Association for Behavior Analysis International

The assessment of efficient and effective procedures to train employees is a priority for agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities. Providing training that helps to ensure that employees fulfill their many job responsibilities has a number of benefits including, but not limited to: (1) possible amelioration of burnout often experienced by direct care staff, (2) responsible allocation of needed resources (e.g., costs associated with training), and most importantly, (3) the promotion of excellent service delivery. The purpose of the present symposium is to share findings from three studies that examined ways to improve staff performance through different models of training. The behavioral training procedures employed were varied, yet all produced beneficial outcomes for staff and students.

This symposium presents three empirical papers on specific teaching variables used during discrete trial instruction. The first two papers offer an examination of specific therapist variables related to social effect and physical orientation during teaching. The Kisamore paper examines the results of high and low quality social attention on problem behavior. The Rivera paper extend this analysis to include therapist effect and teaching position (i.e., in front, behind, beside) on rates of maladaptive behavior, percent of time on task and skill acquisition. Finally, the Valentino paper examines the effect of pace of instruction on problem behavior.

With the rise in demand for autism services utilizing approaches in applied behavior analysis, traditionalABA providers have been called to become organizational administrators, designing systems and programs that can meet the needs of a broad population. Some administrators have found replicating other empirically validated intervention programs an option that brings efficiency, efficacy, and credibility to the table right from the start. Two such programs are discussed in this symposium. The first authors evaluate the process of replicating the Walden Program that was originally established by Gail G. McGee in 1985. Data both pre- and post-replication of each program component will be reviewed. The second talk introduces the Walden Programs own within-group data on the increases in language and social skills in children with autism. Between group data is also explored across replication sites. The final presentation will review successful dissemination of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) with children with autism in Nova Scotia, Canada. Further and ongoing plans for replication of both of the programs mentioned above will be discussed.

Behavior analysis and modification was hailed in the late 1960s as a way of rehabilitating prisoners. By the mid 1970s, California reported that behavior modification could no longer receive crime prevention funds. At this period APA launched an investigation as to standards for behavior modification in prisons. What went wrong? The first presenter will review the history and discuss the errors with an eye to behavior analytic policy for the future. The second presenter will offer approaches to treat adolescent offenders who would typically be placed into juvenile detention based upon recent advances in applied behavior analysis to address problem behaviors exhibited by these youth. The third presentation will familiarize the participant with Mode Deactivation Therapy (MDT) as an enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) for treating adolescent males who have problems with opposition, conduct, personality, including physical and sexual aggression. The data concerning MDT, as an evidenced based psychotherapy, will be discussed as well. Lastly, Sex offenders! Those two words can evoke fear and apprehension in the community. Thankfully, a skillful integration of the best practices sex offender assessment and 3rd wave behavior therapies couples what works (evidence-based practice) with what matters (empirically-derived risk factors).

In applied behavior analysis, social validity refers to society's judgment about the appropriateness and importance of behavior analytic goals and practices. Although social validity has been touted as a critical dimenson of applied behavior analysis since the 1970's, it remains an under-researched area. The presenters attempt to address this void by discussing the use of social validity measures in the existing literature, as well as reviewing three new research studies that assess the social validity of behavioral procedures for classroom use.

Token schedules have been extensively examined by both "basic" and "applied" researchers. However, these two research traditions have developed largely independently of one another. This symposium is an attempt to foster contact and highlight research on tokens that tells us something new about the schedules and also has important implications for their application.

Public schools are fertile grounds for behavior analysis interventions ranging from restructuring environments to teaching staff about scientific principles of human behavior. Oftentimes the focus of behavior analytic interventions is the reduction of severe problem behavior encountered across a variety of school settings. In contrast, the focus of the current presentation is on building appropriate behavior and teaching teachers to teach reading. This symposium includes 4 presentations on varied interventions for 3-5 year olds at risk for failure in kindergarten. Interventions will be presented demonstrating BATSS procedures for teaching literacy skills at various points on the learning continuum. Assessing and training component skills in programs designed for children with special needs also improves teaching efficiency and learner performance. A comparison between current reading scores for this particular group of children and data collected during the prior academic school year will reflect BATSS innovative changes to this technology. Data and video will be shown exhibiting training procedures for teaching reading for this special needs, specific age group of students.

There are many times we go to bed at night wishing we would have asked a question or posed a comment. These burning questions may be the very questions that, upon answering, would help Organizational Behavior Management grow. You may ask these questions to one or a few of your colleagues during coffee, drinks, or whatever "water coolers" you feel comfortable with. By limiting the conversations to few, OBM as a field may lose sight and touch of the key questions that can drive our field forward. The panel consists Judy Agnew (ADI), Bill Hopkins (Auburn Emeritus), Allan Quiat (Chevron Corporation), and Tracy Thurkow (CLG). This panel will address your burning questions. Come with your questions and thoughts that are burning to come outand be prepared to have fun while doing it.

Formation of equivalence classes and naming are basic language processes frequently studied by behavior analysts. The experimenters will present four studies examining various aspects of equivalence relations and naming.

Equivalence classes consist of arbitrary stimuli that come to share functional and symbolic relations partially through contingencies and partially as a product of emergent processes. Three studies have begun to document the differences between older and younger adults in the formation of equivalence classes. The purpose of this study is to clarify methodological factors that may account for, or contribute to, the differences reported in the literature. Twenty-eight adults ages 65 and older were exposed to two matching-to-sample training procedures and subsequent testing using a personal computer with a touch screen and a 0-s delay. Half of the participants experienced a many-to-one (MTO) training procedure followed by a one-to-many (OTM) procedure and the other half experienced the reverse order. Differences in trials to criterion, errors during training, emergent relations were minimal between the two conditions, replicating the effects of Saunders, et al. findings with 0-s delay. The majority of elders demonstrated the expected emergent relations with clear differences in training performance patterns for those who subsequently performed well on tests and those who performed more poorly.

