Association for Behavior Analysis International

The Vietnam War was the watershed event for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Thirteen years after the end of the Vietnam War, research regarding the biological, psychological, and sociological (biopsychosocial) wellness of veterans began in earnest. Research has expanded to compare lifetime prevalence of such traumatic events as serious accidents, sexual assault, and natural disasters among men and women. The existing body of research argues, while men experience greater lifetime trauma, women tend to experience greater PTSD. Some researchers suggest these differences are the result of greater lifetime interpersonal trauma, such as rape, incest, and domestic violence among women. Others suggest the disparity results from differences in meaning. Since Gulf War I, unprecedented numbers of women have deployed alongside military men. Concomitant with the Iraq War, the Army has conducted five Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT) studies to assess the biopsychosocial wellness of deployed men and women. MHAT report writers assert female soldiers present no greater risk of developing PTSD than their male counterparts. The researcher in the present study questions whether all men and women are equivalent in terms of PTSD resilience. Significant differences in personality, locus of control, and coping behavior exist among the eight sex/gender role categories.

In the last several decades the use of applied behavior principles has grown in importance and sophistication in the zoo and aquarium world. The modern zoological facility often employs a curator level position to oversee behavior management and enrichment programs. Although the basic principles and theories used in zoos and aquariums are not new to the community of behavior analysts, the practical applications and techniques are just emerging and becoming more commonplace in the zoological world. Early application of training principles was primarily used in shows and educational programming. Skilled practitioners of applied behavior principles have also been instrumental in improving animal health care through training exotic animals to assist in their own medical treatment. Perhaps most notable is the increased used of operant and classical conditioning principles in improving the effectiveness of enrichment practices, expanding research capabilities, and advancing wildlife conservation programs. These examples will be used to highlight the growing role of applied behavior analysis in providing excellent animal care.

The profession of applied behavior analysis has undergone a number of exciting changes in recent years. The demand for our services, growth of the certification program, and development of new graduate programs have all combined to increase the number of new behavior analytic practitioners. In fact, there are currently approximately 8,000 individuals who hold certification in behavior analysis, an increase of several thousand from just a few years ago. Despite historical and ethical obligations to base behavior analytic practice on peer-reviewed evidence, a number of barriers sometimes make this difficult. For example, a number of clinically relevant experimental questions have not yet been answered in the literature. In addition, although the behavioral literature is replete with examples of effective treatment, there is a paucity of peer-reviewed published guidance on how to select these treatments given specific clinical circumstances. Finally, although graduate students in behavior analysis often receive training on how to critically consume the research literature, there are a number of obstacles to their access to the literature after graduation. In this presentation, I will describe several scholarly mechanisms through which behavioral scientists and senior clinicians can influence the behavior of new practitioners. Examples will be provided in the areas of developing clinical decision-making guidelines assisting practitioners in accessing the research literature.

Private events present a dilemma for behavior analysis. On one hand, their reality seems manifest; everyone thinks, senses, and feels. On the other hand, their privacy is problematic for a science of behavior, because one cannot observe them in another creature. Even if we allow that privacy is accidental-only the result of absence of technology-the problem remains, because private events in another creature can only be inferred and therefore are as hypothetical as any mental construct. We may clarify the problem by examining three examples: waiting, hearing, and pain. From these, we see that the problem arises when one asks what a person is doing at a particular moment. Behavior analysts have sometimes tried to distinguish one momentary activity from another by appealing to private events, a move no better than folk psychology. The solution to the problem appears when we see that the phrase "momentary behavior" is an oxymoron. Behavior is temporally extended by its nature, and asking what a person is doing at a moment is a pseudo-question, akin to asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Extended patterns of behavior produce observable, measurable, results. Applying this insight to the examples of waiting, hearing, and pain, we see how it removes the need to talk about private events at all.

Constraint-induced (CI) therapy is a family of neurorehabilitation treatments that involve shaping and other behavioral procedures to substantially improve motor deficits produced by brain damage. Its main application has been to stroke patients, but the basic procedure has also been used with patients with traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis, and modified protocols have been used for patients with cerebral palsy and other motor deficits due to brain damage in pediatric patients (pediatric CI therapy), language in aphasia patients (CI Aphasia therapy-CIAT), focal hand dystonia and phantom limb pain. The efficacy of CI therapy for stroke patients has been established by a multi-site randomized clinical trial (JAMA, 2006; Lancet Neurol., 2008) and numerous single-site randomized controlled trials. It may be viewed as behavior analysis' contribution to the field of neurorehabilitation.

A growing body of literature supports the use of academic interventions based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although a number of academic interventions are described in the extant literature, there is considerable variability in the methods used to teach conditional discriminations (e.g., receptive identification) to children with ASD. In addition, the identification of efficient instructional strategies is important to increase the likelihood that children with ASD will acquire skills that are similar to their typically developing peers. The collection of presentations in this symposium will describe cutting-edge research evaluating the efficacy and/or efficiency of various prompting procedures. The presentations in this symposium will describe (a) a comparison of two errorless prompting procedures for teaching conditional discriminations, (b) an instructional strategy called instructive feedback, and describe how non-target stimuli can be programmed into learning trials to promote acquisition and the emergence of untrained targets, and (c) the inclusion of instructive feedback within a stimulus equivalence paradigm to produce the emergence of numerous untrained relations.

Effective instruction for teaching conditional discriminations to learners with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involves errorless teaching procedures that prescribe prompts to occasion selection of the discriminative stimulus (SD) in the presence of each conditional stimulus (sample). These prompts are then systematically faded until the SD is selected given only the sample. Two common proceduresconstant (CTD) and progressive time delay (PTD)fade the prompt by increasing the time between SD and prompt presentations. There have been few direct comparisons of these two procedures. In the current study, 4 children with an ASD were taught 2 sets of conditional discriminations in an alternating treatment design; one set was taught with PTD and the other with 5-s CTD (a 3rd set was taught with 2-s CTD to 2 of the children). Acceptable levels of inter-observer agreement and procedural integrity, collected in approximately 33% of sessions, were obtained. PTD and CTD were both effective in teaching the conditional discriminations. The most efficient procedure was idiosyncratic; however, all of the children made more errors with CTD than PTD. These results suggest that PTD may be the preferred errorless teaching procedure when teaching conditional relations in match-to-sample instruction.

Previous research has evaluated the effect of incorporating non-target stimuli into the antecedent and consequent events of learning trials (i.e., instructive feedback). Using such teaching practices has resulted in an increase in the efficiency of time delay procedures as demonstrated by broader learning and a positive impact on future learning. However, existing studies have failed to include conditions in which targets are presented in the absence of contingent reinforcement or a control condition in which non-targets are not presented. In addition, limited data are available to guide the application of instructive feedback to children with autism. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend previous research by examining the effects of instructive feedback on emergent skills. Preliminary results indicate that these teaching procedures lead to broader learning (i.e., mastery of trained and untrained targets) for some participants. The discussion of results will consider possible operant mechanisms and appropriate use of this teaching practice in early intervention programming.

Our previous investigation embedded instructive feedback into a stimulus equivalence preparation to increase the efficiency with which emergent relations were obtained. The A-B relations were trained using match-to-sample (MTS) procedures, and B-C relations were embedded in MTS trials via instructive feedback. Results indicated that targets presented during instructive feedback were acquired in half the number of sessions as the match-to-sample stimuli. In addition, all of the participants acquired 3 untrained relations per target (for a total of 24-30 untrained relations). The current investigation extended our previous study by eliminating the match-to-sample requirement and presenting only the untrained targets during the trial. That is, we simply held up pictures or words and stated the name of the stimulus on the card. The child was not required to respond, and reinforcement was not provided for responding. We conducted baseline sessions throughout the evaluation to determine the point at which the instructive feedback stimuli were acquired. The results for 3 participants showed that all stimuli presented during instructive feedback were acquired, and these participants acquired 3 untrained relations per target. We will discuss how non-target stimuli can be embedded into learning trials to increase instructional efficiency.

Given the importance of systematically ensuring quality behavioral services for all individuals in need, understanding and utilizing legislation at the state and federal levels is a fundamental priority for the field. With an increasing number of states becoming involved in legislation and insurance regulations there is a unique opportunity for other regions to take advantage of the successes and pitfalls within these legislation processes. This symposium will discuss processes involved with legislation and insurance for three states, with a fundamental focus on providing process information relevant to the continued growth of quality behavior-analytic legislation. The first presentation will address the current legislation, licensure, and insurance processes within Kentucky. The second presentation will discuss Missouris autism insurance legislation and areas associated with the development and implementation of this legislation. The final presentation will provide a description of the process involved with Arizonas state licensure for behavior analysts and the details involved with behavior analysts regulating their services.

On April 14, 2010 Kentucky enacted House Bill 159 to begin the process of integrating a regulatory system for behavioral services and outlining insurance regulations for these services. Due to efforts from clinicians, parents, advocates, and lobbyists, Kentucky joined several other states in the pursuit of behavior-analytic legislation. As the result of these efforts, the Kentucky Applied Behavior Analysis Licensing Board was created to develop and oversee regulations surrounding behavioral services and licensure. The purpose of this presentation will be to explain the history of Kentuckys behavior analysis legislation, while focusing on the overall system of integrating standards and regulations for behavioral services state-wide. As part of the licensure and legislation processes, the role of insurance for behavioral services will be discussed with an emphasis placed on how this relationship will impact families and clinicians in the community. Through the analysis of these processes, systems strengths and concerns will be discussed pertaining to the continued improvement of these processes within the state and for the benefit of other states pursuing a comparable path of action.

Missouri was the 21st state to pass autism insurance legislation on May 12, 2010. During the testimony of the bill the insurance companies and lobbyists proposed language for state licensure of behavior analysts and they were successful in making that happen. In their push for licensure many questions, hurdles, and concerns regarding licensure versus the established national certification program for providers ofapplied behavior analysiswere addressed and those will be discussed in the presentation. The issues following the establishment of this insurance bill and behavior analysis practice act will be shared and how they were addressed by the behavior analysts in the State of Missouri with the support of several national organizations. In conjunction with the mission of the symposium, this presentation will aim to add to the collective knowledge of the field by helping in the understanding, implementation, and continuous quality improvement of legislation, licensure, and insurance processes for behavior analysts.

Arizona was the first state to pass a law requiring licensing of behavior analysts. This was pursued in order to recognize behavior analysts as equivalent to other mental (behavioral) health providers in terms of signing treatment plans and billing for services. While the original legislation was to license BCBAs, the final law added additional requirements. The outcome is that it is now difficult for many BCBAs to become licensed in Arizona without gaining additional supervised experience. The law also required that the regulatory board be the Board of Psychologist Examiners. The purpose of this presentation is to share the steps taken to (a) make licensure equivalent to certification, and (b) to establish a means for behavior analysts to regulate themselves. In conjunction with the mission of the symposium, this presentation will aim to add to the collective knowledge of the field by helping in the understanding, implementation, and continuous quality improvement of legislation and licensure processes for behavior analysts.

Deficits in language are some of the most critical delays associated with autism. Deficits may be observed in foundational verbal repertoires such as imitation and in more complex repertoires like listening and reading comprehension. These deficits impact many aspects of a childs life. Language delays can make it difficult to interact with parents, siblings, teachers, and peers. Children who experience deficits in comprehension have difficulty making progress in academic areas. It is because of the expansive impact of language delays that addressing these deficits is often a primary goal of behavioral approaches to treatment for children with autism. This symposium includes three papers, each presenting an innovative approach to addressing language deficits. The first paper investigates the effects of reciprocal imitation on establishing an early vocal imitation repertoire. Differences in the rate of acquisition of mands given negative or positive reinforcement are examined in the second paper. Finally, the third paper explores the role ofrelational frame theoryand relational processes in understanding listening and reading comprehension with children with autism.

This case study investigated the effects of reciprocal imitation training on the vocal imitation of a young child with autism. Vocal imitation is often the first step in establishing a vocal-verbal repertoire. The child in this study demonstrated a limited vocal repertoire in that he produced very few sounds independently and rarely imitated vocal models accurately, making it difficult to teach vocal language. The child's correct and independent imitations of an adult's model were measured when an adult first imitated the vocal responses of the child. A significant increase in the number of imitative vocal responses made by the child following the adult's model was consistently and repeatedly observed under these conditions, as compared to baseline when the adult did not first imitate the child. The case study presents an innovative approach to teaching vocal imitation to young children with autism. It may be especially important for children who have particular difficulty imitating vocal models.

The behavior analytic research on teaching manding focuses on mands maintained by positive reinforcement. While mand training tends to begin with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement may provide another powerful means by which to teach and reinforce manding behavior. The current paper explores differences in the rate of acquisition of mands, as well as the effects on other problematic behaviors when mands were taught using positive and negative reinforcement. Manding was taught to children who did not demonstrate manding for the access to preferred items and for the removal of lesser preferred items. During the teaching phase, generalization probes were administered to assess manding with respect to novel items, both preferred and non-preferred. Upon mastery of mands during the teaching phase, follow-up assessments were conducted to assess maintenance of manding repertoire taught during the mand training portion of the study. The data show that teaching children to mand both in the presence of highly preferred and lesser preferred items or events leads to increased appropriate vocal behavior and decreased occurrences of problem behavior.

One of the most critical delays associated with autism is in language development. Intensive early intervention programs are concerned primarily with arranging environments in an effort to circumvent these language delays. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon for children with autism to struggle with academic behaviors that involve comprehension. Language deficits can affect a childs ability to understand and behave effectively to what is heard and read. Listening and reading comprehension are language-based repertoires, and are therefore, inherently relational. Relational frame theory (RFT) provides a useful model for understanding the core behavioral processes necessary for listening and reading comprehension. The current presentation will discuss findings from recent research endeavors and clinical applications with children with autism that explore the role of relational operants and relational flexibility in comprehension with children with autism.

The current symposium includes four papers addressing the topic of preference and reinforcer assessments of social consequences. For the first paper, the presenter will describe a preference assessment procedure for identifying social consequences that may function as reinforcers in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder. The author will then review data on the use of the preferred social consequence for increasing joint attention skills. For the second paper, the presenter will review data on a progressive series of assessments for identifying various topographies of attention that may function as reinforcers. The author will also review test-retest reliability data across assessment procedures as well as data on outcome validity. For the third paper, the author will review data on the role of adult social interaction on participants relative preference for various leisure items. The presenter will also review data on the relative reinforcing efficacy of a high preference leisure item when adult interaction is and is not concurrently presented. For the forth paper, the presenter will review data on the reinforcing efficacy of a preferred social stimulus or edible following the presence versus absence of a presession exposure period.

We evaluated a procedure for identifying potential reinforcers with five individuals diagnosed with autism. We used a 1-min free-operant procedure where responses resulted in contingent presentation of a social consequence. Each participant was exposed to five different social consequences. Following the preference assessment we examined the reinforcing properties of preferred social stimuli by delivering them contingently on the occurrence of joint attention skills during a joint attention intervention. Results revealed that the preferred social stimuli produced higher rates of responding during the intervention than the baseline condition. These results suggest that the procedure can be used to assess social reinforcers for individuals with autism.

Although experimenters have compared assessment methods for identifying preferred tangible and edible items for children with developmental disabilities, few have evaluated assessment methods for identifying preferred topographies of attention. In the current study, we conducted indirect and descriptive assessments to identify eight topographies of attention to include in subsequent preference and reinforcer assessments. Next, we evaluated two different assessment methods until adequate stability was achieved with one of the methods. During both methods, a therapist presented photos depicting the topographies of attention included in the stimulus array, and a control photo (resulting in no consequence) was included. Following the assessment comparison, we conducted a reinforcer assessment using a socially relevant target behavior to determine the relative predictive validity of high- versus low-preference forms of attention. Interobserver agreement data was collected across a third of sessions and averaged above 90% for all responses. Results showed that the paired-stimulus method reliably identified relative preference and that both high and low preference topographies identified via this assessment format functioned as effective reinforcers in a subsequent reinforcer assessment. The single-stimulus assessment method identified reinforcers but didnt reliably indicate relative reinforcement effects. Implications for assessing topographies of attention will be discussed.

The types of items in a preference assessment array affect preference hierarchies and may cause false negative identification of stimuli that function as reinforcers (DeLeon, Iwata, & Roscoe, 1999). The purpose of the current study is to determine the effects of social interaction (e.g., adult interaction with participant/item during item access time) on (a) preference for leisure items and (b) response allocation to pre-academic tasks exhibited by typically developing, preschool-age children. In Study 1, three paired-stimulus preference assessments are conducted: (a) a solitary assessment (i.e., participant engages with items alone), (b) a social assessment (i.e., the participant engages with the items and accesses continuous social interaction), and (c) a combined assessment (i.e., both solitary and social options are available). Results suggest that the provision of social interaction causes shifts in preference hierarchies across assessments. In Study 2, concurrent-operant reinforcer assessments are conducted in which access to either a highly preferred (HP) item, the same HP item with continuous social interaction, or social interaction in isolation are provided contingent upon responding to a pre-academic task. Preliminary results suggest that participants allocate more responding to the HP item with continuous social interaction and social interaction in isolation than the HP item.

Previous research has shown that (a) presession access (continuous access) to a reinforcing stimulus can result in subsequent decreases in responding for that stimulus, whereas (b) no presession access to a reinforcing stimulus can result in subsequent increases in responding for that stimulus. The purpose of the current study was to replicate this finding and extend it by comparing the levels of subsequent responding after exposure to several different presession reinforcement contingencies including (a) no access, (b) continuous access, (c) contingent reinforcement, and (d) noncontingent reinforcement. Typically developing preschool-age children were provided different presession exposure to a preferred stimulus (either attention or food), then the level of responding on a pre-academic task to access that stimulus was determined. Results of the current study suggested that (a) all children initially preferred food over attention as a reinforcing stimulus and (b) no presession schedule of food access affected subsequent responding for food (i.e., the participants continued to respond to access food).

The York Measure of Quality of Intensive Behaviour Intervention (YMQI) is a validated measure of the quality of intensive behaviour interventions (IBI). IBI is an empirically validated treatment for children with autism, and as more families and educators request IBI programs, measures are needed to assess the quality of programs and to train therapists. In this symposium, we will discuss further validation of the YMQI and applications for service delivery, such as using the YMQI to train therapists and improve the quality of teaching.

Intensive behavioural intervention (IBI)is the treatment of choice for young children with autism but treatment fidelity is seldom measured. The York Measure of Quality of Intensive Behavioural Intervention (YMQI) was designed to provide a reliable and valid measure of IBI fidelity or quality, based on coding videos. This presentation will describe the development of the YMQI. Content of the YMQI was based on a review of the literature, existing staff training evaluation tools, and a survey of professionals and parents regarding important aspects of quality (Perry, Prichard, & Penn, 2006). The pilot version of the YMQI included both an interval coding approach and a ratings approach. The ratings approach was more reliable and valid and substantially more time efficient (Penn, Prichard, & Perry, 2007). The penultimate version of the YMQI had 33 items. Its internal consistency was good (a=.86) and inter-rater reliability was moderate to good for most items. Validity was assessed using Expert Judgement and was acceptable for most items as well. The Total score was highly reliable and valid. After a few additional refinements, the current version has 31 items related to IBI quality such as reinforcement, prompting, and pacing.

In the current study, we used The York Measure of Quality Intensive Behaviour Intervention (YMQI) as a tool to train and provide feedback to therapists working on intensive behaviour internvention(IBI) programs. Therapists were given training on the YMQI and were recorded during a one-on-one teaching session. The researchers provided the therapists and their consultants with written, specific feedback on their YMQI score, which included scores for each of the 31 criteria assessed by the YMQI, reasons why they were awarded a particular score, and what steps they could take to improve each score. We utilised a multiple treatment across participants design to schedule feedback sessions, and assessed the quality of therapy again several weeks later. The therapists were unknown to the coders and the coders were blind to whether or not the therapists had been given feedback. A total of four sessions were recorded and coded for each therapist. Pilot data revealed that the therapists scores on the YMQI improved after feedback. The YMQI is a useful tool to provide specific feedback to therapists and improve the quality of IBI programs.

Intensive behaviour therapy (IBI) is an empirically validated intervention for young children with autism. Numerous research studies have shown that outcome measures can be mediated by factors such as the age the child started the program, the child's IQ prior to the intervention, and the intensity of the program. Very few studies have investigated if the quality of IBI impacts the rate of learning and adaptive behaviours. In the following study, we compared therapist's scores on the York Measure of Intensive Behaviour Intervention (YMQI) with the rate of challenging behaviours observed during the session and the rate at which the child mastered novel tasks. We hypothesised that as a therapist became more skilled as measured by the YMQI, the child would show a decrease in challenging behaviours. Using a multiple baseline design, we provided feedback to the therapists based on their results on the YMQI and provided training based on the feedback. We took regular measures of therapist quality and the instances of challenging behaviour before and after the feedback and training. We will present the results of this study.

This presentation will focus on current and ongoing research on the York Measure of Quality of Intensive Behavioural Intervention (YMQI) currently being conducted at York University. We will discuss three projects: 1) We will report on a study on training naive coders (psychology undergraduates) using an interactive DVD. The training DVD includes five videos for practice coding. Six coders coded the videos based only on reading the manual and using the DVD. Not all achieved high rates of inter-rater reliability and, thus, an in-person training session was provided. This resulted in improved reliability for most coders for most videos. 2) Second, we will briefly describe how the YMQI is being used in a prospective controlled study of the effectiveness of intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) (Dunn Geier, Freeman, & Perry, 2010) in the Ontario IBI program (40 children, with monthly videos during 12 months of IBI). 3) Finally, results of an inter-rater agreement study currently underway (Whiteford, Blacklock, & Perry, 2010), based on videos from the prospective study, will be reported (based on approximately 25% of these videos).

Improving communicative ability represents a critical intervention component for individuals with autism spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities. The current symposium reviews several important aspects of effective communication training for this at-risk population. The first presentation is an evaluation of the effects of motivating operations of on a discriminative stimulus using a voice output communication aid (VOCA) to access tangible items. The second presentation is an evaluation of a clinical model for evaluating individual differences in the acquisition of and preference for different communication topographies (picture exchange, sign language and vocal approximation). The third presentation is an evaluation of the use of multiple schedules of reinforcement andfunctional communication training for the treatment of severe challenging behavior.

We examined a series of motivating operations (MOs) to examine the direct effects that an establishing operation (EO) and abolishing operation (AO) may have on a discriminative stimulus. Two participants with developmental disabilities participated. Use of a voice output communication aid (VOCA) to access tangible items was selected as the target behavior. In Phase 1, a preference assessment was conducted. In Phase II, two VOCA devices (BIGMack® switch) that differed only in color were used to train discrimination. Discrimination was trained under two conditions: (a) SD and (b) S?. In Phase III, pre-session MOs (i.e. EO and AO conditions) were manipulated to verify the influence of the MO on the target behavior. Target behavior was reinforced on a fixed ratio 1 (FR-1) schedule. In Phase IV, in addition to manipulating pre-session MOs the target behavior was evaluated under extinction in both SD and S? conditions. Results indicated that in the context of extinction when pre-session EO and AO conditions were manipulated responding not only differentiated but was higher in both SD and S? conditions in the pre-session EO condition when compared to the pre-session AO condition.

Individuals with autism have significant impairments in their ability to communicate with others. Estimates indicate that about 50 percent of children with autism are nonvocal (Frankel, Leary & Kilman, 1987). To address these deficits, several 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 topographies of communication have all been shown to be effective in specific clinical instances, the selection of communication topography has generally been based on arbitrary guidelines, such as the individual's developmental level, motor skills, and the recommendations of a speech-language pathologist. To this point, relatively little research has evaluated procedures to determine which modality represents a "best fit" with individual learning styles. The purpose of the current investigation is to design an assessment model that evaluates the rate of acquisition and student preference to determine the most appropriate communication modality for use with instruction. Preliminary results indicate that the rates of acquisition across the different communication modalities varied across participants. In addition, participants displayed clear preferences for one modality over another when they were concurrently available.

The use of multiple schedules of reinforcement during functional communication training (FCT) has gained increased attention in the literature pertaining to the treatment of severe challenging behavior. In this presentation we will present the results of several evaluations that combine the use of multiple schedules of reinforcement and FCT. First, we present data replicating previous studies using multiple schedules to thin differential reinforcement delivery following FCT. Next we will present data from an evaluation in which we combined FCT and a multiple schedule of reinforcement to treat severe challenging behaviors maintained by termination of interruptions of ongoing activities exhibited by a young girl with Asperger's syndrome. Results of each study suggested that the combining multiple schedules of reinforcement and FCT were effective at decreasing severe challenging behavior. Interobserver agreement was obtained during at least 20% of sessions for each evaluation and averaged above 90%.

The role of the therapeutic alliance is of central importance to the development and implementation of many therapeutic techniques. Traditionally, the study of interpersonal processes has come from non-behavioral researchers who approach the phenomena from a common factors or cognitive perspective. This symposium offers a behavioral account of interpersonal interactions with a focus on identifying core behavioral indices of interpersonal engagement and the psychological presence of participants. While most research in this area has relied on participant self-reports and self-ratings of these variables, the studies presented here will focus almost exclusively on data derived from researchers using behavioral assessment methods to code videotapes of analogue therapy interactions. These studies will explore many of the theoretical assertions made about the therapeutic relationship in Mindfulness for Two (Wilson & DuFrene, 2009) including the role mindfulness, disclosure, and permission play in fostering meaningful interpersonal interactions. Implications for a behavioral conceptualization of both therapeutic and more broadly defined interpersonal relationships will be discussed. Finally, future directions for the development of behavioral indices of interpersonal interactions will be offered.

The purpose of this analog study was to see how manipulating the context of the therapeutic interaction would affect outcome and process variables relevant to the practice of acceptance and commitment therapy (Wilson & DuFrene, 2009). Examples of contextual manipulations in this study are mindfulness exercise engagement and values based measure completion. Undergraduate participants were paired up and assigned to the role of conversation leader or conversation partner. The participants' instructions varied depending on manipulation but in all conditions the conversation leader was instructed to ask the partner about a disagreement they had with someone who was important to them. Data were collected and researchers coded videotaped recordings of the sessions. Self-report data were also collected post-conversation from both conversation leaders and partners. We investigated whether participant adherence to the conversational task and degree of personal content shared affected the conversation experience.

The purpose of this analog study was to see how manipulating the context of the therapeutic interaction would affect outcome and process variables relevant to the practice of acceptance and commitment therapy (Wilson & DuFrene, 2009). Examples of contextual manipulations in this study are mindfulness exercise engagement and values based measure completion. Undergraduate participants were paired up and assigned to the role of conversation leader or partner. The participants' instructions varied depending on manipulation but in all conditions the conversation leader was instructed to ask the partner about a disagreement they had with someone who is important to them. Data were collected and trained researchers coded videotaped recordings of the sessions. Self-report data were also collected post-conversation from both conversation leaders and partners. We investigated whether the presence of participants (e.g., eye contact, posture, details of speech, etc.) affected the conversation experience.

Traditionally, the goal of mainstream psychological treatments has been symptom reduction. As a result, assessments and interviews have largely been focused on measuring symptoms. There has been a shift in focus with new behavior therapies such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which prioritizes the development of broader, more flexible patterns of activity over symptom reduction. New interviews and other forms of assessment are needed to measure the broader treatment goals of ACT. Wilson and DuFrene (2009) developed a semi-structured interview, the Hexaflex Functional Dimensional Experiential Interview (HFDEI) to identify and explore client's values, set a direction in treatment, and assess the six theorized processes in ACT that contribute to psychological wellbeing. The HFDEI is a valued centered interview that consists of assessment, mindfulness, writing, and conversation components. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the HFDEI on process and outcome variables of theoretical interest to ACT. Undergraduate participants completed self-report measures before and after the HFDEI and behavioral measures were also obtained by coding videotapes of the interviews. Implications and future directions for the assessment of core ACT processes will be discussed.

Last year, almost 20,000 children in the State of Florida were living in the foster care system. Research has indicated that children who remain with their families, instead of being removed from their homes, have significantly better outcomes than those children placed in foster care. These outcomes include lower rates of teen pregnancy and arrests, and longer lengths of stable employment. Additionally, the cost in the State of Florida for placing a child in the foster care system averages approximately $6000 a year per child (i.e., $120,000,000 last year) not including additional costs such as medical expenses. This talk describes a behaviorally-based program designed to prevent at-risk children from entering the foster care system. The program utilizes the principles and procedures of applied behavior analysis to generate positive change in the behavior of at-risk adolescents and their families. The talk further depicts the methods employed, based on Dr. Glenn Latham's Tools for Positive Parenting, to address common problem behaviors and parenting skills needed to increase and maintain appropriate behaviors for typically developing adolescents residing in their homes. The implications of utilizing behavior analytic methods with typically developing individuals will also be discussed.

Problem behavior is extremely common throughout childhood, and time out (TO) is one of the most common disciplinary tactics used by parents to address problem behavior. However, despite the prevalence of use and five decades of research demonstrating the efficacy of TO, parents rate TO as one of the least useful behavior modification techniques. This discrepancy between parental opinion and empirical data may be due to the fact that all research conducted thus far has used adults highly trained in empirically-supported TO procedures. No previous research has examined the degree of similarity between TO conducted by untrained parents to empirically-supported TO procedures. Fifty-five mothers were asked to define TO and to provide information on how they conduct TO. In addition, videotaped vignettes were used to determine the extent to which mothers could identify errors in TO procedures and whether that ability was related to child problem behavior. Results indicate that participants' conceptualizations of TO differed considerably from the empirical rationale for TO. Relatively few participants reported adhering to or could identify the majority of parameters that have been shown to make TO effective. No significant relationships between TO accuracy and levels of child problem behavior were found. However, mothers who use TO procedures that are closer to the empirical ideal and who find TO to be more effective report using TO to punish a greater number of child problem behaviors.

Previous studies of response classes have shown that severe problem behavior, mild problem behavior, and precursor behavior (innocuous behaviors that reliably precede the occurrence of problem behavior) may exist within response classes or response class hierarchies in some individuals with developmental disabilities. This study extended such response class examinations to include existing mands. First, parent-implemented functional analyses identified conditions associated with both increased problem behavior and increased mands in two children with autism. Then, parents provided the maintaining reinforcer contingent on child problem behavior alone or both child problem behavior and child mands in an ABAB withdrawal design. The treatment analysis indicated that the same reinforcer maintained existing child mands and child problem behavior. In addition, parent reinforcement of child mands was associated with large reductions in child problem behavior even when problem behavior continued to produce reinforcement.

While the utility of behavior analysis for improving lives is by now unquestionable, the potential for meaningful intervention at the cultural level is in its infancy. Each of the presentations in this symposium takes a somewhat different perspective on "scaling up." This diversity is important at this stage of the development of applied cultural analysis, given limited data regarding the best theoretical and practical directions for having a meaningful impact. Josh Pritchard begins by giving an overview of where we are as a field, and where we are going. The remaining papers offer sophisticated analyses of three very different social issues, and each takes a somewhat different theoretical perspective including interbehavioral and metacontingency approaches informed by the realities of the specific problem areas being examined. From piracy as an exemplar of collective violence rooted in the economic realities of the third world, to the enormous challenges of criminal justice in the US with all of the human rights dimensions that involves, to systematic analysis of metacontingencies that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, each paper suggests the critical importance of cultural analysis in dealing with issues emerginf from extraordinarily complex behavioral systems dynamics. Each offers directions for action, as well as exemplars for the analysis of other complex social issues.

In 2007, Chance made the case that our ultimate challenge was to prove Skinner wrong in the pessimism espoused towards the end of his life regarding behavior analysiss ability to save the world. Despite the calamitous situation of our species on this planet, all may not yet be lost. This presentation will highlight some of the endeavours (some successful, others less so) that behavior analysts have undertaken with our science. These have been efforts of community intervention, widespread dissemination, and efforts to scale up. It is actions like these that may provide enough impact on the world to move us closer towards a species whose destiny is that other than extinction. In essence, this will be a tribute, overview, and reminder to all of the hard work of some of the world's best behavior analysts who have in fact begun the long journey to meet Chance's challenge and prove B. F. Skinner wrong.

Maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia has been thrust into the international spotlight due to its effects on international financial markets and, hence, the livelihood of many individuals around the world. Furthermore, the history of Somalia itself is one of continuous failed attempts at establishing stability in the country. While the recent piracy literature offers suggestions for intervention, they are in need of further elaboration and specification. Given these factors, the author provides an analysis of this pressing issue from a behavior analytic perspective. The issue of how and why a science of individual behavior is relevant to cultural issues will be addressed utilizing Kantor’s interbehavioral system of cultural psychology, which precisely delineates the subject matters of psychology from other sciences. As such, two specific interdisciplinary assessment-and-intervention plans are outlined that are fully integrated with recent behavior analytic research; one plan involves consultation with maritime academies while the other requires behavior analysts to immerse themselves in Somali culture. An explicitly scientific approach may be what is needed to combat maritime piracy in Somalia.

Criminal recidivism is a costly social issue which, according to statistics, is a self-perpetuating problem, whereby individuals who are incarcerated are more likely to be subsequently arrested and convicted upon release, and evidence indicates there is a positive correlation between number of previous arrests and convictions and future arrests and convictions. One shortcoming of traditional attempts to reduce recidivism is a failure to identify the functions of criminal acts, which will presumably inform more effective interventions when taken into account. Crimes for monetary gain exhibit the highest rates of recidivism and the present article presents a potential multilevel community-wide intervention paradigm for addressing the possible functions of these crimes and methods to implement community-based interventions to reduce recidivism of these crimes while focusing on community collaboration techniques.

The metacontingency is a concept that has been developed to provide an interdisciplinary account of phenomenon at high levels of complexity. The recent conceptualizations of the metacontingency have offered a comprehensive set of analyses that highlight the importance of antecedent variables such as cultural milieu, leadership communication, and consumer practices in our analysis of cultural change. This approach is especially helpful when attempting to establish long term solutions to large scale problems. Recent events involving deadly malfunctions on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig have exposed the dangers of the oil industry. Currently the United States Government is attempting to fix the problem by creating regulations to ensure these accidents are not repeated. However, they address the problem at the behavioral level when these problems would be better addressed at the cultural level, or the level of the metacontingency. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of the concept of metacontingency in systematic analysis of complex phenomena such as unsafe practices in oil production.

Video prompting has been demonstrated to be an effective method for teaching new skills to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. Although there is adequate research to support its use, questions remain about the nuances of specific intervention components. This symposium will present four applied studies that employed video prompting to teach individuals with developmental disabilities. The studies compared error correction methodologies, compared video prompting to picture prompting, and compared methods for fading the video prompts. The video prompts were presented on an iPod Touch, and were successfully used to teach a variety of daily living skills to 11 individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The results from these studies provide new insights into how best to implement and fade video prompting procedures. The practical utility of using an iPod Touch as a video prompting system will be discussed along with implications for practice and recommendations for future research.

Video prompting has been used to successfully teach new skills to individuals with various developmental disabilities. This study compared the effects of video prompting without error correction to video prompting with error correction on the acquisition of two daily living skills across three individuals with severe intellectual disabilities and an extremely limited daily living skills repertoire. A combination multiple probe across participants and alternating treatments design was used to demonstrate that for two of the participants, the inclusion of error correction from the outset of intervention increased the efficiency of skill acquisition for at least one task. For the third participant, some skill acquisition was observed with video prompting both with and without error correction, but more stable responding was achieved with in vivo instruction.

Video prompting had been used to effectively teach a variety of daily living skills for students with developmental disabilities. This study extended previous research and compared the effects of two fading procedures-fading within intervention and fading after acquisition, for two adolescents with developmental disabilities. A combination multiple baseline across participants and reversal design was used in this study. Two fading procedures were applied separately to two equivalent daily living tasks-table washing and window washing. Separate video clips were merged into multiple larger clips after the acquisition for the window washing task. Video clips were chunked backward when the student mastered each step of the table washing task. Percentage of correct responses and sessions needed for acquisition for each task were measured and compared. Results indicated that video prompting led to acquisition of both skills and that both fading procedures were effective. However, the fading within intervention procedure resulted in more efficient acquisition and better maintenance and generalization effects of the target skill taught. Implication for practice and future research will be discussed.

A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of using an iPod Touch to teach bathroom cleaning skills to three students with autism and/or developmental disabilities. Initial instructional trials involved the presentation of video prompts on an iPod and these were faded to picture/auditory prompts once students engaged in high levels of independent correct responding with the video prompts. All three participants continued with high levels of independent responding once the video prompts were faded to picture/auditory prompts and all three continued to improve their performance. However, results are somewhat tempered by the fact that baselines were ascending for two of the three participants. All students indicated preference for the picture/auditory prompts and all stated that they liked using the iPod Touch as an instructional tool. The practical utility of using an iPod as a prompting system will be discussed.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of video prompting and picture prompting for teaching daily living skills to two young men with autism. Participants were taught two different skills that were identified as instructional priorities in their educational programs. Each task was taught with either video prompts presented on a laptop or picture prompts presented in a booklet and the effects of the instructional conditions were evaluated and compared using an adapted alternating treatments design. Results indicated that video prompting was slightly more effective in terms of independent correct responding and number of prompts to use instructional materials. In addition, when efficiency scores were calculated by considering the ratio of each participant's growth (from pre-test to post-test) to the measured "cost" of minutes required to create instructional materials, video prompting was considerably more efficient than picture prompting. Instructional implications and future research will be discussed.

The current study evaluated the effect of the Many-To-One (MTO) training structure on the establishment of equivalence classes in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Six young adults aged between 18 and 24-years-old diagnosed with learning disabilities were selected from a residential unit. Three member stimulus classes were taught using MTO training structure (B1A1, B2A2, B3A3, C1A1, C2A2, and C3A3). Cooking measurements were used as the experimental stimuli (e.g. A= Cups, B= Tablespoons, C= Ounces). A one group pretest-posttest design was used in this experiment. All participants were exposed to generalization probes, pretest, conditional discrimination training, equivalence test, posttest and generalization probes. During the generalization probes participants had to cook a recipe using the cooking measurements acquired during the training and testing phases. The results showed that only two participants demonstrated equivalence relations and one completed the generalization probe. Some conclusions are provided on the effectiveness of training structures on the establishment of equivalence classes in individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Many applied behavior analysis (ABA) clinicians consider Rett syndrome as a rare disorder which they might not encounter in their practice. While this might be true, given the devastating effects of Rett syndrome on the quality of life of individuals, it behooves the ABA clinicians to understand the behavioral phenotypes of Rett syndrome and the applicability of ABA therapy to some of the Rett syndrome symptoms. Current treatment options include physical therapy, music therapy, sensory integration, speech and language therapy, augmentative and alternative communication, occupational therapy, and ABA. With the range of Rett phenotypes, one would have expected more use of ABA therapy. However, a search through the literature reveals a dearth of published studies using ABA therapy. The few studies date as far back as 1990s and early 2000s. The current paper seeks to review the state of the literature regarding the use of ABA for treating Rett syndrome. Questions that will be answered include (a) to which specific symptoms of Rett is ABA applicable? (b) what is the current status of ABA as a treatment option for Rett? (c) how can ABA as a professional organization promote ABA as a treatment option for Rett syndrome? and (d) how can practitioners gain buy in from parents and other stakeholders?

