventions that are implemented in the community settings that will lead to improved behavior in those settings. The use of technology to train individuals to skill mastery is a powerful tool that that maximize training efficiency and long-term maintenance of competence. The instant study demonstrates the application of these concepts and skills to vocational skill sets in competitively employed adults in community jobs. Data will be presented showing adolescents and adults with ASD learning and generalizing various vocational skills in the community through the application of technology.

Obesity is a significant problem in the United States, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) reports that 35% of adults and 17% of children are classified as obese. This symposium will address issues related to assessing and improving eating and exercise behavior of adults and children. The use of a stimulus equivalence paradigm to teach healthy eating behavior (food portion size estimation) will be presented. In addition, best practice strategies for measuring activity levels will be presented, and an intervention for increasing aerobic activity by adults will be evaluated.

The prevalence of obesity continues to increase, especially among children (Gordon-Larsen, The, & Adair, 2010). Rising costs to society make obesity a national health priority (Daniels, 2009; Gibson et al., 2008; Stommel & Schoenborn, 2010; Storch et al., 2007). Obesity can be attributed, in part, to overconsumption of energy dense foods. Given that overeating plays a role in the development of obesity, interventions that teach individuals to identify and consume appropriate portion sizes are warranted. Specifically, interventions that teach individuals to estimate portion sizes without the use of aids may be critical to the success of nutrition education programs. The current study evaluated the use of a stimulus equivalence paradigm to teach children to estimate portion sizes. Participants ranged in age from 4-7 years (N = 7). Results suggested that the stimulus equivalence paradigm was effective in teaching children to make accurate portion size estimations without aids. Furthermore, 6 of 7 participants were able to estimate the target portion size of novel foods during generalization probes. These data extend the existing research on teaching accurate portion size estimations and may be applicable to treatment seeking populations (i.e., overweight or obese children and adults) to teach healthier eating habits.

Descriptive observation is typically employed to identify environmental variables related to levels of physical activity. The primary purpose of the current study was to compare the results yielded from descriptive analyses of physical activity across brief and extended observation times. Additionally, because discontinuous measurement systems are often used to record the occurrence of physical activity, a second purpose was to compare results of the analyses using partial and whole interval recording methods. Descriptive analyses for six preschool children were conducted during repeated, 30-min naturally occurring outdoor times on a playground at a local daycare. The Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children was used to define the conditions and various levels of physical activity. Overall, results for all participants suggested high correspondence between outcomes of descriptive analyses when observations were brief or extended, and when using whole or partial interval recording methods. These results suggest that brief assessments using partial-interval records might be the most efficient way to conduct descriptive assessments of physical activity. However, the degree to which such assessments would yield reliable data about functional relationships will also be considered.

Relatively few studies have evaluated behavioral interventions aimed at increasing activity levels of sedentary or obese children. Crucial to this line of research is the development of reliable and valid measures of activity. In this study, four typically developing children ages 6-13 engaged in various structured activities for one minute and their activity levels were simultaneously recorded via several methods. Number of steps taken was assessed using two devices: Fitbit Tracker Accelerometers and less expensive Fit Solutions SW-200 Yamax Digiwalker Pedometers. In addition, data on the types of activities and relative effort were collected via direct observation and heart rate monitors respectively. The reliability of multiple Fitbits and pedometers across repeated measures was assessed, as was correspondence between all measures of physical activity across predefined levels of the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children (OSRAC). The results indicated that steps per minute and heart rate covaried for most activities between OSRAC levels, with a few exceptions for specific activities that did not involve translocation. Reliability of the Fitbits was consistently higher than that of the pedometers.