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by core impairments in social and communicative behavior. Though behavior in these domains can be subjective and difficult to measure, diagnostic assessments and outcome measures rely on accurate estimation of these skills. This lecture will review current research utilizing eye-tracking technology and recordings of brain electrophysiology to discretely measure aspects of visual attention and brain function related to social perception. The objective of this research is to develop indices of brain function and behavior that will enable assessment of social perception in infancy and will offer sensitive and discrete measures of progress during intervention.

Economists and behavioral scientists share an interest in behavior maintained by goods/reinforcers. What have economists discovered that behavioral scientists have yet to study (and vice-versa)? A broad overview will be provided with emphasis placed on the applied utility of behavioral-economic findings.

Massage Therapy is increasingly being used as a complementary/alternative therapy not only because many people with psychological and physical problems are touch-deprived but also because of its therapeutic effects. Recent research reported by Dr. Tiffany Field and others suggests that massage therapy: (1) facilitates growth and developmen (2) reduces depressive behavior and anxiety patterns and related stress hormones, (3) enhances sleep, ( 4) reduces pa, (5) reduces autoimmune disorders, and (6) enhances immune function. For example, these effects have been noted in samples of preterm neonates, depressed children and adults, chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and migraine headaches, autoimmune problems including asthma and diabetes, and immune disorders including HIV and cancer. Some potential underlying mechanisms are enhanced parasympathetic activity (increased vagal tone) following massage therapy, decreased stress hormones (cortisol), and increased serotonin (the bodys natural pain killer and antidepressant), which in turn lead to increased natural killer cell activity (front line of the immune system) that wards off viral and cancer cells. In addition, cognitive performance is enhanced by massage therapy which may relate to changes noted in EEG patterns that are indicative of heightened alertness. The data will be reviewed by the panelists highlighting the role of environmental contingencies in these findings. The therapeutic effects and the potential underlying behavioral mechanisms will be discussed.

Functional Analysis has much to offer in clinical settings. This symposium looks at several applications of behavioral principles to those with mental health conditions.

The utility of partial-interval recording (PIR) and momentary time-sampling (MTS) for detecting changes in simulated events was evaluated using single-subject experimental designs. Colby-Dirksen et al. evaluated the extent to which various interval sizes of PIR and MTS detected the same functional control that was demonstrated with continous duration recording (CDR). Michalski et al. evaluated whether various interval sizes of PIR and MTS detected changes in various event-rates. In this sense, both Colby-Dirksen et al. and Michalski et al. evaluated the probability that interval methods produce false negatives (i.e., failed to detect effects that were evident with CDR) when evaluating the effects of independent variables. To this end, Carroll et al. evaluated the possibility that interval methods depict false positives (i.e., depict functional control that is not evident with CDR). Finally, Devine et al. evaluated the extent to which the length of observation periods influenced the sensitivity of interval methods for detecting various changes in duration events.

Functional assessment methods have clear utility for developing efficacious interventions for problem behavior. Although most research on functional assessment has been conducted in clinical settings by researchers, a growing body of research documents (a) methods of functional assessment applicable for non-clinical settings and (b) the link between functional assessment and positive outcomes in diverse settings such as schools and the community. In this symposium we present results of recent studies focused on delineating effective strategies for conducting functional assessments in schools.

Since the publication of the seminal article by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis, issues of and strategies for generalization and maintenance have grown in importance but have yet to become standard practice. This symposium will address the status of generalized programming with in the field of ABA, the status of generalization and maintenance within instructional programming for student with disabilities, and implications of omitting generalized outcomes for effective programming.

It is sometimes not appreciated that research in behavioral pharmacology can have, and has had, implications for the experimental analysis of behavior, especially its conceptualizations and theory. In this presentation, I outline three general strategies in behavioral pharmacology research that have been employed to increase understanding of behavioral processes. Examples are provided of the general characteristics of the strategies and of implications of previous research for behavior theory. Behavior analysis will advance as its theories are challenged, and behavioral pharmacology is one source of such challenges.

Understanding decision-making involves many disciplines, including Evolutionary Biology, Economics, Psychology and Quantitative Behavioural Analysis. In this tutorial I review recent experiments on choice between different combinations of amount and delay to food that used starlings as experimental animals. The results are contrasted with predictions from theoretical models originating in these disciplines (including those advocated by B. Franklin). I show that while ome models are better at data fitting they can be weaker in other respects. My overall message is that the worth of theoretical models is not identical to their predictive performance (how well they fit the data): Theories and models are validated by the accuracy of their predictions but should be judged by many additional criteria, including their value to guide research, and to place observations within broader fields of knowledge.

During the past 40 years, behavioral systems analysts (e.g., Tom Gilbert, Dale Brethower, Geary Rummler) developed models of organizations that help us understand behavior in context and suggested that behavioral interventions are far more powerful when the total system is considered as a backdrop for individual performance. Unfortunately, most applications at the systems level are described in terms of metaphors or principles, rather than practical, replicable approaches. Few lasting, large-scale applications of behavioral technology in working organizations have been implemented under realistic circumstances. Most published accounts of behavior change in organizations focus on a limited environment (e.g., one department or unit) and are driven by researchers or consultants who implement contrived circumstances to incubate and sustain the changes. This is no sin: many of these approaches have led to powerful changes and improved bottomline results. However, they often fall short of documenting reliable ways of changing the behaviors of hundreds or thousands of people--behavior analysis and change on a scope and scale that has the potential to move entire organizational cultures. This presentation will provide an example of large-scale, long-term behavioral intervention in a Fortune 100 business at the cultural level and describe how behavior analytic methods were used to functionally embed new practices that have been sustained over a period of 8 years with the promise of continuing indefinitely (i.e., becoming a way of life for leaders throughout the company). The approach and results will be discussed in terms of a whole-system application with reference to early work of behavioral systems analysts. The intervention involved teaching leaders (including the CEO and 20 top level executives) applied behavior analysis and supporting their use of the skills with extensive coaching and feedback. The model was subsequently extended to the 200 most senior leaders (Phase II) and then to another 700 general managers (Phase III). Plans call for training and coaching more than 2,000 managers and supervisors over the coming year to complete skill development (phase IV). To embed these practices in the ongoing culture, each leader receives a leadership scorecard (ratings and comments) from his/her direct reports every 6 months and completes an upward feedback dialogue session where the direct reports describe what they see as more effective practices (to be...

