Association for Behavior Analysis International

The current research describes the evidence for the British Early Special School Teaching Model (BESST), which aims to provide an education based on the principles of ABA to all young children enrolled in a special needs school.TheBESSTmodelcanbeimplementedeffectively and affordably making it available to all children who would benefit. Behaviour analysts work in a multi-disciplinary context to provide an education based on the principals of Applied Behaviour Analysis to children under the age of seven years old. Children receive 7 hours a week of 1:1 teaching, which is supplemented by group teaching. Each child has an individualised behaviour plan. Interventions are designed by Behaviour Analysts and implemented by teaching staff. Outcome data from the Vinelands Adaptive Behavior Scales, the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, and the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills Revised will be presented for 13 children ages 4-7 years old. Results show that children make statistically and clinically significant gains within this model. We will discuss the data in context of providing cost effective behavioural interventions in maintained special educational needs school in the United Kingdom.

Effects of continued behavioral intervention into school age for children with developmental disorders We found better outcome in intelligence and adaptive behavior scores for those children who continued to receive behavioral intervention in school compared to those children who ended their intervention. We compare the two groups of children during intervention in preschool, at eight and nine years of age. The group of children (n=12) who received behavioral intervention in school continued to gain in intelligence and adaptive behavior scores, whereas the group that stopped (n=10) lost points. This finding supports the hypotheses that behavioral intervention can continue to benefit some children with autism and other developmental disorders well into school age. We have not been able to detect any clear indications for stopping behavioral intervention, although it appears that children with scores in the normal range have more stable scores.

This paper reports long-term outcome for 19 children with ASD who initially received EIBI and subsequently received long-term school- and home-based behavioral intervention. Mean intake age was 2 years and 11 months and mean follow-up age was 14 years and 11 months. Mean intake IQ was 55, IQ after one year of EIBI was 78, and mean follow-up IQ was 68. Mean intake Vineland Adaptive Behavior (VABS) Score was 64, VABS after one year of EIBI was 74, and VABS at follow-up was 70. Eleven of the 19 children received an IQ score and VABS score of 70 or above (Mean IQ 94 and mean VABS 86). Autism symptoms at follow-up (as assessed by the ADI-R and the CARS) is presented, so is data on the type of services the children had received after EIBI.

In the United States, every student has the right to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment possible. The least restrictive environment, inclusion into the general education setting, allows for students to learn the academic and social repertoires necessary for educational success in the presence of general education peers. However, for students with disabilities, there are many obstacles that prevent them from fully accessing the general education curriculum. The CABAS Accelerated Independent Learner Model (AIL) has identified verbal developmental cups/capabilities and academic literacy skills that increase the likelihood of academic and social success for students with disabilities in an inclusive setting. Through implementing protocols to induce the relevant cusps, capabilities, and skills, the AIL model has created procedures through which students are taught the necessary skills to be successfully included into the general education setting. The purpose of the present discussion is to explain the cusps/capabilities necessary for inclusion, the ways in which students are instructed in order to increase their likelihood of success, and the criterion utilized to allow students access to the general education setting.

This symposium will include recent research on the assessment and treatment of problem behavior with a focus on implications for practice. The first study will present the translation process that was undertaken to produce a reliable and valid indirect assessment in Japanese. The second paper, will highlight the development and utilization of a flow-chart for interpreting transitional functional analyses. The third paper, will present on the effects of an FCT+DRA intervention aimed at decreasing problem behavior maintained by social negative reinforcement, while increasing both communication and compliance. All presenters will provide insight on implications related to both future research and practice.

Functional Communication Training with extinction is one approach to eliminating problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior. When applied to problem behavior maintained by social positive reinforcement, it produces rapid decreases in problem behavior as well as socially significant increases in appropriate behavior (e.g., asking for attention or tangible items). It is equally effective for eliminating problem behavior maintained by social negative reinforcement in the form of escape; however, most caregivers are not satisfied with only increasing asking for a break. In fact, when treating problem behavior maintained by escape from tasks, socially significant behavior changes would include increasing compliance as well as asking for a break. The purpose of this study was to utilize FCT (1 min break) + Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (5 min break contingent on compliance) to decrease problem behavior and ultimately increase compliance. Results demonstrate that the intervention was highly successful. Implications for practice as well as avenues for future research will be

For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), having severe deficits in social skills prevent them from functioning in typical situations and properly navigating the social world in which we live. This symposium will consist of four research studies that use innovative behavioral approaches to address some of the pervasive challenges children with ASD face. In the first study, researchers use video modeling to teach children with ASD how to assertively respond to different bullying situations. The second study uses theatre-play as a method to teach appropriate social skills behaviors to dyads of children with ASD. The third study focuses on the need to reduce vocal stereotypy and aims to decrease inappropriate vocalizations by replacing them with appropriate singing. Finally, the last study provides a spin on teaching joint attention to lower functioning children with ASD. In these studies, multiple baseline designs were used to analyze treatment effects, generalization was assessed, and inter-observer reliability was calculated. These four studies provide new ideas to ameliorate the social challenges that children with ASD display, provide evidence-based procedures for treating a range of functioning levels of children on the spectrum, and provide potential approaches for children with ASD to navigate their social world.

Bullying is related to depression, loneliness, and social anxiety (Hawker & Boulton, 2000), and unfortunately, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at a higher risk than their typically developing peers for becoming victims of bullying (Wainscot et al., 2008). The current study involved a video modeling intervention that aimed to teach six children with ASD how to assertively respond to physical and verbal bullying, social exclusion, and to report instances of bullying to a parent. Using a multiple baseline design, measures of appropriate responding to bullying were assessed in baseline, intervention, and generalization probes. During baseline sessions, participants appropriate responses to bullying were either nonexistent or inconsistent. Following baseline, participants were asked to watch a video of an adult assertively responding to three different types of bullying (i.e., physical bullying, verbal bullying, and social exclusion). Results showed that following the introduction of video modeling, all six participants met criterion for appropriate responding to bullying, with four participants demonstrating generalization of learned skills to a novel setting. Findings from this study have implications for the use of video modeling in teaching children with ASD the proper skills to respond to bullying.

Theatre-based programs have been shown to improve the social skills in high-functioning children with ASD, such as increased positive interaction, decreased solitary play (Guli, Semrud-Clikeman, Lerner, & Britton, 2013) and increased social perception (Corbett et al., 2011). The present study was conducted to teach social skills behaviors to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) via a theatre intervention conducted in dyads. Specifically, a multiple baseline design across three dyads of children with ASD was used to assess the efficacy of a theatre intervention on increasing verbal social skills, nonverbal social skills, and appropriate sociodramatic play behaviors. Measurements of social skills behaviors were taken during naturalistic play sessions and baseline, as well as after theatre intervention sessions. The theatre intervention involved sessions of learning how to act out and also do improvisation of theme-based plays in dyadic pairs for several weeks. Results showed that all participants reached at least 80% criterion performance for one or more targeted social behaviors. The current study demonstrates that a theatre-based procedure, a largely untapped therapeutic technique, is an effective social skills intervention for children with ASD.

Vocal stereotypy can be disruptive and interfere with social opportunities; yet, it is often a preferred activity for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Decreasing motivating operations to engage in inappropriate forms of the behavior (e.g., sounds, high pitched speaking or singing) while increasing topographically similar appropriate behaviors might be an indicated course of treatment. In this study, we taught three children with ASD who engaged in inappropriate forms of vocal stereotypy to sing appropriately. We used a changing criterion design plus a backward chaining procedure to increase the word length of their singing phrases. After the children learned to sing a song through this procedure, we used multi-element comparisons to determine if pre-session singing sessions would decrease vocal stereotypy in their subsequent intervention sessions. Preliminary results showed that participants learned to sing appropriately, and all forms of vocal stereotypy occurred less frequently immediately after singing sessions. Discussion will focus on implications for teaching pro-social vocal behaviors as replacements for vocal stereotypies.

A key deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is underdeveloped joint attention skills. Joint attention is a pivotal social communication skill that is very complex and can be difficult to teach in isolation. It may behoove us to find other ways in which joint attention might be easier to teach. In Experiment I, basic functional play was taught to three children with ASD through imitation, with joint attention embedded within the procedure. Reinforcement was contingent on joint attention during the play imitation sessions, compared to baseline in which joint attention without play was reinforced. The results demonstrated that play-based treatment can increase joint attention and that generalization of joint attention across person and setting occurred. In Experiment II, the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP; Laski, Charlop, & Schreibman, 1988), which has been shown to increase both speech and play (Gillett & LeBlanc, 2007), will be assessed to determine whether NLP can also generate and increase joint attention in children with ASD. Together, the results of these studies may hold implications for alternative ways for teaching joint attention via procedures that evoke motivating operations.

A potential problem with the use of response prompts in applied settings to teach children with autism is that the prompts are susceptible to procedural drift. While stimulus prompts may serve an efficient and effective alternative to response prompts, these are often not utilized. This study compared the use of response prompts to a simple technological intervention using stimulus prompts. (e.g., systematically altering the intensity of S-stimuli within a PowerPoint program on a laptop computer). Three participants diagnosed with autism between the ages of 812 were taught conditional discriminations, either by response prompts or stimulus prompts, within a changing conditions design. Not only were the stimulus prompts more effective and efficient (e.g., fewer trials to criterion and fewer errors) because of the technological delivery system of the stimulus prompts, the possibility for procedural drift was eradicated. These results are discussed in terms of improving the efficacy of teaching students with autism spectrum disorders.

Students with autism spectrum disorders have been reported to demonstrate stimulus over-selectivity or restricted stimulus control (i.e., failure to respond to all the critical elements of multi-element complex stimuli). This potential may have a detrimental impact on the acquisition of academic skills for these individuals if the stimuli in question contain multiple controlling elements (i.e., learning the relation between spoken words and PECS symbols and AAC icons). This study presents a number of methodologies by which attention to, and the subsequent control by, multiple elements of a complex stimulus was demonstrated. In Experiment One, a 13-year-old non-vocal boy with an autism spectrum disorder was taught to select printed word comparisons contingent on their spoken + signed name comparisons (e.g., a complex stimulus) via errorless instruction. Following training, tests conducted in extinction verified accurate control by each element over printed word comparison. In Experiment 2, a 8 year-old student with autism spectrum disorder was taught identity-matching-to-complex samples (e.g., samples containing two, physically dissimilar yet related visual stimuli). Following training, tests conducted in extinction verified accurate control by each element. The data are discussed in terms of maximizing student learning while avoiding the potential pitfalls of error histories.

The symposium on Understanding the contingencies of systems and implementing change focuses on social, behavioral and cultural aspects of change in business and society as a whole. Change is perceived to be uncertain and complex; therefore it is often met with resistance and fear. As adaptation to change requires conscientious effort, not everyone is able to make it. The symposium attempts to demystify this uncertainty and analyze the process. The presentations dissect different cultures and schools of thought to discuss how new memes evolve, propagate and adapt and thereby play a critical role in an individuals survival. Further, the symposium will include empirical reports as well as theoretical reviews focusing on organizational change. The scope of the presentations spans across behavioral aspects of partners in start-up to stakeholder in large, top-down organizations. The presentations will emphasize the effects of reinforcement contingencies, task mastery and recognition, behavioral momentum and successful startup partnership.

Human beings face similar adaptive challenges as all other organisms. However, humans are unique in that for the last 150,000 years, most of their adaptations have been cultural. Culture may be roughly described as consisting of an extremely large set of memes, which are units of information. As humans interact within their society or social groups these memes are continually reinforced and thereby play an integral part in molding their perception of cause and effect. When individuals translocate from one country to another, specifically from one country with a relatively traditional social structure to one with a more liberal social structure, these individuals have to adapt in order to assimilate into society. This is because the memes and reinforcers of the different societies vary significantly. Cultural adaptations are spectacularly complex and essential for their survival. They are also not without an underlying biological basis of sociability, inventiveness and imitativeness. In this paper we explore the reasons around why some individuals adapt and why some are more resistant to change.

Social change is characterized by (1) the creation of powerful memes by a single individual (2) propagation of those memes to a large group of people (3) sustenance of those memes via behavioral change and transmission to associated social groups as well as to the next generation. Thus social change is complete when there is a collective change in group behavior. When large social groups adapt to a new way of thinking or behaving however behavioral momentum of social groups needs to be overcome. To displace a current group behavior with new behavior, therefore this new behavior or thinking has to be often more potent than the current behavior. In such a scenario the adoption curve of new behavior is often slow at the beginning but as time progresses the number of people who adopt increases. The pace of adoption however can range from a few months to one or two generations. Finally to sustain this change the operation of long term contingencies with long term attractors acting as reinforcers need to be at play.

Since biologists no longer limit themselves to studying the evolution of physical bodies but have developed theories of complex human behavior such as altruistic and cooperative actions (cf. group selection theory,) their area of study overlaps considerably with that of behavioral scientists. Behavior analysists study how environmental events during an organism's ontogeny correlate with changes in that organism's allocation of time to different activities. Those events cause changes in behavior because of their effect on the individual's relative fitness. Despite the overlap in topic areas, both biologists and behavioral scientists are largely uninformed about each other's work. How do biology and behavior analysis relate to each other? How can biology benefit from behavior analysis by paralleling the behaviorist's approach to developing explanations of behavior omitting human agency as a causal factor? How can behavior analysis benefit from Baum's (1994) introduction of the Multi-Scale View, which paves the road between the two disciplines by arguing for a selection of nested activities through their correlation with phylogenetically important events? By breaking ground for uniting phylogenetic and ontogenetic explanations of behavior, the answers to those questions not only benefit basic knowledge but can also inform effective public policy making.

There are many fields interested in the behavior of consumers (e.g., consumer psychology, consumer analysis, marketing, behavioral economics). Most of these are not behavior analytic, however behaviorists have ventured into these fields, expanding the Organizational Behavior Management literature in a discipline termed Consumer Behavior Analysis (Foxall, 2010). This symposium provides four demonstrations of applied behavior analysis applied to understanding the impact on consumer behavior. Rocha will be presenting on the transfer of care as it relates to patient care and patient safety at a hospital. Assemi and Rafacz will focus on behavior analytic methods to identify stimuli that may function as motivating operations and the utilization of these stimuli to increase healthy food selection at the point-of-purchase by consumers. Biagi and Rodriguez will present data and thoughts on the need for further behavior analytic approaches to examining the long-term impacts marketing and other strategies have in influencing consumer choice. Finally, Stratton et al., will be presenting a 5-year study aimed to determine whether increased availability and point-of-purchase promotion of healthy concession food options influenced consumer acceptance at county-owned waterparks.

Communication is a central process that can enhance or hinder Patient Safety and affect Patient Experience. Shift Change meeting is a tool commonly used to report on patients conditions during transfer of care. The shift change meeting is designed using an easy and concise standardized framework highlighting important aspect of patients care that need to be discussed, commonly referred to as an SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation). This report investigated the effects of a checklist plus a verbal feedback procedure on the percentage of SBAR components discussed at a shift change meeting. This checklist included the following components: background, observation level, risk, strategy, and outcome. The study used an ABAB reversal design, which compared the percentage of all checklist components reported during baseline and intervention. Results showed that the percentage of components of SBAR discussed during the meeting increased when the intervention phase was implemented. Time spent on off-task behaviors and the length of the meeting substantially decreased during the intervention. In addition, follow up data indicated that rates of assaults and aggression, and the incident rate level on the unit steadily declined during three months following the intervention.

Antecedents can influence consumer decision-making during point-of-purchase (POP) transactions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased availability and POP promotion of healthy concession food options influenced consumer acceptance at county-owned waterparks. An applied, five-year study was conducted at two Greenville County, South Carolina, waterparks serving between 75,000 and 100,000 patrons each season (10 weeks). Several POP antecedent interventions were assessed, where healthy options were labeled on menu boards and promoted throughout the park via banners and A-frame displays during the treatment seasons. Weekly sales data for each healthy concession option (summed as healthy sales) and all concession options (total sales) were collected during the comparison season in 2011 and in each intervention season (2012-2015). Consumer selection of healthy food options was assessed by analyzing unit and net sales data. Findings indicate increased availability and POP promotion of healthy menu options may positively influence consumer acceptance. Sustained acceptance of healthy menu options for four years is promising, but additional promotional methods may be warranted to further increase consumer acceptance of healthy options. Implications for behavior analysis work in consumer behavior and marketing practices will be presented.