Obesity is a widespread problem in the general population but affects a greater percentage people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Braunschweig et al., 2004). Four adults diagnosed with an intellectual disability and a Body Mass Index (BMI) above the healthy range participated in an aerobic walking program at a residential facility. Measures were taken regularly on BMI, quality of life, and waist-to-hip ratio across conditions. The first phase of treatment consisted of prompting and token reinforcement. The second phase of treatment consisted of a direct training protocol that included modeling and a fading component, reinforcement, and goal setting. The presence of the trainer and immediacy of the token delivery were faded incrementally. After training completion and independent performance goals were increased incrementally from 1000 steps 3 out of 7 days to 3000 steps 5 out of 7 days. Results were evaluated using a multiple baseline across participants design and showed increased walking and decreased measures of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio when direct training was introduced. Findings indicate the importance of including a direct training component with fading in order to maximize results of pedometer usage in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Clinicians have long been interested in the components that strengthen the therapeutic relationship. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011) is a behavior analytic third wave therapy that emphasizes psychological flexibility utilizing values and mindfulness processes. Research has indicated that the therapeutic relationship is related to client outcome. However, the nature of this relationship is not clear, and to date, studies have not experimentally manipulated the therapeutic relationship. Research has been done to investigate the effects of the core psychological flexibility processes within ACT. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the effects of specific, teachable techniques on therapeutic relationship and to explore psychological flexibility processes as they relate to the relationship between therapist and client. Participants were undergraduate students and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a mindfulness plus values condition, a mindfulness condition, or a relaxation condition. Participants were guided in an short exercise, then engaged in a conversation with the experimenter representing an analog of a therapy session. Data were collected at three time points during the study. The measures assessed were values connectedness, mindfulness, positive and negative affect, as well as therapeutic relationship. Implications for future research will be discussed.

The Functional Idiographic Assessment Template Questionnaire (FIAT-Q) is a questionnaire that allows a clinician to assess the interpersonal strengths and weaknesses of a client. The scale was designed in such a way to assess the extent of client problem behaviors and suggest improvement response classes that may be a focus of treatment (Callaghan, 2006). To date, there has been no research published on how scores in the FIAT-Q relate to behaviors in day to day life. In the current study, individuals of either sex were given 10 therapy sessions. Each participant received 5 sessions of non-directive support focused on establishing empathic attunement and understanding the clients social behavior. The other 5 sessions consisted of FAP. Before treatment began, participants completed the FIAT-Q. During treatment, participants completed a personalized diary card daily, monitoring the occurrence of collaboratively identified clinically relevant behaviors. A second FIAT-Q was completed one week after treatment. The relationship between FIAT-Q scores and participants daily functioning will be reviewed during the course of this talk. Currently, 13 participants have been enrolled in the study. It is fully expected that 15 participants data will be available for presentation at the conference.

Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of negative health outcomes in the United States. Many smokers try to quit every year, but very few are successful. Pregnant and postpartum women remain an underserved population in regard to smoking cessation, and most empirically-based treatments do not demonstrate high effectiveness within these groups. While there has been long-standing attention to smoking cessation interventions, multicomponent behavioral and psychopharmacological interventions remain the treatment of choice. Recently Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has demonstrated promise for smoking cessation in group formats. The current study seeks to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of an ACT intervention versus treatment as usual (TAU) for pregnant and postpartum women administered in individual format. Single-subject data from two initial participants indicates that smoking decreased over time among women in the ACT condition. Data collection is ongoing, and additional data will be presented along with comparisons between experimental conditions. In addition to changes in smoking behavior, it is expected that the constructs of avoidance and inflexibility and valued living will mediate the relationship between treatment and outcome. Early results are very promising regarding the effects of treatment with this challenging but important population.

Certain behavioral features are often associated with specific disabilities. Historically, these behavioral phenotypes predominantly involve behavior topography. Although identification of behavior topography is essential, applied behavior analysis emphasizes the identification of the function of behavior in the description, assessment, and management of problem behavior. Functional analyses are the gold standard for identifying variables that maintain problem behaviors. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to identify potential behavioral phenotypes among the existing functional analysis literature. Studies included in the review were those that (a) reported participant diagnosis (b) identified problem behavior topography, (c) conducted a functional analysis of problem behavior. Approximately 600 published studies met this criteria for inclusion and were analyzed in terms of (a) participants characteristics, (b) problem behavior topography, and (c) problem behavior function. Patterns of topography and function or problem behaviors across specific disabilities emerged. The potential value of topography and function phenotypes across disabilities will be discussed.