The studies collected in this symposium examine a variety of quantitative variables, based on principles of behavioral economics and the matching equation, as they apply to the behavior of individuals in applied contexts. The general emphasis is on how choice responding is influenced by basic process through manipulations of unit price, opportunity costs, schedule-correlated stimuli, and the like. The impact of these variables is examined across an array of applied contexts that includes educational settings, clinical settings for individuals with developmental disabilities, and in the treatment of substance abuse. Collectively, the studies exemplify how findings imported from basic behavioral science can be brought to bear on clinically relevant behavior in these contexts.

With the increasing number of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, parents have been struggling to find treatments to help their children. In response to this need, a proliferation of professionals (e.g., Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, Educators, Board Certified Behavior Analysts, etc.) with a wide variety of experiences has hastened to provide treatments for this population. However, not all have been reportedly recommending and providing scientifically supported ABA services and many have been providing fad treatment Of special concern is when BCBAs knowingly or unknowingly endorse or recommend fad treatments. This panel discusses parental responses to treatment recommendations, Board Certified Behavior Analysts uses ABA and fad treatments, the ethical responsibilities of behavior analysts, and ways of ensuring that fad treatments are not recommended or endorsed.

Skinners (1957) functional analysis of verbal behavior has garnered more attention in recent years than it did when it was first published. One variable responsible for this has been the success of behavior analysis in teaching children with verbal deficits. There has been much interest in identifying critical variables for teaching communicative responding and validating teaching techniques. Skinners analysis of verbal behavior has been useful to clinicians for functionally categorizing verbal operants but there has not been enough systematic research of verbal behavior in applied and natural settings. This symposium will discuss several studies of verbal behavior conducted in educational environments. The first paper compares the effects of textual and echoic prompting for teaching intraverbal responses. The second paper examines the role of problem solving in complex intraverbal repertoires. The third paper presents a procedure for functionally assessing established vocal-verbal behavior. The final paper examines prompted and pure mands following mand training.

The applied behavior analysis of Intensive Early Intervention for children with autism is conducted at many different levels of resolution. All levels of ABA are necessary to effectively manage the best possible outcomes for the greatest number of children. In order to build a sustainable program, numerous issues in accountability and management must be addressed. This symposium will present the results of four different organized systems for delivering and managing treatment efficacy. The management procedures of the organizations will include the molecular levels of ABA (single-subject analyses of all facets of treatment; component and package analyses of all facets of treatment; analysis of maintenance of treatment effects; analysis of the limits of generality of the treatment); the intermediate analysis of staff training, parent training, consumer responsiveness, and the organizational management necessary to sustain the treatment; and long-term traditional epidemiological analyses of consumer validity, cost-effectiveness and social validity to provide overall guidance to organizational design. Cultural and language issues will also be addressed. Current results of these organized systems will be presented.

We present four papers describing publicly-funded regular education classes based entirely on teaching as applied behavior analysis for grades 1, 2 and 3 (CABAS Accelerated Independent Learner Model for regular education). We identify the components of the model and the outcomes according to standardized tests and direct measures of achievement of educational standards. Paper 1 describes the outcomes for children in the class that has received the model for 2 years (mean grade equivalent 4.43, 84th percentile nationally). The outcomes for this class are presented by percentage of students in the class according to demographics: 23% English as second language (performed 3 years above grade level), 23% autism diagnoses (grade level to 2 years above grade level), 35% minorities (4 years above grade level), free lunch 42% (4 years above grade level), and 23% middle and upper middle class with none of the other demographic classifications (6 years above grade level). The second and third papers catalogue the tactics and curricula, verbal developmental interventions for different grade levels. The fourth paper catalogues components that resulted in academically successful inclusion for children with autism.

The papers in this symposium will describe methods of assessing and teaching verbal operants to children with developmental disabilities.

The BACB Guidelines for Responsible Professional Conduct by Behavior Analysts represent a comprehensive and high set of ethical standards for practitioners. Many professionals encounter ethical conflicts in their efforts to abide by these guidelines or are at least familiar with such conflicts in the actions of others. Panel members will discuss challenging ethical situations they have dealt with and discuss situations posed by members of the audience.

Stephen Wolframs massive self-published tome, A new kind of science, has been criticized by various reviewers as overwrought, repetitive, egocentric, insufficiently documented, megalomaniacal, too Mathematica-focused, nothing new, self-indulgent, the raving of a crackpot, and false. Whether or not one wishes to believe Wolframs occasional extravagant claims, such as that continuity and motion in the physical world are illusions, or that the universe is a simple computer program, his manic but endlessly fascinating 6 lb behemoth of a book is a treasure trove of mathematical and computational ideas and techniques that is well worth mining for its possible relevance to problems in quantitative behavior analysis. Wolframs point of departure is that complex behavior can be produced by the repeated application of simple rules (nothing new); the rest of the book is a rococo elaboration of this theme. From cellular automata and Turing machines to iterated function systems and prime number sequences, there is enough raw material in this volume to keep a scientific miner digging and happy for a long time. In this tutorial I will discuss some of the raw material I have mined from Wolframs book that might be of interest to quantitative behavior analysts, with a special focus on cellular automata.

