Association for Behavior Analysis International

This panel presentation will provide information on a variety of technology-based instructional methods that can be used to teach skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Specific areas as they pertain to skill development will include use of iTouch, iPad, video technology and tactile prompts. Computer programs will be presented and include lessons such as individualized PowerPoint applications (developed by the Genesis School). A variety of other technology-based tools will be discussed and depicted through video. Specific areas of learning will focus on promoting independence, vocational skills, effective communication and social skills.

Global warming has received increased attention through media; however little is being done to counteract the adverse effects on the environments. Panelists will discuss the importance of research of environmental and social issues. They will give recommendations and advice to those looking to expand the role of behavior analysis and the impact on environmental issues.

This symposium is the compilation of three distinct research studies, all related to teacher practices, perceptions, and training in relation to students with autism spectrum disorders. The first, is an initial exploration of programming and student outcomes across the state of Michigan. This project (a) identified treatment approaches utilized in Michigan schools (i.e., established, emerging, and unestablished, [NSR, 2009]) and consumer satisfaction with those approaches, (b) examined educational outcomes related to associated public school services, and (c) assessed the current training protocols at institutions of higher education and the professional development services offered to in-service educational professionals. The second, surveyed secondary agriculture teachers in Utah to determine their attitudes and perceptions related to their willingness and ability to include students with special needs in their classrooms and laboratories. The last, was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of online modules to improve teachers analysis of the literature related to an intervention and determine whether or not that intervention was evidence based. This symposium will present data related to each of the individual presentations.

Today, over 11,000 students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are served in educational settings across the State of Michigan (MI) alone. A study by the Special Education Expenditure Project (conducted for the U. S. Department of Education) found that ancillary services for students with ASD cost nearly $19,000 a year per student, which is triple the cost for a typical student. Additionally, some districts spent $75,000 per student per year on intensive services for students with ASD (Chambers, Shkolnik, Perez, 2003). However, the state of education for individuals with ASD in MI was largely unknown. This research project was an exploratory study aimed to (a) identify treatment approaches utilized in MI schools (i.e., established, emerging, and unestablished, [NSR, 2009]) and consumer satisfaction with those approaches, (b) examine educational outcomes related to associated public school services, and (c) assess the current training protocols at institutions of higher education and the professional development services offered to in-service educational professionals. Data analyzed from special education teachers, general education teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, and institutes of higher education will be reported.

For more than three decades, federal law has required the inclusion of students with special needs in regular education classrooms. However, much of the responsibility for successful accommodation of these students rests upon the shoulders of teachers. In this study, secondary agriculture teachers in Utah were surveyed to determine their attitudes and perceptions related to their willingness and ability to include students with special needs in their classrooms and laboratories. The majority of teachers surveyed (73%) indicated a willingness to include students with autism, but less than half agreed that they had the skills to include students with this specific disability. A large majority of teachers responded that they understand the concept of inclusion, are in favor of including students with disabilities, and have had positive experiences teaching students with special needs. However, fewer respondents indicated they had the skills to successfully include students with disabilities. In addition to the findings from this specific survey, the authors will recount one teacher's experiences and specific strategies for including students with autism spectrum disorders in an agriculture classroom.

Teachers are faced with many intervention options when planning for the instruction of their students with autism spectrum disorders. The degree to which these interventions are evidence based varies greatly, however the literature can often be confusing, even to master's level teachers. The current study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of online modules to improve teachers' analysis of the literature related to an intervention and determine whether or not that intervention is evidence based. The participants in the study are 25 teachers enrolled in a special education master's program. Participants will complete supplemental online modules as a requirement of their course in applied behavior analysis. Following each module participants will complete an activity and determine whether or not a given intervention is evidence based. During previous semesters, students in this course were required to complete an assignment that involved researching one intervention and determining whether or not the intervention was evidence based. The topics of the online modules for the current study correlate to the error patterns seen in the analyses made by these students. Topics will be introduced in a staggered pattern and data will be analyzed using a multiple baseline across stimulus class design.

It is critical to teach individuals diagnosed with autism functional communication so they can appropriately and effectively request their needs and wants. This study discusses three students aged 12-18 years old. There was one male and two females who attended a public middle and high school. The individuals presented maladaptive communicative behaviors that were observed in a variety of settings and activities throughout the school day. The function of the behaviors was to communicate anger, distress, and frustration in the presence of a variety of stimuli. A behavior intervention package which included; redirection, differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) and functional communication training were used to extinguish the challenging behaviors. Data were collected to determine the frequency of behaviors before and after the interventions were in place. Teaching individuals with autism to effectively and appropriately communicate increases their quality of life as well as granting them more opportunities to continuously and successfully participate in a variety of environments.

During baseline Student A exhibited aggressive behaviors during transitions that involved transit outside of the classroom from one location to another. The target destination could be a highly preferred location, but behaviors continued to be aggressive. Baseline data for a 2 minute transition showed engagement in aggressive or resistant behavior for 100% of the intervals. The intervention increased the number of opportunities the student had to respond to the transition and thus learn the appropriate behavior of walking down the hallway. Extinction procedures were used to remove any reinforcement from inappropriate behaviors and multiple opportunities were given in rapid succession of each other to engage in the transition again. Data during intervention show a decrease in aggressive and resistant behavior from 100% of intervals to 0% of intervals. The number of opportunities for this significant decrease in behavior was 7. A multiple baseline design showed that the procedure was effective on another student's transition behaviors as well. The percentage of intervals when aggressive/resistant behavior occurred during baseline for Student B was 100%. During intervention, the aggressive behaviors decreased from 100% to 1%. Follow up generalization probes showed resistant behaviors occurring in maintained or novel transitions in only 1% of the intervals recorded.

This case study highlights the methods by which inappropriate body exposure and aggression by an adult with autism was significantly reduced through a least-intrusive design. The behavior exhibited by the individual was found to be attention-seeking; therefore, the attending therapists posited that the introduction of frequent non-contingent attention and engagement in preferred topics of conversation would significantly reduce the need for the individual to engage in stated maladaptive behavior. The patient's behavior posed a serious threat to himself and others around him. As he turned 18, the legal ramifications of engaging in such behavior had the potential to be severe. As non-contingent attention was delivered to the patient, his therapists also tracked all spontaneous communication as he was historically a reluctant speaker. After data analysis, it was seen that after delivery of non-contingent attention the patient's spontaneous language greatly increased and both inappropriate body exposure and aggression were nearly eliminated. This case study supports the idea that challenging and dangerous behavior can be successfully decreased with proper behavioral analysis and carefully designed individualized behavior plans that do not stigmatize the patient or put him/her at risk physical discomfort or injury.

The increased identification of autism and the behaviors associated with autism has resulted in a need for and recognition of the effectiveness of behavior analysis services for this population. While the number of trained behavior analysts continues to grow, the need for services continues to outpace the demand. This shortage is especially apparent in smaller cities, rural communities, and areas lacking access to universities with behavior analysis training programs. This presentation will review the clinical, pragmatic, and ethical challenges addressed by a county based program designed to provide behavior analysis services to young children diagnosed with autism or related disorders. Areas addressed emphasize the identification of challenges to providing quality services in: assessment and needs identification, individual program development, selection of staff, training, monitoring of implementation, and evaluation of outcomes. The need for further research into the transition from controlled academic studies into direct "in situ" applications of behavior interventions will be discussed in the context of the implications for the future of applied behavior analysis.

Adults on the Autism Spectrum lose their entitlements to an education and related services upon graduation from school. They then enter the world of 'eligibility'; a condition that results in languishing at home on an endless "waiting list" for services and occasionally engaging in illegal activity. The many symptoms of autism often render an individual vulnerable to becoming either a victim or a perpetrator of a crime, or both. When the individual is the victim of a crime, it is generally because of the naivete of the individual or due to the challenging behavior that some individuals with autism present. When a crime has been perpetrated by someone with autism, it has been established that such behavior most often is not premeditated, nor has the individual knowingly engaged in an illegal act. This presentation will address the various symptoms that can be antecedents to illegal behavior; theapplied behavior analysisservices required for adults on the spectrum from residential/living services to employment/day services; as well as the specific interventions to mitigate the potential of prison becoming a 'placement option'.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) service models for preschool children with autism are well-established, while similar services for school-aged children with autism have only recently entered the spotlight. This presentation will provide characteristics of a publicly funded ABA program for school-age children through the St. Amant ABA program in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In a unique model supported by government partners (Departments of Family Services & Consumer Affairs and Education), this program provides a 3-year intensive ABA program in school and home environments, including extensive training and programming to all teams working with each child. Further, changes in program development, definition of services, and staff roles within both settings will be shared. Normative data (e.g., cognitive, language, adaptive, and social skills) will be presented for approximately 70 children who have participated in the school-age ABA program. The data show that the level of improvement may be affected by how mild or profound the child's autism is, and that raw scores and age equivalent demonstrate the children continue gaining skills although they may not progress at the same learning rate as their same age peers. Challenges and successes with analyzing the data, and collaborating in school and home settings will be shared.

The Global Autism Project (GAP) is dedicated to bridging the global gap in the resources and understanding of autism. We are committed to empowering communities worldwide to address the needs of individuals affected by autism through education, outreach and training. The GAP has been working in partnership with the Autism Awareness Care and Training Centre (AACT) in Accra, Ghana for the past 7 years, where access to services is scarce. This center provides a safe haven for children with autism and is not alone in their efforts to support children with autism in West Africa. Throughout all of West Africa, there are other professionals who are also actively raising awareness and providing safe and educational environments for people with autism. In an effort to enhance professional collaboration and increase cross-cultural communication, the first inaugural Autism Policies and Practices Conference will be held in April 2011 in Accra, Ghana. This presentation focuses on the outcomes of this exceptional event by covering elements such as: the scope of professional involvement, the foundation of the Autism Society of West Africa, and the implementation of sustainable business practices. Participants will learn about the outcomes as well as the process that made this conference a reality.

Faculty in the Special Education and Computer Science programs at Whitworth University will introduce a new, collaboratively developed software system, Spectrum-Agents, designed to provide automated screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring tools for the early identification and evaluation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Presenters will demonstrate prototypes of the early screener device designed for use by pediatricians in identifying toddlers, 18-36 months old, who are displaying indicators of ASD and should receive diagnostic assessment, and the Autism Spectrum InformaticS Tool (ASIST) module, which uses an automated version of the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) for monitoring and tracking intervention treatments. The presenters will also discuss an anticipated third component, the Comprehensive Diagnostic Instrument (CADI), a diagnostic device to be based on probable key indicators and physical markers identified through the "mining" of large-scale ASD data banks. The presenters will describe proposed research and field testing and invite active input and feedback from participants in attendance.

The literature on conditioned reinforcement has most typically described pairing procedures as the common procedure for establishing new or conditioned reinforcers. The present experiment was a systematic replication of the experiment by Holth et al. (2009). The purpose was to compare the effectiveness of a procedure based on pairing with a procedure based on establishing a stimulus as a discriminative stimulus. The procedure was in addition designed to successive linen the reinforcement schedule to VR3. Four children with autism were exposed to a sequence of two different training and test procedures. First, a previously neutral stimulus was established as discriminative stimulus for a response that produced a reinforcer, and then tested for conditioned reinforcer effects when being presented contingent upon an arbitrary response. Second, another previously neutral stimulus was repeatedly paired with a reinforcer, and then tested for conditioned reinforcer effects. No additional reinforcers were presented during the test conditions. The results of the present experiment also suggest that conditioned reinforcers can be more effectively established through the discriminative stimulus procedure compared with simple pairing with an unconditioned reinforcer (Holth et al., 2009) In addition on the discriminative stimulus test procedures, the children were responding during the whole interval.

"What Do You Want to Work For?" Students are regularly asked this question before being asked to work. While the presenter thoroughly recognizes the relevance of learner motivation, he also recognizes several limitations to "work contracts." When this instructional strategy is used with some students, for example, students eventually refuse to mand, or mand with less accuracy. This is apparently because, by following mands with work, mands are punished. Some students will not cooperate with directions without first establishing what their cooperation will earn. This phenomenon becomes an impediment to generalization. Additional potential drawbacks will be discussed. Also, alternative methods of establishing student motivation will be presented.

A number of studies have examined the use of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure (SSP) to increase the frequency of vocalizations in children with autism. Of these, only a few investigated the utility of the SSP procedure to increase functional language (e.g. mands and tacts). The present study investigated the effectiveness of an SSP procedure, combined with direct reinforcement, in increasing early vocalizations and shaping the vocalizations into mands in three children diagnosed with autism. A multiple-baseline across participants and phonemes design with two conditions (SSP combined with direct reinforcement and mand training) was utilized to examine three participants' responses during baseline, pairing and direct reinforcement, and mand training conditions. Results demonstrate participants' acquisition of target phonemes and words, generalization of target phonemes and words, and maintenance of responses.

Music therapy has been recognized as an emerging treatment by the National Autism Study. Yet, there is very little research which supports its use. This study examined the effects of playing musical nursery rhymes on the acquisition of tacts which were contained within those nursery rhymes. An alternating treatments design was employed to compare whether a nonverbal child with autism would have an increased rate of learning a tact because of the added exposure to the word embedded within the musical nursery rhyme when compared to that of other selected words which were not presented musically. The procedure consisted of a baseline phrase to determine the operant levels of the selected tacts, experimental phase of playing the nursery rhymes. Interobserver reliability was taken on the independent and dependent variables in each one of the treatment conditions and ranged from 90% to 100%. The results show that the embedding of tacts within musical nursery rhymes did not have a subsequent increased effect on learning tacts. These results will be discussed with regards to the use of music therapy to promote learning and skill acquisition and verbal skills.

Intraverbal behaviour is a significant component of conversations and social interactions. Many children with autism fail to acquire intraverbal repertoire from their natural environment and require explicit instruction to learn this skill. Teaching advanced intraverbal skills has received little focus. One of the common intraverbal behaviours frequently observed in early education classrooms is recalling and telling stories about personal experiences. This study evaluated the effects of an intervention on personal experience comments generation skills of preschool and kindergarten age children diagnosed with autism. Participants were five children who received early intervention and acquired advanced language skills but seldom made comments about related personal experiences. Intervention was delivered one on one with generalization probes conducted in small groups. Teaching materials were carefully selected to provide a reach source of verbal stimuli to facilitate independent intraverbal responses. Data was collected during each teaching session and percentage of independent personal comments was calculated.

The current investigation employed a multiple-probe design to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of an instructional package on a phonemic awareness task by six learners with multiple disabilities. The intervention entailed a decreasing time delay procedure, a systematic error correction procedure in addition to incorporating active student responding and reinforcement for correct responses. Intervention effectiveness was examined in terms of the percent correct of phonemes isolated across training and maintenance data. Intervention efficiency was examined across mean number of sessions to criterion, mean number of trials to criterion, mean number of errors per session, and mean number of trials presented per session across continuous phonemes, stop phonemes, and consonant blends. Results indicate that the multicomponent treatment package was effective for all participants. Data on instructional efficiency measures suggest tentative conclusions. Additionally, phonemes that were mastered were maintained at a high-level of accuracy over the course of the investigation. Stimulus and response generalization across untrained words and phonemes were minimal. Measures of social validity indicated that classroom educators positively viewed procedures and goals of the instructional package employed. Limitations of the study are discussed, and areas of future research are suggested.

Disruptive behavior problems are among the most common referral complaints of parents who seek mental health treatment for their children. For preschool-aged children, psychometrically sound behavioral assessment techniques and well-established manualized treatments exist for clinicians. However, for children in the 7-11 age range, manualized treatments are rarely supported by behavioral assessment methods. Moreover, middle childhood treatments infrequently provide specific guidance regarding behavioral management strategies and how to respond to severe child resistance discipline. This symposium will include presentations of two behavioral assessment strategies for children in this age range: a standardized parent behavioral observation system for assessing conduct problems, and a behavioral analog for measuring social skills and conflict resolution repertoire. Finally, an outpatient behavioral treatment protocol for conduct problems in 7-11 year olds will be presented that utilizes both assessment strategies. We will address the fundamental problem of severe discipline resistance in gradeschool-aged children and describe our attempts to block its reinforcement.