Treatment planning for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gastrointestinal (GI) problems benefits from clarification of relationships among challenging behaviors, their functions, and physiological states. In efforts toward documentation of the phenotype(s) of children with ASD and GI problems (e.g., chronic constipation, abdominal pain), behavioral and physiological assessment was conducted with four children, ages 3 to 5. Behavioral assessment included functional analysis of challenging behaviors (e.g., aggression, stereotypy) and coding of antecedents of target behaviors. Physiological assessment included testing of intestinal permeability, intestinal flora composition (i.e. bacteria species types and number of organisms per species), and blood levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, glucose, and insulin before and at 6 intervals during the 2 hours after consumption of a meal. In this presentation, results of the assessments will be discussed with regard to patterns within and across participants in behavior, function, and physiological state. Discussion will additionally address the findings' implications for treatment and results of on-going intervention with the study participants.

Challenging behaviors (aggression, self-injurious behavior) are common to individuals with fragile X syndrome. Research suggests that individuals with fragile X syndrome exhibit a unique behavioral profile (tangible and escape, but less likely attention maintained challenging behavior; Langthorne & McGill, 2012). If true for young children, early intervention should emphasize caregiver education to prevent the development of such behaviors. We compared results of indirect functional behavior assessments (interview, Questions About Behavioral Function) and caregiver implemented functional analyses of challenging behavior for 12 children, 27 51 months, with fragile X syndrome. Parent report indicated that 58% of the children engaged in self-injurious behaviors and 67% engaged in aggression. In each of the 12 cases, escape, tangible, and attention were the most common consequences reported by Questions About Behavioral Function. Tangible and escape were the most common consequences for challenging behavior obtained by the functional analyses. Four functional analyses were inconclusive. Attention was not identified as a maintaining consequence for any participant. These results suggest that challenging behaviors develop early and may commonly serve tangible and escape functions in this population. Inconclusive functional analyses results for several participants suggest need for additional assessment procedures.

Using appropriate social skills while working can make the difference between keeping and losing a job, particularly for individuals with autism and/or developmental disabilities. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of video modeling and video feedback on independent correct responding of vocational tasks and use of appropriate employment-related social skills of four young adults with developmental disabilities. The video modeling condition involved showing positive examples of the complete task with embedded appropriate social skills on an iPad prior to work. The video feedback involved video recording learners with an iPad while they worked and asking them to evaluate their own performance by reviewing the videos. All participants had an in-school job of delivering passes to teachers throughout the building. Data were analyzed within the context of a multiple treatments with withdrawal design and results indicated that although both conditions resulted in improved independent correct responding and use of targeted social skills, three of the four participants demonstrated more substantial gains with the video feedback condition while the fourth demonstrated similar results across conditions and improved performance with video feedback only after the video modeling condition was presented. A discussion of the results will be provided.

This symposium covers various aspects of functional communication training, including (a) how and why the modality (of the functional communication response can affect levels of problem behavior during training, (b) how removing the functional communication card during periods of non-reinforcement can facilitate discriminated responding and maintain low levels of problem behavior during the establishment of a multiple schedule, and (c) the relative advantages of using contrived versus naturalistic discriminative stimuli in terms of establishing discriminated responding and facilitating generalization to novel contexts. Dr. Gregory Hanley, editor of Behavior Analysis in Practice, will serve as the discussant.

We examined whether establishing operation (EO) manipulations during treatment of problem behavior affected treatment efficacy and response bursting. In Study 1, we compared two functional communication training (FCT) interventions. In one treatment, we used a card touch as the functional communication response (FCR), which allowed us to limit exposure to the EO by physically guiding the FCR at prescribed times. In the other treatment, we used a vocal response as the FCR, which did not allow us to limit exposure to the EO. In Study 2, we exposed participants to time-based reinforcement schedules that were yoked to the schedules of obtained reinforcement from the two FCT interventions in Study 1. Results indicated that limiting exposure to the EO (through physically guiding the FCR or through time-based schedules) produced less response bursting and larger and more rapid reductions in problem behavior. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords: establishing operations, extinction, differential reinforcement, functional communication training

Effective communication requires one to demonstrate simple and conditional discriminations. Teaching one to communicate and to perform discriminations is not always an easy task. The collection of studies presented in this symposium used some creative procedures to address some barriers of teaching PECS and of teaching arbitrary matching-to-sample. The studies include participants with different characteristics and diagnosis; typically developing children, children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and hearing impaired children with cochlear implants. Each study reports on some teaching procedure variations which facilitated the acquisition of skills that are required in order for one to communicate more effectively. Together, the three studies represent an effort to systematically test procedural variations which may lead to better skill acquisition.