The incidence of autism has increased considerably. With it, a corresponding development of programs serving individuals with autism has occurred. These programs are essential to meet the needs of the autism community, but attracting, training and retaining a qualified workforce is very difficult. In addition to the competition among programs serving individuals with autism, these agencies also compete with employment opportunities that are less stressful and less demanding than working with individuals with autism. Although empirically-based teaching techniques are used in the field of special education, few providers apply these same principles to address staff behavior change. Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), also referred to as Performance Management (PM), is the application of Applied Behavior Analysis to organizational improvement. The purpose of this panel is to address common challenges within the field of human services, and more specifically, to programs serving individuals with autism. Topics to be addressed include issues of staff retention and turnover, staff development,and quality assurance and improvement.

Forty years ago Fred Keller published his now classic paper that introduced the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) to the teaching world. PSI, or the Keller Plan, as it is sometimes called, gained immediate widespread popularity. Indeed, college and university professors from many disciplines adopted the technique for use in their classes. Researchers published numerous articles showing PSI to be superior over traditional teaching methods in terms of student learning outcomes (i.e., final grades). Interestingly, now, in 2008, few college and university professors have ever heard of PSI, or for that matter, other forms of behavioral instruction. In this presentation, I will discuss the current state of college and university teaching against the backdrop of Keller's and others' work with behavioral approaches to college and university teaching. I will provide an overview and theoretical analysis of prevailing teaching techniques and the key elements of "master teaching" in an attempt to suggest effective practices for improving one's teaching.

I have long been confused by attempts to distinguish emitted operant responses from elicited Pavlovian reflexes and will describe a new theory based on control by reinforcement over levels of response variability. The theory states that a voluntary response has two defining attributes: functionality and potential unpredictability. A voluntary response is functional in the sense that it can be explained, it happens for a reason, it is goal oriented or, in behavior analytic terms, it is an operant, controlled by reinforcement. A voluntary response must also be at least potentially unpredictable (or free, self-generated, not determined). In other words, voluntary responses can be functionally unpredictable. There are two sources of that functional unpredictability: natural variability and learned variability. Natural variability is seen in baseline operant responding, during exploration of novel spaces, and under concurrent reinforcement schedules. Learned variability is seen in Karen Pryors reinforcement of novel responses in porpoises, Don Bloughs reinforcement of random interresponse times in pigeons, and reinforcement of more-or-less variable sequences that has been studied in my lab and others. I will describe psychophysical evidence in support of an operant variability theory of voluntary behavior and discuss implications for self control.

Failures of self-control and social cooperation may both be described in terms of hyperbolic discounting: failures of self-control as due to discounting by delay of reinforcement -- failures of social cooperation as due to discounting by social distance. Both self-control and social cooperation may be seen as choice of distributed rewards over individual rewards: self-control as choice of rewards distributed in time -- social cooperation as choice of rewards distributed over social space. Self-control fails when the value of a large reward distributed over time (such as good health) is discounted below that of a small immediate reward (such as having an alcoholic drink). Social cooperation fails when the value of a large reward distributed in social space (such as availability of public television) is discounted below that of a small reward to oneself (keeping money rather than donating it).Patterns of behavior that maximize reward distributed over wide temporal or social distances may be selected by reinforcement and evolve over the lifetimes of individuals by a process akin to group selection in biological evolution.

This lecture describes a demonstration project designed to address barriers to applying behavior analysis in underdeveloped African countries. In many African countries, there is a dearth of information on the prevalence and impact of disabilities. Additionally, there are major issues in the area of government policy, cultural perspective, early screening, diagnosis and treatment of children with autism and other developmental disabilities. In the light of this situation, Home-Link Trust Inc, a developmental disabilities agency based in Idaho State, has established a demonstration project in collaboration with existing non-governmental organizations for the replication and practice of applied behavior analysis in the management of children with developmental disabilities in Nigeria. This demonstration project will serve as a bridge between the practice of applied behavior analysis in the United States and Africa. In this lecture, the long-term impact of this demonstration project on training and government support for applied behavior analysis in Nigeria will be discussed.

Video modeling is a popular intervention with children with autism spectrum disorders. The presenters will describe four experimental investigations of the use of video modeling to teach skills to children with autism spectrum disorders.

The current collection of research papers is composed of studies investigating response-independent/noncontingent schedules of reinforcement. Studies investigating the utility of these schedules with both clinical and nonclinical populations will be presented.

The purpose of this symposium is to present data from three pediatirc feeding disorders programs. The data will be presented from two hospital-based programs and one home-based program. Data will be presented by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, St. Joseph's Childrens Hospital, and Clinic 4 Kidz. All three programs will discuss their assessment and treatment methods and present data on their outcome measures.

This symposium will contain papers that address topics and research in health, sports, and fitness. Topics include smoking cessation, rehabilitation regimen compliance, fitness adherence, and sports application. The blend of papers in this session represents a growing socially important application in ABA with interdisciplinary implications.

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) refers to the time-based delivery of a reinforcer independent of responding, such that there is no contingency between a response and a reinforcer. NCR has frequently been implemented as a treatment for problem behavior and generally has been shown to be effective in reducing levels of problem behavior. In the first paper, Severtson, Carr and Lepper will describe a quantitative review of NCR-based interventions to assess the efficacy of NCR as a treatment for problem behavior. In the second paper, Sloman, Vollmer, Samaha and Bosch will describe a comparison of momentary differential reinforcement of other behavior (mDRO) to NCR schedules, in the context of treating problem behavior. In the third paper, Carreau et al. will describe an evaluation of variable-interval (VI) schedules based on fixed-time schedules (FT) to measure the persistence of problem behavior when extinction procedures were implemented.

Although there have been a variety of studies discussing pathological gambling, many questions still remain as to the assessment, treatment and validation of pathological gambling. The purpose of this symposium will be to examine various improvements to work on pathological gambling. Four empirical studies will be presented in which different dimensions of pathological gambling were examined. The first presentation will be a discussion on the Gambling Functional Assessment (GAF). The second presentation will review a behavioral therapy treatment package to decrease pathological gambling. The third presentation will explore novel dependent measures in pathological gambling and possible future of gambling studies. The final presentation will discuss the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) and its effects on pathological gambling.