Individuals with an intellectual disability who exhibit challenging behaviour are often diagnosed with a mental illness (MI). Prevalence rates of MI vary from study to study. There has been ongoing discussion regarding this variability and its sources. Diagnosis of MI can be conceptualized as a perceptual task where the clinician reports whether the stimulus (MI) is present or absent. The theory of signal detection suggests that the variability in diagnosis results from difficulties in identifying the signal (the mental illness) from the noise (typical fluctuations in human behaviour). Using this model, there are four potential outcomes: MI is present and is diagnosed (accurate diagnosis); is present but is not identified (missed diagnosis); is not present but is diagnosed (false positive); and is not present and is not diagnosed. The theory further posits that decision-making is affected by the consequences of the decision. The literature addressing mental illness diagnoses for individuals with an intellectual disability was reviewed to identify issues that may be responsible for variability in the prevalence rates. Results indicate that a signal detection model may account for the variability seen across studies. It is possible that mental illness prevalence may be overestimated because of a bias toward false positives. The prevalence of mental illness among individuals with an intellectual disability is still not known at this time.

When reinforcement based interventions are insufficient for the reduction of problem behavior that poses a significant threat to the client or to others, it is sometimes necessary to utilize punishment based strategies. Research has demonstrated that stimulus avoidance assessments such as the one proposed by Fisher, Piazza, Bowman, Hagopian, and Langdon (1994) can be an effective method of identifying likely aversive stimuli to be used in response reduction procedures. However, in some cases, response reduction procedures may lose effectiveness over time. The current study examined the stability of the avoidance index over time and correspondence with treatment effectiveness. Four individuals who engaged in severe problem behavior participated in the current study. For each participant, several reinforcement based strategies had been unsuccessful at reducing severe problem behavior. An initial stimulus avoidance assessment was used to identify the consequence most likely to function as an effective punisher. Ongoing stimulus avoidance assessments were conducted to assess for variations in aversiveness over time. Results were idiosyncratic, with decreases in the avoidance index over time for three participants. For the other participant, no significant decreases were seen in the avoidant index over time. However, treatment effectiveness was maintained for all participants.

Behavioral and academic interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities have been based primarily on behavior theory and principles of applied behavior analysis, with a recent emphasis on positive behavioral supports and the use of nonaversive interventions. Despite the wide acceptance of applied behavior analysis technology within the scientific and academic communities, challenging behavior exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities remains a serious problem primarily because interventions based on these principles are inconsistently implemented. This study investigated the relation of knowledge of behavioral princples, control style and attributions with the emotional responses and intervention selection of special education staff who work with students with developmental disabilities and challenging behavior. Specifically, this study investigated social-cognitive variables that may impact staff mediators' potential emotional reactions and behavioral intervention responses following a video stimulus of a student engaging in an episode of seriously challenging behavior. Ninety-two special education staff were surveyed. More importantly, interactions of knowledge and social-cognitive variables predicted emotional reactions, intervention selection, and ratings of behavior severity. Implications of these results on training of staff mediators will be discussed.

Functional analysis is a theory-driven approach to understanding behavior, both adaptive and maladaptive, in terms of its context. Within the field of psychology, functional analysis refers to procedures that identify the operant reinforcement contingencies which influence the occurrence of behaviors. Taking into account antecedents and consequences of specific behaviors, this methodology provides the foundation for treatments which establish functional, alternative behaviors to replace undesirable, maladaptive ones. Functional analysis has become a potent tool in the assessment and treatment of severe behavior problems among individuals with and without developmental disabilities. Although the theoretical roots of functional analysis can be traced back to the earliest years of applied behavior analysis, Iwata's landmark 1982 paper produced the first standardized model of functional analysis. Over the years, this methodology has been applied to a wide range of clinical problems in a variety of settings, becoming an essential component of many empirically-validated behavioral treatments. This presentation provides a historical overview of the development of functional analysis methodology, reviewing its theoretical foundation, seminal papers, and relevant clinical applications.

Basic research has shown that signaled transitions from relatively rich-to-lean positive reinforcement conditions can disrupt behavior in the form of extended pausing and, if possible, escape. These transitions may underlie some escape-maintained problem behavior in clinical populations (e.g., autism) thus forming a link between basic research and problem behavior. This symposium reflects an ongoing programmatic line of research on the disruptive effects of signaled rich-lean transitions that takes a bidirectional approach between basic and applied domains. The overall goal is to translate scientific findings into practical applications and to better understand problem behaviors by refining knowledge of the processes that underline them. The first study in this symposium provides a descriptive analysis of the relation between signaled rich-lean transitions and problem behavior in children with autism. Stepping into the human operant laboratory, the second study illustrates how the clinical phenomenology associated with autism has also stimulated basic research involving signaled rich-lean transitions. Finally, the last study is an attempt to develop a nonhuman animal model of problem behavior by investigating effects of signaled rich-lean transitions on attack in pigeons.

Transitions between activities are reported to be difficult for children with autism and commonly are associated with problem behavior. In this study, descriptive data from six children with autism were analyzed to determine which of the following 6 conditions were associated with the most frequent occurrence of problem behavior: (1) low-preferred activities (L), (2) preferred activities (R), (3) transitions from low-preferred to other low-preferred activities (LL), (4) transitions from low-preferred to preferred activities (LR), (5) transitions from preferred to other preferred activities (RR), and (6) transitions from preferred to low-preferred activities (RL). Data were expressed as percent of opportunities (# instances of activity or transition type with problem behavior / total instances of activity or transition type). For five out of six participants the transition type with the highest proportion of problem behavior was from preferred to low-preferred activities. In addition there were some differences for each of the participant. A preference assessment was done to validate that those activities labeled as low-preferred were in fact low-preferred and those that were labeled preferred were preferred.

Basic work with nonhumans has shown that extended post-reinforcement pausing in multiple schedules occurs more during transitions from components associated with rich reinforcement rates to those associated with lean rates than during other types of transitions. Such pausing may be a form of escape, indicating that aspects of the reinforcement schedule are aversive. These negative incentive shifts may also underlie the problem behavior that children with autism sometimes display during activity transitions. Here, four children with autism worked on a multiple-schedule presented on a touchscreen that included lean (L; FR 30, 1 food) and rich (R; FR 2, 3 foods) components signaled by distinctive stimuli. Sessions included an equal number of L-L, L-R, R-R, and R-R transitions. All participants showed the longest pausing after R-L transitions. When the work requirements and reinforcement magnitudes in each component were equal (FR 16, 2 foods), pausing was not longer after R-L and different patterns emerged across participants. When differential work requirements and reinforcer magnitudes were reinstated in a reversal, 2 participants showed significantly longer pausing after R-L transitions compared to the other transitions. This task might be a useful model in which to develop effective interventions for activity transition difficulties.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether induced attack in pigeons is jointly controlled by the past and upcoming reinforcement conditions. Two pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule in which fixed-ratio components resulted in the delivery of seven (hereafter rich component) or one (lean component) food pellets. The rich and lean components alternated quasirandomly such that four types of transition between past and upcoming reinforcement conditions (rich to rich, rich to lean, lean to rich, and lean to lean) appeared equally often within a session. A mirror was mounted on the left side wall. Responses on the mirror (attack) had no programmed consequences but were recorded throughout a session. Results indicate that both pigeons attacked almost exclusively when upcoming reinforcement condition was lean. Nevertheless, the pigeons attacked most frequently on the rich-to-lean transitions where the reinforcement conditions shifted from rich to lean. Although the demonstration of similarity of behavioral processes operating in the pigeon and human preparations awaits further investigation, the procedure of the present study can potentially serve as an animal model of chronic aberrant behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities.

This symposium will feature four presentations on the experimental analysis of gambling behavior. Different perspectives of gambling related behavior will be discussed.

Previous research has suggested that enabling the autohold function (i.e., displaying to the player the ideal cards to keep before discarding) on video poker leads gamblers to ultimately risk more money than if the function was disabled. The goal of the present study was to determine whether this result was the outcome of the players betting more credits or simply being able to play the game at a faster rate. Forty-eight participants played video poker in two different sessions. In one, the autohold function was disabled and in the other it was enabled. Half of the participants played 50 hands in each session. The other half played for 15 min in each session. The effect of the autohold function differed between the two types of sessions, suggesting that the increase in the amount of money or credits bet was an effect of rate of play, not necessarily an increase in the amount of risk taken.

A multiple baseline across participants with a predetermined phase change criterion was used to assess differences in percent correct and latency during a match-to-sample procedure. Participants were randomly selected to one of 3 series prior to the start of the computer activity. During the match-to-sample procedure, three three-member arbitrary equivalence classes were established (A1-B1-C1; A2-B2-C2; A3-B3-C3). Arbitrary stimuli included nonsense pictures, consonant-vowel-consonant "words", and gambling related symbols. The number of trials during the testing phase was based upon a predetermined phase change criterion across series (first, second, and third) at 81, 108, and 135 total trials respectively. Following the testing phase, participants were exposed to defusion exercises for 10 min. Here, participants were asked to physicalize the A1 stimuli (VEC), by giving it personal characteristics (i.e. shape, color, size, type of material, and location in the room). Additionally, participants were asked to repeat the same A1 stimuli in both weird sounds and rhythms. After the defusion exercise, participants completed the final set of testing phases in the match-to-sample procedure. Total number of testing trials following the defusion exercise was 135, 108, and 81 for the first, second, and third series respectively. Results to date demonstrate an overall increase in response time in 2 of the three participants during directly trained and derived relations of A1.

Previous research by this research team (Habib & Dixon, 2010) has shown that brain activity, as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI), differs between pathological and non-pathological gamblers when they are exposed to wins, losses, and near-miss outcomes. Using a computerized slot-machine task, 20 under-age pathological gamblers were exposed to near-misses that resembled small and large jackpot wins. The computer activity took place in afMRI scan. Results indicate brain activity in under-age pathological gamblers, when exposed to near-misses that resemble large jackpot wins, produced greater activity in the dopamine reward system than near-misses that resemble small jackpot wins. Furthermore, given that our previous research has indicated that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is effective in reducing and altering pathological gambling behavior, experiment two included a randomized control pretest-posttest design used to examine differences in brain activity following an 8-week therapy (ACT) or no-therapy (control) condition. As in experiment one, brain activity in relation to winning, near-miss, and losing outcomes were assessed. Results from these studies provide: a) documentation of a magnitude effect of near-miss outcomes at the neurobiological level and b) objective evidence of neurobiological changes and treatment efficacy following exposure to ACT.

In the United States behavioral researchers investigations on gambling behavior have usually focused on behaviorally molecular variables that may maintain gambling behaviors, e.g., "near miss" phenomenon, variable ratio like schedule effects, etcertera. In contrast, while not ignoring moment by moment variables that may maintain gambling, such as classical conditioning effects, Australian and Canadian researchers investigating gambling have often focused on more molar variables that may control gambling including social reinforcement (positive and negative), escape, shaping of gambling behavior, social learning, and reinforcement of the entire gambling episode rather than reinforcement of any individual gamble, or "play." As a result of these processes and the erroneous belief that legalized gambling improves local economies and government revenue, gambling has grown and an accelerating rate in the United States. In reality the net economic impact of gambling is negative. Research in the United States and elsewhere shows that legalizing gambling results in numerous costs to individuals, families, financial institutions, and local communities that outweigh any revenue benefits to local governments. This talk will focus on the more molar variables that shape and trap gambling behavior and the resulting negative impacts to individuals, families, communities and governments.

Translational research can help to bridge basic and applied research by evaluating behavioral phenomenon in a controlled way. This symposium will highlight three examples of translational research on choice behavior and behavioral variability, each evaluating these phenomena using varying schedule arrangements. The first study used a concurrent operants arrangement to evaluate the effects of behavioral history on choices between academic activities. The second study also evaluated choice between academic activities, and used a progressive lag schedule of reinforcement to increase the variability of those academic task selections. Finally, the third study used the combination of lag schedule of reinforcement within a multiple schedule arrangement to bring stimulus behavioral variability of play behavior under stimulus control. The implications of using advanced schedule arrangements in research in translational topics will be discussed.

The current investigation examined the effects of behavioral history on elementary students' preference for making a choice in two studies. Previous research on choice has focused on the arrangement of current contingencies and has not accounted for the effects of behavioral history. Study 1 examined participants' preference for two options (i.e., two math problems) or one option (i.e., one math problem) conditions based on prior exposure to certain option conditions. During baseline, participants were allowed to choose to complete math problems in either the two or one option condition. During the history building condition, participants were exposed to either two options, one option, or a mixed condition (alternating between two and one option conditions). The subsequent return to baseline assessed behavioral history effects on preference for choice. The results of Study 1 indicated that behavioral history did not affect the preference for choice for four of the six participants. For two participants, behavioral history effects were possible; however, responding was variable across sessions and across replication of the conditions. Study 2 assessed the effects of behavioral history on selection of a reinforcer. Experimental conditions were set up similar to Study 1. During baseline, participants were able to choose math problems to complete that resulted in the participant selecting the reinforcer or the experimenter selecting the reinforcer. During the history building condition, participants were exposed to either the participant selects the reinforcer, the experimenter selects the reinforcer, or a mixed condition (alternating between the participant or experimenter selecting the reinforcer). The subsequent return to baseline assessed behavioral history effects on preference for who selected the reinforcers. The results from Study 2 indicated that preference for selection of the reinforcer was highly individualized. Study 2 was not able to adequately control for the influence of confounding variables. The lack of experimental control resulted in either no or minimal effects of behavior history on preference for selection of a reinforcer.

The effects of progressive lag schedules of reinforcement on the variable responding and acquisition of academic activities was examined for two typically developing children using an ABAB design. Results showed that progressive lag schedules of reinforcement were effective in increasing response variability and activity engagement for both participants. In addition, the variability contingency was effective in facilitating learning. An increase in the number of activities mastered along with a decrease in the trials-to-criterion to reach mastery was achieved by both participants.

Variability has been shown to be an operant dimension of behavior in basic research by demonstrating that it can be selected through reinforcement (Page & Neuringer, 1985), and that it can be controlled through discriminative stimuli (Denny & Neuringer, 1998). In previous research, Lag schedules of reinforcement have been used to increase variability in answering social questions (Lee, McComas, & Jawor, 2002), selecting classroom activities (Cammilleri & Hanley, 2005), and emitting vocal verbal behavior (Esch, Esch, & Love, 2009). Although variability has been produced through direct reinforcement in the applied literature, it is unclear whether variability can be controlled by discriminative stimuli in applied settings. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of stimulus control and lag schedules of reinforcement on variable responding in human participants.

Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior (EAHB) Special Interest Group meeting: The simultaneous occurrence of operant responses, and the simultaneous consequences often thereby produced, are commonly observed in the behavior of animals, including humans. Since reinforcing consequences affect any operant whose occurrence precedes them, an operant that occurs simultaneously, or even nearly so, with one or more other operants may be affected by the occurrence of any reinforcer following any of these operants. Various laboratory procedures have developed that successfully avoid this problem by eliminating the simultaneity of either the responses or the consequences or both. However, this left simultaneous operants and simultaneous consequences essentially unresearched. Previous research (Ledoux, 2002) with simultaneously emittable and simultaneously reinforceable multiple operants of typical human subjects, demonstrated a multiple reinforcer-source procedure that generates the requisite sensitivity to the contingencies thereby enabling research of these phenomena. However, that study used antiquated equipment that is no longer available. This paper compares that equipment with apparatus available today which may enable other researchers to raise in detail the kinds of questions that thorough research in this area might answer after replicating the earlier work, and extending it to include the range of basic contingencies. What else should be studied beyond antecedent and postcedent variables such as (a) establishing operations, (b) stimulus discrimination, (c) generalization, (d) reinforcement schedules, (e) punishment control, (f) schedule-induced effects, and (g) competing reinforcers and/or punishers (of different magnitudes)?

Humans have a long track record of categorizing multiple dimensions. Maddox and his colleagues, (2005) have used Gabor patches (sine wave gratings modulated by a circular Gaussian filter) in categorization tasks extensively. The stimuli can vary in terms of orientation and frequency, and are used in category learning tasks in which subjects must integrate information from both dimensions to respond optimally. Maddox typically uses a large number of subjects and compares the percentages of subjects for which a particular model provides the best description. The current study tested performance in an information integration task and examined whether it was influenced by the range (narrow vs wide) of a stimulus dimensions. Our results replicated earlier findings but unlike previous studies we used a small number of subjects in a within subjects design. This provided subjects with more exposure to the conditions than in previous experiments. Various models of categorization were fit to individual subject data, including a new model.

We integrate a prominent dynamical model in cognitive science (from Tuller et al., 1994) with relative reinforcement as specified in variants of the matching law. The integrated model permits fine-grained fits of the behavioral dynamics of stimulus selection during discrimination by human participants. The empirical data are from computer-mouse trajectories as participants make simple discriminations based on a points reward, with relative reinforcement differing from trial to trial. The model predicts a wide range of behavior seen in human movements during unfolding selection, including: switching direction, complexity of behavioral trajectories, and movement time. Importantly, the model does this through parameters set by relative reinforcement value, as in matching law. By integrating low-level models of motor control with behavior analytic notions of how relative reinforcement shapes responding, a model of both choice and topography is possible. This framework is in accord with physics-derived concepts employed by Killeen (1992), who proposed treating behavior as a trajectory in behavior space, and reinforcers as attractors in that space. We discuss future possible integration of dynamical systems models (in general, multi-stable attractor models) with the specification of lawful behavior as a means of explaining a wide range of behavior beyond the simple task modeled here.

Killeen (1992) offered a physics-inspired framework for conceptualizing the behavior of organisms as trajectories in a behavior space, influenced by attractors (reinforcers) in this space. Here we explore an empirical framework that follows Killeen's advice literally. In three experiments, ten adult human participants were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk to participate in a computer-based simple discrimination task. Four arbitrary stimuli were employed, two of which were randomly assigned a low-points value and two, a high-points value. In each trial, two of the four stimuli were presented, creating three possible choice situations (low-low, low-high and high-high). Participants were required to move a mouse from a designated starting point to choose one of the two stimuli to earn points. Across 36 trials, the computer-mouse cursor movements served as a behavioral trajectory. The ratio of reinforcer magnitude (Mhigh:Mlow) was adjusted across experiments: Experiment 1 (7:5), Experiment 2 (10:5), Experiment 3 (20:5). In general, as the ratio increased, acquisition was faster, mouse movements were faster, and exhibited less complexity and curvature (p's < .05). These results are discussed in terms of matching law and the dynamics of choice in the spirit of Killeen's original proposals, and a dynamical approach to behavior in general.

Behavior analytic methods have long been used to teach reading skills. In recent years we have observed significant progress in addressing reading skill deficits early--often when children are acquiring "pre-reading" skills. In addition, much work is focused on innovative methods for teaching children early reading skills. In this symposium we present several ground breaking studies focused on innovative methods in early reading. Our first 2 papers focus on extensions of an evidence-based reading program, Headsprout Early Reading, to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. These papers highlight the utility of such programs with children with autism but also document the need for trained behavior analysts capable of making evidence-based modifications to the intervention. Our third paper focuses on typically developing children and documents efficacy of a parent training program for helping parents learn to assist their children who are struggling readers in reading assignments. This paper highlights how the technology of behavior analysis might be used to facilitate generalization and maintenance of reading skills acquired in a clinical setting.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of the Headsprout Early Reading program for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Headsprout is a computer-assisted reading program that incorporates phonics and phonemic awareness as well as vocabulary development, reading fluency, oral reading skills, and reading comprehension strategies, which are necessary skills for the development of early literacy skills. A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the progress of four children who were enrolled in the program for 18 weeks. Children were assessed pre-, mid-, and post-intervention using the DIBELS first-grade benchmark assessment. In addition, participants were assessed weekly using the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) Progress Monitoring assessments. All four children made measurable improvements from baseline scores. The study indicated that Headsprout Early Reading may be an effective tool to promote reading acquisition for children diagnosed with autism.

Few reading interventions have been empirically validated with individuals with autism. It may be the case that the effectiveness of early intervention services in improving educational outcomes for children with autism has produced a relatively recent need to identify effective reading interventions for this population. Headsprout Early Reading (HER) is a computer-based reading program that utilizes a phonics-based approach to teaching early reading skills. Several aspects of this program increase its potential utility with individuals with autism. For example, the program uses within-stimulus prompting procedures that have been shown to be effective in teaching discrimination skills to individuals with autism. Thus, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of HER with five children with autism. Our preliminary results suggest that participants' response to intervention is variable. Two participants required few prompts to stay on task during the program and a limited amount of outside training to ensure mastery of the sounds and words taught in HER. However, the other 3 participants required numerous prompts to maintain participation in the program and extensive training outside of the program to show mastery of the targeted sounds and words. We will describe important areas of future research on reading intervention for this population.

Learning to read is critical for success, yet many children struggle with this skill (National Reading Panel, 2000). Clinic-based reading programs have documented efficacy however effects may be enhanced if parents are skilled in helping children with reading at home. Several programs have trained parents to help their children read but most research has involved either complex skills that may lead to less use over time and/or nebulous programs such as just read to your child. This presentation will discuss the results of a study in which parents participated in an academic parent training designed to improve student reading outcomes. Participants include three parents each with a child entering second grade during the 2010-2011 academic school year. The parent training provided during this study will be described and the data collected on parent and child behavior will be reviewed and discussed. Results of this study and future directions will be discussed. Session attendees will learn how they can help parents work more effectively and efficiently with their child on reading activities.

Function-based interventions are regarded as a best practice in school settings. While these interventions are widespread in special education settings, there are fewer research examples on functional behavior assessment and functional analysis in general education settings with typically developing children. This symposium will describe function-based approaches currently being implemented in general education settings using general education teachers. The first presentation will describe a class-wide function-based intervention program implemented across 14 urban elementary classrooms. The second presentation will describe two function-based interventions that improve behaviors of children who are non-responsive to the classwide intervention. The third presentation will describe the effects of a training program in functional behavior assessment for 45 pre-service general education teachers. The final presentation will describe a study that linked self-management interventions to functional behavior assessment results with three children being served in general education. The four presentations provide evidence for the use of functional behavior assessment and intervention in general education settings for typically developing children.

The current study examined the effects of the class-wide function-based intervention team (CW-FIT) program. The program was established to broadly target common functions maintaining problem behaviors in elementary classrooms (teacher attention, peer attention, escape). Within CW-FIT, students not responding to the primary intervention receive targeted strategies including help cards or self-management. Functional assessment and analysis is then utilized for students not responding to targeted strategies. A randomized experimental-control group design was used to examine the effects of the intervention in 72 classrooms across 14 urban elementary schools and including 152 students with challenging behavior (compared to 67 classrooms and 109 students with challenging behavior). The effects of functional assessments and analyses were documented with single-subject methodology such as multi-element designs. Measures included multiple probes of student engagement and problem behavior, as well as teacher praise and reprimands. Results indicate an increase in student engagement and teacher praise with subsequent decreases in problem behaviors for students in intervention classrooms as compared to those in control classrooms and as compared to baseline rates. Results will be presented for the students with the most challenging behavior.

The present study examined the effects of secondary function-based interventions within the class-wide function-based intervention team (CW-FIT) program. CW-FIT was established to broadly target common functions of problem behaviors in elementary classrooms (teacher attention, peer attention, escape). Within CW-FIT, students not responding to the primary intervention receive secondary strategies including help cards or self-management. Functional assessment and analysis is then utilized for students not responding to targeted strategies. Data for seven students have been collected and data collection for additional students is ongoing. The effects of functional assessments and analyses were documented with single-subject methodology such as multi-element designs. Measures included multiple probes of student engagement and problem behavior, as well as teacher praise and reprimands. Results indicate an increase in student engagement and teacher praise with subsequent decreases in problem behaviors in intervention classrooms as compared to baseline rates. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

In recent years, general education teachers' application of positive behavior management strategies in diverse classrooms has become critically important. The current study was conducted to determine the effects of functional behavior assessment (FBA) instruction on general education teachers' classroom management approach. Forty-five preservice elementary education teachers responded twice, once when they signed up to participate in the instructional sessions, and again, following the study. The question, "Explain how you would manage problem behavior in your classroom?" was presented in written form, on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. Immediately prior to answering the question, preservice teachers were asked (a) to assume they were responsible for a classroom of students, and (b) to limit their responses to three or four sentences. The data analysis was based on the following questions: (a) Did participants indicate they would analyze the relationship between the problem behavior and class rules or other environmental factors? (b) Did participants include specific or general intervention strategies? (c) Were the suggested strategies positive and proactive? Results of the pre-post assessment suggested that participants were more likely to recommend strategies that were proactive and positive following instruction in FBA.

In 2002, in recognition of the importance of early intervention to enhance the language and literacy skills of young children, the US Department of Education initiated funding for Early Reading First (ERF). This presentation will report data from two Early Reading First projects operated at Western Michigan University. The goals of each of these 4-year projects were to improve the alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, print/book awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension skills of preschool students through professional development and coaching of early childhood teachers in data-based decision making and direct instruction strategies derived from the principles of behavior. The preschool students in classrooms served came primarily from low-income homes and were considered at risk for educational failure. Teachers in these classrooms typically hold an associate or bachelor's degree in early childhood education (ECE), and most were prepared in a constructivist model. In each of the ERF projects, significant improvements in early literacy skills of children were made. Furthermore, the majority of the ECE teachers demonstrated dramatic shifts in teaching behaviors, moving from a "developmental readiness" model to one of goal-oriented explicit instruction.

Students enter kindergarten with meaningful differences in vocabulary knowledge based on early experiences and exposure to language and literacy. This "vocabulary gap" only grows larger in the early grades, especially for students most at risk, yet schools currently do little to systematically support vocabulary development in the early grades. A growing body of research shows that carefully designed and delivered vocabulary instruction and intervention in kindergarten can help students make educationally meaningful gains in vocabulary knowledge. This study evaluated the effects of a primary vocabulary intervention for whole class instruction, Elements of Reading, plus a secondary vocabulary intervention designed by researchers for students with low initial receptive vocabulary scores. Students in 19 kindergarten classrooms participated in the study, with 150 students in the primary intervention, plus 70 students in the primary and secondary intervention groups. A regression discontinuity design was used to determine if the primary plus secondary interventions resulted in higher than expected scores for students with low initial receptive vocabulary scores. Large effects were found on the expressive and receptive target word measures, with smaller effects on general vocabulary knowledge.

According to O'Conner and Klein (2004), reading instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has been underemphasized. Research in the area of direct instruction (DI) reading comprehension instruction for students with ASD and developmental disabilities (DD) is limited. Of the existing research, single subject designs have been employed to show a functional relation between DI and improved comprehension skills and portions of DI programs (Flores & Ganz, 2007; Ganz & Flores, 2009; Flores & Ganz, 2009) have been shown to be effective. The purpose of this study was to implement a DI comprehension program with a larger group of students with ASD and DD as well implement whole lessons, addressing multiple skills. Twenty-one students with ASD and DD ages 7-13 participated in the study. Students received instruction 30 minutes per day over the course of 4 weeks (20 lessons) and data were collected using curriculum-based assessments included within the programs. The data were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance. The analyses indicate that DI resulted in significant gains in student progress.

Precision teaching is a technology within the field of behavior analysis that has produced remarkable learning outcomes by individuals with and without developmental disabilities and across multiple skill areas. Providing effective instruction at the early elementary level is critical for future success in school and using a technology such as precision teaching in a public education setting seems intuitive, however, it has yet to be widely implemented. Incorporating precision teaching in early elementary math classrooms using Saxon Math in a public school setting is the current focus and an anecdotal report will be given. A summary of precision teaching and the Saxon Math Curriculum will be provided, in addition to a synopsis of the school system it is being implemented within. Attention will be devoted to time-management and issues surrounding fidelity of implementation. Classroom management and ideas for future implementation will also be discussed. Ensuring that these technologies are used in the public education system is beneficial to the individuals that obtain an education and to the society of which these individuals are members.

The proposed symposium includes three papers on behavioral staff training for preference assessment or functional analysis skills, respectively. While these studies vary in their emphasis and design, a common objective among them is to identify efficient tactics for establishing behavioral assessment repertoires in human service settings. Our discussant, Dr. Nicole Gravina, will offer supplemental analyses of findings from each study and suggest directions for future research.

Identification of effective reinforcers is critical to the treatment of children with autism. Research has demonstrated that highly preferred stimuli are more likely to function as effective reinforcers. Preference is dynamic and must be assessed often; therefore practitioners need a quick and easy way to assess it. The purpose of the present study was to train direct care staff to (a) identify when to conduct preference assessments, and (b) conduct brief paired stimulus preference assessments during behavioral therapy sessions. A multiple probe design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of didactic and in-vivo training for 11 participants. Results indicated that didactic instruction was sufficient to produce immediate improvement for seven participants. However, two of these participants required in-vivo training at the 4 week follow-up. For the remaining four participants didactic instruction was ineffective and in-vivo training was necessary to produce accurate performance which was maintained at the four week follow-up. These results suggest that in-vivo training was necessary for the majority of participants to produce lasting effects.

Research suggests that inexperienced educators and clinicians may not implement stimulus preference assessment (SPA) accurately given written instructions alone. However, training that includes written instructions supplemented by feedback from a professional with expertise in conducting SPAs has proven effective. Unfortunately, expert-facilitated, direct training may not be available to some clinicians and teachers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a self-instruction package on accurate implementation of SPAs. An antecedent-only instructional package was evaluated with two methods of SPA. Results demonstrated that access to enhanced written instructions (i.e., technical jargon was minimized; instructions included pictures, diagrams, and step-by-step examples) allowed inexperienced staff to accurately implement SPA procedures. Results are discussed in terms of applying low cost, highly portable self-instruction methods to teach non-behavior analysts to use behavior-analytic technologies.

The purpose of this experiment was to conduct a component analysis of behavioral skills training (BST) in the context of training staff to perform a functional analysis. An alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the components of BST. Prior to baseline, staff reviewed written instructions of the functional analysis conditions. Following baseline, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback training occurred independently during the first training phase and in combination during subsequent phases. Rehearsal was ineffective at improving staffs performance whereas feedback was effective for training all functional analysis responses. Modeling was less effective than feedback, such that improvements only occurred for some functional analysis responses. These data suggest that feedback, and to a lesser extent modeling, are the effective and perhaps necessary components of BST; however, additional component analyses of BST are needed to evaluate whether similar results would be obtained when teaching different skills (e.g., discrete-trial teaching, stimulus preference assessments). Furthermore, future research should evaluate the sufficiency of the effective components.

Most treatment programs and specialized schools plan to increase census over time. The challenges associated with increasing census are often considered multiplicative. For example, if a school triples the number of students attending, the expectation is that the problems faced by the system will be three times as great. This is rarely, if ever, the case. Instead, the challenges faced by the system are exponential; that is, they are nine times as great. This symposium considers the needs assessment that should be periodically conducted as a treatment program grows. One set of strategies for completing a needs assessment is to conduct individualized interviews and a group SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) assessment. As behavior analysts, we also recognize the need to make decisions based on sound data. Finally, as painful as the process may be, the importance of conducting a thorough review of records can not be underscored enough. This symposium examines each of the strategies as they have been applied in one of May Institutes largest schools.

Before introducing systemic change into a treatment center, it is essential to complete a thorough needs assessment. A needs assessment identifies barriers to implementing changes because it provides the opportunity for staff input from the outset. Strategies for identifying strengths that will support systemic change or will serve as barriers to improving service delivery have been identified in the literature. Both staff interviews and a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) serves as instrumental components to a comprehensive assessment of school services at one of May Institute's largest schools. Interviews were conducted with staff at the clinical director, educational case manager, and senior teacher levels. These interviews covered topics ranging from instructional practices and behavior strategies to staff and family supports. By individualizing and holding these interviews with staff at multiple levels, differing perspectives about relative strengths and limitations were identified. In addition, the SWOT analysis was conducted with clinical directors as a group. This provided the opportunity for a dynamic discussion of the schools needs. The methods used for both individualized interviews and group SWOT analysis will be reviewed as an example of determining organizational needs as services are expanded.

In order to make programmatic recommendations, observational data provide a direct assessment of actual rates of specific teacher or student performance. Observational data may need to be collected on pivotal skills such as the teachers' percentage of time engaged in instruction versus preparatory activities, frequency of reinforcement delivery, ratio of prompting versus instruction, and monitoring engagement versus prompting engagement. In addition, student data regarding engagement versus off-task behavior, rates of reinforcement versus instruction, as well as rates of in active time without instructional tasks are critical. By gathering these data, it is possible to establish short- and long-term targets for classrooms throughout a school. In addition, this information is paramount in providing feedback to staff relative to actual rates of their behavior for which they can use to make changes and eventually modify their performance according to desired targets. This presentation describes the data collection system used at one of May Institute's largest schools and the process for using these data to produce systemic change.

Documentation of a student's experience within a school has become increasingly important in recent years. Although reviewing these records can be a tedious process, it can also contribute significantly to a thorough needs assessment. In this presentation the authors will review a records assessment that was conducted on student files in a large day treatment program that had grown dramatically over a 5-year period. Multiple components of the record were reviewed for completeness and reflection of best practices. This process contributed to overall recommendations for improving services throughout the school. Components of the records that were reviewed include the assessment data that were used to identify educational goals and objectives as well as the individualized education plans (IEPs). In addition, records associated with reductions in problem behaviors and increases in functional skill development must be reviewed. For this reason, behavior support plans and short-term objective programming were examined. Finally, visual inspection of skill acquisition and behavior reduction data was required. Accuracy of the documentation was also corroborated through observation. Recommendations to increase treatment fidelity and subsequent record review are discussed.

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) is growing, resulting in an increase in the number of people attending ABA graduate programs. These programs provide an enriched environment for individuals to acquire new knowledge, conduct research, and work within various clinical settings. These components of graduate school offer a multitude of experiences for the graduate. However, given the broad spectrum of experiences, graduates often find it difficult when deciding what area of ABA to pursue after graduation. Additionally, given that behavior analysis jobs are often part of an interdisciplinary team, the ability to effectively communicate behavior principles to others is of utmost importance. The goal of this event is to put members of ABAI in contact with experts in the field (from a range of experience) who can provide advice and share their experiences pertaining to (a) jobs they held while being a practicing behavior analyst, (b) how they have learned to communicate effectively within the field of ABA while working with other disciplines, and (c) a few things they know now that they wish they knew upon finishing graduate school.

Although federal legislation (i.e., No Child Left Behind and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act) requires schools to use evidence-based practices, the gap between research and practice persists. Applied behavior analysts have been instrumental in the development of effective programs and practices in education including direct instruction reading, math, and writing programs, the good behavior game, functional behavior assessment, instructional strategies, and use of data to inform instruction. However, if not adopted, the practices cannot produce the desired outcomes. Unfortunately, implementation of ineffective practices and adoption of fad innovations (i.e., not sustained) in education leads to poor outcomes for students. This presentation will review the process of program adoption and characteristics of innovations that impact rate of adoption. Additionally, contingencies that appear to maintain educators' adoption of programs for which there is little or no research basis will be presented using case examples. The authors will provide examples of how to arrange similar contingencies to prompt adoption and maintenance of evidence-based programs.

Parents are increasingly seen as the critical dimension in the positive treatment outcome for children with problem behaviors. Epidemiology studies suggest that 13 to 30% of children engage in problem behaviors that warrant intervention. Particularly at risk are children with limited communmication and/or social problems, such as children diagnosed withautism spectrum disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiance disorder,and severe anxiety diosrders. Typically, behavior interventionists, trained inapplied behavior analysistechniques, work with children to reduce and prevent negative behaviors in home, school or community settings. However, the burden of providing lasting therapeutic change lies with parents who must provide the consistency and generalization for the treatment approach on a 24-7 basis. I will provide a synthesis of published research on parent training programs and discuss the best practices for successful parent groups. In the context of behavioral interventions for children, there is probably no other treatment with such stong evidence in its behalf provided that the parent carries out the procedures, but parent adherence and follow through is often a key problem. Issues of parental non-compliance will be discussed and techniques for parental "buy in" will be presented.

Managing behavior analysis programs in rural settings with limited resources is a significant challenge to today's practitioners. Come see how Google, and one incredible staff member, saved a behavior analyst's senility by providing a free, easily programmable website that allowed her to communicate with a team of staff members, view video demonstrations and live data, manage staff and client schedules, and make program modifications all while texting and driving through the rural back-roads of West Virginia!

In 2008, the first master's degree program in behavior analysis found its home at the Jordanian University of Science and Technology. Since its launch, the program has grown to include three separate practicum sites: an early childhood autism center, an adolescent autism center, and a hospital site. Located in Irbid, Jordan, the program functions in part with the help of instructors commissioned from the USA. The goal of the project is to phase out these instructors and create a fully self-sustaining behavior analysis program by 2015. The most recent semesters brought a new host of challenges as the second graduating cohort is now faced with finding employment in a burgeoning field in Jordan. The key to sustaining the program will come from the right combination of outside support, providing the right contingencies for the students to succeed, and the dissemination of behavioral culture within the country of Jordan. Aimed at rousing support through dissemination, students have been planning and hosting their own workshops and participating in community outreach. During this symposium, the presenters will walk the audience through a brief history of the development of each site, including an autism academy, organizational behavior management at a hospital, and community services and outreach.

As part of the approach to develop sustainability in the country of Jordan for the recently-graduated behavior analysts, we worked to develop a site at the King Abdullah University Hospital. An assessment of organizational needs indicated that there was large amounts of money that could be saved. Because the hospital was charged by weight for the disposal of hazardous waste, any instance of disposal of non-medical waste in the hazard-waste bags was an unnecessary expense. In addition to wasted money, another area that could use improvement was adherence to the hand-washing protocols. We conducted assessments to determine why the lack of compliance was occurring, and intervened according to these results. In this presentation, we will discuss the approaches taken, interventions used, and outcomes of our interventions to save the hospital money and lives.

