Association for Behavior Analysis International

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The present study aimed to investigate how motorized vehicle-related factors, road-related factors, and bicyclist-related factors influenced motorists decisions about initial passing distances. A quasi-naturalistic riding method was used for thirty-four participating bicyclists riding an instrumented bicycle in real traffic. The study included 1,380 incidents of left-side passing by motorists and revealed that the factors studied influenced both the motorists initial passing distance. Some factors were related to the motorized vehicles; for example, the initial passing distance was smaller when motorcycles passed than when cars and small trucks passed. For road-related factors, a clear and longitudinal solid line separation helped to maintain a greater lateral distance between motorists and bicyclists. Moreover, when bicyclists avoided road surface hazards, they reduced the initial passing distances that the motorists had chosen. Considering bicyclist-related factors, the motorists selected a greater initial passing distance for female bicyclists. The present study demonstrated that the quasi-naturalistic riding method is capable of collecting rich data concerning bicyclists behaviors, which could potentially be utilized in various types of studies. However, this method requires a large sample and considerable time and effort for data processing.

Preference pulses have been documented in dynamic choice situations where the relative rate of food delivery changes rapidly according to concurrent random interval schedules. We extended the generality of this finding to concurrent random ratio schedules using three response units (2, 4, and 8 responses) and seven pairs of probabilities (0.16-0.02, 0.16-0.04, 0.16-0.08, 0.16-0.16, 0.08-0.16, 0.04-0.16, & 0.02-0.16), defining unsignaled components (8-1, 4-1, 2-1, 1-1, 1-2, 1-4, and 1-8) occurring in random order within sessions. Each component provided 10 food deliveries and was followed by a 1-minute black out. At the extended level sensitivity was consistent with undermatching, ruling out the possibility of exclusive preference. At the local level sensitivity increased with successive food deliveries. Continuations of food deliveries in the same lever moved preference towards that lever. But discontinuations moved it towards the opposite lever. Pulses of preference were similar to those observed in choice situations using concurrent variable interval schedules. A giving-up response rule might be governing switching from one lever to the other.

Lever pressing was maintained by a concurrent token-production schedule in rats. Token deliveries (i.e., steel ball bearings) were assigned probabilistically to either the right or left lever such that the ratio of left to right token deliveries were 1:9, 1:6, 1:3, 1:1, 3:1, 6:1, or 9:1. Within a session, a total of 70 token reinforcers were earned and exchanged for sweetened condensed milk. The session was divided into seven components, where the components changed after 10 token deliveries and were separated by a 15 s inter-component interval. The location of the rich lever alternated, at random, between components according to the programmed token reinforcer ratios. Once assigned to a lever, token delivery was arranged by a random interval 30 s schedule. Transition to token exchange was arranged after each token was earned. During token exchange, depositing each token in a receptacle produced access to the sweetened condensed milk (FR 1 token exchange). Session-wide lever press ratios tracked daily changes in the programmed token ratio with considerable undermatching. Overall, the rats had a tendency to return to the just-productive lever following a token exchange and the tendency to return was stronger when the reinforcer ratio was more extreme.

The ability to rapidly change behavior in response to disruptions in environmental contingencies is important. The current study investigated the ability of adult mice to change behavior in response to a series of disruptions to a previously learned incremental repeated acquisition task (IRA). Subjects were 10 adult BALB/c mice with previous IRA experience. The IRA required subjects to perform the same response chain during each session, beginning with a single lever press, which then incremented up to a six-link chain. Disruptors to the IRA were elevations in nose-poke height and addition of variable interval schedules (VI) of reinforcement. Results showed that performance declined in a nose-poke height related fashion compared to baseline. VI 30 and 15 sec schedules increased correct chains and errors while a VI 5 sec reduced completed chains but increased accuracy and max chain length. Reinforcers earned per correct chain were greatest under the VI 5.

Delay discounting (DD) is a task used to assess an individuals ability to resist an immediate smaller reinforcement in lieu of a delayed, but more preferred reinforcement. The rate by which individuals will discount a delayed reward differs greatly and may be dependent on the individuals history of reinforcement. Past research suggests that individuals identified as hyperactive or inattentive may have detrimental performance on DD tasks. The current study evaluated 60 adults divided into three independent groups: control group, a group with ADHD who were on stimulant medications, and a group diagnosed with ADHD not on an associated medication. We administered an abbreviated-computerized version of the DD task, including hypothetical monetary values at a variety of delays. Comparisons of discounting rates for individuals with and without ADHD are presented. Counter to previous research, the ADHD group did not show statistically significant differential discounting comparative to the control group and medication did not play a significant role. In addition, discrepancies between ascending and descending approaches and the effects of the abbreviated version, as opposed to the full test, are also considered.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, and is a highly heritable behavioral disorder affecting 3-5% of children. Rate, magnitude, quality, and immediacy of reinforcement are important variables that influence behavior. Although less well studied, response effort is an additional variable that affect behavior including choice, stimulus control and response rate, and may affect behavior characteristic of ADHD differently than behavior in typically developing children. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR/NCrl), the best validated animal model of ADHD, display poor stimulus control (inattention), high rates of responses (hyperactivity) and responses with short interresponse times (impulsivity) in operant tasks. Using an operant two-lever visual discrimination task and response effort manipulations, the present study explored effects on stimulus control, response rate and interresponse times in SHR/NCrl and WKY/NHsd controls. Prior to response effort manipulation, stimulus control was lower and rates of responses and short interresponse times were higher in SHR/NCrl relative to WKY/NHsd controls, while increased response effort reduced overall responding in both strains.