The current study compared two errorless prompting procedures to teach visual conditional discriminations. Participants were six typically developing children and three children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The procedure was three-choice matching to sample; the stimuli were unfamiliar forms such as Greek letters. The SD prompt condition required simple discriminative control: The sample and correct comparison stimuli were both presented in the same color (e.g., both were red) and the two incorrect comparison stimuli were black. The CD prompt condition required conditional discriminative control: The three comparison stimuli were presented in different colors on every trial (red, green, and blue), and the sample stimulus was always presented in the same color as the correct comparison. For both SD and CD conditions, the luminance of the color prompt was reduced over five steps until all stimuli were black. Periodic probe trials with no color prompts (all stimuli black) were also presented. Results indicated that 8 of 9 participants acquired conditional discriminations in fewer trials with the CD condition; one child with ASD required fewer trials with the SD condition. Results suggest an advantage for teaching conditional discriminations when the stimulus control requirements of prompts and target discriminations are consistent.

This presentation describes results of a pre-training phase in a series of studies aimed to teach auditory-visual conditional discriminations to prelingually deaf children using cochlear implants. The procedure was a three-choice delayed-sample-matching; the stimuli were familiar cartoon figures. Each trial began presenting four comparison stimuli -one in each corner of the computer monitor screen. After a 2-s delay, the sample stimulus was presented. The procedure comprised three blocks: 1. The sample stimulus was a picture identical to one of the comparison stimuli (identity matching); 2. The sample stimulus became a compound: the picture and its spoken name were presented simultaneously; the visual component of the sample stimulus was gradually faded-out; 3. Only the auditory component of the sample stimuli was presented. Blocks 2 and 3 were repeated if performances were less than 100%. The procedure was appropriate to promote rapid transfer of stimulus control from identity visual-visual to arbitrary auditory-visual matching-to-sample in children with cochlear implant: Fifty-one out of 54 children (94.4%) learned to select pictures under the control of spoken words; three participants failed to reach the learning criterion; 36 (70.5%) completed the procedure with a single exposure to the three blocks; 15 participants repeated the procedure from two to six times.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is widely used in teaching individuals with autism spectrum disorders to initiate communication with other people (Bondy & Frost, 1994). According to the PECS teaching protocol (Bondy & Frost, 1994), phase 1 requires two teachers working with the student simultaneously; the first teacher serves as the Communicative Partner, while the second teacher is the Physical Prompter. Having two trained teachers present during all PECS training sessions is not always practical. For this reason, researchers have raised the question of whether it may be possible to effectively teach phase 1 of PECS with only 1 teacher present (Ross & Lavallee, 2009). The current study compared the number of trials to acquisition of an independent mand in the two conditions (1 trainer and 2 trainers). The order of treatments (1 teacher or 2 teachers) was randomly assigned, inter-observer agreement data as well as procedural fidelity data were collected. Results suggest variability across students and that some students may acquire the independent mand more rapidly in the single trainer condition.

Determination of the effects of variables that influence preference and reinforcer efficacy are important for determining stimuli to be used in interventions. Numerous variables including stimulus dimensions, response dimensions, and individual histories may affect preference for and reinforcing efficacy of particular stimuli. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight the effects of some of these variables including choice, stimulus variation, response effort, stimulus magnitude, and immediacy of stimulus delivery. Participants in the four papers presented include young typically developing children and children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has tripled in the last 30 years (U.S. Centers for Disease Control, n.d.). The serious medical complications associated with pediatric obesity (e.g., increased risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, breathing difficulties) warrants the identification of strategies to prevent and treat obesity. The current study assessed young childrens relative preferences for various food-group categories (meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable, starch) as well as preferences for healthy v. nonhealthy food items within each food-group category. Subsequently, we evaluated the viability of an assessment designed to identify the relative influence of quality, magnitude, and immediacy on food selections made by 10 typically developing children. A concurrent-operants arrangement was used to identify the influential parameters of food reinforcers governing subjects choices. Across subjects, results showed that responding was differentially affected by the reinforcer dimensions. These results suggest that the assessment can be used to develop interventions to promote the consumption of healthier foods by manipulating the arrangement of influential reinforcer parameters.