Providing community service is a good way to begin laying the groundwork from which the local behavior analysts can develop a community capable of sustaining the science of behavior in a country currently undeveloped in behavior analysis. After the first cohort of master's students in the department of applied behavioral health analysis (ABHA) at the Jordanian University of Science and Technology (JUST) graduated, it became clear that each student, mentor, and anyone interested in the success of behavior analysis must begin actively working to create the funding streams, market demand, and community service outreach that would sustain behavior analysis. In the United States, behavior analysts are often asked to conduct parent training and school consultations. In Jordan, however, nobody was aware of the expertise of the JUST ABHA graduates in this regard. Therefore, the students developed and delivered over ten positive parenting workshops, free of charge, throughout the local community and schools. This presentation will describe the underpinnings of the workshops, the difficulty in translation of workshop presentations in English to an Arabic version that resonates with the local population while maintaining technical integrity. Some data on the feedback provided by the attendees in the community will be described and implications discussed.

One of the largest contributors to the current success of applied behavior analysis as a profession is the increased number of children diagnosed with autism coupled with the unequaled ability of our science to provide the only technology that is scientifically supported to ameliorate autism symptoms at a level of social significance. During their degree program at the Jordanian University of Science and Technology (JUST), the graduate students in the applied behavioral health analysis (ABHA) program had four practicum courses. In developing these courses, and with anticipation of future employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for the students after graduation, two autism sites were developed and used for training. At one location, young children with autism diagnoses were served while the other served adolescent and young adults. Both were owned by a couple of brothers who were excited to partner with JUST and the US mentors/supporters of the program. As such, these two locations became invaluable in training and were made available throughout the days and weeks. After the first cohort graduated, a few of the graduates were hired at the locations, and are now even providing outreach and training services to neighboring countries. This presentation will detail the treatment provision and training opportunities at each location.

Emotions and their expression have been usually accounted for in terms of respondent conditioning and released species-typical behavior patterns. In the case of humans, they have also been conceptualized as verbally (or psychologically) construed events. In all cases, the stimulus-response formula governs the account. Fear, for example, is considered a change in the state of the organism and a change of a pattern of responses elicited or released by changes in the environment. Whether the emotion produces the behavior or the behavior produces the emotion has been widely debated topic. Either account still relies on the stimulus-response formula and is therefore mainly concerned with the nature of the stimulus and response and their adaptive value during the evolution of the species. The panel will present and discuss an alternative consequential approach to emotions and their expressions, the research data supporting the alternative approach, its relation to contemporary work on emotions, and an account of how emotions and their expression may have evolved through natural selection.

Recent work by behavior analysts and linguists working from a behavior analytic perspective is bringing the fields of linguistics and behavior analysis closer. This symposium will present three papers that further close the gap between the two fields. The first paper will discuss recent trends in linguistic theory, and argue that one theory in particular, Paul Hopper's "Emergent Grammar," is potentially compatible with a behavior analytic view of verbal behavior. The second paper will identify some linguistic phenomena that present challenges to behavioral analysis, and suggest some experimental methods that may be used to study them. The final paper will present a behavioral analysis of English tense and aspect phenomena. It will propose that English has specific classes of autoclitic and intraverbal responses controlled by relations between time and actions or states to which the speaker is responding. These papers, taken together, will show that application of behavior analytic principles to linguistic analysis is possible and productive.

That grammar is a causal agent for the speech behavior of individuals is a fairly dominant stance in contemporary linguistics and cognitive psychology. This, of course, was not always the case. Furthermore, there are other stances regarding grammar that see it not as an explanation or causal entity, but as forms of verbal behavior arising out of the reinforcing practices of a speech community and effective in maintaining that speech community. This view, of course, can be found in the work of B. F. Skinner. I will call this the grammar-as-behavior stance. But the grammar-as-behavior stance can also be found, at least implicitly, in the work of some contemporary linguists. For example, Paul Hopper has espoused a view of grammar called emergent grammar. In this presentation I will discuss the similarities and differences in the two positions and in doing so, try to show how a consilience between behavioral psychology and linguistics can be reached.

Proximity, ordinal position and inflectional changes are the subject of many pedagogical 'rules of grammar' and form the basis of instruction in proper sentence structure. These have also been used in the classification of languages. It is possible to assign discriminative functions to these elements. All languages (verbal communities) have consistent position or order between terms and often when these are violated 'inflectional' changes seem to provide a type of linkage between terms. These last include classic case inflection from Latin and Greek but also modifications to terms, which indicate agreement or concourse which are often regarded as similar in English. Experimental analysis of these 'relational devices' however has been largely lacking. Sparsely replicated (psycholinguistic) studies in the 1960s of serial order and position relative to marker elements resembled the methodology of the experimental analysis of behavior; few subjects, intensive training and 'rewards.' Other studies, some classic, involved forms of case inflection, others agreement (or concordance) and still others, the conflict or competition between position and inflectional changes to elements or terms. These also can provide a model for variables in an experimental analysis.

Although the verbal behavior literature continues to expand, very little of it can be regarded as linguistic analysis. Specific behavior-analytic description of the response classes that specify the topographies of verbal responses in a language are not available. Such descriptions would be of interest to linguists and useful for educators. This study will analyze the controlling variables and resulting topographies associated with the marking of tense and aspect on English verbs. In behavior analytic terms, tense is a response to when an action occurs in relation to the present (for example, in or before the present), while aspect is a response to the relation between an action and a point in time (for example, whether an action occurred before or during a point of time in the past). The analysis is of interest because the controlling variables include deictic relations, and the topographies of the resulting responses are under complex intraverbal control. The study will conclude by proposing autoclitic/intraverbal response classes for marking English verb tense and aspect.

When rats, pigeons, and people choose between immediate and delayed rewards, the subjective value of the delayed reward decreases as time to its receipt increases. This discounting of the delayed reward is well described in all three species by a hyperboloid function. Interestingly, we have observed a magnitude effect (larger delayed rewards are discounted less steeply than smaller delayed rewards) with humans but not with rats or pigeons. In addition, in humans, if an additional waiting period is added prior to both rewards, thus creating a delay common to both alternatives, rate of discounting decreases as the common delay increases. We examined the effect of adding a common delay on discounting in pigeons. When the signals for the time to the sooner and later alternatives were different, the pigeons (in contrast to humans) showed increases in discounting rate with increases in the common delay. When the signal for the common delay was the same for both alternatives, however, rate of discounting decreased as the common delay increased, a result consistent with that obtained with humans. Taken together, our findings demonstrate profound similarities between delay discounting in humans and pigeons, arguing for the importance of conducting both human and nonhuman research.

This presentation will describe evidence-based strategies for training important work skills to human service staff. Initially, a description of a behavior analytic model for staff training will be summarized. Next, ways of effectively applying the model will be provided with a focus on practical considerations faced by supervisors, consultants, and clinicians. Means of making staff training procedures acceptable and well received by staff will also be presented. Common mistakes made in staff training endeavors will likewise be summarized, along with recommendations regarding how to avoid obstacles that impede training effectiveness and acceptability. As a result of attending this presentation, attendees will be able to: (a) describe five steps constituting performance- and competency-based staff training, (b) identify three strategies for making staff training programs highly acceptable to staff trainees, and (c) identify three common obstacles to effective training of staff and strategies for overcoming the obstacles.

Garfield Park Preparatory Academy (GPPA) is a new elementary school that developed as part of the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Currently in its second year, GPPA is located in East Garfield Park, a Chicago community with low rate of employment and graduation. The school's mission is to provide strong academic foundations for students in East Garfield Park, and to provide a quality training site for students at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. In this presentation, Denise Ross will describe the process of starting a public school designed to apply principles of behavior analysis to schooling. Dr. Ross will also discuss the school's community engagement strategies, barriers and successes to its implementation, academic outcomes in the first year, and the school's future goals.

Private behavioral events are an important topic in the theoretical, philosophical, and conceptual orientation of radical behaviorism. This presentation makes the case for private behavioral events by addressing such questions as the following: (a) Of what are we speaking when we speak of private behavioral events? (b) What are two types of private behavioral events? (c) What is the nature and causal status of private behavioral events? (d) Are private behavioral events necessarily related functionally to public behavior? (e) How does the present view of private behavioral events compare with explanations in traditional psychology that appeal to internal, unobservable phenomena? In sum, the presentation argues that we can most effectively understand behavior, and bar the door to mentalism, when our interpretations of behavior recognize that events currently inaccessible to others, but nonetheless from the behavioral dimension, can influence behavior.

Over the past several decades, captive facilities such as zoos and labs have become increasingly concerned with the welfare of their captive species. The use of "naturalistic" enclosures, introduction of objects that can be consumed and/or manipulated, changes in the type and ways food is presented, and the use of operant conditioning and other training procedures are just a few examples of the attempts aimed at increasing the well-being of captive animals. This focus on using environmental and behavioral procedures to increase welfare has generally taken a "shotgun" approach, with little energy devoted to quantifying enrichment effects, let alone understanding the function of the behaviors intervened on to begin with. The following three talks will examine several projects aimed at understanding certain problematic behaviors that can occur in captivity, and better understanding why they occur. Emphasis is placed on understanding the function of the behaviors examined within all three talks, as such a functional understanding is an important cornerstone to improving the captive welfare of animals in any type of facility.

The Humboldt penguin exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo currently houses 20+ individuals. Once a week (Fridays, 11 am) during the spring/summer, live trout are dumped into the exhibit for the penguins. We examined the result of this live feeding on the overall swimming activity of the group as a whole. Of primary interest is how the live feeds effect (a) overall swim time, and (b) variability in enclosure use. I hypothesized that the live feedings would increase overall swim time prior to and after the delivery of the live trout, as well as similar increases at the same time on days surrounding that feed. I also predicted that the penguins would be more likely to use the entire exhibit around these live feed times, since the penguins are likely to chase fish throughout the exhibit. Both of these effects would empirically demonstrate the enriching effects of giving penguins live fish feeds.

Stimulant drugs reliably elicit repetitive, invariant response sequences (stereotypies), and these patterns are often used to characterize the resopnse to psychostimulants. However, stereotypies also occur spontaneously as a result of environmental restriction, e.g., in laboratory caged or zoo-housed animals. On account of this, spontaneous stereotypy in captive animals is often considered indicative of a pathological response to chronic stress. Neurophysiologically, animals displaying spontaneous stereotypies show striking similarities to drug-exposed animals. Further parallels exist in terms of the behavioural phenotype, with stereotypic animals displaying strengthened S-R learning and reduced behavioural flexibility in reversal learning. Despite the similarities that exist between psychostimulant- and stress-induced behavioural phenotypes, the methods used to score phenotypic behavioural patterns (e.g., stereotypies) vary considerably, are often subjective in nature and do not have the flexibility to measure the early stages of development. Fractal analysis is a generic mathematical methodology that describes the complexity of an object or process by looking at the effects of changing the scale of measurement. Fractal dimension (Frac-D) is a useful measure of path tortuosity during unconditioned motor activity, i.e., the degree to which a path deviates from a straight trajectory. Our aim in the present study was to examine locomotor effects of psychostimulants and stress using fractal analysis. Rats were given either 7-days exposure to apomorphine (twice daily) or stress (restraint) or a combination. For behavioural testing, rats were placed individually in an open field apparatus and activity was monitored on an automated behavioural tracker, and generated a series of x,y coordinates. Results demonstrated that by examining pre-drug fractal dimension, it was possible to predict, with a good degree of confidence, the extent to which apomorphine-exposed rats developed predictable and stereotyped locomotor patterns following sensitization (Pearson's r = 0.85). Results are discussed in terms of characterizing an objective, quantitative endophenotype for locomotor effects of psychostimulants and stress.

In the wild, hippopotamuses spend most of their day activity in water. We examined how much time our hippos spend in their pool based on (a) temperature of the water, and (b) when the pool water was last dumped and re-filled (approximately 3 times a week). Several ThermoWorks™ USB digital temperature data loggers collected water and air temperature readings once every hour for several months. We correlated these temperature readings with several behaviors all the hippos could engage in, where the hippos were on exhibit, and how many days it had been since a dump (0, 1, or 2 days). This information will be discussed with respect to (a) what aspects of temperature and water quality most affect hippo pool use and general activity, and (b) what can be done in the future to improve the current hippo exhibit.

This symposium will include three presentations on current state of the art research pertaining to pediatric feeding disorders. The first paper looks at spoon distant fading as a treatment option for children with food selectivity. The second paper looks at utilizing the high-probability request sequence to increase consumption of non-preferred foods. The third paper looks at training caregivers to implement feeding interventions. Finally, a well respected expert in the area of pediatric feeding disorders will comment on the three papers and the state of research in this area.

We evaluated the effects of three different treatment packages (i.e., spoon distance fading plus reinforcement, spoon distance fading plus reinforcement plus escape extinction, and escape extinction plus reinforcement) to identify the effectiveness of a fading procedure in absence of extinction to increase food consumption during meals. One of the three treatments was effective for increasing food consumption and decreasing inappropriate mealtime behaviors for two of the three participants. However, all treatment phases were ineffective for increasing food consumption for one participant (Ivan). Due to the idiosyncratic results of the treatments evaluated, the efficacy of spoon distance fading on feeding disorders requires further analysis.

This study evaluated the high-probability instructional sequence to increase the variety of foods consumed by a young child with autism. The high-p sequence was evaluated with a combined reversal and multiple-baseline across foods design. Unique to this study was the use of a highly preferred food as the high-p task, and the systematic fading of the high-p sequence after the high-p sequence was demonstrated to be an effective intervention. Conceptual and practical implications will also be reviewed.

Children with feeding disorders may be at risk for many health issues if these disorders are left untreated (Patel, Piazza, Martinez, Volkert, & Santana, 2002). Numerous researchers have successfully treated feeding disorders; however, there is limited research on the maintenance and generalization of those treatments when implemented by the primary caregivers. In the current investigation caregivers were trained to implement their child's successful protocol using written instructions and post-session feedback. Additionally we sought to evaluate whether providing feedback on the caregiver's implementation of the protocol directly impacted the child's behavior. Results suggest that parents learned to appropriately implement their child's feeding protocol and follow-up data indicate maintenance of positive caregiver and child gains for up to3 weeks post caregiver training.

Getting young children to swallow pills, drink liquid medicine, or eat enough vegetables are daunting tasks even for caregivers of typically developing children, let alone caregivers of children with autism. Teaching these skills to children with autism presents several unique challenges. The response topographies necessary (closing mouth, chewing, swallowing) cannot be reliably or safely prompted, and many children with autism have a limited repertoire of tastes and textures they readily accept. Some children with autism also display aggressive or self-injurious behaviors when presented with novel tastes, or engage in other problematic behaviors such as self-induced vomiting. We successfully taught multiple children with autism to accept medicine or novel foods after carefully assessing their medicine- or food-refusal behaviors, assessing their response to different presentation methods, and developing interventions that specifically target the problematic variable identified. Examples include isolating salient features of the medicine such as tasteversus smell, assessing caregiver behaviors such as "hiding" the pill in food versus openly showing it to the child, or establishing medicine-taking with a specific stimulus that can be transferred across settings. Multiple case studies will be presented, including assessment techniques and baseline, treatment, and outcome data demonstrating maintenance and generalization of medicine/food acceptance.

Michael, a 7 year-old boy with autism, had a multi-year history of medicine refusal, including screaming, flailing, and biting when presented with medicine. He frequently tested positive for strep, requiring that he take antibiotics often. Medicine administration required both parents: one to block Michael's flailing, and the other to administer the medicine. On one occasion, Michael injured his mother by biting her as she delivered his medicine. We presented each stimulus separately (and isolated salient features of some stimuli) to determine which variable in the medicine-taking process was correlated with Michael's tantrum behavior. Variables we assessed included the presence of a plastic medicine syringe (distance from Michael's mouth), an empty versus full syringe, colored versus clear liquid, tastelessversus flavored liquid, and the presence or absence of a heavy scent. We were able to isolate scent as the variable that triggered tantrum behavior in Michael, with flavor as a second variable. We successfully taught Michael to take medicine by isolating each of these variables and gradually increasing the amount of each variable present in a water-based solution. Michael now takes medicine at home with his parents, without tantrum behavior.

We assessed two children with autism, Sara and Mark, who displayed medicine-refusal (Sara) and food-refusal (Mark) that involved yelling, crying, screaming, and in Mark's case aggression, self-injury, and self-induced vomiting. Sara had a history of aversive experiences with medicine that involved being "tricked" into taking it by having it hidden in her food, resulting in an unpleasant flavor to the food and avoidance of any stimuli associated with medicine. For Mark, most physical prompting by an adult was non-preferred regardless of the task. For both students, we isolated student-initiated responses versus caregiver-initiated responses as a critical variable that produced successful acceptance of medicine or food. Students were taught to either take medicine (Sara) or eat new foods (Mark) using a modified escape extinction procedure and positive reinforcement, but with the additional variable of all responses being student-initiated. Both Mark and Sara were allowed to select when they placed the food/medicine near their mouths, in their mouths, et cetera.In Sara's case, she completed practice trials with water instead of medicine, and was told each time exactly which liquid she was being given. Both students now independently take medicine/food without engaging in tantrum behavior.

Gregory, a 10-year-old boy with autism, had a multi-year history of medicine refusal in both liquid and pill form. Gregory displayed problematic behaviors related to the presentation of medicine including refusal (closed mouth), spitting out, and aggression. In Gregory's case, different response topographies were initially taught such as pills placed in yogurt (visible) and delivered via a spoon versus accepting liquids from a dropper or syringe. These were taught using a combination of shaping, chaining, and differential reinforcement. However, Gregory was only able to maintain one topography at a time, which posed a serious problem because he was required to take daily medications in both formats. We were able to successfully establish both forms of medicine-taking by using a common stimulus to present either form of medicine, thereby allowing both responses to occur with a single topography and eliminating the need to master and maintain multiple chains of behavior.

The ability to consistently motivate learner participation in the intensive and natural environment teaching settings is one of the largest indicators of a learner's future success. The best teaching methods in the world are meaningless with a learner who will not participate, cooperate, or give full effort. Pairing oneself and the teaching environment with reinforcement is a crucial step in earning learner assent and cooperation. The more reinforcing the teaching environment is the more likely a learner will participate in that setting consistently. Escape extinction procedures, paired with the development of a reinforcement history for participation, are the main staples in earning cooperation with challenging learners. However, when asked what escape extinction looks like, most behavior analysts and teachers describe some combination of escape blocking, nagging or forced physical prompting procedures. Although escape extinction is well documented in the science, the consistent use of these procedures works in direct opposition to the concept of pairing oneself and the teaching setting with reinforcement. What this symposium will offer is a way to address escape that can replace or reduce the need for escape blocking, nagging, or forced physical prompts. This approach will be described in detail. Video examples and preliminary data will be shared.

The ability to consistently motivate learner participation in the intensive and natural environment teaching settings is one of the largest indicators of a learner's future success. The best teaching methods in the world are meaningless with a learner who will not participate, cooperate, or give full effort. Pairing oneself and the teaching environment with reinforcement is a crucial step in earning learner assent and cooperation. The more reinforcing the teaching environment is the more likely a learner will participate in that setting consistently. Escape extinction procedures, paired with the development of a reinforcement history for participation, are the main staples in earning cooperation with challenging learners. However, when asked what escape extinction looks like, most behavior analysts and teachers describe some combination of escape blocking, nagging or forced physical prompting procedures. Although escape extinction is well documented in the science, the consistent use of these procedures works in direct opposition to the concept of pairing oneself and the teaching setting with reinforcement. What this symposium will offer is a way to address escape that can replace or reduce the need for escape blocking, nagging, or forced physical prompts. This approach will be described in detail. Video examples and preliminary data will be shared.

The ability to consistently motivate learner participation in the intensive and natural environment teaching settings is one of the largest indicators of a learner's future success. The best teaching methods in the world are meaningless with a learner who will not participate, cooperate, or give full effort. Pairing oneself and the teaching environment with reinforcement is a crucial step in earning learner assent and cooperation. The more reinforcing the teaching environment is the more likely a learner will participate in that setting consistently. Escape extinction procedures, paired with the development of a reinforcement history for participation, are the main staples in earning cooperation with challenging learners. However, when asked what escape extinction looks like, most behavior analysts and teachers describe some combination of escape blocking, nagging or forced physical prompting procedures. Although escape extinction is well documented in the science, the consistent use of these procedures works in direct opposition to the concept of pairing oneself and the teaching setting with reinforcement. What this symposium will offer is a way to address escape that can replace or reduce the need for escape blocking, nagging, or forced physical prompts. This approach will be described in detail. Video examples and preliminary data will be shared.

The ability to consistently motivate learner participation in the intensive and natural environment teaching settings is one of the largest indicators of a learner's future success. The best teaching methods in the world are meaningless with a learner who will not participate, cooperate, or give full effort. Pairing oneself and the teaching environment with reinforcement is a crucial step in earning learner assent and cooperation. The more reinforcing the teaching environment is the more likely a learner will participate in that setting consistently. Escape extinction procedures, paired with the development of a reinforcement history for participation, are the main staples in earning cooperation with challenging learners. However, when asked what escape extinction looks like, most behavior analysts and teachers describe some combination of escape blocking, nagging or forced physical prompting procedures. Although escape extinction is well documented in the science, the consistent use of these procedures works in direct opposition to the concept of pairing oneself and the teaching setting with reinforcement. What this symposium will offer is a way to address escape that can replace or reduce the need for escape blocking, nagging, or forced physical prompts. This approach will be described in detail. Video examples and preliminary data will be shared.

Three papers will be presented. We will highlight the results of data based efforts to provide an analysis of environments and interventions for preschool and kindergarten students with autism. Pamparo, Herriott and Schwartz will offer a paper using dialogic reading interventions to increase verbal behavior in preschool children. McLaughlin and Davis will describe their project examining the use of physical activity to reduce stereotypic behavior for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sainato, Jung, Morrison, and Axe will detail their observational analysis from a study inclusive kindergarten environments for children with autism and typical peers. Finally, Garfinkle will provide discussion of these papers. Implications for service delivery and future directions for research will be discussed.

Children with disabilities have fewer opportunities to engage in quality literacy experiences that support the development of critical early literacy skills. The use of dialogic reading strategies has been found to improve early literacy skills in children with language delays and those from at-risk populations. However, there is a dearth of studies that examine the potential utility of such reading strategies for students with disabilities. The present study employed a multiple baseline design across two preschoolers withautism spectrum disorderto examine the effect of dialogic reading on early literacy outcomes for three preschool students with autism. Results show that children verbally participated more during book readings when the adult read to them using dialogic reading prompts compared to standard book readings. Furthermore, dialogic book reading increased the duration students spent reading books without sacrificing student engagement. These results suggest that the use of dialogic reading strategies may be an effective strategy to improve the quality of literacy experiences for students with autism.

Project TASK was to developed and evaluated a comprehensive program for kindergarten children with autism. A total of 42 children with autism from the model program and 21 students with autism recruited from four local school districts participated. Direct observations of child and teacher behavior (i.e. engagement, social interaction, prompt level, etc.) were implemented once a month for a minimum of 6100 minutes per year for each student. Inter-observer agreement measures for the direct observations yielded mean levels of at least 90%. Results will be presented for critical instructional features such as grouping, teacher direction, instructional interactions and child engagement. Initial results indicate behavioral interventions, and use of naturally occurring learning opportunities to practice individualized education planobjectives were effective in promoting achievement of kindergarten children withautism spectrum disorderin inclusive settings. The project will be discussed in terms of the establishment of more effective educational programs for children with autism spectrum disorders with reduction in the cost of services.

Stereotypies can be detrimental to the individual and eventually become a more serious challenging behavior; therefore, it is advantageous to treat stereotypy early in the history of the behavior. This study used a repeated reversal design to determine the effects of increasing physical activity during recess on stereotypy in three preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Functional analyses were conducted for stereotypic behaviors to determine the function for each participant. The intervention consisted of using short, play-based physical activities during recess. Results indicate increasing physical activity can be used as an intervention to reduce automatically maintained stereotypy in preschoolers with ASD. The intervention had a lesser effect on a preschooler whose stereotypy was maintained by attention. Results show topographies of the stereotypy were differentially affected for each individual. Not all motor stereotypies were affected equally within the same individual, and for one child, vocal stereotypies appeared to become less variable. Social validity measures indicate teachers would be willing to use this intervention in the future. Implications for using physical activity as an intervention for preschoolers with stereotypy are discussed.

Childhood feeding problems have the potential to disrupt the acquisition of age-appropriate feeding habits (Silverman, 2010), and children with developmental disabilities are at increased risk for developing feeding-related difficulties. The estimated prevalence of feeding problems in children with autism has been reported to be as high as 90% (Kodak & Piazza, 2008). The studies in this symposium highlight behavioral approaches to assessment and treatment of various feeding problems such as food refusal, selective eating, and disruptive mealtime behavior. The first study describes a procedure to increase chewing of nonpreferred foods by pairing with a preferred food. The second study compared the effects of two common interventions (noncontingent reinforcement and differential reinforcement) to decrease food selectivity. The third study describes assessment and treatment procedures to increase consumption of nonpreferred foods and teach self-feeding skills. Finally, the fourth study presents the results of data for 13 clients following an intensive feeding clinic admission to assess maintenance.

The absence of chewing food is a common deficit seen in children with congenital and developmental disabilities (Williams, 2008). Some research suggests that this behavioral lack is due to inappropriate and/or lack of exposure to textures during infancy (Beckett, 2002). This can lead to children either eating foods of lower texture than age-appropriate or swallowing higher textured foods whole. When the latter occurs, this poses a great health risk for the child. Few studies to date address the problem of how to teach specifically the behavior of chewing. Butterfield and Parson (1973) used modeling and shaping to teach chewing while other oral-motor interventions are proposed by speech-language pathologists. Differential reinforcement was also used (Shore, et al, 1999). The current investigation looks at teaching chewing to a child with autism who did not chew any food other than cheese crackers. Through simultaneous presentation, the rate of chewing increased for non-preferred foods using a multi-element design. Over time, the pairing was able to be faded such that the non-preferred food was eaten alone with appropriate chewing.

After functional analyses suggested that food selectivity/refusal by two young children with autism was maintained by escape from demands to eat, a treatment evaluation was conducted. During the treatment evaluation, a multielement design was used to compare differential reinforcement of bite acceptance (DRA) with arbitrary but preferred items to noncontingent access to these same items. Escape extinction was in place during both treatments. The results showed that both treatments increased bite acceptance and decreased problem behavior, and that noncontingent access to preferred items reduced problem behavior to a slightly greater extent than DRA. Results are discussed in terms of the identification of practical and efficient methods of increasing bite acceptance in children with autism who exhibit food selectivity and/or refusal.

Childhood feeding problems (e.g., food refusal, food selectivity, disruptive mealtime behavior, failure to master developmentally appropriate self-feeding skills, etc.) have the potential to disrupt the acquisition of age-appropriate feeding habits (Silverman, 2010), and children with developmental disabilities are at increased risk for developing feeding-related difficulties (Schwarz, Corredor, Fisher-Medina, Cohen, & Rabinowitz, 2001). The present study describes the assessment and treatment of various feeding problems in 3 children with developmental disabilities. For one child, an assessment was conducted to identify the relative preference level for several foods. Subsequently, differential reinforcement and escape extinction (nonremoval of the spoon) increased acceptance of nonpreferred foods. For the second child, an assessment was conducted to determine how taste, texture, and vehicles (e.g., utensils) influenced feeding behavior. Subsequently, differential reinforcement, texture fading, and escape extinction was successful in increasing acceptance of higher texture foods. For the third child, backward chaining was used to establish independent self-feeding skills. A treatment package consisting of prompting, reinforcement, and response blocking was used to increase self-feeding and decrease finger feeding under typical classroom arrangements. Results suggest that the aforementioned procedures were effective at treating feeding problems in three, young children with developmental disabilities.

Research on single-case interventions has shown success in treating pediatric feeding disorders (Chung and Kahng, 2007; Ledford and Gast, 2006; Martins, et al, 2008). However, limited research has been published on program-wide evaluations of outpatient feeding facilities. The long-term effect of feeding interventions is even rarer. Given the desire of limited funding sources to know probable outcomes, group data should be presented to justify behavioral intervention as a preferable method. The current assessment collects data of 13 clients who complete an intensive feeding program. Differences in bite acceptance, inappropriate behavior, and variety of foods are examined pre and post intervention. Data is also re-evaluated after returning home and full re-emergence into daily activities. Lastly, the data are able to be evaluated by in-clinic versus in-home services.

Teaching skills to fluency has been purported to have many important outcomes, including improved retention, endurance (i.e., ability to engage in for long durations), application (i.e., generalization), and stability (resistance to distraction). These are intriguing claims in relation to learners with autism, as autism is associated with poor maintenance, difficulty with transferring skills, low stamina for tasks, and distractibility. In this symposium, several outcomes of rate-building to fluency will be evaluated. One paper will present data on the effect on building tacting skills to fluency on spontaneous tacting in free play situations. A second paper will examine the differential rate of skill acquisition and demonstration of generalization for items taught to mastery and items taught to fluency. The third paper will present data comparing the maintenance of skills in a lean probe schedule, a daily practice condition, and a rate-building phase of instruction. These three papers empirically examine the assumptions associated with achieving fluent responding. Data presented support the use of rate-building procedures, but are also discussed in the context of other effectiveapplied behavior analysisinstructional strategies.

It has been suggested that fluent skills are associated with greater response availability which results in improved spontaneous skill demonstration. Fluent responding includes accuracy and speed. Both speed and accuracy are important for responses to be effective, meaningful, and comprehensible for interaction partners. Responses that are trained to fluent levels are expected to be more readily retrievable and demonstrable for the learner. Theoretically, increased response availability would be associated with higher levels of spontaneity. This paper empirically tests this assumption. Skills that have been acquired will be practiced daily in timed sprints. In addition, these stimuli will be probed weekly for spontaneous tacting in free play situations. The free play situations will be 10 minutes in duration, and will include the items trained and additional distractor items, enabling a comparison with other stimuli. An additional comparison will be done between children with autism and typically developing peers, yielding data on normative levels of spontaneous tacting in free play situations. The evaluation of assumptions is an important extension of our commitment to effectiveness and efficiency inapplied behavior analysisinstruction.

Teaching skills to fluency has been described as more efficient and as associated with better generalization than teaching skills to mastery levels (i.e. accuracy). In this investigation, learners were taught several items of a program via discrete trial instruction and several items of a program via rate-building. Participants will be adolescent learners with autism, and the targeted skill will be receptive identification of community-relevant sight words. Data will be reported on the differential rates of acquisition between these two sets of items. Generalization will be assessed in two weekly probes for stimulus and setting/situation generality. Stimulus generalization will be probed on a weekly basis, in the training environment. Three different exemplars of trained stimuli will be used in weekly probes, including 2D and #d representations. In addition, setting/situation generalization probes will be conducted weekly in non-training/novel environments. The results will be discussed in the context of effective instruction. In addition, data will be analyzed with regard to commonly held assumptions about rate-building.

One of the commonly held assumptions about skills taught to fluent levels is that they are better maintained than skills not taught to fluency. Previous work in this area has suggested that rate-building to fluent levels has resulted in excellent levels of maintenance up to 10 months post-acquisition. However, it was not clear whether such results were a consequence of timed practice or were simply a consequence of overlearning. In other words: is going quickly a critical element of training? Would maintenance levels be measurably lower in the absence of timed practice? In this study, maintenance is compared in 3 conditions across 5 learners with autism: a lean maintenance weekly probe schedule, a daily rate-building (sprints) condition, and a daily practice condition. Data will be presented across all three conditions up to 6 months post acquisition. Results will be discussed in the context of essential/ best practice elements of instruction.

The promise of behavior analysis has always been the effective dissemination of effective interventions. Yet the question of effective training, in today's global community, remains. How do we take our interventions and effectively train diverse practitioners across the globe in them? Technological advances that facilitate engaging and effective interaction via the world wide have resulted in a surge of methodologies for online training of practitioners. The potential benefits of using communication technology to train practitioners via the web are immense: Training can occur rapidly and reach practitioners who otherwise would be difficult to reach. This symposium will present new data on online trainings in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), functional analytic psychotherapy(FAP) and behavioral activation using an online therapeutic learning community. The online training methodology shared by these studies offers great promise for future rapid and effective training across the globe.

Behavioral activation (BA), a behavior analytically informed, empirically supported intervention for depression, has potential strengths in terms of ease of training and maximum reach. A 4-hour web-based training sequence (3 classes over the course of 1 month) was employed to train a diverse group of therapists in BA techniques. Using evidence-based dissemination and implementation strategies, the course emphasized engagement, practice, feedback, and personal application of the material. Eight therapists were trained and collected weekly data over the course of training on uptake of BA techniques. Results indicated significant uptake of BA techniques over the course of training. Client outcomes, however, were not responsive to training.

Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) is a form of outpatient psychotherapy, grounded in clinical behavior analysis, whose hypothesized mechanism of action is the interpersonal interaction of client and therapist. FAP therapist training (FAPTT) aims to shape the interpersonal repertoires needed to practice FAP through a combination of didactic and experiential work undertaken in a small group setting. Here we present pilot data from two studies of a novel version of FAPTT administered via the internet. Therapists (n = 8 in Study 1; n = 10-12 in Study 2) met virtually for 2 hours weekly over 2 months and completed individual homework between sessions. Therapists completed assessments at pre- and post-training. Primary therapist outcomes were burn-out and FAP-specific competencies. A subset of therapists also recruited clients who completed assessments of therapy relationship and interpersonal function at pre- and post-training. Preliminary results indicate that web-based FAPTT is feasible and acceptable, though client recruitment was limited. However, the only outcome to demonstrate an effect of training in these small samples was therapist-reported FAP competencies. Results are discussed in terms of a behavior analytic account of FAP competencies and training impact. Strategies for assessing impact of training on client outcomes in future studies are reviewed.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an empirically supported treatment based on behavioral principles and relational frame theory. ACT has been shown to be effective in treating a range of problems in living, including depression and anxiety and the management of chronic medical conditions, and has even improved the uptake of other empirically supported treatments among mental health counselors. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of ACT dissemination and implementation strategies. Research on psychotherapy dissemination and implementation suggests that traditional instructor-led workshops may not be sufficient to achieve and sustain therapy competence and adherence, but online training and consultation groups can significantly improve training outcomes. The current study compares a traditional 2-day ACT workshop to two styles of 8-week online consultation groups, one focused on technical skills-training and the other focused on applying functional analysis and intervention to the therapeutic relationship. We will examine the impact of these three training strategies on therapist burnout, therapeutic alliance, therapist psychological flexibility, and treatment adherence at pre, post, and 3-month follow-up. This paper will present results of this pilot study and address feasibility issues in conducting online training of clinical behavior analysis.

While there is a wealth of research to demonstrate the ability of parents to effectively implement behavioral programs after intensive training, research in the area of parents' ability to implement programs without stringent training is far less common. Whether we like to admit it or not, most parent training is done on a consultative basis and what happens between sessions can ultimately "make or break" our clients' success. Intensive training methods are typically expensive and time consuming; more over, they are often aversive for both the parent and the child. In an effort to examine some more feasible methods to conduct parent training, two specific parent-training models (textual and video modeling) and their effects on parent praise delivery will be presented. Also, some everyday problems, like toilet training and increasing activities of daily living, will be analyzed in the context of everyday confounds, like culture and age. Lastly, some methods to make data collection more "parent friendly" while still maintaining validity will be presented.

While there is a wealth of research on the effectiveness of parent training programs and their success in training parents to implement behavioral interventions, there is far less evidence supporting parent implementation when the clinician's involvement is limited. As we know, the success of our treatment plans is dependent on the consistent implementation of the procedures. Results will be reported from a functional assessment of the contingencies that affect parental implementation of the treatment procedures (Allen and Warzak, 2000) along with a comparison from a survey conducted in 2011by clinicians. Suggestions for more “parent friendly” treatment plans will be discussed in regards to the potential issues and areas of concern.

Toilet training programs are prevalent in the literature. However, as a child ages, the amount of time it takes to fully train the child and have the skill maintain increases (Christophersen, 2003). The current presentation will compare two case studies where a modified version of Azrin and Foxx (1981) method was used to toilet train a 5-year-old and a 13-year-old whose parents initially implemented training but then required an intensive intervention from the clinician for completion of the program. Both clients were able to meet the criterion of self-initiating in multiple settings; however, treatment involvement on the part of the clinician was significantly higher for the 13-year-old. Implications for training parents will be discussed, specifically in regards to the role age differences play in whether or not a toilet training program will be successful and how to best train parents to implement these programs without the aid of costly intensive clinician intervention.

Arranging effective contingencies in the client's environment involves much more than antecedent manipulations and identifying reinforcers. In order to maximize outcomes, especially when providing in-home therapeutic services, the behavior analyst must take the family's values and belief system into account. Otherwise, a serious disconnect may result between what goes on in the living room and the "therapy room." The following case study discusses how a family's perspectives on religion and morals had an effect on the leisure activities and acquisition rates of a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Individualized programming is described per the client, as well as the family's needs to demonstrate additional variables the behavior analyst must take into consideration when programming for effective in-home therapeutic services.

The effectiveness of two behavioral parent training strategies, a written protocol and video modeling, were compared among three parents of children age seven and under. All the participants emitted some form of inappropriate behaviors that warranted programming and all attended an elementary school Head Start program. The written protocol was compared to Webster-Stratton's Incredible Years BASIC parent training program. Data were collected on the parents' attending, praise, and delivery of tangibles during 30-minute observations in their home. The results showed that behavioral parent training using both written protocol and video modeling increased parents' attending, praise, and delivering of tangibles when interacting with their children compared to baseline.

The presented session is unique in that it deals with three issues; social injustices, tobacco prevention for minority groups, and the treatment techniques for different populations. This is the first time social injustice and the other related issues are discussed regarding tobacco prevention. Tobacco industries pay millions of dollars each year to state governments. The state governments are supposed to use the money given to them towards tobacco use prevention and intervention, but the money is not spent on the intended area. This session is an attempt to get behaviorists involved in the unfortunate dilemma and reverse the trend of abusing finances. Special techniques, such as a CO2 test and the Computer Quitting Keys, will be introduced.

Functional behavioral assessment techniques are widely used to identify the environmental influences on problem behavior in schools, clinics, and residential environments. Due to several limitations associated with experimental analysis and descriptive assessment procedures, many practitioners elect to use indirect assessment procedures, such as interviews and checklists, to guide treatment selection. The papers in this symposium will present evaluations of advances in indirect assessments aimed at improving their reliability, validity, and generality across populations.

