Association for Behavior Analysis International

Please join participating SIG members for Bike the Drive. Bike the Drive is a recreational, noncompetitive bicycle ride held each year in Chicago, in which Lake Shore Drive is cleared of motor vehicle traffic and opened exclusively to bicyclists for several hours beginning at dawn. The event benefits bicycling advocacy work in the region by the Active Transportation Alliance, formerly known as the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. (Please note that this event is not organized by the HSF SIG. Registration and compliance with all event policies and procedures is required.) The chair will lead a group from the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel to the entry point to Lakeshore Drive at Grant Park. Please meet at 6:00 am outside the main lobby of the hotel, dressed appropriately with your bicycle. Registration is required and is available at http://www.bikethedrive.org/. Please register for group Health Sports & Fitness SIG and use the password “Behavior.” Bicycle rentals are readily available through Divvy Bikes and are located in a variety of stations near the Hyatt: https://divvybikes.com/stations. Rental policies can be found at https://divvybikes.com/.

Our Speech Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis Special Interest Group business meeting is open to anyone interested in promoting a behavioral approach to the analysis and treatment of speech and language disorders. Admission is free and membership in the SIG is not required in order to attend. The meeting will consist of member reports on SIG mission-related activities and several invited presentations of professional interest to attendees. The two SPABA award winners--the Student Research Grant award winner and the Dissemination Award winner--will present their winning submissions. The SPABA business meeting also will include a social reception to encourage interaction and discussion among SIG members, new members, and interested attendees. Please feel free to join us and bring your friends.

To address the state of NWABA/WABA, increase membership, discuss issues of concern in the state of Washington and the Northwest, and connect with behavior analysts, families, students, and professionals in the Great Northwest.

This is the special interest group for those who have an interest in clinical applications of behavior analysis. Clinical behavior analysts work in both research and applied settings applying behavior analytic principles to just about any situation that may involve psychological distress. This is our annual meeting to discuss how to promote our work at ABAI and beyond. Members have the opportunity to network and discuss their areas of interest and work, training opportunities, research projects, conceptual struggles and developments, and plan activities for the next year. Everyone is welcome to attend and learn more about this exciting area of behavior analysis.

The business meeting will review annual events and initiatives for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, presented by the current editor.

The Oregon Association for Behavior Analysis (ORABA) is a member organization for professionals, parents, caregivers, educators, researchers, and others who are interested in promoting the field of behavior analysis within Oregon. ORABA is an approved chapter of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, an affiliate of the Association for Professional Behavior Analysts (APBA), and an approved continuing education provider by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB).

Meeting open to all interested in discussing the business of New Hampshire ABA.

At this meeting, members will review business items associated with the Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis. This meeting is open to all sustaining, full, affiliate, and student members.

Behavior analysts involved in clinical practice recognize that we owe much to parents of children with autism who have been staunch advocates for higher quality services for their children. The synergy that can arise from parents and professionals working together creates exciting opportunities and possibilities. The Parent Professional Partnership SIG is one such opportunity. A business meeting will be held to provide a forum for networking, to outline the PPP SIG's goals and objectives, and to discuss ways to improve upon the SIG's joint website with the Autism SIG. All interested parents and professionals are encouraged to attend this meeting chaired by Co-presidents David Celiberti and Pamela Gorski and visit our webpage at www.AutismPPPSIG.org.

Members of the Standard Celeration Society will congregate to discuss business-related matters regarding the society, including but not limited to membership, finances, and the annual International Precision Teaching Conference.

The purpose of the business meeting will be to vote on a recommended editor for the next three years, and to update members on submissions, publications, and developments in the BAT journal. Prospective authors are also welcome to attend to learn about submissions.

The Teaching Behavior Analysis SIG (e.g., "The TBA") is one of the largest SIGs in ABAI. We discuss all aspects of teaching behavior analysis at the business meeting. Also, we will discuss this year's activities as well as set goals for the following year. It is not necessary to be in the SIG leadership or a member of the SIG to attend.

This will be the first business meeting of the newly formed association. The Atlantic Provinces ABA (APABA) consists of members from the four Atlantic Provinces of Canada--New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. There are 55 members of ABAI whom we hope will become members of APABA. The population of this region of Canada consists of more than 2 million inhabitants. Our goal at this meeting is to attract new members as well as to elect an executive to replace our pro-tem executive.