Few applied studies have examined the stability of preference assessment data over extended periods of time. In this study, 19 young typically developing children (toddlers and preschoolers) participated in two multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessments (one edible-item assessment and one leisure-item assessment) each week for at least 3 months (up to one year for some children). The items used in each childs preference assessment remained constant across assessments. The top two preferred items from each assessment during a given week were used as reinforcers in the childs toileting training program that week. Results are discussed in terms of the stability of young childrens preferences across time as well as differences in preference stability across children and assessment type (edible or leisure). Recommendations on how frequently to assess preference will also be discussed.

One of the great benefits of self-monitoring is that it enables people to function more independently because it puts them in control of their own behavior change. Additionally, self-monitoring promotes generalization of important skills across settings and over time. Self-monitoring has been effective for changing a wide range of functional, vocational, and academic behaviors in many home, school, and community settings. Furthermore, self-monitoring combined with other interventions such as goal setting, public posting, and recruiting reinforcement has demonstrated successful outcomes for a wide range of individuals with and without disabilities. This symposium will present self-monitoring interventions combined with additional evidence-based practices. Three data-based research studies examining the effects of self-monitoring in academic settings will be presented. The first study examines the effects of self-monitoring of on-task behavior combined with self-goal setting and self-reinforcement for a fifth grader with mild disabilities. The second study examines the effects of self-monitoring combined with recruiting reinforcement for increasing pre-vocational task completion for middle school students with moderate to intensive disabilities. The last study examines the effects of self-monitoring combined with goal setting and public posting on scholarly productivity for graduate students in enrolled in a special education program.

Numerous studies suggest a direct relation between students' on-task behavior and learning. Students who maintain their on-task behavior, increase the probability that they will perform more trials and consequently receive more feedback. Although teacher's classroom management techniques can be effective in increasing students' on-task behavior, in large classrooms or when students are working individually, self-management techniques might be more efficient to implement. The purpose of this consultation project was to evaluate the effects of a self-management intervention on the on-task behavior of a fifth grade female student during individual work tasks in a special education class. Prior to the implementation of the self-management intervention, a direct observation and functional analysis were conducted to determine the function of the problem behavior (i.e., off-task behavior). An ABAB reversal design was used to evaluate the effects of self-goal setting, self-monitoring and self-reinforcing on the student's on-task behavior and the implementation of time-out procedures. Results suggest that the self-management package intervention was effective in increasing on-task behavior and decreasing periods where the student was sent to time-out. Moreover, student requests to use the self-management intervention in other classes and teachers' responses to a questionnaire suggest intervention was socially valid.

This study examined the effects of teaching self-monitoring and recruiting teacher attention on the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of pre-vocational tasks by two sixth grade boys with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. While completing pre-vocational tasks (e.g., sorting hangers by size, weighing amounts in ounces), the students were taught to use a picture prompt checklist to self-monitor the accuracy with which they completed each task. Upon independent completion of the task, the students were taught to recruit their teachers attention to obtain feedback and reinforcement. The dependent variable was the number of steps completed accurately out of 10 total. Six of the 10 steps were the procedures for completing of the prevocational task, and the other four steps were the procedures for recruiting teacher attention. A multiple probe across skills design demonstrated that the intervention was functionally related to increased accuracy of pre-vocational task performance and increased accuracy of recruiting responses for both students. Additionally, one of the two students maintained high percentages of accuracy in the maintenance condition when the self-monitoring picture prompt checklist was discontinued.

Goal setting, self-monitoring, and public posting have been used as intervention components within a broad range of applied settings, and with a variety of age groups ranging from preschoolers to adults. The individuals whose behaviors are targeted with such treatment packages may or may not have disabilities and belong to diverse populations including teachers, parents, athletes, and businesses. Goal setting, self-monitoring, and public posting have effectively enhanced a wide range of behavioral repertoires ranging from physical activity to academic performance, driving skills, on-task behaviors, and even smoking cessation. The current study examined the combined effects of a treatment package consisting of goal setting, self-monitoring, and public posting on the academic productivity of five graduate students and one faculty member. Weekly meetings were held to present data collected from the previous week, and each participant shared whether he or she had met a predetermined goal by publicly posting successes and failures on a chart. After all data were presented, each team member set a new goal, and the chart was posted on the faculty members office door. The results indicate the treatment package had a substantial impact on each participants academic productivity. Limitations and implications are discussed.