An analysis of interrater agreement across multiple respondents on anecdotal assessments was compared with experimental functional analysis outcomes for correspondence. Experiment 1 evaluated the agreement of multiple respondents on the function of problem behavior for 27 individuals across 42 target behaviors using the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) and the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF). Results showed agreement on the primary maintaining consequence for 4 or 5 of the 5 respondents in 52% (22/42) of the individuals target behaviors with the MAS and 57% (24/42) with the QABF. Experiment 2 examined whether correspondence occurred between the anecdotal assessment results and experimental functional analysis (EFA) results for 7 individuals selected from Experiment 1. Correspondence between the QABF assessment and the EFA was found for 6 of 7 participants, and 4 of the 7 showed correspondence between the EFA and the MAS. This study showed that the QABF had higher correspondence with analog assessments than the MAS thus, supporting the previous findings of Paclawskyj et al. (2001).

Indirect functional behavior assessment instruments are used to preliminarily identify potential functions of behavior and have only been available in English. This study developed a Spanish version of the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) indirect assessment instrument. Forward and back-adaptation committees were used in the translation process. Subsequently, the QABF and the QABF-Spanish (QABF-S) were administered to a group of 80 bilingual participants to assess both the reliability and validity of the assessments. A factor analysis yielded four factors that were consistent with the four subscales examined in this study. Reliability coefficients were good for the attention, escape, and tangible subscales on both the QABF and QABF-S, but were poor for the nonsocial subscale on each instrument. Thus, it appears that the versions of the instrument evoke common responses from respondents for social reinforcement functions but further refinement may be needed to identify nonsocial contingencies. Contributions, limitations, and directions for future research will be discussed.

The majority of evidence guiding the use of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) in schools is derived from research evaluating the utility of conducting FBAs with individuals with significant difficulties in controlled, experimental settings. Because of this, there is considerable concern regarding the applicability of the methods and tools involved in the FBA process to higher-functioning students in applied settings. A commonly used method of FBA in schools is interviews. Most often interviews are conducted with teachers and research on the reliability and utility of such interviews has produced mixed results. An alternative to teacher-conducted interviews is to interview the student regarding the putative function of his or her problem behavior. Student-guided interviews could be conducted instead of teacher interviews or as a compliment to teacher interviews and direct observations. To date only 2 studies have assessed student-guided functional assessments. In this study we evaluated the reliability of student-guided FBAs by comparing results to results of teacher-conducted FBA interviews and to structural analyses conducted in the classroom.

The literature base supporting the utility of functional assessment for deriving efficacious interventions is robust yet function-based support remains elusive in schools. This may seem somewhat surprising given that functional assessment is written into federal guidelines (e.g., IDEA) yet the conceptual logic of functional assessmentand function-based support is not typically a part of the school culture. Skillful use of functional assessment and the resulting development of function-base support requires (a) conceptual understanding of environment-behavior relations, (b) adequate time to conduct assessments and develop interventions, (c) knowledge of the school/classroom context and (d) systems to measure progress. When behavior analysts consult with schools they are able to conduct the assessment, build a support plan, and develop a system to progress monitor however they often lack the "contextual fit" to match the intervention and data collection system to the skills, values, and capacity of the teacher. An alternative is to built internal capacity in function-based support. In this presentation we discuss a system for building district and within-school capacity around function-based support and review data documenting the ability of districts and schools to implement function-based support with fidelity.

Delivery of quality applied behavior analysis (ABA) services can be a challenge for low income families and/or for families outside of major urban centers. These obstacles can make the appropriate consultation with trained behavior analysts extremely difficult. We present three papers that present delivery models that have or can potentially overcome these obstacles. The first paper describes a community based program that focuses on parent training and intensive ABA therapy for low income families with children with autism and developmental disabilities. The second paper describes and demonstrates the use of a teleconsultation model to conduct functional analyses and provision of function-based treatment recommendations for families of young children with autism in rural settings. The third paper will also describe and demonstrate the usefulness of internet webcam technologies to provide descriptive assessments and treatment for problem behavior and daily living skills. These papers will be discussed by Dr. Patricia Kurtz who is currently the Director of the Neurobehavioral Outpatient Services at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and who has vast experience in the evaluation of problematic behavior exhibited by children with developmental disabilities.

An autism pilot program was created in collaboration with the Austin Travis County Integral Care Center and The University of Texas at Austin in order to provide intensive applied behavioral analysis therapy to low income families in the Austin community. The program served to provide master's level graduate students in the area of Autism and Developmental Disabilities and Early Childhood Special Education with experience working with families directly in home and community settings usingapplied behavior analysistechniques. Another focus of the program was to train parents to implement the strategies used in therapy sessions to facilitate generalization of skills. Families were given 6 months of 10-15 hours of weekly intensive behavioral therapy. A description of student training, assessment of children, and program implementation is provided for the first 3 families piloted through the program.

Trained behavior consultants delivered functional analysis (FA)and functional communication training (FCT)through telehealth to young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) who displayed problem behavior. Participants were 9 young children between the ages of 18 months and 6 years who were diagnosed with ASDs. Participants lived in rural communities in Iowa and lived an average of 228 miles away from the major hospital that housed the behavior consultants. All procedures were conducted during weekly telehealth consultations in the participants' regional clinics, an average of 12 miles from their homes. Local parent coaches were trained via telehealth by behavior consultants to provide on-site support during consultations. Functional analyses were completed within a multielement design to identify the environmental variables that maintained problem behavior. FCT was implemented in the context identified by the FA within a noncurrent multiple baseline design. Interrater agreement was assessed during 30% of sessions and averaged over 90%. Two case studies will be presented. FA results suggested that both participants' problem behavior was maintained by escape from demands and access to tangible items. FCT for escape was implemented and reductions of problem behavior were over 90% across participants. Results suggested that FA and FCT can be conducted effectively and efficiently through telehealth.

Argentina is the second largest country of South America after Brazil, and the 8th largest country in the world. Its total area is approximately 2.7 million km^2. With 40 million inhabitants in the whole country, more than 12 million lives in Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires. Main health services are sited in Buenos Aires, and long distances are a big obstacle for families inside the country who want to receive attention or to consult for supervision and guidance for local therapeutic intervention and management of situations at home. Trained behavior consultant conducted descriptive analysis of problem behavior and clinical supervision on daily living skills by video reviews of previously sent material by the family, and conducted interviews with parents and local therapists through webcam via internet. Participant was a 6-year-old girl with severe mental retardation, no verbal communication and problem behavior, who lives in a small town near Tucuman, 1281 Km from Buenos Aires. Improvement was observed in problem behavior (tantrums) and daily living skills (eating more independently), suggesting the web consultation to be a valid alternative to the family to receive guidance.

This symposium presents research on the evaluation of participant and stakeholder preferences for behavioral interventions commonly used with individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities. In the first study, function-based treatments for off-task behaviors were evaluated in vocational settings. Following the determination of an efficacious treatment, direct and indirect social validity assessments were completed. The data indicated that participants demonstrated preference for the efficacious treatment, and that stakeholders found this treatment to have social validity. In the second study, two types of instructional lesson plans were compared (simplified vs. technical). Data on teacher precision and performance were collected. Indirect assessments of teacher preferences for instructional lesson plans were conducted, and results indicated that teachers demonstrated preference for simplified lesson plans. The final study evaluated the use of a concurrent operant preference assessment to evaluate participant preference for behavioral interventions. This direct preference data was then compared to data obtained using indirect assessments (e.g., parent/teacher report) of preference. Results indicated that the concurrent operant preference assessment was an effective tool to determine participant preference, more so than teacher/parent report.

The current study extends social validity research in the area of function-based treatment to off-task behavior in a vocational context. The initial treatment evaluation showed that a multiple schedule with a self management component was an effective treatment for two adolescents off-task behavior which was sensitive to both escape and tangible reinforcement. Secondary efficacy measures indicated that the multiple schedule was more effective than two other potential treatment options (a mixed schedule, which involved the same amount of reinforcement, or extinction alone). Prior to introducing the treatment to a community setting, social validity assessments were conducted with both the adolescents and other relevant stakeholders. Interobserver agreement was collected during 33% of efficacy sessions and 65% of preference sessions. Agreement averaged above 93% across efficacy sessions and 100% across preference sessions. An objective social validity assessment conducted with the adolescents showed that both preferred the multiple schedule treatment to either a mixed schedule or extinction alone. A comprehensive indirect social validity assessment indicated that stakeholders found the goals of the intervention important, the procedures acceptable, and the outcomes desirable. The results are discussed in the context of improving vocational outcomes for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

Reading and following detailed, technical instructions can be time consuming and difficult. In this study, effects of lesson plans with a simplified format and more colloquial language were compared against more detailed, technical lesson plans. Teacher precision (percent of teaching tasks implemented correctly) and teacher preference were compared across a group of teachers teaching 2 tasks to four students. One task (toothbrushing) was taught using task analysis (TA), and the other task (identifying categories) was taught using discrete trial training (DTT). For each student, one task was taught using the simplified form, and the other was taught using the detailed form. Teacher precision was high using both sets of instructions; although on average, teacher performance was higher using the detailed form than the simplified form (TA: 99% vs. 97%; DTT: 100% vs. 91%). A paper and pencil survey of teacher preference showed that teachers greatly preferred the simplified instructions.

The present study used a concurrent-chains operant preference assessment to evaluate preference for two behavioral interventions commonly used with children who exhibit escape maintained problem behavior: stimulus fading (SF) and a combined approach that includes both SF and functional communication training (SF+FCT). Results of the concurrent operant preference assessment were then compared with parent and teacher predictions of the participants' preference for behavioral intervention. Overall the results indicate that preferences for interventions were measurable and stable. Concurrent chains preference assessment, then, was a useful tool for evaluating participant preference for behavioral interventions with children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. The data also indicate that indirect measures (e.g., parental and teacher report) for assessing preference are less accurate than direct measures of participant preference. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This series of three papers investigates the current understanding of developmental concepts such as those of behavioral cusps, verbal developmental theory, and cusps as nodes from a nonlinear behavioral systems viewpoint. Each paper presents a different element of these conceptualizations but all three papers focus on the relevance of these concepts to educational outcomes. The authors believe that an integration of developmental theory into educational practice holds great promise for educational outcomes and the treatment of individuals with developmental disabilities. The three papers discuss the theories, review relevant findings in the field, and propose next steps in the integration of these theories into practical application. The first paper describes assessment tools that incorporate verbal behavior development theory and discusses the implications of inducing missing cusps and capabilities. The second paper investigates the effects of Verbal Developmental Protocols on verbal developmental cusps. The third paper reviews the history of the concept of behavioral cusps, considering their role in the developmental process, and proposes an alternative way to conceptualize cusps as nodes.

This paper describes the use of assessment tools grounded in a functional assessment of language to drive curricular choices in an instructional setting. Assessing learners according to their levels of verbal behavior allows the instructor to think about the learner in a different way. This, in turn, allows the instructor to design instruction with a different focus and, perhaps, to look at the acquisition of necessary repertoires for independence in a new way. Both the Preschool Inventory of Repertoires for Kindergarten (PIRK) and the Verbal Behavior Developmental Assessment (VBDA) will be reviewed and case studies will be used to demonstrate the translation of assessment findings into programming for children with missing cusps and capabilities. Behavioral cusps and capabilities will be defined for this particular context. The implications of inducing cusps and capabilities will be outlined and we will explore the relationship between instructional methods and a child's Verbal Developmental profile.

We investigated the effects of three verbal developmental protocols on increases in pre-listener, listener, and early speaker observing responses and the emergence of certain verbal developmental cusps. These cusps, included, for some, the ability to be reinforced by listening to voices and looking at faces. They also included, for others, the ability to come under instructional control and observe both two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects. Early developmental cusps may be missing in children with developmental delays, regardless of their chronological age. We review findings from case studies of young children enrolled in full day preschool classrooms that were based on inclusion models of instruction. The classrooms were structured on child-directed models of learning and included children with identified disabilities as well as typically developing children for most learning activities across the school day. We discuss the outcomes of use of these Protocols and their impact on the children as well as on the instructional model.

"The behavioral approach has long been underrepresented in developmental psychology. Its emphasis on process, interaction, environmental influences, and the individual makes it a good fit with a dynamical systems approach. We think the synthesis of these views-the behavioral systems approach-provides a powerful and coherent view of the process of human development" (Novak & Pelaez, 2004). The concept of behavioral cusps was defined as "any behavior change that brings the organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have even more far-reaching consequences" (Rosales-Ruiz & Baer, 1997). In recent years the concept has been treated in many ways, including as a synonym for pivotal response class, and has taken on well-deserved interest by those interested in treating problem behaviors. This paper will look at the original concept of behavioral cusps, and consider their role in the human developmental process as well as implications for treatment interventions. The paper will examine cusps from a nonlinear behavioral systems viewpoint and raise questions about whether cusps may be seen better as nodes from which later developmental pathways emerge.

Matching-to-sample procedures have been used to study different complex human behaviors. The first speaker will present a study by Steinnum and Arntzen that explores the use of matching-to-sample procedures with older adults diagnosed with dementia. Such procedures can be useful for detecting specific behavioral deficits that characterize this condition. The talk will describe the introduction of several variations of identity matching-to-sample procedures to a single participant. The next speaker will present a study by Lian and Arntzen that employs a linear series training structure to examine the effects of delayed matching-to-sample on stimulus equivalence responding. A linear series training structure is especially suited to obtain a detailed picture of all properties of stimulus equivalence. Young adults are here exposed to several different delays during the training of the conditional discriminations prerequisite for stimulus equivalence testing. Finally a study by Eilifsen and Arntzen that examines the status of the directly trained conditional discriminations during tests for stimulus equivalence will be presented. Adults are here exposed to tests that include randomly interspersed unreinforced baseline trials. Results from this study show that the baseline discriminations in general remain intact during testing, also for participants not responding in accord with equivalence.

Up to date there is a lack of publications on experiments using stimulus equivalence procedures for studying complex behavior in patients with dementia. However, in this experiment remembering functions were studied in patient diagnosed with Alzheimer. The participants, an 80-year-old male, MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) score was 10. Due to results from pre-categorization of identical stimuli he was exposed to identity matching to sample (MTS). The stimuli used were South Park figures TM. There were four phases in the experiment with identity matching; 1. Simultaneous MTS, nine stimuli 2. Simultaneous MTS, nine stimuli with specific instruction, 3. Simultaneous MTS, six stimuli 4. Delayed MTS-0s, six stimuli. The results showed that the participant's number of correct responding was around 47% in the first phase. Therefore a specific instruction was introduced (phase 2). Then, his number of correct responses increased to 68% during training, but during the test phase (no hint provided) they declined to 61%. In the 3rd phase correct responding was 93% during training but declined again during the test phase (66% correct). In the 4th phase the average number of correct responding during training was 49%. This increased to 52% correct responding later on. Suggestions are made for future experiments.

Delayed matching-to-sample refers to a conditional discrimination procedure where a delay is imposed between removal of sample stimulus and the presentation of comparison stimuli. Lately several studies have investigated the effects of delayed matching-to-sample on responding in accord with equivalence. The main findings are that the delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS)procedure produces high outcome of derived responding. Most of these studies have arranged many-to-one (MTO comparison as node) and/or one-to-many (OTM sample as node) training structures, training structures that in themselves are associated with high equivalence outcome. The linear training structure has shown to be less effective than both OTM and MTO structures in demonstrating responding in accord with equivalence, but allows investigating more properties of equivalence relations than the OTM and MTO structures. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of DMTS in linear training structure on the establishment of baseline conditional discriminations and responding in accord with equivalence.

The probability of stimulus equivalence responding has been shown to vary as a function of different experimental procedures. It is possible that this variation can be related to differences in the retention of the trained baseline discriminations during the test for stimulus equivalence, and that the probability of retention is affected by procedural variables. In a study by Eilifsen and Arntzen (2009) the conditional discriminations prerequisite for testing equivalence were trained using a linear series structure. In the subsequent test, unreinforced baseline trials were randomly interspersed among trials testing for the relations that define equivalence. Results from this study showed that the majority of the participants not responding according to equivalence still responded according to the directly trained relations. The current study examines whether these results can be replicated when other training structures are employed. Adult participants were trained using a linear series, one-to-many, or many-to-one training structure. Results show that there are participants in all three groups responding to criterion on the probes for baseline relations, while not responding according to equivalence. These results are of importance as they pertain to a central theoretical question concerning why some experimental participants do not show stimulus equivalence responding.

Short- and long-term effects of food deliveries on preference have been documented when either a constant overall rate of food delivery or a food-rate ratio changes across components within daily sessions and food-amount ratio changing across phases. But the lack of evidence showing that control of preference becomes more local as food amount varies, suggests that variations in the amount and frequency of food act in similar ways to control preference. This paper will show that sensitivity to food-amount ratio increases when food-rate ratios are unequal. In a choice situation, the food-amount ratio changed across seven components within daily sessions and three food-rate ratios changing across phases. Components in which the food-amount ratio opposed the food-rate ratio, showed a substantial (close to 0.5) sensitivity. In components where the food-amount ratio was the same as the food-rate ratio, sensitivity was about zero because of a ceiling effect. We concluded that food-rate ratio does affect sensitivity to food-amount ratio.

Six pigeons were trained in a three-alternative concurrent-schedules procedure. The food reinforcers were distributed across the three alternatives in a ratio of 9:3:1 using interdependent scheduling. The arranged overall rates of reinforcement were varied across conditions from 6 reinforcers/minute to 0.75 reinforcers/minute. Global analyses compared the allocation of behaviour between the 9:3 and 3:1 alternatives within each condition (i.e., where the ratio of reinforcers between the alternatives was the same, but the local rates of reinforcement were different). Global analyses also investigated whether the allocation of behaviour across the three alternatives changed across conditions as a function of overall reinforcer rate. Local analyses examined whether the source of the last reinforcer (rich "9" key, intermediate "3" key, lean "1" key) affected the subsequent pattern of responding among the alternatives. These analyses focused on the probabilities of various sequences of visits among the keys, and the duration of these visits before the pigeon switched again.

Predictions of Killeens (1994) mathematical principles of reinforcement (MPR) were tested with domestic hens as subjects in a series of experiments that manipulated deprivation level, reinforcer quality, and response requirement. In Experiment 1 hens experienced 3 levels of food deprivation, and were run at either, 100%, 90% or 80% of a free-feeding body weight and key pecks were reinforced according to an ascending series of random ratios. In Experiment 2, hens either pecked a key or pushed a "door", each at two different force levels, and responses were reinforced according to an ascending series of fixed ratios. In Experiment 3, key pecks will be reinforced with either wheat or corn according to an ascending series of random ratios. Data collection is ongoing. Thus far, response rates were typically higher when the animals were the more food deprived and when the response requirement was modest, and were generally fastest at smaller ratios and slowest at larger ratios. On random ratios as the ratio requirement increased response rate increased to a peak and then decreased with further increases in the ratio requirement. MPR described the hens' performance adequately, however, there were deviations from predictions of the model, and these will be discussed.

Temporal discounting has garnered much research interest partially because rates of discounting have been correlated with a number of disorders. However, research suggests that rates of discounting may vary as a function the procedure employed, not just as a function of (pseudo-) independent variables. The present study had 156 undergraduates complete a temporal-discounting task that involved five different outcomes (finding one's ideal dating partner, cigarettes, winning $100,000, being owed $100,000, and obtaining one's ideal body image). For one group, the fill-in-the-blank (FITB) method was used to measure discounting. For the other group, a multiple-choice format was used. Rates of discounting of every outcome varied as a function of technique employed, with more discounting observed with the FITB method for four of the five outcomes. Finding systematic differences in temporal discounting as a function of measurement technique highlights not only the complexity of studying discounting, but the difficulty in applying the findings from its study.

Individuals with high temporal discount rates engage in more problem behaviors than do persons with lower discount rates. Given these consistent differences, it is important to develop methodologies to influence individual discount rates. This paper reports on a series of studies that demonstrate the utility of "framing" in changing discount rates. Three experiments demonstrate that reframing discounting questions to focus on either gains or losses produces distinct discount rates. In Experiment 1, participants were given the choice of either "$100 minus X amount right now" or "$100 in Y days". This reframing of the question places the emphasis of the task on the costs incurred by choosing the immediate option. Participants in the framed condition showed significantly lower discount rates compared to controls. Experiments 2 and 3 reframed the delayed outcome as including either a bonus or a penalty. Results indicate that participants were more willing to wait for a bonus and less willing to wait for a penalty, despite the absolute outcome of both conditions being identical. Results from these studies suggest that reframing self-control choices, a type of antecedent manipulation, may be an effective method for encouraging decreased temporal discounting.

The tragedy of the commons can provide an experimental environment for studying social dilemmas. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two experimental histories (framing) of resource construction on the individual choices in a common dramma game as an experimental analogue of macrocontingencias. The design was between-subject, ABA. The procedure consisted of two conditions using the Public Good Game (PGG). In the first condition the participants were asked to use the resourses by choosing between 3 or 6. In the second condition, before using the resourses, there was a construction phase in which the participants had to build the resourses For the construction and use of resourses the framing could be Fish or Money. Therefore, two variables were manipulated: the framing and the construction. The results showed differences in resource utilization due to the framing and construction. When Fish was the framing, there was an increase in resourses. When Money was the framing, there was a decrease in resourses.

The effects of percentile schedules are rarely investigated within the human population. The few studies that have successfully evaluated percentile schedules with humans have measured interresponse times, duration behaviors, key press variability, or carbon monoxide levels. Therefore, many dimensions of behavior are left as uncharted territory. When venturing into the world of percentile schedules, there is little precedence when developing methodologies, especially when measuring a new dimension of behavior. This paper highlights various steps that eventually resulted in a solid methodology of investigating percentile schedule effects with humans. This methodology not only shapes human responding using the percentile schedules, but also investigates a variable in the percentile schedule, density of reinforcement, while measuring streams of responding, or response frequencies within set intervals of time.

Promoting the systematic application of applied behavior analytic procedures in the schools is critical for changing teaching practices and promoting desired student behaviors. To date, research in the schools has tended to focus more on measuring changes in individual students behaviors then on measuring the implementation of applied behavior analytic technologies by teachers or consultants. This symposium will focus on different models for training teachers and support staff to use behavior analytic procedures in their work with students. In each talk, data will be presented on changes in the use of targeted procedures by school staff. First, Jennifer McComas will review a multiple baseline design measuring teachers use of a visual prompting system for increasing rates of academic engagement by a group of Native American students. Second, Sacha Pence will present the results of a pyramidal model designed to train teachers to use different types of preference assessment procedures with students in their classrooms. Third, Brenda Bassingthwaite will describe a statewide training model focused on increasing the skills of school-based behavioral consultants in conducting function-based behavioral assessments and interventions. Timothy Vollmer will serve as discussant and will review the studies in terms of their strengths and limitations as well as directions for future work.

The percentage of Native American students who are successful in the formal education system is remarkably low. In Minneapolis, less than 30% of Native American 1st and 4th grade students are proficient readers, compared to 82% of their White peers. Furthermore, in 2009 only 57% of Native American students graduated from high school, compared to 93% of their white peers. One way to increase academic success is to increase active engagement in classroom instruction and activities. Evidence suggests that one way to increase student active engagement in classroom-based instruction is for the teacher to provide a high rate of opportunities to respond (OTRs). We created visual prompts of Native American (Ojibwe and Dakota) commonly used phrases and posted them in classrooms. Observation of teachers’ rates of OTRs within a multiple baseline design indicated an increase in OTRs with the posting of the visual prompts and a concomitant increase in active student engagement. When completed, results for three teachers will be presented. Results are discussed in terms of implications for working with classroom teachers and improving student academic engagement via changes in teaching practices.

Preference assessments allow for a direct evaluation of tangible and edible items that may serve as reinforcers. The ability to conduct preference assessments is an important skill for individuals who work with children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a pyramidal training model on teachers' acquisition of preference assessment procedures. During Experiment 1, 3 special education teachers trained 5 special education teachers and 1 clinician to conduct paired-choice, multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (MSWO), and free-operant preference assessments. Training included modeling, feedback, and role plays. All six trainees acquired skills related to the three preference assessments during the training sessions and demonstrated generalization of the preference assessments in their classrooms. During Experiment 2, 5 teachers who served as trainees in experiment 1 trained 18 preschool teachers. During training sessions, all preschool teachers met mastery criterion on all three preference assessments. The pyramidal training was effective, using teachers to train peers in a relatively short period of time. Training trainers to implement skills such as preference assessments may increase teachers acceptability and incorporation of behavior analysis procedures into the school setting.

The State of Iowa is divided into 9 area education agencies (AEA) that provide a variety of educational services to school districts across the state. The Department of Education is supporting each AEA having at least 2 full-time behavior consultant positions to provide services to students engaging in challenging behaviors. Consultants are expected to have expertise in conducting functional behavior assessments and planning interventions for students. Needs assessments completed by the 33 hired behavior consultants indicated significant need for training in experimental analysis. No consultant met criteria for level of experience in conducting functional analyses, antecedent analyses, and concurrent operants assessments when the initiative began in the fall of 2009. Behavior analysts from the University of Iowa provided training to the consultants while conducting clinic-based and school-based assessments. Consultants learned skills in the area of data collection, data analysis, and experimental analyses. Outcome measures included direct observation measures of consultants' skill development in targeted areas. Data from the first 2 years of the project will be presented.

The symposium is a collection of studies evaluating the use of the online reading programme Headsprout Early Reading® (HER) and the online Headsprout Reading Compression® across three populations of children with varying additional learning needs. The first paper reports the use of HER within a state funded special educational school with children with moderate to severe learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Paper two investigates the use of HER with children in a mainstream school who have English as an Additional Language (EAL). Paper three investigates the benefits and the practical challenges of using HER and HRC with children with a diagnosis of autism. Paper four is an investigation into the addition of a ‘look-back’ contingency in HRC.

This study investigated the effects of Headsprout Early Reading (HER) on reading and language skills of children with various special educational needs (SEN). Eleven children aged between 9 and 16 and attending a special needs school were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (receiving HER intervention) or waiting list control group. Two children in another SEN setting also received HER intervention to control for researcher involvement. All participants were assessed on a range of reading and language abilities, including word recognition, basic early literacy skills, expressive and receptive vocabulary and articulation. In assessments conducted after 10-weeks, statistically significant improvements in the experimental groups compared to the control group were limited to word recognition and some basic early literacy skills. These findings suggest HER can be successfully implemented with some children with SEN, and may help improve reading and language skills.

Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the online reading programme Headsprout Reading Basics (HER) with typical learners; however there have been no studies to empirically determine the effectiveness of the program for children with autism. Study 1 examined the use of HER with four participants with a diagnosis of autism. The research design used a single subject pre/post test design. A number of standardised tests were taken prior to and following the Headsprout intervention in order to assess the effects on the participants reading and spelling. HER had positive impacts on participants reading accuracy and spelling however there were limited improvements in reading comprehension. Future research should address the limitations on teaching reading comprehension. Study 2 was a pilot investigation of the use of Headsprout Reading Comprehension with 3 children who had completed the HER programme and had a diagnosis of Autism. The results of that study indicate that with additional procedures from ABA, children with autism can use and benefit from HRC.

The ability to read is essential if children are to access the rest of their academic curriculum and failure to read effectively can have significant detrimental effects on their future life choices and future prospects. This study sought to increase the existing database to support the effectiveness of Headsprout Early Reading (HER) an internet based reading programme that over the course of 80 episodes teaches children to read. Children who were identified as struggling readers by their classroom teacher were pre-tested and then randomly allocated to either receive the HER intervention or teaching as usual. Results from the data show that HER is an effective early reading programme for children with reading delays.

Headsprout Reading Comprehension teaches learners to answer reading comprehension questions in four categories: literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, main idea (summative) comprehension, and derived meaning (vocabulary) comprehension. In the original version of the program, learners read a narrative or expository passage onscreen and are presented with reading comprehension questions sequentially. Learners select an answer to each question by clicking on a written answer presented onscreen, and receive either confirmatory feedback or a correction routine depending on the answer selected. This presentation will describe the design and effects of adding a new requirement for learners that is not present in the initial version of the program. This requirement (the "look back" contingency) has learners locate the part of the passage that contains the information necessary to answer the question. That is, learners have to click on a portion of the passage (varying from a phrase to several sentences) before they can click on a possible answer. The purpose of this new contingency is to direct learners to find the answer in the passage before they attempt to answer the question posed. This contingency is in effect during early phases of the program in order to establish the target behavior, and is faded out in later phases of the program. Two studies are reported in this presentation: one draws data from learners in Headsprouts learning laboratory, and one draws data from learners using the program in schools and homes. Within each study, there is a control condition (using data collected before the look back contingency was implemented) and a look back condition (using data collected after the look back contingency was implemented). Comparing these two conditions would yield information about any effects of adding the look back contingency. Furthermore, there are two comparisons to be made within each of these two conditions: early phases of the program and late phases of the program. Comparing the early and late phases would provide information on whether any effects of the look back contingency are maintained after the contingency is faded out from the program.

Kindergarten teachers hold high behavioral expectations for children entering their classrooms at the beginning of each school year. As such, it is important to identify effective behavior change procedures to promote the development of school readiness skills (e.g., social, academic, and communication skills) to increase the likelihood that children will experience early success in school. The speakers in this symposium will present studies on the effects of individual or group-wide behavior analytic interventions on increasing appropriate classroom behaviors of preschool children. The first study compared the efficacy of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior and response cost on on-task behavior. In addition, child preference for the behavior change procedures was assessed. In the second study, the direct and indirect effects of three types of group-oriented contingencies (independent, interdependent, and dependent) for decreasing problem behavior and increasing on-task behavior was compared. The third investigation assessed the effects of a multiple schedule on attention seeking responses during circle time in three preschool classrooms. The final study compared the effects of brief and continuous signals during delays to reinforcement on tolerance to the delay (i.e., waiting) while also evaluating the differential effects of whether the delay was signaled by a caregiver or a peer.

Several researchers have shown that response cost (loss of a specific reinforcer) is an effective procedure for decreasing problem behavior; however, there is little research comparing response cost to reinforcement-based procedures (e.g., Iwata & Bailey, 1974). The purposes of the current study are to (a) directly compare response cost to differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA) for increasing on-task behavior (i.e., tracing letters and shapes) of typically developing preschool children and (b) determine child preference for these two procedures. Results of the study suggest (a) response cost and DRA are equally effective in increasing high levels of on-task behavior of typically developing preschool children (6/6), and (b) most participants prefer DRA to response cost (4/6). The results suggest that earning and losing reinforcers are equally effective procedures for increasing and maintaining appropriate on-task behavior. However, our data suggest that typically developing preschool children prefer to earn reinforcers rather than lose reinforcers that they already have.

Individualized contingencies placed on behavior have been shown to be effective in changing the behavior of a single individual. Group-oriented contingencies, however, have been shown to be an efficient method for changing the behavior of multiple individuals simultaneously. There are several types of group-oriented contingencies, including independent (individual contingencies for each member), interdependent (contingency on the behavior of the entire group) and dependent (contingencies on the behavior of a subset of the group). Although all types of group-oriented contingencies have been shown to be effective in changing behavior, there is little research comparing them. Also, multiple studies have anecdotally reported side effects that may occur as a result of group-oriented contingencies. However, few studies have directly collected data on these potential side effects. In the current study, we compared the effects of three types of group-oriented contingencies (independent, interdependent, and dependent) for decreasing problem behavior and increasing on-task behavior for typically developing preschool-aged children. In addition, data on vocalizations relevant to problem behavior and on-task behavior were collected from videotapes of the sessions. Implications for the use of group-oriented contingencies and the potential importance of side-effects are discussed.

Preschool and kindergarten teachers expect children to sit appropriately and not disrupt others during group instruction. However, children often engage in high rates of attention seeking responses that may distract other students from learning opportunities. In addition, children often receive attention for both appropriate and inappropriate attention seeking behaviors and are unable to discriminate when attention is or is not available from the teacher. The purpose of the current study was to assess the efficacy of a multiple schedule indicative of the availability of attention for hand raises during circle time in a typical preschool classroom. Results showed that the rates of hand raises decreased in the extinction component of the multiple schedule for all three classrooms and increased or maintained in the reinforcement component. Rates of interruptions and problem behaviors varied across classrooms. Results suggest that a multiple schedule indicative of the availability of attention from a classroom teacher can be used in typical preschool classrooms to maintain hand raise responses at appropriate levels.

Some young children have difficulty waiting for things they want (i.e., tolerating delays). The purpose of the current study was to (a) compare the effects of providing a brief versus a continuous signal during delay to reinforcement on preschool children's tolerance of delays and (b) assess whether children's delay tolerance was differentially affected by caregiver-mediated or child-mediated signals to delay. Three typically developing preschool children who demonstrated sensitivity to magnitude of reinforcement and no tolerance of 5-min delays to reinforcement participated in the current study. Results suggest that brief and continuous caregiver signals, as well as brief participant responses were not effective for enhancing delay tolerance. However, continuous participant responses enhanced delay tolerance for all three participants. That is, providing participants with preferred leisure items during delays to reinforcement increased participants' choice of large, delayed reinforcers. The data from the current study suggest that in order to increase delay tolerance (and possibly decrease the likelihood of problem behavior during delays to reinforcement) caregivers could choose a few of their child's highly preferred toys and only allow access to those toys when the child must wait for something he or she wants.

Organizational Behavior Management practitioners have for decades worked in all types of organizations: large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit, government, public and private. We have worked in whole organizations and divisions or units. Out of these experiences OBM scientist-practitioners have contributed to a body of knowledge that has verified the effectiveness of several types of interventions including feedback and coaching among many others. As our field grows, the types of questions we address are becoming more complex. Two important questions professionals in our field are currently addressing concern the size or complexity of problems we can successfully address and how change in organizations can be sustained over time, long after we have left and as current and future leaders exit and enter the scene. This symposium brings together three presentations addressing sustainable, broad scale organizational change. They discuss the specifics of their interventions and identify best practices and critical success factors for sustaining broad-scale change over time.

Last year we presented preliminary data from three pilot studies. The goal of the intervention was to create an environment that delivers sustainable, superior results through employees who understand their business and consistently deliver on their commitments. Leader behaviour change was the primary lever-leaders were coached to use behavioural tools and concepts to impact front line employee behaviours. Through the pilots we learned some important lessons on how to identify organizational and senior leader readiness to proceed with the coaching as well as critical success factors for setting up the intervention prior to going live to coaching and setting divisions up for sustainability post coaching. The learnings have been applied to three new divisions and results show that the magnitude of leader behaviour change is predictive of field level behaviour change, and the use of behavioural data in daily and weekly performance discussions positively impacts leading and lagging business results. An additional 12 divisions are in process and showing the same pattern of impact. Discussion will include analysis of the importance of getting leaders at all levels aligned on goals and establishing data-based performance reviews early in the change process. Behaviour and results data will be displayed in a multiple baseline across divisions format.

During the current economic downturn, leaders from many industries have been challenged to find ways to reduce costs, often delivering products and services with fewer people. Leaders in petroleum refining are no different. As petroleum refining leaders have sought to make their organizations more efficient they have turned to one lever that can produce quick gains; the individual performance of their leaders and workforce. In the past, however, efforts made to improve leader and performer performance have often resulted in a return to baseline levels once the intervention is complete or when leaders change roles. This paper illustrates how one petroleum refining company utilized several principles of behavior analysis to accelerate organizational change and ensure those changes are sustained for years to come. To accomplish this, leaders were equipped with tools and coaches to help uncover current influences on performance and change aspects of the environment to make desired performance more likely. Data will be presented on changes to leader behaviors and leading and lagging indicators. These data serve as further evidence that organizations can benefit significantly from applying principles of behavior analysis. The author will also discuss methods used to decrease the likelihood of a return to baseline levels of performance.

Many organizations espouse a vision of "one team, one goal" largely defined by what they deliver to their customers and how they deliver it (e.g., safe and cost effective delivery of X units of product to market). Organisational systems are, however, frequently set up such that business units and functional divisions operate in silos wherein their success can sub-optimize the organizational whole. Organisational systems analysts (e.g., Rummler and Brache 1995, Gilbert 1996, Brethower, 2000) contributed, among other important ideas, that of reconcilability of sub-system goals to ensure the best whole system outputs to the ultimate customer. In our work in geographically dispersed and matrixed organizations, our clients have helped us identify some best practices for creating alignment across organizational sub-systems and ensuring reconciliation of sub-system goals (e.g., Johnson et al, 2008, Methot and Grieg, 2006). In our current work we have carried forward these practices to establish behavioural scorecards and a system for monthly reviews to help leaders effectively act on commitments to shared success. Additionally, we explore a system of data based stewardships within project workstreams to ensure that each unit-level intervention produces the best impact in ways that enhance whole-system outputs.

In the big cities, where the traffic condition is bad throughout the weekdays, employees experience enhancing stress level when they are commuting to their offices. Spending time on the road for a couple hours to and from the office will influence employees' job satisfaction. However, there is a possibility that employees still have motivation to go to the office because of some issues. This paper aims to find out what kind of issues that can negate the stress level caused by traffic jams: monetary (salary) and non-monetary (working condition) issues. The first experiment will examine whether the stress level as a mediating variable of commuting time will influence job satisfaction or not. The second experiment design will be 2 (commuting time to the office: more than an hour vs. less than an hour) X2 (salary level: minimum wage rate vs. 25% above minimum wage rate) between-subject. The third experiment, working condition will be the moderating variable, with design: 2 (commuting time to the office: more than an hour vs. less than an hour) X2 (working condition: favorable vs. unfavorable) between-subject. The dependent variable for the last two experiments is job satisfaction.

Contributors to the Industrial/Organizational Psychology (IOP) culture began publishing research, in the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), regarding job satisfaction and job performance when Thorndike (1917) published an article entitled, "The Curve of Work and the Curve of Satisfyingness". No "official" mention was made regarding the role of job satisfaction in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) until 1980 when Brandon Hall clarified the journal's and the OBM culture's values. The author compares job satisfaction terms/constructs from the perspectives of IOP and OBM. The "grand theory" of each culture is presented, rooted, respectively, in works of Lewin (IOP) and Skinner (OBM). The author suggests that members of the OBM culture adopt Hopkins (1999) recommendations that OBM embrace what Hopkins calls, "The Principles of Behavior as an Empirical Theory" and use those principles to explain why that theory should "work" as well as its utility as a guide for those who would devise and implement behavior change efforts in the traditions of OBM and, perhaps, ABA.