Child clinical psychologists frequently enlist parents to serve as participant observers in order to obtain data on child behaviors in the home setting. Behavioral observations have many advantages over dimensional rating scales, but the psychometric properties of parent-collected data are not well understood. This project evaluated the comparative properties of alternative participant observation methods: the parent daily report (PDR; Chamberlain & Reid, 1987), a method that yields binary data regarding the presence or absence of target behaviors, and the behavior record card (BRC), a method that yields daily frequency counts of target behaviors. Forty-four parents (recruited undergraduates) were randomly assigned to standardized training for the PDR or BRC. Parents used their assigned system to track child noncompliance and physical aggression for a 2-week period, during which professional observers also visited each home twice to code concurrently. These data yielded indices of accuracy, reliability and validity. Both methods demonstrated significant reliability and concurrent validity. While parents were more accurate using the PDR system, the BRC is recommended to clinicians based on both conceptual and empirical considerations.

Aggression and sibling conflict are pervasive problems that lead to professional referrals in child clinical psychology. Sibling conflict in particular is common among pre-adolescents, and aggression is often a main feature of diagnosed conduct problems. Several effective treatments available for children with conduct problems are available, yet widely used assessments in the field are limited to interviews or informant (parent) reports on dimensional rating scales. While methods are useful, they are limited and lack any true behavioral assessment of the child's repertoire of sibling conflict resolution skills. This research will present the status of a behavioral role play test for measuring sibling aggression and conflict resolution skills, as well as a structured play analog. The Sibling Conflict Resolution Scale (SCRS) has been introduced into the literature (Thomas & Roberts, 2009), but remains in development. The goal of the SCRS is to improve the diagnostic strength of current assessment procedures addressing repertoire deficits. To accomplish this, psychometric properties of the SCRS and play analog will be examined, as well as development of an alternate SCRS form. Finally, the utility of behavioral assessments for clinicians will be discussed.

The treatment literature targeting noncompliance and physical aggression in 7-11-year-old children supports the use of parent management and social skill training in outpatient treatment. However, there is a lack of behavioral data to support conclusions about treatment efficacy, and although timeout is a common treatment component, particulars for addressing child resistance to timeout are rarely addressed in this population. Our clinical trial attempted to address these limitations by testing the efficacy of a parent management and social skills training protocol, including a standardized timeout backup system, with 7-11-year-old children with clinically significant noncompliance and/or aggression using a home-based observational measure. Rates of noncompliance and the combination of noncompliance plus aggression decreased significantly over time on the behavioral observation measure; seven of 10 participating children met the treatment goal within the 7-week treatment period. Conclusions about the efficacy of the treatment protocol are limited, however. First, the study was uncontrolled. Second, resistance to token losses and/or timeouts was manifested by all 10 children and two children manifested intense and persistent physical resistance that necessitated acute inpatient psychiatric care. Intense and persistent timeout resistance is an unsolved problem in outpatient family therapy and deserves continued consideration.

Research demonstrating the importance of quality supervision, qualified treatment personnel and consistent treatment philosophy has prompted practitioners to carefully consider the treatment literature before deviating too far from evidence-based practices in their treatment planning. It has also caused many practitioners to evaluate when and with whom they agree to collaborate when participating in service plans that are not always under their complete control. This symposium will present two contrasting case studies involving toddlers with autism, one in which a group practice providing applied behavior analysis based early intensive behavior intervention withdrew from service over concerns for the efficacy of treatment and one in which they agreed to continue services despite the introduction of an unproven treatment alternative to the child's service plan. The presentation will also review the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct against state and federal regulations and discuss where such regulations are in conflict with the BACB Guidelines. The presentation will also explore differences in Federal and state statutes, regulations and operational standards, particularly focusing on when providers should have the right to withdraw from treatment.

Research exists supporting the primacy of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for young children with autism over eclectic approaches that combine EIBI with one or more additional methodologies (Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green & Stanislaw, 2005), such as Floor Time. (Greenspan & Weider,1997). These findings suggest that adding treatment philosophies, not under the supervision of the BCBA, will negatively impact the rate of progress made toward lessening the skills gap between typically developing children and those with autism. The caretaking history and learning profile of one child will be presented and the clinical impact of using an eclectic model on these elements will be discussed. Additionally, the practices of an EIBI group whereapplied behavior analysisservices are not combined with other competing treatment models will be presented. This case study will also review the clinical, regulatory and ethical elements that led the group to withdraw from participation in a treatment plan which sought to replace some portion of EIBI hours with an eclectic approach that included Floor Time. The course of action taken by the family and the group's response to these actions will be reviewed. Action alternatives designed to uphold BCBA practice rights based upon clinical integrity is also discussed.

The applied practice of behavior analysis in the delivery of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services is fraught with potential ethical challenges. Among them is the fact that many services being provided to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may not be empirically validated or may have limited evidence of effectiveness. The behavior analyst must determine if the services being provided by other "non-behavioral" providers will impact the effectiveness of the EIBI services they deliver. Where there are clear data showing that a competing methodology may diminish the effectiveness of EIBI, this decision is relatively easy. However, often these data are not available, and the practitioner must make such a determination on their clinical training. The criteria used for determining that continued participation in a service model that included non-applied behavior analysisservice delivery would not result in a detrimental impact on a case of a child with ASD receiving EIBI services will be discussed. The issues discussed will include elements as; type of skill area addressed, frequency of service, methodological congruence with behavioral principles, child learning characteristics and the ability to empirically quantify potential effects. These issues will be discussed within the framework of the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct.

The presentation will review both the clinical and ethical standards (practice rights) established in the discipline of applied behavior analysis and found in the Guidelines for Responsible Conduct of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. It will review those standards against both federal and state regulations where such regulations are in conflict with those of the BACB. The presentation will particularly focus on an existing legal challenge in Massachusetts to the Department of Public Health Early Intervention Regulations relative to the rights of behavior analysis providers to provide treatment in an optimal fashion or to withdraw clinical treatment when clinically and ethically warranted. This will lead to a discussion of "stay put" issues as they impact onapplied behavior analysisprogramming both at the early intervention level and the special education level. A redacted case will be presented and explored with the participants. The presentation will explore differences in Federal and state statutes, regulations and operational standards, particularly focusing on when providers should have the right to withdraw from treatment.

This symposium will review 3 new extensions of stimulus equivalence research. The first paper extends the research by evaluating if 2 separately-established equivalence classes would merge when class-specific reinforcers were used to teach initial baselines to a typical adult, and if the class-specific reinforcers would also be class members. Outcomes on cross-class equivalence and reinforcers-as-class-member tests were all positive. The second paper extends the research by demonstrating equivalence classes in a novel test format after simple discrimination reversal procedures were used with 4 typical adults. Equivalence tests were conducted in a go/no-go format with compound stimuli (2 stimuli in same or different classes). Results indicated functional class and equivalence class formation for all and 3 of the participants, respectively. The third paper extends the equivalence research to classroom applications of teaching concepts (sets of related equivalence classes) in which a pretest-teach format was used across successive curricular levels. High accuracy on pretests following teaching that could have established relevant equivalence relations was shown in 73.7% of the 39 data sets for 19 children with intellectual disabilities. This symposium extends previous equivalence research to class-specific reinforcers, positive outcomes with 3-term baselines and testing formats, and classroom applications.

Previous research has demonstrated emergent behavior and class formation based on stimulus-reinforcer relations (e.g., class-specific reinforcers), but the effect of class-specific reinforcers in independently established classes has not been thoroughly evaluated. In this study, a typically-developing adult was taught two separate, non-overlapping sets of conditional discrimination baselines (AC, BC; and DF, EF) with common class-specific reinforcers (e.g., A1-C1-Reinforcer 1 [R1], A2-C2-R2...; D1-F1-R1, D2-F2-R2...) in a computer-delivered match-to-sample format. Performances on unreinforced tests for emergent relations between stimuli from the separate baselines met criterion (at least 17/18 correct), indicating that the independently established equivalence classes merged to include all conditional and discriminative stimuli associated with particular reinforcers (e.g., A1, B1, D1, F1; A2, B2, D2, F2). Further tests with unique stimulus features of the class-specific reinforcers (i.e., token color and name/logo of back-up reinforcer) indicated that the class-specific reinforcers (e.g., R1 and R2) were also class members. Measures of procedural integrity and interobserver agreement were at acceptable levels. These data support Sidman's (2000) assertion that equivalence relations are comprised of "ordered pairs of all positive elements that participate in the contingency" (p. 128). Areas for future research, including classroom applications for the use of class-specific reinforcers, will be discussed.

The matching-to-sample procedure has been used in tests to determine whether functional classes also comprise equivalence classes after conducting a simple discrimination reversal procedure. However, stimuli presentation in matching-to-sample tests seems to evaluate performances reinforced during training. A go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli presents stimuli in a manner that does not seem to evaluate performances reinforced during training. The aim of this study was to investigate whether simple discrimination reversal procedure would produce equivalence classes using tests with the go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli. Four normally capable adults were submitted to a simple successive discrimination reversal procedure with three pairs of stimuli (A1/A2, B1/B2 and C1/C2). Responses to S+ (A1, B1 and C1), but not to S- (A2, B2 and C2) were reinforced. Next, the participants were exposed to repeated-reversal training. During emergent relations tests, each compound stimulus (a two-component stimulus) which were B1A1, B2A2, C1B1, C2B2, A1C1, A2C2, C1A1 and C2A2 ("correct" compounds); and B1A2, B2A1, C1B2, C2B1, A1C2, A2C1, C1A2 and C2A1 ("incorrect" compounds) was successively presented. All four participants showed functional class formation and three participants showed equivalence classes. These results indicated that the simple discrimination reversal procedure can generate functional and also equivalence classes.

The efficacy of the stimulus equivalence paradigm to teach concepts to learners with intellectual disabilities has been well established in the research literature; however, the extent to which this behavioral technology has been applied in classroom instruction is unknown. In this study, one or more of 8 concepts (i.e., sets of related equivalence classes with coins, bills, fractions, decimals, percents, fraction-decimal-percents, number-quantity, and sight words) were taught to 19 students with intellectual disabilities, for a total of 38 data sets. Curricula were comprised of sequential levels based on the equivalence paradigm; each level represented different stimulus-stimulus, oral naming, or intraverbal relations. Each level was pretested in sequence and teaching began on the first level in which high accuracy was not demonstrated. Once mastery criteria were demonstrated on a trained level, this pretest-teach sequence continued in subsequent curricular levels. Interobserver agreement and procedural integrity were evaluated in 11.4% of data sets and were at acceptable levels. Criterion performances were demonstrated in 73.7% of data sets on pretests following teaching that could have established relevant equivalence relations. These results may be indicative of emergent performances, but this conclusion must remain tentative due to lack of experimental control in this classroom application.

The first paper by Vaidya and Hinnekamp present data from an experiment in which they have replicated Urcuiolis (2008) report. The findings were that matching performances involving color stimuli were more readily acquired than matching performances involving shapes. The second paper by Fields et al. studied the difference between conditions with all (1) abstract stimuli, (2) familiar stimuli as one of the stimuli sets, and (3) an acquired discriminative function was trained for one of the stimuli sets inthree 5-member classes. The third paper by Tomanari et al. compared manual (i.e., pressing a mouse button) and ocular (i.e., eye movements) observing responses in both one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) training structures. These findings suggest that the stimulus control established during OTM and MTO may differ. The fourth paper by Arntzen and Halvorsen is concerned with the effects of responding in accordance with stimulus equivalence as a function number of training trials. They find that the responding in accordance with equivalence increased as a function of number of trials during training.

Urcuioli (2008) suggests that several aspects of the conventional two-choice matching-to-sample procedure may hinder the emergence of symmetry in pigeons. First, the stimuli are presented in spatially distinct locations which can acquire control over comparison selections in combination with other controlling variables. Second, almost all trials end in reinforcement when performance in a two-choice matching-to-sample is highly accurate which, Urcuioli suggests, actually impedes the development of stimulus classes and, hence, the emergence of symmetry. In contrast, the go/no-go procedure arranged by Urcuioli presents stimuli in temporally-distinct 'locations' and arranges for trials to end with and without reinforcement even when the matching performance is highly accurate. The current study systematically replicated the procedures from Experiment 3 from Urcuioli's (2008) report. Along the way, we tracked the accuracy of four pigeons' performance with particular stimulus types-colors versus shapes-more precisely to allow a finer-grained characterization of test performances. These results replicate the common finding that matching performances involving color stimuli are more readily acquired than matching performances involving shapes. The results also set the stage to see if and how performance on baseline trials may be reflected in tests for emergent symmetry.

Equivalence classes can contain meaningful or meaningless stimuli. The present experiment explored the effect of the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus on the formation of three 3-node 5-member equivalence classes formed using the simultaneous protocol. Training involved the establishment of AB, BC, CD, and DE relations on a concurrent basis. Once formed, all of the derived relations in the three potential classes were presented in same test block. College students were participants. Three experimental conditions were studied. In the ABSTRACT C stimulus condition, abstract visual shapes were used as the A, B, C, D, and E stimuli. None of the 10 participants (0%) formed the classes. In The MEANINGFUL C stimulus condition, a meaningful picture was used as the C stimulus with abstract stimuli used as the A, B, D, and E stimuli. In this condition the classes were formed by 8 of 10 participants (80%). A meaningful stimulus can serve many behavioral functions. One of the most basic is a discriminative function. To what extent, then, would a discriminative stimulus mimick the effect of a meaningful stimulus on the formation of equivalence classes. In the ACQUIRED DISCRIMINATIVE FUNCTION condition, the A, B, C, D, and E stimuli were abstract shapes. Before forming equivalence classes, the C stimuli in each potential class were given discriminative functions by use in successive and simulltaneous discrimination training. Thereafter, 10 participants attempted to form the same classes by the participants in the other conditions. in the ACQUIRED DISCRIMINATIVE FUNCTION condition, 5 of the 10 participants (50%) formed the equivalence classes, These results then suggest that a substantial part of the enhancement effect of meaningful stimuli on equivalence class formation ccqan be attributed to the discriminative functions serve by meaningful stimuli. By implication, other functions served by meaningful stimuli would account for the remainder of the enhancement effect produced by the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus on equivalence class formation.

The training structure may affect the formation of equivalence classes. This study compared manual (i.e., pressing a mouse button) and ocular (i.e., eye movements) observing responses in both one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) training structures. In each experiment, four undergraduate students learned two sets of conditional relations, one in OTM and the other in MTO, followed the corresponding equivalence tests. Manual observing responses were required in Experiment 1 to expose the stimuli, whereas eye movements were tracked in Experiment 2. Equivalence emerged for all participants in Experiment 1, but for only 2 participants in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, two participants in MTO, but not in OTM, showed more selection than rejection control when making their choices. Such systematic results have not been replicated with eye movements. These findings suggest that the stimulus control established during OTM and MTO may differ. These differences may systematically affect manual observing responses, but not the eye movements.

In establishing conditional discriminations, differences in the number of trained trials can be some of the reason for the discrepancy in equivalence yields when we have controlled for the training structures used. The current experiment was employed to study how different numbers of trials required in training influenced the participants' responding in accordance with stimulus equivalence. We trained three 3-member classes in a linear series training structure (AB and BC trials) in 30 adult participants. The training of conditional discrimination was divided into 5 phases. For participants in Group 1, there was a minimum requirement of 18 training trials in each phase, i.e., each trial type was presented three times. For participants in Group 2, there was a minimum requirement of 36 training trials in each phase, i.e., each trial type was presented six times. For participants in Group 3 there was a minimum requirement of 54 training trials in each phase, i.e., each trial type was presented nine times. The training was followed by a test block including baseline, symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence trials. The results showed that in Group 1 two of 10 responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence. In Group 2, four of 10 responded in accord with stimulus equivalence. In Group 3, five of 10 responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence. Reaction time data showed that reaction time increase from the last five baseline trials to the first five test trials. The reaction times were shorter for the participants in Group 2 and 3 compared to Group 1.

Studies have found difficulties to demonstrate emergent relations in nonhumans using the matching-to-sample procedure. Studies using the go/no-go procedure in pigeons suggest the emergence of identity and symmetry relations. The present study aimed to evaluate if the go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli would produce symmetry, transitivity and equivalence relations in four pigeons. A compound stimulus was formed by two different colors: red (A1), green (B1), blue (C1), yellow (A2), violet (B2) and orange (C2). During training, responses to A1B1, A2B2, B1C1 and B2C2 compound stimuli were followed by food. Responses to A1B2, A2B1, B1C2 and B2C1 were not followed by programmed consequence. During tests, the compounds were formed by the recombination of the elements of the training compounds: BA and CB (symmetry), AC (transitivity) and CA (equivalence). Results suggest the emergence of symmetry, but not transitivity and equivalence. It seems that symmetry tests in a go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli might evaluate different repertories than symmetry tests in the matching-to-sample procedure because studies with the matching-to-sample procedure indicate difficulties in establishing symmetry but not transitivity. Future studies could investigate which parameters in a go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli would produce the emergence of transitivity and equivalence relations.