The success of behavioral interventions relies in part on the accuracy with which the intervention is implemented. Coaching and performance feedback are two of the most commonly researched approaches of changing interventionist behavior in applied behavior analysis. However, the feasibility of these practices can be challenging in school and home settings. This symposium will present empirical data from four studies evaluating innovations in enhancing treatment integrity of behavior analytic interventions for young children. The first two single case research studies evaluate teacher self-monitoring on behavioral interventions fidelity in Head Start centers. The second two papers present results from parent-implement interventions to increase social-communication skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Peter Sturmey will offer a discussion regarding the potential impact of behavioral interventions to increase treatment fidelity among teachers and parents. He will also reflect on factors that may enhance the generalization and maintenance of teacher and parent implemented behavioral interventions

Self-monitoring is a low cost intervention that enables performance feedback while minimizing reliance on outside personnel. Self-monitoring involves observing ones own behavior and recording those observations. While self-monitoring has extensive research support in the literature as an intervention strategy for students with disabilities, relatively little research has been conducted evaluating self-monitoring for teachers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of preschool teacher self-monitoring within a practice-based coaching framework on teacher fidelity of class-wide transitions. Results of this multiple baseline design across teachers demonstrate that teacher fidelity of transition practices increased to 100% for all three Head Start teachers with the practice-based coaching plus self-monitoring intervention. The percentage of 10 s intervals in which all children were engaged in appropriate transition behaviors also increased with the teacher intervention. Each teacher identified a student in need of additional behavioral supports during transition. Challenging behavior for each of these three students decreased to low levels following teacher self-monitoring and practice-based coaching.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a preschool teacher intervention around the use self-monitoring and the use online learning modules. The study involved two intervention phases: (a) universal supports - use of an in-service training around daily self-monitoring and instructional supports focused on language modeling strategies, and (b) secondary supports - online learning modules that provided exemplars of the operationally defined instructional supports. The first phase involved 7 Head Start lead teachers who all received the universal supports. The teachers (4 in total) who required additional professional development supports received the second phase; which provided them with access to the online learning modules. Treatment effects were evaluated using individual single-case research design (two concurrent multiple baseline designs across classrooms). The teachers daily self-reported their frequency of use of specific language modeling strategies. The results suggested that the exposure to self-monitoring was effect in increasing all teachers use of language modeling strategies. However, the use of the online learning modules, specifically the video exemplars, increased the consistent use of strategies by the teachers.

A manualized protocol designed to teach parents a series of intervention components designed to improve the language of children with autism spectrum disorders was developed and tested with 21 parent child dyads arranged in a series on multiple baseline designs. Parents were taught to (a) follow their childs lead in play; (b) match conversation turns; (c) mirror their childs play; (d) expand on childs utterances; (e) arrange the environment; and (e) prompt language at target level. Previous research aimed at teaching parents similar target skills required 24 to more than 30 sessions of instruction. The manualized protocol developed here resulted in parents reaching mastery in only 6 sessions. Child language was measured and improvements in language were found (e.g., increased mands, mean length of utterance and language diversity). This presentation will describe the development and content of the parent training protocol and present representative data from parents and their children.

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) has recently announced a change in the ethical guidelines for credentialed behavior analysts. Specifically, a new enforceable compliance code (i.e., Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts) was developed and will take effect in January 2016. The new Code is intended to more clearly present ethical expectations and expand the range of professional conduct (BACB, 2014). Given the new Code and its intent for creation, it seems reasonable that the new Code would affect pre-service training of behavior analysts to ensure newly credentialed behavior analysts have the prerequisite skills to understand and follow the Code. The purpose of this symposium is to provide an overview of four different training programs and how each program is providing pre-service training specific to the new Code. Presenters are from varied training programs that provide training on campus, online, hybrid (online and on campus) and within community-based practicums.

The BACB's New Ethical and Professional Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts is the standard for the professional behavior of behavior analysts. It is also our compass- the main source for information about navigating ethical challenges and inculcating the values of the profession into students and trainees. Information on how this can be approached from a teaching/training perspective will be shared. In particular, strategies for teaching ethical decision-making will be described. Specific strategies for helping young professionals to adhere to the code and to reduce their risk of noncompliance will be discussed. The need for signal detection skills and resource management skills will be highlighted. In addition, considerations for the promotion of ethical behavior will be discussed at both the individual and organization levels.

This symposium will present some of the latest research that utilizes technology in the form of videos and iPads with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The first study evaluated the speed of acquisition and level of generalization of tacts across three different stimulus modes: picture-flashcard, video clip, and 3D object. Results indicated that two of the three participants learned tacts slightly faster when using the video clip mode compared to the other two modes. The second study evaluated if participants engaged in higher rates of problem behavior when using traditional materials or an iPad to complete school work. Results indicated that one participant only engaged in problem behavior when using traditional materials and all three participants chose to do work on the iPad when provided a choice between the two materials. Implications from the results for both studies will be discussed in detail.

Labeling everyday objects and actions is a foundational skill for the development of language (Sundberg & Partington, 1998) which is vital for reading comprehension and proficiency in vocal communication (Wood, 2001). Tacting is a complex task that encompasses objects or events with arbitrary and particular names (Greer, Yuan, & Gautreux, 2005). This study evaluated the speed of acquisition and level of generalization of tacts across three different stimulus modes: picture-flashcard, video clip, and 3D object. Three young children diagnosed with autism participated in this study. The acquisition of tacts was evaluated during Discrete Trial Training sessions (DTT). Two of the three participants learned the tacts more rapidly in the video clip condition in contrast with the picture condition. All three participants generalized the three tacts learned through a specific stimulus mode to the remaining stimulus modes. One week after the generalization test, all participants generalized to all novel 3D objects. The use of video clips to teach tacts to children with autism may be a useful method for teachers or instructors who do not have easy access to a variety of settings, as well as for the development of verbal behavior teaching programs.

Tablets are being incorporated into interventions with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. So far research has focused mainly on academics and communication, but only one study has evaluated using tablets to decrease escape maintained behaviors. The purpose of this study was to replicate the effects of the study by Neely et al. (2013) and also determine if the tablet served as a reinforcer for three participants with escape maintained behaviors. A multiple baseline with an alternating treatment design was utilized in the first phase in which academic work was completed on either traditional materials or the tablet. The following phases for each participant were dependent on the prior phase, with a final choice phase. All participants showed lower levels of problem behaviors and higher levels of compliance when tablets were introduced contingent upon completing work. For all participants, the tablet was chosen 100% of the time, and two participants had 100% accuracy and compliance while using the tablet.

The link between basic and applied branches of behavior analysis has often flowed from the laboratory to the clinical setting. This flow has led to technologies that have promoted meaningful outcomes for clients in a variety of settings. At times however, questions arise in the applied realm that are best examined in a more controlled environment. This symposium presents three talks illustrating the intersection between basic preparations and clinical practice via what is commonly coined translational research. All three talks use preparations inspired from basic research involving human participants to inform the design of interventions commonly implemented in applied settings. Two talks discuss different aspects of interventions involving conditioned reinforcers. The first talk presents data from a study which examined establishing and maintaining the effects of conditioned reinforcers. The second talk presents data examining the generalized effects of conditioned reinforcers. The third talk presents data from an investigation of delayed punishment. Specifically, the effects of a verbal rule on the efficacy of delayed punishment were evaluated

A common characteristic of individuals with developmental disabilities is a restricted range of interest. Developing procedures to establish new reinforcers could promote the acquisition of new skills and reduce decreases in motivation related to repeated presentation of the same reinforcer or natural shifts in interest. Two procedures have been reported in the research literature on establishing neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcerspairing and the SD procedures. Few applied studies have directly evaluated the use of these procedures. Also, additional research is necessary to determine their effectiveness and whether effects can be maintained. The purpose of this study was to (a) to compare the pairing and the SD procedures in the development of conditioned reinforcers, (b) to test the effectiveness of the reinforcers using progressive ratio (PR) schedules of reinforcement, and (c) to evaluate the robustness of reinforcing effects.

Delayed punishers are typically less effective than immediate punishers at suppressing behavior. Another disadvantage is that delayed punishers may inadvertently decrease the responses they immediately follow but are not contingent upon. Occasionally, however, delayed punishers may be necessary, so developing effective strategies to maximize the effects of a delayed punisher is crucial. One strategy for increasing the suppressive effect of a delayed punisher is to provide a verbal rule describing the contingency related to the punisher. It is unclear, however, whether this strategy minimizes the effect of the delayed punisher on contiguous (but not contingent) responses, which would be particularly important from a clinical perspective. In this study, five college-age students engaged with a computer program consisting of four conditions: immediate punishment, delayed punishment, delayed rule without punishment, and delayed rule with punishment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of a verbal rule altered the effect of a delayed punisher on both contingent and contiguous responses. Results indicate that adding a verbal rule not only increased the suppressive effect of a delayed punisher on contingent responses, but also decreased the likelihood that the delayed punisher would suppress the response it immediately followed.

All agencies that that serve populations with special needs must train direct care staff on an ongoing basis. Training that is provided directly by a behavioral consultant may often be limited due to time constraints. For this reason, it is worthwhile to explore the effectiveness of computer-based training programs. Computer-based training may enhance the generality of target skills since it is possible to include multiple exemplars in a single video or module; it also provides a standardized method of training multiple staff, which can help increase procedural integrity; and the training results in a permanent product that can be revisited as necessary to train new staff or as ‘booster’ training for seasoned staff. This symposium will highlight research from three labs that have incorporated a form of computer-based training to teach the following skills: 1) identification of safe eating practices for individuals with disabilities; 2) implementation of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS); and 3) visual analysis of single-case AB design graphs. Presenters will discuss limitations of the work conducted to date and propose areas for future research.

An estimated eight percent of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities have a diagnosed difficulty swallowing food or liquids (dysphagia) (Chadwick 2009). These problems raise the risk of choking and can lead to serious health problems if correct protocols around eating and drinking are not followed. It is imperative to put in place interventions that prevent choking and aspiration incidents by training Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) about meal modifications and identifying dangerous situations at mealtime. In this study we used a pretest-posttest experimental design to investigate whether a scenario-based online training combined with a fifteen-minute client protocol review statistically increased DSPs knowledge of meal modifications and their ability to identify dangerous situations in scenarios and pictures. The control group received a protocol review only. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental and control group. After the intervention, a generalization session will be conducted to determine whether the DSPs can generalize the knowledge to their clients meal protocols. Our hypothesis is that online training combined with a client protocol review will statistically improve staffs ability to 1) follow eating and drinking protocols within presented scenarios 2) identify dangerous situations during presented scenarios 3) generalize these skills to the clients they serve and maintain over time compared to DSPs that receive a protocol review only.

Training programs for pre-service behavior analysts, and common arrangements of clinical practices, too often result in ABA being siloed from other disciplines. If we are to succeed with our mission of facilitating change globally, in all meaningful domains of our lives and environments, we must successfully integrate services and research with those in different fields. Behavior analysts might also have an ethical obligation to shed light on how we might design and re-design our "contextual fit" to meet our cultural standards. Presenters from multiple disciplines: academia, linguistics, special education, and neurology, will explore how they introduce ABA into new cultures, teach pre-service professionals to program for research and collaboration with non-behavioral providers, expand their own interdisciplinary relations, and are changed personally and professionally by the experience. Panelists will also discuss their research and efforts to integrate ABA with art therapy, ceremonial and cultural participation, and religious studies while giving consideration to scientific as well as ethical dimensions that define the field of behavior analysis. We invite professionals working in medicine, psychology, business, ecology, anthropology, religious and cultural studies, sociology, and more to share their challenges and strategies. How are you creating interdisciplinary connections, opportunities, and collaboration that strengthen relationships and result in behavior analysis being integrated in larger initiatives and with other fields?

Behavior analysts recognize the importance of incorporating motivation and reinforcement within service delivery. Additionally, behavior analytic treatment programs incorporate effective function based procedures to increase compliance with demands and decrease escape maintained challenging behavior. These procedures often include forced physical prompting and paced prompts that may increase the occurrence of challenging behavior or reduce acceptance of the procedures by caregivers and staff. This symposium explores potential ethical alternatives to traditional escape extinction using 7 Steps to Earning Instructional Control, wait-outs, and conditioning work as a reinforcer that address the problems behavior analysts face with traditional escape extinction procedures in discrete trial programming.

Behavior analytic intervention programs frequently include the use of forced prompting to earn compliance with demands and reduce escape maintained challenging behavior. This approach is effective but can result in an increase in challenging behavior if the challenging behavior is also maintained by attention or can be difficult to implement with clients who are larger in size. Additionally, caregivers and staff may not accept the use of forced prompting and may not implement the procedure during the naturally occurring routine, which also reduces the effectiveness of the procedure. The purpose of this presentation is to explore ethical considerations regarding the use of forced prompting by drawing from the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct and Van Houten et al. (1988). Additionally, the presentation will explore how the 7 Steps to Earning Instructional Control addresses these ethical considerations and whether research in the basic or applied areas supports alternatives to forced prompting such as the 7 Steps as viable options for reducing escape maintained challenging behavior.

Escape-avoidance behavior is a common impediment to skill acquisition and a frequent maintaining variable for a variety of behavioral excesses. While a great number of antecedent interventions (e.g., demand fading, student choice, errorless teaching) can decrease problem behavior levels, escape- avoidance behaviors do not immediately drop to zero levels, and reactive measures invariably account for some part of the behavior intervention plan. Among potential reactive treatments, escape extinction has the greatest empirical support and is typically recommended. This presentation will demonstrate the efficacy of an alternative to escape extinction in 3 studies across 5 participants. In this procedure, task resistance is followed by a temporary withdrawal of that task and a substantial limit upon student options until the task has been completed. Though counter-intuitive (because escape-maintained behavior produces temporary escape), this procedure, colloquially known as a wait out, tends to not only decrease escape-maintained behavior, but also to improve a number of qualities of student participation. Participants will learn the rationales behind the use of wait and will see examples of how to implement the procedure.

Scientific examination of strategies that produce emergent verbal behavior is significant with respect to the potential conceptual and applied contributions to the field of Behavior Analysis and even to fields outside of Behavior Analysis. These strategies can inform important decisions regarding educational practices and can contribute to narratives and research related to stimulus control. One study compared a stimulus equivalence online teaching protocol to a standard online teaching protocol to teach single-subject research design to graduate students. A second study evaluated a mand-based training protocol to a tact- and two intraverbal-based training protocols to teach foreign language words to typically developing adults. A third study investigated the role of tact and intraverbal training in developing intraverbal naming, and the mediating effects of intraverbal naming in the formation of generalized equivalence classes in undergraduate students. A final study conducted two experiments and investigated the effects of an auditory pairing procedure on the emergence of tacts, selection responses, and intraverbals to teach information about musical instruments to 24 typically developing adults.

We analyzed the emergence of tacts, selections, and intraverbals after observing paired auditory stimuli. In Experiment 1, 12 typical developing adults were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions. In Part 1, four sounds of musical instruments were paired with their respective names spoken by the experimenter; in Part 2, the sounds were paired with their native country names. Participants in Condition 1 received Part 1 first; participants in Condition 2 received Part 2 first. After pairing, the emergence of tacts was probed. When the tacts emerged, the selections were probed. After Parts 1 and 2, the intraverbals were probed. In Experiment 2, 12 novel adults received a similar sequence, but after pairing the selections were probed and after reaching criterion the tacts were probed. The results indicate that probing the tacts or the selections after each pairing phase does not influence emergence in adults; pairing first the sound and the name and then the sound and the country seems to produce more instances of naming than pairing first the sound and the country and then pairing the sound and the name. The findings have direct implications on the teaching procedures to facilitate these types of emergence.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the role of intraverbal naming on the emergence of generalized equivalence classes. Seventeen undergraduates were exposed to tact training with 3 stimulus sets (A1B1C1, A2B2C2, and A3B3C3) and baseline intraverbal training (A?B? and B?C?). Formation of equivalence classes was assessed using visual-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks and intraverbal tests for symmetrical (BA, B?A?, CB, C?B?) and transitive relations (AC, A?C?, CA, C?A?). Generalization MTS posttests were then presented for 4 untrained sets of stimuli. Thirteen participants passed all MTS and intraverbal posttests. Two of the remaining 4 required either tact or intraverbal remedial training in order to achieve passing criterion. Performance improved for 5 participants during the vocal MTS posttest. These findings show the efficacy of tact and intraverbal training in the formation of generalized equivalence classes. Overall, results suggest verbal mediation strategies (i.e., intraverbal naming) may have facilitated MTS performance.