This experiment examined the effect of a verbal and written performance feedback system with a low cost probabilistic contingency reward program and an 8-hour acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) training program on the frequency and technical competence of active treatment provided by direct care staff to people with disabilities. The experiment used a pretest/posttest design with a waitlist control group and two intervention groups. Direct care staff serving children and adults with developmental disabilities in a residential and small group home settings participated in the experiment. The first intervention group received only the feedback intervention while the second intervention group received the feedback intervention and the ACT training. After attrition the group sizes were control(n = 12), feedback only (n = 12), and feedback plus ACT (N = 17). The groups were quasi-randomly assigned. Both intervention groups performed significantly better than the control group. The feedback plus ACT group outperformed the feedback only group by 27.8% in frequency of active treatment at post-test. The result was statistically significantly at the .05 level of significance. The feedback plus ACT group also exhibited superior but nonsignificant improvements over the feedback only group in the areas of competency of operant teaching techniques (14.9%), percentage of clients engaged in purposeful activities (10.7%), and percentage of clients with learning or leisure materials within arms reach (11.0%). Regression analyses found a weak positive correlation between age and frequency of active treatment (R2 = .11, F(1, 39) = 4.99, p < .05), a weak positive correlation between psychological flexibility as measured by the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2 (AAQ-2) and job satisfaction, A weak negative correlation between psychological flexibility and self-reported workplace stress, and a weak negative correlation between stress and job satisfaction. Self-reported levels of psychological flexibility, workplace stress, and job satisfaction remained stable for all three groups from pre to posttest despite the increased performance expectations on direct care staff in the two intervention groups. Possible explanations for the differences in performance are discussed.

The application of the science of behavior has made significant contributions into areas of societal concern. However satisfied practitioners of behavior science are with the impact behavior analysis has made into these areas, there continues to be examples where the principles of behavior can be applied and significant change realized. There may be no better example of areas where behavior analysis can make a significant impact than with the concerns often encountered in clinical psychology. It is the purpose of the panel to present a variety of insights regarding the impact behavior analysis can make and domains in which these impacts can be realized. The theme of this panel is the beneficial results that can come from the interaction between behavior analysis and clinical psychology.

In the context of special education teacher training programs, knowledge and skills in behavior analysis sometimes compete with training requirements in other areas (e.g., delivery of instruction, assessment). In this symposium, presenters will describe methods for teaching applied behavior analysis research and applications to preservice teacher trainees. Allen-Williams and Alexander will describe incorporation of behavior analysis content into various courses and preservice teachers feedback on their level of preparation at a western university. Yurick will discuss various obstacles to a conceptually systematic sequence of behavior analytic practice in a pre-service special education program at an urban, Midwestern university. These considerations will be discussed in the context of a capstone, curriculum methods course, which requires a supervised clinical experience. This presentation will describe the development of an interdisciplinary graduate program in behavior analysis, which first delivers behavior analysis and then provides students the opportunity to specialize. Strategies for housing courses within different departments and colleges will be discussed. Nobel will outline several tactics used to embed principles of behavior into multiple courses in a special education licensure program, noting successes and failures. Student feedback will be shared providing evidence that the inclusion of behavioral principles positively impacted their successful teaching behaviors.

Teaching at a university where courses specific to applied behavior analysis (ABA)are not offered, the presenters have been challenged to educate our students in the principles of ABA. The presenters have incorporated teaching ABA principles and developing student research skills in classes that previously lacked this component; specifically the classroom management course. In this course students are taught how to implement action research in their practicum and student teaching experiences. We oversee these projects that reinforce ABA principles. Along with this we have incorporated ABA principles in our foundations and reading courses, two courses which previously did not contain any content related to the specifics of ABA. The presenters will describe how ABA principles have been infused and provide student feedback on how these efforts have impacted their skills.

As the only Board Certified Behavior Analyst on faculty, the inclusion of principles of applied behavior analysis in both instructional and behavior management courses can be challenging. Throughout their coursework, university students may be subjected to a variety of disciplines and orientations. Although this diversity of perspectives provides a broad survey of perspectives, there is little depth to understanding any singular disposition. Further exacerbating this tendency to superficial understanding of behavior is the variance in the quality and expertise of any particular course instructor, which is a significant challenge for universities that employ many part time or adjunct faculty. In this session, the presenter will discuss the various obstacles to a conceptually systematic sequence of behavior analytic practice in a pre-service special education program at an urban, Midwestern university. These considerations will be discussed in the context of a capstone, curriculum methods course, which requires a supervised clinical experience. Implications for course and program development as well as recommendations for clinical or field supervisors will be addressed.

Traditionally, academic institutions recognize disciplines through the institutional framework of programs, departments and colleges. For instance, criminal justice often exists as a curricular program housed within a sociology department that is member of the College of Human Ecology. Most behavior analysts would categorize behavior analysis as its own discipline; in fact it is a discipline that spans all human behavior. Institutional frameworks do not support such encompassing disciplines resulting in behavior analysis programs that are housed in academic departments forcing faculty to "cook" the science to "taste" like the department discipline, e.g., psychology, special education, criminal justice, et cetera. While areas of specialization within behavior analysis (industrial/organizational, autism) are critical to successful application of behavior analysis, so too is the true science itself. This presentation will describe the development of an interdisciplinary graduate program in behavior analysis, which first delivers "flavorless" behavior analysis and then provides students the opportunity to specialize. Strategies for housing courses within different departments and colleges will be discussed. Issues concerning the implementation of such a program will be addressed including faculty course loads across departments and colleges as well as how to ensure that students are afforded the opportunity to specialize with a particular population.

One of the biggest challenges of working in a School of Education is overcoming the belief that behavioral principles and tactics should only be taught in the classroom management course. The presenter will describe the challenges of working in a primarily constructivist environment, as both a faculty member and as a program chairperson. The presenter will outline several tactics used to embed principles of behavior into multiple courses in a special education licensure program, noting successes and failures. Student feedback will be shared providing evidence that the inclusion of behavioral principles positively impacted their successful teaching behaviors.

This panel is composed of 4 individuals who are by definition educators, working to disseminate knowledge about behavior analysis and measuring success in the skillful applications of that knowledge by those they are charged with teaching: children, adult students around the world, employees at all levels and across types of business, and citizens learning to sustain positive environmental practices across their communities. The panel members have had good success in creating effective approaches to these varied groups and are learning lessons along the way about what works. In particular, each has had experience in managing the context for change. That is, how the conditions beyond the learner-the school governance/educational funding system, the university academic community, the cultural and business practices of the workplace, and the uneven landscape of community interventions-how these conditions impact what occurs and what can/needs to be done. The work they are doing holds great promise for the dissemination of behavior analysis. Each approach has had and will continue to have highly significant impact worthy of our appreciation. For all of us, this panel provides a forum for discussing what we are learning about taking behavior analysis into mainstream practice. Dr. Twyman will share what she has learned about what to do and what not to do with educational technology at the front line of school curriculum in America. Her current work puts her in the forefront of exploring how best to design practices for success. Dr. Stratton is applying her skills in establishing new behaviors to sustain positive environmental practices across the university community and beyond, including the conditions that affect success. Dr. Bemski is leading a team to design a total business school curriculum in which every course has at its core the science of behavior analysis. Master's degrees in business will require fluency in behavior analysis and applied research using behavioral strategies to create measurable impact. His audience is world-wide, reaching approximately 10,000 campus and Internet-based working adults at any point in time. Dr. Hyten has bridged academic teaching of behavior analysis to doing so as anorganizational behavior managementconsultant in varied workplaces of America and beyond. He will share what he has learned about translating the science to practical tools for employees.

As educators are trying to meet the demands of educating urban students, the notion of attending to culture is critical. Multi-cultural education, cultural competence and culturally-responsive practice are central themes in the literature that promote the effective education of culturally and linguistically diverse students with and without exceptionalities. This paper presentation will analyze the themes of culturally-responsive practice and evaluate how the dimensions of applied behavior analysis can lend themselves to an environment that brings effective, intentional practice from the instruction and intervention methods currently used in other instructional environments (e.g., clinical settings, special schools, home settings) to the forefront of urban settings. Additionally this presentation will challenge attendees with a new look at cultural diversity and how behavior analysis can be a more intentional partner in the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students with and without exceptionalities.

It is not uncommon for behavior analysts to be inserted into challenging clinical and applied situations with little guidance and limited understanding of what is expected from them. Multiple potential reasons for these difficulties could be postulated such as difficulty learning our technical language/philosophical orientation, misunderstandings about our general foci/procedures, confusion regarding our support/material requirements, limited or non-existent access to a local peer support network, etcetera. In this presentation, I will describe my most recent experience of deciphering how to apply my behavior analysis skills to clinically impact the clients at a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program at an inpatient maximum and medium security psychiatric hospital in central Missouri. Discussion points will include a description of my current occupational setting, my initial experiences with DBT, my efforts to synergize behavior analysis with DBT, and my continuously evolving role as a behavior analyst at this facility. A contextual perspective of the relation between behavior analysis and DBT [e.g., behavioral descriptions of DBT protocols, the utility of these techniques on the wards, a description of my initial (and ongoing) interest in working at a DBT facility as a behavior analyst, etc.] will also be discussed throughout the presentation.

People diagnosed with borderline personality disorder often absorb an overwhelming amount of clinical resources in comparison to other diagnoses. Further, these clients have historically experienced limited therapeutic progress, especially in relation to those expended resources. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), sometimes described as a "Third Wave" behavior therapy along with acceptance and commitment therapy and functional analytic psychotherapy, primarily focuses on these clients and has shown much clinical promise in randomized control trials. However, for behavior analysts interested in learning about DBT, much of the language (especially basic terminology, underlying theoretical concepts, and therapeutic procedures) can be confusing, distracting, and frustrating. This unfamiliar vocabulary may potentially trigger compulsory counterarguments from behavior analysts based on terminological misunderstandings rather than empirical, functional, or pragmatic concerns. In this presentation, I will attempt to unpack some of the basic concepts and procedures used in DBT (e.g., mindfulness, validation, dialectic, acceptance, dysregulation, bio-social theory, etc.) in terms of (underlying) behavioral principles in an attempt to clarify the similarities and differences between DBT and the functional contextualistic/behavior analytic philosophical orientations.

This symposium presents three related yet distinct perspectives on the analysis of verbal behavior which together calls for a closer collaboration among linguists, speech and language pathologists, and behavior analysts. The first paper examines the development of Skinners analysis of verbal behavior in a historical context. The William James Lectures (Skinner, 1947) referred to many linguistic sources that are absent from Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957). The importance of these linguistic sources in understanding Skinner's analyses of verbal behavior is discussed, and an interdisciplinary approach to verbal behavior is emphasized. The second paper examines the extent to which the verbal behavior milestones assessment and placement program (the VB-MAPP) serves as a valuable language and social skills assessment program and curriculum guide for Japanese-speaking children diagnosed with autism. It highlights bilingual intervention as behavior analytic, while maintaining an interdisciplinary approach with linguistics and cultural studies. The third paper suggests that the fields of speech and language pathology and applied behavior analysis share many common goals, despite having different conceptual foundations. This presentation will suggest that the concept of form and function unites the two fields, and that a bigger clinical impact on language intervention programs is possible by working together.

This paper discusses the importance of Skinner’s unpublished William James Lectures (1947) for the understanding of his approach to verbal behavior. The authors referred to by Skinner in the William James Lectures were identified and classified by field of knowledge. These references were divided between the ones that were later cited in Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957) and those that were not. The William James Lectures (1947) referred to many sources that are absent from Verbal Behavior (1957). Some of these sources are from the field of linguistics. The importance of these sources to understand Skinner’s analyses of verbal behavior is discussed, and an interdisciplinary approach to verbal behavior is emphasized.

This pilot study examines the extent to which Verbal Behavior Milestone Assessment and Placement Program (VB MAPP) serves as a valuable language and social skills assessment program and curriculum guide for Japanese-speaking children diagnosed with autism living in Greater Vancouver area, BC, Canada. VB MAPP is the most current, and thorough, assessment and program development resource available for applied behavior analysts working with young children, which applies Skinners verbal behavior hypothesis to general and clinical pedagogies. The examination of two case studies over 12 months reveals the advantages and limitations of VB MAPP for bilingual intervention for the said population, identifying (a) areas easily translatable and applicable to clinical practice and Japanese language classroom (b) areas that require further research into cultural and linguistic consensus among the Japanese-speaking population (i.e. how the "norms" of verbal behavior among the Japanese-speakers might differ from that of English-speakers), and (c) other ecological factors that may influence the preference and compatibility of VB MAPP for the purpose of bilingual intervention. The study will thus highlight bilingual intervention as evidence-based and behavior analytic, while maintaining a collaborative interdisciplinary approach with linguistics and cultural studies.

The professional fields of speech and language pathology and applied behavior analysis often share the clinical focus of teaching communication skills to individuals who fail to acquire effective language skills, such as those with autism. However these two professions are based on vastly different theoretical foundations (Hegde, 2010). The current paper will suggest that the concepts of form and function identify a clear role for both professions, and that the two professions need each other. Skinner (1957) identified these two roles in the following statement, "Our first responsibility is simple description: what is the topography of this subdivision of human behavior? Once that question has been answered in at least a preliminary fashion we may advance to the stage called explanation: what conditions are relevant to the occurrence of the behavior-what are the variables of which it is a function?" (p. 10) Collectively, the content from these two professional fields can have a bigger clinical impact on language intervention programs than each can have separately.

When given to pigeons, the direct-acting dopamine agonist apomorphine induces stereotyped pecking. To investigate the nature of apomorphine's effects, we have examined several possible environmental factors that could control the expression of the pecking stereotypy. First, we examined contextual variables. Pigeons received various doses of apomorphine prior to an observation period. During some periods, the experimental chamber was illuminated with white light and illuminated with infrared light during other sessions (functionally darkness for the pigeons). Under white light, sensitivity to apomorphine was greater than under infrared lighting and the stereotypy was more consistent in form. Second, we examined reinforcement variables that could be important in the expression of stereotypy. Pigeons were trained to respond on a multiple fixed-interval 5-min schedule of grain delivery. Across components, the first response after 5 min produced 2-, 4-, or 8-seconds access to mixed grain. In different pigeons, apomorphine either increased or decreased response rate. In either case, the potency of apomorphine was inversely related to the magnitude of grain provided at the end of the interval. The findings indicate reinforcement parameters are important for the expression of apomorphine-induced pecking. Overall, our data indicate the pecking stereotypy is a highly regulated form of behavior that is sensitive to a number of environmental factors.

The operant visual signal detection task has been used to study sustained attention in rats since the 1950s. Sustained attention is the ability to direct attention and focus on one stimulus for a period of time. Various neurotransmitter systems have been indicated to be important for attention. For example, drugs that enhance acetylcholine release in the prefrontal cortex are found to improve attentional performance, whereas drugs that block acetylcholine release disrupt performance. Additionally, antipsychotic drugs are found to disrupt the ability to detect stimulus increase in this task. Neurotensin agonists, which have antipsychotic-like properties, have not been evaluated in the visual signal detection task. In the present study, the neurotensin agonist PD149163 and the atypical antipsychotic clozapine were evaluated in a visual signal detection task, where signal and blank trials occurred at random and at 1-24s intervals. Consistent with pervious findings, clozapine had no effect on correct rejections; however, it dose-dependently decreases correct hits. Interestingly, PD149163 had no effect on correct rejections or correct hits. Although neurotensin agonists produce antipsychotic-like behavioral effects in preclinical models, these antipsychotic-like effects were not demonstrated in the signal detection task. Presumably, a drug that produces antipsychotic-like behavioral effects without disrupting attentional performance may provide a new therapeutic avenue.

Prevention science has arrived at the point where it is realistic to experimentally evaluate comprehensive interventions to improve child and adolescent development in high poverty neighborhoods. This presentation will review the evidence in support of this statement. Numerous family and school interventions that have been shown to prevent multiple problems and to enhance the development of prosocial behavior are available. I will then describe one such comprehensive intervention that has been developed on the basis of this evidence. It includes evidence-based programs, policies, and evidence-based kernels. I will then lay out the multiple baseline experimental design that is proposed for evaluating it. In addition, I will describe work we have been doing on the use of acceptance and commitment therapy to help organizations with issues of stress, social cohesion, and organizational flexibility.

Behavior analysts providing early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be asked to provide other interventions or collaborate with those providing other services. A large number of supplemental and or competing therapies exist, some of which have empirical support while many others do not. This workshop is designed to comprehensively review the philosophical underpinning, assessment methods, instructional goals and specific instructional practices involved in the implementation of EIBI and the developmental, individual difference, relationship-based (DIR/Floortime) model. This review suggests that a number of specific practices of DIR/Floortime are in direct contradiction to and may undermine the effectiveness of behavior analytically based interventions used in EIBI services. Video exemplars will be use to illustrate these differences. The ethical issues associated with combining these two approaches will also be discussed.

The pervasiveness of decision-making in literally every area of human endeavor highlights the importance of understanding how choice mechanisms work and their detailed relationship to underlying neurobiological function. This talk surveys the recent and productive application of game theoretic probes (economic games) to mental disorders. Such games typically possess concrete concepts of optimal play, thus providing quantitative ways to track when subjects' choices deviate from optimal. This feature equips economic games with natural classes of control signals that should guide learning and choice in the agents that play them. These signals and their underlying physical correlates in the brain are now being used to generate objective biomarkers that may prove useful for exposing and understanding the neurogenetic basis of normal and pathological human cognition.

There are a number of variables that have been shown to affect choice making (e.g., de Villiers & Herrnstein, 1976). One such variable is the degree to which individuals discount the value of delayed outcomes (Mazur, 1987). For example, when presented with a choice between two equivalent outcomes, one of which is available immediately, and the other of which is available following some delay, most individuals will select the immediate outcome. Recent research on delay discounting has shown that certain populations are more susceptible than others (Madden, Bickel, & Jacobs, 1999). One population that has not been included in this literature is caregivers of children with autism. There are many treatments for children with autism which claim to produce therapeutic changes in behavior with varying amounts of time. The purpose of this study was to compare the degree to which parents of children with autism with either severe problem behavior or language deficits discount delays. Data were analyzed using area under the curve (Myerson, Green, & Warusawitharana, 2001). A person that engages in more discounting will have less area under the curve than a person with a large amount of area under the curve.

The current study examined the use of delayed reinforcement in conjunction with visual and auditory cues to teach self-control to a 17-year-old male diagnosed with autism. The participant engaged in high rates of self-injurious, aggressive, and disruptive behaviors to primarily gain access to tangible items. He was able to independently request items, but waiting for them often lead to the occurrence of these behaviors. A changing criterion design was used to increase the duration that reinforcement was delayed and decreased problem behavior. During treatment, the participant selected an item from a picture menu and was prompted to wait for what he had chosen. A wait card and timer were visible and upon successful completion of the interval he was given the requested item. Sessions were conducted in a treatment room and generalization probes were initiated on his living unit. Results will be discussed in terms of the participant's ability to delay reinforcement and decrease problem behavior, as well as implications for further generalization and maintenance.

Practical issues arise when trying to intervene with escape-maintained problem behavior in adults with autism. Assessment and treatment of such classes of behavior are particularly problematic in adult populations given that they often involve increased intensity, complexity, and learning history coupled with the greater physical stature and strength of adult learners when compared to their school-age counterparts. This is particularly problematic when practitioners attempt to implement escape extinction with this population. The present study explored the possibility of addressing escape-maintained problem behavior in adults with autism by establishing a behavioral economy and manipulating the cost of desired items and activities and the value of preferred and non-preferred tasks. During baseline, the student had the opportunity to select from a variety of jobs (some preferred/some non-preferred) that paid $1 each. In addition, a menu of reinforcers was provided (some high preference/some low preference) at a cost of $1 each. The "pay" for jobs and the "price" for reinforcers were then manipulated and the effects on response allocation observed. The pilot data to this point indicate that the participant started allocating responding to lower preference jobs to access higher preference items more quickly.

Token economies have potential application for use in facilitation and maintenance of behavior change. However, findings from basic research suggest token and chained schedules yield lower response rates and longer post-reinforcement pauses when compared with similar tandem schedules of reinforcement. Applied research supports the use of token economies in increasing appropriate behavior and reducing problem behavior, but has not provided an analogue to basic research. Response rate on an arbitrary task was compared during token and tandem schedules of reinforcement. Does the use of conditioned reinforcement result in higher response rates?

Weppler et al (2010) demonstrated that a second-order token-conditioning procedure was as effective as a first-order pairing procedure in increasing preference for and the reinforcing properties of neutral stimuli. The purpose of the present study was to extend these findings by using second-order pairing to condition differential preference and reinforcing properties to a penny, nickel, and dime. Two children with autism participated in this study. Different quantities of pennies were paired with corresponding quantities of back-up reinforcers. Concurrently, a matching-to-sample procedure was used to pair a penny, nickel, or dime with 1, 5 or 10 pennies, respectively. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used to evaluate the effects of these procedures on the preference for each coin. The reinforcing effectiveness of each coin was assessed using a progressive-ratio schedule. The results demonstrated that the conditioning procedure systematically increased the preference for each coin for both participants. Additionally, from most-to-least preferred, coins were preferred in the order of dime, nickel, and penny. The order of preference was also positively correlated to the reinforcing effectiveness of each coin during progressive-ratio tasks.

Reinforcement for desirable behaviors is a major component of effective interventions for children with developmental disabilities. A body of behavior analytic research has examined whether behavior is influenced by the restriction of specific reinforcers to the research setting. In this literature, an open economy is said to exist when a reinforcer is available both within and outside of the research setting. A closed economy exists when an individual can gain access to a reinforcer only by performing target behaviors within an experimental session (Hursh, 1980, 1984). Basic and applied research has consistently found that animals and humans perform target behaviors more frequently under closed economies than under open economies (Hursh, 1980; Kodak, Lerman, Call, & Trosclair, 2007; Roane, Call, & Falcomata, 2005). The purpose of the current project is to extend the studies of Roane et al. (2005) and Kodak et al. (2007) by evaluating whether the type of economy influences acquisition of targeted skills in two preschool children diagnosed with autism. The baseline and experimental conditions were compared using an adapted alternating treatments design. During open economy sessions, items that are highly preferred but are available to the participant outside of the research sessions were provided contingent on accurate responding. During closed economy sessions, only one highly preferred item was provided contingent on accurate responding. This item was not available to the participant outside of the research sessions. The results indicate that the economy did not influence acquisition, but the quality of the reinforcer did. Acqusition was primarily influenced by gaining access to the participants most highly preferred item.

Applied behavior analysis procedures for skill acquisition and behavior reduction rely heavily on reinforcement procedures. Reinforcement-based procedures can be difficult to implement with learners who have restricted interests. In the current investigation, a procedure was developed with the intention of increasing the range of preferred items in three individuals with preservative interests. An initial paired choice preference assessment and reinforce assessment was conducted; which included two preferred items, and five items without a history of engagement. The two items with the lowest selection rates were targeted for the assessment. The first neutral target was paired with the highest preference item in the assessment. After at least five pairing trials, and preferably after the item showed increases in preference based on the daily multiple stimuli without replacement, a subsequent paired choice preference assessment and reinforce assessment were conducted. The same procedure was subsequently conducted on the second neutral target. The results reveal that five of the six items targeted increased in preference; however the some were only by a small degree. The reinforce assessment results indicated some increase in work allocated to access and item for one student, and none for the other two. These results indicate that it may be possible to develop preferences for individuals with autism, but the development of reinforcers may be more problematic.

One of the defining characteristics of autism is lack of development of vocal behavior. Research investigating alternative technologies that may prove effective in producing vocalizations has begun to emerge. Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) is designed to establish vocal stimuli as automatic reinforcers. The current study used components of the enhanced SSP protocol as described by Esch, Carr, and Grow (2009), with a 5 year old male with autism. Two vocalizations, which were previously observed to have been emitted by the participant but not under echoic control, were presented. One of the two vocalizations was selected as a target to be paired during the SSP phase. An additional programmed reinforcement phase was conducted in order to strengthen the response targeted during the SSP phase. The targeted sound increased during the SSP phase, while the nontargeted sound remained low. The targeted sound was emitted at lower rates during the programmed reinforcement phase until a clinical modification was made that included a vocal prompt and direct reinforcement for echoic behavior. Final results indicated increased rates of and echoic control over the targeted vocalization.

It is common to teach alternative communication systems such as sign language (a topography- based system) or picture exchange systems (a selection-based system) to individuals with deficient vocal verbal repertoires. Previous researchers have demonstrated the expedited efficiency of topography-based communication systems in the acquisition of tacts, intraverbals, and receptive behavior; however, researchers have not directly compared topography- and selection-based systems in the acquisition of mands. We did so in the current study by simultaneously teaching both a selection-based mand (picture exchange) and a topography-based mand (manual sign) for identical items via an adapted alternating-treatments design. We replicated these results via a multiple baseline design across target items. We will discuss our results in terms of determining effective and efficient verbal behavior interventions.

Deficits in communication form part of the primary diagnostic criteria for autism. Even with early intensive intervention including speech instruction, some children may fail to acquire useful speech (Tincani, 2004). Training in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is an option for children with autism who do not readily learn speech. Two AAC modalities, sign language and picture exchange communication system (PECS), show promise for teaching communication to nonvocal learners. Given the positive reported outcomes for each modality, choosing between sign language and PECS may be difficult. This study will report preliminary results of a direct comparison of sign language and PECS training in three preschool aged children with autism using an alternating treatment design with initial baseline phase and final best-treatment phase. Imitation assessments were conducted prior to treatment to explore the relationship of pre-existing skills to the acquisition of each modality. Paired-stimulus preference assessments were conducted to identify and develop a hierarchy of preferred items to be used in communication training. Five preferred items were identified for each child, and were used in both communication modalities. Each child receives four 20-minute training sessions per day. PECS training is adapted from Bondy and Frost (1994) and manual sign is being taught in similar phases as in PECS. During the best-treatment phase only the most effective training modality will be administered to teach requests. Results will compare percentage of correct trials per session and number of mands for items in view emitted during training sessions. Rates of acquisition, and word vocalizations for each modality will also be compared.

We evaluated the utility of a blocked-trials procedure, previously described by Saunders and Spradlin (1990), to teach intraverbal discriminations to children with autism. In this procedure, individual elements of complex discriminations are targeted in separate, alternating trial blocks. The size of the trial blocks and the permitted number of errors is gradually reduced contingent on performance, and eventually the elements are presented in random order. In the current evaluation, our goal was to apply this approach to discriminations between pairs of questions that differ with respect to one word (e.g., "What do you sweep?" vs. "What do you sweep with?"). Baseline probes were conducted with several question sets, each containing 4 question pairs. We then conducted blocked-trials discrimination training with one question pair at a time, and repeated the baseline probes following mastery of each question pair. Preliminary data with one participant-an 8-year-old boy with autism-show that responding during probes reached 100% correct only for those question pairs that had been trained. The data also suggest that a reduced number of trials to criterion and a reduced number of errors might occur with repeated training. Data collection with additional participants is planned.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a differential reinforcement procedure where alternative communicative responses (e.g., vocal mand, sign, card exchange) are taught and gradually "replace" the problem behavior. This replacement occurs when the alternative response allows the individual to access the same reinforcer that previously maintained problem behaviors. In the current investigation, an ABAB design was used to examine the effects of FCT on the rate of problem behaviors with a 19-year-old female diagnosed with autism. During baseline, problem behavior resulted in caregiver's attention for 20 seconds. During treatment, an array of FCT cards (i.e., attention by caregiver and access to tangibles) were presented. Contingent on card exchanges, access to the maintaining reinforcer was provided. In addition, vocal responses began to emerge during card exchanges. During a return to baseline, vocal responses continued in the absence of the cards. These data suggested that vocal responses may have been partially evoked by the presence of the communication cards. Results will be discussed in terms of their implication for communication training.

There is a significant body of research supporting the efficacy of applied behavior analysis (ABA) as an intervention for young children with autism. While some researchers have suggested that treatment intensity (i.e., number of hours per week) is a critical variable related to treatment gains, the exact relationship between treatment intensity and outcome is not clear. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between treatment intensity of ABA and improvement in language development in children with autism under the age of three. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to assess the relationship between low and high intensity groups and language gains, and to determine if the low or high intensity groups demonstrated statistically significant treatment gains in language. The implications of treatment intensity and its effects on treatment gains for young children with autism are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect on systematic staff training for center-based program serving preschool children with autism and developmental delays using the analysis of verbal behavior. One non-profit organization was given systematic approaches to staff training. The training procedure includes various training protocols, checklists, delivery procedures for discrete trial instruction of the basic verbal operants. The results were provided by students' acquisition on targeted skills based on assessment as well as the teacher's implementation fidelity. Questionnaires and interviews of staff members and teachers were used to collect the data for social validity. After training children with developmental delays made substantial progress on various skills, such as mand, tact, receptive instruction, imitation, echoic, intraverbal, play skills as well as decreased problem behaviors. The teachers' implementation fidelity measures also increased.

Children on the autism spectrum often have significant difficulties in the areas of communication and expressive language (Charlop & Haymes, 1994). Although there are many empirically supported interventions for teaching language skills to children with autism, most focus on teaching functional communication through direct reinforcement (Risley & Wolf, 1967; Wolf, Risley, & Mees, 1964; Koegel & Williams, 1980). Picture exchange communication (Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le,Leblanc & Kellet, 2002), functional communication training (Worsdell, Iwata, Hanley, Thompson, & Kahng, 2000), and mand training (Carol Murphy & Dermot Barnes-Holmes 2010) have all been proven effective treatment procedures to establish and expand language in children with autism. These procedures all provide a model and then deliver reinforcement for the occurrence of the targeted communicative response. The current study attempted to replicate findings suggesting that an expanded language model provided after correct responding to a model had been reinforced could result in increased language production (Werts, Wolery, Holcombe, & Fredrick, 1993). The data from the current study indicate that providing a post-reinforcement expanded model did not result in acquisition and generalized use of the expansion in three out of three subjects without additional intervention.

Circumscribed interests (CI), a class of restricted and repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), interfere with adaptive social behavior in children (Klin, Danovitch, Merz, & Volkmar, 2007). Despite this documented impairment, few studies have examined the function of CI speech, and even fewer have examined treatments for CI speech. The present study was an extension of functional analysis (FA) methodology used for bizarre speech (DeLeon, Arnold, Rodriguez-Catter, & Uy, 2003; Lancaster et al., 2004). To determine functions of CI speech in children with an ASD, a modified brief FA (Northrup et al., 1991) was conducted. After an appropriate control condition was identified, subsequent test and control conditions were presented to determine the function of CI speech in children with an ASD. Test conditions included traditional ones and also modifications to attention and demand conditions. Preliminary results indicated that attention was the function for one participant; whereas, the function identified for the second participant was automatic reinforcement. Given the uniqueness of CI speech compared to traditional problem behaviors assessed using FA, modifications to the conditions, procedures, and analysis may be necessary in order to determine functional control. Additionally, suggestions for improving the operationalization of CI speech are discussed.

Five participants, ranging from 4 to 6-years-oldand all diagnosed with autistic disorder, exhibited abnormal patterns of eye contact when engaging in verbal behavior. A multiple baseline across participates will be used to evaluate the effects of TAG (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) procedures on the participant's eye contact patterns. The current study was designed to investigate whether the use of TAG is effective in increasing eye contact during tacting and manding as well as to investigate the subsequent effect on eye contact during manding following tact training alone. TAG procedures allow for a specific behavior to be reinforced more consistently and immediately than other types of reinforcers, such as edibles and tangibles. Since TAG eliminates the need for descriptive praise or verbal feedback, it may be useful in increasing the efficiency with which early intensive behavior interventionservices are delivered and autistic behaviors are normalized.

A 5-year-old female with autism and visual impairment engaged in self-injurious eye-poking. A series of direct observations to identify the maintaining variable(s) of eye poking did not suggest a socially mediated positive reinforcement function. Response blocking of finger-eye contact did not produce a reduction in eye poking or attempts. To address her visual impairment, an intervention to teach the participant to wear her prescription glasses involved putting mands and other activities on extinction, and making preferred foods, toys, attention and other activities contingent on the participant wearing her glasses. Although the eye glasses were prescribed for the participant's weak eyesight, teaching her to wear her glasses consistently had the unexpected collateral effect of eliminating her dangerous eye poking behavior. An unplanned reversal occurred and experimental control over eye-poking behavior has been demonstrated. The mechanism of action for the observed elimination of eye-poking is unknown. The discussion will address possible explanations and suggest future directions for their evaluation.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a well established hierarchical system for teaching picture exchange to augment communication (Frost & Bondy, 1994). It is estimated that 1/3 to1/2 of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not develop functional speech (Mirenda, 2003). For such individuals use of picture exchange may be a viable treatment option to minimize maladaptive behavior. The present body of literature regarding efficacy of PECS for picture exchanges has yielded mixed results in terms of effects on communication (Carr & Felice, 2007; Carre, et al., 2009), behavior (Charlop-Christy, et al., 2002; Ganz, et al., 2009), and speech (Charlop-Christy, et al., 2002, Ganz & Simpson, 2004). The objective of this poster is to review the presently available literature on the correlation between PECS and behavior in individuals with ASD. Controlled empirical studies will be presented. Summary and Conclusion will be included, as well as identification of areas for future research.

Preceding research has revealed ways in which a typical sibling can interact with their sibling with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As models for their sibling, the typical sibling can assume the teacher role by initiating the social interaction, and providing a method in which the sibling with ASD can better communicate (Tsao and Odom, 2006). Since children with ASD have problems with joint attention and appropriate communication with typical siblings, they may not be able to understand social cues, which results in social withdrawal (Bass and Mulick, 2007). This study first used reinforcers, and then established motivation to increase interaction between the Caucasian male dyad (Age = 4.9). Then they were guided through a play scenario with prompted play. The attention of therapists was either provided or withdrawn depending on whether the sibling with ASD appropriately responded to the sibling initiating the social interaction. It was predicted that by shifting the attention towards the responsive sibling, the non-responsive sibling was more likely to use appropriate language during play in order to regain the attention. Results suggest that over the duration of three months, prompted language became less prevalent and spontaneous language increased dramatically. Other case studies will be added.

When we begin training children to identify objects, typical practice is to begin with receptive identification and then progress to expressive identification. Sometimes we put emphasis on the receptive identification and then fail to follow with training expressive skills. Wynn and Smith (2003) suggested that generalization between expressive and receptive identification may be possible, but is not always guaranteed. The purpose of this study was to compare the expressive acquisition of picturesfor children whohad previous receptive training versus expressive acquisition of picturesfor children whodid not have previous receptive training. Three children, ranging from 2-4 years of age, with a generalized receptive repertoire and a strong echoic repertoire, were selected from an early childhood developmental delay classroom. They were taught tacts for eighty pictures, 40 of which they had previous receptive training and 40 who had no previous receptive training, broken into 20 sets.

Skinner's (1957) verbal operant, the intraverbal, accounts for several social and academic skills that children generally acquire. There is little research on how to best teach intraverbal behavior. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a tact prompt or an echoic prompt was more successful in teaching intraverbals (Fill-in-the blank phrases). A tact prompt consisted of the tutor presenting a picture to prompt the correct response while an echoic prompt consisted of the tutor vocalizing the correct response. An alternating treatments design was used to examine the effects of the two different prompt conditions. Participants were 3 male children diagnosed with autism ages 2-3 with extensive tact and echoic repertoires but with limited intraverbal repertoires. Results indicated that, while both the echoic and tact prompt conditions were successful in teaching intraverbal behavior, the echoic prompt was more effective than the tact prompt for all participants. Results were further supported in changes in a pre-test to a post-test, and by follow up sessions (for 2 children) conducted at 1 week, 2 weeks, and 1 month. This research suggests possible best practice procedures that may be used to facilitate the acquisition of intraverbals in young children with autism.

A 3-year-old boy, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), received at-home therapy three times per week. An early intensive behavior intervention (EIBI) curriculum was developed based on assessment results and curricular goals derived from the VB-MAPP. Due to idiosyncratic factors in the home, a natural environment teaching (NET) approach was selected as most readily implementable. Acquisition data across expressive and receptive language domains were recorded and compared in 3 different categories: numbers, features, and emotions. Access to preferred play activities was used to positively reinforce completion of each session. After comparing the number of sessions it took to master each category and the percentages correct within each session, the results showed that receptive language was mastered in fewer sessions than expressive responses for the features and emotions categories while expressive numbers were mastered before receptive numbers. The results suggested that an EIBI program utilizing an NET model can yield rapid acquisition of language-based skills.

Most-to-least prompting is commonly used to teach skills to individuals with autism; however, little research has been conducted on the most effective methods for thinning reinforcement during the procedure. The purpose of this study was to compare performance percentage criteria for reinforcement thinning during most-to-least prompting to improve the efficiency of teaching novel tasks. One 8-year-old male diagnosed with autism was taught to identify novel words using a 20%, 50%, and 80% criterion for thinning reinforcement. For each condition, reinforcement was programmed following the next less intrusive prompt across sessions based upon performance within each session. In particular, a less intrusive prompt must have been used during the specified percentage of trials (i.e., 20%, 50%, or 80%) in the session before reinforcement was discontinued for responses following more intrusive prompts. In addition, the participant was exposed to a control condition in which reinforcement was delivered following all responses, regardless of the prompt level required. For this participant, the 20% criterion was the most efficient in increasing independent responding, followed by the 50% criterion. Due to lack of independent responding during the 80% and control conditions, the 20% criterion was implemented for these skills, and independent responding subsequently increased.

Clinically, behavior analysts often use different quantities of comparison stimuli when conducting match-to-sample procedures. To date, however, no studies have investigated whether different quantities of comparisons affect acquisition of matching performances. The present study examined the effects of 3 or 5 comparison stimuli on percent of correct selection responses during a match-to-sample task. The participants were three students with autism. Participants were taught to match five written names of U.S. states to their five corresponding maps of states using a 3-choice match-to-sample procedure and another five written names of states to their corresponding maps using a 5-choice match-to-sample procedure. An alternating treatment design embedded within a multiple probe design allowed a comparison of the two conditions across the three participants. The results showed that all three participants learned to match faster with the 3-choice procedure.

The acquisition skills of students with developmental disabilities has been a topic of research by many experimenters. One technique that has been shown to help students learn is to change the presentation style or materials used during teaching sessions. There are many different approaches to teaching students to acquire new skills, but research is limited in comparing stimuli presentations during discrete trials. The purpose of the following study is to compare the acquisition rate of sight words for four students with autism when presented either horizontally on a tabletop or vertically on a scan-board using a simultaneous treatment design. Preliminary results indicate that in baseline student's had a higher rate of sight-reading on the scan-board than they did on the tabletop.

Vocal mand training is a well researched procedure for teaching functional communication skills to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that has proven effective in past research (Bourret, Vollmer, & Rapp, 2004). In addition to deficits in functional communicative responses, many children with ASD also exhibit vocal stereotypy. Research has suggested that response interruption and redirection (RIRD) may decrease vocal stereotypy with such children (Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, & Chung, 2007). The present study combines these two procedures to increase functional communication while reducing vocal stereotypy in a young child with autism. Furthermore, the current study extends past research by attempting to maintain reductions in vocal stereotypy following the withdrawal of redirection. This study also builds on past research by Dib & Sturmey (2007) which produced corollary reductions in stereotypy while teaching skills through discrete-trial-teaching.