Behavioral scientists have made considerable progress in understanding short-term remembering and forgetting. Evidence of this progress can found in the general consensus that short-term forgetting is best described by an exponential decay function in which two parameters separately estimate the delay-independent (initial learning) and delay-dependent (rate of forgetting) effects on remembering. Research by White and colleagues has shown that these two features are differentially sensitive to different classes of independent variables and set the stage for parametric studies which can map out the interactions between classes of environmental variables and aspects of remembering. The traditionaldelayed matching to sampleprocedure, however, can take up to 18 months to generate a robust family of forgetting functions. The purpose of the current report is to describe a procedure by which we were able to generate a robust family of forgetting functions in one pigeon over a 13-week period. Data on early acquisition of these performances will be presented for three additional birds. The results suggest that the procedure is effective in rapidly generating forgetting functions and likely to be a useful tool in our study of short term remembering and forgetting.

Skinner (1957) introduced the concept of the autoclitic in verbal behavior. One type of autoclitic changes the strength of other verbal behavior such as "I am 'not sure' what color was presented on the key." The present study investigates an autoclitic-like response in pigeons with a similar procedure originally developed for studying "uncertainty" in nonhuman animals (Inman & Shettleworth 1999; Smith, Schull, Strote, McGee, Egnore, & Erb, 1995). The first part of the present study replicated the study by Inman and Shettleworth, who used a modified delayed-matching-to-sample procedure. An additional key (the uncertain/autoclitic key) unassociated with any sample stimuli was added as a choice alternative. A choice response to the autoclitic key resulted in a shorter duration of reinforcement than the response on correct key, but longer than the response on incorrect key. When the length of retention interval varied within a session, frequencies of autoclitic key peck were greater after longer intervals than shorter intervals. Based on the success in replicating the Inman and Shettleworth study, the second part of the present study examines the effects of other variables such as intertrial interval (ITI), where little effect of ITI has been observed. Implications for verbal behavior will be discussed.

In recent years there has been increasing pressure to provide environmental enrichment for laboratory animals, however the effects of such enrichment on operant behavior has received little attention. One commonly employed form of enrichment for rats is providing paper towels in their home cages. Rats will reliably and immediately interact with the towels in their home cages. The present experiments sought to determine what effects such an enrichment object would have on ongoing operant behavior maintained by ratio and interval contingencies of food reinforcement. Rats lever pressed under multiple schedules (mult FR 5, FR 50 or mult VI 15, VI 120) and the effects of the presence of a paper towel were assessed. Response rates were not disrupted by the towel, and interaction with the towel was rare regardless of whether rich or lean schedules were in effect. Increased interaction with the towel was observed when extinction was in effect. These data suggest that the effects of enrichment objects are context dependent; the reinforcing value of the paper towel is relative to concurrently available reinforcing alternatives. Furthermore, operant sessions involving contingencies of reinforcement could be viewed as a form of enrichment.

Behavioral practitioners are increasingly being used to provide behavioral support to students in school environments. Services provided by individual behavioral practitioners and agency personnel may include assessments, consultations with school and Individudual Education Plan (IEP) teams, providing direct behavioral support to individual children, direct supervision/oversight of the direct support services, collaboration with parents, teachers and school personnel as well as attendance at IEP meetings. Often, school collaboration is a complex endeavor that involves formal and informal clinical, political and social problem-solving skills aimed at meeting the needs of the individual student as well as those of the team members involved with the student. This symposium will address issues related to the development of successful school collaboration. We will discuss various issues including professional and ethical dilemmas that often face behavioral practitioners who work in schools, strategies for successful behavioral support in school settings and we will look at successes and challenges within the collaborative framework.

Classroom collaboration is a complex endeavor that requires the efforts of two or more service providers who are working together to achieve a common goal. Some of the obstacles are time constraints, varying skills and styles of work, differences in expertise and language, to name a few. Key components of collaboration including cooperation, coordination, consultation, integration, and cultural differences will be discussed. This presentation will describe the use of an expanded functional behavior assessment and treatment plan that includes collaboration; the obstacles will be operationally defined and addressed from the onset of service provision with specific measurable goals to ensure a focus on collaboration by all team members.

Focusing on interventions that target the classroom system as opposed to the single student, this presentation will discuss and offer strategies to address skill deficits and behavior excesses within the classroom system simultaneously. An examination of the roles of both the behavioral practitioner and teacher, the importance of creating a collaborative framework, and the components of an effective classroom environment will be discussed, along with a review of the current literature.

Researchers have brought to the attention of behavior analysts the importance of including fidelity measures in research and fieldwork. How these measures can be taken in a classroom can be a challenging and sometimes perplexing task; however, fidelity measures are the only way to know if a behavior intervention plan is being implemented correctly by others. This presentation reports on current research regarding fidelity measures in classroom settings. Moreover, the author discusses the implications of taking such measures with regard to the implementation of behavior intervention plans in such settings. Furthermore, ways in which to collect fidelity measures will be discussed.

Although the educational application of applied behavior analytic procedures have proven effective they have been criticized for their inability to be transferred easily to typical classrooms to teach typical skills. The three papers within this symposium addressed these concerns while employing sophisticated behavior analytic procedures, conducted in typical public schools, to teach typical academic stimuli. The first paper, presented by Joyce Persson, established classes of equivalent vocabulary words following the matching of complex comparison stimuli to complex sample stimuli. The second paper, presented by Claire Sumner, presents two studies. The first study reviews previous research that established equivalence classes consisting of polygons, their printed geometric definitions and their spoken names. The second study is a systematic replication of the first, establishing classes of equivalent stimuli consisting of geometric angles, their printed geometric definitions and their spoken names The third paper, presented by Lyndsey Nunes and Cheryl Goff, established three classes of equivalent stimuli consisting of four coins, their related four price tags and their four spoken names, following name (tact) training. The results of these studies extend the stimulus equivalence literature and demonstrate how they may be employed to teach a variety of public school students typical academic skills.

The use of complex stimuli (i.e., stimuli consisting two or more separate elements) during matching-to-sample training has proved effective in establishing classes of equivalent stimuli. Typically, in matching-to-sample training involving complex stimuli only one component of the matching-to-sample relation, the sample or comparison, contained multiple elements. In the current study both the sample and the comparison stimuli consisted of two elements: two related yet physically dissimilar printed words. During matching-to-sample training two relations were trained: AB-CD and CD-EF. Following this training testing was conducted to determine if the relations between the complex stimuli satisfied the properties of symmetry (CD-AB and EF-CD) and transitivity (AB-EF; EF-AB). The emergence of these properties would document the formation of classes of equivalent stimuli (e.g., the physically dissimilar words would be equivalent or synonymous). Further testing was also conducted to evaluate the degree of control exerted by the individual elements, consistent with symmetry, transitivity and the formation of stimulus equivalences. The matching complex comparisons-to-complex samples represents an efficient and efficacious method to establish academic concepts. The results are discussed in terms of application and the potential upper limits of the number of elements forming a complex stimulus.

Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of group instruction to establish the prerequisite relations for the formation of stimulus equivalences. Sumner (2010) taught middle school students conditional discriminations within a group context relating polygons and printed geometric definitions to their spoken names. Subsequent testing, again conducted within a group context, evaluated the emergence of the formal properties of equivalence (reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity) and the formation of classes of equivalent stimuli. The current study replicated this methodology and taught middle school students to match geometric angles and printed geometric definitions to their spoken names. Again, testing revealed the formation of three classes of equivalent stimuli consisting of an angle, its definition and its spoken word. The results are discussed in terms of applying sophisticated behavior analytic techniques to teach applied academic skills within typical public school settings. The application of low-tech group methodology is discussed, which allows for the greater dissemination of this approach.

Students were initially taught to name coins and their corresponding tags value (i.e., 1-cent; 5-cents, etc.). After this training all possible stimulus-stimulus relations were assessed to evaluate the formation of four, three-member equivalence classes (each class contained the coin, price tag and spoken value of the coin /price tag). Testing verified the emergence of untrained relations indicative of reflexivity and transitivity, documenting the formation of the classes of equivalent stimuli. Interesting, because the prerequisite skills were simple discriminations (e.g., naming or tacting stimuli) symmetry could not be formally assessed. However, the emergence of the untrained coin-to-price tag and price tag-to-coin relations appeared to serve as the combined test of symmetry and transitivity, thus meeting the formal criteria equivalence class formation. The results are discussed in terms of the development and transfer of novel forms of stimulus control [i.e., how did naming result in the conditional control of the visual (coins and price tags) and auditory (cent value spoken by the experimenter) over selection of related yet physically dissimilar stimuli?]

Although applied behavior analysis (ABA) still may be in its infancy, disseminating this science to non-behavioral environments is imperative to ensure the continued advancement of our field. When disseminating behavioral principles and procedures, behavior analysts must uphold ethical standards and acknowledge the seven dimensions of ABA. By doing so, the analysis of behavior in traditionally non-behavioral environments may provide a valuable service to society by promoting the employment of best practices with respect to the consumer of behavior analytic services. Further, the dissemination of behavior analysis and the provision of behavior analytic services must be accomplished while maintaining the integrity of our science. As such, this panel involves the discussion of strategies for disseminating behavior analysis within non-behavioral environments.

Taking a team approach to working with individuals with autism or other disabilities is nothing new, and over the years the role of the Behavior Analyst within treatment teams for these individuals has become much more clearly defined and effectively utilized. However, while a multi-disciplinary team approach is also widely accepted and commonly practiced within the field of brain injury rehabilitation, the role of the behavior analyst within that team is either absent or vaguely defined and highly under utilized. Multiple factors have likely led to and perpetuate this phenomenon. This paper explores the current situation, factors that may have lead to it, and then proposes theoretical and functional ideas for how to move beyond potential road blocks that clinicians within this field experience.

This paper will explore the evolution of tracking tools in a residential neurorehabilitation setting in which a single client may need to be monitored across situations or treatment domains that involve multiple individuals, specialties, disciplines, etc... Often, data collected will include information regarding medical issues (i.e. bowel and bladder continence, food and fluid intake, etc.) and activity or program participation, as well as more traditional "behavior data" (verbal aggression, physical aggression, elopement attempts, etc.). The task of integrating data across treatment situations and domains is complex, yet to the interdisciplinary team, and in particular to the behavior analyst, it is critical, as data points that may seem insignificant in isolation, e.g. within the treatment domain of bowel regiment, may indeed be important establishing operations or precursor behaviors that contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and analysis of the clients overall presentation. The evolution of tracking tools from various independent measures, of interest to and created by separate clinicians, being consolidated into one document per client that integrates all information will be discussed along with several examples. Other factors such as methods for increasing rate of staff follow through with data collection and dealing with common roadblocks associated with amassing multiple, concurrent measures will also be presented.

The four term contingency is a fundamental starting point in the analysis of orderly relations between behavior and events that precede and follow it. In ReMed's neurobehavioral brain injury program presenting issues vary greatly on a per case basis, and a rigorous application of the four term contingency, and behavior analytic principles more broadly, has proven beneficial in all phases of rehabilitation. The specific ways in which it guides or supports treatment efforts will be presented through a case review. The subject of interest is fully dependent for self-care and feeding, non-ambulatory, exhibits severe verbal aggression, physical aggression, and experiences significant pain and spasticity. Preliminary treatment efforts were largely medical, and although this limited involvement from other traditional disciplines, behavior analysis played an important role from the outset. Per the model that will be presented, overall medical and behavioral stabilization efforts were carefully prioritized and progressed. Discussion will be provided as to how the four term contingency was paramount in the conceptualization of the subject's treatment program, and how integrated data collection tools were designed for close monitoring and enhanced collaboration with medical consultants. Current status will be provided, including the evolving role of behavior analysis and expanded team involvement.

Behavior analysts have a compelling record of success in teaching non-professionals to implement an array of skills instruction and behavior reduction procedures to improve performance in their own lives and the lives of people they care for. In the balance, threads of discussion in our literature have emerged raising questions about the sufficiency of our usual indices of success (treatment integrity, generalization, and maintenance) in accounting for long-term sustainability of the acquired performance of behavior change agents, and the adequacy of the behavioral repertoires we create for handling evolving environmental requirements. For example, what is the necessary level of treatment integrity for achieving and sustaining desired effects? What are the roles of perception and contextual fit in planning interventions incumbent change agents can carry out when the expert trainers leave? Can we articulate a behavioral model of treatment adherence to handle planning for and measuring intervention implementation in the absence of oversight? This panel discussion brings together experts to consider these and other questions related to the sustainable transfer of behavioral technology.

Decades of theory and research on private events began with Skinner's 1945 statement that public and private behaviors share the same physical range, or behavioral dimension. Research began in 1966 with Lindsley's bridge from physical behaviors to urges, what he called inner behavior. Using the standard celeration chart Calkin and other researchers have investigated public and private behaviors confirming Moore's assumption that inner behaviors are as lawful, but not causal, as public behaviors. Palmer stated behavior obeys the same set of principles whether observed or not. This results in a monistic approach rather than in Cartesian dualism. All agree that behavior, from public to private (covert to overt, outer to inner) lies on a continuum. Keenan illustrates the fluidity between the public and private aspects through his multimedia work and what he has come to call, not inter-observer reliability but 'inter-subjective agreement.' For an effective analysis of behavior, we offer analytical and/or researched interpretations. If we didn't, we'd leave the study of behavior to mentalism.

Children with developmental disabilities often display deficits in functional communication (Carr & Durand, 1985). Bourret, Vollmer, and Rapp (2004) suggested that different variables responsible for deficits in mand repertoires can be remediated but mand training techniques should be selected based on individual learner characteristics. Bourret et al. (2004) developed a pretreatment assessment for vocal mand deficits and used the results of the assessment to implement specific intervention strategies. Moravek, Cihon, and Ross (2009) replicated and extended the study by adding a generalization assessment. The current study replicated and extended Bourret et al. (2004) and Moravek et al. (2009) by shortening assessment and teaching trials and expanding the generalization assessment. The experimenters compared the efficiency of mand training procedures predicted or not predicted by the vocal mand assessment for one participant. The results suggest that the shortened trial duration was not sufficient to produce differentiation in responding between conditions for all participants. Moreover, the results of the treatment comparison indicated that the nonpredicted procedure was more efficient than the predicted procedure in producing new mand relations. Additional research is needed to further analyze the predictive value of the vocal mand assessment, as well as discover ways to further enhance its efficiency.

This single subject study aimed to teach a number of skill deficits to a language delayed child with social communication difficulties attending a mainstream primary school in Wales. Targets included: generalising spontaneous manding using prompt fading techniques, differential reinforcement, time delay and blocking using a multiple baseline design. Improving conversational skills using video modelling and‘Motivaider,’ avibrating device used to examine the effects of a tactile prompt on initiations to peers and adults following video modelling training. The development of a home/school questions book targeting WH questions and curriculum topics, sequencing and assistance with mental imagery and conceptualization of time, implemented using discrete trials on each target question with the assistance of an adapted diary page. Additionally the study examines the use of SAFMEDS (Say All Fast Minute Every Day Shuffle) and precision teaching to teach various curriculum targets to fluency. Results showed significant improvement in all target areas. Social interactions and conversational skills also improved significantly across subjects and settings.

Currently, there is a question in the literature as to whether the topography-based or stimulus-selection-based instructional paradigm works better for people with autism. While traditional applied verbal behavior analyses consider the function of the behavior, in this debate, the methods are classified into how the listener's and speaker's interaction occurs. Researchers influenced by Skinner's (1957) analysis of language developed an approach to language training for individuals with communicative delays. This approach views language functionally with each response defined by its antecedent and consequence. Speaking, signing, and writing are methods of communication where each response involves a different topography. Michael (1985) identifies these response forms as topography-based verbal behavior (TB). Responses differ from one another in topography, direction, duration, and force of the action. In contrast, various pointing systems of communication can be classified as stimulus-selection-based verbal behavior (SB). In SB, the response form consists of pointing, touching, or otherwise indicating a particular stimulus when presented within an array of stimuli. Both TB and SB researchers have support. Interestingly, both camps at times make the same claims (quicker acquisitions, better generalization, etc.). From a behavioral perspective, the differences between the two types of verbal behavior appear to be potentially quite important.