#None#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

#none#

A contingent and non-contingent reinforcement procedure was implemented to increase the cooperative play of a young student with autism. A design incorporating a non-contingent reinforcement reversal design was chosen to explore the effects of the treatment utilizing contingent reinforcement in tandem with modeling and shaping. During treatment, the student was given contingent reinforcement, non-contingent reinforcement, cooperative play, during sensory time. The contingent reinforcement was utilized in tandem with modeling and shaping. The results of the study indicated that the effects of the contingent reinforcement increased cooperative play from 3.5% during baseline to 72% during treatment. The results of this study support those of other researchers showing that presenting social stimulation as a consequence of behaviors of preschool children has successfully increase the desired target behaviors. The social and educational significance of the study is evident with the increase in the student's cooperative play as well as the student's social interaction with peers.

Playing is generally considered synonymous with having fun because it can provide a steady and rich form of reinforcement, with a relatively low response effort. This form of reinforcement can also contribute to many elements of human development, such as language acquisition, social behavior, and visual perceptual skills. However, some children, especially those with autism, do not engage in play activities in a manner commensurate with their typically developing peers, or their play activities are too excessive and may disrupt the development of other important skills. For these children, a specific intervention program may be necessary to develop age-appropriate play skills. Behavioral approaches to autism treatment are often criticized for failing to adequately incorporate play into their intervention strategies. While this may be true for some older forms of ABA programs, it does not reflect the approaches of more current ABA programs. This symposium will provide a behavioral analysis of what constitutes play, along with ways to assess a child’s play skills, and ways to systematically make use of play to teach other important behaviors, especially verbal and social behaviors.

There are a number of behavioral principles and concepts that are relevant to an analysis of play. The current analysis will suggest that motivating operations, socially mediated reinforcement, and automatic reinforcement are significant variables responsible for establishing and maintaining play skills. There are also a number of additional principles and concepts involved such as stimulus control, generalization, chaining, imitation, conditional discriminations, and verbal behavior. It will be suggested that a behavioral analysis of play can improve our ability to assess and teach the many variations of play behavior. In addition, demonstrations will be provided of how play activities can be used to directly and indirectly teach a number of important skills.

It is often thought that ABA approaches to teaching children with language delays can be dull, repetitive, and sterile, as discrete trial teaching often occurs outside of the natural context. However, developing ways to contrive language opportunities within the context of play can increase overall social engagement and decrease the aversive properties of instructor led teaching. This presentation will provide examples of how to set up fun and engaging play situations that include verbal behavior trials to increase language and develop social play skills.

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders demonstrate numerous social skills deficits. One notable deficit is a failure to give compliments. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to examine the extent to which a portable video modeling intervention on the iPad was delivered during athletic group play affected the verbal compliments exhibited by five children with autism. Participants were 4 boys and 1 girl between the ages of 8 and 11 years old who played kickball with other children with autism, neurotypical peers, and other volunteers. In baseline, the participants gave few or no compliments to their peers. During intervention, an iPad was used to show participants short video clips of a model demonstrating verbal compliments (e.g., That was a great kick!) in the natural environment during a game of kickball. The portable video modeling intervention quickly increased participants demonstration of verbal compliments. Further, participants used a variety of different compliments and compliments that were not portrayed on the video. These findings provide evidence that portable video modeling, shown within their natural environment, can affect the social behaviors demonstrated by children with autism. The study also provides evidence of the yoking of play and the teaching of verbal behaviors.

Subject-rated measures and drug self-administration represent two of the most commonly used methods of assessing the behavioral effects of drugs in the human laboratory. Although the results from these methods are often consistent, dissociations between subjective and self-administration data have been observed. This presentation will first introduce basic human behavioral pharmacology methods for measuring subjective and reinforcing effects of drugs, focusing on representative data from commonly abused stimulants. Second, correlational and regression analyses that examined the relationships between subjective and reinforcing drug effects will be presented to demonstrate which subjective measures best predict stimulant self-administration. Third, examples of divergence between subjective and reinforcing drug effects will be explored to show how these measures provide different and complementary information about stimulant drug effects. Potential mechanisms underlying this divergence also will be considered. Finally, the implications of these outcomes as they relate to future human laboratory research and intervention development for managing drug-use disorders will be reviewed.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in methods of assessing the behavioral effects of drugs in the human laboratory.