Aversive effects of fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement have been studied in many ways, such as through escape, avoidance, and aggression; another way is punishment. A multiple FR variable-interval (VI) 2-min schedule was used with pigeons. Twelve components of the VI and FR schedules alternated with a maximum of 24 reinforcers. Across phases, the FR schedule was increased from 5 to 100. Once behavior was stable, probe sessions were conducted every 3 days, in which, the stimulus associated with the FR schedule was flashed for 0.3 s contingent on a response during the VI schedule according to a random-ratio (RR) 3 schedule. That is, a conjoint VI 2-min of food and RR 3 of FR stimulus was arranged. In general, VI baseline rates were higher for two subjects (P480 & P286) compared to other subjects (P49889 & P269), and did not change much as the FR increased. As the ratio increased in the FR component, punishment effects (decreased VI rates) were found during the probes at FR 100; that is, VI responding was punished by FR-stimulus presentation. At FR 5 and 25, FR-stimulus presentation has not punished rates. The FR will be increased until punishment is seen.

Pausing on fixed-ratio schedules is jointly controlled by the preceding reinforcer and the signal associated with the upcoming reinforcer. More specifically, when a transition occurs from a relatively good situation (e.g., high reinforcer magnitude, low work requirement) to a relatively poor situation (e.g., low reinforcer magnitude, high work requirement) pausing is by far the longest. This rich-to-lean transition effect (a type of negative incentive shift) has been observed across an array of species (pigeons, rats, monkeys, humans with mild-to-moderate intellectual disabilities) and scenarios. We sought to extend the phenomenon to water-deprived rats pressing isometric force transducers for different quantities of water reinforcement with the eventual goal of pharmacological testing. Additionally, the apparatus included a force-plate floor that measured the locomotion of the rats in real time, allowing us to approach the typically unasked question of what the rats are actually doing when they are pausing. The rich-to-lean transition effect was observed in 8 out of 8 subjects although the size of the effect (or whether it was observed at all) depended upon multiple factors, including the method of signaling the schedule components, the difference in reinforcer magnitudes, the establishing operations for the use of water reinforcement, and the fixed-ratio size.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were placed on continuous reinforcement before being exposed to an FI-15, FI-30, FI-60, or FI-120 second schedule. We measured response rate and post-reinforcement pause within each interval, and found honey bees responded at higher frequencies earlier in the interval. Response rates were lower during FI conditions compared to performance on continuous reinforcement schedules. Subjects exposed to FI conditions were more resistant to extinction than subjects only provided with continuous reinforcement. However, no "scalloped" or "break-and-run" patterns of responding were observed, and no evidence of temporal control by honey bees was produced.

While numerous demonstrations of schedules of reinforcement have been produced using a variety of model organisms, few studies have attempted to replicate the varied schedules of reinforcement typical of pigeon and rodent research with invertebrate organisms. The following study sought to demonstrate simple schedules of reinforcement with the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina poertentosa). Individual roaches were exposed to a simple operant chamber which provided reinforcement, in the form of feed solution, as consequence of the roach moving through a laser sensor. Results indicate that these giant wingless cockcoaches are sensitive to changes in the ratio and interval schedules as evident by appropriate increases and decreases in responding following alterations of the schedule. As invertebrate organisms, i.e. insects, crustacean, annelids, etc. fall under few research regulations and cost far less to maintain than invertebrate organisms, further exploration into viability of using invertebrate model organisms is warranted.

The post-reinforcement pause is commonly observed in fixed ratio and fixed interval schedules. It appears as a pause correlated with the response or time requirement preceding reinforcement with longer pauses following longer runs of responses or longer time to reinforcement. Using a novel procedure that randomly presents one of 80 possible interval schedule values (1-80), a small 1-cm dot moves across a touch screen toward a short vertical line that signals time to the next reinforcer. The dot stops after touching the vertical line and the next peck is reinforced with access to a food hopper. Under these conditions pausing, for two of the four birds in the study, increased as a linear function of signaled time. For the other two birds, very short pauses precede schedule values between 1 and 30-40, with pausing increasing in a linear fashion for interval values from 31-41 to 80 (these latter data comport well with ratio data collected in earlier studies). The breakpoint for the latter two birds has never been observed on variable interval schedules. These data suggest a very careful sensitivity to signaled intervals and probably serve as homologies of human procrastination. The longer the interval, the longer the wait time (after the breakpoint) suggesting that pausing is not always linearly related to signaled time. In conjunction with the ratio schedule findings these data suggest that the particulars of post-reinforcement pausing require reconsideration.

The ability to read is essential if children are to access the rest of their academic curriculum and failure to read effectively can have significant detrimental effects on their future life choices and future prospects. In this study children from two first grade classes in two local primary schools were randomly allocated to either receive MimioSprout Early Reading or teaching as usual for most of one academic year. Results from the Randomised Control Design are discussed in the context of effectiveness, cost efficiency, and technological interventions to help mainstream schools ensure that all children develop functional reading skills.