It is widely accepted that using data-based decision-making increases the efficiency, effectiveness, & sustainability of practices and initiatives. However, practitioners (school staff, parents, administrators) often struggle with understanding what data will guide their decisions and how the data can inform selection and adaptation of interventions. This reliance on subjective or minimal information is often associated with inefficiencies with matching interventions to problem context. The goal should be to move practitioners from identifying a problem and then selecting a solution to identifying a solution, then problem-solvingselecting a data-based solution. This session will focus on three applied examples of increasing practitioners data-based decision-making. The three talks will present information about administrators adoption of curricular materials, parents participation in parent training that facilitates their use of data to make decisions at home and school team decisions around implementation process related to sustainability of interventions.

Behavioral parent training has an extensive research base supporting its efficacy in the treatment of child noncompliance and anti-social behavior. There are particular behavioral parent training programs that standout in terms of the amount of research supporting their efficacy. These behavioral parent training programs focus on teaching parents skills in differential reinforcement, effective provision of commands, and punitive procedures such as time-out. Effective implementation of these skills at home and over time requires parents to make frequent decisions throughout the day regarding how they will prompt and/or respond to child behavior. Based on a review of the evidence-based behavioral parent training programs, this presentation will provide information on how parents are taught to make these decisions. The training strategy used is an active approach to teaching that focuses on behavioral skills training including instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and immediate feedback. The research supporting strategies for teaching parents decision-making skills will be presented with emphasis on facilitating generalization of parenting skills to the home setting and sustainability over time.

Numerous authors have lamented weak or absent research utilization in educational decision-making. Many professionals in the field of education report decision-making practices based on professional judgment. A small body of research exists reporting on the influence of research in policy decision-making, but very little descriptive research has been done related to decision-making at the school district level. Perhaps one of the most important decisions made in a school district is the adoption of elementary reading and math curricular materials. The purpose of this study was to describe the factors identified by school district administrators that were most influential in the most recent elementary reading or math curricular materials adoption and to examine the utilization of research in that decision-making process.

Traditionally, organizations implement programs that rely solely on training using what is sometimes referred to as a "train and hope" approach (Stokes & Baer, 1977). That is, organizations identify a problem or need, select or add a practice, hire an expert to train personnel in the new practice, hope for implementation of the practice and then wait for the next problem to arise. Adelman and Taylor (2003) state sustainability should be a focus from the day a project is implemented. With most projects, the pressure of just becoming operational often postpones such a focus until well into the 2nd year. Using information obtained from a literature review an Innovation Configuration (Hall & Hord, 1987) was developed to increase the likelihood that schools adopting an intervention would consider issues of sustainability at the beginning of implementation. Results from a pilot study on the use of the innovation configuration will be presented in relation to usability and action planning will be presented.

Individuals with autism and other developmental delays may exhibit deficits in multiple daily living skill areas. For this reason, behavior analysts often have to develop multiple specialized programs for clients. These programs are often developed with a multitude of approaches and methods of intervention. Thus, a variety of approaches are often used in delivering treatment to these individuals. This presentation provides an overview of the development and application of specialized daily living programs. Specialized programs presented include such skills as hair cutting, shoe tying, and auditory desensitization. A variety of behavior analytic techniques and methodologies are discussed in the context of developing these programs. The application of these programs will be presented, including how to modify programs based upon individuals of varying language ability and developmental levels. Participants should expect to learn behavior analytic methodologies that will assist them in developing specialized daily living skills with clients of differentiated skill levels. Data sheets, data collection techniques, and video examples will be provided to participants.

This case study assessed the efficacy of a program meant to teach a child with autism to immediately report injuries to trusted adults. A changing-criterion design was implemented to teach the child to report what part of his body was injured, where the injury occurred, and what caused the injury. The researchers did not find articles specifically addressing how to teach reporting past injuries; however, several studies suggest that a wide variety of skills, including social initiations and conversation skills, can be taught through video modeling (Charlop-Christy, et al., 2000; Delano, 2007; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2007). Researchers used a combination of video modeling, written prompts, and role-play to teach reporting behavior in the home environment. Additionally they collected generalization data in the home and school environments. The results of this study will help to identify effective training procedures meant to increase accurate reporting and allow children with autism ways to access immediate medical attention. Additionally, such training strategies could be used to increase the ability to report abuse. Future research will focus on improving programming and reporting injury following a time delay.

When a behavior occurs in an applied setting, it is not always clear which stimulus or operation is controlling the response. Small changes in stimulus arrangement and motivation can alter the probability of a response. If a specific motivating operation or stimulus, or a combination of stimuli is determined to control a response, instruction and generalization can be facilitated. This investigation taught three individuals, two with learning disabilities and one with autism, to say "Excuse me" when making requests across people, items and environments. Four environmental stimuli and two potential motivating operations were assessed for their controlling properties. Functional relationships between the use of the phrase "Excuse me" when making a request and the stimuli and/or possible motivating operations associated with the request will be investigated. If a single stimulus or a suspected motivating operation does not serve to control the response, a combination of stimuli or an alternate motivating operation will be tested.

Through extended research and experimental analyses of verbal behavior, we have found that conditioned reinforcement has played a significant role in the acquisition of verbal developmental capabilities or cusps. We have also found that conditioning neutral stimuli, such as adult faces and voices, as reinforcers was itself a verbal developmental capability. In the first experiment, the conditioning of adult faces with voices using a conjugant reinforcement procedure affected rate of acquisition of new operants as well as the emergence of observing responses. The acquisitions of vocal verbal operants, tacts, are, by definition reinforced by generalized conditioned reinforcers (Skinner, 1957). In the second experiment, an experimental analysis was conducted to test the emission of tacts under different reinforcement conditions, social generalized conditioned reinforcement and non-social generalized conditioned reinforcement. The experiment was conducted to determine if tacts were uniquely under the reinforcement control of social generalized conditioned reinforcers, such as approvals, versus non-social generalized conditioned reinforcers (i.e., tokens). And, in the third experiment, the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) with object use demonstration were tested on the rate of acquisition of bi-directional naming. Conditioned reinforcement for observing the manipulation of the objects appeared to affect the rate of acquisition of naming.

This study tested the effects of conditioning reinforcement for observing faces with voices using conjugate reinforcement, on changes in curriculum-based learn units-to-criteria and observing responses. The study was a multiple probe design with a time delay across children and behaviors. The participants were three students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The dependent variables were learn units-to-criteria across speaker and listener programs based on 1000 learn units, and observing responses following pre- and post-intervention. A preference assessment was also conducted to determine if observing faces without the voice and observing voices without faces were conditioned reinforcers. The independent variable was the conditioning faces with voices protocol using conjugate reinforcement. Conjugate reinforcement in this studywas defined as continuous and episodic reinforcement contingent upon the participant's looking at the face of the experimenter. The results indicated that for Participants A and B, faces without voices and voices without faces became conditioned reinforcers. For Participant C, the participant currently is in the third intervention. The results indicated that the observing responses have increased, learn units-to-criteria decreased. Additionally, during the preference assessment, the results indicated an increase in the total intervals in looking at a face without a voice and voice without face.

We tested the emission of tacts under different reinforcement conditions to determine if tacts were uniquely under the reinforcement control of social generalized conditioned reinforcers, such as approvals, versus non-social generalized conditioned reinforcers (i.e., tokens). The participants were two preschoolers who were speakers with several independent tacts in repertoire and for whom it was demonstrated empirically that both tokens and adult approvals functioned as reinforcement for their behavior. This was determined using an experimental ABABCAC or BABACAC design. Next, An ABAB reversal design was used to compare the number of tacts emitted under generalized token reinforcement conditions versus generalized social reinforcement conditions (i.e., approvals). The dependent measure was the number per minute of correct and incorrect tacts emitted. The results will have important implications for the most effective ways to reinforce tacts. The discussion will include how tacts should be taught to children who do not have approvals as conditioned reinforcement and how teaching tacts intensively can result in the emergence of adult approvals as a new conditioned reinforcer.

Previous research has established that Naming can be induced by multiple exemplar instruction (MEI). The present experiment compared MEI with and without object use demonstration on the rate of acquisition of bi-directional Naming. The three participants in the MEI + Demonstration group received learn units across match, point, tact, and intraverbal responding, with the addition of experimenter demonstration of a contrived function for each object. MEI + Demonstration was continued across multiple sets of stimuli until the participant produced untaught speaker and listener responses to probe trials for a novel set of stimuli. The number of learn units required for each MEI + Demonstration participant to acquire bi-directional Naming was matched for peers in the MEI control group (without demonstration) group. Across all of the three matched pairs of participants, only those who received MEI + Demonstration acquired bi-directional Naming, while the participants in the MEI control group who received an equivalent number of learn units for MEI did not. These data suggest that rapid alternation of the listener and speaker responses with demonstration of object function was an experience that was necessary and sufficient for the faster acquisition of Naming. The results are discussed in relation to conditioned reinforcement for observing the manipulation of stimuli

Functional communication is an imperative skill for all human beings. As behavior analysts, the ability to teach language and/or communication is required of us as we encounter many individuals for whom effective communication is a skill that is not yet mastered or perhaps even acquired. B.F. Skinner's verbal behavior (VB) analyzes language and it's function using the verbal operants. The intended outcome of this professional development series is to provide a foundation for utilizing applied behavior analysis and verbal behavior, as described by B.F. Skinner, to effectively teach functional communication.

As the prevalence of autism seems to rise every year, so do the unsubstantiated treatments that purport to cure or ameliorate it. (This presentation is based on a preprint chapter entitled Identifying Fad Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorders and Promoting Effective Treatment by Jenny E. Tuzikow and Steve Holburn in J. L. Matson & P. Sturmey (Eds.), International handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. New York: Springer). The presentation will contrast effective and ineffective treatments for autism, describing characteristics of each. Some of the more popular fads will be discussed; as will common characteristics of fads. In particular, several of the "psychological" appeals used by fad promoters will be highlighted. The presentation will describe contingencies (a) that underlie families' tendencies to fall victim to ineffective treatments and (b) that explain the maintenance of these ineffective treatments. For example, one particularly unusual herbal remedy for people withautism spectrum disorderis called "tantrum tamer." This herb "dissolves easily in the mouth" and "can greatly reduce or eliminate distressing and hard to handle tantrums" (Native Remedies, 2009). Why would parents fall for this remedy and continue to use it when it is ineffective? Implications for behavior analysts will be offered.

It is difficult for any parent to hear that their child has been diadnosd with autism, and their next question will be "what is the best treatment for my child?". Most parents head to the Internet to do their research and are bombarded by loads of information. How are parents able to go through all of this information and know which approach is right for their child? School psychologists need to do a better job as practitioners to get information to parents about evidence-based treatments for autism, and which treatments do not and may be potentially harmful. This paper provides a guide for practitioners working with parents of children with autism. These parents frequently struggle to determine what they feel is the best treatment for their child. As practitioners, it is our duty is to provide information to parents about best practice. This paper provides a synopsis of the current evidence-based interventions for children with autism provided by the National Autism Center (National Standards Report). It provides information on treatments that are ineffective and potentially harmful such as chelation, special diets, and CAM doctors. This paper discusses the popularity of these ineffective treatments and the negative impact they have on the acceptance of evidence-based treatments. This paper will educate practitioners about evidence-based practices and discuss effective ways of informing parents about non-evidence based practices. This paper will teach practitioners how to be better advocates for parents and children with autism by using their knowledge of evidence-based services and provide strategies on how to procure these services as a part of a child's school-based education plan.

The number of individuals who have been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has increased sharply in recent years. The cause of the "jump" in the identification of ASD is unknown. However, in conjunction with the increase in prevalence, there has been an increase in the number and type of strategies and practices that are used to educate and assist individuals with ASD. The proliferation of information can be overwhelming. This presentation, of interest to educators, researchers, parents, and self-advocates, will present current research related to evaluating practices/treatments related to ASD. Specifically, participants will be given guidelines presented from the National Standards Project for ASD that evaluates treatments as "approved", "emerging", or "not recommended". Further, participants will present a guide useful for parents and self-advocates that can help them determine if a treatment is a good match for his/her needs. Finally, participants will have an opportunity to evaluate a treatment given the tools that have been given. Participants will have an opportunity to interact throughout the session in which they will be asked to incorporate their experiences with the practice or strategies, and offer ideas for future direction of research given their personal experiences.

The effectiveness of a behavioral skills training (BST) package to teach the implementation of the first three phases of the picture exchange communication system (PECS) was evaluated with nine adults who had no formal PECS training. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training package, which consisted of two videos, written and verbal instructions, modeling, group role-play rehearsal, and feedback. Results showed significant improvements relative to baseline in a short amount of training time and that skills generalized to several learners with autism. Skills were maintained at 1 month follow-up for all participants.

A written quiz was administered as part of a behavioral skills training package for the implementation of Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS) in a public school setting. The test data were found to be highly correlated with behavior checklist data. Since detailed behavioral observations can consume a great deal of precious training time in school settings, it is suggested that written test data, accompanied by brief behavioral probes, may be an acceptable and time-saving alternative.

Research suggests that parents of children with autism seem to experience enormous stress in managing the problem behavior of their children. While parent training is generally beneficial, the issue is more about response generalization than skill acquisition alone. There is an assumption that naturalistic environments are more beneficial for promoting generalization. This study provides a documentation of the effects of parent training in a clinic versus home setting for parents of four children with autism utilizing a multiple-baseline design across two dyads. Measurement variables include percent skill acquisition and response generalization by parents and rate of child problem behavior. Procedures included functional behavior analysis, measurement of parent and child behavior, parent training in one routine and generalization probes in another routine. Parent training focused on preparation of the setting for the routine, effective use of prompting and reinforcement procedures, and effective strategies for addressing child problem behavior. Parent training included modeling of the intervention by the behavior analyst, allowing opportunities to demonstrate the observed intervention, and receiving critical feedback. Results are presented through (a) visual analysis of the behavior pattern for parents and children with autism, (b) calculation of effect size, and (c) evaluation of the fidelity of implementation of intervention procedures.

The Standard Celeration Chart (SCC) is a real-time direct mirror of frequency-based learning and teaching. The SCC acts as reciprocal measure of the learner's progress and the instruction given. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are trained within 15 hours in standard celeration charting and in the principles of Precision Teaching (PT). A set of Say All Fast a Minute Every Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS) cards (Graf, 1994) nominating the 12 basic principles of PT, and practice in plotting performance on the SCC, form the basis of the parent training. Acceleration and deceleration of performance is analysed by the Celeration Finder on the SCC. The parent performance is directly measured by their children's learning on the SCC. After the PT training, acceleration of pinpointed correct responses of =x1.6 per minute per week, and deceleration of incorrect responses of /2 are achieved.

Applied behavior analysts seek to identify observable and measurable behaviors that are socially significant to the individual and sensitive to the culture of the community. Empirically validated, research based methods and interventions are selected. Decisions regarding interventions must be data driven, closely monitored for effectiveness and must be thoroughly described so that they can be consistently applied. The ultimate goal for behavior analysts is to enable meaningful change to occur for their clients and for that change to occur in situations other than where it was explicitly taught. While this may be easily understood by professionals who study and practice the science, the public perception ofapplied behavior analysisis often under the influence of other variables such as cost, ease of application, effect and maintenance or generalization of that effect. This presentation seeks to explore interventions that have been implemented with a 10-year old child diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and his family, presented from the participants' perspectives.

The help an involved parent gives to a student is imperative to their growth. However, in the life of the student with special needs said involvement is not only integral, but is the only way for them to reach their true social and academic potential. On paper, New York state lauds the many resources available to aid the special education community. However, the implementation of the aforementioned resources is often the problem. It is not uncommon for parents to be promised services during their individualized education plan (IEP) meetings and never receive them. It takes a strong and educated parent acting proactively in pursuant of the services promised to their child, to make their child's educational dream a reality. There is nothing worse than when untapped potential is a result of the red tape of the system. We the professionals in applied behavior analysis (ABA) must teach the parents, thereby enabling them to become advocates for their children. The discoveries and experiments of Drs. Skinner, Keller and Lovas have given us the skills and the means to reach our students. Now we must pass the torch to parents and direct caregivers and allow them to help themselves and ultimately their children.