Acquiring new skills can be difficult for students with autism. Research is still needed to identify a teaching procedure which helps students learn most efficiently. Three different teaching modalities were compared in a multi-element design using novel Lego constructs: 1) verbal+gestural, 2) model, and 3) manual guidance. All the procedures were taught with a forward task analysis to 5 different participants. Once a participant acquired one construct associated with a specific teaching procedure, 3 new constructs were presented and taught with the same modalities for replication purposes. In a 2nd phase, novel Lego constructs were used again to compare three different prompt fading procedures: 1) delay fading, 2) least-to-most fading, and 3) most-to-least fading. In a final generality phase, clinically relevant skills were used to replicate and generalize findings obtained in the first two phases. The results of this assessment will be used to further evaluate and develop an assessment which identifies the most efficient teaching procedure for individuals with autism.

The use of standardceleration charts is presented as a method to keep raw data in a clinical case, and used as the primary means of visual inspection. Frequency data was hand-drawn on standard celeration charts for a 13-year-old female with severe self-injurious behavior throughout all treatment phases. An analogue functional analysis was conducted prior to treatment in-home and determined function of problem behavior to be specific forms of attention related to physical contact. Treatment consisted of limiting access to physical forms of contact contingent on the occurrence of self-injury while still preventing injury. This intervention consisted of the use of artificial blocking devices to prevent injury while limiting the physical contact. Re-introduction to the school environment resulted in increases in this behavior and changes in topography that limited this type of intervention in the school setting. A natural environment functional analysis in the school setting yielded similar results regarding function of problem behavior being attention in the form of physical contact. Further treatment approaches within the school were used to fade the use of the arm splints and reduce self-injury to manageable levels.

When teaching new skills to children diagnosed with autism, skills are taught to a predetermined criteria. A criterion is selected that presumably will result in the skills maintaining after treatment ends. In the past, skills have been taught for varying numbers of days. For example, Eikeseth & Hayward (2009) taught skills to criteria for one session and Tarbox, Madrid, Aguilar, Jacobo, & Schiff (2009) taught skills to criteria for three sessions. The current study is an investigation of the effect of teaching a skill to various criteria (i.e., varying number of days at 100%) on skill maintenance for children with autism. Skills were taught to 100% accuracy for one day and then were put into a maintenance phase. In maintenance, skills were checked daily, then, if accuracy fell below 100% skills were put back into an acquisition phase and taught to 100% accuracy for the previous number of days in acquisition plus one day (i.e., skills were in acquisition for one day, then two days, then three days, etc.).

Picture prompts are often used for one of the self-management strategies to facilitate task and activity engagement for children with autism. Pierce and Schreibman (1994) point out that using pictorial self-management is efficient in that the picture book is small, is readily transported to novel settings, and can be easily faded. Recently, activity schedules are used as the cue to perform tasks independently for children with autism (McClannahan, MacDuff, & Krantz, 2002). Most children with autism often fail to perform the activities even though their skills and someone's prompts are enough to do them correctly. McClannahan and Krantz (1999) suggested that it is efficient to use activity schedules for them to perform activities and tasks independently. In this study, we examined the effect of using activity schedules to encourage a child with autism to engage in the tasks independently and to shift the next activity smoothly in elementary school settings. We also evaluated the extent to which the teacher could easily accept this procedure and could follow it strictly. As results, the participant could use the activity schedules also in school, although the materials and procedures of schedules are required some modifications fitting to school settings.

A combination of a differential reinforcement of other (DRO) behavior and non-contingent reinforcement (NCR) program was used in a school setting for a client with autism. The DRO program was used to decrease self-stimulatory behaviors by reinforcing the absence of self-stimulatory behaviors. This DRO was based on a fixed time interval that gradually increased as the client was successful at not engaging in self-stimulatory behaviors. The client would receive 1 token for every interval he succeeded and upon earning 3 tokens was given a 1 minute break where he was allowed to engage in the self-stimulatory behaviors. The NCR program was set at a 30 second fixed interval whereby the client received attention every 30 seconds throughout academic activities. For this client, allowing engagement in self-stimulatory behaviors as a form of reinforcement for refraining from engaging in the behavior during academic tasks created a high level of motivation and compliance in the classroom.

Interventions for play skills are often a component of early intervention for children with autism. Thus, developing efficient and effective teaching procedures for play skills is an important area of research. Research has demonstrated that instructive feedback is an effective procedure for increasing adaptive skills without direct training (Whalen, Schuster, Hemmeter, 1996). This study evaluated the utility of embedding instructive feedback for play skills during the reinforcement interval of a standard discrete trial for a different skill. Sarah, an 8-year-old female previously diagnosed with autism, participated in the study. Throughout the evaluation, the experimenter taught Sarah two sets of adjectives. For one set, the experimenter included play skills models during the reinforcement interval (i.e., instructive feedback). The reinforcement interval for the other set of adjectives remained unchanged. An adaptive alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of instructive feedback on play skills during discrete trial training. Sarah acquired eight multi-component play skills as a result of the embedded instructive feedback. The results are discussed in terms of implications for teaching approaches in early intervention and the behavioral mechanism responsible for the behavior change.

The present study evaluates the effects of matched stimulation on disruptive stereotypic behavior in a child with autism. Following informal functional assessment in the naturalistic setting, a paired choice preference assessment will be conducted to identify functionally matched, highly preferred items for use during intervention. Baseline measures indicate high rates of disruptive stereotypic behavior (kicking and flipping doors and door handles) in the classroom. A single-subject reversal design will be utilized where treatment consisting of non-contingent access to the selected highly preferred, functionally matched stimulus will be provided and effects on behavior analyzed. Additionally, a stimulus fading procedure will be used to maintain low levels of stereotypic behavior across settings during follow up observation. Implications regarding the treatment and maintenance of disruptive stereotypic behavior using alternative stimulation of functionally same reinforcing activities will be presented, with implications for classroom productivity and academic growth noted.

Behavioral teaching methods are often used to successfully develop and expand the vocal communication repertoires of individuals with autism. The current case study explores the effect of integrating strategies from PROMPT (a neuro-developmental approach for speech production disorders) into behavioral programming for individual students with autism. In an adapted alternating treatments design embedded within a multiple baseline design, three pairs of specific vocal targets were taught (one target in each pair assigned to PROMPT or behavioral teaching). Effects were compared across teaching sessions and in generalization probes outside of the teaching sessions. Pilot data from the first participant (a 9-year-old boy with autism) show no improvement in target sound production in generalization sessions, but revealed comparable levels of correct prompted and independent target vocalization production within teaching sessions for both methods. Similarities and differences in the two approaches, as well as follow-up data from this and other participants will be presented.

A 9-year-old boy with severe behavior of constantly shaking every object was placed on an intervention based on behavior analytic principles. His behavior of shaking objects, teaching materials, and anything he had access to interfered with learning goals. When the behavior was stopped or blocked it led to immediate crying. Baseline data suggested the boy shook objects 100% duration in all settings, table top teaching, free play, natural environment training, mealtime. A behavioral intervention based on differential reinforcement of low response ratewhere he alternated between discrete trial and natural environment training versus sitting on a chair on a VI schedule allowing indulgence in stereotypic behavior was introduced. The intervention is in place for 25 hrs/week. Data collected showed a trend of reduction in stereotypic behavior and generalization was observed in 9 weeks, howeverafter a 2 week vacation, behaviors were observed at baseline levels. The intervention was repeated with shorter VI schedules and he is able to work at the table for 5 minutes without shaking objects and teaching materials, playing with toys being conditioned as reinforcers. The intervention is continuing in one-on-one setting and plans to be generalized at home.

Verbal behavior teaches manding using the principles within establishing operations-deprivation and aversions. In 1957 B. F. Skinner notes that the mand is under the functional control of relevant conditions of those motivators. Much of the research on manding has been done on using these motivators to produce requests for items, activities, edibles, etcetera. Very little research has been done on using EOs to teach manding for information, specifically for asking "why" questions. Dr. Mark Sundberg suggests research based on Skinner's analysis on verbal behavior (specifically manding) that looks at bringing verbal behavior under EO control using a stimulus transfer procedure. This study focuses on teaching a child with autism to mand for "Why?" Teaching to mand for "why" was taught to an 11-year-old child with autism by transferring the stimulus control from textual prompts to independent manding by contriving establishing operations within an AB design for which reinforcement became available upon emitting the question "Why?" Follow up sessions showed manding for "why" was a maintained manding skill.

These studies assessed social behavior in prepubescent mice in the context of our neurodevelopmental model of disorders with social components. We manipulated variables including genetic background, postnatal treatment with an autism phenotype-related toxicant (valproic acid), and the behavioral environment or conditioning history of 4 week old mouse pups. The primary behavioral objective was to increase approach to initially novel stimuli as a function of presenting those stimuli in the same spatial context as novel peers (social contextual conditioning). Results indicate that the frequency of approaching once-novel stimuli, and the frequency and type of approaching novel, non-sibling peers, is altered by one week of contextual conditioning. During contextual conditioning, mice lived in housing that alternated daily between environments "enriched" with either highly palatable cereal or the presence of a peer mouse, and environments deprived of either cereal or a peer mouse. Here we describe some of the functional relationships observed between the social behavior of a mouse and its unique history of conditioning, toxicant exposure, and/or genetic background. Results reveal that contextual manipulations enrich the behavioral environment building social rapport thus supporting social interaction in vulnerable individuals.

Intertemporal choice provides important insights into the way that individuals discount various delayed commodities. For example, drug users discount drugs at a steeper rate than they do money (Madden et al., 1999). Because stimulant users also engage in risky sexual behaviors, it is possible they also disproportionately discount delayed sexual reinforcers. Although such between-commodity comparisons advance our understanding of addiction, little is known about the mechanisms that drive these differing discounting rates. For instance, are drug reinforcers discounted steeply because they quickly loose their value, or are immediate drugs disproportionately valuable? This study of 13 treatment-seeking stimulant addicts analyzes intertemporal choices of two commodities (equated amounts of sex and money), specifically between sex nowversus sex later (S-S), money nowversus money later (M-M), sex nowversus money later (S-M), and money now versus sex later (M-S). Changes in the delayed commodity were associated with large and significant changes in discounting rates, whereas changes in the immediate commodity resulted in modest and on-significant changes. These findings suggest that stimulant users not only discount sexual reinforcers more steeply that they do money, but also that this differential discounting occurs because sexual reinforcers are rapidly devalued.

Reinforced responding has previously been conceptualized as alternating between two states: (1) periods of engagement and (2) periods of disengagement. In order to obtain quantitative estimates of these two distinct components of responding, log-survivor functions have been used to characterize rat nose-poke and, to a lesser extent, lever-press responding. The present study attempted to replicate the finding that rat lever-press responding produces a broken-stick function and also determine if the two-mode conceptualization of response rate generalizes to responding for milk reinforcers. Rats responded on a 2-component multiple schedule for milk reinforcers. Individual IRTs were collected, organized into 0.1s bins, and the proportion of IRTs longer than some time (t) was plotted as a function of time (t) on a semi-logarithmic scale in order to construct survivor functions. Similar to the matching law analysis, which has previously been used to elucidate mechanisms of drug action, survivor functions might allow one to determine whether a certain drug produces its effects by altering motor control or reinforcer efficacy.

Rats were trained in a standard conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure and examined with (+) methamphetamine (1.0- 5.6 mg/kg). One side of the chamber was paired with 3.0 mg/kg (+) methamphetamine (I.P.) while the other side was paired with saline injections (1ml/kg bwt). Dose response determinations were then made in the presence of temperatures of 75F, 68F, and 50F chamber temperatures. Methamphetamine (1.0- 5.6 mg/kg) produced dose-related increases in the overall time spent in the methamphetamine-paired side of the chamber under room temperature conditions (68F). Conversely, under the cool temperature (50F), CPP appeared at higher doses than the training dose. In the warm temperature (75F) CPP appeared at lower doses. In experiment two, rats were trained to self-administer methamphetamine (0.3 mg/ml) under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of oral drug presentation. Response rates for different values of the PR were low and not distinct from saline. These preliminary data suggested that methamphetamine (PO) at the dose studied did not show a reinforcing function. The present data marginally support previous findings that the reinforcing properties of psychomotor stimulants may be enhanced by increases in ambient temperatures.

Substance use often peaks when estrogen levels are highest. Previous studies have shown that estradiol slightly increased caffeine self-administration by ovariectomized rats under an FI 30 schedule when a 1% saccharin + 1% caffeine solution was concurrently available. In the current study, the effects of estrogen on caffeine self-administration in the home cage were studied. Ovariectomized rats had free access to the 1% saccharin + 1% caffeine solution. On selected days estradiol (0.015 or 0.02 ug/kg) was administered in a peanut oil vehicle. Neither dose of estradiol altered the amount of saccharin + caffeine fluid consumed, although the typical decrease in food consumption and body weight for 2-3 days following estradiol administration was observed. Context, schedule-induced polydipsia vs. free home-cage access, may alter the effects of estradiol on caffeine self-administration.

Although temporal discounting is thought to model intertemporal decision-making relevant to smoking relapse, it remains unclear if changes in temporal discounting occur as a function of acute smoking abstinence. The purpose of the present study was to comprehensively examine temporal and probability discounting by cigarette smokers following smoking abstinence. Twenty-seven heavy cigarette smokers completed temporal and probability discounting asssessments following normal smoking and 24-hour smoking abstinence. Rates of discounting were calculated using an exponential-power discounting model, and analysis of estimated parameters using parametric methods indicate greater temporal discounting of hypothetical money gains following smoking abstinence compared to normal smoking. Inversely, no difference was observed in the temporal discounting of hypothetical money losses, nor in any probability discounting conditions. Though intertemporal decision-making does appear to be impacted as a function of smoking abstinence, the present results suggest it may be limited to positive outcomes.

While performance-based pay is sometimes used to increase worker productivity, few comparisons of performance-based pay to a set hourly wage exist in conditions that closely mimic a standard workplace. In the current study, participants enrolled in a therapeutic workplace for heroin abuse were paid to engage in job-skills training on multiple keyboarding training programs. On one of the training programs, a set hourly wage was earned, while on the other training program, payment was partially based on keying speed and accuracy. Total payment earned was adjusted to be nearly equal in the two conditions, and the payment method assigned to each training program was randomly determined for each participant. In the performance-based payment condition, participants keyed more, keyed more accurately, advanced further in the training programs, and reported more satisfaction with the training programs. These results will be discussed, along with participant characteristics that predicted keying performance and sensitivity to contingencies.

The effectiveness of contingency management techniques for maintaining abstinence in cigarette smoking was evaluated in the current study. Participants were three college students who reported a history of habitually smoking and who reported quitting in the last five days. The study used a within-subject alternating treatments design with contingent and non-contingent conditions, where vouchers were delivered either contingent or not contingent on low levels of carbon monoxide (CO). Participants maintained low to zero levels of smoking throughout the intervention, and breath samples indicative of smoking were more likely to occur in the non-contingent voucher condition than in the contingent voucher condition for two participants. Participants maintained low CO levels at follow-up and self-reported smoking significantly less at the end of the study than before they had quit smoking.

Behavior momentum theory suggests stimulus-reinforcer relationships determine operant behaviors resistance to change. In general, operant behavior maintained under conditions of denser reinforcement are less sensitive to disruptive manipulations than behavior maintained by leaner conditions. Though momentum theory has accounted for resistance to change data under a variety of circumstances, disruption by pharmacological agents has often failed to fall in line with the theory's predictions. We have begun a series of studies to investigate further the generality of previous findings. Pigeons were trained to respond on a multiple fixed-interval 5-minute schedule of grain delivery. During different components, the first key peck to occur after 5 minutes produced 2, 4, or 8 seconds access to grain. Several drugs were tested for their ability to disrupt fixed-interval performance. Disruption was assessed in terms of both the effects on relative response rate and on temporal patterning during the interval. Only the alpha-2 agonist clonidine disrupted response rate in a manner consistent with behavioral momentum theory. In most cases, the temporal-disrupting effects of drugs were consistent with the predictions of momentum theory: temporal patterns maintained by the largest magnitude of food delivery were less sensitive to the disrupting effects of the drugs than patterns maintained by the smaller magnitudes.

Determinants of impulsive choice may be studied by employing delay-discounting procedures in which choice is arranged between one food pellet delivered immediately and three food pellets delivered after a delay. Delay to delivery of the three food pellets can be varied across blocks within a single session, allowing for assessment of choice at a range of delays within a session. Order of delay presentation is a procedural variable that may impact level of delay discounting. Phase 1 of the present study used a group design to evaluate effects of order of delay presentation on delay discounting. Eight male Sprague-Dawley rats served as subjects and a discrete-trials, within-session delay-discounting procedure was used. For four rats, delays to delivery of the larger reinforcer increased across blocks and for four rats delays decreased. Data show that order of delay presentation has little or no effect on levels of delay discounting (impulsive choice). Phase 2 of the study is designed to assess effects of acute d-amphetamine administration on delay discounting maintained by different order of delay presentations (ascending or descending).

d-Amphetamine has been found to alter rates of delay discounting, but effects of d-amphetamine may depend on baseline levels of delay discounting. To explore this possibility, the current study was designed to generate different baseline levels of delay discounting by manipulating reinforcer magnitude across choices for either a smaller, immediate and larger, delayed reinforcer in a discrete-trials, within-session delay discounting procedure. Eight male Sprague-Dawley rats served as subjects. For four of the subjects, choice was first between one immediate and three delayed food pellets (delay increased across session) and then between two immediate and six delayed food pellets (delay increased across session. For the other four subjects, the conditions were reversed. Data show that levels of delay discounting are lower when choice is between two immediate and six delayed reinforcers than when choice is between one immediate and three delayed reinforcers. Thus, increasing the magnitude difference between the smaller, immediate reinforcer and larger, delayed reinforcer resulted in lower rates of delay discounting. Choice following d-amphetamine administration on the two baseline conditions will also be presented.

Methamphetmine (METH) abuse and dependence continue to be a growing health concern for which there are currently no approved pharmacological treatments. Drug discrimination (DD) techniques are a potential screening tool for candidate pharmacotherapies for the treatment of psychostimulant dependence. The purpose of the current research is to develop a model of DD in Japanese quail and investigate the role of the dopamine system in the discriminative stimulus effects of METH in quail. Three (N = 3) adult male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) are being trained to discriminate METH 3.0 mg/kg (i.p.) versus saline on a semi-random order training schedule. Quail receive an injection of the training drug or saline 5 min prior to training sessions and are then presented with two response keys. Completion of 30 responses on the injection-appropriate key yields food reinforcement whereas non-specific responses are recorded but have no preprogrammed consequence. Discrimination criteria is set at > 90% overall drug-appropriate responding with fewer than 10 incorrect responses before delivery of the first reinforcer (i.e., > 75%) for 10 consecutive days. The data shown represents training performance expressed as percent drug-appropriate responses to the first reinforcer and overall across the most recent training sessions. These quail are near meeting discrimination criteria and will then enter a test phase. During the test phase, a METH dose-response function will be determined and various dopaminergic drugs will be tested for their ability to substitute for or alter the discriminative stimulus effects of METH. Drug discrimination studies with quail will contribute to translational research directed at the development of pharmacotherapies for METH dependence.

In a 1987 study, college male and female drinkers leaving a bar filled out a questionnaire about their drinking and took a breathalyzer test. Men were fairly accurate in their recall of drinking but women were less accurate. Further, men had significantly higher blood alcohol levels (BAL) than women. These differences were attributed to the greater experience men have with consuming alcohol. Given the changes in the patterns of alcohol consumption by college men and women, the study was replicated with a substantially larger sample size. It was predicted that women would be more accurate in their recall of consumption and have higher BALs than those in the 1987 sample while men would perform about the same. 80 men and 35 women participated in the current study. The results confirmed the prediction for women as the correlation between recalled consumption and breathalyzer results increased from r = .284 to r = .555 and the mean BAL increased from .04 to .92. The results for men were mixed as the accuracy of their recall declined from r = .766 to r = .636 while their BALs increased from .077 to .095. The findings are interpreted in relation to the literature on college student drinking.

In Mexico, substance abuse is a public health problem for which effective interventions have been designed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the skills acquired during brief training counseling programs which allow a rapid assessment and implementation of effective strategies in changing substance abuse. We worked with 360 health care givers, 67% women and 23% men, with a 32-year-old age average. We used a pre-experimental design and an observational system based on a checklist to evaluate five structured steps: Screening, dialoging, goals setting, the process of change's accompanying and following. The results showed that 65% of the sample mastered the ability to avoid judgments about consumption, 61% plan to follow-up sessions and 48% suggest abstinence for snuff or drugs. The results showed that the technological procedure allowed increasing the skills of brief advice compared to those who do not have the resources. It was concluded that strategies of the interventions should be reinforced and we need to provide technological processes to improve the care of substance users.

In Mexico, there exist many training programs for professionals in addictions. However, thereare few behavioral changes assessments. The aim of this study was to identify the effect of brief advice training accompanied with a description of technological procedures, over a therapist behavioral interaction. We worked with 665 health professionals from different states. We used a pre-experimental design and a Observational Code (adapted from Chamberlain et al, 1984) that evaluates six behavioral categories. The results showed high response rates in the categories of information search (1), attitude (.83) and listening (66). Particularly, was noted that getting just the description of technological processes allowed higher response rates of social interaction (information searching and positive attitude). Brief training plus procedures description was effective too. We conclude that brief advice training was effective to increased social interaction behaviors in health caregivers. However, technological description was enough to effectively replicate the behavioral procedures (Wolf, Baer and Risley, 1968).

To increase understanding of what does behavior-analytic therapists to bring about change, a database of behavior therapy sessions was created. The categories analyzed were "request for information", "facilitation", "information", "recommendation", "interpretation", "empathy", "approval" and "disagreement". Data from 626 sessions of 19 dissertations, theses and Brazilian research on behavior therapies were grouped. Some results: "request for information" showed a high percentage in the database, higher at the beginning of therapy. The more experienced the therapist, the lower the proportion of questions. "Recommendation" strategy was used less, but was present in most of the therapies and with large fluctuations. Its occurrence in the first session was low, increased and decreased again after 4 months of therapy. Experienced therapists "recommended" more than the less experienced. The category "interpretation" was one of the most frequent and showed an increasing trend. The second most frequent was "to provide consequences" ("empathy", "approval" + "disagreement") and did not show trends. "Facilitation" was stable in time and "information" presented a decreasing tendency. Experienced therapists "facilitated" more in the first sessions than the less experienced, "informed" more at the beginning of therapy, but then less, "provided more consequences" and "interpreted" with similar frequencies.

Every year thousands of people, mostly women, are victims of domestic violence. Many have been victimized multiple times over an extended period, but continue to remain in high-risk relationships. This study demonstrates the utility of a diagnostic tool to determine a woman's vulnerability to domestic violence. Specifically, a protocol, the Categorical Analysis for the Risk of Exploitation (CARE), was developed consisting of scenarios presented to women who then describe how they would behave/react in each scenario. The scenarios are designed to test the woman's vulnerability to exploitation in three areas: emotional, physical, and sexual. A fourth "neutral" category of no-risk scenarios is also included. Results from administering the CARE to women with and without a history of domestic violence support the discriminant validity of the CARE. That is, women whohad been victims of domestic violence scored significantly higher (i.e., evidenced greater risk) than women without such a history. Fortunately, initial single-case studies suggest that behavioral training on problem solving and self-protection may effect substantial reductions in risk scores on the CARE.

The literature for training of reading fluency in adults is rather limited and only a few studies have examined the generalization effects of fluency training to untrained passages. The present study used a delayed multiple probe design across subjects and precision teaching to evaluate the effects of reading support, repeated reading, and error correction procedure composed of drill and prompt on reading fluency in three university students. Generalization to unpracticed passages was also checked. All the participants read below average reading speed and one had the diagnoses of dyslexia. The aim for each participant was set as 1.5x acceleration from the average reading speed on baseline. Training consisted of 1-min timing implemented every weekday and each passage was read four times in each session or until the aim was reached, whichever occurred first. The participant recorded the best reading of the day on a standard celeration chart. When the aim was reached a new passage was introduced in the next session. After the intervention, baseline passages were represented to evaluate generalization to untrained passages. Results so far indicate that the intervention can increase reading fluency in adult students. Results for generalization and the third participant are not yet completed.

Preference assessment and reinforcer assessment are standard procedures in the treatment of problem behaviors in populations with delayed development. However, in long-term residential care for elderly individuals such procedures are not implemented. Despite the common occurrence of problem behaviors in residential care units, only a limited number of studies have examined the functional determinants of problem behaviors, and implemented functionally based interventions. Applied behavior analysis is almost unknown in the Norwegian geriatric ward system. In the current study, bachelor students have been trained in preference assessment and reinforcer assessment. We report data from an attempt to formally assess elderly clients' preferences. The instrument consists of 81 items. Both nurses and the elderly were asked to rate different stimuli. A total of 26 residents are included in the assessment.

Elderly individuals in long-term residential care often exhibit problem behaviors such as physical aggression, wandering, and repetitive vocalizations. Despite common occurrence of problem behaviors in residential care units, only a limited number of studies have examined the functional determinants of problem behaviors, and implemented functionally based interventions. As far as we have learned from behavior analytic literature, only one participant with dementia has been treated with NCE procedures (Non Contingent Escape; Baker, Hanley & Matthews, 2006) or fixed time (FT) presentation of escape possibilities. Applied behavior analysis is almost unknown in the Norwegian geriatric ward system. In the current study, bachelor students have been trained in functional assessment, reinforcer assessment, and FT procedures. We report data from the treatment of problem behaviors in a long-term residential care institution in Norway. Results are promising with a clinically significant reduction of problem behavior.

Mr. Y is a 20-year-old male who sustained a brain injury following a motor vehicle accident. He has a significant learning history, engaging in high risk behaviors which included sexual assault charges and an alcohol addiction. Following a brief stay in a rehabilitation center, he was transferred to the neurobehavioral unit, where he was exhibiting daily verbal and physical aggression, sexually and inappropriate behaviors, and a lack of insight into his personal safety. A single subject A-B design was utilized. Following baseline, a hypothesis and intervention plan was developed. This included a non-contingent reinforcement procedure and motivation system in the form of a token economy. The client provided informed consent for the intervention. The purpose of the intervention was to teach the client the necessary skills to follow a schedule of meaningful rehabilitation activities, without engaging in physical aggression. Adifferential reinforcement of alternative behaviorprocedure was also utilized. Interobserver agreementdata was collected on an intermittent basis. Train the trainer method was used and social validity measures were obtained. Following the implementation of the intervention, the frequency of physical restraint used by staff significantly reduced from a mean of 1.42 times per day, to mean of 0.025 times per day post intervention and was maintained until discharge. Participation in rehabilitation activities improved from a mean of 26 minutes per day at baseline, to a mean of 147 minutes per day following the intervention and this was maintained until discharge and his mobility improved. He was safely transitioned back to the community without requiring psychotropic medication. He began to make better decisions and reestablished social relationships. He learned the necessary skills to self regulate without becoming physically aggressive or engaging in sexually inappropriate behaviors.

The subject of this study is a 50-year-old survivor of a traumatic brain injury, whose characteristics include confusion, disorientation, global aphasia and agitation with episodes of verbal aggression. These sequelae contribute to an inability to functionally communicate verbally or through writing. The subject also performed poorly on standard matching-to-sample trials and could not make sense of written words. Secondary to this presentation the subject became confused when staff attempted to initiate activities, leading to verbal aggression, property destruction and non-follow through. However, despite these significant deficits, in specific situations the subject could display highly contextual behavior, i.e. initiating a shower after staff presented shower supplies in the bathroom. As a result this project considered verbal behavior concepts, stimulus equivalence and alternative ways of teaching match to sample in the development of a strategy to incorporate naturalistic objects already occurring within the context to certain activities. Emphasis was placed on the naturalistic nature of the objects in an effort to support a trial at home, making generalization critical to the intervention

In the current study, the experimenter will be systematically replicating and extending previous research on facial expression awareness training. The effects of facial expression recognition training will be evaluated using a multiple baseline design across subjects with individuals with acquired brain injury, and data will be analyzed using visual inspection of line-graph data. The study will be conducted in following four phases: 1) baseline, 2) labeling facial expressions and characteristics of the expressions that demonstrate the emotions of happy, sad, angry, and surprise, 3) train facial expression identification to fluency aims, and 4) generalizing same facial expressions with novel stimuli using new photographs.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often prescribed psychotropic medication to treat behaviors such as aggression and self-injury. Evaluation of these medications is often based on caregiver report or changes in frequency of behavior. Rarely do care providers, however, conceptualize psychotropic medications as stimuli potentially serving as motivating operations. Instead, the view may be that medications are the solution for difficult to treat behaviors. As such, decreases in behavior should not be the only consideration when evaluating medication effectiveness. We propose that evaluations regarding the possible change in function of behavior should also be considered when using psychotropic medication to treat problematic behaviors. This research involved completing multiple functional assessments throughout psychotropic medication changes. A total of 15 participants have been enrolled in the study. Participants have included individuals with a diagnosis of intellectual disability and other comorbid diagnoses (e.g., autism) who exhibited behaviors such as aggression and self-injury. Psychotropic medication changes were recommended by treating physicians and approval for medication changes are made by treatment teams (neither of whom are affiliated with the authors). Initial interviews were conducted to determine operational definitions for problem behaviors and hypotheses regarding behavior function. Following the initial interview with caregivers, standard analogue functional analyses were conducted using a multielement design. These assessments were then repeated no less than 2 weeks after psychotropic medication changes were made. Our data revealed changes in the conditions under which behavior occurred. Below are graphs depicting data for one of our participants, Randis. These data suggest that, indeed, repeated assessments of behavior function should be conducted when evaluating the effectiveness of any given medication as both rate and conditions under which behavior occurs may change.

This study examined the ease of interpretability and reliability of visual inspection of data across five different graphical displays using a paper-based survey. Twelve participants were first asked to evaluate which graphs they preferred for interpretation of functional analysis data. Participants were then asked to interpret four different functional analysis data sets displayed in five types of graphs: line graphs, multi-element graphs, histograms, cumulative records and standard celeration charts. Results indicate that histograms, on average, took the least amount of time to analyze, but those present problems due to obscured trends and variability of the aggregate data. The multi-element graph took, on average, the longest amount of time to analyze and the reliability of analysis across observers was either similar to or worse than other graphic displays. Excluding the histogram, the cumulative record took, on average, the least amount of time to analyze and had the highest inter-rater agreement. Results are discussed with implications for future research to determine optimal systems of visual analysis.

Applying functional analysis (FA) within uncontrolled settings on chronic or complex behaviour poses significant threats to the internal validity of an assessments experimental design. These conditions may result in a lack of demonstrated experimental control leading to inconclusive, incorrect, or subjective interpretations. The following study analyzed the undifferentiated FA results of traditional linear graphic analysis of problem behaviour by averaging the relative percent difference (RPD) between an experimental condition and its preceding control condition. Case studies from the primary literature where initial FA results were undifferentiated but demonstrated masked social functions were reanalyzed using RPD. Results extrapolated a functional relationship between problem behaviour and a socially mediated reinforcer, illustrating the utility of RPD to the analysis of problem behaviour. Further research on a novel reversal design, in which each experimental condition is preceded by a control condition, and the application of RPD as an objective tool for interpreting FA results will be discussed.

Identifying environmental events that may play a role in the maintenance of inappropriate mealtime behavior is an important component in developing effective packages for the treatment of food refusal. Previously, functional analyses have been utilized to identify maintaining variables for inappropriate mealtime behavior. The current study evaluated a parent-conducted functional analysis of inappropriate mealtime behavior for a 6-year-old girl admitted to an inpatient feeding program for the assessment and treatment of feeding difficulties. Control (continuous attention and access to a preferred activity), attention, escape, and tangible conditions were evaluated within a functional analysis. Initial results indicated potential escape, attention, and tangible functions maintaining inappropriate mealtime behavior. Subsequent analysis further manipulating the presence of attention revealed low levels of inappropriate mealtime behavior during conditions in which attention was delivered continuously, and high levels of inappropriate mealtime behavior during conditions in which attention was not available. Initial results from functional analysis may have lead to false positive findings; subsequent analyses were necessary to identify what variables maintained the individuals inappropriate mealtime behavior.

Several studies have demonstrated the utility of preference assessments and reinforcer choice on adaptive responding in persons with intellectual disabilities, but few have used response accuracy, arguably the most pertinent measure in an instructional context, as the dependent measure. This study examined the effects of three consequence conditions on accuracy of academic task performance in two children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The conditions included praise alone, delivery of a preferred item identified prior to the analysis, and delivery of a preferred item identified prior to daily work sessions. The effects of these conditions on the cumulative number of correct responses across sessions were examined. Both preferred stimulus conditions produced a higher cumulative number of correct responses than praise in the same number of sessions. Stimuli identified daily resulted in slightly accelerated performance in one participant, but no differences in the second participant, whose most preferred stimulus was invariant across days. The results extend the findings of prior studies demonstrating the advantages of frequent preferences assessment to a response accuracy, rather than response maintenance, context.

Clinicians and researchers rely on assessments of preference to identify items and activities that are likely to function as reinforcers during assessment and intervention. Questions still remain about the stability of preference over time, the conditions under which stable preferences may be disrupted, and the reemergence of preference once it is disrupted despite continued procedural refinement. In Experiment 1, we systematically replicated past research on stability of preference. In Experiment 2, we arranged motivation operation (MO) manipulations for 9 individuals whose data in Experiment 1 met the operational definition for stability of preference. Despite identical MO manipulations across participants, the extent to which stable preferences were disrupted varied across individuals. In Experiment 3, we conducted motivation gradient assessments that were designed to detect the disruption and reemergence of motivation over the course of time. Results suggested that the motivation gradient assessment may be a useful procedure for determining the likelihood of reemergence of motivation over time.

Paired stimulus (PS) preference assessment is one of the most commonly used procedures to identify potential reinforcers (Hagopian, Long, & Rush, 2004). In the PS format (e.g., Fisher et al., 1992) the experimenter presents two items simultaneously and asks the participant to choose one. After selecting an item, the participant has brief access to it before it is removed. When the chosen item is withdrawn, the participants with problem behavior maintained by access to tangible items may engage in their problem behavior (Kang et al., 2010). Highly occurring problem behavior during the assessment may interrupt and cease the procedure. That can ultimately lead to inaccurate or no results about the potential reinforcers. Therefore this study examined a modification to the current PS formats that could be made to avoid problem behavior maintained by access to tangible items. The experimenter administered the current PS format and the modified PS format 5 times in a random order for 3 children with developmental disabilities whose problem behavior was maintained by access to tangible items. The rate of problem behavior that occurred during each format was compared. The results of the study suggest that the modified PS format was effective in reducing problem behavior. The results can provide empirical recommendations for the preference assessment.

Determining if a paired-choice preference assessment accurately predicts reinforcer value is important in order for instructional time to be used appropriately. This study evaluated the correlation between the rankings of stimuli based on a paired-choice preference assessment and the amount of responding each stimulus maintained. Three children between the ages of 4 and 9 and diagnosed with a developmental disability participated in this study. A paired-choice preference assessment was conducted with each participant to identify least-, moderately-, and highest-preferred stimuli. The stimuli were then arranged into a concurrent progressive ratio schedule to determine the reinforcing value of each stimulus. Results indicated that all stimuli functioned as reinforcers in the presence of one another with variability in responding observed across sessions and within sessions with respect to each stimulus. Additionally, the stimulus associated with the most responding during a given session varied for all participants. The results of this study along with results of similar research warrant hesitation before implementing preference assessments to identify an individual stimulus as having the highest reinforcing value.

Two frequently used preference assessment procedures are paired-stimulus (PS) and multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) assessments. To assess an array of items, PS involves presenting 2 items per trial and pairing each item with every other item on subsequent trials. In contrast, MSWO involves presenting all items on the first trial. A selected item is not replaced and the remaining items are presented on the next trial, and so on until the last 2 items are presented. MSWO is more efficient than the PS procedure, but many people with developmental disabilities are unable to discriminate between more than 2 items. I evaluated the effectiveness of a simple test to predict the optimal number of items that a person can discriminate. Each participant received a PS assessment to establish a preference hierarchy among 8 items, an optimal-number test, and an MSWO assessment for the same 8 items. Contrary to what was expected, the most preferred item identified by the PS assessment was not selected above chance level during the MSWO assessment on trials when the number of items matched the optimal number.

Escape extinction is a common treatment for individuals with escaped-maintained problem behavior (Piazza, Fisher, Hanley, Remick, Contrucci, & Aitken, 1997). However, escape extinction alone may not reduce undesirable behavior to acceptable levels. Rather, programmed consequences in the form of positive and negative reinforcement contingent on compliance in the absence of problem behavior may be warranted. Researchers have examined the concurrent availability of both forms of reinforcement in demands contexts (DeLeon, Neidart, Anders, & Rodriquez-Catter, 2001; Kodak, Lerman, Volkert, & Trosclair, 2007). The participant in the current study is a 10-year-old male diagnosed with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. The participant was exposed to two treatments for his escape-maintained destructive behavior: negative reinforcement in the form of a break and positive reinforcement in the form of a highly-preferred edible item contingent on compliance in the absence of destructive behavior. In a latter phase, the participant was able to choose between the treatment options while the reinforcement schedule was thinned. The results demonstrated that despite schedule thinning, the participant continued to choose the positive reinforcer a majority of the time.

Constant time delay is known as an effective response prompting procedure on teaching discrete as well as chained skills to individuals with various ages and disabilities. Moreover, research has shown that it is used with high treatment integrity. However, there are several barriers which may prevent to deliver instruction with high treatment integrity. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of constant time delay delivered with high treatment integrity and constant time delay with low treatment integrity in teaching object naming to children with developmental disabilities. Low treatment integrity was defined as not delivering controlling prompt 30% of all teaching trials. An adapted alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of two levels of treatment integrity with constant time delay on the acquisition of the object naming. Three male students with autism participated in the study. Results showed that all three children learned their target behaviors on the criterion level with both conditions. Mixed findings were obtained for efficiency of instruction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses associated with resetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and non-resetting DRO procedures. Experiment 1 includedone participant diagnosed with autism. In this experiment, we implemented each variation of DRO in a multielement design to compare the effects of the treatment on the target behavior and the occurrence of other problem behaviors. Although the data showed similar decreases in the target behavior across each variation, higher rates of other problem behaviors were seen in the non-resetting DRO. In Experiment 2, we evaluated participant preference for procedural variation withone participant diagnosed with mild pervasive developmental disorder. The participant showed a preference for the resetting DRO. These findings suggest some possible advantages to using a resetting DRO over a non-resetting DRO. However, onlyone participant was included in each experiment; therefore, further research is needed.

