Association for Behavior Analysis International

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.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) depends crucially on dissemination of effective behavioral technology to routine caregivers such as parents, staff, teachers and human service supervisors. Thus, ABA must address teaching skills to routine service providers and disseminating effective practices across entire services. This symposium exemplifies this effort. The first paper reports the effects of behavioral skills training which incorporated the use of general case training into role place on parent acquisition and generalization of discrete trial teaching skills and the effects on child responses. The second paper reports the effects of using instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback to teach various staff to use incidental teaching and its effects on the frequency of mands in children with autism. The final paper reports the effects of discontinuing restrictive behavioral procedures at a state facility for adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.

This symposium will cover basic behavioral repertoires necessary for the acquisition of language as well as the importance of derived relational responding in building flexible use of language. The first paper will discuss the importance of observing responses with respect to the acquisition of over-arching operant classes. The second paper will extend this area to discussion of the importance of joint-attention and social referencing in establishing language repertoires and as necessary prerequisites to derived relational responding. The final paper will present data on the relational ability of children of varying capabilities (typical to moderate autism). Assessment of derived relational responding will be evaluated through comparisons of functional relational networks. Implications for programming with children diagnosed with language deficits will be discussed.

It is a common misconception that Precision Teaching is synonymous with fluency-based instruction, where an already established behavior is built to optimally high frequencies. The three papers included in the current symposium will attempt to clarify this misconception by illustrating the utility of Precision Teaching practices for the establishment of a broad-range of behavioral repertoires. Similarly, each paper will illustrate how, through frequency-based measures and standard charting practices, generalized or emergent effects on untrained repertoires can be easily evaluated. The findings of each paper will be discussed in relation to current behavior analysis research and practice.

This symposium presents 3 evidence-based practice reviews of interventions that can be used at the secondary level within a positive behavior supports model.

Behavior analysts have devoted considerable time and research effort towards developing methods to identify reinforcers for use in applied settings, and in validating those methods. Less attention has been paid to optimal arrangements for the use of those reinforcers, particularly from the perspective of the participants in question. The current set of investigations were undertaken to understand childrens preferences for one reinforcement arrangement versus another. Three of the studies used concurrent-chain schedules to identify childrens preferences for specific arrangements that included free vs. contingent reinforcement, choice of reinforcers vs. no choice of reinforcers, and distributed reinforcement vs. massed, delayed reinforcement. A fourth investigation examined how preference among available options interacts with task difficulty. Each study yields meaningful implications for the design of reinforcement programs in applied settings.

The symposium is aimed at addressing some skill sets being identified as key to successful consulting by practitioners, clients, and faculty of OBM. Fundamental skill areas have been identified in OBM literature to date, and thus the presentations will focus on addressing key areas identified as need based skills for future consultants to be successful as seen by practitioners and clients of an OBM consultancy, enabling discussion of opportunities to ready future practitioners to demonstrate those skills.

Behavior analysts have new and powerful tools by which they can teach and assess behavioral principles and applications through computer-based technologies. This symposium will focus on the forms of innovative use of technology for teaching behavior analysis, such as graphics, multimedia, distance learning, and computer-based assessment of textual behavior. Along with conceptual suggestions for presenting behavior analytic content using technology, data will be presented that show evidence of the effectiveness of using computer-based technology to increase understanding and usage of behavior analytic principles by individuals in higher education as well as practitioners in the community.

The functional analysis methodology developed by Iwata et al. (1982/1994) advanced the field of behavior analysis in several ways. First, it decreased dependence on arbitrarily selected treatments that functioned by superimposing strong positive/negative reinforcement/punishment operations on unidentified reinforcement contingencies. Second, it linked conceptual systems (first described by Carr, 1977) to problems of social significance. Finally, it produced hundreds of replication and extension studies that have advanced the field of behavior analysis along the dimensions outlined by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968). The current symposium includes three studies that further advance the field by conceptually extending functional analysis technology. In the first study, LaRue et al. conducted a version of functional analysis methodology that reduced the time required to identify a function and obtained high correspondence between procedures. In the second study, Kelley et al. demonstrated that the symptoms of bi-polar disorder were accounted for by experimental analyses. Finally, Malley et al. showed both experimental evidence of a response-class hierarchy and an innovative way of proactively intervening when access to preferred stimuli was denied. Together, these studies advance the functional analysis technology and provide a foundation for future research on experimental analysis of severe behavior disorders.