CABAS is a behavioral model of schooling drawing on 1) other behavioral models of schooling, 2) tactics and strategies from the applied and experimental branches of behavior analysis, 3) epistemology of behavioral selectionism, 4) research on CABAS components, and 5) demonstration applications to several schools. These components are applied to all areas of schooling including the students, parents, teachers, supervisors, and the University training program. Research in behavior analysis suggests a common set of effective teaching strategies. These strategies and CABAS components are demonstrated in certified CABAS schools and in public school systems. The following is a data presentation showing the effects of implementing CABAS and components of the CABAS model in a certified CABAS school in the UK and in public school settings in two states in the US.

Providing highly effective, consistent, and sustainable services to persons with Autism and related disabilities requires more than skilled clinicians and willing clients. Providing such services also requires consistent and comprehensive performance analysis and improvement efforts at all levels of a human service agency. This symposium will review how OBM blends Behavior Analysis with Systems Theory to analyze performance at all levels of an organization, describe its role in helping to ensure effective service delivery, and outline the steps that two human service agencies in the Puget Sound area have taken to help support the delivery of consistently high quality services.

In response to the increasing social awareness of environmental concerns and subsequent adoption of sustainable practices for better environmental protection and preservation, this symposium will present data from a variety of studies using behavioral approaches, namely those specific to OBM, to help promote environmentally-conscious behavior. The studies include projects conducted on college campuses ranging from energy conservation, recycling, and "smoke free" zones. Data will be presented and areas of application for future implication and social significance of continued behavioral approaches to influencing environmental preservation will be discussed.

The completion of the human-genome map holds great potential for extending our understanding of gene-environment-behavior relations and behavior disorders. However, this potential can be fully realized only if the advances in genetic diagnostics are accompanied by advances in behavioral analyses that accurately characterize behavioral phenotypes. For example, in behavioral genetic studies, important behavioral phenomena seen in children with autism (e.g., echolalia, stereotypy, self-injurious behavior) are often phenotyped by a small number of items on a behavioral rating scale. This simplistic and structural approach to behavioral phenotyping often lacks precision and, more importantly, it overlooks the extent to which genes interact with environmental contingencies to influence the expression of aberrant behavior in autism (e.g., genetically mediated sensitivity to social escape as negative reinforcement for problem behavior). Functional analysis, on the other hand, provides a precise method of quantifying both the topographical and functional properties of aberrant behaviors. The accurate characterization of behavioral phenotypes using functional analysis methods should increase the power of analyses designed to identify genes that affect aberrant behavior in autism. This presentation will focus on how functional analysis methods may be used to better characterize behavioral phenotypes in autism and related disorders.

The panelists will discuss Rachlin's notion of self-control and social cooperation. His argument is that both can be described in terms of hyperbolic discounting: "failures of self-control as due to discounting by delay of reinforcementfailures of social cooperation as due to discounting by social distance." According to Rachlin, both self-control and social cooperation may be seen as choice of distributed rewards over individual rewards: self-control as choice of rewards distributed in time, social cooperation as choice of rewards distributed over social space. Self-control fails when the value of a large reward distributed over time (such as good health) is discounted below that of a small immediate reward (such as having an alcoholic drink). Social cooperation fails when the value of a large reward distributed in social space (such as availability of public television) is discounted below that of a small reward to oneself (keeping money rather than donating it). Patterns of behavior that maximize reward distributed over wide temporal or social distances may be selected by reinforcement and evolve over the lifetimes of individuals by a process akin to group selection in biological evolution. The audience will be encouraged to participate.

This session will review reports from the Pennsylvania Verbal Behavior Project. Included will be a discussion of project outcomes, perspectives on the role of consultants who are also parents of children with autism, instructional design for teaching spontaneous mands, and a method of providing direct feedback on instructional performance during discrete trial instruction of the verbal operants.

Systematic replication may be defined as purposefully varying one or more variables across experiments to establish the reliability and generality of results. Although systematic replication may be common with regard to intervention technology, it has not been applied with the same vigor to the design of intervention program systems. This symposium will display annual outcome measures for the Education Program of the Princeton Child Development Institute (PCDI) and display data for three systematic replications--The New York Child Learning Institute, The Institute for Educational Achievement, and the Somerset Hills Learning Institute. Measures will include annual reviews of individualized programs, home programming services, consumer evaluations, and staff training and evaluation outcomes.

Behavioral relaxation training has been shown to be an effective technique to reduce severe, challenging behaviors and teach appropriate alternative behaviors. This technique used in combination with modeling, feedback, and reinforcement is a powerful behavior change procedure. The purpose of the present symposium is to share findings from three case studies in which behavioral relaxation was included as part of a multicomponent intervention package. Positive findings resulted in each example suggesting that individuals with autism may be taught to use behavior relaxation techniques as an antecedent management strategy.

Despite gains that many children with autism may have made while receiving early intensive behavioral intervention, without additional support, they may not be able to learn the same curriculum as the classmate, complete seatwork assignments independently, interact appropriately with peers on the playground or actively participate in class lessons. This symposium will present four papers that describe strategies to support children with autism in general education classrooms through interventions provided by home-based or center-based behavioral services. Each of the four papers will present the details of specific interventions used and child outcome data. Two papers will describe case studies of specific behavioral interventions to support children with autism in inclusive setting. A third paper will present the results of a study comparing high versus low numbers of embedded instruction trials on skill acquisition and generalization for a child with autism in a general education classroom. A fourth paper will describe the results of using priming of academic work in a treatment center to produce improved academic performance of a child with autism in a general education classroom. These papers as a group provide information on practical and effective interventions for children with autism in inclusive school settings.