Currently, there are still a big number of children with autism that are not contemplated with appropriate services. This is the scenario in Brazil, where families struggle to provide proper treatment to their children while behavioral analytical services are limited, often unaffordable, and not supported by the government. As a response to this condition, the University of Sao Paulo created the Centro para o Autismo e Incluso Social (CAIS): The first free of charge community project in Brazil with the main goal of training parents on science-based procedures to become their own childrens therapist and conduct most of the treatment at home. Moreover, the project offers training to undergraduate students on applied behavior analysis principles and techniques. With this role model, professionals specialized in Behavior Analysis should increase, as well as the improvement of parents and childrens abilities. Collected data demonstrate that since 2007, the CAIS has served over 15 children and capacitated around 49 undergraduate and graduate students. The CAIS has also received several national and international guest lecturers who have contributed to the improvement of the services offered. The social implication of training caregivers and students to improve behavioral knowledge and practice in a country where behavioral intervention to autism still lacks human resources is discussed.

There is a significant proportion of drug users who don't finish the intervention plan without receiving the expected benefits with the procedures. Therapist�s behaviors of the health professionals have influence in the therapeutic adherence. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between the health therapist�s behavior and the drugs abuse recovery. We worked with 20 therapist, 12 female and 8 male, aged 25 to 33 years old, at the public institution created to prevent use and drug abuse. We used an observation code of the interactional therapist-user behavior (Chamberlain, 1986), that includes eight categories with 21 responses, using a partial interval data sheet divided on 15 �during 50 minutes. We obtained a 90% reliability between observers. The results showed that health Therapist performed mostly the listening behavior with 40.7%. The paraphrase category of the health professionals was correlated with the drug users recovery, being a fiable predictor for treatment termination (r2=0.004, p = 0.05). By understanding the behavior performed by the health professional and his connection with the termination of treatment and recovery, we will hope foster the behaviors that increase adherence of substance users treatment and empirical evidence.

Child sex trafficking is a rapidly growing issue throughout the United States, and the prevalence of this crime is astonishingly high in the State of Nevada. This type of trafficking is a fundamental violation of children�s rights, as it is considered to be a form of modern-day slavery in which children are exploited sexually. Despite the nature of this socially relevant issue, this area has been unexplored by the field of behavior analysis. In addition, the effectiveness of the ways in which individuals are made aware of socially relevant issues in their community warrants further investigation. A common and inexpensive method of disseminating information to the public consists of distributing small, informative handouts. This study investigated the effectiveness of handout variations across visual and textual depictions in conveying information to the public and their corresponding response and form of involvement. The correlation of handout type and strength of public response will be discussed, as well as demographic and social validity measures.

Shared pedestrian and bicyclist pathways can provide traveling opportunities that avoid the potential dangers imposed by motor vehicle traffic. While the availability of alternate pathways may decrease conflicts with motorists, bicyclist-pedestrian conflicts may correspondingly increase. To avoid such conflicts, shared bicyclist-pedestrian pathways are often divided into lanes that are specified for exclusive use according to traveler type. The effectiveness of shared pathways in enabling efficient and safe transportation, however, is dependent on the relative stimulus control exerted by signs and other prompts expected to influence lane compliance exhibited by bridge users. The current study investigated the effects of passive prompts (e.g., posted signs) and mediated prompts (e.g., spoken reminders) encouraging the lane compliance behavior of footbridge users on a college campus. Results showed an increased percentage of bridge user compliance compared to baseline in both the mediated and passive prompting conditions, with mediated prompting yielding the highest compliance measures across sessions. Implications the data may have on pedestrian and bicyclist safety are discussed.

Effective methods to increase peoples energy conservation behaviors are essential as humans continue to deplete the earths natural resources. In this experiment, we evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive workshop, involving education in sustainability issues and application of behavior change procedures, on introductory psychology students self-reported energy use. Following two baseline assessments of energy usage, 44 undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. The experimental group was presented with a 90-minute presentation reviewing sustainability issues and how to address them. Additionally, participants in the experimental group were asked by the researcher to complete a behavioral contract using goal setting, changing antecedents and programming consequences to decrease their energy use. Participants in the control group viewed an hour-long video on sustainability entitled: Journey to Planet Earth Plan B. Mobilizing to Save Civilization. Both groups completed three online assessments during the two-week period following the presentations as well as follow-up assessment four-weeks later. Participants in the experimental group showed consistent increases in energy savings over their baseline levels and when compared to those in the control group. These gains were maintained at follow-up. Compared to those in the control group, more participants in the experimental condition viewed their presentation as resulting in learning something new about green issues and influencing their green behavior. Although it is unknown which specific factors of this multi-component treatment are effective, it is encouraging that a fairly simple intervention may make a difference.

Scientists are increasingly recognizing the effects of human behavior on the environment and the need for more pro-environmental behavior changes. Previous studies have increased pro-environmental behaviors in various settings, using a variety of procedures such as written instructions and direct reinforcement techniques to increase recycling behavior. The purpose of the current study was to examine the possibility of using a rule to produce a motivating effect on recycling behavior of paper materials. Seven staff members from two offices in a university setting participated in the study. Using an alternating treatments design, the participants were exposed to both simple written instructions and outcome-related statements. These statements were derived from the ratings of the importance of 14 paper recycling facts in a survey administered before the study. Behavior analytic research has suggested that words can serve a motivational function increasing responding toward the item or outcome specified by the words. The research question is: Will the use of outcome-related statements have a greater effect on recycling behavior than the use of simple written instructions?

During 2012 there were several shootings that occurred in America. These shootings captivated America and the listservs that behavior analyst are a part of. The discussions covered a wide range of topics and many were quick to look for possible phase change lines that may have impacted the data over the years. The current poster will present the data for deaths per year in America and why the alleged phase changes cannot be considered such. In addition to the deaths per year data, data on actual public policies that behavior analyst can provide meaningful conversation on will be presented. The current poster aims to urge behavior analyst to be cautious on their interpretation of data as it related to public policy and to refine their efforts to more meaningful conversations.