When given a choice between positive or negative reinforcement for escape-maintained behavior, task difficulty and the schedule of reinforcement may influence an individual's choice (DeLeon et al., 2001). Positive reinforcement may be selected more often when the task is simple and the schedule of reinforcement is dense. When there is an increase in difficulty of tasks or when the schedule of reinforcement is thinned, a shift in preference of reinforcement may occur. The present study examined changes in preference for reinforcement for escape-maintained behavior. The participant was a 19-year-old female diagnosed with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and a seizure disorder. A functional analysis and a subsequent demand assessment determined that her problem behavior was maintained by escape from task demands. The treatment package consisted of training in picture card exchange to request positive reinforcement (snack) or negative reinforcement (break from the demands) in conjunction with extinction for maladaptive behaviors. Results showed that positive reinforcement was preferred more often. However, as the schedule of reinforcement was thinned, and as the level of demand difficulty increased, there was more variability in the participant's selection of reinforcement, and a shift in preference was observed.

Reinforcement procedures are effective in increasing compliance and reducing escape-maintained problem behavior. Many researchers have examined the effects of participant choice between positive and negative reinforcement during treatment (DeLeon, Neidert, Anders, & Vodriguez-Catter, 2001); however, these investigators have not compared the presentation of choice between reinforcers against the presentation of the same reinforcers without a choice. Studies manipulating the presentation of choices between reinforcers or tasks have produced inconsistent results, particularly in single-operant arrangements (Lerman et al., 1997; Parsons, Reid, Reynolds, & Bumgarner, 1990). In the present investigation, we conducted a component analysis to determine whether the individual exhibited differential responding dependent on the type of reinforcer provided for compliance. Three phases were evaluated including (a) a choice between a highly preferred edible and a break, (b) a highly preferred edible, and (c) a break. Results demonstrated that providing the individual with a choice between reinforcers yielded the lowest rates of problem behavior relative to providing the edible or break alone. These findings extend previous research and provide support that individuals may prefer a choice between reinforcers in the demand context.

Prompt dependency is a problem that may arise when working with individuals with developmental disabilities (Clark & Green, 2004; Oppenheimer, Saunders, & Spradlin, 1993). Differential reinforcement of compliance had been successful in increasing independent responding (Hausman, Kahng, & Ingvarsson, unpublished manuscript; Karsten & Carr, 2009). However, some tasks require an initial instruction (e.g., letter identification). Differentially reinforcing the level of prompting required has not been evaluated. A 12-year-old boy diagnosed with autism and mental retardation participated in the current study. During baseline, compliance after either the verbal prompt or gestural prompt resulted in praise only. During treatment, two conditions were evaluated. In the first condition, compliance after the verbal and gestural prompt was reinforced with praise and an edible. In the second condition, only compliance after the verbal prompt was reinforced. Results indicated that when reinforcement was contingent on compliance after the verbal prompt, compliance was high. Further, when reinforcement was provided after compliance after both the verbal and gestural prompts, compliance was low.

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of written versus picture/auditory schedules for increasing independent task initiation and completion of scheduled activities for three young adults who attended a community-based transition program. Participating students had developmental disabilities and/or autism and were identified as needing a great deal of prompting from adults to initiate and complete scheduled activities. Unprompted independent correct responses were measured for students who were using a written checklist that they had been using for the majority of the school year and this was compared to a picture/auditory schedule presented on an iPod Touch. Two of the three participants performed better when the iPod was used, while the third student initially performed better with the checklist and then better with the iPod as her comfort with using it increased. All three participants selected the iPod as the preferred prompting system; however, one student also indicated that she would prefer no prompting system. A discussion of the practical use of an iPod will be presented.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) has become a relatively widely selected intervention for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Numerous studies have shown EIBI to be more effective than other interventions (see Eikeseth, 2009). Children with Downs syndrome usually receive early intervention. However, traditionally these children are not offered EIBI. The only study published on children receiving behavioral intervention with developmental disorders other than autism (Eldevik, Jahr, Eikeseth, Hastings, & Hughes, 2010) showed that they made more progress than children receiving other types of interventions. In this poster an ongoing study on the effects of EIBI for a child with Down's syndrome will be described. Data from a multiple baseline design indicate that the child is making progress due to the intervention, showing immediate increase in the level of correct responding from the mean of 36.7%, 0% and 0% to 99.3%, 93.6% and 72.3% respectively across different tasks. Data will also be presented on some process measures, i.e. number of intervention hours per week, average number of discrete learning trials per day and average number of mastered skills per week.

When results of a functional analysis of severe problem behavior (Iwata et al., 1982) are inconclusive, a more specific analysis of problem behavior may be warranted for the subsequent identification of a function-based treatment. For example, if tasks included into the condition assessing negatively-reinforced behavior are considered preferred tasks by the individual, results may yield a false-positive outcome (Call, Pabico & Lomas, 2009). In these situations, identification of tasks that increase the establishing operation of the demand condition is needed. A demand assessment may be useful when little or no responding is observed during an initial functional analysis because relevant motivating operations are absent from the demand condition (Roscoe, Rooker, Pence, & Longworth, 2009). We are conducting a study to evaluate if response latency is predictive of response rate within a demand context. The dependent measures include latency to the first problem behavior (i.e., duration of time elapsed from the onset of session to the first instance of problem behavior) and rate of problem behavior. Results of this study could yield an efficient way to identify a task preference hierarchy that could be used for inclusion into a demand analysis for the assessment of problem behavior maintained by negative reinforcement.

Functional communication with extinction has been shown to be an effective treatment for escape-maintained problem behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities (e.g., Fisher, Piazza, Cataldo, Harrell, Jefferson, & Conner, 1993). Functional communication training provides such individuals with an appropriate communication method to avoid tasks (e.g., Lalli, Kasey, & Kates, 1995); however, some tasks, such as those involving self-care, are often essential and cannot be completely avoided. In the current investigation, the use of the functional communication response "later" was evaluated as a treatment component for one individual who demonstrated escape-maintained self-injurious behavior in the context of activities of daily living. When the "later" card was available, the participant was given the opportunity to defer demands and tasks to a later time. The participant was then required to complete the tasks after a brief (e.g., 5 min) delay using 3-step guided compliance. Results showed that the opportunity to postpone completion of activities of daily living reduced problem behavior for 51.2% of trials. The functional communication response was generalized to various other tasks. When functional communication for postponement was combined with additional treatment components, problem behaviors were eliminated, and compliance was observed in 98% of trials.

This study investigates the effects of a rotated protocol immersion package on the emergence of early observing responses as a prerequisite for higher order verbal behavior with students diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Nine students between the ages of 1- and 3-years-old participated in the study. The intervention consisted of total immersion in a rotation of 5 pre-listener protocols (Keohane, Delgado & Greer, 2009; Greer & Ross, 2008) designed to induce foundational verbal developmental capabilities. The protocols consisted of Sensory Matching Across the Senses, Conditioning Sustained Eye Contact of 2D and 3D Stimuli, Conditioning Adult Voices, and Conditioning Adult Faces. The students were chosen as participants because they did not reliably orient towards voices in their environment and did not respond to their names when called by the teacher. The dependent variables in the study consisted of the learn units to criteria across instructional objectives pre- and post-intervention, as well as observing responses. Other variables being investigated include sustained eye contact of two-dimensional and three-dimensional stimuli, adult voices as a conditioned reinforcer, appropriate toy play in the free-play setting and sensory matching across the five senses. A multiple probe design is used in the study, which is currently ongoing.

Increasing creativity in older adults may have beneficial effects on measures of daily functioning and overall quality of life. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of social reinforcement (i.e., verbal praise) contingent on two types of responses in an object uses task on two subsequent measures of generalized creativity. Participants were aged 60 years and older, living in the community or in an assisted and independent living facility. In a counterbalanced within subjects design, participants were asked to provide usual object uses in one session and unusual object uses in another session. There were at least two days between the two experimental sessions. During generalization tasks, participants made pictures from circles and generated story titles based on subject prompts. Reinforcing unusual uses increased subsequent production of original pictures and increased the number of story titles and original story titles compared to reinforcing usual uses. These findings suggest that providing social reinforcement for creative or unconventional responses in a task (e.g., giving unusual object uses) may increase creative responding in subsequent, unrelated tasks by older adults.

In Part 1, three adults with mild intellectual disability and with minimal skills were taught to tell the time to the nearest 5 min interval with an analogue clock. The target skill was trained in 12 phases, with different skills trained in each phase (such as the hour, half-past the hour etc). Each phase involved acquisition training, discrimination training and a review. A multiple-probe design was used over phases. The training brought about improvements in the time-telling skills of all participants. It took between 48 and 65 days, with at least 30 min of training each day. Part 2 aimed to compare the effects of fast practice, slow practice and no practice on the retention and generalization of the time-telling skill. An alternating-treatments design was used. The results indicated that, while periods without practicing led to the deterioration in the accuracy of the skill both types of practice helped to maintained it. There was no difference in the retention or generalization of the skill following rate-building to a fluency performance standard or the same amount of rate-controlled practice.

Naming is a language function that is crucial for learning and is often absent in children with developmental disabilities such as autism. Four children from 5-6 years of age were selected to engage in multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) in order to induce this capability. All of these children attended a centre-based intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) program and were selected based on the following criteria: demonstration of vocal verbal language capabilities consisting of, at minimum, one word mands and tacts, possession of the capacity to comply with instructions, possession of the capacity to be reinforced by the observation of two-dimensional visual stimuli, demonstration of the capacity for sameness, and demonstration of the lack of the full Naming capability. Initial assessment consisted of teaching matching two-dimensional novel stimuli. Following teaching, participants were selected based on the inability to demonstrate the Naming capability when given pointing, tacting, and impure tact/intraverbal tasks using the same set of materials. A delayed multiple baseline probe across participants was used and materials were counter-balanced across participants.

There's no agreement in psychology, psychiatry and sociology about the conceptualization of antisocial behavior or the best treatments to diminish the presentation of it. In his book Antisocial Boys (1992) Patterson describes a model of development of the antisocial behavior different from what has been discussed before. He defines the antisocial behavior as a coercitive event, contingent to other family member' or peer's behaviors, that can modify or alter the probability to modify these behaviors. Thus, Patterson's theory of development stages of antisocial behavior has a similar notion to another paradigm in behavior analysis-the concept of behavioral cusps. Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1997) define it as a behavior that can expose the individual's repertoire to new environments, specially new reinforcement and punishment contingences and new stimulus control. Antisocial behavior is under control of basic learning processes and, as a behavioral cusp, might have a learning cumulative effect as discussed by Patterson (1992). Antisocial behavior might, in terms of probability, lead to other antisocial repertoires even more severe and bring damaging consequences for the individual as to the direct and indirect social context. Therefore, it's important to consider initial environments in which the antisocial behavior may develop, as the familiar environment.

A stimulus comes to be a reinforcer for an arbitrary operant response through imprinting. The present study investigated the effects of basic reinforcement schedules on chicks key-peck response rates and preferences for an imprinted stimulus. Newly hatched chicks were exposed to the moving red cylinder. After that, their preferences for the stimulus were tested in the situation where both the stimulus and a novel stimulus were simultaneously exposed to each chick. Only chicks which preferred the familiar stimulus were used as the subjects for the remaining sessions. The chicks key-peck responses were shaped by using the imprinted stimulus as a reinforcer. After the establishment of the response, they were divided into the following four groups, FR 5, FI 5 sec, VI 5 sec, and VR 5 groups. They were trained to peck the key in each schedule of reinforcement over five sessions. After the training, we carried out the second preference test. Figure 1 showed that the key-peck response rates were lower in the following order, VR, FR, VI, and FI groups. Figure 2 showed the results of two preference tests. Although two interval-schedule groups did not show any preference shift, two ratio-schedule groups showed the preference shift.

Although a number of studies have examined delay-of-reinforcement effects on variable-interval (VI) schedules (e.g., Sizemore & Lattal, 1978; Richards, 1981; Reilly & Lattal, 2004; Shahan & Lattal, 2005; Williams, 1976) less is known about the effects of delays on other schedules. The few studies that have examined delay-of-reinforcement effects on fixed-ratio (FR) schedules (Morgan, 1972; Topping, Johnson, & McGlynn, 1973; Meunier & Ryman, 1974) have failed to demonstrate the negative relation between response rate and delay duration typically seen on VI schedules, raising the possibility that delays interact differently with interval and ratio schedules. The present experiment examined this possibility by exposing behavior maintained on FR and interval schedules which were yoked to provide the same rate and temporal distribution of reinforcement to a series of delays that increased across sessions. This process was systematically replicated across a wide range of FR requirements. Orderly delay-of-reinforcement gradients were obtained for both the FR and interval schedules, yet no interaction between schedule type (i.e., FR or interval) was observed.

Key pecking was maintained on a variable-interval schedule of food reinforcement for two White Carneau pigeons during baseline. During experimental conditions, a tandem variable-time, differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior schedule similar to that used by Lattal and Boyer (1980) was superimposed over the underlying variable-interval schedule with no change in stimulus conditions. According to this schedule, alternative reinforcement was occasionally delivered contingent upon a pause in responding of at least 5 s. Three different frequencies of alternative reinforcement were available in separate experimental conditions with alternating baseline conditions. These frequencies were arranged such that the ratios of programmed pause-dependent and response-dependent reinforcement rates across components were 3:1, 1:1, and 1:3 for both subjects. Preliminary results suggest that the subjects allocate a percentage of time to pausing that roughly matches the percent of reinforcement obtained according to the schedule of pause-dependent reinforcement. Data collection is still in progress. Further analyses will be conducted to generate a generalized matching equation for both subjects following exposure to all experimental condition. Reference Lattal, K. A., & Boyer, S. S. (1980). Alternative reinforcement effects on fixed-interval performance. The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 34, 285-296.

The aim of the present experiment was the comparison of human schedule performance with or without awareness under mixed reinforcement schedule. We built a triaxial acceleration sensor in a game pad to include tilting, swinging and yawing of the pad in the definition of operant. Adopting these definitions of operant could make it difficult for participants to be aware of the experimental contingency and could prevent the interaction of verbal behavior with schedule performances. We examined the university students' schedule performances under mixed FI FR DRL FR schedule using this device and compared them with conventional schedule performances.

Although respondent and operant response classes are typically viewed as distinct, some research has also focused on the interplay between operant and respondent behavior (Hineline, 1986; Pear & Eldridge, 1984; Marcucella, 1981). The current experiment is a replication of Marcucellas (1981) study using a multiple schedule which suggested distinct discriminations. In the multiple schedule, short components where responding does not produce a consequence precede longer components during which a random interval-1 minute (RI 1) schedule of reinforcement was operative. The current experiment introduced modifications to Marcucellas (1981) procedures that addressed potential limitations of the original work. First, yoked pigeons included to provide support for the claim that pecks during the short components were respondent in nature. Second, the short components were lengthened from 1.5 seconds to 6 seconds to make timing favorable for respondent discrimination. Finally, a blackout period was introduced after a reinforcer was delivered during a RI- 1 minute schedule of reinforcement to strengthen the contingency between CS and US pairings. Data from the experiment support differential rates of responding during components where pecking produced a consequence and when it did not. Procedural and conceptual bases of respondent and operant conditioning including stimulus control and timing are addressed.

Previous research has shown that brief stimuli at the beginning of response-reinforcer delays can enhance operant response acquisition in rats and steady-state responding in pigeons. Multiple experiments in our lab have failed to replicate this enhancement of response acquisition in rats. In one of these experiments, the rats even experienced pre-pairing of the stimulus and food prior to response acquisition sessions. However, no attempt was made in that experiment to ensure that the stimulus-food pairings actually affected behavior; it was unclear whether the failure to replicate was due to the stimulus being ineffective during operant acquisition or if the pre-pairing was ineffective. Therefore, a modification to the procedure was made whereby hopper-checking could serve as an indicator of the ability of the food-paired stimulus to affect behavior prior to acquisition sessions. During response acquisition, this same stimulus was presented 0, 3, or 12.5 s into 30-s response reinforcer delays. No-stimulus and backward pairing controls were also investigated. Robust enhancement of response acquisition by food-paired stimuli was observed.

The purpose of this experiment was to study the acquisition of lever-pressing (R) by rats in the absence of preliminary training with intermittent-delayed conditioned reinforcement. Rats were exposed to two concurrent schedules. One of these was held constant across the experiment and consisted of a random time 60 s schedule that controlled the pairing of a 1 s illumination of the cue-light above the lever with the delivery of a food pellet. The other schedule consisted of a tandem random interval (RI) 7.5, 15 or 30 s fixed time (FT) 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 s that controlled the degree of intermittency and of delay of the conditioned reinforcer (Sr) after a given lever-press. Three rats each were exposed to a different combination of RI and FT values. Response rates decreased with longer R- Sr delays under the three different frequencies of Sr. At most R-Sr delays, absolute response rates were similar with the Sr frequencies set by the RI 7.5 and 15 s schedules but lower with the frequency set by the RI 30 s schedule. These findings suggest that any previously neutral stimulus that has been correlated with primary reinforcement can reinforce new responses and thus contribute to a large degree to build complex response repertoires in different individuals.

Six rats were exposed to a tandem fixed-ratio 1 differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior 30-s schedule with reinforcer magnitude at one or six pellet(s) across groups of three rats. The rats exposed to the larger reinforcer magnitude acquired the lever-press response more rapidly than the rats exposed to the smaller reinforcer magnitude. The present results extend the literature involving response acquisition with unsignaled delayed reinforcement by systematically replicating several earlier findings, including the effects of body weight on responding maintained by unsignaled delayed reinforcement and trace conditioning with differentconditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulusintervals.

When a brief (0.5 s) unsignaled delay to reinforcement is imposed on responding maintained by a variable-interval (VI) schedule, response rates and the number of short (< 0.5 s) interresponse times increase. At issue in the present experiment is whether a similar effect would be obtained using a schedule of reinforcement that involves a different contingency, specifically a variable-ratio (VR) schedule. Four pigeons were exposed to a multiple schedule with two components that differed based on the schedule of reinforcement in effect. In one component, the pigeons responded on a VR 50 schedule. In the other component, they responded on a VI schedule in which the distribution of reinforcers in the preceding VR component determined the intervals between reinforcers. In other words, a multiple VR 50 yoked VI schedule was arranged. Once responding stabilized, a brief unsignaled delay to reinforcement was added to both components. In the initial conditions, responding increased in the VI component for three of the four pigeons, while responding in the VR component varied across pigeons. Further replications, currently underway, are being conducted to determine the variables controlling these differences in responding.

Resurgence is characterized by the re-emergence of previously reinforced responses when alternative responses are subsequently reinforced and exposed to extinction (e.g., Bruzek, Thompson, & Peters, 2009). The current study was designed as a systematic replication of procedures described by Bruzek et al. in the context of a simulated mealtime. In Phase 1, a target response was negatively reinforced by the termination of a putative aversive auditory stimulus. Once the participant engaged in the response for a specified period of time Phase 2 began. During Phase 2, the target response was exposed to extinction. When the participant ceased to engage in the target response for a specified period of time the final phase was initiated. In Phase 3, an alternative response was reinforced while other responses were not reinforced and subsequently exposed to extinction within the same session. Resurgence occurred if the target response that was reinforced in Phase 1 increased relative to a control response when extinction was in effect for the alternative response. The results indicated that resurgence occurred for three of nine participants, and extinction-induced variability was also noted for the majority of participants. Procedural variations are described to explain deviations from results reported by Bruzek et al.

Under a variety of circumstances, rich (i.e., high reinforcer magnitude) to lean (i.e., low reinforcer magnitude) transitions are viewed as aversive relative to other transitions (rich-rich; lean-rich; lean-lean). That is, longer post-reinforcement pauses under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules, aggression, or escape are observed. In past studies, the rich-lean transition is signaled by a compound stimulus of the size of the past reinforcer and the discriminative stimulus that signals the upcoming large or small reinforcer. Using certain procedures, it is difficult to directly determine if the rich-lean transition is aversive without using both stimuli. In the present study, each transition (i.e., lean-lean, lean-rich, rich-rich, and rich-lean) is associated with a unique discriminative stimulus. Therefore, the aversive effects of each transition can be evaluated individually by using the stimulus as a punisher. Four pigeons currently are responding on a FR schedule in the presence of 4 discriminative stimuli and the reinforcer magnitude is equal. Post-reinforcement pauses are comparable across the 4 stimuli. Next the reinforcer magnitude will be adjusted to create the 4 transitions. Following stable performance, the rich-lean stimulus will be presented contingent on responding to determine the effectiveness of it as a punisher.

Token reinforcers are assumed to be relatively free from the effects of motivating operations. Although this property of token reinforcement has conceptual support, further research is needed to empirically demonstrate the veracity and limits of this assumption. This current study manipulates economy type as a motivating operation. One individual participated in this study. Open and closed economies were evaluated in an ABA reversal design. In the open economy condition the participant received pre-session access to the back-up reinforcers. In the closed economy condition the access to the back-up reinforcers was restricted. Progressive token production schedules of reinforcement were used to identify the break point for each condition. The exchange production and token exchange schedules were the same across all conditions. The results show that response rates were lower in the open economy condition, when compared to a close economy condition. The implications of open and closed economies on token based reinforcement programs will be discussed.

The sunk cost error occurs when people or animals persist in a course of action in which they have already invested time, effort, or resources in spite of having received feedback indicating that an available alternative response will likely produce a higher pay-off. Navarro and Fantino (2005) developed an experimental analogue of the decision making context in which this error can arise that was used in the current study with four pigeons as subjects. The procedure presented subjects with a choice between two response alternatives: the schedule key on which one of four ratio schedules was programmed on a given trial, and the escape key that canceled the current trial, and re-determined the ratio available on the schedule key for the next trial. In order to minimize response requirement on this task it is necessary to identify both whether it is optimal to make an escape response, and, if it is, when to do so. The current study varied the discriminability of the optimal escape point by adding stimulus changes in some conditions but not others. When signals were present, subjects made more-optimally-timed escape key responses, and also made fewer sunk cost errors.

Economic games are useful tools for the study of decision-making and aim to analyze how participants allocate their resources. There are situations whose outcomes are both unknown and uncertain and are affected by contextual variables. A behavioral game-like experimental model can be used to assess these variables. The model employed in this study used multiple trials and a forced choice paradigm between two alternatives in which the participant decided between risking or not his/her hypothetical money. An alternative offered the possibility to maintain the amount received, and another provided the opportunity to invest money, opting for a situation in which could have a profit or loss, both allocated at the same time in the same alternative. The questions were presented to 38 adults of both genders in a paper and pencil format, and the experimental setup in a room at the local university. The results revealed two profiles of investors. The Conservatives invested when the chances of winning are high in relation to losses; and the aggressive ones, who invested even when the chances of winning were equal to losses. Thus, variables such as probability of gain and loss proved to be decisive in the process of selecting participants.

Drug purchasing tasks have been successfully used with heroin, nicotine, and alcohol to assess simulated drug consumption, allowing for behavioral economic assessment of demand elasticity (sensitivity to price). However, a purchasing task for cocaine has not been investigated. The primary aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of using a cocaine purchasing task (CPT) in 35 cocaine-dependent individuals. Demand elasticity for a drug and impulsivity are considered processes fundamental to addiction. A second aim was to examine whether demand elasticity for cocaine is related to impulsivity measures, including delay discounting and the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS)-11. Demand curves were generated from responses on the CPT. The validity of the CPT was supported by its correlation with self-reported cocaine use. While low demand elasticity was associated with higher scores on the BIS-11 motor subscale, greater delay discounting was more closely associated with higher scores on the BIS-11 non-planning and cognitive subscales. Elasticity was not significantly correlated with delay discounting. Although delay discounting (insensitivity to delayed contingencies) has traditionally been regarded as an aspect of impulsivity, the present data suggest that lower demand elasticity (insensitivity to price contingencies) may be an under-recognized aspect of impulsivity distinct from delay discounting.

Resurgence is defined as reoccurrence of previously reinforced behavior when recently reinforced behavior is extinguished. Most previous studies have not investigated the phenomenon quantitatively. If there is an index showing the magnitude of resurgence quantitatively, we can examine the functional relation between independent variables of resurgence and the magnitude as a dependent variable in more detail. Thus, we calculated the probability of resurgence (POR) based on response rates of the target behavior in both the elimination and the resurgence conditions for pigeons. We used the formula 1 for calculating POR. m1 is mean key-peck response rates over the last three sessions of the elimination condition for a pigeon. m2 is mean key-peck response rates for each session of the resurgence condition for that pigeon. Positive value means that subjects showed resurgence. The value of zero and negative values mean that subjects did not show resurgence. The results showed clear variation in magnitude of resurgence among pigeons. Thus, POR is an appropriate index of the magnitude of resurgence.

Previous research has demonstrated that number heads together (NHT), a peer mediated intervention, is more effective than the traditional teacher led instruction in academic areas such as language arts, social studies, and science. The current study compared the effects of two number heads together strategies during a middle school math lesson. Five middle school students with emotional behavioral disorders participated in the study. An alternating treatment design was used to determine the effectiveness of NHT upon the participating students' on-task behavior, total percentage of quiz scores, correct answer percentage on administrated quizzes and accurate completion percentage of multiplication algorithms. The current study extended the previous studies through the incorporation of a preference stimulus assessment to determine the effectives of number heads together +incentives and included the participating students Woodcock Johnson III math computation scores to determine and develop the pre-test and post-test. Social validity assessments for the participating teacher and students are included within the results. A discussion on study limitations, implications, and future research directions is included.

Writing practice quiz questions may improve quiz performance but which students benefit from this procedure? We examine student performance across "no questions" (baseline) and "questions" conditions and evaluate the performance of low baseline performers (1st quartile) versus moderate baseline performers (2nd & 3rd quartile) versus high baseline performers (4th quartile) to ascertain which students benefit most from this procedure. Sixty-five students enrolled in two social science courses, taught by the same instructor and of similar content, participated. Following baseline, students developed five multiple-choice questions, each week, relevant to material covered during that week of class (i.e., "questions" condition). A multiple baseline across courses was used to evaluate the effects of intervention on quiz performance.First quartile of one class performed significantly better in the questions condition but this was not replicated in the second class. Nevertheless, the data suggest that having students generate quiz questions is a useful didactic tool more likely to benefit those students who begin with poorer performance. Statistical analyses (ANOVA) confirmed a significant interaction between condition and baseline performance; namely, those students whose baseline scores fell in the lowest quartile improved significantly from baseline to intervention F (3) = 2.97, p = .018.

A multiple-baseline design across four students, with an embedded reversal design with two participants, was used to examine the effects of behavioral tutoring on chapter and final (pre-post) exam scores and treatment acceptability ratings. Behavioral tutoring was provided to self-selected participants once per week for 60 minutes. Significant improvement in chapter and final exam scores were obtained with exam scores equal to the mean of the class section. Behavioral tutoring was rated very acceptable by participants. Behavioral tutoring provides a structured method to enhance critical study skills, conceptual learning and improve in class performance. Large scale implementation and evaluation of behavioral tutoring with university students is needed before wide spread dissemination on college campuses.

Four preschool students were taught to say "thank you" when presented with an item from a teacher. All teaching conditions occurred in the morning, and tests for generalization occurred in the afternoon with a different teacher. Two of the four participants demonstrated acquisition and generalization of the thank you response in the consistently brief inter-trial interval teaching condition (approximately 3 s transpired between trial ending and a new trial beginning). One participant demonstrated acquisition of the response with consistently brief inter-trial interval teaching but required a progressive inter-trial interval (i.e. trials separated in time progressively longer intervals such as 3 s, 10 s, 30 s, 2 min, 4 min, then 16 min) to achieve generalized responding. Data analysis suggested that this participant's correct performance was likely influenced by the model prompt of the corrective feedback rather than the evocative event of a teacher presenting an item to the student. Results of this study suggest that when consistently brief inter-trial interval teaching does not result in generalization of skills, progressive inter-trial intervals may facilitate generalization of newly taught responses.

This study compared procedural integrity measures in two formats of match-to-sample (MTS) instruction using a multiple baseline design in which the training order was counterbalanced across 6 participants. In one format, instructional stimuli included picture cards presented on a board (tabletop format). In the other format, a laptop computer was used and stimuli were presented using PowerPoint (PowerPoint format). Training sessions were conducted as roleplays supplemented by itemized feedback on skills from a procedural integrity (PI) checklist, and continued until 100% PI was demonstrated. Itemized feedback was followed by performance improvements in 69% of opportunities. The tabletop procedure took fewer sessions to train (mean=5) than the PowerPoint procedure (mean=7), but skills learned from the PowerPoint procedure generalized more to the tabletop procedure than in the other direction (2 of the 3 participants who first completed training in the PowerPoint procedure required no additional training to run the tabletop procedure with 100% PI). During follow-up sessions, participants performed marginally better using the PowerPoint procedure (mean=90% PI) than the tabletop procedure (mean=86% PI).

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the Direct Instruction Flashcard (DIF) system and Reading Racetrack procedure on mastery of core words by an 8-year-old boy with autism. A single subject multiple baseline design across three sets of core words was used to evaluate the combined use of Direct Instruction Flashcard system and Reading Racetrack procedure. A clear functional relationship was shown between core word accuracy and Direct Instruction combined with Reading Racetrack. The procedures were cost effective in terms of time, money, and effort.

An elementary student with emotional and behavioral disorders was taught to use an iPod Touch to view video models of social skills associated with independent work completion and appropriate participation in cooperative learning groups. An intervention consisting of video modeling and self-monitoring was then implemented during math group. The student showed significant improvement when video modeling was implemented but still showed some variability in his performance from across sessions. When a self-monitoring component was added using the iPod Touch, the student showed further improvements in this time on task as well as further reductions in disruptive behavior.

We used a delayed multiple probe design in this study to investigate the effects of conditioned reinforcement for observing faces with voices on the rate of learning and observing responses. Participant A, B and C were 6-year-old males diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The dependent variables in this study were the number of learn units to criteria and observing responses during the pre-intervention and post-intervention probe sessions. A preference assessment was also conducted during pre and post intervention probes to determine if faces with voices and/or faces voices without faces was a conditioned reinforcer. The independent variable was the observing faces with voices procedure. The results show that Participant A met criterion on his first and second interventions, Participant B met criterion on the first intervention, Participant C is currently in intervention. The post-intervention probe sessions for Participants A and B showed an increase in observing responses and an increased rate of learning. However, when the preference assessment was conducted the results showed that faces with voices were not a conditioned reinforcer. Therefore, both participants returned to intervention to condition faces with voices as reinforcers, further decrease learn units to criterion and increase observing responses.

A counterbalanced reversal design across participants was employed to compare standard learn unit conditions and modern learn unit conditions for students who have the naming capability. Three students diagnosed with autism and one typically developing first grade student participated in this study. The rate of learning, the number of sessions required to meet an objective during textual responding, was measured across three conditions: (a) standard learn unit instruction, (b) model demonstration learn units for previously incorrect textual responses, and (c) a model demonstration learn unit consisting of the participant listening to the experimenter textually respond to the whole story one time. All students had the naming capability in their verbal repertoire. Rate of learning across the three conditions was measured and compared to determine what type of instruction was the most beneficial to the students' learning. The study took place in a first gradeCaomprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis of School (CABA)AIL classroom in New Jersey. The student-to-teacher-to teacher assistant ratio in the classroom was 14:1:2. It was found that both Participants A and C's rate of learning was faster during model learn unit instruction than in standard learn unit instruction.

We report the outcome of training teachers to deliver presentations that met the criteria for learn units on rates of learning of students with autism spectrum disorder. The dependent variable in the study was student's rate of learning as measured by numbers of learn units-to-criteria for instructional objectives. The independent variable was training teachers to deliver accurate learn units via a written feedback procedure. The design utilized was a multiple baseline across participants. The participants in this study were 3-adult females enrolled in Masters Programs for education, which either recently obtained or were pursuing teacher certification. The participants taught 5 children aged 5 through 8 years old, diagnosed with autism who demonstrated significant language delays in a publicly funded special education classroom. The results of training teachers in the presentation of instruction as learn units demonstrated educationally significant outcomes for students rate of learning and the training procedures used in the study functioned to teach the teaching repertoire to the participants.

The experimenters of this study tested the effects of the speaker immersion training procedure on the numbers of independent tacts and autoclitic mands emitted by four second grade students with language delays using a time-delayed multiple probe design. The participants received daily 10-minute speaker immersion sessions in which the experimenters created multiple establishing operations to increase verbal operants. Results demonstrated increased autoclitic mands emitted across all participants following the speaker immersion intervention.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of reading on students acquiring new tacts. During Experiment 1, the participants were three elementary school students who were placed in a self-contained CABAS® classroom within a district-based program. Participant 1 was a 10-year-old boy who functioned at a reader / writer and emerging self-editor level of verbal behavior and was selected because his reading abilities ranged from grade level and above and comprehension skills were on grade level. Participant 2 was a 12-year-old boy who functioned at a reader / writer and emerging self-editor level of verbal behavior and was selected because his reading abilities ranged from grade level and above and comprehension skills were on grade level. Participant 3 in this study was a 9-year-old male who functioned as a speaker / listener, emergent reader / writer level of verbal behavior. He was chosen for this study because he was reading fluently and wanted to test his comprehension skills. This study implemented a time-lagged multiple probe experimental design. The dependent variable was the acquisition of new tacts, while the independent variable was the reading condition. Results thus far demonstrate a functional relationship between reading comprehension and the acquisition of new tacts for Participants 1 and 2, while Participant 3 is still in treatment sessions. Experiment 2 tested the effects of tact acquisition on the same participants by having them listen to the story read orally by a teacher. The dependent variable in this experiment was the acquisition of new tacts (Set 2) while the independent variable was the second reading condition. Results show that both participants acquired the set of tacts within two sessions. Results of both studies are compared in the discussion of Experiment 2.

When it comes to English, Japanese graduate students learning behavior analysis are only good at reading because they are "trained" to read many related articles written in English. For the advancement of their research, one of the critical activities is to share their idea with many people, and English is one of the most prevalent languages for research activities. When we set an eventual goal as an international collaborative research, they are required to haveskills otherthanreading: speaking, listening, and writing. Therefore the purpose of the current study is to improve Japanese graduate students' English skills. We analyzed the use of English in terms of skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in a collaborative research environment, and assessed them for intervention on their deficits. Two female graduate students majoring in behavior analysis participated in this study. A multiple baseline design across skills was adopted to illustrate the effects of training on four language skills. During the intervention, participants were also instructed to self-monitor their tasks at homes.

The poster will describe a project that is jointly financed by the US Department of Education and the European Commission. The project will implement an international program of study aimed to add value to the study of psychology, and specifically to allow participating students to earn an International Certificate in Applied Behavioral Studies (ICABS). Two US universities and two European universities participate in the project. During the project period, 24 American students will study in Europe for one academic semester. During the same period, 24 European students will study in one US partner university. Faculty members will carry out teaching and research assignments at partner institutions. A joint curriculum has been created to allow students to take behaviorally-oriented courses that will be the basis for obtaining the ICABS.

The present study examined the effects of the function-based classwide interventions for the students' on-task behavior during lessons in a general education classroom. Two boys, Jun and Ken, who engaged in high rate of off-task behavior and a classroom teacher participated. Descriptive functional assessment for two boys suggested that their off-task behavior occurred because of the lack of discriminative stimulus for on-task behavior. It also suggested that they were often off-task during waiting time for the next instruction. As function-based classwide interventions, two antecedent intervention components were introduced. First, the list of tasks the students in the class had to do were visually presented at the blackboard in the front of the classroom. Second, some tasks which the students could finish independently were added to the list to reduce their waiting time. The results showed that the function-based classwide interventions were effective for enhancing on-task behavior for Jun. In addition, according to the anecdotal data,his classmatesalso positively affected the interventions. On the other hand, for only Ken, the additional individualized interventions were needed to prompt and reinforce his on-task behavior. The results were discussed in terms of the functional relationship between the assessment and the intervention plan.

Analysis and reading comprehension of scientific texts is relevant for successful performance in university classrooms. Some recent research has raised the paraphrase as a promoting factor of reading comprehension. The paraphrase implies where the original idea is integrated expanding or restructuring the background, leaning on a vocabulary (lexicon) and grammatical organizers learned from past experiences, including references. The paraphrase can be considered as an initial component for the understanding of texts that can lead later in the analysis and drafting of new texts on the basis of information provided from others. Therefore this study aims to evaluate the issue text paraphrases, identifying and classifying such issue in accordance with the categories proposed in the literature. A random selection of a group of psychology students of the first courses was conducted. The materials were three texts of experimental analysis and the participants worked with them during one week for each text. The students responded to a questionnaire. The results show that students more often emit low levels of paraphrase when they identify textually the information in the paper. The students with high levels of paraphrase on the model categories where they must make inferences.

Recent studies have shown that children's play has a large influence on development. Social interaction with the peer through play builds the social skills. The purpose of this study was to observe the relation between the type of play and social interaction during recess of grade-school children. Ten children were chosen by their teacher, five of them (three boys and two girls) often played and the rest of them (two boys and three girls) did not. Based on Rubin's definition (Rubin, 2001) , the target behaviors were the type of play (group, parallel, and solitary play), and social interactions (positive, negative, and non interaction). We observed these behaviors in recess on the school ground and in the classroom during 2 weeks. The method of observation was an interval recording. The 20-min recess time was divided into 1-min intervals for recording and analysis. The occurrence rates of the target behaviors were calculated and the type of play and social interaction were analyzed. Group play and positive interaction were found to have a positive relationship as well as solitary play and non interaction. These results suggest promoting children's play is a natural way for increasing positive peer interaction.

Childrens on-task behavior decreases when engaging in tasks consisted of problems which they can not answer accurately (Gickling & Armstrong, 1978). Furthermore, even when children s performance reaches an adequate accuracy level, if the task requires effort and time to solve, the children would not choose engaging in such a task (Skinner, 1998). Therefore, we assessed the functional relationship between response effort, defined by time for solving a single problem, and on-task behavior during engagement in math computation tasks of a 7-year-old boy with difficulty in academic performance in Japan. In baseline phase, the child exhibited a decrement of on-task behavior when engaging in the effortful task. Additionally, in intervention phase, contingent praise for solving each problem improved on-task behavior, however, it could not sustain on-task behavior much longer in such a situation. The present findings suggest that, if we are to maintain on-task behavior and prevent off-task behavior during academic training, it is important to estimate the response effort, in addition to estimate the accuracy. Based on this finding, we developed a training program for this child and he has improved his math computation skills without off-task behaviors.