Euthanasia of adoptable animals is a prevalent problem in animal shelters across the nation (The Humane Society of the United States: HSUS, 2014). Of the 6 to 8 million pets being relinquished, only half (i.e., 3 to 4 million) are adopted yearly (HSUS). In order to decrease the number of animals euthanized each year, it is important to determine what factors affect the likelihood of adoption. One such factor that decreases the likelihood of adoption is the noise in the shelter environment (Copolla et al., 2006). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a respondent conditioning procedure on the reduction of noise in the kennel area of a California-based animal shelter. We conditioned the sound of a door chime (CS) with the delivery of food (UCS) to elicit a salivary response (CR), which is partially incompatible with barking. Baseline measures indicated that the sound in the shelter was louder than the volume needed to cause hearing loss over prolonged exposure (85dB). Results of the respondent conditioning procedure showed that the noise level decreased below this threshold. Implications and future directions are discussed.

A variety of traditional high and low technological applications (smart boards, communication devices, picture schedules, timers) have long shaped the way special educators approach the education of persons with disabilities. The use of smart phones, tablets, and the ubiquitous Internet to teach are now widely accepted practices, have become routine and can often be found integrated into core curriculum, all with the great expectation that the new technology will result in significant gains in knowledge and competence. Much like the typically developing population, individuals with disabilities are increasingly relying upon their I Phones to make them more independent in their daily functioning. Recent advances in both hardware and software have greatly expanded the affordability, portability and wearability of technological devices. As technology continues to develop, the potential for evolutionary applications to advance solutions of some of the most daunting challenges to identify functions of behavior, frame effective intervention and increase staff competencies is great. However, the empirical research database is deficient with studies demonstrating the effectiveness of this new technology. Although educators use technology with abandon, technology is not yet firmly identified as evidenced-based practice, particularly with the older learner. The papers in this symposium will provide data-based empirical investigations on two examples of the use of advanced technology to teach. The first paper will comprehensively review the existing research regarding the use of technology to teach and whether there is an empirical basis to support these practices. The second paper investigates the use of wireless audio and live streamed video to train staff to competently implement instructional protocols with learners with autism. The third paper focuses on evaluating the biophysical correlates associated with self-injurious behavior, attempting to demonstrate possible variables that might aid in the reduction of such problems through the use of a FitBit.

Special educators have long used technology in the education of persons with disabilities. Smart boards, communication devices, picture schedules, and timers are examples of technological strategies to teach and maintain a variety of academic, communication, and social skills. As the technology has evolved, there is currently a new generation of personal technology devices that have great potential for supporting the education of these individuals. For example, smart phones, tablets, and the ubiquitous Internet can be used to support individuals with disabilities and make them more independent in their daily functioning. These devices are being used extensively in the education of special learners, with teachers purchasing IPads, loading them with education apps, and teaching the learners to use these devices, all with the great expectation that the new technology will result in significant gains in knowledge and competence. This paper reviews the breadth and depth of technological educational strategies. Technology was classified into its abilities, the skills needed to use, the skills it targets to teach, and the characteristics of the user. A review of the literature on the degree of evidence of effectiveness showed that technology is not the panacea and promise initially believed. There is little empirical investigation of its effectiveness, and the results are mixed. Conclusions will be drawn about the future use of technology, future research studies, and the extent to which skills can be supported by these new strategies.

Over the next 10-15 years, approximately 800,000 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis will be entering adulthood. Services for adults are likely to be decentralized with training taking place in various community settings; such as vocational environments, restaurants, exercise facilities, offices, hospitals, and during recreational activities. In adult services, the physical distance of various community placements, coupled with additional administrative and clincial responsibilities, may influence supervisors to selectively choose which programs and interventions to supervise based on the above constraints rather than the needs of students and staff. Fortunately, there is an increasing research database showing that various technologies can be successful in training and supporting staff. The purpose of this studey was to use a live-streaming device to train staff to implement instructional protocols while teaching adults with ASD across various community settings. Specifically, board certified behavior analysts listened in and viewed via a live streaming device instruction of learners and were able to provide immediate feedback to the staff to improve the fidelity to the instructional protocols. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, the findings showed that supervisors could effectively supervise staff from a distance using the live streaming technology and offer staff support that in turn reduced staff errors and increased fidelity of programming.

Impulsive behavior is at the center of attention of educators and clinicians alike. Behavior analysts have a long tradition in the experimental study about the variables which yield impulsive behavior and the alternative and more socially acceptable and otherwise relevant behavior, known as self control. This symposium comprises three papers representing current research on self control and its controlling variables. One paper investigates the effects of equalization and non-equalization of inter trial intervals on self control performance of children. Another paper aims to study the effects of larger and smaller reinforcers chosen via a pre experimental assessment to investigate the effects of mediating responses on self control of small children. A third paper implemented a self-monitoring system as an intervention for inappropriate body movements along with a differential reinforcement of lower rates of responses component. All papers contribute to the understanding of the variables responsible for self control and bring important implications to the development of more effective educational procedures and to conceptual issues regarding the behavioral definition of self control.

Under the paradigm of concurrent choices, self-control is understood as the choice of delayed and larger consequences in detriment of choices of immediate and smaller consequences. Previous research indicates that the duration of inter-trial intervals affect the choice behavior of delayed consequences, among other variables. A common procedure to increase experimental control over what determines choice consists of equalizing trial duration. The present study aims to investigate, in a single subject design, the effect of equalization and non-equalization of inter-trial intervals over self-control in four pre-scholar children with normal development, aged between 3 and 4 years. The study is structured in five phases: Simple Discrimination Training (SDT), Reinforcement Amount Training (RAT), Delay Reinforcement Training (DRT) and Interval Between Trials Equated with reversal of equalization (NE-EI). Results show that participants chose larger reinforcements in 100% of trials during RAT Phase. During DRT Phase, choices on delayed consequences stabilized on 33% along three sessions and the participant obtained 10 reinforcers per session (4 minutes each session). During NEI Phase, choices on delayed consequences stabilized on 50% and the participant obtained 12 reinforcers per session (5 minutes each session). Results suggest that on NEI phase occurred maximization of number of reinforcers per session time. Keywords: self-control, inter-trial intervals, delayed consequences.

We used a reversal design to evaluate the effects of a DRL plus self-monitoring system on decreasing inappropriate body movements (IBM) in a young male with autism. Baseline data indicated that inappropriate body movements ranged between 14 and 34 occurrences each day. A trial- based functional analysis revealed IBM were multiply maintained by automatic reinforcement, access to tangibles, and attention. Thus self-monitoring would allow the implementation of an intervention when the participant was alone, as well as during instruction. First, discrimination training was used to teach the participant to score when IBM occurred while watching video segments of himself and then in-vivo. Self-monitoring training in-vivo showed that the self-monitoring system acquired stimulus control over IBM, in that IBM were more likely to occur in the absence of the system than in its presence. Therefore, we implemented the self-monitoring system across the day as an intervention for IBM along with a DRL component. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the DRL+ self-monitoring system within a reversal design when reliable changes in IBM occurred when the intervention was applied and removed. With the implementation of the intervention, IBM decreased to under five occurrences.

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist Human Services (PDC-HS) is an informant-based tool designed to assess the environmental variables that contribute to poor employee performance in human service settings. Although the PDC-HS has been shown to be effective in diagnosing potential variables maintaining problem performance, it is yet unclear whether a function-based intervention identified by the PDC-HS is the only intervention that is likely to work. In the current study, the PDC-HS was administered to various supervisors to assess the potential variables maintaining low levels of providing opportunities to use verbal operants with 3 therapist-client dyads. Three of the four PDC-HS domains were evaluated. Various non-indicated interventions from the different PDC-HS domains were implemented prior to implementing an indicated intervention. Results show that the PDC-HS-indicated interventions were more effective than the PDC-HS non-indicated interventions for each dyad. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the PDC-HS to identify appropriate interventions to manage therapist performance in human service settings.

Supplementary, contingent pay arrangements can result in improved employee productivity and may lead to the development of more efficient performance improvement plans in organizational settings. In Experiment 1, we examined the effects of various stimulus delivery arrangements on performance in a computer-based task in a simulated work context. Participants entered hypothetical client data onto a Microsoft Excel invoice and earned gift-cards for task completion according to the following four conditions: (a) fixed-ratio/high-preference stimuli (FR/HiP), (b) variable-ratio/high-preference stimuli (VR/HiP), (c) fixed-ratio/varied stimuli (FR/Var), and (d) variable-ratio/varied stimuli (VR/Var). For both participants, constant access to their highest preferred stimulus delivered under a fixed-ratio schedule produced the greatest increases in performance relative to baseline. In a second experiment, we evaluated participant preference to perform under the four stimulus delivery arrangements using a concurrent-chains schedule. Results of the preference assessment indicated that one of the participants' preference did not correspond with the stimulus condition that resulted in the highest levels of task completion or reinforcers earned during the performance evaluation.

Aggregations of single-case research studies are useful in assessing the external validity of evidence in a given area. Aggregations of the literature can provide behavior analysts with a cohesive understanding of a certain practice; they can also inform us of the most effective treatments demonstrated for a specific domain of behavior. This symposium includes quantitative syntheses and meta-analyses of single-case literature on specific interventions (i.e., errorless teaching and embedding preferences) as well as on certain domains of behavior (i.e., academic skills and functional living skills). All of these reviews are focused on learning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with ASD face unique challenges in learning and development. A common purpose to each of the reviews here is to identify the current state of the evidence for individual practices. Standards for aggregating and analyzing single-case research have undergone much refinement in recent years. Meta-analytic reviews of single-case research are only recently becoming prevalent in the special education and applied behavior analytic literature. Thus, this symposium will be useful for attendees with interest in educational interventions for individuals with ASD as well as for those interested in advancements in methods for study aggregation.

This review of single-case research is on interventions aiming to enhance academic/pre-academic skills and/or task completion and engagement during academic contexts for children with ASD in school settings. Forty-eight studies published between 1995 and 2014 were included. These articles were coded according to (a) design; (b) participant demographics; (c) setting type; (d) intervention type and implementer; (e) duration and dosage; (f) outcomes; (g) inter-rater reliability, social validity, treatment integrity, and (h) generalization and maintenance. Tau-U was used to determine overlap indices for each study and across intervention categories of literacy, math, science, social studies, engagement and task completion, and prerequisite skills. Findings showed that most studies included students in grades K-12. The mean Tau-U score across all studies was moderate to high (Tau-U = 0.74, range 0.15 - 1.00). All interventions were effective or very effective in improving targeted pre-academic or academic skills. Interventions targeting task engagement and completion had the lowest mean Tau-U (Tau-U = 0.59); approximately half of the interventions were not effective for improving task engagement and completion (Tau-U = 0.65). These results reveal the need for further research targeting academic skills for preschool students with ASD and interventions targeting on task engagement and completion.

Errorless learning, or errorless teaching, is a technology that has been developed as a way to teach individuals with autism a variety of skills. The purpose of this systematic review was to review the extant literature on errorless teaching procedures that have been used with individuals with autism. Our goal was to determine which forms of errorless teaching have been researched and what the effects of each form were in terms of learning outcomes. We conducted a comprehensive search using 7 databases and studies were included in the review if they included participants with autism, were primary research, were written in English, and directly tested the effects of errorless teaching procedures. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria and we conducted an independent appraisal of the results and methodological quality of each study (based of the What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook). We found that five different forms of errorless teaching have been researched and that, in general, errorless teaching procedures are effective at teaching discrete skills to individuals with autism. We also found that errorless procedures seem to produce learning slower than non-errorless procedures in terms of sessions to mastery. Implications for research and practice will be discussed.

A body of research has explored how embedding interests into the learning environment by modifying aspects of the original activity may facilitate positive outcomes in an area of need for individuals with ASD. We reviewed this literature base to (a) determine the quality of the evidence and (b) evaluate potential moderators of results according to variations in participant characteristics and dependent variables. Studies were included that targeted participants with ASD, included quantitative data, and compared conditions with high- versus lesser-preferred objects/activities embedded into the environment. Studies were rated on quality and evidence using two rubrics. A total of 21 studies with 86 participants were included. Thirteen studies with 42 participants targeted children in early childhood, 12 of which were single-case studies with 28 participants and 74 effects/targeted dependent variables. In evaluating the quality of this initial sample of studies, findings were mixed. There was emerging support among studies targeting social-communication type skills (e.g., joint attention). It is possible that stereotyped or repetitive behaviors associated with restricted interests of children with ASD could deter the effects of this intervention at times, such as during instructor-led activities. Professionals should structure the environment to monitor added benefit when considering use of this intervention.

This systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed peer-reviewed research concerning the generalization and maintenance of functional-living skills for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Following the application of predetermined inclusion criteria, 31 articles (containing 32 studies) were reviewed and summarized in terms of: (a) generalization dimension, (b) generalization assessment design, (c) maintenance assessment design, (d) maintenance and generalization teaching strategy, and (e) latency to maintenance probes. Using Tau effect size and post-hoc analyses, the type of generalization and maintenance teaching strategies were analyzed as potential moderators. Outcomes identified strong effects for generalization strategies employed. Resulting maintenance effects demonstrated strong effects for baseline to maintenance contrasts. Negative effects for the train and hope method were identified using intervention to maintenance contrasts. Results indicated statistically significant findings supporting the use of training in a natural setting and training to a criterion as compared to the train and hope strategy. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Training staff to teach skills beyond the basic verbal operants involves consideration of conceptual, social and training variables. Four papers will be presented that review considerations for training peer to peer interactions, conceptual considerations related to speech perception, and two papers describing large group competency based trainings for conceptual and procedural skills relevant to complex verbal behavior for teachers of students with autism. The first study includes a description of training systems relevant to peer to peer verbal interactions focused on a manding treatment package consisting of the use of differential reinforcement and time delay procedures to effect the rate of unprompted peer mands in individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities. A behavioral interpretation of the McGurk Effect will relate conceptual issues relevant to training staff in skills related to observational skills of vocal verbal behavior. The McGurk effect is an auditory and visual phenomena in which what is seen effects what is heard. The final two papers summarize outcome data from large scale trainings focused on having staff acquire implementation skills for procedures derived from advanced concepts in verbal behavior including joint control, extended tacts, and verbal conditional discriminations.

The McGurk Effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which the combination of discrepant visual and auditory speech stimuli (e.g,. hear-ba/see-ga) produces the reports of hearing a completely novel response form (e.g., "a"). The present study attempted to explain the McGurk Effect and related phenomena in terms of principles of behavior. Skinner (1953) proposed that perception itself is behavior, and interpreting experimental results within the framework of experimentally validated behavioral principles may help to guide future research on perceptual phenomena. Additionally, the present study contributed to the analysis of the McGurk
Effect by comparing results from a discrepant isolated syllable condition (e.g., hear-ba/see-ga) with a second condition, in which the isolated syllables were presented to participants as the initial sounds of responses existing within their verbal repertoires (e.g., hear-BUST/see-GUST). The results supported the authors' hypothesis that the McGurk Effect would be stronger when syllables were presented in isolation than when they were presented in the context of whole words. Implications for training staff in observing vocal behavior will be discusse.

Outcomes of a large scale training effort for public school autism teachers in Pennsylvania include data on acquisition of conceptual skills and specific teaching programs will be presented. This session will review the structure and rationale for methods for teaching staff to implement protocols such as generative responding for tacts of actions and features, tacts of class of items and transfer to intraverbal responses. Includes description of training methods and outcomes for specific methods for developing participant conceptual competencies for extended tacts and concept development, joint control processes and issues related to verbal conditional discriminations. Training methods have included multiple formats for participant responding including choral responding, guided notes, and analogue demonstration of specific procedures. The training model has been implemented with public school teachers serving students with autism. The training represents efforts of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network Autism Initiative. Training participants have included a wide range of professionals employed in public schools including teachers, para-educators and various support staff including school psychologists and speech and language clinicians.