There is an ongoing need for the refinement of assessment methodologies of problem behavior in order to enhance treatment strategies. For example, assessment procedures that accurately and efficiently identify maintaining variables of problem behavior allow for more precise and individualized treatment planning. The current symposium includes three presentations that address recent advances in assessment technology. First, Keith Lit will present a study on the use of a correlated reinforcement contingency to assess the operant component of inattention to academic tasks. Stephanie Trauschke will then present on an assessment method to evaluate problem behavior and potential reflexive-conditioned motivating operations when using a visual timer during transitions. Finally, Jillian Benson will present on the use of cumulative records as a beneficial alternative to the exclusive use of latency to first occurrence data in evaluation of response class hierarchies. Collectively, these presentations will provide information on the extension of empirical methods of assessment of problem behavior.

This symposium will examine the newest psychiatric diagnostic manual and the dominant biomedical model of mental disorders from a behavior-analytic viewpoint. Presentations will critique the logic of clustering problematic behaviors into purported mental disorders, the adequacy of data used to define these categories, the internal inconsistency and incoherence of the resulting nosology, and the principal beneficiaries of this classification system. Curious and absurd aspects of the manual will be highlighted. Presenters will also briefly review the low efficacy of drug treatments linked with psychiatric diagnoses, and the immense professional and industrial advertising campaigns that promote the biomedical approach.

This presentation will begin by briefly reviewing the origins of applied behavior analysis in studies conducted in the late 1950s teaching skills to and reducing problem behavior in persons with psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia. It will then examine problems in the current diagnosis of schizophrenia including reliance on questionable data, arbitrary criteria and categorization, inadequate precision for assessment and treatment evaluation, and omission of information on historical and current environmental factors that might have caused and now maintain the psychotic behavior, respectively. Some alternatives to the DSM-5 will be discussed including continuous recording of clients specific problems and goals, and functional assessments and functional analyses. The presentation will discuss how biomedical assumptions implicit in the DSM-5 diverts mental health workers attention from behavioral interventions for mental disorders, thereby perpetuating the biomedical monopoly of mental health services.

The public’s attitude toward the principles and practice of behavior analysis tends to range from complete unawareness to misguided hostility. The result is that the field is often marginalized, even as it becomes potentially ever more valuable as a means of addressing difficult, widespread problems in society in important behavior-related domains, including education, population, health, economics, and climate change. The public’s ignorance, misperceptions, and apprehensions about behavior analysis stem in part to a long history of prominent antagonism toward the field on the parts of those invested in alternative and generally less effective approaches to dealing with behavior. But the problem also has been exacerbated by a sharp failure on the part of the field, dating back to B. F. Skinner himself, to present itself in ways likely to resonate with the public. Meanwhile, leaders in what might be considered “rival” fields have often been, and continue to be, highly effective in doing so, sometimes to behavior analysis’s detriment. Ironically, behavior analysis’s fidelity to the rigors of scientific evidence has worked against the field in this regard. This rigor has produced effective treatments, but leaves lay people cold when it comes to understanding and appreciating this effectiveness, given that most of the public has little feel or empathy for scientific rigor, and is instead easily swayed by emotional and narrative appeal. The challenge that therefore lies before the field is this: Can and should behavior analysis present itself to an often gullible and easily misled public in a more resonant, less scientifically stiff way that wins it more appreciation and thus opportunity to achieve impact? It almost certainly could, and it’s worth considering possible approaches for doing so, as well as weighing the potential costs.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in learning about the perception of behavior analysis.

Behavioral Gerontology research continues to expand our understanding of how older adults with dementia learn and respond to environmental contingencies. Over the past decade, this research has expanded to preference assessments, reinforcer assessments, and the possibility to impact both activity engagement as well as learning (both relearning existing information, as well as learning new information). This symposium will include three such demonstrations. One study evaluated the stability of preference among older adults with dementia, looking at preference over a six-month period of time. Another study evaluated using Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior and teaching Mand repertoires to older adults with dementia, including an evaluation of the role of motivating operations, preference assessment, and contingency specifying stimuli. The final study used spaced retrieval to evaluate recall of items over increasing periods of time among older adults with dementia, looking at recall within session and across days using single subject design. The implications of these studies and the future directions for behavioral gerontology research will be discussed.