We tested the effects of a training video that demonstrates how to implement a Generalized Imitation (GI) protocol on teachers performing the procedures accurately. The participants were 7 first-year master students from a major university who had never conducted any instruction on generalized imitation before the study. We implemented a non-concurrent multiple probe design across participants. The dependent variable of the study was the numbers of teachers performing protocol procedures accurately. The independent variable was the training video that demonstrates how to induce generalized imitation using a mirror. During baseline condition, the participants were provided with a training manual which included brief description of the GI protocol. During intervention, the participants watched the GI training video, which consisted of pre-intervention assessment, mirror protocol to induce generalized imitation, and post-intervention assessment. Our results found that the participants had difficulty conducting the procedures from reading the manual alone during baseline condition, and watching the training video significantly increased their accuracy.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of Active Student Responses (ASR) as an instructional method for online staff training. Active Student Response, also known as Audience Response Systems (ARS), is a teaching strategy that increases the number of response opportunities in a presentation to improve a learner’s performance. The current study investigated the effect of online staff training videos with and without ASR's on the post-test and maintenance test scores across six instruction modules. Active Student Responses consisted of multiple choice questions administered throughout each teaching module. Five employees at a university located in the southeastern region of the United States participated in this study and completed the modules as a part of the company training. Data were recorded and analyzed using an alternating treatment design and demonstrate that both methods successfully increased baseline scores following the training. The present findings indicate that learning occurred as a result of the training; however, the effectiveness of the ASR's varied for each individual. This research highlighted other areas of ASR's for exploration, such as the importance of incorporating direct feedback with the ASR's.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of feedback and a reinforcement system to increase scheduled shift attendance of 24 part-time student employees at a university call center. The overall job description of each employee was to call and aid prospective students who had not completed their application to the university. The intervention used a combination of task clarification and behavior contingent rewards as a form of feedback to increase the target behavior. The reward system was a token economy where employees could gain the opportunity to earn preferred items. Feedback was divided into individual and group level contingencies so that the feedback could target both individual and group behaviors. Baseline data suggests that employee absenteeism was most frequent during weekend shifts, which is expected for students in college. This study demonstrates that a low-cost reinforcement systems and feedback can increase the attendance behavior in an organization, including one that employs historically high turnover workers.

This study used a delayed multiple baseline across participants design to analyze the effects of coaching on special education teachers implementation of function-based interventions with students with severe disabilities. This study also examined the extent to which teachers could generalize function-based interventions to different situations. Additionally, this study examined the effects of function-based intervention on students problem and replacement behaviors. After an initial training on functional behavior assessment and implementation of function-based interventions, the experimenter coached each teacher. Results indicated a functional relationship between coaching and an increase in teacher fidelity scores. Teachers generalized the strategies to other situations with the target students. While some improvement in student behavior was noted upon teachers use of function-based interventions without coaching, this improvement was not consistent for all students and across the replacement behaviors. A functional relationship was found between accurate implementation of the function-based interventions and an increase in the students primary replacement behaviors.

Examining post-treatment outcomes for the users of residential care facilities remains an important aspect in assessing generalization of progress over time and across settings. We will survey post-treatment outcomes of former students of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), a residential care facility that employs a highly consistent application of behavioral treatment and educational programming. All former JRC students who are reachable and willing to participate will be surveyed. The surveyed former students will include those who are classified as developmentally/cognitively typical as well as those with developmental delays. We will use both a subjective General Life Adjustment rating scale (performed by guardians and/or the former students themselves) and objective counts of certain quality of life (QOL) indicators. QOL/current status indicators will include the persons need for ongoing treatment services (e.g., medication, therapy, etc.), family/relationship status, place of residence status, educational status, employment status, and leisure pursuit information. Data will be reported in terms of descriptive statistics.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether positive reinforcers served as motivating operations for escape-maintained problem behavior. The participants were 4 typically developing children who engaged in problem behavior maintained by escape from demands. All procedures were conducted within a 90 min evaluation in a behavioral outpatient clinic. Interobserver agreement was assessed for 84% of sessions and averaged 95%. Brief functional analyses of problem behavior were conducted within a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Problem behavior was evaluated under escape conditions with and without a signaled positive reinforcer. During all conditions, escape from the demand was provided contingent on problem behavior. During the treatment (signaled positive reinforcer) condition, participants chose a toy/activity to obtain contingent on compliance with a demand. This toy/activity was placed next to the work task. For all participants, results showed that problem behavior was maintained by negative reinforcement (Figure 1, baseline left panels). Problem behavior decreased under the same escape conditions when a signaled positive reinforcer was present (treatment right panels). For all participants, results suggested that a signaled positive reinforcer was effective at altering the value of negative reinforcement without the need to use extinction procedures.

Subject is a 30 year old Puerto Rican male who suffered a traumatic brain injury as the result of a motor vehicle accident, residing in a post acute rehabilitation facility. He was four months post injury at the start of treatment and presented with the dilemma of whether learning tasks were more efficiently taught in English verses Spanish. First, learning rates were established for picture-naming tasks in both languages. Intervention consisted of teaching and responding in Spanish for clock-reading and English for word-reading tasks using Precision Teaching. Probes of same tasks using untrained languages were conducted every fifth day to assess if rate of generalization was greater from Spanish to English-trained tasks or viceversa. Initial learning trials yielded similar learning rates in both languages and subsequent trials assessed whether there was a language preference for skill generalization. This methodology stresses the importance of assessing learning acquisition in both languages, as well as determining the preferred method of instruction to promote maximal generalization of skills with bilingual, neurologically impaired individuals.