This session will review data and processes involved in the transfer of training competencies from large scale analogue training sessions to actual classroom practices. The role and function of on-site consultation from behavioral consultants involved in the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network Applied Behavior Analysis Supports effort in supporting teams in implementing protocols related to complex verbal behavior will be presented. Consideration of the design of training includes structure of training content related to efficient data collection and analysis that can be adopted in school settings that typically do not include clinical practice staff to student ratios. Additionally, methods to insure treatment integrity for teaching protocols related to target skills such as generative responding for tacts of actions and features, tacts of class of items and transfer to intraverbal responses will be described. The data will be related to a process established to promote system-wide acceptance of behavior analytic processes for teaching complex skills.

Typically, applied behavior analysis has focused on individuals with developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders. Often behavior analysts shy away from addressing areas such as psychopathology, trauma, anxiety and emotional aspects (e.g. depression) of medical issues. These diagnoses and their symptoms involve private events and are therefore difficult to operationally define, observe and measure. However, Friman and others have suggested that behavior analysts should not ignore these important areas because they will then be studied only by non-behaviorists. Unfortunately, non-behaviorists view aberrant behaviors in individuals with psychiatric disorders as symptoms of underlying constructs and use the diagnosis as a reason for these behaviors, proposing more global treatments such as therapies or medications. On the other hand, behaviorists view those behaviors as serving an environmental function that can be replaced with a more acceptable behavior serving the same function. The behavioral perspective would also include an analysis/understanding of establishing operations in the form of private events, physical sensations, bio-behavioral states, psychological feelings, and covert tacts/mands and learning history with particular discriminative stimuli for reinforcement or punishment. The presenters in this symposium will present their analyses of these areas from a behavioral perspective and provide treatment strategies or research methodologies that are based on these analyses.

Coping with medical diagnoses such as diabetes and asthma is particularly difficult during adolescence. Living in a rural community that is lacking in resources can make these diagnoses even more difficult, leading to behaviors that present as anxiety, depression and helplessness. Understanding how these behaviors can serve as establishing operations and have functions in the form of direct escape or socially mediated access is helpful in developing interventions that promote more positive behaviors such as treatment adherence, seeking support, and coping effectively. The presenter works with adolescents who are being treated at a school-based health clinic which serves high school students in a rural, impoverished area, some of whom are in families of migrant workers. The presenter will describe how to conduct a functional assessment and analysis of motivating operations in the treatment of behaviors related to medical disorders, using case examples of two adolescents who have been diagnosed with diabetes and asthma.

The synthesis of evidence is central to the translation of scientific knowledge into practice. Most clinical sciences use meta-analysis methodology to aggregate the evidence from multiple individual studies. Meta-analyses are often used as the final scientific product preceding the transfer of evidence to health and education decision-makers and to the wider public. The use of meta-analysis in behavior analysis has been hampered by (a) the multiple metrics used across studies, (b) the limited use of randomized and non-randomized controlled studies, (c) the absence of purposely-developed effect size estimators for single-subject experimental designs, and (d) the lack of quantitative approaches to appropriately evaluate the idiosyncrasies of individual studies and individual participants within studies. Analytical developments over the last few years have helped to overcome some of these limitations. Some of these developments are illustrated in the current series of review studies. K. Hurl's meta-analysis compares the relative effectiveness of interventions for problem behavior that were and were not preceded by a functional assessment. R. Anderson's study features a quantitative synthesis of behavioral interventions for severe feeding disorders. J. McCormack will present a meta-analysis of the differential outcome effects in clinical and non-clinical population. Finally, A. Arnold-Saritepe will present a review of evidence-based practices for severe behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities and autism.

There is a growing interest in treatments to transition children from tube feeding (e.g., nasogastric or gastrostomy tubes) to oral feeding. A number of literature reviews identify applied behaviour analysis as having the strongest evidence for the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders. However, few studies have reviewed the nutritional outcomes for tube fed children. These outcomes include primarily the reduction or elimination of tube feeds and weight gain. In addition, the individual studies available do not allow a cogent comparison of behaviour-analytic intervention with other multidisciplinary treatment studies, such as tube weaning or hunger provocation programs. In the current investigation we conducted a meta-analysis of treatments for children dependent on tube feeding, combining datasets of different metrics (e.g., single-case and group designs). This presentation will cover our meta-analysis methods, results, and implications for future research and clinical practice.

Severe behavior presents a significant challenge for both the individual and caregiver in terms of quality of life. Challenging behavior is commonly reported in individuals with intellectual disabilities, 10-15 %, however for those with autism and / or profound intellectual disabilities the prevalence is much higher, 39-65%. At least 10% of individuals in the latter category have challenging behavior that would be considered to be severe. Adolescent and young adult males make up two-thirds of this group. While the progression of severe behavior disorders has not been well documented, it would appear that the overall prognosis for this group of individuals is not good, with potentially 80% continuing to engage in these behaviors 20 years later. Many of the studies published contain complex multi-component interventions that do not always report long term follow up or generalization data. This paper aims to review the behavioral literature for the intervention of the most severe challenging behavior (e.g., aggression, property destruction and self-injurious behavior) using Reichow, Volkmar and Cicchetti?s (2008) method for evaluating and determining evidence-based practice. It is hoped that this review will support researchers and clinicians in developing effective long lasting interventions that allow those with severe behaviors to live a less restricted life in the community.

In this multi-domain symposium, the intersection of the use of computers and contingencies to address complex human behavior is addressed in various ways by each presentation. All of the talks focus on the assessment of either the tasks involved, the behavior emitted by humans, or both. The assessment of tasks is required for a clear task analysis of what is required in the various domains in which behavior change is desired. The assessment of behavior in terms of how well it matches, under-matches, or over-matches the tasks is an important part of the assessment involved in shaping behavior. In this symposium, high inter-observer reliability scores are reported by several presentations, along with effective strategies to change socially important behavior as a result of contingencies that are applied to human behavior. The use of these reliable and valid methods of assessment is important for the field of behavior analysis and beyond.

Decades of research suggest that degree of delay discounting differs in clinically relevant populations relative to control populations. For example, individuals who smoke cigarettes, use illicit drugs, are obese, or fail to take preventative health measures tend to discount delayed rewards more relative to comparison groups. Recent evidence suggests that degree of discounting, previously been compared to a stable trait, is sensitive to experimental manipulation. This symposium presents data in which experimental manipulation affected delay discounting. Meredith Berry will present data suggesting visual exposure to natural environments decreases discounting, and that this effect may be related to lengthened time perception. Renee Renda will present data with rat subjects suggesting lasting reductions in discounting can be produced by delay exposure. Sarah Snider will present data in which episodic future thinking decreased discounting and intensity of demand for alcohol in alcohol dependent individuals. Matthew Johnson will present data suggesting acute doses of cocaine and alcohol increase discounting of condom-protected sex, but do not affect discounting of money. Leonard Green will integrate these presentations as discussant. Data in this symposium suggest degree of discounting has both trait and state characteristics. This knowledge is important for the development of interventions for impulsive decision making.

Previous research in the treatment of severe behavior problems has found the appearance of extinction bursts following the suspension of reinforcer delivery is less than common, and similar findings have been found in basic human operant research. In contrast, extinction bursts have been reported widely in animal research following suspension of reinforcer delivery, leading some to suggest a difference between humans and non-humans. We propose that extinction bursts, in fact, have not received a thorough functional analysis, and it may be premature to conclude lack of consistent findings with humans are due to species differences. The present study was designed to clarify the role response topography and stimulus modality may play in promoting extinction bursts. Twenty-five human participants watched a preferred video. Across groups, the audio or video stream was removed from playback, leaving the other stream intact. Participants could restore the video/audio stream by pressing a force-sensitive button, where either low (250 g) or high (750 g) forces were required to restore playback. At 20 and 30 minutes into the session, video/audio streams were removed, but participants could not restore playback for 20 s. The results showed that extinction bursting was more likely when baseline forces were lower and when audio streams were removed compared to the removal of video. The findings suggest that the wide variability in the observation of extinction bursts may be due to incidental differences in response topographies. Specifically, high-force topographies appear less likely to result in “bursting” during extinction. Also, reinforcer modality is shown to alter the likelihood and extent of extinction bursts.

Previous basic studies have demonstrated how different schedules of reinforcement affect the rate and force of responses (Notterman & Mintz 1965). The results of basic studies on force are relevant for applied studies on the assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior. The present study evaluated the force and rate of button pressing during continuous and intermittent reinforcement and extinction. We conducted two experiments with three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. In Experiment 1, two conditions were compared using a reversal design (i.e., intermittent reinforcement and extinction). In Experiment 2, three conditions were compared in a sequence using a reversal design (i.e., intermittent reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, and extinction). In summary, the results across both experiments demonstrated how changes in the schedule of reinforcement affected the rate and force of responses. The results will be discussed in terms of future applied research on the force of problem behavior during assessment and function-based intervention.

Functional Analysis (FA) methodology has become the hallmark of behavioral assessment and plenty of studies have been conducted to refine its procedures (Hanley, Iwata, & McCord, 2003). However, there is almost no research about changes in the variation of target responses as the assessment progresses. The purpose of the current study was to describe changes in the number and rate of aggression topographies observed during demand sessions of FA for four participants whose problem behavior maintained by escape. The results showed that for all participants the number of topographies decreased from the first to the last session. Also, the rate of responding for one particular topography either increased or remained at high levels after the first session while the remaining topographies of response decreased in rate. The implications of the decrease in variability in topographies of response when conducting FAs for problem behavior will be discussed as well as how this relates to research on modification of response classes.

Although the benefits of Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) for both animals and humans are often reported in the media, systematic and experimental research is largely lacking in this field. Furthermore, behavioral research is even rarer. In a sequence of talks, we will explore the variables that improve the relationship between cats, dogs, and humans. Then, we will report on research in the use of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) for special human populations. The first talk will assess the utility of therapy dogs as reinforcers in educational settings with children. The second talk will examine how human interaction and reinforcement histories of domesticated cats can alter cat sociability. Finally, the third talk will determine the utility of service dogs to reduce work stress in military veterans. This symposium highlights research that strives to bring together behavioral methodologies and HAI and AAI fields.

The aim of the project was to determine the benefit of access to a therapy dog as a reinforcer for educational task completion in children and to develop a screening assessment to predict this benefit. In Experiment 1, we conducted a preference assessment, in which various leisure items as well as a therapy dog were included in the stimulus array. In Experiment 2, in a single-subject multi-element design, we then determined the efficacy of a therapy dog in improving task-related behavior as well as mitigate associated stress. In Experiment 2, each child was randomly assigned to a sequence of conditions: contingent access to a therapy dog, non-contingent access to a therapy dog, contingent access to other preferred leisure activities, and contingent praise. The motivation to engage in the educational activity as well as behavioral and physiological markers of stress were assessed in all conditions.

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder face barriers that can prevent them from successfully reintegrating into society and returning to work. Service dogs are increasingly used as an intervention to help ameliorate symptoms of psychiatric disorders, but there is a dearth of empirical evidence on their effectiveness. Nine male veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who have service dogs were recruited to participate in a laboratory study. The magnitude and time course of their stress and startle responses before, during, and after a task designed to simulate different kinds of work-related stress were assessed. Stress and startle responses were measured using physiological, psychological, and behavioral metrics during baseline, task, and recovery periods. Across conditions, the veteran was alone, with his dog, or with an unfamiliar, friendly dog. The effects of the presence or absence of each dog was compared to the alone condition. Preliminary results suggest that familiar dogs produce greater reductions in stress responses when compared to unfamiliar dogs. These results contribute to our understanding of the therapeutic effects of emotional support and psychiatric service dogs.

The speakers in this symposium have taken translational approaches to answering applied questions regarding reinforcement and related phenomena. Although the populations or target behavior topographies addressed may not include immediate clinical targets in all three papers, all of the topics examined have important clinical applications. The following papers will be presented: Effects of Schedules of Reinforcement on Spontaneous Recovery, Sensitivity to Parameters of Positive Versus Negative Reinforcement, and Further Comparisons of Pairing Procedures Used to Condition Praise as a Reinforcer.

Programming for effective behavior-analytic instruction requires practitioners to review research to make evidence-based decisions regarding implementation. This symposium will address three aspects of behavior-analytic instruction: selecting proper correction procedures, the effectiveness of varied reinforcer pools and programming for generalization of instructional materials. There is conflicting research guiding practitioners about choosing an effective error-correction procedure when instructing children with autism. This symposium will present research and provide a discussion of the possible reinforcing effects of different correction procedures to help further the research in this area. Assessing the effects of replenished versus unreplenished reinforcer pools has implications for applied settings with limited resources when working with adolescents with autism. Results showed that novel stimuli were preferred over stimuli available in the participants environment. These results have implications about how to allocate resources when considering purchasing new stimuli as potential reinforcers. The third symposium outlines clear recommendations for specific ways to promote generalization in taught skills and will evaluate the success of programming common stimuli to achieve generalization of social skills taught in a behavior-analytic clinic when working with children with autism. Data indicate that bringing stimuli into the teaching environment may not be sufficiently effective to generalize to a new environment.

The debate between basic and applied researchers has existed since the inception of our field. There are many valid arguments that address the strengths of both basic and applied research. However, debate does not yield outcomes other than the products of the discussions themselves. The panelists are doctoral students in the Applied Behavior Analysis Online Department of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. They will present a brief review of translational research conducted across four different topic areas that have solved important problems. Their presentations will be followed by open discussion, which will be moderated by a discussant. As the field of behavior analysis continues to grow, so will the number of problems we need to solve. Collaboration among basic and applied researchers as well as interdisciplinary research can provide an avenue for a wider array of solutions in an increasingly complex world. This panel presentation hopes to motivate the development of additional translational research in behavior analysis.

Difficulties in recognizing and remembering the names of individuals are a common behavioral symptom of major neurocognitive disorder. A number of behavioral strategies have been proposed to improve memory deficits, including spaced retrieval, an intervention that emphasizes delayed recall of target information. Unfortunately, many of the studies that report beneficial effects of spaced retrieval use a very limited range of outcome measures, thus calling into question the magnitude and generality of any reported memory improvement. This study reports on the impact of spaced retrieval using four older adults with cognitive impairment living in an assisted living facility. All participants demonstrated difficulty naming and recalling names of staff members at the facility who provided care. A multiple baseline across participants design with embedded probes was used to evaluate the effects of spaced retrieval on the acquisition, delayed recall, and generalization of naming a target staff member. Probe measures included a non-identity matching-to-sample task, naming in the presence of untrained photographs of the target staff member, and naming during brief video presentations of the target staff member. Non-example presentations were also interspersed. Spaced retrieval resulted in within-session increases in delayed recall for all participants, and also resulted in minimal evidence of generalization across probe measures, including live-person probes. Modified spaced retrieval interventions were then employed to address stimulus control deficits. These modified conditions resulted in further gains in delayed recall performance, as well as improved generalization across probes. These results are discussed in the context of previous research with spaced retrieval. Future directions are also discussed.

Recent research has shown that infants who later develop ASD have a strong preference for sensory stimuli in contrast to typically developing children, who have a strong preference for social stimuli. For infants with a preference for sensory stimuli, geometric patterns and non-speech sounds in the environment select their attention and these sensory stimuli likely function as powerful reinforcers for the behavior of the infant. As the infant grows older, they will not only attend to sensory stimuli, they will also exhibit repetitive and stereotyped behaviors to produce additional sensory reinforcement. The affinity for sensory stimuli at the cost of social stimuli may result in a negative spiral of acquiring social reinforcers and social behaviors. Consequently, the infants fail to learn by imitation and to achieve developmental milestones such as joint attention, verbal skills, and theory of mind. Typically developing infants, in contrast, will attend to the eyes and the voices of the caregivers, because these stimuli function as powerful reinforcers. These social reinforcers select additional social and verbal skills such as social smiling, imitation, joint attention and pragmatic language.