Individuals with dementia gradually decline in activity engagement as the cognitive impairment progresses, which may occur due to difficulties initiating leisure activities independently, communicating needs, and caregivers may not be accurate in predicting activity preference. To address these difficulties, preference assessments (PA) have been effectively used to determine likes and dislikes among this population. This study examined the utility of PA as a strategy to identify preferred leisure activities and assessed the stability of preferences over time (i.e., one and six months after the initial assessment) in eight older adults in a memory care setting. Initial assessment data have been collected for all participants, and two participants have completed the initial plus one month assessments, and assessments have been scheduled for the remaining participants. Results to date: Participant 1 Jill has demonstrated stability between the initial and one month assessment (r = 0.83, p < 0.042) (Figure 1). No stability was found in Participant 2 Marys preferences (r = 0.143, p > 0.787) (Figure 2). Results suggest that the stability of preferences varies across individuals. Clinical implications of these findings and recommendations for the frequency of administered PA in this population will be discussed.

Spaced retrieval (SR) is a well-developed memory enhancement intervention for older adults with cognitive impairment. Information is presented over increasing or decreasing time intervals depending upon participant performance under the guise of a social visit. In previous research, SR has been used to target name-face associations for family members and staff (Cherry, Hawley, Jackson, & Boudreaux, 2009; Cherry, Walvoord, & Hawley, 2010; Haslam et al., 2011; Hawley & Cherry, 2004), naming of objects (Cherry et al., 1999; Cherry & Simmons-DGerolamo, 2005; Hochhalter, Bakke, Holub, & Overmier, 2004), and use of external memory aids (Bourgeois, 2003; Camp et al., 1996; Ozgis, Rendell, & Henry, 2009). The current study sought to extend previous research by training a 79-year-old woman with memory impairment to recall clinically relevant stimuli using SR within a multiple probe design across three stimulus sets. The participant was able to increase recall within and across stimuli for the first stimulus set (orientation to time), increase recall within session for the second stimulus set (orientation to place), yet struggled to recall the third set of stimuli within or across trials (daily functioning/well-being). Implications for targeting multiple stimuli during psychotropic medication changes for an older adult with memory deficits are discussed.

The role feedback plays in the training and effective maintenance of skill is of great importance. However, it is not always clear as to what methods or amount of feedback are considered to be most effective depending on the skills being trained. The current symposium will present three studies attempting to evaluate further various methods of feedback and its impact on performance in a variety of skills. Skills being evaluated include the implementation of functional analysis procedures, Direct Instruction, and common office tasks. Specifically, the papers will discuss relevant features of feedback including temporal delivery of feedback, frequency of feedback and the role self rating may impact performance. The outcomes of these research papers provide insight into which methods of feedback may be most effective and potential areas for future research.

Despite the common use of feedback in most training settings, it is not clear yet what behavioral function feedback serves. Most researchers consider feedback to function as a consequence and advocate for its immediate delivery in the form of on-the-spot supervision or after-session conferencing. The literature suggests that when compared, on-the-spot supervision is found more effective than after session conferencing. Despite these findings, most supervisors are still implementing after-session conferencing probably due to the limited feasibility performing on-the-spot supervision when supervening teachers implementing whole class or small group instruction. One way to overcome the feasibility issue of on-the-spot supervision and still providing feedback effectively, is by providing feedback before the next opportunity to perform. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of feedback provided (a) after the teaching session versus (b) before the following teaching session on (1) accuracy of error correction procedure and (2) rate of specific praise of undergraduate Applied Behavior Analysis students implementing Direct Instruction (DI) to a small group of children. An adapted alternating design was utilized to evaluate the effects of feedback in its two forms, on the teachers performance. Results will be presented and findings will be discussed.

The current symposium will present theoretical and applied work advancing the literature in instructional design. Brown and Alavosius will provide an overview of the literature relevant to Interteaching. While Interteaching is an effective and progressive teaching method, many empirical questions still remain. Ward et al's presentation will provide an overview of an applied study on the prevention of student procrastination in an online PSI course. The latter study replicates and extends a recent study by Perrin, et al. (2011) in JABA. While Perrin et al. focused on a small number of college students and one specific type of assignment, Ward expands the focus to a variety of assignments in an online course that forms part of a BCBA course sequence.

The current study replicates and extends a recent study published by Perrin, et al. (2011) in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Whereas Perrin et al examined a small number of college students' procrastination rates with respect to one assignment type, the current study greatly expands the population size and diversity. In addition, the current study examines procrastination in an online course in a Personalized System of Instruction format across a variety of assignment types. Results suggest that a relatively simple intervention -- making future assignments available contingent on the completion of previous assignments -- served to prevent student procrastination. The current study will also present data concerning ancillary effects of the intervention on student-staff interactions as well as carry-over effects of the intervention into the semester following the intervention.