Early behavior intervention for autism and pervasive developmental disabilities has shown to be highly effective in a number of single-subject and group-based studies. However, studies of this nature are continuously needed as the evidence available still relies on a restricted number of cases for general clinical sciences standards. In addition, new variations of common clinical trials procedures need to be developed to better suit the methodological features of this line of research. The present study uses cumulative graphs, analysis of variance and regression analysis to determine the effectiveness of a 5-year early intensive home-based behavior intervention program in Barcelona (Spain). An extensive group of pre-school children whose family requested intervention at our program were successively admitted to the study. Both standardized measurements and behavioral observation-based dependent variables were analyzed. Areas of assessment included daily living skills, academic abilities and language. Regression analyses were conducted to identify significant predictors of intervention outcome using age, pre-intervention IQ, and first year of intervention performance as predictors. Participants showed significant gains in daily living skills, academic abilities and language. Intervention features and individual characteristics predictive of treatment effectiveness will be discussed.

One problem behavior analysts tend to run across as practitioners when starting an in-home program for children with autism is an abundance of stimuli in the home. Free range access to countless technological gadgets, "unearned" edibles, and inanimate objects such as a simple wash cloth or placemat can distract, and in many cases, detract from a productive session. When resources are limited for both client and practitioners, it is most important to make optimal use of every minute of your sessions. This paper will discuss how in most cases, less is more in the home-especially from a logistical standpoint. We will compare and contrast data collected from parents of children with autism who adhere to most recommendations made regarding modifying their environment to make it more conducive for a behavior analyst to obtain better results, and those who modify fewer things. With all other things being held as equal as possible, will data show that modifying variables in the environment right before beginning an in-home program improve its effectiveness?

Children with autism have been found to often display repetitive stereotypical behavior and deficits in play behavior. This study examined these behaviors in a 30-month-old child with autism to determine conditions under which stereotypical behavior and toy play could be manipulated. A reversal design along with multiple replications was used to measure the effects of toy density on changes in play and stereotypical behavior. The procedure consisted of a baseline phase along with experimental conditions: ignore, toys dense and toys reduced. During all conditions the child was not reinforced for toy play but ignored. The results from this study found that the child's play and stereotypical behavior could be increased and decreased based on the density, presence, or absence of toys. In addition, not only was there an increase in the total amount of play occurring in the sessions but also the duration of play with the individual toys and the number of toys played with during the session. The results of the study suggest that toy play provides sensory feedback which is automatically reinforcing to the child. Thus, toy play can serve the same function and act as an alternative to stereotypical behavior.

Research suggests that early intensive intervention is required to alter the trajectory of development for children diagnosed or at risk of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Current research addresses early diagnostic criteria as well as early intervention for very young children with autism (Brian et al., 2008). Children with ASD exhibit a number of characteristic behaviors including stereotypy, aversion to touch, restricted interests, and fixation on certain objects. Researchers define stereotypic behavior as "repetitive motor and vocal responses" (Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, & Chung, 2007). In addition these children often have deficits in areas of joint attention, and response to name (Matson, Wilkins, Gonzalez, 2008). The purpose of this presentation is to review the existing literature with the goal of development of interventions to remediate and/or prevent the development of stereotypic behavior. A primary focus will be implementation of play-based strategies to reduce stereotypic behaviors. Evidence based practices implemented, as reductive and inductive treatments will be discussed.

The purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of two prompting hierarchies, most-to-least prompting with a constant delay and manual guidance with constant delay, on the rate of acquisition of a behavior chain. Four individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder participated and the dependent variable was the number of sessions and number of trials to acquisition for two 12-step play construction figures and two vocational tasks. Each session consisted of one probe trial and 10 training trials; generalization probes across a novel teacher and one new setting were conducted after acquisition. Results showed that both training procedures were effective while efficiency varied across participants. Findings generalized across new teachers and settings. Interobserver agreement data were collected in at least 33% of sessions and averaged 95%. Procedural integrity data were taken in at least 33% of sessions and averaged 95%.

Although the social competence literature shows that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can acquire social skills, these skills often do not consistently generalize into natural environments. Peer-mediated interventions have proven successful in teaching a number of social behaviors to individuals with ASD and have also shown to promote generalization and maintenance. The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of two peer-mediated interventions for three adolescent males with ASD ages 12 and 13 in natural settings and the effects of these interventions on the generalization and maintenance of social skills acquired in a school-based social competence program. Using a single subject multiple treatments, design interventions were introduced and then compared to adjacent conditions. The results indicate that participants with ASD made improvements in social competence as a result of participating in the social competence program. However, by training peers to deliver social interventions in natural environments, social interaction increased above natural levels found in baseline and above levels found during the social competence program alone. In conclusion the results indicate that peer mediated interventions may be a viable category of intervention to support the generalization and maintenance of intervention skills in natural environments for adolescents with ASD.

Collocating children diagnosed with autism in mainstream classrooms has necessitated the development of interventions targeting increased social interactions between socially withdrawn children and typically developing peers. The present study evaluated a peer-mediated intervention facilitated by teachers during regular class hours. The intervention was implemented over a 3 week period with three target children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, global learning delay and autistic spectrum disorder. In each class, a group of four typically developing peers were prompted by their teacher on a daily schedule to interact socially with the target child, for which they received praise. Social interaction data were collected during free play sessions to assess the generality of the intervention to a free play setting. Increases in social interaction were observed during the intervention and the 1-month follow-up. Data suggests that the intervention is an effective and economical means to increase social interaction between socially withdrawn children and typically developing children in mainstream classrooms. Results will be discussed in the context of guidance for future research, including peer characteristic screening and combating a potentially confounding context shift brought about by end of term data collection.

Howlin, Baron-Cohen, and Hadwin (1999) suggested that theory of mind challenges might provide a possible explanation for the social communication obstacles, which are characteristic of autism spectrum disorder. Through a continuous series of stages, typically developing children learn to "read" social cues as a prerequisite to the development of social skills. According to Albert Mehrabian, words account for 7% of all meaning in communication that involves feelings and attitudes, with 38% attributed to tone of voice, and the remaining 55% in non-verbal communication. Conversations require a regulation of paralinguistic cues, including appropriate pitch, rhythm, stress, intonation, and loudness of the speaker's voice. Proper delivery of communication is essential for both understanding and for being understood. Although there are numerous programs developed to target communication and social skills, very few aim to improve an individual's comprehension of social interactions. This paper addresses these core deficits and offers interventions and activities to utilize with individuals who present with challenges in social-pragmatic language and communication. This 8 week activity program is versatile, easy to implement in a group or individual learning setting, and capitalizes on the verbal, vocal, and visual processing needs of individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome.

Individuals with neurological disorders often display challenging behaviors that may interfere with their social functioning and participation in daily activities. The first study investigated how behavioral skills training in combination with in-situ training can improve the social behaviors of a young adult female with severe cognitive deficits as a result of a traumatic brain injury. The second study assessed the effects of an applied behavioral approach in aiding a 13-year-old male student in managing his gross motor tics within a school setting. The third study examined the effects of augmenting antecedent stimuli as a means to establish and maintain discrimination of a contingency of reinforcement to reduce the frequency of unsolicited physical touching behaviors. Lastly, with the continued focus on interventions that do not involve physical restraint, the fourth study addresses the reduction in the of use of physical interventions to manage crisis situations by incorporating a more stringent training curriculum for staff at an inpatient rehabilitation facility.

Behavioral skills training, in combination with in-situ training, has been shown effective for teaching firearm safety, abduction prevention skills, and other safety skills to children with varying abilities. In this study these techniques were used with an immune compromised 19-year-old female with severe memory deficits as a result of a traumatic brain injury. Targeted problematic behaviors included putting hands and other non-edible items in her nose, eyes, and mouth, licking self, objects and other people, using foul language, and displaying offensive gestures in the presence of others. Behavioral skills training utilizing training, modeling, rehearsal and feedback was implemented. Trained rehabilitation therapists systematically conducted in-situ training over the course of 2 weeks in a multiple baseline across behaviors design with increased success. Average rate of targeted behaviors and other socially inappropriate behaviors prior to in-situ training was 54% compared to 38% following training. Average rate of participation in therapy before training was 78% compared to 90% following training. Reliability, maintenance, family training, and factors influencing generalization are discussed.

For a child diagnosed with Tourette syndrome or other form of tic disorder participation in typically occurring daily activities can prove extremely daunting. This is especially true within the school environment where the topography and repetitive nature of these involuntary motor movements may present barriers to meaningful social interactions with peers and limit participation and completion of academic lessons. Stressors resulting from attempts to meet teacher demands and conform to social norms within a siddle school classroom may serve to further exacerbate motor tics. This study assessed the effects of an applied behavioral approach in aiding a 13-year-old male student in managing his gross motor tics within a school setting. Through the use of a functional behavioral assessment it was determined that the highest rate of gross motor tics occurred during specific parts of his lesson and served the function of escape. This intervention systematically employed strategies, developed through collaboration with the youth and the researcher, which served as acceptable and successful replacements for his gross motor tics.

Many individuals with acquired brain injuries benefit from learning prosocial behavior to enhance the quality of relationships with community members. This study examined the effects of augmenting antecedent stimuli as a means to establish and maintain discrimination of a contingency of reinforcement that was successful in reducing the frequency of one problem behavior (e.g., physical aggression) but not for another (e.g., non-aggressive physical contact), even though these two problem behaviors share similar functions with individuals who have acquired brain injuries. Two male subjects ages 19 and 24-years-old were exposed to a reinforcement level system that provided token reinforcers contingent upon both participation in replacement behavior training sessions, which focus upon alternative behaviors for attention, and tangible reinforcers via token reinforcement. Results suggest that verbal prompts to control physical touching may not be sufficient to decrease a behavior unless the antecedent is tied to a behavior consequence. These subjects received verbal prompts by trained staff to refrain from touching however these prompts failed to exert control over the behavior until they were added to the contingency of reinforcement (reinforcer interruption and contingent activity). When an antecedent cue was provided, physical touching decreased rapidly to near zero levels.

The use of physical restraint for managing crisis situations with clients demonstrating dangerous behaviors has received considerable attention by the media due to incidences of significant health risks. Stakeholders, accrediting agencies and legislatures are insisting that providers manage crises without the use of physical restraint. This presentation will provide data-based evidence from a post-acute neurobehavioral facility treating adults and youth with severe behavioral challenges. Staff training is vital to managing these dangerous behaviors. Spending time to establish relationships and understanding of who the person is builds empathy within the staff and establishes rapport with the client. Interventions conducted by relative "strangers" are experienced as traumatic by the clients when the staff's only interactions are of a demand/command nature. Encouraging and training the staff on how to "get to know" a client can be powerful when control cues are given. This presentation will highlight a staff-training program that builds both self-awareness within staff and empathy for persons served. Data taken over the past two years indicate sustained monthly reductions in physical restraints of greater than 88% since the staff program training began.

This presentation will discuss the detrimental effects of obesity and procedures that may increase healthy food choices in some children. The participants were six typically developing children between 4 and 6 years of age attending a preschool. The procedures incorporating correspondence training and the recruitment of natural communities of reinforcement were implemented, and the effect on the children's healthy food choice behavior was assessed. The experimental design was a multiple baseline across participants with reversals. Results indicated that correspondence training was an effective intervention for increasing healthy food choices in children, although the durability of the healthy food choice behavior varied across participants. Figure 1 displays the data collected for the participants labeled as responders; the closed circles represent food choice and the open squares represent cueing. After establishing stability in baseline, the conditions of correspondence training and cueing of positive interaction following healthy choices led to increased choice of healthy foods for participants. However, maintenance in subsequent baselines was frequently transitory. Three other participants showed more variable positive response to the initial procedures of correspondence training, which highlighted the challenge of effecting changes in the healthy food choices of young children when less healthy choices were available.

The current research examined the use of an interdependent group contingency to increase physical activity level in elementary school children. Physical activity level was defined and measured by the number of steps taken each day as recorded on a pedometer.Thirty-eight children in 2 third grade elementary classrooms participated in the study. Results of the study indicated both cumulative total and individual goals conditions were effective in increasing the number of steps completed each day compared to baseline, from 8, 500 to 12, 500. The increase in number of steps corresponds to approximately 1 extra hour of moderate intensity physical activity per day. The individual goals contingency resulted in the highest level of steps completed per day. Fading of feedback and contingencies resulted in a decrease in number of steps completed per day, compared to the individual goals condition, but remained above baseline levels.

This study evaluated typically developing children ages 3 to 9 who were fearful of learning how to swim. Fearful behaviors had different topographies for each child, but included running away, verbally refusing to participant by staying, "no," screaming, and crying. Participants were assessed through direct observation, parental interviews, and use of the Motivation Assessment Scale (Durand & Crimmons, 1984) to determine the function of their behaviors. Once the child's behavior was determined to be maintained by negative reinforcement, the children began the study. Baseline data was collected for each participant. Following baseline, a multi-component intervention, comprised of behavioral skills training, goal setting, self-monitoring and positive reinforcement was used to decrease fearful behaviors and increase confident water skills. Researchers trained the children to engage in confident water skills based on a predetermined criterion. Researchers also took data on the number of goals met, as well as the intervals of the session with positive affect, and fearful behaviors.

Although timeout from positive reinforcement is used extensively as a behavior management technique in many settings, there is lack of systematic analysis of parameters that affect the effectiveness of timeout. In this symposium, current research in timeout will be explored. In the first presentation, data from a pigeon lab will be discussed. In this experiment, effects of different timeout durations on behavior maintained by different rates of reinforcement are examined. In the second presentation, data from a human-operant lab will be discussed. Effects of timeout on behavior occurring in rich-to-lean transitions are examined. In the third presentation, effectiveness of timeout in applied settings will be examined. Dr. Dorothy Lerman will discuss the translational nature of the research.

In this study, the punishing effects of different timeout durations on responding maintained by two different rates of reinforcement were investigated. Four pigeons were trained on a 3-component multiple schedule in which two components were random-interval (RI) schedules of food presentation (red or yellow key lights), and the other was an extinction component (green key light). An RI 6-min schedule served as the low rate of reinforcement and an RI 1-min schedule served as the high rate of reinforcement. Each component lasted 5 min, excluding time during reinforcement and timeout, and was repeated three times during each session. During baseline conditions, response rates maintained by the RI 1-min schedule were substantially higher than rates maintained by the RI 6-min schedule. Then during each reinforcement component, the green key-light was presented contingent on key pecking according to an RI-5 s schedule. Each timeout duration was in effect for 10 sessions, after which baseline conditions were reinstated. Data indicate that timeout punishes behavior relative to baseline rates to a much greater extent in the RI 6-min (low reinforcement rate) compared to in the RI 1-min (high reinforcement rate) component, and increases in duration increase the punishment effect that is observed.

We have been developing a laboratory model of maladaptive escape behaviors in persons with developmental disabilities. In Experiment 1, excessive pausing was demonstrated on multiple FR, FR schedules in which one component was FR 10 and resulted in delivery of $.25, and the other component was FR 100 and resulted in $.01. In one condition, there was a 1-s interval between reinforcer delivery and the start of the next component. In the time-out condition, each reinforcer was followed by an 18 or 15 s TO. Rich-to lean pause durations decreased for all subjects. In a second experiment, subjects with severe developmental disabilities were assessed for relative preference across several different tasks or activities. The most preferred and least preferred activities were then arranged to alternate as in Experiment 1. Self-injurious, aggressive, and tantrum behaviors were recorded during all transitions. These aberrant behaviors occurred differentially in transitions from highly preferred to less preferred activities. Imposing a 30-s time-out during each transition reduced aberrant behaviors in 2 of 3 subjects. This provides increasing evidence that pausing on multiple schedules may be a model of maladaptive escape behaviors, and demonstrates a potential treatment derived from laboratory findings.

Timeout (TO) is a procedure that involves creating a stimulus change such that an individuals environment becomes less reinforcing (e.g., withdrawing a specific reinforcer, Baer, 1962; removing all social reinforcement, Wolf, Risley, & Mees, 1964). In applied behavior analysis, the procedure is used as a form of punishment to reduce problematic behavior. TO is commonly used with young children and has proven to be effective across various topographies of behavior and in many different settings (see Brantner & Doherty, 1983 for a review). Although the effectiveness of TO procedures has been widely demonstrated, many TO parameters have not been adequately evaluated (e.g., release contingencies, warnings) and some common TO recommendations have not been evaluated at all (e.g., children should go to TO for 1 min per year of age). The current series of TO studies was designed to evaluate some unstudied or understudied TO parameters, as well as to evaluate some common TO recommendations. Data from several TO studies will be presented and general implications for TO procedures in applied settings will be discussed.

Research on the behavior-neuroscience interface is an increasingly important topic in behavior analysis. This symposium brings together basic science approaches to discrimination and relational responding that harness the potential of electrophysiology methods, such as evoked auditory potentials and event related potentials, to cast light on the behavioral processes involved in complex behavior.