An application for a tablet to assess responding to social stimuli and geometric stimuli was developed. Two blurred visual stimuli, one social and one geometric, were presented simultaneously on the tablet screen. Whenever one of the stimuli was touched, it becomes complete for 2 seconds before getting blurred again. Dependent variable was number of touches on each type of stimuli, to determine the reinforcing property of the social stimuli and the geometric stimuli. Results showed that children with autism, on average, responded most frequently to the geometric stimuli and less frequently to the social stimuli, as compared to typically developing children and children with intellectual disabilities. We hypothesize that if social stimuli function as reinforcers for the behavior of an infant, the social reinforcers will select social- and verbal behavior, such as looking at adults, imitation, joint attention, social communication and theory of mind behavior. If sensory stimuli (such as geometric forms) function as a more potent reinforcer for an infants behavior as compared to social stimuli, the sensory reinforcers will select stereotyped and repetitive behavior rather than social and communicative behavior. Indeed, the presence of stereotyped behavior and the lack of social skills and communication define autism.

This presentation begins by reviewing recent studies examining infants preference for social stimuli and sensory stimuli. Using eye-tracking technology, studies have shown that infants who later develop ASD spend less time looking at eyes and listening to the voice of caregivers, as compared to typically developing infants. Moreover, research has shown that infants who later develop ASD show preference for geometric forms, as compared to typically developing infants and infants with learning delays. Research from our lab shows that children with ASD will not only prefer looking at geometric stimuli, but will also show increased responding when the consequence for responding is viewing geometric stimuli as compared to social stimuli, as compared to typically developing children and children with learning delays. Hence, sensory stimuli seem to function as a more powerful reinforcer for the behavior of infants developing ASD as compared to social stimuli. Sensory reinforcers will likely select a different behavioral repertoire in an infant as compared to social reinforcers. Sensory reinforcers will select stereotype behavior and other non-nonsocial behavior consistent with ASD, whereas social reinforcer will likely select attention to faces and human voices, imitation, joint attention, communication and other more advanced social skills.

Practitioners working with developmentally disabled populations frequently contact dually diagnosed individuals that present with less common, but clinically relevant behavioral concerns such as bizarre speech and suicidal behaviors. Behavior analysts generally are not trained to evaluate or treat the specific topographies presented in these less common behaviors. However they may be the only treatment team member available to help or provide guidance to staff members. While assessment and treatment for these behaviors is theoretically the same, there are some less common factors to keep in mind when intervening functionally in complex and dangerous behaviors. Treating bizarre speech as simply attention maintained, or suicidal behaviors as simple self injury could have extreme consequences. Even when suicidal behaviors are maintained by attention, extinction or NCR may be too high risk to consider for implementation. Factors the behavior analyst should consider when evaluating and treating complex behaviors will be discussed. Possible assessment and treatment options for further investigation will be reviewed. Special consideration when responding to these behaviors may prevent injury or death, as well as improve the individual's quality of life. We will also suggest important areas for future research.

Behavior Analysts are often the only sole Mental Health Professionals in organizations supporting Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities. Suicidal statements and attempts (suicidal behaviors) would certainly be classified as maladaptive behaviors, and it is common for support staff to ask a Behavior Analyst for guidance when these behaviors are exhibited. However, many Behavior Analysts have little or no background in Mental Health or Social Work. This leaves us woefully unprepared to confidently respond to suicidal behaviors. This session will address simple screening and prevention methods by identifying Setting Events and Establishing Operations that may increase the likelihood of a suicide attempt. Common misconceptions about suicide in general and specific to the ID/DD population will be clarified. Finally, we will suggest some possible responses to suicidal behavior for each functional behavior class. There is little awareness of suicide risk in the ID/DD population, although Individuals with ID/DD attempt and have completed suicide. Increasing awareness of Suicide Risk and promoting future research is essential to address one of the most preventable causes of death across the lifespan.

Video-Based Instruction (VBI) is emerging as an evidence-based practice for improving skill acquisition of individuals with and without disabilities across a broad range of environments and skill sets. It has many applications for improving behavioral outcomes not only for individuals with disabilities, but also for caregivers and teachers who deliver instruction for these learners. The purpose of this symposium is to present research on various strategies for implementing VBI across providers (teachers and parents), devices (iPad, Google Glass), instructional formats (video feedback, video prompting, and simultaneous video modeling), and skill sets (daily living skills, vocational skills, and effective teacher praise). The first study presents results of a study that involved presenting simultaneous video models on Google Glass to improve vocational skills of individuals with ASD and/or IDD; the second study presents results of a study that used video feedback to improve teachers use of praise in classroom settings; and the third study presents results of a study that involved teaching parents to implement video prompting strategies presented on iPads to increase daily living skills of learners with ASD. Presenters will offer practical strategies for using VBI effectively across devices, participants, and instructional formats.

A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of using Google Glass to teach vocational skills to three young men with autism and/or intellectual disabilities. Instructional trials involved a simultaneous video model presented on the Glass device to teach participants to pack a first aid kit. The video model had an embedded demonstration of how to use a visual checklist to prompt task completion and the generalized skill of using a visual checklist was also measured with another task (stocking a coffee station). Results indicated that all three participants demonstrated an immediate increase with independent correct responding for packing the first aid kit when simultaneous video models were presented on Google Glass. In addition two of the three participants demonstrated generalization of visual checklist usage following intervention. All students indicated that they liked using Google Glass and stated they would like to use it again in the future. The practical utility of using Google Glass as a prompting system will be discussed.

Utilizing visual resources presented on various technological devices to support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has yielded?positive outcomes and promoted independence across a variety of skills. Parents and caregivers have not only attained these advanced?technological devices, but often actively seek to become more competent in using them. While there is?ample research to support the use of portable devices to promote daily living skills for individuals?with autism, relatively few studies have examined whether parents can be trained effectively to?deliver evidence-based practices, such as video prompts, using portable, mainstream devices. The?current study sought to evaluate parent fidelity in the implementation of behavior skills training procedures aimed at delivering video prompts to their child using an iPad. A multiple baseline across participants' design was used to determine if child participants with ASD, between the ages of 12 and 17, were able to acquire and master the steps of a targeted daily living skill. Results indicated that parents were successful in their delivery of the training procedures. Results also demonstrated that their children were able to correctly and independently complete the steps of their daily living skills with high accuracy.

This panel discussion includes three presentations that cover different applications of Organizational Behavior Management to issues within the healthcare industry. Some topics that will be covered include the application of Behavior Based Safety to healthcare and using behavioral science to sustain Lean and Six Sigma initiatives.

In the case of severe challenging behavior there are instances that require physical restraint in order to maintain safety for the individual served as well as others. There are many concerns with the use of physical restraint, including the possibility that restraint may serve as a reinforcer. One possible way to compete with the reinforcing effects of restraint is to find an alternative activity that the individual can access. We discuss a case in which a childs aggression often necessitated the use of physical restraint. During a functional analysis, physical play was used as reinforcer for aggression during test conditions and applied noncontingently during control sessions. Differentiated results were obtained during the functional analysis. Subsequently, the individual was taught a functional communication response that provided access to physical play. The intervention resulted in a decrease in aggression and an increase in the functional alternative response. The results of the study highlight a possible intervention for individuals with severe aggression who often require physical restraint to maintain safety, but whose aggression is also maintained by the stimulus properties associated with restraint.

Many researchers have suggested the scope of behavior science is far-reaching. However, given such claims, social phenomena such as cooperation, conformity, and persuasion have been left to the assumptions of less equipped fields. The extent to which behavior scientists can examine such phenomena depends on ways the role of verbal behavior are examined in the analysis of cultural phenomena. The importance of rhetoric in cultural analysis has been highlighted as weapons of influence by marketing, political science, social psychology, to name a few. Within the behavior analytic literature, for instance, there have been a number of experimental studies on cooperation. However, what does or does not constitute cooperative behavior has remained unclear. As such, many researchers have adapted the definition of cooperation to complement their experimental procedures, resulting in a number of contradictory and unclear definitions. For example, whether or not cooperation necessitates a social element and/or verbal behavior is not consistently addressed. By drawing upon some of the literature in social sciences and behavior analysis, presentations in the symposium will provide behavior scientific accounts of persuasion, cooperation and conformity.

Voter turnout for the 2012 United States presidential election was 53.6% of eligible voters, a relatively low percent as compared to other developed countries with democracies. Recent political science research suggests voting is an act of cooperation -- a shared outcome not achievable by any one source acting alone (Rafacz). Behavior analysis can contribute to the complex cultural phenomenon of voting by looking at cooperation and conformity, whether there is a difference between the two terms, and the implications they have on the study of voter turnout and other political choices from a behavior analytic perspective. This paper will address cooperation and conformity from a conceptual and theoretical framework, and the advantages and disadvantages of delineating the two terms. Lastly, future methodology for researching voter behavior, specifically voter turnout, from both a cooperation and conformity standpoint will be discussed.

For centuries, philosophers, researchers, and psychologists have been hard at work studying the verbal weapons of influence, more specifically, the phenomenon of persuasion. Although persuasion has been studied across four millennia, the bulk of the experimental work has been conducted within the last century, and primarily exists in the literatures of social psychology. Despite a robust line of research in social psychology, the literatures still lack a theoretically and empirically sound explanation for how skilled persuasive repertoires are shaped and maintained. It can be argued that a behavior analytic approach, especially one that focuses on verbal behavior, would serve useful to the scientific community. For instance, by eschewing futile mental associations and focusing on the behavior involved in principles outlined by social psychologists, the scientific utility of behavior analysis can be demonstrated. This presentation will provide an overview of ways by which behavior analysis may offer a scientific contribution to the analysis of persuasion.

There is an abundance of research on behavior analytic strategies for teaching simple skills to children with autism and related disabilities. These relatively simple skills include manding, tacting, imitating, matching, sorting, and tooth brushing. There is less research on teaching more complex skills such as engaging in conversation, initiating joint attention, and solving difficult math problems. The analysis of verbal behavior has much to contribute to the analysis of complex repertoires. This symposium centers on two complex repertoires often limited in children with autism and related disabilities: perspective taking and problem solving. The first paper, by Taylor-Santa and colleagues, is a theoretical paper and literature review paper on perspective taking. The authors offer an account of the controlling variables of perspective taking and suggest problem solving is involved in the repertoire. The second paper by Phelan and colleagues offers a conceptual analysis of problem solving and reviews applied studies examining the teaching of problem solving skills to establish complex social, communicative, and academic skills. The third paper is a study by Frampton and colleagues who taught two children with autism the problem solving strategy of sorting, sequencing, and tacting pictures to establish explanations for how to complete familiar activities.

The field of Applied Behavior Analysis is commonly criticized for teaching rote responding. However, teaching problem-solving skills to children with disabilities has produced novel responses to novel stimuli. Problem solving has been defined as manipulating stimuli to increase the probability of arriving at a solution to a problem (Palmer, 1991; Skinner, 1953). When given a problem, such as a question that involves recalling a past event, an individual problem solves and arrives at a solution by emitting “self-probes,” such as asking questions, drawing out possible solutions, and visualizing. Although people problem-solve on a daily basis, there is limited empirical guidance on teaching problem-solving strategies to individuals with disabilities. A challenge of analyzing problem solving is it often occurs covertly. In this paper, we provide a conceptual analysis of problem solving and a review of six applied, behavior analytic studies in which participants were taught to use problem-solving to improve math, communication, and social skills. The review highlights the procedures for teaching problem solving skills. The review ends with recommendations for research, as well as recommendations for incorporating the instruction of problem solving into behavior analytic programming for students with disabilities.

The current study evaluated whether children with autism could learn to use a problem solving strategy (PSS) to explain how to complete familiar activities. A multiple probe across sets (paired activities) was used to isolate the effects of tact training and the PSS. During baseline neither participant could explain how to complete familiar activities. Both participants were first taught to tact pictures that corresponded to the steps of two familiar activities (e.g., bowling and making juice) in set 1. Following tact training alone, the participants remained unable to successfully explain how to complete the tasks. A PSS consisting of sorting the pictures by activity, sequencing them in order, then tacting the position of the pictures in the sequence (e.g., "First... next... then... last") was trained. Following training of the PSS, the participants explained how to complete the first set of tasks in several contexts. For sets 2 and 3, tact training alone was sufficient to teach the children to explain how, as the use of the PSS generalized across sets. These results extend the problem solving literature through the inclusion of combined visual and verbal PSS and demonstration of generalization of the strategy to untrained sets.

Practitioners make decisions about skill-acquisition programming for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on best-practice recommendations in the literature. However, there is still much we do not know when providing recommendations on how to best develop and implement skill-acquisition programming. This symposium is a group of presentations that look to refine instructional procedures when teaching skills to individuals with ASD. The first presentation will evaluate the types of prompts used during discrete-trial instruction. The second presentation will compare the materials used (flashcards compared to tablets) used during discrete-trial instruction. The third presentation will examine the level of instruction necessary for preschool children to learn social skills. Finally, the fourth presentation will compare chaining procedures to teach cooking skills. The presentations will include implications for clinical practice. A discussant will review the presentations and provide suggestions for future research and clinical considerations.

Discrete-trial teaching is an evidence-based teaching strategy that may be individualized to each learner. One way to individualize discrete-trial teaching is the type of prompts which are used. Prompts may include: modelling the correct response, gesturing, providing verbal cues, and physical guidance. There is limited research on the relative efficiency and effectiveness of these different prompt types making it difficult to identify which prompt will be best for each learner (Seaver & Bourret, 2014). In addition, the learners preference for how they are taught is not always considered. The present study compared the relative effectiveness of three different prompt types to teach a receptive identification task for three boys with autism. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare a gesture, modeling, physical guidance, and a no-prompt control condition. For one participant, the physical prompt was the most effective. For a second participant, the model prompt was the most effective. Following mastery, a concurrent chains preference assessment was conducted to assess individual preference for prompt type. Both efficacy and client preference may be used to determine prompt selection during discrete-trial teaching.

Children with developmental disabilities are at increased risk to develop problem behavior in the absence of appropriate social and communication skills. Hanley, Heal, Tiger, and Ingvarsson (2007) created a classwide preschool life skills (PLS) program that taught young children to request teacher assistance, tolerate delays or denials in the delivery of materials, friendship skills, and functional communication skills. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of the PLS program when implemented with children with developmental disabilities and at risk for developing classroom problem behavior. A multiple-baseline across-behaviors design was used to demonstrate the effects of instruction, differential reinforcement, and error-correction procedures that systematically increased as necessary for participants to acquire the target skills. Probes were also conducted in the classroom with adults and peers following acquisition to test for generalization. The level of instruction varied across participants. Four participants acquired the skills with least-to-most prompting and praise. Three participants required individualized instruction and reinforcers. Overall, there was little generalization of the acquired skills to peers and adults in the participants classrooms.

This study evaluated the utility of a clustered forward chaining (CFC) procedure for teaching a 23-year-old male with autism to follow written recipes. CFC incorporated elements of forward chaining and total task chaining by teaching a small number of steps (i.e., clusters) using total task chaining, and introducing new clusters sequentially, contingent upon sustained mastery of previous clusters. For each of three recipes targeted in a multiple probe design, we organized 45 total steps into 15 functional triads (i.e., read, do, record). We then organized the triads into three clusters (five triads each). We used a 5-s constant time delay to prompt responses for every step within a training cluster and immediately prompted responding for all untrained clusters. We probed for mastery of the entire response chain after demonstrations of mastery of each individual cluster (and before initiating training for a new cluster). Results showed that CFC successfully established independence of all three response chains and required considerably fewer training trials than what would have been required had we implemented a traditional forward chaining procedure. Maintenance probes 3-5 weeks after training demonstrated continued independence of all three cooking recipes.