When embarking on the endeavor to design a successful behavior analysis private practice it is advantageous to examine different segments of the health care industry. Medical practitioners, as an example, experienced a momentous shift in their operating practices due to the introduction of universally accepted standards of practice and the involvement of third party funding sources. These key variables required practitioners to either join the ranks of large health care organizations (i.e., hospitals and medical research centers) or design and operate efficient private practices. Practitioners could no longer just deliver high quality health care in their community and expect their practice to survive. Just as the introduction of these variables required medical professionals to become knowledgeable of best business practices (e.g., finance, management, human resources), so too has the implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and health insurance reform made similar demands on professional behavior analysts. This symposium will show recent applications of Human Performance Technology (HPT) and OBM tools used to identify and address critical business issues at CARE, Inc., a California-based human service agency. The audience members will leave with a rudimentary understanding of how HPT can help managers improve productivity, develop and train valuable employees, and realize opportunities related to the performance of people.

An objective and reliable performance measurement system is one of the most important components of a well-designed organization. Effective measurement systems track key measures across all parts of your company including financial, customer, internal-business-process, and employee learning & growth. They also help connect these organizational components, thus ensuring that they operate in concert with one another. This allows management to monitor, maintain, and improve performance on an ongoing basis. These measurement systems provide the basis for performance feedback at all levels of the organization. Being able to rely on your managers’ ability to support and guide your employees’ performance is of the utmost importance to the vitality of your company. In this presentation, we will describe how Optimal and CARE, Inc. partnered in the design and implementation of a performance measurement system that (i) pinpoints valuable employee performance, (ii) provides managers with objective and consistent performance measures of their direct reports, and (iii) guides managers through the delivery of data-based performance feedback. The audience will leave with an understanding of what is required to design and implement a performance measurement system that consistently and objectively provides valuable performance feedback to the employees at CARE, Inc.

Behavior analysts often go on to open businesses that provide behavior analytic services to a variety of populations. Many times, this puts the behavior analyst in the unique position of business owner in addition to service provider. Several ethical issues may arise when put in this situation over the course of business operations. Panelists will discuss these key ethical issues with several examples highlighted throughout. Behavior analysts will discuss past experience with opening their own business as well as their thoughts on the process. Additionally, information will be shared from the perspective of a newly certified practitioner about what to look for in a potential employment site, what are some things to do to avoid being taken advantage of, and advice for newly certified practitioners navigating the sea of employment opportunities. The panel will conclude with the opportunity for audience members to ask questions regarding topics that were discussed, as well as related topics.

Consider the activities during a typical day in the life of an applied behavior analyst: observing clients’ behavior, integrating those observations to develop a plan for treatment, implementing and assessing the treatment plan, explaining the client’s behavior and the treatment plan to those responsible for the clients’ well-being, confronting complicated issues related to the causes of behavior and its explanation, discussing with nonbehavior analysts the client as the agent of his or her own behavior and the client’s thoughts and intentions, and confronting a myriad of ethical issues that arise in the course of treatment. Many of these daily activities require a firm grounding in the science of behavior. Others require an equally firm grounding in the philosophy of that science, in issues that underpin the science of behavior and that rely on that science to provide a coherent framework for processes that do not lend themselves to experimental analysis. This tutorial introduces to practitioners some of the conceptual issues that they face in their interactions with clients and caregivers. Four broad issues will be considered: observations and their integration; cause and explanation; privacy; agency and intention; and responsibility and ethics.

Graduate students and master’s level practitioners of behavior analysis.

Humans often solve problems by engaging in a variety of strategies, some of which involve sequences of covert verbal behavior. The purpose of this talk is to discuss how verbal behavior serves to mediate complex performances such as stimulus categorization. Dr. Miguel will present several studies that have directly manipulated verbal behavior to produce both novel verbal and nonverbal behavior such as arbitrary matching, visual categorization, and analogical responding. Evidence for verbal mediation comes from positive performances on complex conditional discrimination tasks after the use of speaker training alone, and also from spontaneous vocalizations on the specific verbal strategies utilized by participants during or after task completion. He will argue that behavior analysts should continue investigating verbal mediation as a problem-solving strategy, especially in applied settings.