Acceptance and present moment work are significant components of ACT. Descriptions of such interventions imperfectly capture the cadence, pace, and tone of the work. A video demonstration of acceptance and present moment done by Dr. Kelly Wilson will be featured in this clinical round table. Drs. Kelly Koerner, Barbara Kohlenberg, Steven Hayes, and Michael Dougher will discuss the interventions. Discussion will focus on both the clinical aspects of the video as well as on a behavioral analysis of the interventions.

Intermountain Centers for Human Development (ICHD), a private not-for-profit agency established in 1973, provides out-of-home and home-based support services in Arizona and New Mexico to a variety of at-risk populations including Native American children and adults, children and youth who are emotionally and behaviorally challenged, adults who have been diagnosed with serious mental illnesses, and individuals with developmental disabilities. Intermountain has been inspired and invigorated by the continuing contributions of pioneers such as Sidney Bijou, Judy Favell, Betty Hart, Todd Risely, Roland Tharp, Ralph Bud Wetzel and Montrose Wolf. Over the past 35 years, Intermountain has collaborated with a wide variety of organizations in the development of strategies and best practices to promote the preservation of families and the successful community stabilization and reunion of family members. This symposium will address some of the unique opportunities, successes and challenges for behavior analysis to further collaborate within the behavioral health system of care.

The mission of the Practice Board is to consider issues related to the work of behavior analysts everywhere, including research, practice, and ethics and to address issues relevant to the practice of behavior analysis. This symposium will explore issues that affect behavior analysts work.

The utility of the functional analysis (FA) methodology in identify environmental reinforcers maintaining problem behavior and developing robust treatments has been well documented over the past 20 years (Iwata et al., 1994, Hagopian et al., 1998). However, FA of problem behavior is not always feasible due to the severity of problem behavior, time constraints, or lack of resources. A variety of experimental analyses (e.g., antecedent and concurrent operant) have been successful in identifying environmental reinforcers of appropriate behavior (Conroy & Stichter, 2003; Finkel et al., 2003). The purpose of this symposium is to examine extensions of experimental analyses to the assessment of appropriate behavior. The symposium will include three presentations in which FA of appropriate behavior was conducted with adolescents with problem behavior. The presentations will evaluate the utility of experimental analyses to identify the maintaining variables of appropriate behavior and develop robust treatments. The assessment of appropriate behavior is evaluated via FA, concurrent operant analysis, and assessment based treatments. In addition, FA and concurrent operant assessments are compared in relation to reinforcers identified and treatment efficacy. The findings indicate the need for continued evaluation of FA of appropriate behavior across settings, individuals, and topographies of behavior.

This symposium will present a variety of OBM research projects, showcasing some of the most commonly used interventions in OBM research. Two studies examined ways to improve the effectiveness of employee work tasks in restaurant settings, one manipulating a unique feature of feedback while another used a package intervention to increase selling and customer service behaviors. Another study examined the use of antecedents to improve the cleanliness of gym equipment. The fourth used a reinforcement program to enhance the effectiveness of a smoking cessation program in a primary healthcare facility.

This symposium will address the acquisition of verbal capabilities using the principles of verbal behavior analysis with students in elementary and middle school settings. The three papers focus on inducing observational learning, self-editing, and rates of learning with children diagnosed with developmental and behavioral disabilities. The first paper addresses the effects of students observing teacher presented learn units on the emergence of selected untaught structural and grammatical components of writing samples and the effectiveness of the observing students writing. The second paper focuses on the effects of written mands on written compositions. The final paper investigates the effects of an immediate correction procedure and the students' use of answer keys on learn units to criterion for target behaviors.

We have completed 4 years of a 5-year NIH-funded project that is evaluating long-term maintenance associated with functional communication training. Approximately 20 children have enrolled in the project. All children are 6 years of age or younger, have developmental disabilities, and display aberrant behavior such as self-injury. Parents conducted functional analysis and functional communication training session in their homes with weekly coaching from project investigators. Treatment sessions were videotaped and coded using a 6-sec partial-interval recording system. IOA was recorded for approximately 30% of all sessions. Treatment continued for up to 1 year for each participant. Throughout treatment, probes of aberrant behavior, manding, and task completion were conducted in which various components of the treatment package were removed (e.g., mand card) or changed (e.g., time in demands increased from 5 to 15 minutes). The purpose of these probes was to determine if aberrant behavior increased or adaptive behavior decreased when these components were altered. In this talk, I will present the results of these probes and will discuss the results relative to resurgence, maintenance, and response strength.

Joint attention, a synchronizing of the attention of two or more persons, has been an increasing focus of research in cognitive developmental psychology and behavior analysis. Much of this interest is grounded in the fact that children diagnosed with autism may display a syndrome-specific deficit in joint attention. Phenomena typically considered include gaze following, monitoring, social referencing, and protoimperative and protodeclarative gestures. First, from an operant perspective, a conceptual analysis is in order both because the concept of joint attention has come to refer to a number of different phenomena and because the specification of reinforcement contingencies can replace vague cognitive language of "intention," "sharing," and "theory of mind." Second, even if almost completely unrecognized in modern psychology, some very basic phenomena now studied in the context of joint attention, such as protoimperative and protodeclarative communication, were analyzed as verbal operants by Skinner more than 50 years ago. Third, certain contingencies and schedules of reinforcement that have been investigated in behavioral laboratories are directly relevant to devising procedures that aim to correct deficiencies in joint attention skills, for instance, in children with autism. A behavior-analytic perspective is inherently practical, suggesting technological applications at almost every step.

To build a science of the person, the most basic question is: How can one identify and understand the psychological invariancethe basic coherence and organization-- that distinctively characterizes an individual and that underlies the variations in the thoughts, feelings, and actions that occur across contexts and over time? This question proved particularly difficult because discrepancies soon emerged between the expressions of consistency that were expected and those that were found. The resulting classic personality paradox became: How can we reconcile our intuitions---and theories---about the invariance and stability of personality with the equally compelling empirical evidence for the variability of the persons behavior across diverse situations? Which is right: the intuitions or the findings? I discuss some advances to answer this question since it was posed decades ago. These findings have allowed a resolution of the paradox, and provide the outlines for a conception of the underlying structure and dynamics of behavior, and its links to situations, that seems to better account for the data on consistencies and variability in the expressions of individual differences. This conception is applied to the analysis of self-control, focusing on the ability to delay gratification, and its determinants, development, and implications over the life course.