Investigation of how individual difference variables modulate brain activation provides an opportunity for identifying sources of between-subject variability in human imaging studies. In human neurophysiological research on threat and avoidance, little is known about how various risk factors for affective disorders (anxiety, depression) modulate brain activation patterns during avoidance. To address this issue, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand how levels of trait anxiety (an increased tendency to perceive threats: STAI) and experiential avoidance (AAQ-2) modulate brain activation to threats that prompt avoidance. Imaging occurred while a healthy group of subjects (N=17) responded on a multiple FR avoidance-extinction schedule (16 s of threat-avoidance alternated with 16 s of extinction). Reported levels of experiential avoidance (AAQ-2) and trait anxiety (STAI) were correlated with activation during the initial transition to the threatening context. Significant negative correlations were found between activation associated with threat-avoidance and experiential avoidance in the right insula and trait anxiety in the left ventral putamen, bilateral thalamus, left DLPFC and dorsal medial anterior cingulate. These results suggest vulnerability factors associated with pathological avoidance modulate responsiveness in several brain regions responsible for behavioral regulation and threat recognition.

Six children with Autism (ASD) or suspected of having Autism require intraverbal (IV) behavioral assessment training to determine the ability to integrate into society, learn, problem solve, and create. In this study, intraverbal (IV) behavior assessment showed a correlation with age dependence but was conditional on where the child fell on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Amazingly, non-verbal children scored high on the entrance exam of WH questions demonstrating that although they were non verbal or had limited speech they still continued to develop some (IV) behaviors without training which is consistent with the theory (IV) development is age dependent.. Non-verbal children demonstrated the ability to read as they often would correctly respond before they were even given the three verbal stimuli or VCDs paired with the contextual stimuli. This six month study did not reveal a compounding issue with VCDs in children with ASD. More over the intervention provided a comparative analysis of contextual picture stimuli versus contextual word stimuli was conducted and revealed that while contextual picture stimuli are important in the early stages of teaching (IV) behaviors with proper transference procedures such as the interventions used in this study, children with ASD can readily move to contextual word stimuli thus increasing literacy. The importance of this study is that with (IV) training intraverbal development can increase as it is not exclusively age dependent thus increasing thinking, generalization, reading, self editing and other more advance verbal behavior through intervention.

Five reinforcing activities were presented to and interrupted for two participants with autism. An errorless teaching procedure was then introduced with two similar activities prompting the participant to request information saying How? in order to resume the activity. The dependent variable included both the cumulative number of times How? occurred and number of times he used the acquired information to access his reinforcer. Training was conducted across five clinicians to determine generalization across both activities and people. Results suggest that one participants manding for information generalized across activities and clinicians, although his utilizing the acquired information was not as apparent for 4 out of the 5 activities. The second participants behavior suggested his manding to have generalized to 3 out of 5 activities but limited (2 out of 5) use of acquired information. A maintenance trial conducted three weeks after the studys conclusion indicated that the target behaviors were maintained.

According to the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000), one of the core features of autism is a communication deficit, and children diagnosed with autism may demonstrate verbal communication deficits in different ways. Children diagnosed with autism, for example, may not have the skills to mand and effectively manipulate their surrounding environment. Appropriately using a mand frame (e.g., I want, May I have) conveys that an establishing operation is present and increases the likelihood of contacting reinforcement. Having multiple mand frames in ones repertoire further increases the likelihood of contacting reinforcement given different environmental conditions. The current investigation targeted extinguishing the use of a consistently used incorrect mand frame and introducing novel mand frames into the repertoire of one male diagnosed with autism. Data show that using textual prompts with fading effectively extinguished the participants use of the incorrect mand frame. Further, teaching using textual prompts increased the participants mand frame repertoire such that response variability (i.e., targeted and novel mand frames) was observed during probe sessions.

Two mand topographies were analyzed for a child diagnosed with Autism. This child has minimal expressive language, struggles with fine motor behaviors and has difficulty retaining both sign and vocal mands. The purpose of this analysis is to identify which mand topography is used the most efficiently and effectively by this child when he is motivated for preferred items and activities. Over the past 12 months, a teaching procedure was implemented to increase his daily spontaneous mands using a mand topography consisting of laminated pictures and a portable Velcro book. This form limited his repertoire to a set number of pictures and was not implemented consistently across all environments. A teaching procedure for another mand topography, Proloquo2go, an Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) solution for Apple devices, was recently implemented. The key variable being analyzed and compared is the frequency of spontaneous mands throughout the child's 8 hour ABA/VBA therapy session, 5 days a week. Errorless teaching methods were used to teach new mands across both mand topographies. Data, including spontaneous and prompted mands, were charted and analyzed using the Standard Celeration Chart.

The purpose of this investigation was to identify differential reinforcement procedures that are both effective and practical, and that maximize reinforcement for individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. This was done by comparing two differential reinforcement procedures that aim to simultaneously increase appropriate behavior (e.g., requests for items or activities) and decrease problem behavior. In one condition, every appropriate response was reinforced, even if problem behavior occured close in time. This condition has previously been implemented with 3 subjects (Vollmer, Northup, Ringdahl, Leblanc, & Chauvin, 1996). Vollmer et al. found that these contingencies produced an increase in appropriate requests while maintaining low levels of problem behavior. However, the generality of these findings was previously unknown. In another condition, appropriate responses were only reinforced if problem behavior has not occurred within a specified time interval. Both of these conditions follow procedures that are typically used in the research literature but they had never been compared. In this study, we compared these two procedures with school-aged children diagnosed with intellectual disabilities.