Most children with developmental disabilities engage in stereotypy, which is an invariant and repetitive behavior that typically persists in the absence of social consequences. From a clinical standpoint, reducing stereotypy may be important because engaging in the behavior may interfere with learning, adaptive behavior, and social inclusion. Thus, the purpose of the symposium is to present the results of recent studies examining the effects of multiple interventions designed to reduce engagement in stereotypy in children with developmental disabilities. The first presentation will discuss the influence of different data collection procedures on the perceived outcomes of treatments for vocal stereotypy. The second presentation will examine the effects of noncontingent social interaction on immediate and subsequent engagement in stereotypy. The third presentation will examine the effects of a multi-component intervention across two settings. The final presentation will focus on the results of a pilot study on using behavior analytic research strategies to examine the effects of an alternative approach to treat stereotypy. Together, the presentations will provide an overview of recent research on the treatment of stereotypy in children with developmental disabilities.

The type of data analysis procedure used to measure a target behavior may directly influence the perceived treatment outcomes. In the present study, we examined the influence of different data collection procedures on the outcomes of two commonly used treatments on the vocal stereotypy of two children with autism. In Study 1, we compared the use of an interrupted and uninterrupted data collection procedure to measure vocal stereotypy during the implementation of response interruption and redirection (RIRD). The results showed that the interrupted data collection procedure overestimated the effectiveness of RIRD. In Study 2, we examined the influence of different data collection procedures on the interpretation of the relative effects of two different treatments for vocal stereotypy. Specifically, we compared interrupted and uninterrupted data collection procedures during the implementation of RIRD and noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) as a treatment for vocal stereotypy. The results showed that as in Study 1, the interrupted data collection procedure overestimated the effectiveness of RIRD; however, this effect was not apparent with NCR. These findings suggest that different types of data analysis can influence the perceived success of a treatment.

In a recent review of interventions for vocal stereotypy, Lanovaz and Sladeczek (2012) noted that several studies used matched stimulation from toys or music to decrease immediate engagement in vocal stereotypy for children with autism without producing a subsequent increase. A potential limitation of providing continuous access to music or musical toys is that engagement with the preferred stimulation may compete with academic tasks, social engagement, or both to the same extent as engagement in vocal stereotypy. A possible alternative to providing noncontingent access to music or musical toy is to provide noncontingent attention. This study evaluated the effects of noncontingent social interaction (SI) on immediate and subsequent engagement in vocal stereotypy and motor stereotypy for 3 children with autism. Results show that SI (a) decreased immediate engagement vocal stereotypy for all 3 participants without increasing subsequent engagement for any participant and (b) increased immediate engagement in motor stereotypy for 1 participant, decreased immediate engagement in motor stereotypy for 2 participants, but did not increase subsequent engagement in motor stereotypy for any participant. Some clinical implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Currently, there exists many unsubstantiated autism treatments (Matson, Adams, Williams, & Rieske, 2013). One such intervention is the Snug Vest, a recently-developed inflatable vest fashioned to provide deep pressure to the person wearing it. However, there is as of yet, no published peer-reviewed research on the Snug Vest. Nonetheless, the developers of the Snug Vest claim that their product helps remediate repetitive behaviors. Given the absence of supporting research, the purpose of the study was to test the developers claims by examining the effects of the Snug Vest on stereotypy using behavior analytic research methodology. We are currently mid-way through a study employing a multielement design to assess the effects of the Snug Vest on the duration of different topographies of stereotypy in which four children are participating in (a) an extended no-interaction condition, (b) wearing the Snug Vest deflated, and (c) wearing the Snug Vest inflated. Although data collection is still in progress, our hypothesis is that the Snug Vest will fail to clinically remediate stereotypy.

Recent reports suggest a 78% increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the last 7 years, increasing the urgency to identify interventions that yield maximum results while conserving resources. Of particular importance are interventions that improve pivotal behaviors, and assist individuals with ASD to independently navigate natural environments. Interventions based on the theory of applied behavior analysis (ABA) have been identified as the most effective interventions for individuals with ASD, particularly when programming consists of explicit training, modeling, practice in context, and systematic feedback. Although research has focused on how to implement ABA to improve skill deficits such as communication and social skills, a focus on how these interventions can be applied effectively and efficiently in inclusive settings has been limited. This symposium, comprised of both meta-analytic and applied research studies, will explore the impact of behaviorally based interventions on increased access to inclusive settings. Specific implementation and contextual factors to maximize results will be explored.

Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present deficits in social interaction skills that may prevent their successful inclusion in general education placements. Behaviorally-based interventions have been demonstrated to be useful to teach social interaction skills for these students. However, the overall and moderating effects of these interventions have not been previously investigated in inclusive settings. The goal of this study was to investigate the overall and contextual factors that moderate intervention effectiveness in inclusive settings through meta-analytic techniques. Findings showed overall high effect size based on studies meeting minimum standards of methodological quality in single-case research. Interventions are demonstrated to be effective for children between the ages of 2 and 10 years. While differences were found according to targeted social skills and behavioral components used, no differential effects were found regarding intervention implementer and peer training. These findings add to the literature regarding best practices to support inclusion of students with ASD in general education.

Many students with autism engage in a variety of complex and often disruptive stereotypic behaviors. While these behaviors likely present difficulties to task related goals, they most assuredly impact the social opportunities and access to inclusive settings . Research has demonstrated that self-management interventions often lead to improvements in a variety of behavioral targets for students with Autism. One salient component of effective self-management is self-monitoring, which involves instructing students to attend to and record their own behavioral levels. Self-monitoring has effectively impacted a variety of outcomes for students with Autism however, typical paper-pencil versions are cumbersome and stigmatizing. Technology may be one mechanism to increase the acceptability and efficiency of self-montioring yet, little empirical evidence exists regarding how technology can be utilized to provide prompts and collect self-monitoring data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the functional relationship between the use of a mobile self-management program, ICONNECT, and decreases in the percentage of intervals students with ASD engaged in stereotypy utilizing a multiple baseline across students with an embedded withdrawal design study. Initial results indicate significant decreases in stereotypy. Implications of the technology delivered self-management intervention and areas for future research will be discussed.

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders often demonstrate disruptive behaviors across educational settings. Teacher time to effectively intervene is often limited requiring further evaluation and identification of efficacious behavioral interventions for children with autism. Self-monitoring interventions in schools often require the implementing student to assess and record their own behavior and have the potential to meet behavioral needs without overburdening school resources. To further examine the potential of self-monitoring as an effective intervention for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders a review of single case studies employing self-monitoring were evaluated to identify the specific ingredients which moderate the impact of self-monitoring for students identified with autism. Using an advanced nonoverlap metric, a comparison of 15 studies including 24 participants and 45 unique effect sizes was conducted with an emphasis on participant age, setting (e.g. inclusive vs self-contained classrooms), and targeted behaviors. Overall, self-monitoring for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders resulted in promising results with an overall TauU of .85 CI95(.807 - .900). Areas of future research and implications for application of self-monitoring interventions for students with ASD in educational settings will be discussed.

Restricted and repetitive behavior is among the diagnostic characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). To the extent that the behavior of individuals with ASD can be conceptualized as problems of invariability, our understanding of environmental variables that influence restricted and repetitive behavior and methods of increasing variability may be informed by basic and applied literature on response variability. Slocum et al. compared levels of rigid behavior in groups of individuals with and without an ASD. Following the group comparison, a percentile schedule of reinforcement was used to treat rigid and inflexible behaviors within the ASD group. In their first study, Peterson, Rodriguez, and Pawich compared the effects of modeling rote versus variable responses during the teaching of intraverbal categorization. The effects of programming lag contingencies on response variability were later evaluated within a second study. Caccavale, Lechago, and Sweatt demonstrated how lag schedules could be used to increase variability in greetings. Finally, Gayman et al. targeted the appropriate use of mands frames while increasing the variability in the number of mand frames used for three participants with ASD. Dr. Allen Neuringer, the leading researcher on response variability, will serve as the discussant.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are defined, in part, by behavior that can be characterized as restricted and inflexible. Such behavior is exemplified by the so-called "higher-order" restricted repetitive behaviors characterized by their insistence on sameness or resistance to change. These behaviors can significantly interfere with opportunities to develop functional behaviors and more complex repertoires. The current study was conducted in two parts. The first study compared the level of rigid behavior of a group of 20 individuals who are typically developing with the behavior of 20 individuals who are diagnosed with ASD. Following that group comparison, the second study involved the treatment of those rigid and inflexible behaviors within the ASD group using a percentile schedule of reinforcement. We treated both within-activity and between-activity rigidity. To date, we have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this treatment for 4 out of our 5 subjects.