This symposium will present 3 papers demonstrating social skills instruction for children with autism, carried out in three different formats/settings; computer-based parent training, university center-based student teaching, and a community-based social skills group with typical and non-typical peers . Data on childrens' social interactions and parents' social skill instruction will be presented. Video demonstrations will also be used to illustrate procedures used in these different instructional formats.

Group studies of treatment outcomes for children with autism typically utilize standardized assessments of cognitive functioning, adaptive behavior, and language as primary dependent variables.(e.g., Lovaas, 1987; Sallows & Graupner, 2005; Smith, Groen, & Wynn, 2000). More recent attention has been paid to assessing changes in the core features of autism using measures such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. (ADOS; Lord, Rutter, DiLavore & Risi, 1999) Although the ADOS was not designed to assess change, some investigators are using the assessments rating score (Owley et al., 2001) or combining the structure of the assessment with other behavioral coding systems to assess response to treatment (Lord & Corsello, 2005). Clinically, the practice of targeting specific verbal operants for instruction has become widespread. Strategies for assessing the development of verbal behavior across groups of children are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions; to supplement existing single subject research demonstrations (Carr & Firth, 2005). The following series of investigations explore strategies for direct measurement of verbal behavior within the semi-structured assessment offered by the ADOS, addressing issues of measurement and evaluation of treatment outcome.

The papers in this symposium touch upon two important topics in behavior analytic intervention for children with autism. The first is related to practices used for data collection during discrete trials instruction and the second is related to practices that lead to generalization of skills taught during intervention. The first presentation in this symposium will show results from an evaluation of continuous data collection versus first-trial data collection during discrete trials instruction. The second presentation will show an assessment of generalization of pure tacts in the natural environment as a result of teaching impure tacts during discrete trials instruction. The third presentation will show a comparison of using free operant to restricted operant procedures on generalization of skills. From the first presentation, attendees of this symposium will learn which of the evaluated methods of data collection appear to be more accurate. From the second two presentations, attendees will learn whether generalization of skills is more or less likely given the evaluated practices.

Deficits in the social functioning of children with autism can be challenging to address. The complexities and subtleties of social interactions often require more exactness and forethought in the application of ABA procedures. While some success in using ABA techniques to improve social skills has been reported, there are many social skill areas not yet fully addressed or even understood. This symposium presents data and new information on procedures used within an ABA Treatment Center for children with autism to extend and improve their social functioning. The first presentation focuses on generalizing social behaviors, initially trained through interactions with adult therapists, to more natural peer interactions. The second presentation looks at teaching children with autism to modulate their voice volume in response to specific environmental stimuli in order to better communicate socially. The third presentation offers data on a new application of an emotional coding system, using specific facial cues, which can help in teaching children with autism to understand and express emotional subtleties more effectively. Together, these three studies extend our knowledge of, and ability to modify, the social skills of children with autism.

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy was developed to guide clinical behavior analysts to foster rich and intense curative relationships with their clients. FAP has been discussed as a worthy intervention during individual psychotherapy, especially with individuals dealing with depressive repertoires. Using relationship factors in a functional analytic approach to clinical concerns can expand beyond the walls of the individual therapy room. FAP is being used by behavior analysts in psychosocial rehabilitation centers with individuals dealing with severe mental illness, in sex offender treatment programs, and in residential facilities with adolescents. This symposium will discuss the use of FAP in different scenarios.

This symposium will focus on the application of behavior analytic methodologies for the assessment and treatment of interdisciplinary issues. We will demonstrate the broad application of behavior analysis via four data-based studies. The first study centers on the structural analysis and treatment of severe childhood stuttering. The second study demonstrates how behavior analytic procedures can be used for teaching conversational skills to a child with a language delay. The next study demonstrates how reading comprehension can be enhanced as a result of procedures based on the basic principles of applied behavior analysis. And the final study will focus on teaching orientation and mobility skills to a child who is blind. The importance of demonstrating the relevance of behavior analysis across disciplines will be emphasized within this symposium.

Although extinction is the most direct method for reducing the frequency of problem behavior, the procedure is sometimes difficult or impossible to use due to practical constraints (e.g., severity of problem behavior, size of client, inability to control the maintaining reinforcer). Three studies will be presented in which attempts were made to treat problem behavior with procedures that did not include extinction: (a) blocking, (b) negative reinforcement for compliance, and (c) combined antecedent interventions.

This symposium will include three papers on the assessment and treatment of sex offenders with developmental disabilities. In the first presentation Astrid Hall will discuss the development of the mobile plethysmograph and show data related to the assessment of arousal in community settings. In the second presentation, Tim Vollmer will discuss the use of covert assessments in the assessment of high-risk behavior for sex offenders with developmental disabilities. In the third presentation, Jorge R. Reyes will describe the application of a paired-choice preference assessment format to evaluate visual preference for male and female children and adults. The discussant will be Joel Ringdahl who has published extensively in the areas of behavioral assessment and developmental disabilities.

Three presentations analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of using an acoustical stimulus in conjunction with reinforcement and various teaching and prompting strategies will be presented. Applied Behavior Analysts are dedicated to finding effective ways to teach skills to participants with autism and related disorders. Standard teaching curricula are typically based on the use of prompting and shaping procedures. One way to augment standard prompting and shaping procedures is to pair an auditory or visual event with the delivery of reinforcement to mark the correct response. TAG Teach is a technology based on the use of markers or auditory stimuli paired with the delivery of reinforcement to shape new behaviors. TAG stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance and is a direct descendent of the clicker technology presented by Karen Pryor in her popular book Dont Shoot the Dog. Practitioners of TAG Teach argue for its effectiveness in many endeavors designed to teach motor skills such as gymnastics and dancing. The three data-based papers presented here successfully demonstrate how to incorporate aspects of TAG Teach technology into some of our standard curriculum to teach basic motor skills with participants for whom prior attempts have been unsuccessful.