Constant time delay is a response prompting procedure. It can be defined as delivering prompt after task direction to ensure correct response from a learner. The studies showed that it is an effective method in teaching discrete as well as chained skills. It has been used since the early 1970s to teach various skills to individuals with various disabilities. A review of 34 research studies on the use of constant time delay in teaching various tasks is analyzed in terms of demographic variables such as participants (ages and disabilities), settings, materials, procedural variables such as probe format, delay sessions, delay interval, response interval, teaching format, outcome measures such as effectiveness, efficiency, maintenance, generalization, and social validity, and methodological adequacy such as dependent and independent variable reliability. The studies published between 1995 to 2009 are reviewed. Based upon the findings, future research needs and implications of the constant time delay interval will be discussed in the poster sessions.

Most to least prompting is a response prompting procedure and the prompt is faded systematically in an hierarchical order. The studies showed that it is an effective method in teaching discrete as well as chained skills. It has been used since the early 1970s to teach various skills to individuals with various disabilities. A review of 13 research studies on the use of most to least prompting in teaching various tasks is analyzed in terms of demographic variables such as participants (ages and disabilities), settings, materials, procedural variables such as probe format, delay sessions, delay interval, response interval, teaching format, outcome measures such as effectiveness, efficiency, maintenance, generalization, and social validity, and methodological adequacy such as dependent and independent variable reliability. The studies published between 1995 to 2009 are reviewed. Based upon the findings, future research needs and implications of the most to least prompting will be discussed in the poster sessions.

This study compared effects of positive and negative reinforcement contingencies on safety rule following behaviors. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: positive and negative reinforcement contingencies. A computerized work task that simulated welding was developed for this study. Participants had to follow seven safety and quality related rules while performing each welding task. Participants were asked to complete 100 welding tasks and paid for their work. Participants under the positive reinforcement contingency earned a base pay of 5,000 won (equal to USD 4.50 approximately) at the beginning of the experiment and could earn additional 50 won for completing each task if they followed all of the seven rules. Participants under the negative reinforcement contingency earned 10,000 won at the beginning of the experiment and could lose 50 won for completing each task if they did not follow any rule. The two base pay amounts were displayed on the computer screen and subsequent increases and decreases in the pay amount in both conditions were displayed immediately after participants completed each task. The results showed that there was no significant difference in generating the rule following behaviors between the two groups.

Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centersinterviews are highly competitive processes for both the interviewee as well the organization interviewing applicants. There are very few truly behavioral placement sites for pre-doctoral internships. The May Institute is an organization that is behavioral in practice. Several interviewees who matched to the May wanted to take a data-based process and use it to evaluate and change the interview process for pre-doctoral interns at the May. A survey was designed to capture the different aspects of the interview process. This survey was produced on Survey Monkey and all interns who had undergone the same interview process and matched with the May where contacted via e-mail and asked to complete the survey. Based on the survey results, many changes were made to the interview process. These changes included the room set up, presentations made, and many other aspects. Following the changes in the interviews, all the new interviewees who completed the interview process were then asked to complete the survey. Upon completion of the surveys, the pre and post change results were compared. It was found that satisfaction ratings increased after the changes were implemented for the interview day and the satisfaction ratings remained stable for aspects not modified.

Ingham and Greer (1992) demonstrated that accurate teacher presentation rates increased as a function of frequency and feedback provided by supervisors using the TPRA (Teacher Performance Rate Accuracy). A collateral effect of improved student learning was found as a result. An analysis of the number of observations conducted by supervisors in a school that used applied behavior analysis as a foundation for teaching showed that over the last 3 years the numbers of observations significantly decreased. The present study sought to test the effects of several researched based tactics and measure the effectiveness of the tactics in increasing the number of observations conducted by supervisors. The tactics tested included goal setting, feedback, and negative reinforcement. A multiple baseline across staff showed that while goal setting and feedback increased the number of observations conducted, the data showed that the use of negative reinforcement had the most effective and stable increase in the data. A reversal will be initiated to test the long term maintenance of the supervisor's behavior.

Reviews indicated feedback provided to workers is the most effective intervention to change performance in organizational settings. However, supervisors hardly receive feedback on their own behaviors. This study implemented a self-management techniques to improve supervisory behaviors at a construction site in South Korea. Self-management in the current study consisted of goal setting, self-monitoring and providing reinforcers for two supervisory behaviors; (a) conducting safety observations and (b) interacting with workers for safety improvement. Two supervisors severed as participants. An AB within-group design was adopted. After baseline (A), self-management technique was implemented (B). Results suggested that self-management was effective in increasing the two supervisory behaviors. Moreover, the increased supervisory behaviors were associated with improvement in workers' safety performance.

The present study compared the effects of two types of safety management on employees' safety performance at a construction site: supervisor-based and employee-based safety management. Participants were 40 construction workers. Three supervisors conducted observations and collected data. In the supervisor-based safety management, supervisors' safety related behaviors were targeted. The supervisors (a) set a goal for the numbers of safety observation and interaction with the workers per day, (b) monitored their goal achievement daily, (c) earned small monetary reward once a month when the goal was met. In the employee-based safety management, workers' safety performance was targeted. The intervention consisted of (a) feedback, (b) goal setting, and (c) low cost rewards. Feedback was delivered biweekly to the workers. A monthly goal was set and adjusted based on the safety performance in the previous month. Also, rewards were delivered when the monthly goal was met. An ABAC design was adopted. After baseline (A), the supervisor-based safety management (B) was introduced, which was followed by a withdrawal phase (A). In the final phase, the employee-based safety management (C) was introduced. Results showed that the supervisor-based safety management was as effective as the employee-based safety management in increasing safety performance of the employees.

Early and intensive intervention based on behavior analysis improves rates of skill acquisition and decreases problem behavior for young children, particularly those with developmental disabilities or autism. Yet, promoting behavior analytic practice in rural areas is constrained by several barriers, including cost, geographic availability, and personnel availability. One way to reduce these barriers is through the delivery of behavioral services through telemedicine. Telemedicine typically involves the use of technologies, such as video or internet, in the delivery or dissemination of health information and practices. In theory, rural caregivers could be remotely trained on the implementation of behavior-analytic procedures, which would avoid some of the limitations found with in-vivo trainings. However, telemedicine delivery of services is associated with a variety of other barriers, including technology literacy, reading level, compliance with training procedures, and attrition. These barriers, and potential solutions, will be described in the context of a telemedicine-based program designed to train parents on discrete trial instruction currently being implemented in rural areas of West Virginia.

This study investigated the role of the audience on children's self-report accuracy. Participants were four 9-10-years-old children who exhibited high do-say correspondence. The "doing" task consisted of reading aloud a written word. The "saying' task consisted of reporting on the accuracy of the textual response after the computer's feedback. Pretest sessions verified the frequency of corresponding reports as a function of increasing the probability of errors. The audience test evaluated the frequency of accurate reports as a function of different audiences. Only the correct and accurate reports were followed by points. The amount of points required to obtain the high preferred item, however, was higher than the amount received during the session. After checking their total points, participants reported how many points they obtained. Self-report accuracy was evaluated in three conditions: while engaging in the task, while reporting to different audiences, and while choosing the item. Three out of four participants' self-report accuracy decreased in at least one of the three conditions as a function of the audience. For these children, correspondence training sessions were conducted. Audience seemed to be a relevant controlling variable on children's self-report accuracy since the presence of different audiences controlled different patterns of correspondence.

This study was intended to determine if there was an effect of the responses by the instructor(s)/experimenters in an online class on the textual verbal behavior (typed sentences) emitted by students during weekly chat sessions, and how student participation in the class changed as a result. The experimenters examined effects of the differential provision of positive feedback to students during both a teaching assistant condition and a professor condition in a between groups design. A teaching assistant conducted her chat session as normal, but provided a great deal of positive feedback to students who asked questions and provided comments related to the class to only half of the class. The course instructor, who also had regularly scheduled chat sessions with the students provided a great deal of positive feedback and praise for particpation among students in the remaining half of the class. Questions were answered to all students, but positive feedback for participation was not given to all of the students. Chat logs were analyzed to determine the types of verbal responses which were typed between the two groups of students who received differential positive feedback. Chat logs also analyzed the content of the students' typed behaviors, sentence length, attendance to chat sessions, and differential responses from the baseline to intervention phases.

The goal of this study was to examine the use of a stimulus equivalence protocol in the instruction of advanced learners by teaching relations among stimuli that were of gradually increasing complexity. The adequacy of a selection-based training procedure in producing topography-based responding was also evaluated. Participants were first trained on relations between the names, pictures, and chemical compositions of three different minerals. Tests for equivalence and tests to evaluate participants ability to provide typed topography-based responses to each stimulus were then administered. Participants were then trained and tested on relations for three additional minerals. Training on relations between members of the separate sets of mineral classes was then conducted using contextual cues identifying that the minerals were similar in regards to belonging to the same mineral class or having the same hardness rating. Participants were then tested to evaluate contextual control of the merger of the equivalence classes. Preliminary results show that equivalence relations emerged between the stimuli, and selection-based training is sufficient to produce proficiency in a topography-based response format.

Contextually controlled transfer of functions through equivalence relations provides a tool for exploring complex human behavior. Appropriately responding to emotional cues is a necessary social skill. Further, sensitivity to variations in emotional responding as a function of changing contextual cues is essential for effective social behavior. The present study was designed to improve upon the Tyndall, Roche, and James (2009) study and to help clarify the complex relationship between functional equivalence and stimulus equivalence. Stimuli included six neutral and six aversive pictures, as well as 12 nonsense syllables. Undergraduate students volunteered, and were tested individually, with random assignment to the neutral or aversive condition. The five phases consisted of respondent training, operant training, transfer of function test, equivalence training, and equivalence test. In prior research, the majority of participants proceeded beyond Phase 3 (transfer of function test), and those in the aversive condition required more trials to form stimulus equivalence relations. The current project resulted in 28% of participants progressing beyond Phase 3, and no significant group differences in Phases 4 and 5. All stimuli included faces, which likely made discrimination as a function of valence (neutral/aversive) more challenging.

The current study attempted to investigate syntax construction in the Brazilian Portuguese language under the perspective of equivalence class formation and multiple exemplars training. First, four classes of four stimuli each were formed: subject, verb, preposition and complement, A, B, C and D, respectively. Next, in modified constructed-response matching-to-sample task (CRMTS), four participants learned to put the sequence A1B1C1D1 together from a pool of words each corresponding to a position in the sequence. Next, linear tests for the three remaining sequences were conducted. Finally, tests for the emergence of the sequence construction using words which did not participate in the equivalence class formation procedure were introduced. The results showed that all participants learned the conditional relations, forming four concepts, and equivalence relations. They also learned the sequence and showed emergence of the sequence relations to include the remaining members of the equivalence classes and also the emergence of new sequences involving non-trained words. Although the results seem promising we found some limitations for educational applications since in Portuguese many verbs ask for the same preposition but also a single verb may ask for different prepositions. A discussion is offered on how to best develop a procedure to overcome such limitations.

This study is replicating the findings of Karmali, Greer, Nuzzolo-Gomez, Ross & Rivera-Valdes-Reducing Palilalia by Presenting Tact Corrections to Young Children with Autism (2005). The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 21, 145-153. A six-year-old female student with autism attending a special needs school in a large metropolitan area is participating in this study. We are using a multiple baseline design across two settings: work and play. The purpose of this intervention is to replace the palilalia with mands and tacts. The procedure consists of interrupting the palilalia with a tact correction. When the student engages in rapid, nonsense talk, she is interrupted by making her repeat something about the task she is engaging in or about something salient to the environment. The results are replicating those of the above aforementioned study, indicating that the procedure is effective in the reduction of palilalia.

It is evident by the amount of literature on verbal operants that it is an important skill for early learners. Impairments in communication are a core feature of autism and other developmental disorders and typically involve a delay or total lack of communicative speech (Kelly et al., 2007). It has been shown that through specific training of the verbal operants those with communication delays can be taught the verbal operants. Further research in the area of generalization is needed, as this research has only been published in the past few years. There has been research in the area of using one verbal operant to teach another functionally independent operant, however, there has been very little research done on teaching within each operant. The better method of teaching tacts using one modality of the target, such as a 2-D picture, to teach children with developmental disabilities the correct label of that object and later teaching the 3-D representation of that object is the purpose of this study.

Early, intensive behaviorally based interventions for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder have generated an excellent evidence base as well as great interest by consumers. In general, the model calls for 30 to 40 hours of primarily one-on-one training during the first year of intervention for children 5 years and younger. While statistics vary, nearly half the children provided this intervention by well training and supervised trainers achieve substantial improvements in a wide array of skills. For those who respond well and rapidly, there is a push toward integration into mainstream educational settings, from pre-school to elementary school. However, given that many children do not display this maximal outcome, how should we proceed? It appears that many opt to continue to provide primarily 1:1 instruction, often continuing with materials and lessons that are not functionally derived in terms of contact with school, home and community environments. This distinguished panel will discuss what evidence there is to continue the initial intervention package as well as discuss how best to arrange for lessons and strategies that promote ongoing functional skill acquisition far beyond the first years of training.

Obesity is the result of a long-term pattern of a situation in which food is especially reinforcing and exercise is not. The cannabinoid neurotransmitter system plays a role in food reinforcement and obesity, though much of the research on this is limited to free-food intake as a dependent variable. This presentation will review findings from our laboratory in two areas. One, we will describe attempts to isolate behavioral mechanisms involved with food reinforcement in animal and human studies using behavioral economic experiments, including demand analysis, the delay discounting procedure, and choice. Two, we will discuss the role of cannabinoid drugs (e.g., rimonabant and 2-AG) on food reinforcement, food-associated stimuli, and exercise as a reinforcer. Throughout the presentation, we will include data from the obese Zucker rat, a genetic model of obesity, to illustrate genetically-influenced differences in food and exercise reinforcement, as well as behavioral sensitivities to cannabinoid drugs. A pattern from these studies emerges: the more effortful the arrangement of food is, the less genes play a role in food consumption.

Melanoma, the most deadly of skin cancers, is detected mainly by visually inspecting the skin, but detection by patients and most medical professionals is notoriously unreliable. We report preliminary findings from a laboratory program aimed at understanding the stimulus control issues involved in visually detecting melanoma symptoms. Unlike some kinds of cancers, in which the symptoms are highly standardized across individuals, melanoma is hard to detect because the baseline characteristics of individual lesions (moles) varies greatly. Therefore, the most important indicator of melanoma progression is a change in an existing lesion. Using methods drawn from both psychophysics and operant discrimination research, we are focusing on determining the smallest amount of lesion change that a typical viewer can detect when images of lesions are presented on a computer screen. This work is expected to be the foundation for later research on how to rapidly establish finer-grained discriminations, which in turn can inform clinical efforts to promote better melanoma detection by patients and by health professionals.

This intervention was a randomized controlled study of behavioral multi-component treatment of elevated blood pressure (BP) based on the functional analysis of eating (diet and use of salt) and exercise behavior in connection to work and leisure time. In addition, smoking, use of alcohol, relaxation, and acceptance of emotional responses were targeted. The control group received treatment as usual according to national Finnish treatment guidelines of diabetes treatment mainly based on giving information regarding elevated BP and metabolic syndrome. The treatment program consisted of 10 sessions for 4 months in the experimental group and 6 sessions in the control group for 11/2months each session lasting 1 1/2hours. Participants were 22 working individuals in both groups aged 18-65 years who had their BP above 140/90 mmHg. Exclusion criteria included cardiovascular diseases that affect BP and some serious diseases. We will report the 2-year follow-up results of the study. BP has been and will be measured with the standardized cuff method, using automatic monitoring during 24 hours, and by self-monitoring at home. The treatment of eating and exercise behavior in the experimental group was done by using functional analysis of the treatment-relevant behaviors, problem solving, direct and precision teaching, values work, positive reinforcement by shaping, behavioural contracting, using step counters, and Nordic walking as a treatment package. Also, food diary (weekday and weekend day), exercise, sleep and relaxation diary were used. The main aim of the study is to test new methods to improve life style change in the treatment of elevated BP. The dependent measures are BP (casual, ambulatory, self-measured), lipid profile, and well-being measured as emotional responses (such as anger, anxiety, and depression), sleep, and life quality. Treatment results have shown significant reductions in resting systolic and diastolic BP of 7.5/ 3.2 mmHg, respectively, in the experimental group and 4.5/ 1.8 mmHg, respectively, in the control group. The same measurements in the 6-month follow-up were the following: 5.4/ 2.3 mmHg and 4.9/ 1.6 mmHg. We will analyze the 2-year follow-up results to see if the treatment gains have been maintained.

Anxiety disorders are one of the major psychological health issues confronted by the recipients and treated by the providers of mental health services today. Anxiety has historically been a central research topic of mainstream psychology. Although behavior analysis has paid relatively little attention to the subject in the past, there has been a growing interest by behavior analytic researchers on the subject, and a small number of studies on specific phobias a subset of anxiety disorders have been conducted. The findings of this research point to the effective combination of the behavioral techniques of graduated exposure and differential reinforcement in the treatment of specific phobias. However, there are no known studies that have examined the efficacy of these individual treatment components. The current study conducted a component analysis of graduated exposure and differential reinforcement. Three California State University, Fresno students participated in this research. Results suggest that no single component was more effective than the other, and that the employment of one technique or the combination of the techniques should be determined by (a) the individual seeking clinical support for specific phobia, and after (b) appropriate consultation with relevant clinical service providers.

This paper describes a programme of behavioral intervention for a 37-year-old male with traumatic brain injury who was 16 years post-injury at the beginning of intervention. Functional assessments were conducted. Targets for treatment included inappropriate social comments and advances, inappropriate sexual behavior, impulsivity, confabulation, aggression including shouting, swearing, shaking fists and occasional property destruction. These behaviors served as a barrier to his integration into social and vocational settings. The programme devised incorporated antecedent and consequence based strategies, including behavioral contracts between the client and the therapist and the client and his family, non-contingent reinforcement, differential reinforcement and self-monitoring. After 6 months a modified cognitive behavioral therapy anger management programme was introduced. Contracts were renewed prior to anger management training and a schedule of reinforcement was used to increase the quality and quantity of homework completed. Behavior analysts and neuro-psychologists liaised to increase the efficacy of treatment. The nature of this partnership is discussed. Data regarding frequency of inappropriate behaviors, and in-session behavior is presented.

Growth creates unique challenges for behavioral consulting firms. As Quality Safety Edge (QSE) has grown from a practice of three friends to a multi-million dollar consulting firm, it has struggled with a number of those challenges. The first challenge for all businesses is generating business. In particular, international sales created a special set of issues. A second challenge, growth meant adding consultants, which created the challenge of "industrializing the service," that is, standardizing the approach and materials so that all consultants used a consistent approach in providing services. The third challenge was a bit more subtle. As consultants have success with an implementation strategy, they tend to adapt that approach, and over time, they begin to have too much consistency and lose the flexibility to modify their plans in ways that might better serve the customer. Finally, implementing behavioral solutions internationally requires a sensitivity to cultural differences. Dr. McSween will describe QSE's experience with these challenges and what has been done to address them.

Many behavior analysts have only recently begun to appreciate that public policies can substantially affect behavior analytic research, training, and practice. Consequently, our field was largely ill prepared for the recent increase in laws and regulations governing the practice of applied behavior analysis. Panelists will discuss lessons they have learned from working on such laws and regulations, with an emphasis on strategies and tactics that have proven effective and ineffective. Current and pending policies affecting behavior analysts will be reviewed, and the audience will be encouraged to raise issues that concern them.

In the first decade of the 21st century we advanced understanding of how experiences lead to the emergence of verbal developmental cusps and cusps that are new learning capabilities. Protocols for preverbal developmental cusps lead to: listener cusps involving conditioned reinforcement for observing responses and generalized imitation as foundation for the joining of observing and producing. Other protocols (a) induce echoic-to-mands and tacts, join see-do with hear-echo, (b) induce tacts, transform motivational control across mands and tacts, (c) induce autoclitics frames, induce non-scripted social verbal exchanges in non-instructional settings, (d) induce verbal observational learning, induce conditioned reinforcement for tacts, (e) transform stimulus control across the listener and speaker within the skin, (f) induce incidental learning of new words for things (Naming), (g) join Naming and reading comprehension, (h) induce functional writing, and evoke verbal stimulus control in complex problem solving in children and the scientist. Current evidence suggests there is "no poverty of stimulus:" the stimulus control is located in indirect or remote contact with basic principles of behavior made possible by certain experiences, experiences that can be provided by expert behavior analysts. I shall describe how what we know has changed what can be done.

Historically, principles of behavior have been discovered and explored through laboratory research, often with non-human animals as subjects. More recently some behavioral phenomena and procedures have been studied and employed with predominantly human participants. For example, behavior analytic intervention with problematic responding in humans is routinely guided by the results of functional assessment, while interventions with problematic behaviors in non-humans have relied on default technologies. Similarly, stimulus equivalence (i.e., the emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relations following the establishment of conditional discriminations sharing stimulus elements) has been studied almost exclusively with humans. In fact, evidence of stimulus equivalence in non-humans may be lacking altogether. The present studies and discussion extend the use of these procedures and principles to the behavior of non-humans. In the first study, data from new functional assessment procedures are employed to identify possible controlling variables for problematic animal behaviors, allowing the design and implementation of tailored interventions rather than default or canned procedures. In the second study, olfactory stimuli are employed in the development of conditional discriminations in a search for reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Finally, a review of studies of stimulus equivalence procedures in non-humans is provided.

As a species, dogs (canis lupus familiaris) are forced via evolution and domestication to walk the tenuous line between being animals and being family members in western society, and most dogs are ill-suited for the latter occupation. Many dog trainers, shelter personnel and pet owners are not equipped to use behavior analytic methods to change dog behavior; in fact, archaic methods are often the default go-to strategies. With this simple behavioral analytic tool which focuses on the function of problem dog behaviors, more effective behavioral interventions could be designed that would allow for better-behaved dogs. In this study, an assessment tool, the FAAB (Functional Assessment of Animal Behavior) was created to assess and analyze animal behavior, and preliminary results are favorable.

Generalized matching to sample using olfactory stimuli was investigated, along with formation of stimulus classes of three different olfactory stimuli via differential outcome. The subject was a 5-year-old bull terrier. Conditioned reinforcement (a "clicker") was used to indicate correct choice, and a 5-sec time-out on a leash was used as a correction procedure for wrong choice. Preliminary research with this subject showed symmetry when stimuli used as reinforcers were reversed with sample stimuli, i.e., where orange-orange pairing resulted in reinforcement with liver, when liver was presented as a sample, the dog correctly selected orange as the matching stimulus. Building upon this research, three discrete odors were used in place of compound stimuli.

Stimulus equivalence describes how specific stimuli are related to one another, via the formal properties of reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity, following a shared history of reinforcement. A critical aspect of equivalence is the emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relations (due to the emergence of novel forms of stimulus control) based on context (stimuli may serve as members of multiple classes contingent on context). From an evolutionary perspective it would seem logical that non-human animals would categorize stimuli into classes, contingent on context (e.g., friend, foe, safety, danger, etc). However, to date the general consensus is that empirical evidence documenting the formation of stimulus equivalence in non-human animals is lacking. The purposes of this talk are to review past research regarding the investigation of stimulus equivalence with non-human animals, review current theory that attempts to account for this discrepancy between humans and non-humans and suggest new methodologies that may document the formation of equivalence with non-humans animals.

This symposium will begin to answer some of the more relevant questions posed in current video modeling literature. Subjects will include individuals with diagnoses of autism, between the ages of 5-14 years old, and mild to moderate cognitive delays. Four separate single-subject studies will address relevant questions with regards to video modeling. Study1 will evaluate the effects of varying dosage levels of video modeling on the acquisition of daily living skills in two children including a 6-month follow-up. Study2 will extend on Study1 by further investigating the effectiveness of dosage level of video modeling on the acquisition of daily living skills in two children by fine-tuning the dosage levels. Study3 will evaluate the effects of dosage level of video modeling on the acquisition of pretend play skills in two children. Finally Study4 will evaluate the use of siblings as video models to teach daily living skills to individuals.

Research shows that video modeling is an effective teaching tool across multiple domains including teaching social skills, play skills, conversational skills, and daily living skills. The current literature has evaluated the effects of video modeling in comparison to in-vivo training, type of trainee depicted in the video, effects across environments, as well as functioning level of the individual. Little is known with regards to the effects of dosage level on acquisition rate of behaviors. This single subject, multiple-baseline, across subject design will evaluate the effects of varying dosage levels of video modeling on the acquisition of daily living skills in two 5-7-year-old boys with autism. The study will include a 6-month follow-up. Each subject will be presented with three daily living skills that they are expected to perform. Each daily living skill will be associated withone of three conditions, a control condition (modeling only), a video modeling condition where the video is viewed onlyone time, and a video modeling condition where the video is viewed 10 times. A 2-week follow-up and a 6-month follow up will be conducted to determine maintenance of skill. Reliability of data collection and fidelity of implementation of study protocol will be conducted.

Research shows that video modeling is an effective teaching tool across multiple domains including teaching social skills, play skills, conversational skills, and daily living skills. The current literature has evaluated the effects of video modeling in comparison to in-vivo training, type of trainee depicted in the video, effects across environments, as well as functioning level of the individual. Little is known with regards to the effects of dosage level on acquisition rate of behaviors. This single subject, multiple-baseline, across subject design will evaluate the effects of varying dosage levels of video modeling on the acquisition of daily living skills in two children with autism. Each subject will be presented with three daily living skills that they are expected to perform. Each daily living skill will be associated with one of three conditions, a video modeling condition where the video is viewed onlyone time, a video modeling condition where the video is viewedthree times, and a video modeling condition where the video is viewedfive times. A 2-week follow-up and a 6-month follow up will be conducted to determine maintenance of skill. Reliability of data collection and fidelity of implementation of study protocol will be conducted.

Research shows that video modeling is an effective teaching tool across multiple domains including teaching social skills, play skills, conversational skills, and daily living skills. The current literature has evaluated the effects of video modeling in comparison to in-vivo training, type of trainee depicted in the video, effects across environments, as well as functioning level of the individual. Little is known with regards to the effects of dosage level on acquisition rate of behaviors. This single subject, multiple-baseline, across subject design will evaluate the effects of varying dosage levels of video modeling on the acquisition of pretend play skills in two children with autism. Each subject will be presented with three pretend play skills that they are expected to perform. Each play skill will be associated with one of three conditions, a control condition (modeling only), a video modeling condition where the video is viewed onlyone time, and a video modeling condition where the video is viewedfive times. A 2-week follow-up will be conducted to determine maintenance of skill. Reliability of data collection and fidelity of implementation of study protocol will be conducted.

Previous research has demonstrated that video modeling may be effective for teaching social, communication, play, and independent living skills. Video modeling has been examined in a variety of ways, i.e., modeler; skill being taught. The purpose of the current investigation was to extend on the study conducted by Reagon et al., 2006 which focused on use of sibling as model to teach a child play skills. The present study served to evaluate the effectiveness of a video modeling program using a sibling as model in teaching self-help skills to a young child diagnosed with autism. A four-year old girl with Autism took part in the study and her 7 year-old brother served as a model. The effectiveness of this procedure was evaluated using an AB design replicated across two independent living skills. Results of this study may suggest that video modeling may be an effective intervention when using sibling as model.

Making eye contact is critical for learning new skills and is often delayed in children with autism. Making eye contact is necessary for responding to peoples facial expressions, initiating joint attention with others, and learning through observation. We have many behavior analytic techniques for establishing these skills with children with autism, including video modeling, tactile prompts, script fading, and positive reinforcement. The three papers in this symposium are evaluations of the use of those techniques on teaching observational skills to children with autism. The first paper evaluated the use of tactile prompts on increasing eye contact and responses to facial expressions. The second paper analyzed the effects of prompting, reinforcement, and script fading on the acquisition and generalization of initiating bids for joint attention. The third paper examined the use of teaching a monitoring response to increase observational learning of word labels with children with autism. These three papers make important advancements in our technologies used to teach social skills. Watching others and responding to faces, pointing out interesting items in the environment, and learning from other are all critical skills children with autism need to succeed in school and in the community.

Children with autism exhibit delays in making eye contact and responding to facial expressions. Previous research shows that video modeling is effective in increasing responses to facial expressions. In addition, tactile prompts have been shown to increase social initiations with children with autism. In the current investigation, 3 children with autism wore tactile prompts during 4 min conversations and 4 min play interactions with an adult. In the context of a multiple baseline across subjects design, the tactile prompt increased eye contact and responses to facial expressions with all 3 subjects. Interobserver agreement was over 90% for instances of eye contact and responses to facial expressions across subjects and conditions. Both 30 and 15 s intervals were assessed and 15 s intervals maintained instances of eye contact at higher levels. A token system of reinforcement was used with one participant to increase instances of eye contact above levels without the system. Future research should identify natural communities of reinforcement that maintain eye contact and responses to facial expressions at high levels so that the tactile prompt can be faded.

Many children with autism do not share and spontaneously seek enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people. These skills, typically referred to as joint attention, are often seen in children of typical development at approximately 9 months of age. Joint attention skills play a fundamental role in language and social development. Although, many studies have assessed joint attention skills, only a few researchers have investigated teaching procedures. In the current study, a concurrent multiple baseline design with a multiple probe across 4 participants with autism was used to evaluate the use of prompting, reinforcement, and script fading procedures on the acquisition of a generalized repertoire of joint attention skills. Forty-eight stimuli from four different experimenter-defined categories were used to increase generalization of joint attention skills from trained stimuli to novel stimuli. Bids for joint attention systematically increased in the presence of both training and novel stimuli and settings for all 4 participants.

Observational learning has been defined as learning that results from observing the responding of others and/or the consequences of such responding (Catania, 1998). In the present study, the observational learning sequence was defined as a peer modeling a response and encountering consequences delivered by an instructor, the participants monitoring that response, and the participants engaging in a similar response following a delay in the absence of the peer model. A training condition in which participants were taught monitoring responses and a probe condition in which monitoring was not used were alternated using a multi-element design. During the training condition, two children with autism were taught to monitor the responding of a peer while observing the peer label words. The monitoring response consisted of both a verbal response to the question, What did she say? and a matching response in which the participant was required to match the word labeled by the peer to a grid containing all target words. Acquisition of the word labels was later measured by presenting the same words used in the training condition and asking the participants to label them in the absence of the peer. Probe measures were used to evaluate generalization of the observational learning skills acquired during analog training to new stimuli (i.e., novel words labeled by peers). For the first participant, the percentage of test trials with a correct word label increased during the training condition in which the monitoring response was trained, but not in the probe condition in which the monitoring response was not taught. Once the monitoring response was taught in the probe condition, correct responding to probe word labels increased bolstering the argument that monitoring was required for observational learning to occur. We expect similar results for the second participant.

Staff training in the field of autism interventions is an on-going challenge. Immediate solutions are needed to provide staff training to meet the on-going needs of schools and service providers. This symposium will review three studies with different research designs (multiple baseline across participants, a pre/post test group design and a quasi-experimental MANOVA design with an experimental and control group). Two studies will measure the effectiveness of Autism Training Solutions, an on-line video-based training program and one study will report on the difference between fluency and non-fluency based procedures on retention and application.

The National Autism Center spearheaded the National Standards Project in 2010, which provided a standard for effective, research validated education and behavior interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). With the number of individuals with autism increasing and the lack of trained professionals becoming more apparent, solutions are needed to provide training on a larger scale. Traditional training approaches such as classroom discussion, lecture, and role-playing formats require an expert and the trainees be together in the same location for a significant amount of time. Alternative training approaches may need to be developed so that trainees can access training on demand and supervisors can still oversee the training process. One such possibility is online training. Very little research has been done on the effectiveness of using online training to teach evidenced based interventions to staff who provide services to individuals with autism. This presentation will outline and report the results of a multiple baseline design study, which evaluated the impact of online training videos on the implementation of mand training with four paraprofessionals in a school setting.

There has been a recent increase in applied behavior analysis (ABA) service availability since many states have passed legislation requiring insurance companies to provide ABA services for individuals with autism. Agencies are faced with new requirements and limited time and budgets for training staff. A more efficient way needs to be developed to train therapists on demand. This presentation will describe an evaluation of Autism Training Solutions, an e-learning tool that was used to train newly hired behavior therapists in the foundational knowledge of autism and behavioral analytic interventions. The study used a pre-post group design to evaluate knowledge acquisition in new employees. In addition to quantitative results, survey results regarding the participants experiences and attitudes toward e-learning will also be reported. This study will explore whether e-learning can provide effective training in foundational knowledge of autism and behavior analytic interventions.

This presentation will discuss the results from a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) design study which evaluated the effects of a fluency-based procedure to train emerging educational leaders on naming the verbal and non-verbal operants, which may be needed to effectively teach children with autism. This MANOVA is an extension of a single subject design study on a staff training package presented at ABAI in 2007. Fluency building has been shown in past studies to improve long-term retention and application of skills. This quasi-experimental study compared treatments with and without fluency procedures to determine if fluency based procedures improved retention and application of naming verbal and non-verbal operants. Graduate education students in four classes at Alvernia University participated in the study with two classes making up the experimental group and two other classes serving as the control group.

This symposium will review three case studies that discuss key factors and necessary skills that are critical for a successful transition of a student back to a public school from a private placement, or from special education to adult services, as well as from a residential group home to the family home. In each case to be reviewed, identified students needed to develop a variety of requisite skills in anticipation of their new setting. Additionally, a variety of transition team skills were necessary to develop which included the development of an individual transition plan, parent training plan, staff training plan, as well as the development ofindividualized education planspecific goals that targeted clinical, educational, vocational, social and domestic objectives. One presentation will discuss the transition of a student with autism who transitioned to a public school setting after a number of years in a private, non-profit school. A second presentation will discuss the transition of a young adult in a residential school back to his family home. A third presentation will discuss the transition of young adults after many years in a private, non-profit residential school into community adult services programming.

This presentation will discuss the planning and preparation that took place over the course of a year to transition a young man with autism to his local public school. The presentation will review the planning stages, as well as the colloboration efforts with parent, public school staff and other BCBA staff. This presentation will also review the necessaryindividual education plangoals that were introduced during the preparation year to ensure the needed skills were learned by the student. Specific steps and procedures used during the planning stages will be described. Pre and post data collected across specific challenging behaviors as well as skill acquisition programs will be shared. Finally, the successes and limitations of this planning model will be discussed to promote more effective transitions to occur. An update as to how this student is currently performing will also be shared. This will be a joint presentation sharing information from the private school provider as well the public school BCBA.

This presentation will discuss the planning and preparation that took place over the course of several years to transition a young man from a residential group home setting back to his family home. The presentation will review the planning stages, as well as the collaboration efforts with parents and public school staff. This presentation will also review the necessaryindividualized education plangoals that were critical to guiding successful skill acquisition to ensure a successful transition. Specific steps and procedures used during the planning stages will be described. Behavior plan strategies and contingencies that were developed for the family home to target and maintain appropriate skills in the home will also be reviewed. Data collected across targeted transition skills will be shared. Finally, the successes and limitations of this planning model will be discussed to promote more effective transitions to occur. How and what the student is doing today will be shared during this presentation.

This presentation will discuss the planning and preparation that took place over the course of 2 years to transition young adults from a residential group home setting to an identified adult service provider. The presentation will review the planning stages, as well as the collaboration efforts with parents, private school provider and adult service providers. This presentation will review the factors that influence a successful transition of young adults into the adult service system. Necessary individual transition planning goals that were critical to guiding a successful transition will be discussed. Specific steps and cross training procedures with adult service staff will be described. Environmental and behavior plan modifications will be reviewed that assisted in promoting an adapted setting to meet the unique needs of each young adult. Data collected across targeted transition skills will be shared. Finally, the successes and limitations of this planning model will be discussed to promote more effective transitions to occur. The current status of each young adult relative to their performance will be shared during this presentation.

A substantial amount of scientific research has validated early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) as an effective treatment for autism. However, the provision of EIBI is a complex process, consisting of hundreds (or thousands?) of component procedures and policies, implemented over the course of years. Many of the details of service provision remain relatively unaddressed by research. This symposium presents three papers that address details of service provision. The first paper presents data on a regression analysis conducted on relations between age, treatment intensity, and learning rate across over 200 children with autism receiving behavioral intervention services. The second paper examines the effects of the duration of breaks in services on loss of acquired skills. The third paper describes the development and validation of a brief tool for evaluating treatment integrity of discrete trial training during direct observations. The symposium concludes with a discussion by Dr. Sigmund Eldevik.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) has been shown to produce robust treatment effects for children with autism, across a large amount of research. Past research has examined the relationship between several variables within treatment programs to evaluate the moderating impact that specific factors have on treatment outcomes. Granpeesheh et al. (2009) examined relations among treatment intensity, age, and learning rate, across 4 months of treatment, and found that treatment intensity significantly impacts outcome, particularly for young children. The present study replicates and extends the findings of Granpeesheh et al. (2009) with a larger group of children (>300) and across a longer duration of time (i.e., 24 months). Regression analyses indicated that both age and treatment intensity were significant predictors and accounted for a substantial portion of the observed variance in learning rate. Given the heterogeneity of the disorder, it is important for treatment providers tailor interventions to the needs of specific children. The data from this study is discussed in relation to these factors that are important to manipulate on a system-level in order to optimize skill acquisition and maximize treatment gains.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) has been proven to be effective for the treatment of autism. Parents of children with autism and behavioral service providers often assert that breaks in EIBI services, caused by gaps in funding for services, school holidays, and other many other variables, may cause children with autism to "lose" skills acquired during intervention. However, very little research has directly evaluated this possibility. In the current study, the effects of the duration of breaks in services on the degree of skill regression was analyzed. Data collection is ongoing but data collected thus far indicate that the degree of regression varies across clients but that some skills suffer from significant decreases in accuracy following breaks in services. Results are discussed in terms of the need for continued services during breaks and on potential practical solutions, such as "home work" implemented by parents and other family members.

Research has established early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) as a proven treatment for autism and discrete trial training (DTT) as a critical component of it. However, substantial variability exists in the quality and fidelity of treatment implementation. Quality of the implementation of DTT is integral to the success of an EIBI program and assessing the integrity of it must therefore be an important component of the intervention. This presentation describes the development of a brief treatment integrity data collection tool, comprised of 13 components to evaluate the integrity of DTT. Both reliability and validity of the tool were evaluated. High degrees of interobserver reliability were obtained and a radio operator curve analysis was used to determine a valid criterion for calculating a passing score.