Four presentations analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of various teaching and prompting strategies on the acquisition of behavior chains will be presented. One presentation compared the use of backward and forward chaining on the acquisition of a play construction model using most-to-least prompting with a fixed delay. The effectiveness of the two chaining strategies was evaluated with an alternating treatments design. The efficiency and effectiveness of the chaining procedures varied across learners. One presentation evaluated the effects of procedural integrity on the acquisition of play skills by varying prompting errors. The rate and type of errors was functionally related to delays in skill acquisition. The third presentation investigated if independently established related repertoires would emerge as a sequential chain of vocational behaviors when an opportunity was provided for them to occur simultaneously. For the participants, the independent repertoires did occur in sequence as a complete chain when the opportunity was provided. The last presentation evaluated the effects of three levels of treatment integrity (100%, 50%, and 10%) of a physical guidance prompting procedure for appropriate play with a preschool age child diagnosed with autism. Results indicate that prompting at 100% integrity was necessary to improve responding beyond baseline levels.

Intervention utilizing the principles of applied behavior analysis has been shown to be the one intervention that is effective for children with autism spectrum disorders. The efficacy of behavioral intervention has been demonstrated through years of research and has specifically been shown to be effective for young learners with autism. Dr. Lovaas early research (Lovaas, 1973, 1987) demonstrated the effectiveness of such intervention with children with autism. It is also known that this intervention when begun at the earliest age will have the greatest impact on the students learning. We may know what needs to be done to provide optimal behavioral intervention in early intervention, nonetheless, it is often difficult to provide young learners with the quality of staff that are needed in early intervention programs. The purpose of the panel is to discuss the development of training and supervision protocols for agencies providing early intervention to children with autism spectrum disorders.

This symposium presents research on evaluating preferences for instructional practices and treatment approaches in individuals with developmental disabilities. In the first study, preference for participant-selected versus experimenter-delivered reinforcers was evaluated, using a concurrent chains procedure. All three participants preferred thparticipant-selected condition; two of three preferred the participant-selected condition even when response requirements were three times that of thexperimenter-delivered condition. In the second study, preference assessme technology was used to identify variables maintaining problem behavior. Children with autism chose between three concurrently availabl consequences (attention, tangibles, escape), and the results were compared to those obtained in a multielement functional analysis. The concurrent assessment was able to identify a reinforcer that effectively suppressed problem behavior. In the third study, preference for and reinforcer efficacy of gluten- and casein-free foods (GFCF) were evaluated. Results suggested that GFCF foods were less preferred, and were less effective reinforcers than typical foods. The final study evaluated preference for two instructional approaches for children diagnosed with autism: ABA and TEACCH. Participants did not show a clear preference for one training procedure over the other, and data on time on task, problem behaviors, and positive affect did not show any clear differences between the procedures.

Three presentations will be delivered. In the first presentation, a parent training package consisting of didactic, video, and self-management components was used to teach three parents of children with autism to conduct picture activity schedules. In the second presentation, the effectiveness of a behavioral skills training package consisting of modeling, rehearsal, and feedback was evaluated to increase proper implementation of a guidance compliance procedure by caregivers of three children exhibiting noncompliance. The third presentation consists of an evaluation of "reasoning" as an antecedent intervention to increase compliance among young children.

Contingency management (CM) is the differential reinforcement of clinically relevant behaviors. This symposium will include several data-based presentations of how CM is successfully used in the treatment of substance abuse. Among the issues addressed will be how varying reinforcement contingencies affects multiple target behaviors in an employment-based treatment setting, the use of group CM to reinforce behaviors necessary for cocaine abstinence and methadone treatment, and the use of individual CM to reduce cigarette smoking in pregnant and recently post-partum women.

New procedures and approaches to the study of derived relational responding are presented. Multiple stimulus relations of same, opposite, more-than, and less-than, as well as equivalence (coordination) relations were studied using novel procedures with a range of human participants, ranging from young children to adults. The effectiveness of the different procedures will be assessed in terms of (i) overall yields on tests for derived relations, (ii) facilitative effects on other domains (e.g., IQ), and (iii) suitability for use in neuroscience-based research.