In early intensive behavioral interventions for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), teaching language skills (verbal operants) is a fundamental educational goal (Love, Carr, Almason, & Petursdottir, 2009). The outcomes from comparisons of teaching strategies may identify how to teach these skills more effectively and efficiently and create more preferred instructional contexts. This symposium presents advancements in how best to teach language skills (e.g., intraverbals, tacts) to children with an ASD. Majdalany et al. compared the efficacy of tact prompts and textual prompts during intraverbal teaching. Mitteer et al. evaluated the effects of including or omitting background stimuli when teaching expressive-identification of images, with an emphasis on efficiency and stimulus generalization to novel images, videos, and figurines. Lorca et al. taught children to engage in reciprocal conversational skills (e.g., asking a question following a partners statement) and assessed the emergence of intraverbal responding with novel topics. Haygood and Pence compared the efficacy, efficiency, and childrens preference for least-to-most, most-to-least with a delay, and progressive-time delay prompting hierarchies during discrete-trial training, and analyzed the correspondence between efficiency and preference. Taken together, recommendations based on these studies may assist clinicians in selecting teaching procedures that are more efficient, efficacious, and preferred.

Prompts are supplemental stimuli used to facilitate the development of novel skills. Textual prompts are written cues, while tact prompts are pictorial cues. Both textual and tact prompting techniques have been shown to be effective in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of intraverbal behavior in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. However, the direct comparison of the textual and tact prompts has yet to be conducted. In the current study, we taught one young child to engage in intraverbal behavior using tact and textual prompting techniques. Tact prompts resulted in quicker acquisition and fewer trials to criterion when compared to textual prompts. Responding maintained one week later in both textual and tact conditions. The participant scored 100% on generalization probes across people in both conditions. The participant scored 80% on generalization probes across stimuli in the tact condition, and 100% on the generalization probes across stimuli in the text condition.

Teaching children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to name (tact) images is a common skill area. Teaching with backgrounds may increase the difficulty of discriminating the target stimulus and may lead to faulty stimulus control (e.g., background images evoke the target response). However, including backgrounds may enhance stimulus generalization to additional exemplars of the category (stimulus class) with backgrounds. To date, no study has examined the effects of including or omitting backgrounds. We used an adapted alternating treatments design to evaluate the effects of teaching with and without backgrounds on acquisition and stimulus generalization to novel images, videos, and figurines. Across four participants, ages 3-4 with an ASD, we observed minimal differences in the number of sessions to mastery when teaching with backgrounds (M = 6) or without backgrounds (M = 4). Stimulus generalization occurred more often in the condition taught with backgrounds (33%) than without backgrounds (0%). When differential reinforcement was programmed during generalization tests, mastery was observed in 64% of targets taught with backgrounds and in 50% of targets taught without backgrounds. Teaching with backgrounds may produce slower acquisition of pictures but enhance generalization to images and videos exemplars containing backgrounds as compared to teaching without backgrounds .

The purpose of the current study was to investigate if novel conversation responses would generate after teaching specific conversational styles and minimal components of intraverbal responses to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Intraverbal responses involved making general statements, asking questions, and developing conversation styles. Statement/Question and Question/Statement style of conversation were taught to three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The participants in the study ranged in age from 6 to 9 years. During the statement/question and question/statement, the participants discussed topics of their own interest. Then specific topics of conversation were used in these conversation styles. Finally, they were taught to ask about the interests of various conversation partners. In the generalization testing phase, the participants were able to begin conversations with others using similar conversational styles, but with novel topics (topics of various conversation partners interests) and components of each topic. Results showed that novel intraverbal responses can generate after training of minimal number of discrete stimulus-responses relationships.

Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes behavior analytic principles and methodology to identify behaviors associated with health and disease states, identify the controlling variables, and increase behaviors associated with improved health outcomes and decrease behaviors associated with illness and disease states. There are myriad studies investigating behavioral interventions to improve behaviors associated with health and disease, including blood glucose monitoring in diabetes, substance use, dietary intake, feeding disorders and food selectivity, disordered eating, sedentary and physical activity, sleeping challenges, dental hygiene, and chronic pain management. Furthermore, behavioral medicine research also targets preventative techniques to avoid health-related issues, such as early screening and self-screening for cancer, following specific recommendations for dietary consumption and physical activity to prevent obesity and other related illnesses, and accident prevention in elderly, pediatric, and work populations. Treatment adherence may also be targeted during routine medical procedures, in continued care for health conditions, such as diabetes, and following injury (e.g., compliance with physical therapy). Behavior analysts are well-equipped to address these problems of public health, yet many studies in behavioral medicine are published outside of behavior analytic journals. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight current and diverse research in the area of behavioral medicine, and to provide attendees an opportunity to hear from established researchers in the field.

Sleep problems are prevalent in typically-developing children and children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. These problems negatively impact the health and development of youths and present challenges to parents, caregivers, and clinicians. Pharmacological interventions are commonly recommended despite limited research on their efficacy and social acceptability. Behavioral interventions shows merit as a promising alternative but has yet to draw to focus of mainstream treatment providers. We will discuss the assessment and treatment of sleep problems as an area of application of Behavioral Medicine. Efficacy data of behavioral intervention with and without pharmacological intervention on the sleep problems (i.e., sleep onset delay, night and early wakings, and problem behaviors that interfere with sleep) of children diagnosed with and without autism are presented.

Compliance with medical/dental routines is an important part of basic health care for everyone. Many diseases and illnesses are preventable or treatable, but the benefits only accrue if patients cooperate with the procedures involved in the delivery of care. Unfortunately, many children do not cooperate. This presentation will review both the respondent and operant components of medical/dental noncompliance and the common treatments for promoting compliance. The presentation will then review a program of research in applied behavior analysis (both small n and RCT) that follows the development and empirical validation of applications based on negative reinforcement in treatment of noncompliance with routine dental care in every day practice.

The field of behavioral medicine focuses on identifying the variables associated with health and disease states, and manipulating those variables to facilitate change in the behaviors relatedto improved health status. The variety of research within the behavioral medicine field is extensive. However, trends in current publication data suggest much of the research within the field is published outside of behavior analytic fora. The current presentation will review the state of behavioral medicine research in the field of behavior analysis and in other related fields. Data reviewed will focus onpublication trends in behavioral medicine research, provide an overview of health behaviors of interest, offer suggestions for future publications, and emphasize theneed to continue disseminating research both in behavior analyticjournals and conferences.

This symposium will present current research on behavioral persistence and relapse. The persistence of problem behavior and the recovery of once-extinguished behavior following treatment are common issues in applied/clinical settings. Findings from laboratory settings suggest some variables relevant to the issues. Ribeiro, Kelley and Tanz point out that noncontingent reinforcement, which is a common technique for decreasing problem behavior, may actually increase its persistence in children diagnosed with autism. Ferreira and Canado show that behavioral persistence can partially be determined by the dependency between a response and the reinforcer that follows it. Abreu-Rodrigues, Canado, Ferreira and Siqueira, and Kuroda, Podlesnik and Canado, show that the manipulations of contextual stimuli (i.e., renewal procedures) also affect the degree of resurgence in rats and humans. Our discussant, Mark Bouton, will address implications of these studies. This symposium should be informative for both basic and applied researchers.

We evaluated the persistence-strengthening effects of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) and some factors that may interfere with maintenance of treatment effects. Basic, translational, and applied research have demonstrated that the resistance of a given response rate to change depends on the baseline overall rate of reinforcement, regardless of response rate, such that the greater the rate of reinforcement the greater the resistance of behavior to change. These findings suggest that adding reinforcers to a context in which problem behavior has been reinforced (as it is usually the case with NCR) is likely to increase behavioral persistence when treatment is challenged. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of NCR on behavioral persistence during extinction (Experiment 1), with five children with autism, and during other disruption procedures (Experiment 2), with three autistic children. Basically, we compared responding during disruption following a reinforcement only condition and responding during disruption following a condition with both contingent and non-contingent reinforcement. Results from Experiment 1 were not consistent across participants and may be related to the procedure used to test for resistance. In Experiment 2, we found that behavioral persistence was greater after NCR for all three participants, which replicates previous findings on behavioral persistence.

A parametric analysis was conducted with four rats to investigate the effects of different percentages of response-dependent food on resistance to change. Lever pressing was maintained under a three-component multiple schedule with the same rate of food in each component. The percentage of response-dependent food was 10 and 100 in the first and second components, respectively, throughout the study. The percentage in the third (Alternative) component varied across conditions from 10 to 80 for each rat. In each component, interfood intervals were variable. Responding in the first component (10%) consistently was more resistant to change than that in the second component (100%). When the percentage of response-dependent food was 10, 20, or 30 in the third component, resistance to change approximated that in the first component. When it was 50 or 80, resistance to change was closer to that in the second component. Overall, resistance to change was an inverse function of the percentage of response-dependent food. Replicating previous findings, these results suggest that resistance to change is at least partially determined by aspects of the response-reinforcer relation.

The effects of contextual stimuli on resurgence were studied in two experiments with rats. In each, lever pressing was reinforced on a multiple variable-interval (VI) 20 s VI 20 s schedule in the Training phase. In the Elimination and Test phases, respectively, a differential-reinforcement-of other-behavior schedule (DRO) and extinction were in effect in each component. Contextual stimuli (houselight illumination patterns) were manipulated across components and phases. In Experiment 1, contextual stimuli were similar across phases in one component (AAA, with letters representing the context in each phase); in the other component (ABA), contextual stimuli changed from Training to Elimination phase, but in the Test phase, the context was similar to that in effect in the Training phase. In Experiment 2, the context changed from Training to Elimination phase in both components. In the Test phase, the context was that in effect in the Elimination phase in one component (ABB), and that in effect in the Training phase in the other component (ABA). Resurgence of greater magnitude occurred in the ABA than in the other component for all rats in Experiment 1, and for two of three rats in Experiment 2, indicating the relevance of contextual control for conceptualizations of resurgence.

In this symposium, we extend the use of the term makerspace to environments that allow for the contingency-shaping of behavior-analytic interventions and verbal repertoires. A makerspace is an informal establishments where makers gather to create science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects of their own devising. Concomitantly, an increasing number of educational researchers are dedicating substantive time to examining the affordances of makerspaces for supporting interest, engagement, and participation in STEM learning. A defining feature of a makerspace is the informal approach in which instructions are minimized to allow for maximal contingency-shaping. Extended to the science of behavior, we propose the term "shaperspace" to describe an environment in which ABA students are challenged with behavioral excesses and deficits, and learn to employ behavior-analytic interventions primarily through successive approximations. Additionally, shaperspaces offer a verbal behavior community to differentially reinforce tractable, pragmatic descriptions over explanatory fictions. The current state of shaperspace and project-based learning community research should not obfuscate the potential benefits of such environments for facilitating the acquisition of a behavior-analytic repertoire. Nor should the current state of shaperspace research, presented here, impede rigorous behavioral research into the educational affordances of such environments.

A significant obstacle towards developing the behavior-analytic perspective is penchants for using tautological "explanatory fictions" or "mentalisms,"which obfuscate the behavioral conceptualization necessary to effectively address clinical concerns. At a university-based center serving as a field-experience site, pre-service behavior analyst participating in verbal operant training with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders were trained to write a technical description of their interactions with their client subsequent to composing a daily therapy notes. The daily therapy notes were prepared to review with the children's caregivers, and so were specifically composed in common parlance. For the technical description, however, the pre-service behavior analysts were asked to precisely describe how their manipulation of the environment supported their clients' performance and contributed to reducing challenging behavior using the concepts and principles of applied behavior analysis. Specifically, the technical description asked:(a) Which of the childs behavior are you strengthening/weakening? (b) Under what circumstances are the childs behavior excesses/deficits present? And (c) How do you manipulate the childs environment? How does your behavior affect childs responding?The supervising BCBA reviewed this documentation tallying behavior-analytic terms for cumulative examination. This paper presents the results of a multiple-baseline across participants design employed to evaluate the contingent effects of written feedback on supervisees use of behavior-analytic terminology.

The past dozen years has seen an increased interest by behavior analysts in assessing what cognitivists refer to as implicit cognitions. In response to The Implicit Association Test (IAT) by Greenwald and colleagues behavior analysts have developed and published studies focusing on verbal histories as a core process (e.g. Roche, Ruiz, O'Riordan & Hand, 2005; Gavin, Roche & Ruiz, 2008; Gavin, Roche, Ruiz, Hogan & O'Reilly, 2012; O'Reilly, Roche, Ruiz & Champion, 2013). The most recent iteration is the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) developed by O'Reilly and colleagues. This symposium focuses on Gender related issues and extending the behavioral analysis of doing gender (Ruiz, 1995, 2003) and applying the FAST to assess verbal histories that the authors have demonstrated are related to implicit attitudes.An application to the gaming community is included and implications of negative gendering practices are examined.

The Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) is a novel implicit attitude measure that applies behavioural principles and methodology to the assessment of subjects' histories of verbal behaviour with regard to particular natural stimulus relations in the vernacular - or, more commonly, their "implicit attitudes". The implicit attitude construct is ubiquitous in social cognitive psychology, but how are "implicit attitudes" best discussed in behavioural terms? This paper will discuss the developing FAST methodology and the conceptual questions surrounding "implicit attitudes", and consider the implications for applying a functional approach to attitude measurement for intervention.

Problem behaviors (PB), such as aggression and disruption, are prevalent among individuals with developmental delays. These behaviors negatively impact development and create a stressor for caregivers. PB is often maintained by negative reinforcement (i.e., escape from demands or aversive situations). The current symposium discusses the effects of specific treatment components and variables associated with the treatment of PB maintained by negative reinforcement exhibited by individuals with developmental delays. The first presentation evaluates diaphragmatic breathing (DB), an intervention commonly recommended, which lacks quantitative evidence for reducing PB. The experimenter prompted DB contingent on precursor behaviors in a demand context and observed decreased rates of PB in one participant, while another required additional treatment components. The second presentation evaluated the weekly frequency of treatment sessions targeting tolerance of dental appointments, finding that more frequent treatment sessions may promote superior outcomes. The final presentation describes the use of a multiple schedule in the treatment of PB maintained by escape from interruption to ones environment. Multiple schedules were used to successfully thin the reinforcement schedule in treatment with two participants. This symposium provides guidelines for clinicians designing treatments for PB maintained by negative reinforcement and provides important extensions to the current literature.

Dental professionals have reported that problem behavior in individuals with autism precludes adequate care (Kuhn et at., 1994). Prior research has illustrated effective treatments for escape-maintained behavior in this context; however, there is little information on whether the amount of time between treatment sessions impacts treatment effectiveness. However, prior literature has shown that intertrial interval (ITI) duration could have an effect on skill acquisition (e.g.,Tincani et al., 2005). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the length of the ITI impacts the effectiveness of an intervention for escape-maintained problem behavior. The intervention consisted of demand fading and extinction for problem behavior; in one condition, treatment sessions were conducted weekly, and in the second condition treatment sessions were conducted 3-5 times per week. Participants included two students from a residential school for children with autism. A multiple baseline across subjects design is being used to demonstrate experimental control. Results for Subject 1 suggest that ITI is an important variable, in that more frequent sessions produce better treatment outcomes. Subject 2 has not yet experienced the second treatment condition. Inter-observer agreement was calculated for 47% of sessions with 97.4% agreement.

Up to 96% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder exhibit complex repetitive behavior (McDougle et al., 1992). Functional analyses have demonstrated that some individuals engage in problem behavior maintained by termination of interruption of repetitive or rigid behaviors, such as a therapist manipulating items the participant has arranged (e.g., Fisher, Adelinis, Thompson, Worsdell, & Zarcone, 1998; Leon, Lazarchick, Rooker, & DeLeon, 2013). In both of these previous studies, participants were taught a functional communication response to terminate or avoid the interruption, resulting in a decrease in problem behavior. However, both studies reinforced mands on a FR1 schedule, and such dense schedules of reinforcement may not always be feasible in the natural environment. The current study used a multiple schedule for two individuals whose problem behavior was determined to be maintained by avoidance of interruption of repetitive play. During the multiple schedule, participants were required to tolerate a periods of interruption of increasing duration without engaging in problem behavior. Access to repetitive play served as the reinforcer for tolerating interruptions. Results show that participants were able to tolerate periods of interruption as a result of treatment.