When providing behavioral services to individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID), it is often necessary to conduct multiple assessments with an individual simultaneously due to time or financial constraints. However, conducting multiple assessments concurrently may yield incorrect or inconclusive results due a number of potential issues. Current literature examining the effects of presession exposure to reinforcement provides a possible explanation for these effects. Specifically, presession access to reinforcement may alter the motivating operation (MO) within the session. In the current study, a 17-year-old boy with autism participated during an inpatient admission on a specialized unit for the treatment of severe problem behavior. Two separate and topographically unrelated assessments were conducted concurrently: a functional analysis of elopement and a brief blocking assessment. During the attention condition of the functional analysis of elopement, verbal and physical attention were provided contingent on elopement. In the blocking assessment, the participant was physically blocked from engaging in arbitrary behaviors (e.g., scratching his head, touching his ears), to determine if blocking would extinguish or increase these behaviors. Sessions of both assessments were interspersed throughout the day. A significant decrease in responding was observed during the attention condition of the functional analysis of elopement on days in which blocking sessions were also conducted. Using a reversal design we reversed back to no concurrent assessment, saw the rates of elopement increase in the attention for elopement condition, and then decrease again when the blocking assessment was reintroduced concurrently. We hypothesized that blocking served as positive reinforcement for the participant in the form of physical attention, and this served as an abolishing function so that low rates of elopement were seen in the attention condition of the functional analysis when the sessions were run concurrently. These results have implications for behavioral service providers that conduct multiple assessments simultaneously with individuals due to time or budget constraints.

Shaping is utilized to teach behaviors systematically by reinforcing successful approximations of the desired terminal behavior. The objective of the current study was to increase the success of transitions between the educational and residential setting for one individual who was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder and intellectual disability. A shaping procedure utilizing a wheelchair ride as reinforcement was implemented to decrease the challenging behaviors of dropping, elopement, and transition refusal in a 20 year old individual. Historically, this individual's behaviors of dropping, elopement, and transition refusal had led to unsafe situations involving inclement weather conditions and proximity to motor vehicles. The transition between the individual's school and residence was broken into 10 steps. After transitioning to the designated step, the individual was given access to a wheelchair for the remainder of the transition. Results of this study showed that the individual was able to successfully transition to the residence without exhibiting challenging behaviors after twenty weeks of implementation.

The Parent-Implemented Communication Strategies (PiCS) project resulted in the development of an intervention package aimed at enhancing the social-pragmatic communication skills of young children with disabilities and limited expressive language. While the outcomes of the PiCS project seems to be positive a thorough and comprehensive assessment of social validity was warranted. Wolf (1978) contended that interventions should be assessed not only for effectiveness but also for social validity. This social validity evaluation addresses the question, Was the PiCS project socially valid from an expert perspective? Our expert evaluators were recruited from three groups: (a) parents of young children with disabilities, (b) early childhood special education teachers, and (c) speech language pathologists who worked with young children with disabilities. Each evaluator viewed video clips of parent-child interactions from baseline and postintervnetion sessions, in a random order, and completed a questionnaire about the parent and child behavior. The overall results allow us to answer the studys research question, 'Was the PiCS project socially valid from an expert perspective?' with a resounding yes. Further discussion that examines the differences in the ratings of the groups of evaluators and implications for research and practice is provided.

In recent years, it has been endeavored to develop certain instruction methods for individuals with disabilities in order to make them live as independent individuals. Least to most prompting is one of these instruction methods which can be defined as presenting the least intrusive prompt in order to make the student to give the correct response at the beginning of instruction. Then the type and the intensity of the prompt may be increased depending on the need of the student and the more intrusive level of prompt can be presented. Although, some research findings can be seen in the literature showing the effectiveness of least to most prompting procedure, it might be claimed that teaching some certain behaviors to individuals with disabilities, a meta-analysis study is still needed in order to aggregate the findings of all research findings. Therefore, in the present study the single subject research studies on least to most prompting which were published in peer reviewed journals between 1986 and 2011 were examined. Articles primarily have been descriptively analyzed and then examined by use of meta-analysis as the computation effect-size. Furthermore, in order to find the effect-size for all the studies included in this study, percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) and percentage of data points exceeding the mean (PEM) were calculated. Based on the findings of the study, it might be possible to claim that instruction through least to most prompting is effective on teaching individuals with disabilities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of visual prompt on the color properties of fruits for a 6 year-old child with autism to prompt divergent thinking. The independent variable was visual prompt; i.e., if the child did not respond for 3 seconds, the researcher showed fruit cards as visual cue for the child to respond. The dependent variable(DV) in this study was the correct numbers of the fruits corresponding to the color. After teaching three trials each day, a probe would be conducted to gather the DV. In order to avoid the subject learning by memory, the researcher interspersed other activities (i.e., symbolic play, motion imitation, tact, intra-verbal, matching) into each teaching trial and probe. A multiple-probe-baseline design across behaviors (i.e., color) was used in this study. The research team will continue to take a pure baseline data in order to demonstrate stronger experiment control . The preliminary results showed good improvement on color properties of fruits. Social validity data also showed favorite outcome. Parents reported that this child had not only expanded the naming the color properties of fruits but also became more flexible in his pattern of thinking .