The current experiment investigated the effects of a prior equivalence test on the behavioral (i.e., accuracy and response latency) and event related potential (ERP) correlates of visual-visual equivalence relations. First, 46 right-handed participants were trained using a one-to-many training design to form 4, 3-member relations (A1-B1-C1; A2-B2-C2; A3-B3-C3; A4-B4-C4) consisting entirely of pseudowords. Half of the participants were then tested for derived symmetry and equivalence relations prior to a relatedness decision task, during which electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Control trials consisting of related and unrelated real words were also presented. The remaining participants received the relatedness decision task prior to equivalence testing. Participants in both groups showed higher accuracy and lower reaction latencies on within-class trials compared to between-class trials. Those participants that did not receive a prior equivalence test showed pronounced early positivity and some later negativity to within and between-class trials. Overall, the present procedures were effective in establishing derived relations and demonstrate the differential ERP effects of prior equivalence testing.

In the equivalence literature, it has been widely demonstrated that when the number of stimuli that separate a pair of stimuli increases, participants' response accuracy often decreases and response time increases regarding the pair of stimuli. This is known as the "Nodal Number Effect" or "Nodality" (Sidman, 1994). The current study aimed to pinpoint the underlying neurological correlates of nodal number in equivalence class formation, which has never been attempted before. Forty-two right-handed participants were trained using a linear training design to establish 2, 6-member equivalence classes (A1B1C1D1E1F1, A2B2C2D2E2F2) consisting entirely of pseudo-words. Each of them was then given a lexical decision task in which ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded for equivalence trials (directly trained, symmetry, and equivalence) and nodal number trials (1-, 2-, 3-, 4-nodes). At the end, an equivalence test was given to examine the formation of the two equivalence classes. Participants responses were significantly faster on class consistent, directly trained, symmetrical, and 1-node trials, but not on 4-node trials when compared to class inconsistent trials. These results confirmed the assumption that as nodal number increases, stimulus control decreases. Analysis of (event related potentials) ERPs demonstrated a greater negativity 400 milliseconds after the target onset to 4-node trials than 1-node trials in certain regions, which reflected greater mismatching on 4-node relations. Additionally, a greater positivity emerged around 300 milliseconds after the target onset to 4-node trials than 1-node trials, which suggested that the P300 might serve as a neurological marker for nodal relations.

In the years since Sidman's (1971) seminal work on stimulus equivalence, a number of researchers have examined responding in accordance with relations other than equivalence (e.g., more than/less than). The current study extended this work by investigating the neural underpinnings of before/after responding. Participants (N=23) were required to observe sequences of stimuli followed by a relational statement containing either a 'before" or 'after' relational cue. Participants were instructed to respond with a button press if the statement correctly described the sequence and not to respond if the statement was incorrect. It was predicted that response speeds for tasks containing 'before' cues would be significantly faster than for 'after'. Neuro-electrical differences were also predicted for the two task types. It was found that response speeds were significantly faster when descriptions contained 'before' relational cues than 'after'. No major differences were found in the event related potential (ERP) data between 'before' and 'after' responding. The findings obtained from the reaction time scores provide support for behavioural differences in responding to sequences containing 'before' and 'after' cues. The corresponding ERP component requires additional analysis to determine whether such neural differences exist.

Earthlings plan to go to Mars. Cosmic rays, HZE (heavy ions), may damage brain and affect behavior. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to whole brain radiation with 0, 120 or 240 cGy accelerated iron ions (56Fe) of 600 GeV/n at the National Space Radiation Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Eight months later, animals were trained for 12 sessions to discriminate two sounds in a discrete trial successive discrimination (S+=white noise, S-=2 kHz); the discrimination was reversed (12 sessions), followed by a return to baseline (12 sessions). HZE irradiation caused significant dose-dependent impairment in auditory discrimination. S- response rates were elevated significantly by the irradiation in a dose-dependent manner, indicating overgeneralization. Irradiated animals also showed significant dose-dependent elevation in response rate during the inter-trial intervals (extinction). A BAEP (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential) test was obtained for the left and right ear of each animal. Waveform latencies (the lengths of time from stimulus onset until the crest of waves I, II, III, and IV), were identified manually. BAER threshold was estimated with a 5-dB resolution from 0 to 80 dB SPL at waves I, II, III and IV. Thresholds were not significantly altered by heavy ion irradiation. Surprisingly, average BAER inter-peak latencies for wave I-IV were decreased significantly, in a dose- dependent function, by HZE irradiation. HZE irradiation caused impairment of auditory discrimination, no change in auditory thresholds and a negative correlation of S- errors and neural conduction time in the BAEP, (individuals shown @50 dB in Fig 3a-c).

In this study, the goal was to demonstrate empirically the concept of macrocontingencies and metacontingencies through a similar experimental game of tragedy of the commons. At baseline, a group without social contact was told they had gained a pool with 100 fish and could consume the way they prefer. The fish were reproducing at each attempt and they were told the remaining number. The second condition inserted social contact. The participants knew the choice of the other or they could talk. After this condition, there was a return to baseline. The experimental groups ended up with the resources provided on the first baseline condition and nonverbal, requiring two exposures to the session to be non-verbal and non-entanglement resource depletion. All groups maintained an individual choice so as not to end the action as a second exposure to the Baseline. The control group has exhausted its resources on four exposures to the game.

The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is one of the most widely accepted animal models of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The behavioral characteristics of ADHD include hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity, all of which have been shown to occur in the SHR. Sagvolden, Metzger and Sagvolden (1993) showed that SHRs have higher response rates compared to their normotensive control strain, Wistar Kyotos (WKYs), in variable interval schedules of reinforcement, but only at low rates of reinforcement. The present study examined the response rates of SHRS, WKYs and Wistars in a multiple variable interval schedule of reinforcement, employing VIs of 12, 24, 48, 96, and 192 secs. The results showed higher response rates in SHRs compared to the other rat strains at the lowest rates of reinforcement. At the highest reinforcement rates, response rates in SHRs were slightly lower than WKYs. Semi-log survivor plots showing the proportion of interresponse times greater than t seconds revealed that the differences in response rates resulted primarily from differences in bout initiation rates as well as within-visit response rates between strains. This suggests that hyperactivity in an animal model of ADHD is a result of both altered reinforcement mechanisms and motor behavior.

The IPDG is a largely used instrument in the study of social behavior and recently has been adjusted for the study of metacontingencies. The game involves a situation in which two participants must simultaneously choose between two alternatives in each trial. The arrangement of the participants` responses (IBCs) generates individual outcomes. For the study of metacontingencies the INPDG (IPDG with more than two participants) has been used with the addition of a cultural consequence contingent to the emission of certain IBCs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate (1) the effect of the same cultural consequence on the selection of different IBCs and (2) the role of communication between participants and of sequential or simultaneous choices. Four groups of three participants were formed differing from each other on the possibility of communication and the way of chosing the alternatives (simultaneously or sequentially). The results indicate the selection of the different IBCs by all groups. It suggests that communication is an important variable in facilitating the acquisition of the target arrangement.

Studies on standard and reverse Stroop effects have typically used control groups or separate test blocks for each condition. If responding to the font color of a color name versus responding to the color name itself can be brought under contextual control, this would allow for the direct comparison of Stroop and reverse Stroop effects concurrently in individual subjects. In the context of stimulus equivalence, Stroop-type stimuli may be characterized as stimuli that are concurrently members of two mutually exclusive equivalence classes. The main purposes of the present study were to investigate (a) whether matching task analogues of both the standard Stroop effect and the Reverse Stroop effect can be demonstrated concurrently with single individuals, and (b) whether each sample and its corresponding comparison stimulus will still be related by equivalence. When contextual control of the two sets of conditional discriminations corresponding to the Stroop and the reverse Stroop tasks was established in each of six adult participants, the results showed a significant individual Stroop effect as well as a reverse Stroop effect for all six subjects. All subjects responded consistently in accord with symmetry and three subjects eventually responded in accord with equivalence.

Haugland Learning Center is a program serving approximately 160 students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. All instructional methods are based on principles of applied behavior analysis, and teachers primarily uses direct instruction (DI) and precision teaching methods to build academic skills. After 5 years of successful implementation of direct instruction for core academic areas of reading, writing and math, a decision was made to take the program one step further. At the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, a full scale implementation of the Morningside Model was initiated. Staff were trained as coaches and additional curriculum was put in place to supplement existing DI curriculum. All staff received specific instruction how to implement a variety of DI programs and were also trained to use standard celeration charts (SCC) for all data collection and to guide instruction. By implementing the Morningside Model, teachers can target deficits in core academic areas as well as areas of daily living skills. The use of the chart helps staff determine when programmatic changes have to be initiated and can assure that students are making adequate progress. This symposium will share initial results from the school wide implementation, discuss problems encountered, and propose possible research project. An overview of our multi-level assessment system will be shared as well as how the data are used to guide instruction.

Haugland Learning Center (HLC) uses multiple levels of assessments when admitting students to the full day school program serving students with autism. Students are first administered a standardized, norm-referenced test to determine academic performance. This test is repeated annually to measure individual student growth and to also provide information about the success of the program as a whole. Each student is also administered several curriculum based tests to determine specifically where they should be placed in the curriculum. Students are always grouped based on academic levels while taking age into consideration for groups. The micro level of assessment is completed daily and consists of specific targets that are practiced and daily/session performances are charted on a standard celeration chart (SCC). The chart is used for making data based decisions about changes in programming. It plays an important role in tracking student progress and is used as a tool to decide promoting a student to the next level of instruction. This presentation will focus on the importance of using frequency data and how staff can be trained to follow decision rules by using the SCC. In many cases students learn to chart their own progress and can describe when they are fluent and should move to a new slice. Students with autism often have splinter skills, and targeting areas of deficit in core academic subjects help students move faster through academic programs.

Students with autism enrolled in the K-8 academic programs at Haugland Learning Center (HLC) are provided intensive instruction in reading and reading comprehension. Most of these students have the cognitive ability to participate in a typical curriculum despite having been unsuccessful in previous placements. Placement at Haugland Learning Center is usually a result of students failing academically and behaviorally in more traditional setting. Teachers at HLC are trained to implement direct instruction programs including Reading Mastery Signature K-5, Decoding B1 and B2, and Reasoning and Writing. Teachers are also trained to apply the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction where emphasis is placed on teaching higher order thinking skills and logical reasoning skills by building on mastered component skills. The presenter will explain how the REWARDS program is used instead of a traditional science and social studies curriculum to help prepare students for the academic rigor of traditional high school. The combined curricula focuses on teaching the foundational skills each student will need to be successful when entering high school either within the Haugland program or by returning to their home school district.

Students in the PLAN (Personalized Living and Academic Needs) program at Haugland Learning Center are typically enrolled after their public school programs have failed. These students are between 14 and 22-years-old and have significant deficits in most areas of functioning. Many have limited language skills and often engage in extreme aggression and other maladaptive behaviors. The focus of the PLAN program is to teach skills necessary to increasing each student's level of independence. Many students are found not possessing the necessary tool skills needed to perform more complex everyday tasks. Tasks such as personal hygiene, cooking, cleaning, and various recreational skills require fluent repertoires, mostly of basic motor skills. HLC has found that targeting basic motor movements, students will acquire a more complex repertoire of skills and as a result become more independent. When students reach fluent performances these complex skills seem to emerge. Teachers were taught to focus on the "Big 6+6" and completed task analysis of each complex task to be taught these students.

Assistive technology is a mechanism that can assist transition age students with organization, academics, and job skills. This presentation is a case study of students with disabilities who attended a summer learning community at a state university. These students were evaluated and matched up with iPod and iPad applications that matched their needs in organization, communication, academics, and job skills. Description of the processes of assessment, identification of applications, training, and follow up will be given. An overview of leading applications for communication, academics, job skills, and organization will also be done to demonstrate the variety of applications available for these students as well as other students.

This study investigated the effects of a computer assisted instruction program on the acquisition of sight words. The experimental design was a multiple baseline across word sets using multiple probes. Each student served as his/her own control meaning that the performance of each student was independent of the others in this study. Each student had three sets of words selected from tested Dolch lists. These lists were derives from prestudy data and were individualized for each student. Students had to achieve 90% on a word set for at least two testing sessions before moving on to the next set. Students participated daily in computer assisted instruction on Kurzweil 3000. All students acquired targeted sight words intwo toseven sessions.

The purposes of this oral session aim to: (a) illustrate the oriental teaching and learning styles; (b) introduce strategies in increasing active student response (ASR) from the literature; and (c) discuss the potential usage of a low-tech strategy, i.e. the portable flexible white board, in improving ASR and in-class communication of undergraduate students in Taiwan. As rooted Confucianism, teachers and their teachings, often via lecturing, are well respected. A good student is often defined and shaped as "listening to the teachers" and "do as what the teachers said." Therefore, teachers and students have been trained by culture to establish one-way message give and take in educational settings. However, previous research show low efficiency of its teaching and learning style. According to US reports of National Training Laboratories for Applied Behavioral Science, there is 5% retention rate if learning through listening, yet more than 30% retention rate via cooperative learning experience (demonstration, discussion, practice and teaching others). There are some reported strategies to increase ASR, such as using response cards, web-based instant feedback system and choral responding. Lastly, the author intends to discuss the implementation of the portable flexible white boards in classroom teaching on undergraduate students in Taiwan. This attempts to transform traditional learning style and to encourage ASR. Every student was asked to prepare this inexpensive material and be ready to respond by writing in class sessions. It was hypothesized that the portable flexible white board would balance the response rate of active vs. passive students, and thus encourage in class mutual communication between teacher and students and peers. Teaching experiences and student feedbacks of this pilot teaching strategy will be reviewed.

The recent tragedy of a 7-year-old foster child in Florida has highlighted the opportunities for behavior analysis intervention with those currently being prescribed psychotropic medication. Proposed Florida House and Senate Bills contained behavior analytic terminology related to the monitoring of children in foster care placed on these psychotropic medications. In recent years, there appears to have been an increase in published research in JABA with the behaviors of individuals diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, in spite of their escalating numbers, behavior analytic research with behaviors of individuals who have various other psychiatric diagnoses has not shown a similar increase. As a backdrop for this lack, a behavior analyst survey details typical verbal behavior when the term "psychiatric diagnosis" is provided as an antecedent stimulus. Behavior analysts may need to show a radical change in assumptions and approach to the mental health field in order to make a significant impact. Recommendations for intervention and change are provided including state and local implementations.

Unlike professionals in medical fields and the allied therapies, behavior analysts and other human services professionals are not routinely trained in medical error, i.e. "treatment error", prevention and management, and are rarely given the training and tools needed to conduct a thorough root cause analysis when adverse events related to crisis behaviors and responses to them do occur. This presentation covers important principles and practices borrowed from the medical error prevention movement that will help non-medical human services organizations increase the safety of their consumers and staff and reduce the risk to their organizations related to serving persons with behavioral challenges. A tool for conducting a thorough root cause analysis will be presented and provided to participants.

Our populations, especially in metropolises, are becoming very diverse. The old ways of dealing with terminally ill clients need to be changed. This presentation briefly defines culture, and attitudes of people in different cultures towards pain and death, which is followed by signs and symptoms of pain, death, and some mental illnesses and the roles of mental health providers with special reference to behavior analysis. This presentation is based upon ELNEC (City of Hope/AACN) conference and Internet-based Education on End-of-Life Issues for mental health providers, developed by eNursing llc (www.enursingllc.com) with CE from APA.

Paradigm clashes come about when the implications derived from the different perspectives on a phenomenon are found to be incompatible. Within behavior analysis such clashes can arise from a variety of sources. These include differing views about scales of measurement and the proper baselines against which phenomena should be measured, as with molecular versus molar analyses, and differing views about how phenomena should be named and classified, as in disputes over the technical versus the vernacular ways in which we can describe behavior. Other clashes arise when public political contingencies or our differences with other fields intrude on our analyses, as when our applications are skewed by medical disease models or as when political discourse redefines the relevant issues or as when cognitive thinking insinuates itself into behavioral protocols. This symposium will examine such clashes by considering some case studies, which will provide examples involving the language of punishment, behavioral interpretations of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and baselines in studies of stimulus control and other processes.