Many caregivers are playing a larger role in the service delivery of interventions to their children with developmental disabilities. These services can be provided across a variety of settings. This symposium includes four papers on behavioral parent training to address the core and associated deficits associated with autism and related development disabilities. Each study provided caregiver-implemented interventions in a particular setting or across a different medium (i.e., clinic-based, home-based, web-based, or live telehealth). Specifically, Connolly, Wilczynski, Finch and McIntosh evaluated the use of an online training to improve parent confidence within a school setting. Lea, Baker, Gillespie, Walton, and Delfs compared parent satisfaction and programmatic outcomes across three different service delivery models in a large scale parent training program. Walton, Yosick, Shillingsburg, Kansal, and Delfs evaluated the feasibility of a 12- week mand training program delivered via telehealth to the parents of preverbal children with ASD in rural Georgia. Durand and Parks modified a feeding intervention delivered in home by parents and evaluated the generalizability of the intervention. Data will be presented on individual outcomes, parent satisfaction, attendance, and other variables relevant to each study. Information on the feasibility and utility of these technologically-based parent interventions will be discussed.

Abstract: Language deficits are one of the most common presenting complaints of parents of children with ASD (De Giacomo & Fombonne, 1998). Mand Training (MT), which focuses on teaching individuals to request items, activities, or actions from others, is based on the conceptualization of language as verbal behavior first described by Skinner (Skinner, 1957). MT is an intervention for severe language delays that incorporates behavioral techniques (e.g., prompting, reinforcement, specific antecedent manipulations) within naturalistic teaching opportunities (Paul, 2008, Le Blanc et al., 2006). MT can be implemented by therapists through direct services or delivered as a caregiver-mediated intervention (Loughrey et al., 2014). Several barriers to accessing evidence-based treatment for language deficits in ASD are unfortunately, common, and include cost and distance. Other behavioral services have been previously delivered via telehealth technology; however, it is not yet clear if MT is feasible for delivery via telehealth. The purpose of this open pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of caregiver MT in a well-characterized sample of 15 preverbal children with ASD (ages 2.0 years to 4.9 years) via telehealth in rural Georgia that participated in a 12 week MT program. Data has been collected to determine if therapists can reliably train caregivers with a high level of fidelity, if caregivers can implement MT with fidelity, if there is improvement in the childs social communication skills, and if caregivers find the use of telehealth technology acceptable.

Parent training programs based in applied behavior analysis have been utilized as an alternative to intensive behavioral interventions for children with autism to alleviate the costs for parents and lessen the disparity between the number of children with autism who need services and the number of available trained professionals. Positive outcomes of parent training programs have been found when conducted in the home, in the clinic, and more recently via telehealth services; however, more research is needed to evaluate the feasibility and comparative effectiveness. The current study evaluates a 12-week parent training program that provides strategies on teaching new skills and managing problem behavior to over 100 parents of children with autism across the three service delivery models. Collectively, the data show the parent training program increases participants parenting skills and decreases parental stress. The current analysis aimed to assess whether the parents ability to acquire new skills and evaluation of the service differed depending on the location of parent-training.

Feeding issues and difficulty during mealtime effects up to 40% of all children, ranging from picky eating to almost complete refusal or selectivity (Sharp et al., 2010). Anywhere between three and ten percent of children develop chronic feeding issues that will not resolve without specific intervention. While research on feeding treatments and their effectiveness is rather vast, the literature on parent implementation of protocols, long-term outcomes, and implementing feeding treatments solely in the home setting are much more limited. This study examined the effects of a treatment developed solely within the home setting and that focused heavily on parent training and implementation. The caregiver was trained to implement treatment and long-term gains were measured. Initially the child made remarkable gains in both variety and texture; however, these gains were lost over time. Measures of treatment integrity of caregiver were measured and modifications were made as a result of caregivers inability to maintain high integrity over time to ensure long-term success and outcomes.

Economic demand describes the consumption of a commodity across increases in price. A typical demand curve takes a monotonically decreasing form. In other words, consumption decreases as price increases. In behavioral economic preparations, price and commodity may be considered synonymous with FR value and reinforcer, respectively. Two quantitative models have been frequently used in the behavior analytic literature to describe this relation (Hursh et al., 1988; Hursh & Silberburg, 2008). We directly compared fits of the two equations across multiple data sets. In addition, we investigate the utility of model-neutral, area-under-the-curve measures of demand elasticity.

Joint control was used as a method to generate novel responding in three individuals with disabilities. In the training phase, the experimenter taught the participants to select components (nouns, verbs, actions, colors, and objects) of four pictures using joint control. That is, the participants first echo the name of the specific component emitted by the experimenter (e.g., Beige), then select the appropriate picture with the specific component, and finally, tact the specific component. Each component was taught until 80% or higher accuracy was reached. Then the experimenter tested for generative responding in both the manded selection and tact repertoire. The result showed that the participants were able to select and tact the pictures using combination of the components taught in joint control. For example, Man reading a beige magazine. This study shows that joint control can be an additional way to generate novel untrained/unreinforced responses in individuals with disabilities.

A small but growing group of studies is providing increasing support for behavioral mediation of various matching and other discrimination tasks. In the current examination, we attempted to use joint control methods to teach children to count objects from a larger set (e.g., count 15 from a group of 25 objects) by introducing a verbal mediating response with response product, then gradually fading the presence of the added stimulus. Preliminary findings indicate that for children who could rote count beyond 30 but could not reliably count a specified number from a larger set, the introduction and subsequent fading of a written mediating stimulus may be an effective method to teach remote (e.g., not immediate) tasks like counting.

Behavior analysis has grown in popularity over the past 20 years, to the point of being a high-demand service in the area of autism and developmental disabilities. Our field has an ethical code that governs our professional behavior. However, there are an increasing number of incidents of behavior analysts behaving in ways that are in conflict with ethics and best practice. Section 7 of the BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code obligates behavior analysts to approach behaviorists who are drifting from our ethical code, in an attempt to rectify potentially unethical situations. The panel members will start this session by briefly describing some cases where behavior analysts were engaging in ethically questionable practices and how they were resolved. The bulk of this session will provide opportunities for dialog between the audience and panel members to discuss questions of practice by audience members, and strategies to resolve these potential ethical situations. Participants will be given decision-making strategies and role-play various scenarios to better prepare them for improving the behavior of behavior analysts who may be drifting from ethical practice.

This symposium consists of three papers, each of which focuses on the behavioral analysis of cultural and social behavior. The first presentation, by Linda Parrott Hayes, focuses on cultural behavior, specifically describing its unique features relative to other types of behavior. Particular emphasis is placed on the arbitrary nature of cultural behavior, as well as it's artificiality, adequacy and inconsistency. Also addressed are conditions under which cultural behavior is acquired, modified and eliminated, along with their implications for social order. The second presentation, by Mitch Fryling, describes an analysis of interpersonal relationships, especially interpersonal closeness and conflict. Emphasis is placed on behavioral processes involved in observational learning, stimulus substitution and stimulus-stimulus relations more broadly, and the observation of another person's thoughts. The practical implications of this analysis for both educational and therapeutic interventions are provided. Finally, the third presentation, by Genevieve DeBernardis, focuses on community behavior, and in particular on the extent to which coordinated patterns of behavior contribute to eco-friendly practices.

Over the past decades, behavioral techniques have become a staple of "mainstream" psychotherapy. Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies are now the treatment of choice in major healthcare systems that support evidence-based practice. To facilitate the implementation of behavioral technologies on large scale, behavior-analytic interventions have been translated into to treatment packages and manuals accessible to mental health practitioners with varied backgrounds and training. However, this good news about the uptake of behavioral approaches is accompanied by significant limitations in the efficacy and reach of manualized behavior therapy. Behavioral treatment packages demonstrate superior efficacy to non-behavioral control therapies, but yield relatively small effects compared to the early treatments developed by pioneers of applied behavior analysis. For many problems, manualized behavioral treatments fail with a majority of patients. Where has the power of our interventions gone? We argue that packaged behavioral therapies retain our techniques, while underemphasizing (or omitting) the function-based approach that is hallmark of contemporary applied behavior analysis. We discuss this issue as it relates to the implementation of behavioral treatments for several common behavioral/psychiatric problems. Factors contributing to this phenomenon, relevant clinical trials data, and potential remedies are discussed.

Disruptive behavior problems are among the most prevalent child health problems in the U.S. In the 1960s, behavior analysts began to develop powerful behavioral parent training (BPT) interventions, grounded in principles of learning, that led to behavioral normalization in a majority of treated children. These interventions have gained mainstream popularity, with major physician-led bodies now recommending them as a first-line treatment for disruptive behavior in typically developing children. To increase BPT's reach, various treatment packages and manuals aimed at non-behavior-analytic providers have been developed and disseminated. In clinical trials, these treatments demonstrate superior efficacy to waitlist or non-behavioral controls. However, their effectiveness is often suboptimal, with only a minority of children demonstrating a clinically significant response in some studies. Reasons for this variability in child outcomes are discussed from a function-analytic perspective. It is suggested that overreliance on group teaching formats, insufficient function-based individualization, and suboptimal programming for parent behavior change may account for many "treatment failures" observed in applied practice. Strategies and tactics for addressing these issues and strengthening the public health impact of BPT are discussed.

The ideographic tailoring of treatment to a clients specific needs is a central feature of clinical behavioral analysis (CBA). However, contemporary CBA-based therapies are disseminated as packages of techniques as well as conceptual frameworks for conducting treatment with particular populations of clients. In the absence of adequate training in behavior analysis, therapists on the receiving end of dissemination and implementation efforts can only relate to these therapies as collections of techniques. One way to anchor CBA-based therapies to a behavior analytic conceptual frameworks is to have measures of the functional dimensions of clinical presentations guide treatment selection and progress. Unfortunately, we have yet to develop a bank of such measures in CBA. Molar functional relations and metrics from behavioral economics will be presented as measurement opportunities that can help fulfill this need. Second, CBA-based treatment packages need to be dismantled into multiple modules that each address particular functional concerns. This would serve the multiple exemplar learning needs of both therapists and clients and pave the way for ideographic treatment tailoring grounded in CBA-based measurement. IF CBA-based therapies are to be functional as well as popular, we will have to lead the way.

Pioneers such as Lindsley (1964) and Goldiamond (1974) introduced behavior analytic approaches to living well with cognitive difficulties more than half a century ago. Since then, interventions rooted in behavior analysis and targeting individuals who acquired problems remembering, thinking, reasoning, or problem-solving later in life, have been packaged and widely disseminated within the mainstream healthcare landscape (see Projects REACH I and II, for example). Questions have been raised regarding the utility and clinical significance of many of these intervention packages (e.g., Schulz, 2002). We will argue that an understanding of neurocognitive loss and its associated behavioral and emotional changes from a functional perspective is countercultural and thus difficult to acquire without individualized instruction. In effect, most formal and informal caregivers are not able to gauge the deficits and the strengths of the person for whom they care, and packaged interventions do not help caregivers interpret a person’s narrowing skill set from a functional perspective based on behavioral principles. Unsupportive and often coercive environments are inadvertently propagated, even when caregivers receive services in the form of treatment packages. Best practices will be suggested.

Costly, bulky, and complicated interface equipment between computers and experimental equipment may no longer be needed for experiments and application. Modern computers feature several USB ports, and low-cost interface equipment that connects directly to a USB port is available from several vendors. Rudimentary understanding of programming code enables the user to control the interface to turn lights, sounds, and feeders on and off and to record responses via switches and photo sensors. Several programming languages can be used to implement control of equipment and recording of responses via the USB interface. The presentation will feature the particular interface and programming platforms used in different laboratories and in a zoological garden. Programs written in Visual Basic Net or Liberty Basic using relatively simple code read inputs and controls outputs from the interfaces. The presentations will illustrate the practical use of the interface devises both in teaching and research laboratories (where each experimental chamber has its own interface and PC). In addition, we will show how the USB interface is being used for research in a zoological garden to operate feeders and record a variety of responses in different species of animals. Using small notebook computers, the setup is easily transported for application purposes. Having one individual PC with one individual interface connect to one equipment setup creates considerable flexibility both in research and application and voids the need for complex systems that rely on expensive equipment and professional programming.

Laboratory courses are an essential supplement to classes on behavior analysis. High-cost of control equipment, however, limits the creation of laboratories for teaching purposes. Microcontroller boards can be used as inexpensive alternatives to commercial equipment not only for demonstrating the basic principles of behavior in classrooms but also for teaching basic electronics. We have developed and tested two portable systems based on Arduino microcontroller boards that can be used for controlling operant conditioning chambers for rats in the classroom. One system consists of an app (Ratuino Mobile) running on an Android tablet or smart phone. This app communicates via Bluetooth with an Arduino board connected to an operant chamber. Within the app, students select different reinforcement schedules that are executed automatically. A second system consists of using Arduino boards as standalone control equipment. An Arduino board is connected to an operant chamber and to a keypad. Students control stimuli by pressing buttons. Experimental events are automatically recorded using an SD card. The two systems were assembled by the students during the courses. These systems are inexpensive, relatively easy to setup, and could help students experiencing first-hand the basic principles of behavior by bringing the laboratory to the classroom.

Operanda placed in the zoo include different levers for chimpanzees and for tigers, chains for orangoutans, keys for hens, and a tongue switch for giraffes, and stimuli controlled from the computer (Sds and reinforcers) include lights, sounds, smells, and a diversity of dispensers. We will also show some simple programming text lines from visual basic, to demonstrate how behavior can be recorded in cumulative records and in event records.

We verified controlling relations acquisition in a modified three-choice MTS procedure designed to promote responding under control of either Sample/S+ or Sample/S- relations. Black squares covered experimental stimuli during conditional discriminations training. Observing responses (OR) to a button below each black square produced a brief stimulus presentation. A software presented S+ as the first or the last stimulus displayed to participants in a certain proportion of trials (80%) to promote Sample/S+ (choosing S+ without observing other comparison) or Sample/S- (choosing the square after observe both S-) controlling relations, respectively. Three children attended to Sample/S+ condition (OR under FR3 schedule) and nine, to Sample/S- conditions (OR under FR3 or FR6). All Sample/S+ participants and seven of nine Samples/S- participants met learning criterion and presented equivalent class formation. The number of trained conditional relations simultaneously seems to affect establishment of Sample/S- relations. In general, different manipulations on stimuli presentation produced differences in controlling relations acquisition. An analysis of controlling relations acquisition suggests that Sample/S+ relations are mostly related to conditional discrimination acquisition while Sample/S- relations are related to the maintenance of conditional discriminative repertoire.

Sidmans (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence suggests that equivalence relations arise out of the contingencies that also develop analytic units. As such, the theory predicts an interaction between the development of analytic units and the development of equivalence relations. Vaidya & Brackney (2014) documented one such type of interaction for groups of stimuli, simple discriminative functions were acquired more rapidly when the groups were drawn from within the an equivalence class than when the groups were drawn from different equivalence classes. Thus, equivalence relations facilitated the development of analytic units. The current set of studies further explore these interactions. Can equivalence relations also retard the development of analytic units? Can existing analytic units (such as simple discriminations) influence the development of equivalence relations? This address will present data addressing each of these questions. The implications of these analyses for developing stimulus control in applied settings will be discussed.

In this symposium we will present an overview the procedures utilized in the Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) Model of Instruction. The AIL model is based on the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to School (CABAS) model and utilizes scientific procedures for classroom management, curricular design and pedagogy. We currently have general education classrooms for students with and without disabilities from preschool through 5th grade. We also have classrooms composed of students with disabilities, ranging from lower elementary through middle school that function to prepare students for inclusion into our other classrooms. A thorough curriculum based measurement is used and individualized progress is measured and displayed on learning pictures, which is a visual display of student learning across subject areas. A critical component of the AIL model is that students move at their own pace and are taught to mastery. In some cases, teachers may induce critical verbal behavior developmental cusps or capabilities so that they may learn in ways they could not prior to interventions and can then successfully access the general education curriculum. Our goal is to accelerate learning for all learners by utilizing a functional curriculum that teaches students to enjoy learning.

The Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) Accelerated Independent Model is a scientific method for teaching which is applicable to students with disabilities and typically developing students. This paper will focus on a new middle school program for students with disabilities. The students in this self-contained classroom are 6-8th graders who receive inclusion opportunities in resource rooms and general education classrooms based on individual needs. Research-based behavior supports and tactics are used with the students in every setting. Protocols based in the Verbal Developmental Theory are conducted in the self-contained classrooms in addition to self-management, and modified academic programs in order to prepare students for inclusion to be independent learners in a less restrictive environment. Data will be presented on students social interactions and academic programs.