Visual supports have been shown to facilitate language production in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), (Sarokoff, Taylor, & Poulson, 2001). However, the ability to produce vocal responses does not necessarily result in the contextually cued initiation of social language in individuals with ASD. The current study assessed the effects of using visual cues to support the initiation and maintenance of conversation (asking and answering WH questions) in a child with autism spectrum disorder. A multi-element reversal design was used to evaluate the effects of a textual prompting and prompt fading procedure on targeted vocal (asking and answering social questions) and motor (orienting to the speaker) responses. Inter-observer agreement data and procedural fidelity data were collected on 30% of the experimental session and were above 90% on both measures. The data indicate that the text prompting procedure was effective in establishing the targeted vocal and motor responses. Additionally, the textual prompts were able to be systematically faded so that the presence of the communication partner cued initiation of the target social responses. The implications of these findings and the use of visual supports to increase language production are discussed.

Using a multiple baseline design across the math, reading, and writing subject areas, the effect of a package intervention consisting of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) to decrease the screaming behavior of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was examined. The participant in this study was a 10 year-old non-verbal boy with severe ASD. Data collection and the application of the independent variable took place in the childs school in a self-contained ASD cluster classroom with six other children with ASD. Visual inspection of the data showed that the PECS combined with DRA intervention had a positive effect, decreasing the screaming behavior of the participant across the math, reading, and writing subject areas, and increasing the use of the PECS. The results suggest that the PECS/DRA intervention was effective for the participant in this study. Suggestions for further research are discussed.

The studies of cognitive development have been shown that children with autism have difficulty in understanding others facial expression. They supposed that the central coherence causes such difficulty. From the point of behavior analysis, the facial expression would not function as the conditional stimulus in children with autism. In the present study, we examined whether the children with autism comprehend the movement of point-lights as facial expression using conditional discrimination task. Two children with autism (mean age 6 years 1 month) participated in the present study. In the conditional discrimination task, the child was presented with the video clip of 70 point-light moving attached to human face showing human facial expression (happy and sad) as the sample stimulus. Then, the colored-still face pictures were presented as the comparison stimuli. The result showed that both children with autism could select the corresponding comparison stimulus. They can show the symbolic matching-to-sample between movement of point-lights and still picture of facial expression. The result suggests that the children with autism can comprehend others facial expression through the conditional discrimination. The repeated presentation of the movement of point-light would facilitate the acquisition of symbolic matching-to-sample in face recognition.

Intense behaviors such as aggression, self-injury, and destruction can result in injury, lead to residential placement if not hospitalization, and demand specialized and expensive programs. We undertook an initial evaluation of all outcome research published since 1995 that sought to decrease intense behaviors among children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability, in preparation for a more extensive evaluation seeking to propose evidence-based practice standards for clinicians. Variables considered included population, target (topography and function), assessment procedures used, interventions (type, reported efficacy, etc.), and other study characteristics (type of design, measures of fidelity, etc.). Targeted search of electronic databases between 1995 and 2012 yielded 2572 relevant abstracts. Additional review revealed that 216 of these entailed outcome research on pertinent targets and populations, and 116 met criteria for full review. Initial results suggest that a wide variety of interventions have been effectively used to address intense behaviors, some of which with sufficient frequency to support recommendations broken down by target, function, and/or population. The use of interventions in combination with one another poses a special challenge. We discuss implications for further research and analysis.

Matching-to-sample (MTS) is often used to teach symbolic relationships between words and their referents to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Many children have difficulty acquiring symbolic MTS, even though they may demonstrate generalized identity matching. We report data from one such participant. OLY was an adolescent male diagnosed with autism. He was trained on symbolic MTS using non-representative forms as samples and comparisons. After 40 training sessions with four stimulus sets, accuracy did not exceed chance levels of performance. OLY was then given three sessions of "thematic" MTS (Pilgrim, Jackson, & Galizio, 2000), each with a different stimulus set. In these sessions, the samples and correct comparisons were clip-art pictures with a common theme (e.g., the sample was a swimsuit, the correct comparison a swimming pool, and the incorrect comparisons a basketball hoop and a chair). On these sessions, matching accuracies were 95% or greater. OLY was then returned to symbolic MTS with novel, non-representative stimuli. Accuracy on the first session was 80% and increased to 90% or greater for the remaining sessions. Training on thematic MTS may have served as an instructional cue that samples may be matched to non-identical comparison stimuli within the training context. Reference: Pilgrim, C., Jackson, J., & Galizio, M. (2000). Acquisition of arbitrary conditional discriminations by young normally developing children. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 73, 177-193.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a functional analysis to assess the aberrant behaviors of a preschool boy diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The participants behaviors included aggression, tantrums, property destruction, and self-injurious behavior. The functional analysis results showed that there was tangible and attention functional relationship for the participants physical aggression and tantrum behaviors. It also demonstrated the possibility of an automatic function relative to the property destruction. Functional communication training was implemented to provide the participant with an effective mode of communication and proved effective in decreasing his physical aggression and tantrum behavior. A consequence procedure was added to the intervention to address the automatic property destruction displayed by the participant. Interobserver agreement was collected for 65% of the sessions with an average of 97.6% agreement. Results will be discussed in terms of treatment of topographies of behavior for which a clear function was identified as well as for stereotypic behavior.

Social skills are often considered to be a core area of deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many practitioners and researchers would agree that social skills continues to be one of the most difficult areas in which to provide an intervention that results in durable behavior change. In this study a say-do review was used with children with ASD to try to increase generalization of social skills learned in social skills groups to recess. The results suggest the say do review may be effective in generalizing social skills from a group setting to recess for children with ASD.