OBM could be criticized for being dominated by micro-level analyses focused on employee behaviors and local interventions such as goals and feedback. While this approach may demonstrate the effectiveness of ABC's to impact important behavioral indicators of performance, OBM often does not take into account the fact that these behaviors occur in the context of greater organizational systems. Indeed, OBM interventions end up being demonstrations that are not often integrated into the overall system. Thus, many die out as soon as the researchers or consultants leave. We miss the bigger picture. Deming and Skinner were speaking the same language. Deming said that 80% of employee performance is due to the system. Its time for OBM to better integrate the entire organizational system into its performance solutions. This invited symposium features three distinguished systems thinkers within behavior analysis who will address how OBM and other specialties of ABA can benefit from a systems approach.

Advances in neurobiological techniques are occurring at an astonishing rate. In many respects, study of drug self-administration happens in a similar manner to the initial studies nearly 40 years ago. If the sophisticated techniques available to neuroscience are to be used to help understand drug self-administration (and potentially drug use in humans), help explain some of the interesting findings, or find biological correlates of behavioral changes, then the behavioral models used need to be equally as sophisticated, interesting and dynamic. Data from two series of experiments will be presented and discussed with reference to neurobiological correlates of the behavioral differences. In monkeys, social housing and the establishment of dominance hierarchies was used to induce neurobiological changes that were then associated with differences in cocaine self-administration. In rats, various histories of self-administration result in animals that, for example, respond to considerably higher breakpoints maintained by cocaine on a progressive ratio schedule, relative to control animals. Neurobiological investigation of these groups of rats can help find biological correlates related to changes in the reinforcing efficacy of cocaine (which might be related to the development of addiction in humans). The overall focus of the presentation will be to strengthen the idea the behavioral scientists need to continue developing interesting behavioral models if we are going to try to use some of the neurobiological and molecular biological techniques that are being developed in other fields of science.

As a large number of individuals who had been receiving ABA services since early childhood grow into adulthood, the need for quality ABA services extends to the residential area. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles in establishing and maintaining a solid ABA residential program that school and day programs might not encounter. The following panel discussion will introduce the audience to potential issues in opening and running a community- based ABA group home. The presenters will provide the audience with helpful suggestions for overcoming some of these issues. All four presenters are administrative-level employees with an agency that has over 30 years experience in providing ABA services to individuals with autism and over 15 years experience maintaining a quality ABA residential program. Some issues discussed will include staff training, philosophical differences between educational and residential programs, accuracy of behavioral data collection, maintaining treatment integrity, securing staffing ratios, accessing funding streams, acculturating parents, developing instructional goals, and conducting functional assessments. Audience participation and open discussion will be encouraged throughout the presentation. Objective data will be presented to the audience where applicable.

A primary challenge that behavior analysts face is facilitating the implementation of effective programming in applied settings. Direct care staff, teachers, paraprofessionals, parents and professionals from parallel fields are the primary change agents in many intervention contexts. Thus, the importance of providing effective instructional materials, staff training, and ongoing supervision is paramount to ensuring treatment fidelity and learner success. Strategies and tactics that increase the acceptance and utilization of behavioral interventions will be discussed. Differing approaches for internal and external consultants will also be identified.

From its inception and through to the present day, progress in all areas of behavior analysis has been fueled by advances in basic science. With the successful application of behavioral principles to an ever-widening array of practical problems, however, the science behind the application is sometimes overlooked. To underscore the vital importance of science to our discipline, this years convention will highlight and amplify the good science that has and continues to infuse the various branches of behavior analysis. The theme of this years convention, Celebrating and Expanding our Scientific Foundations, weaves together a broad array of topics that speak to our scientific roots and to extensions to new areas of science and application. The keynote event in this track is a session that brings together luminaries in the field to give State of the Science lecturespresentations that trace the development of key ideas and concepts in a specific area of research and theory. The speakers have each made pioneering and enduring contributions to our science; at the same time, each remains active and well-positioned to comment on key developments for the future. The event promises to provide fascinating perspectives on the historical roots as well as the future directions of important scientific problems.