Delay Discounting refers to a pattern of responding in which smaller, less beneficial stimuli that are immediately available are chosen over larger, more beneficial stimuli that are available after a progressively longer delay. This constitutes a behavior analytic account of impulsivity, thus allowing data-based evaluations of the variables that influence choice between immediately-available and delayed stimuli. Most research studying this phenomenon has employed hypothetical choices in which the subjects neither experience their actual choice nor any associated delays. In addition to needed research on real choices, other variables, such as the preference level of the stimuli included in the task warrant careful evaluation. In the current paper, a procedure combining the methods of Green et al. (1997) and Fisher et al. (1993) were used to isolate the impact of stimulus preference. The effects of stimulus preference were evaluated with four subjects ranging in age and presenting diagnosis (no diagnosis, ADHD, and ASD). Results suggest that the level of stimulus preference of items included in a real discounting task significantly impact choice of delayed over immediately-available stimuli. Discussion will also include the variety of subject behaviors observed during progressively longer delays.

The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent decades. The empirical literature has suggested that the increase in obesity is even more pronounced in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). A recent study suggested that 30.4% of individuals with ASD meet the criteria for being obese (Curtin, Anderson, Must, & Bandini, 2010). Individuals who are obese are at an increased risk for chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The failure to fade the use of edible reinforcers and the inherent communication deficits associated with ASD, complicate weight management and symptom reporting in this population even further. The purpose of the current investigation is to use the principles of behavioral economics to alter physical activity choices and meal selection for individuals with ASD. Specifically, we intend to identify high/low calorie preferred lunches as well as strenuous/non-strenuous exercises for each of the participants. The economic manipulations would involve making strenuous exercises pay more than exercises that are less strenuous. Meals with high caloric content would then cost more than healthier, low-calorie alternatives. The outcome of the protocol would be to have participants engage in more strenuous exercise and make more sensible choices regarding meals.

Binge eating behaviors are prevalent across a diverse population and associated with a number of problems, including obesity, diabetes, and depression, to name a few (Hoek & Van Hoeken, 2003). One associated feature of binge eating behaviors appears to be the discounting of larger, more beneficial rewards (such as those associated with exercise and healthy eating) in favor of more detrimental stimuli, such as high caloric foods. In the current paper, the efficacy of a two-level contingency contract was evaluated in controlling the binge eating behavior of three morbidly obese subjects. A multiple baseline design was used, with data suggesting that the contract helped control binge eating behavior, with an associated significant loss in weight.

Impulsivity is a common concern in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). While not a defining characteristic of ASDs, the presence of impulsivity can be pervasive and can dramatically affect the intervention process. Temporal discounting refers to the decrease in the present value of reinforcers as a function of the delay of their receipt. In other words, the value of reinforcers often decreases as the length of time one has to wait for them increases. Researchers have outlined some procedures for evaluating delay discounting in human populations. However, much of this research is limited to hypothetical choices with typically developing populations. The purpose of the current investigation was the employ delay discounting procedures with individuals with ASDs. In the investigation, participants were given choices between an impulsive choice (a sooner smaller amount of reinforcement) and a self-controlled choice (accepting a delayed, larger amount of reinforcement). Indifference points (the point at which an individual switches from the smaller-sooner to larger-later reinforcement) were plotted. We evaluated the effectiveness of a signaled delay on the ability of participants to wait for the larger delayed rewards using a visual timer application. The preliminary results suggest that using delay discounting procedures may inform treatment development for this clinical population.

This symposium will examine procedural and content domain advances in stimulus equivalence-based instruction (EBI). The first study evaluated the effects of training specific foreign/native language relations on the emergence of untaught relations with two young children (i.e., foreign-language tact, auditory (foreign language word)-visual (pictures) conditional discrimination, foreign-to-native intraverbals, and native-to-foreign intraverbals). Both participants acquired nearly all emergent relations. The second study evaluated the effects of a fading procedure on equivalence classes formed with either the simple-to-complex or simultaneous protocols. The probability of forming equivalence classes was nearly identical across both protocols, suggesting that the fading procedure plays a significant role in promoting equivalence class formation since the simultaneous protocol is typically weak at promoting class formation. In the third study, EBI was used to teach equivalence classes consisting of stimuli representing science and pseudoscience to college students. All participants formed the classes and responding generalized to both oral and written tests. Finally, in the last study, logical fallacies were taught to college undergraduates with either equivalence-based instruction, self-instruction, or no instruction, in a pretest-train-posttest group design. EBI resulted in superior class formation with shorter instructional duration than self-instruction and no instruction.

Across Europe the science and practice of behavior analysis are far less developed than in North America, but youth does have its charms: as we are few in number, our meetings are necessarily characterized by high levels of interaction among basic and applied researchers investigating a wide range of behavioral processes and practitioners servicing a rich variety of human needs. Indeed, in Europe the core aspects of the repertoires of basic scientist, applied researcher, practitioner and philosopher of science often emerge in the same individual. It is natural that in servicing a range of demands in various settings, the value of general principles of behavioral determination are fully appreciated; the papers in this symposium are examples of the fruits of such an appreciation emerging in the esprit de corps of the small but growing band of European behaviorists. They show how a comprehensive or molecular analysis of fundamental processes inherent in such phenomena as behavioral variability and aversive control can enhance the effectiveness of educational and clinical intervention, and how the application of such principles in the functional classification and publically-funded treatment of behavior problems can bring the full joy of social living to more of our deserving fellow citizens.

In the 2010 IBM "Working Beyond Borders" report, over 700 HR Executives worldwide recognized that the ability to develop future leaders with the creative skills able to adapt to a constantly changing environment, is the number one challenge for their company. A necessary, but not sufficient, component of creativity is behavioral variability and novelty. Evoking or suppressing variability is also of great importance when working with individuals characterized by abnormal levels of behavioral variability, e.g. autism, OCD and ADHD. The recognition that it is possible to modify novelty and variation by contingencies of reinforcement has had implications in several fields, e.g. problem solving, creativity and developmental disabilities. Still, the questions of what is being discriminated and what exactly is reinforced when novelty and variation is reinforced has yet to be answered, limiting clinical and educational effectiveness. In evolutionary biology the persistence of abundant genetic variation still remains a central problem, as with behavior variability in behavior analysis. Being able to affect behavioral variability and novelty by altering the contingencies is a great step forward, but there are several important questions that need answering regarding behavioral variability and novelty; these questions will be specified and addressed in the present conceptual analysis.

Behavior analysts efforts to provide natural-science interpretations of the phenomena known as dysfunctional cognition have been disproportional to the suffering and disability generated by these behavior patterns. Such patterns are here interpreted as a form of unconscious self-control: when people incipiently engage in activities that have been both reinforced and punished, they might then expose themselves to aversive stimuli (e.g., perceiving themselves as grossly overweight, as inadequate to task, as experiencing strokes, infections, property loss, etc.) as a means of generating biobehavioral events to be terminated by the subsequent emission of escape responses incompatible with the continuation of the reinforcing but censored act. Private acts will be more susceptible to adventitious reinforcement by the termination of self-produced warning signals for punishment, generating the otherwise nonsensical content characterizing dysfunctional cognition. Recent experimental studies with human and avian subjects support the present interpretation that self-exposure to aversive stimulation such as self-deprecation and threat-monitoring occurs at high rates when it terminates even more aversive warning signals, that such self-exposure more effectively generates escape when it occurs at greater temporal distances from the terminal reinforcers of punished acts, and that such termination of warning signals adventitiously reinforces the nonsensical stereotypic self-vocalization that characterizes psychopathology.

The magnitude of demand for Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) creates severe problems whenever state welfare systems directly deliver treatment, as occurs in many European Union countries. How can we ensure effective behavioral intervention for as many children as possible when resources are limited? IESCUM, the Italian Chapter of ABAI, is trying to solve this problem by testing a conceptual model derived from the Italian Model for EIBI (the MIPIA). The core of the model is sustainability, a concept borrowed from economics and applied to the field of behavior analytic services delivery: it means finding the point known as good enough, i.e. the point at which it is possible to reach, on the basis of skills assessments of service recipients, and an efficient cost/benefit use of available resources. The practical implementation of this conceptual model began in 2011, and has proved to be effective and efficient in generating core behavioral repertoires in three age groups ranging from two to 16 years while maintaining financial sustainability, illustrating a fruitful compatibility in explanatory principles derived from economic theory and behavior analysis, and yielding a model of service provision that might be useful in state-run EIBI and other publically-funded behavioral services abroad.

Behavior analysts continue to make great progress in expanding our influence to a variety of domains, though many significant societal issues remain in need of contingency analysis and overhaul. We are presented with the task of re-designing macrocontingencies to facilitate sustainable cultural change. Cultural change will require a host of considerations on behalf of the designers, including not only the analysis of individual behaviors and interlocking behavior contingencies, but also gaining the cooperation of public officials and corporate executives, which may appear a daunting task. This panel consists of a selection of the field's experts who will share their experiences influencing large-scale change. The discussion will prove inspiring and informative for the aspiring mover and shaker.

School-wide Positive Behavior Support, a data based multi-tiered framework has been shown to be effective in schools in improving behavior support (Sugai & Horner, 2009). The use of data based decision making incorporating applied behavior analysis/evidenced based practices at the universal, secondary and intensive level has not been implemented in large organizations serving adults with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. A critical feature of an effective multi-tiered data based decision approach is to have efficient and effective data systems that allow teams to make timely data based decisions at each tier. Secondly, it is a challenge of large organizations to install data-based organizational wide systems to support effective applied behavior analytic practices implemented with treatment integrity. The symposium will present data from a large behavior analytic organizations in how to implement a multi-tiered system of support to improve staff performance as well as clinical outcomes for individuals with ASD and/or IDD. The presentations will review how to efficiently use staff resources to maximize clinical effectiveness.

This presentation will review the implementation of universal behavior support interventions across a large behavior analytical organization serving over 2,000 individuals with IDD and/or autism across 100 programs. The hallmark of any effective multi-tiered system of support using behavior analytical/evidenced based practices is timely data based decision making by representative data teams at each tier. The use of paper based systems and the timely and efficient conversion of this information into representative visual presentations using excel/and or other graphing programs to allow teams to make data based decisions is consumes significant staff resources. Secondly, the use of functional assessment information to ascertain system interventions particularly in these programs is often lacking. The development of an efficient electronic data collection system for universal data (incident reports) and automatic visual presentation of these data was a high priority to help universal teams analyze their information and build program-wide behavior support plans. Data will be presented on the analysis of data, treatment integrity and reductions in problem behavior.

This data based presentation demonstrates the development and implementation of data based decision making teams for those individuals with developmental disabilities with high risk behavior within a multi-tiered system of behavior support. Within a multi-tiered system of support universal interventions are implemented across all individuals with the organization. Secondary or targeted interventions are implemented for those individuals who are not responsive to the universal interventions. At the intensive level are those individuals who exhibit problem behavior who either are not responsive to targeted/secondary interventions or engage in high risk behaviors. This presentation will review the implementation of intensive behavior support interventions across a large behavior analytical organization serving over 2,000 individuals with IDD and/or autism across 100 programs. Intensive data based teams were formed to review on a monthly basis progress monitoring data on the most challenging behaviors of these individuals. All individuals had behavior support plans in place. Based on the responsiveness of the individuals to their behavior support plans these teams make suggestions to improve intervention effectiveness. Treatment integrity of the system implementation was taken and showed improvements over the course of nine months. Improvements were seen in the effectiveness of the behavior support plans in 19 of the 20 individuals involved in the intervention. Overall reductions were seen in the amount of restraints used during the intervention as compared to preintervention.

In 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) began a process of mandating the adoption of a positive behavior support (PBS) approach, in lieu of applied behavior analysis, as the model for clinical service delivery for the currently 32,000 adults served through DDS and its contracted vendors. A seminal article by Horner et al. (1990) began with the statement that, "In recent years, a broad-based movement has emerged in support of non-aversive behavior management" (p. 125). Unfortunately, while there is a plethora of data supporting the use of a PBS approach within school based systems, as noted by Johnson, Foxx, and Mulick (2004), little such evidence exists within adult populations. The purpose of the research described within this symposium is to evaluate the implementation of a PBS model within a large-scale adult service system utilizing a within-subject experimental design. While the primary Independent Variable in the study is a system-wide PBS approach, the research design was structured to focus on the impact of the effect of the Reid and Parsons (2007) Positive Behavior Support Training Curriculum, 2nd Ed. The results of this evaluation along with a discussion of the cost-benefit implications for service providers will be discussed. The PBS training was implemented in a Multiple Baseline Design across three cohorts of 18 DDS funded adult group homes, serving 5+/- individuals each. A pre-Training Baseline was followed sequentially by Training alone and Training combined with feedback. Inter-Observer reliability was collected across all conditions and settings, with an overall mean of >85%. Results indicated that Training alone was insufficient to produce clinically significant results. However, Training plus Feedback did produce clinically significant results in staff behavior. Indirect measures of client behavior, such as the level of restrictive practices employed and the frequency of emergency physical restraints also showed positive changes as a result of the Training plus Feedback condition. Additionally, maintenance data on the long-term impact of this approach will be reported.

The term "prompt dependency" is widely used to identify problem believed to be inherent to the learner. Evidence supporting those explanations is scarce as systematic research on the establishment of prompt dependency is not widely available in the behavior analytic literature. The first presentation describes a functional assessment approach for the explanation the acquisition of the phenomena described as prompt dependency. The authors propose a new behavior analytic term and definition, namely, "prompt maintained behavior" the term places the focus on the identification of the contingencies of reinforcement that may be responsible for the establishment and maintenance of prompt dependency. The other two presentations describe data supporting this analysis, one in which prompt maintained behavior is maintained by positive reinforcement in the form of physical attention and the second maintained by avoidance of corrective procedures. This research has implications for prevention and treatment prompt maintained behavior.

Prompt dependency is a term used to describe a characteristic believed to be inherent to an individual often labeled as "prompt dependent". Prompt dependency is observed when correct responses only appear when the controlling prompt is presented during skill acquisition and it can be affected by differential reinforcement of independent vs. prompted responses by manipulations of the rate and quality of arbitrary reinforcements. The behavior analytic literature often described the emergence of prompt dependency as a result of a failure of transfer of stimulus control from a prompt to the targeted stimulus. This presentation will provide a functional analysis of prompt dependency with focus on the identification of contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the establishment and maintenance of prompt dependency. As a result, the authors propose that the term "prompt maintained behavior" replace "prompt dependency". In addition, the authors will propose a brief assessment protocol that reduces the risk of establishment and maintenance of prompt maintained behavior.

The current study attempted to identify and describe a positive reinforcement contingency that establishes and maintains prompt dependency. That is, refraining from emitting a known response until a prompt is delivered. A 2-year old girl diagnosed with ASD was exposed to trials in which (1) a known instruction was delivered, (2) a response was either emitted or omitted, (3) a prompt was delivered if response was omitted, and (4) consequences were delivered. Two conditions differed in the type of prompt used and the reinforcement delivered for independent vs. prompted responses (Prompt dependency and independency conditions). In the prompt dependency condition, the prompt consisted of physical guidance, which was consistent to the type of physical attention reinforcer identified during a functional analysis. In the independency condition, the prompt was visual and reinforcer for independent responses consisted of physical play. Data from an ABA design indicated that the participant showed prompt dependency only when physical prompted was delivered contingent on a 3-s interval with no response (omission). These results alert for the need of consideration of the reinforcer properties of the prompt itself when designing instructional tasks.

The current study attempted to identify and describe an avoidance contingency that establishes and maintains prompt dependency, that is, refraining from emitting a known response until a prompt is delivered. A 5-year old girl diagnosed with ASD was exposed to trials in which (1) an instruction was delivered, (2) a choice between responding independently or with a physical prompt was made, (3) independent or prompted response was made, and (4) consequences were delivered. Two conditions differed in the consequence delivered following prompted responses (Aversive and Non-Aversive Conditions). The aversive stimulus was verbal error correction and "help" delivered by parent in the natural environment. Data indicate that the participant consistently chose to respond independently when praise was delivered following both independent and prompted choices, but chose the prompt condition when the aversive stimulus was introduced following independent responses (ABA design).