The present study examined the effectiveness of a self-instructional package for teaching discrete-trials teaching (DTT) to Applied Behaviour Analysis tutors at the St.Amant Applied Behaviour Analysis Program for Children with Autism. A modified multiple- baseline design across participants was used, and replicated six times. An AB design was used for one participant. The training package include a self-instructional manual, video demonstrations, and self-practice. Participants required an average of 3 hours and 56 minutes to master the manual. Eleven of the 13 participants achieved the mastery criterion during the post-training assessment. Mean DTT accuracy increased from 46.2% to 85.5% (a statistically significant increase). One tutor participated in a generalization phase with a child with autism, and their DTT accuracy averaged 80.1%. The results suggest that the self-instructional package appears to be an effective tool for teaching newly-hired tutors to conduct DTT.

The Province of Ontario, Canada's Connections for Students model was developed to support school-aged children transitioning from Intensive Behavioural Intervention therapy services to ABA instructional methods in schools. Through the model, each child is supported by a multidisciplinary transition team that includes the parent(s), teacher, principal, an ASD consultant and other professionals as required. The model was piloted in 2009-10 in 16 school boards. 477 children transitioned through the Connections for Students model. A mixed-method approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis was used to evaluate the model. Results show that the model was effective in supporting school-aged children transitioning from IBI therapy services to ABA instructional methods in schools. School boards have begun to generalize the multi-disciplinary, team-based model to other transitions (e.g., grade-to-grade, primary to secondary school, etc.) for students with ASD and/or other exceptionalities. The model was fully implemented in all 72 school boards in Ontario in 2010-11. 1,221 children received transition supports through the Connections for Students model in 2011-12.

Several studies have shown that Early and Intensive Behavioral Interventions (EIBI) can increase scores of IQ and adaptive behaviors, sometimes to the point of normal functioning. However, EIBI is seldom given at the intensity as is described in published studies. Thus, there is a risk that EIBI supervisors over-estimate the effects of the treatment they offer. We report data on what EIBI supervisors believe are the effects on IQ and Vineland-scores of low-intensity treatment (10-25 hrs/week) and compare those guessed results to actual results, obtained from published studies. The results show that supervisors over-estimate the effects of low-intensity EIBI. In other words, under-estimate the necessity of high-intensity when delivering EIBI.

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

Social impairments may be the most striking deficit in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A common social impairment in individuals with ASD is difficulty interpreting and or predicting emotions of others. This difficulty can affect an individuals ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with others. Two boys and one girl, 4-8 years in age, who are educated in self-contained classrooms for students with communication and social skills deficits, participated in this study. A multiple probe across participants design was utilized to assess the effects of using a computer based intervention designed to teach young children to recognize and understand emotions in others. Episodes from the software program, The Transporters were shown three times daily with a quiz immediately following the third viewing each school day for a period of roughly four weeks (based on attendance). In addition, participants were tested on emotion recognition skills in live settings pre and post-intervention. All participants showed marked improvements in measures assessing their recognition of both basic and complex emotions in faces following a four week computer-based intervention in the school setting. All students made gains in performance on emotion recognition tasks in both quizzes and live scenarios.

Children with a diagnosis of Autism may be identified as having a feeding disorder when they “are unable to, or refuse to, eat or drink sufficient quantities to maintain nutritional well being” McDowell, C., Duffy, K., Kerr, K. (2007) pg 267. At times patterns of behaviour can involve refusal of foods, selectivity of type and texture of foods, and disruptive behaviour associated with meal times (Ahearn, 2001). The current study aims to increase the food variety eaten across food groups and decrease challenging behaviours of three children with Autism. It is a replication of McDowell, C., Duffy, K., Kerr, K. (2007) and is informed by additional research on the treatment of feeding disorders in children with Autism. Like McDowell et al., visual and communicative supports will be the antecedent variables to promote independence in decision making. The functional assessment will identify maintaining factors so that appropriate behaviour reduction strategies can be utilized during mealtimes. The intervention will take place during non mealtimes in an in-centre intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) program. Initial baseline results indicated number of foods eaten across food groups and frequency of challenging behaviours at mealtimes. It is anticipated that the intervention will result in an increase in food varieties eaten across food groups and a decrease in challenging behaviours.

Many children with autism often lack the self-care skill of tooth brushing. In the present study, a multiple-probe design across participants was used to assess the effectiveness of a treatment package consisting of a picture activity schedule in combination with a time-delay prompting procedure and reinforcement to teach the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of correct tooth brushing in three children with autism. Results demonstrate that independent tooth brushing increased once the treatment package was introduced and maintained during schedule removal. Social validity measures showed that treatment goals, procedures, and outcomes were socially accepted by professionals, teachers, and master students. Results add to previous research by demonstrating that a treatment package successfully taught the acquisition of tooth brushing, maintained when the picture activity schedule was removed, and generalized to a novel setting. Future research is also discussed to expand teaching and compare teaching procedures.

Behavioral staff at a school for children with autism investigated the effects of a brief behavioral skills training procedure to promote appropriate administration of the EpiPen in an emergency situation by school staff. A 10-item task analysis was created outlining the steps required to use the EpiPen effectively and safely, and was validated by the school's registered nurse. Following a pretest where members of both groups completed a minimal number of steps, the experimental group was trained via instructions, modeling, praise, feedback, and role-playing to correctly use the EpiPen while the control group received no such training. Posttest scores indicate that the brief intervention was an effective means to teach appropriate administration of the EpiPen with school staff.