Behavior analysts, myself included, have consistently asserted our definition of punishment as indicating the proper usage of the term-as concerning consequences (even quite benign ones) that, when contingent upon behavior, will reduce that behavior. Reluctantly, we occasionally acknowledge that in ordinary parlance punishment is often taken as concerning the infliction of pain or physical trauma, exacting of vengeance, or in more sanitized venues, administration of justice. We have not typically acknowledged that vengeance or retribution can be functional classes of behavior, although pain-induced aggression has occasionally been a topic of research, and aggressive behavior is a well known by product of extinction. Could it be, then, that the behavior of administering punishment (by our definition) as a last resort is at risk of exemplifying the alternative meaning of punishment? "As a last resort" suggests that the punisher's behavior has been on extinction: "Everything else that we have tried has not worked." Relevant to this, an extensive attempt to replicate an apparent demonstration of "symbolic aggression in the pigeon" has yielded a reliable experimental model of "nasty behavior in the workplace," although its symbolic character is in question. Video recordings of this behavior will be shown.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD, is currently one of the most prevalent and costly psychiatric disorders among children. Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder that are criterial to diagnosis are essentially behavioral. These symptoms are studied very differently, however, depending on whether their analysis has clinical/applied purposes, or descriptive purposes, or inferential purposes. This presentation reviews recent progress in descriptive and inferential behavioral research on impulsivity and hyperactivity in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), an animal model of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. We discuss how these results may inform clinical/applied research, and we lay out alternative research strategies to characterize ADHD-related inattention in animal models and in clinical population. These strategies have implications for treatment, because medical disease models are more likely to lead to pharmacological interventions than to behavioral ones. Another dimension of the problem is that diagnosis may be skewed by the conflicting interests of the child so diagnosed and the parents and/or teachers who find the childs behavior hard to deal with.

Early during the development of behavior analysis, extinction was characterized as active suppression rather than as a failure of maintenance because reinforcement had been discontinued. This view probably derived from Pavlovs treatment of respondent extinction in terms of inhibitory processes. Operant behavior that had ceased in extinction was said to be there all the time but inhibited. This way of talking about extinction persisted in part because of accompaniments of extinction such as spontaneous recovery had not yet been adequately analyzed. When early studies of interactions within multiple schedules showed that extinction of responding in one component increased responding in the unchanged other component, the phenomenon was called behavioral contrast and was attributed to an excitatory effect of extinction. Similar interactions occurred in concurrent schedules, but they were seen as reductions of one response by increases in the reinforcement of a concurrent response. Essentially the same phenomenon had been recast as an effect of reinforcement rather than as an effect of extinction. Recasting schedule interactions as inhibitory effects of reinforcement rather than as excitatory effects of extinction was, in effect, a paradigm shift, and made it easier to see obvious parallels between operant interactions and receptor interactions within sensory systems.

For over 30 years, the CABAS® (Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling) model has served students, parents and educators throughout the world and is continually advancing the science of teaching as applied behavior analysis. CABAS® today serves students with and without disabilities and continues to promote high standards of a rigorous scientific approach to teaching. It is a comprehensive system of teaching as science, that produces hundreds of experiments each year, disseminates the findings and applies them across the classrooms it serves. These science driven educational "best practices" are employed every day across general and special education CABAS® classrooms throughout the USA, England, Italy, and now Bosnia and Herzegovina, to teach students ranging from pre-listener through reader, writer, and self-editing levels of verbal behavior. Papers presented will focus on how CABAS® model affected the educational practices across varying educational models with reliability.

Jigsaw School is an independent day school for children and young people with autism spectrum disorders. It is the only school of its kind in Surrey, offering a structured program of intensive intervention based on the principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA). Today, we are fully CABAS certified and have two sites, serving 55 children ages 5 to 19-years-old. This paper will focus on an overview of the past 12 years, how and what we have learned and accomplished. Today we are guided by the science, apply evidence-based system-wide approach to the whole organization where the pupil and teachers are trained using an ABA approach.

A systematic replication of a Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) classroom in Italy received, since 2008, a significant amount of attention from families, professionals, public school and health representatives. The implementation of a scientific model for education raised controversial questions about the social politics of the country and produced opposite reactions: families started to advocate to have CABAS trained professionals included in their children's educational environments, while public school representatives working in the surrounding areas refused to discuss with researchers about the critical outcomes of teaching as an art and full inclusion as a rule. The CABAS Pilot Project demonstrated to successfully replicate the American standards and be a unique training opportunity for teachers. For this study, nine teachers' performances were measured following 200 hours of training in a public school classroom, in a learning centre using applied behavior analysis (ABA) and in a CABAS classroom. The teaching performance was measured based on 10 repertoires identified as the features of the best expertise in education (Greer, 2002; Heward, 2003). The study is still ongoing and data, so far, suggests that training teachers in an ABA environment tremendously improves teachers' performance and that CABAS is the most efficient system for training. We will discuss the significance of these data in terms of advancement of behavior analysis and scientific pedagogy.

A systematic replication of a CABAS model classrooms in Bosnia has been the goal to reach for a group of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a few educators looking for a scientific model of education to implement in their country. Continual collaboration between the Fred S. Keller School and a few educators in Bosnia has finally brought the evidence-based model of instruction to teaching children with and without developmental delays. The CABAS model provided a modern, effective, evidence-based, and research-driven opportunity to help children in Sarajevo. A Pilot Project, based on the experiences of the 28 years of research at The Fred S. Keller School, was started in 2010 and the first data suggest the Bosnian classrooms can successfully replicate the American outcomes. There will be a discussion of the significance of the project in terms of how these data can affect the Bosnian education system and the successfulness of the CABAS as a full systematic solution to the education crisis across the world.

This presentation will review the research currently conducted within the CABAS classrooms part of the Rockland County Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The research is devoted to the establishment of new repertories and the induction of verbal capabilities. This research focuses on research-based tactics, protocols, and best practices for improving the academic skills and verbal behavior capabilities of students diagnosed with developmental disabilities.

In any academic situation students are confronted with a series of choices: Should I complete an assignment or talk to my friend? Should I talk to my friend or throw a paper ball at another student? The selection of one activity over another is determined by the relative amount of reinforcement associated with each alternative (Herrnstein, 1961). It is not surprising that students with learning difficulties are less likely to choose academic behaviors over other alternatives, given the relatively low payoff for working on the academic tasks compared with other options available in the student's environment. Therefore, it is important for educators to create learning conditions whereby students choose to complete independent academic assignments over other available options because they are more likely to obtain reinforcement associated with academic task completion. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss three studies that examined the effects of interventions designed to increase the availability reinforcement on choice of academic tasks of students with learning difficulties.

Task interspersal is an academic material modification procedure designed to make task completion more reinforcing. It is implemented by adding a sequence of brief tasks prior to more difficult or nonpreferred target academic tasks. This procedure results in an increase in the number of conditioned reinforcers available for completing a given task. However, one limitation of the studies examining these effects is that researchers exclusively use time-based contingencies to study academic choice behavior. This procedure may (a) inadvertently limit student opportunities to respond to the target problems and (b) not accurately reflect the real contingencies in applied settings. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of time- and task-based contingencies on student choice of academic materials. In this study a concurrent-schedule design with a reversal was used to compare the students' choice of worksheets when working under different task contingencies. Results are discussed within the context of matching law and previous literature.

This study examined the effects of task fluency on student choice of low and high effort math tasks. Four second grade students with learning disabilities participated in the study. We conducted the choice assessment before fluency training and examined the effects of schedules of reinforcement on student choice of both high and low effort math tasks. After initial choice assessment, we implemented explicit instruction procedures to increase students' fluency of high effort tasks. When the students reached the fluency criteria, we conducted the choice assessment using identical format as the initial assessment. We used a concurrent schedule with reversal design to examine student choice of math tasks under different schedules of reinforcement. During initial choice assessment, students preferred low effort tasks when both low and high effort tasks resulted in equal schedule of reinforcement. As the researchers enriched the density of reinforcement associated the high effort tasks students started to select high effort tasks more ferquently. After fluency training, students started to select the high effort tasks without requiring enriched schedule of reinforcement.

Setting events, for example, may be social (Bailey, Wolery, & Sugai 1988; Kazdin, 2000) and manipulated to occasion behavioral change (Alberto & Troutman, 2009). Although, little to no systematic research has been conducted on the role of student teacher rapport as a motivating factor (setting event or reinforcer) in student choice of academic behaviors, McLaughlin and Carr (2005) found that when rapport was poor, levels of problem behavior were high and when rapport was good levels of problem behavior were low. In addition, researchers found that student teacher rapport is linked to resiliency (Flores, 2005; Masten, 2001) and student academic and behavioral outcomes (Baker, 1998; Birch & Ladd, 1997; Goodenow, 1993; Pianta & Steinberg, 1995). Hence, it is clear that student teacher rapport as an external environmental factor contributes to positive student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of student teacher rapport as a motivating factor (setting event or reinforcer) on student choice of academic behaviors.

Food selectivity for individuals with autism and Asperger's Syndrome is a well-documented problem. The present study used forced-choice preference assessment to evaluate the self-determined preference or hypothetical value of food by a 12-year-old male with Asperger's in three settings: (a) prior to exposure to food (perceived food value) and without food present (b) prior to exposure to food with food present and (c) after exposure to food (actual food value) through clinical feeding protocols. Comparison of the pre-exposure preference assessments reveals differential preference rankings in the presence and absence of food. In the presence of food, the participant confirmed pre-exposure preferences of 60% or higher. However, items that received 20% or lower pre-exposure rankings (perceived as non-preferred) without food present, rated much higher in the presence of the food. Following the pre-exposure preference assessments, the participant was exposed to 12 foods via clinical feeding protocols (differential reinforcement of alternativeand self-monitoring) for three sessions per day forfour days. Following the exposure period, the same forced-choice preference assessment was conducted. This presentation will highlight the results of the present study and address key issues pertaining to the perceptions of preference for non-preferred food by individuals with Asperger's.

It is considered best practices (and in some cases mandated) to assess the function of challenging behavior before designing and implementing behavioral interventions. Much research has demonstrated the effectiveness of experimental functional analyses, however outside of the field of behavior analysis, there is some concern as to whether experimental functional analyses potentially alter the topography, intensity, and frequency of the targeted behavior, as well as, potentially "shape-up" new behaviors-despite a lack of evidence supporting these concerns. An alternative to the standard experimental functional analysis, in which both antecedents and consequences are manipulated, is to manipulate only antecedents, while intentionally withholding potential maintaining consequences (Carr & Durand, 1985). The current study examined the ability of an antecedent experimental functional analysis to produce interpretable results for the function of problem behavior across six children with autism. The antecedent analysis produced clear results in five of the six participants, with the sixth participant requiring a standard experimental functional analysis to produce clear results.

In this three-phase study we examined the influence of motivating operations, in the form of presession access to a reinforcer on attention-maintained challenging behavior for children with developmental disabilities. In the first phase of the study a functional analysis was conducted confirming that target behaviors were maintained by access to attention. In Phase 2 we verified rejection behaviors, or behaviors that the child used to convey the desire to complete an activity. These rejection behaviors were later used as a signal of satiation of experimenter-provided attention. In the third phase of the study, an attention condition of a functional analysis was conducted prior to the child having access to the experimenter's attention. Next, the experimenter provided the child with noncontingent attention at least once every 10 seconds until the child displayed the previously validated behavioral indicator of satiation, then a second attention condition was immediately conducted. The results of the effects of motivating operations on attention-maintained challenging behaviors are discussed.

This paper describes the method by which staff and managers of a group home usedapplied behavior analysis (ABA)strategies to decrease aggressive behaviors of a 42-year-old man (SD) with autism and developmental disabilities. It was necessary that these long-standing, dangerous behaviors decrease in order that SD remain in the community. Utilizing a single case design (ABC1D1E1), the results show that the staff was successful in changing the environment so that SD used aggression less often to control others. Anecdotal reports confirmed that he learned to attend activities in the community, such as taking long walks, buying items in thrift shops, eating at fast food shops, and going to the library. Results are discussed and recommendations for further research are suggested.

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) face the same development challenges as their peers, but their lives are complicated by the core deficits of ASD, as well as increased risk for anxiety (Farrugia & Hudson, 2006). The purpose of the current study was to extend our manualized family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)group treatment designed for children with ASD and anxiety (Reaven et al., 2009) to an adolescent population. Nineteen adolescents participated in the 14 week intervention and (a) met criteria for an ASD, as confirmed by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2002); (b) had a Verbal IQ of 80 or above; and (c) exhibited clinically significant symptoms of anxiety, as measured by Anxiety Disorders Inventory Schedule for Children, Parent Report (ADIS-P; Silverman & Albano, 1996). Ratings by independent clinicians on the Clinical Global Impressions Scale for the participants' anxiety diagnosis indicated that post-treatment 37% of participants were "significantly improved", 42% were "somewhat improved," and 21% were "no change." These results represent a preliminary, but important step in the development of efficacious CBT interventions for high school students with ASD.

There is little research currently available examining how to most effectively match individuals providing applied behavior analysis (ABA) and families seeking these services. With a growing need for ABA services and greater use of paraprofessionals to implement behavior plans, the need to examine indicators of successful working relationships, for example, are crucial. In a qualitative study conducted by Grindle and colleagues (2009), difficulties related to therapist acquisition, match, and retention were identified (e.g., recruitment, finding the "right person for the job," therapist turnover) and warrant scrutiny. In an attempt to begin identifying a useful measure and possible indicators to best or better match paraprofessionals and families, this study examines the post hoc administration of the Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Reitman, Rhode, Hupp, & Altobello, 2002) to 11 mothers and 10 paraprofessionals. In conjunction with with PAQ-R scores, behavioral indicators and characteristics (e.g., verbal/written complaints, decreased service hours, cancellations, termination) will be examined. Both aggregate and case study data will be used to evaluate the utility of the measures.

The delivery of consistent, high-quality behavioral services to children with autism presents a formidable challenge. This challenge may be exacerbated by providing those services in home-based rather than clinic or school settings. Home-based service delivery places distance between staff supervisors, limiting the potential for collaboration. This reality may be a threat to treatment fidelity when considering staff working in different regions, trained by supervisors who cannot collaborate with one another on a regular basis. Reliable tools which evaluate staff performance as well as supervisor effectiveness are necessary to prevent potential inconsistencies across staff and supervisors. When evaluating staff performance, feedback which is behavior specific has been proven to be an important element to many feedback tools. This presentation describes elements of an agency wide staff evaluation tool. Research related to "behavior specific feedback" is presented as it relates to the evaluation tools development and its several modifications. The relationship between feedback delivery and ratings of staff performance are examined as well.

One of the challenges of a de-centralized agency providing home-based services to children with autism is the delivery of consistently effective services. With staffing resources spread over a wide geographical area, collaboration between supervisors is limited. Individual supervisors in separated environments may drift apart in their criteria for evaluating staff performance. Well defined and consistently implemented staff evaluation tools can help to bridge this gap. Traditional point-by-point interobserver agreement (IOA) assessments is one way to measure reliability, however this method is limited by the availability of multiple supervisors in the same location. The present study analyzes the subjectivity of individual supervisors through statistical inference as well as point-by-point IOA. It reviews the modification of an agency-wide supervision system in an effort to increase reliability while maintaining a high level of supervision feedback and acceptability.

Parent involvement is a critical component in programs aimed at decreasing challenging behaviors displayed by children with autism and other developmental disabilities. Several factors may influence the effectiveness of models in which parents are trained to conduct behavioral assessments and interventions with their children. The focus of this symposium will be on describing three different parent training models as well as reviewing data on key factors associated with treatment results. First, Timothy Moore will describe the variables that influenced parents adherence to an intervention package focused on reducing problem behaviors displayed by children with autism. Second, Wendy Machalicek will present data on the effects of performance feedback on parents implementation of treatment that is provided by behavioral specialists through tele-conferencing. Third, John Lee will describe the procedures and outcomes of a training approach in which parents are coached to conduct functional analyses and functional communication training using telehealth. Stephanie Peterson will serve as discussant and she will review the studies in terms of their strengths and limitations as well as directions for future research in the area of delivering effective coaching to parents.

Parents (N =21) of children with autism spectrum disorders were surveyed regarding adherence to skills instruction and problem behavior management strategies. All parents previously participated in a standardized training curriculum based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Three independent variables were significantly correlated with reported adherence (agreement with spouse on implementation of interventions, perceived effectiveness as a behavior change agent, confidence in the intervention to produce meaningful change) and were included in a linear regression as a single factor. The full model explained 53% of variance in reported adherence (p < .001), with the single factor contributing significant unique information to the model (p < .002). Implications of parent perception in explanatory frameworks for adherence are discussed.