Four studies in OBM and BBS will be presented. The first study examined the effect of rules on employee performance in a human service setting. The second study examined the effects of contingent access to high vs. low preference items on employee performance in a laboratory setting. The third study investigated the effects of observer presence on individuals work-related behavior both within-session and across sessions. The fourth study evaluated the effects of variations of self-monitoring on safe posture performances during typing of four office workers in a simulated office setting.

This tutorial is designed to provide a review of the literature regarding medical adherence among children with chronic health conditions, such as asthma and arthritis. In addition, clinical behavioral interventions which may be applied to increase adherence are presented in detail along with current outcome data.

Overt values statements are a relatively recent development within the field of behavior analysis. For far too long we have allowed others, primarily our critics, to describe our values for us, and it is time that we begin to speak for ourselves. Core values are important characteristics of an organizations verbal practices and as our community endeavors to build a coherent system from which to promote effective cultural practices, we are reminded that values function as guides to action and play a key role in helping us through ethical dilemmas. In order to present ourselves convincingly to our consumers and the public we need a serious debate about our values: What do we consider the most important features or contributions of behavior analysis to the culture? We will present data from a survey study of core values in a sample of ninety-four behavior analysts discuss the implications for behavior analytic practices.

Traditionally, the concept of utility comes from economics. It is the probability of obtaining a reinforcer times its value. In behavior analysis, we use rate of reinforcement and immediate value. Here we discuss a four variable general discounting model that has properties of a number of economic and behavioral theories. The value of reinforcement, Ai, reflects the immediate value of reinforcement. The value varies with the goods and services delivered the individuals interests, drives, ambition and clinical state. Clinically, depression lowers the value. The second variable is delay as found in discounting models. It is a negative power function. Clinically, over discounting is associated with impulsivity and character disorders. Addicts find the short term pain of withdrawal unbearable even considering the cost of addiction. The third variable, change in delay is represented here as changes in the time between reinforcements rather than the change in probabilities that is often characterized as risk. Some people are oversensitive, fearing dying in a plane crash or from terrorist bombing more than the constant risk of smoking or lack of exercise. Clinically, the hording kind of OCD is associated with fear of immediate loss of giving something up rather than benefits of having space and order.

We will discuss applications of systems-based OBM approaches to improving organizational functioning in 4 different organizations, including profit and nonprofit clinics and in academic instruction.

This symposium discusses the use of different feedback types in order to increase treatment integrity while implementing behavior programs. It further discusses the degree to which the use of a single trial preference assessment would be comparable to the use of a full assessment. The first paper utilizes written quizzes and feedback on quiz performance to increase accuracy in behavior program implementation. Three graduate students performances were evaluated while implementing a behavior plan with a 17-year-old student diagnosed with autism. Data from a multiple baseline intervention across staff members indicate that quizzes and feedback on quiz performance were effective in increasing behavior program implementation. The second paper implements video feedback and self-monitoring for the same purpose. Three graduate students performances were evaluated while implementing a behavior plan with a 15-year-old student diagnosed with autism. Data from a multiple baseline intervention across staff members indicate that self-monitoring via video samples was effective in increasing behavior program implementation. Finally, a third study evaluated the degree to which the results of one-trial multiple-stimulus preference assessments conducted with two individuals diagnosed with autism corresponded with those obtained from full, standard preference assessments. Results indicated that outcomes of one-trial and full preference assessments were comparable. The first two papers provide alternatives to standard feedback while the third paper provides an alternative to full, standard preference assessments. Taken together the three studies suggest methods that could save time and effort on the part of the clinician while not jeopardizing treatment integrity.

As individuals with autism approach adulthood, it becomes increasingly important to focus on skills that will promote social and vocational success. Bathroom and mealtime skills are essential to minimize stigmatization in community and vocational settings. Cooperative activity schedules promote working collaboratively on vocational tasks and allow for decreased instructor supervision.

The overarching consensus within the medical community is that recovery from autism does not exist. However, a significant amount of scientific research has demonstrated that early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) produces functioning in the typical range for some children with autism who receive it. This symposium describes the cases of three children who achieved this outcome. For these cases, we present pre- and post-intervention scores on standardized assessments, school placement outcomes, and describe the dates of program introduction and mastery. It is clearly noted that the case studies take place over several years and are uncontrolled that is, they do not contain experimental designs.

Service delivery for individuals with challenging behavior within community settings is often fractured or disjointed given the multiple individuals, organizations and philosophies involved. This symposium will address delivery of comprehensive behavior support for individuals with disabilities and challenging behavior in normal community settings. Encompassed within that will be an overview of three programs which provide critical features and behavioral supports within Nevadas service delivery system. Issues with respect to coordinated services in a statewide initiative to reduce institutionalization to zero and provide wraparound, comprehensive support plans will be presented. In addition, methods for acquiring and maintaining funding, data collection, and current as well as future research initiatives and service coordination will be discussed. It is the intention of this symposium to provide practical strategies for implementing and sustaining integrated community, behavioral supports for challenging individuals.

In this symposium we present recent research regarding social skills instruction across the lifespan for persons with developmental disabilities. The symposium consists of four papers from major universities conducting research on social skills assessment and intervention. In the first presentation researchers from St. Cloud State University will present findings regarding the use of stimulus control techniques to train social cue discrimination for a 65-year-old woman with developmental disabilities. The second presentation will be from St. Cloud State University and examines the use of social vignettes and role play to teach abuse prevention skills to an adult with developmental disabilities. Finally, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin summarize the use of picture prompts and correspondence training on the playground to increase the on-task, play correspondence, and social behaviors of children with developmental disabilities.