Past research suggests that performance feedback may contribute to improved treatment adherence for parents of children with challenging behavior, but behavior specialists and families may find the cost and time involved prohibitive. This study evaluates the effects of performance feedback provided via video tele-conferencing (VTC) (i.e., laptop computers, web cameras, Broadband Internet) on parent acquisition and generalization of intervention strategies across desired family routines for three parents of children with developmental disabilities who engaged in challenging behavior. Based on the results of functional analyses and multielement treatment comparisons, interventions were selected and implemented by parents with performance feedback via VTC. The effects of parent implemented intervention on challenging behavior will be evaluated using a multiple baseline across participants design. Data on the efficacy of parent implemented intervention is to be collected.

During the past year, we have conducted nine functional analyses and reinforcement-based treatments matched to function of problem behavior in Child Health Specialty Clinics using telehealth equipment from the Center for Disabilities and Development at University of Iowa - Hospitals and Clinics. All participants were 6-years-old or younger, had diagnosed autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and displayed problem behavior during a function analysis. Functional analyses and treatment sessions were conducted by parents who were provided with 1 hour of weekly consultation by the experimenters. We will briefly describe the procedures used in our study and summarize the results. Summaries presented will include the results of the functional analyses, the effects of treatment on reductions in problem behavior, and parent ratings of acceptability of the procedures. Outcome comparisons of similar procedures conducted in-home will also be presented. Acceptability ratings were obtained from parents using the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form-Revised. Currently, approximately 77% of the children achieved a 80% or higher reduction in problem behavior. Parent acceptability ratings averaged over 6 on a 7-point Likert-type scale, with 7 being the most positive rating. These results provide evidence of the effectiveness of function-based treatments via telehealth and of the acceptability of these procedures to parents.

The case studies presented here illustrate successful application of positive behavior support (PBS) procedures as a component of community-based services, and are based on Carr and colleagues recommended intervention principles (1999): basing behavioral interventions on ongoing functional assessments, linking results of assessment to the design of intervention, implementing the intervention in all relevant natural contexts through the use of multicomponent designs, providing interventions that have ecological validity, changing interventions as changes in life circumstances occur as a means of providing a long-term perspective, making students an integral part of the approach to developing interventions that are practical and producing socially valid outcomes in terms of life-style change. In this presentation, a multicomponent treatment plan, including functional assessment, antecedent control procedures, functional communication training, and positive reinforcement strategies, was implemented to effect long-term positive lifestyle changes for four individuals with severe chronic behavior disorders associated with developmental disabilities. Data will include systematic reduction of challenging behaviors and acquisition of skills and strategies to use as alternatives to the challenging behavior.

Two case studies will be presented that illustrate positive long-term effects of behavioral intervention. Two individuals who attended a private school for children and young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities will be described. These individuals presented with severe problem behaviors, including physical aggression toward others. Effective interventions were implemented and generalized. Intervention targets included physical aggression and adaptive alternative behaviors, including increasing communicative and prosocial behaviors. Data depicting the reduction of problem behaviors, the gaining of appropriate prosocial behaviors and the opportunity to participate with peers will be presented for both cases. Social validity of the individuals' gains will be evaluated in terms of ability to participate in regularly occurring school and community activities and to successfully participate in on- and off-site internship experiences. Although reduction of challenging behaviors was a priority, the clinical approach in this study was primarily developed to assist the individuals in achieving a lifestyle change by positively addressing many dimensions that define quality of life.

In this study, a multicomponent treatment plan was implemented to effect positive lifestyle changes for a young autistic man with life-threatening self injury. This individual had been exposed to aversive treatments in previous settings, including mechanical and chemical restraint, seclusion for extended periods and physical punishers. He had failed in community paceents and in secured settings, and was considerd at significant risk. Over 4 years, behavior support plans were developed and refined to address the individual's self-injurious behavior. The study used a longitudinal case study design, with construction and systematic modification of behavior supports based on ongoing functional analysis of the challenging behavior. In addition, functionally equilvalent strategies and skills were taught to assist this individual in improving his quality of life. Specific areas included establishing social relationships with his peers, reestablishing family bonds, increasing his personal satisfaction and self-esteeem, improving self-determination (i.e., choice-making skills and self-direction), increasing community access and increasing recreation and leisure opportunities.

A case study will be presented on a young man with severe aggression. The challenging behaviors of this individual was dependent on multiple functional and structural variables, necessitating a multidimensional intervention strategy built on ongoing functional assessments. The challenging behaviors were related to many variables that at times occurred simultaneously, were chained together, or changed on a daily basis, thereby requiring flexibility in implementing multiple intervention strategies. Because multiple treatment procedures were implemented simultaneously, it is impossible to assign causality to any single procedure. This limitation notwithstanding, the outcomes were significant given the treatment resistant history of this individual and the seriousness of his presenting challenges. Although experimental rigor is required to support specific causal inferences, practitioners ofapplied behavior analysishave increasingly called for a balancing of experimental rigor with ecological validity as intervention increasingly focuses on delivery of services in natural envirnments and goodness of fit between interventions and existing resources and routines. Although generalization from this case study and single subject design is impossible, the results are significant because they demonstrate the possibility of positive outcomes despite an extended history of extreme behavioral challenges.

The past dozen years have witnessed accelerated research on the applicability of the implicit association test (IAT) in generating measures of unconscious cognitions and attitudes across social political and even clinical content areas. Proliferation of the IAT is alarming when one considers that it has proceeded in the absence of efforts to investigate the test's core processes. These premature uses of the IAT and its variants have even spread to the behavior analytic community. More recently, researchers have begun to unpack the IAT in laboratory preparations to develop a controlled and comprehensive account of variables responsible for the interesting results produced by this test of implicit relations (Gavin, Roche & Ruiz, 2008; Ridgeway, Roche, Gavin & Ruiz, in press). The first two papers will extend our analysis of procedural components of standard IAT methodology including the effects of "corrective feedback" and comparisons of acquisition criteria on subsequent implicit relations testing. The third paper considers the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP), an IAT variant widely used by behavior analysts, and outlines a systematic research curriculum to dismantle its construction and begin to sort out its core processes. The final paper proposes a novel test-conceptually derived from our behavioral model of the IAT-for assessing implicit relations, the function acquisition speed test (F.A.S.T.).

The implicit association test (IAT) applies a corrective feedback following incorrect responses. The time required for these are factored into hybrid latency measures. The net result is an artificial increase in response latencies for incorrect responses. This artificial increase presents a serious methodological flaw particularly when one considers that long latencies are the criterion by which correct and incorrect responses are differentiated in standard IAT methodology. It is arguable that the effects reported are directly created by the experimental procedure. This study was designed to examine the effects of feedback delivery on response fluency. Specifically, a non-contingent response observation requirement without reinforcing properties was developed to mimic the delivery of feedback in the IAT. The requirement to make the observation response was imposed on one quarter of trials during each of the two main testing blocks of an IAT across two experimental conditions: socially consistent tasks; socially inconsistent tasks. A third condition involved the delivery of an IAT in the absence of corrective feedback and observation response requirements. Preliminary results indicate that the delivery of corrective feedback increases latencies and this increase is significantly greater for inconsistent tasks as is the case on the standard IAT. Corrective feedback therefore may actually interfere rather than enhance learning while simultaneously magnifying the reported IAT effect sizes.

A behavioral model of the implicit association test (IAT) suggests that the IAT works by comparing the relative fluencies in responding to related and unrelated pairs of stimuli. We tested this idea by exposing two groups of participants to an equivalence training procedure that led to the formation of two three-member equivalence classes each containing three nonsense syllables. One group was trained using a strict fluency criterion that required responses to be produced within 3s on every trial of the stimulus equivalence training and testing phases. The second group was trained without the time limit to the same accuracy criterion. Both groups were exposed to a word-picture association training phase in which one member of each of the equivalence relations, printed in blue or red font, was paired with either plant or animal images, respectively. All participants were subsequently exposed to an implicit association test whose outcome was predicted and controlled by the organization of the trained relations. Preliminary results suggest greater differences in correct responding between the related (consistent) and unrelated (inconsistent) stimuli during the IAT for participants in the accuracy only condition yielding larger IAT effects for this group. We are collecting additional data and will discuss possible interpretations of the results.

The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) is a relatively new behaviorally-based measure of cognitive phenomena. While the existing literature with the IRAP has demonstrated significant promise with this instrument for a variety of research questions, the IRAP to date has not been subjected to a thorough, systematic program of basic laboratory research. Such a program may be fruitful, given the controversy over interpreting the meaning of response patterns to this and other implicit measures. In this presentation, a program of proposed research will be outlined, and preliminary data will be provided.

The current study examined a novel methodology for assessing the strength of stimulus-stimulus relations. Subjects were exposed to a computer based conditional discrimination training procedure in which four stimulus-stimulus relations were established using nonsense syllables as stimuli. Subjects were then exposed to a baseline training phase in which a single operant response function was established for each of two additional nonsense syllable stimuli. This provided a baseline rate of response function acquisition. Two further function training phases were then administered in which stimuli from the established stimulus-stimulus relations; (a) shared and (b) did not share common response functions. The rates of function acquisition in these two phases were analyzed in relation to each other and the baseline rate. The results suggest that this methodology can be used to measure the existence and perhaps strength of pre-existing stimulus relations. It may also have potential for use as a behavior analytic "implicit" test.

In this presentation the author will provide an explanation of the process of engineering in relationship to engineering educational settings to bring about desired outcomes. B. F. Skinner has provided practitioners with a wealth of "tools" and operations based on his findings. For example, in Skinner's analyses of educational settings, he has concluded that teaching is the arrangement and rearrangement of contingencies to facilitate learning. The author will provide a description of the parts of the learning environments that can bring about the most likely reinforcement contingencies. The author will illustrate how instructors can arrange and rearrange these distinct parts of the instructional conditions (e.g., grouping of learners and curricula) to bring about the required reinforcement contingencies. These prescriptive contingencies can be used to develop the 'missing' repertoires required for a given naive learner to become a more competent learner. Concurrently, the author will illustrate Skinner's concepts about how to keep the learning environment in balance so competing contingencies do not interfere with developing repertoires.

We report the essential steps for establishing an accelerated independent learner classroom (AIL) model in a public school fully inclusive classroom and the effects on student outcomes. The implementation of AIL procedures was done in successive phases to ensure the fidelity of the model was not compromised and also to inductively analyze which components were needed and when. Key components of the model include creating a positive classroom environment with several systems of reinforcement in place, training the classroom assistant to implement model components and to ensure that all instruction is individualized. The results are reported by the measurement of student progress vis-a-vis mastery of grade level expectations. The induction of verbal developmental capabilities for students including observational learning, naming and functional writing is also discussed. The academic achievement of a purposive matched sample will be discussed in regards to each phase of this project.

Integrating behavior analytic practices into inclusive early learning environments can be a daunting task-particularly when a school's guiding methodology seems at odds with the principles of behavior analysis. Montessori-inspired learning environments are often no exception. The Montessori Method, which resulted from Dr. Maria Montessori's work with both children with special needs and those who were environmentally disadvantaged, is often misunderstood to be little more than an invitation for children to do as they please. However, behavior analysis actually has much to gain from and offer to the over 5,000 Montessori-inspired preschools nationwide. Errorless learning, prompting hierarchies, and task analysis are just a few of the practices that can be found in a truly Montessori-inspired classroom. Likewise, Dr. Montessori's work has much to teach behavior analysts about time-tested ways to effectively integrate motivational variables into a child's learning environment. Although certainly an unlikely partnership, an introduction to Montessori's educational philosophy will prepare a behavior analyst for richer collaboration in inclusive early learning environments.

Considering the status of education in America, a school-wide behavior analytic model which ensures effective instruction for all students seems to be a welcome change. One year ago a contract school was begun in Chicago targeting the at-risk population with the intention of developing a school-wide system based on the principles and best practices identified in behavior analysis. In the process of developing a strong model for behavior management and instruction, several interesting factors have arisen which seem to be unique to implementing behavior analysis in the general education setting. Factors to be discussed include (a) school-wide and within-classroom behavior management, (b) individualizing instruction while staying in accord with state standards and preparation for standardized tests, (c) choosing and implementing effective curricula, (d) training teachers and teaching assistants without backgrounds in behavior analysis, and (e) data collection and progress monitoring. Implementing a comprehensive behavior analytic model in the general education setting has significant implications for ensuring student progress across all children.

Across the years, the Association for Behavior Analysis International has truly become an international organization dedicated to disseminating behavior analysis throughout the world. Members will have the opportunity to celebrate this world-wide dissemination with a panel of international experts within the field of behavior analysis. Panelists will discuss the successes and challenges of implementing behavior analytic technologies in human service agencies outside the US. Other topics to be addressed include (a) developing international associations and graduate training programs, (b) navigating laws and regulations outlining funding, licensing, and certification requirements, and (c) outlining internship and job opportunities abroad.

Since major course exams often constitute the bulk of credit in large undergraduate courses, determining which factors collectively optimize exam performance would seem valuable to professors. This study investigated which of several academic dimensions [i.e., critical thinking, grade point average (GPA), participation in class discussion, homework completion, and academic self-efficacy] best predicted exam performance in an undergraduate teacher education class. A stepwise regression analysis showed critical thinking to be the strongest predictor, followed in order by GPA, participation in class discussion, homework completion, and academic self-efficacy. The combined predictors accounted for over 40% of the variance in exam scores, with critical thinking accounting for more than half of this variance. The results of the current study extend existing literature on exam performance in large undergraduate classes, indicating that each of the examined factors significantly predicts student exam performance. Critical thinking was the most powerful predictor, but the other factors all show potential for improving performance. Some of these factors, such as homework completion and participation in class discussion, may be amenable to instructor influence. Other factors, such as academic self-efficacy and GPA, may be more representative of past experiences and suggest a history of effective or ineffective academic behaviors.

Nonverbal behaviors relay a significant amount of information during interpersonal communication. Thus, these behaviors influence interpretations of the content and atmosphere of the conversation. One aspect of nonverbal communication that is particularly influential is nonverbal mirroring. Nonverbal mirroring refers to the unconscious mimicry of orientation, postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners in the communication (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). This research studies the effects of nonverbal mirroring on teacher-student rapport. Each of ten university students was videotaped during four one-to-one teacher-student oral assessments. Thin-slice analysis of the videos and quantitative analysis of the students' self-rating surveys were used to determine (a) if nonverbal mirroring influenced rapport and if so, (b) which behaviors were correlated with rapport. For this analysis, six aspects of rapport (attention, positivity, coordination, expectation, anxiety-relief, and self-confidence) were used as dependent variables. Students' feeling of rapport significantly increased as the teacher mirrored students' nonverbal behaviors. Most of nonverbal mirroring behaviors had positive correlations with rapport variables, and four of them had strong positive associations between nonverbal mirroring and rapport (p < .05). The research suggests important implications for teachers in adopting appropriate nonverbal mirroring behaviors to build teacher-student rapport in oral assessments.

We should not be surprised that human beings were able to invent language. Their incentive, the desire to communicate, was enormous. They also had superb tools: their highly engineered ears. And after a long time had passed, they invented reading and writing, too. Even though reading and writing are close relatives, they are not simply the reciprocal of one another. Reading is decoding, a more passive skill than writing, but readers must interpret what writers meant. Readers also unconsciously follow the guidance of the punctuation. Without instruction, readers are not able to place this punctuation in text for clarity and effects. Writing, however, is encoding, a much more complex skill. Those who can write already know how to read. Yet, except for the cursory tips to "pay attention to your audience" and "mind your tone," traditional writing programs fail to use the help that out-loud reading would provide. Writing students would learn how to test the accuracy and emphasis of the punctuation they have already added or plan to add. They could then place punctuation strategically; they could produce the same emphasis and other effects that body language provides for speech. This paper describes a system for applying reading skills to writing instruction. Participating students include adult graduate students seeking writing improvement, as well as college freshmen preparing for admission to an English composition course.

Sign language is the third most frequent language used in the United States. Sign language training involves hundreds of courses and programs across the country, with additional hundreds of programs across the world. Empirical investigations to evaluate methods to develop skills in signing effectively are scarce in the published literature, however. The present research reports the results of two studies to facilitate acquisition, fluency, and maintenance of one of the basic elements of sign language acquisition: sign recognition. Using a concept learning model, we employed discrimination training procedures to train sign recognition to the response competence levels of acquisition and fluency, and to test for maintenance over a 2 week period. The data indicated that rapid acquisition and fluency in sign recognition were achieved. Current research will be reported on a modified program to strengthen performance on maintenance tests.