Children with autism spectrum disorders often require direct, systematic instruction to learn new skills (e.g., Discrete-trial instruction [DTI]). DTI has been criticized for producing rote responding (e.g., Cihon, 2007). Over the course of a DTI program, a single appropriate response (e.g., "hello") may be selectively strengthened to the exclusion of other appropriate responses ("hi", "howdy","good day"; Lee, McComas, & Jawor, 2002). In the first of two studies, we assessed the effects of having the therapist model variable versus rote responses (using a progressive prompt delay) on response acquisition and variability of intraverbal-categorization responding during DTI. For two of the four participants, acquisition was slower in the variable relative to the rote prompting condition. For all participants, any initial variability observed decreased during treatment in both conditions. In the second study, we evaluated the effects of adding a Lag-1 contingency to the variable-model condition on increasing variability. Variability increased for all four participants with the Lag-1 schedule but only after the therapist modeled variable responding using a progressive-prompt delay. Results are discussed in terms of improving the lack variability that can occur with DTI.

The results of the current study extend the literature on lag schedules of reinforcement and behavioral variability by demonstrating that lag schedules of reinforcement were effective in increasing variability in greeting responses. Our participant was an 8-year old boy diagnosed with autism. There was little variability in responding during baseline. We taught him six new greeting responses during a second baseline condition to demonstrate that teaching new responses alone was not sufficient in promoting variability in responding. Three lag schedules were introduced (Lag 1, Lag 2, and Lag 3) to promote emission of four or more greeting responses. There was a corresponding increase in the number of different responses with the introduction of each lag schedule of reinforcement, providing evidence for the efficacy of lag schedules of reinforcement in producing variability in greeting responses. Variability in responding maintained during a reversal to the baseline and generalization conditions, during which a continuous reinforcement schedule was used. Other sources of social reinforcement have likely maintained variability in responding. We hypothesize that responding will be similar with future participants.

According to the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., text rev.; DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association [APA, 2013], one of the core features of autism is persistent deficits in social communication. These social communication deficits often become apparent when children diagnosed with autism fail to demonstrate a functional form of communication, specifically manding for preferred items and activities. The development of a manding repertoire increases the likelihood of contacting reinforcement from a listener. Often single word mands are developed first. The development of multiple word mands or mand frames (e.g., "I want," "May I have") may further increase the likelihood of contacting reinforcement by clarifying the function of the speaker's vocalizations and, therefore, effective interventions to produce functional mand frames is needed. The current investigation targeted the appropriate use of mands frames while increasing the variability in the number of mand frames used for 3 participants with autism. Data show that using textual prompts with text fading effectively extinguished one participant's use of an incorrect mand frame while simultaneously increasing the variability of correct mand frame usage. The addition of a lag schedule increased variability of mand frame usage for two of the participants.

There has been a recent increase in the variables that impact the maintenance, response strength, and relapse of behavior targeted for change in applied contexts. The focus of much of this research has been the application of behavioral momentum theory (BMT) to the assessment, treatment, and treatment maintenance related to problem behavior. In this group of presentations, data will be presented that focuses of various consequence and stimulus variables that may impact human behavior in translational and applied contexts. Collectively, the results of this group of studies suggest that variables other than reinforcer rate, magnitude of reinforcement, etc. can impact response maintenance, strength and relapse. The results of these studies have direct implications for designing effective treatments for individuals who engage in severe problem behavior and will be discussed with respect to treatment design, BMT, and programming for the long-term effectiveness of behavioral treatments for those individuals.

The current investigation evaluated the effect of reinforcer potency on the persistence of task completion for a participant (Nick) who engaged in problem behavior to escape from demands. Interobserver agreement was calculated on at least 30% of each condition and averaged 98%. During Phase 1, a unit price evaluation was conducted to evaluate the potency of two stimuli (raisins and iPad). Nick chose to complete two times the amount of work to earn raisins over iPad, suggesting that raisins were the more potent reinforcer. During Phase 2, baseline data for Nick's task completion were collected within a multiple schedules design. Task completion was placed on extinction during this phase. In contrast, task completion was reinforced on a continuous schedule of reinforcement with access to iPad when Nick worked for orange tokens and raisins when Nick worked for yellow tokens during Phase 3. Extinction (Phase 4) was implemented after establishing similar histories of reinforcement for the orange and yellow stimulus conditions. Results showed that task completion under the stimulus condition associated with the delivery of raisins, or the more potent reinforcer, persisted longer under extinction conditions. These data will be discussed in terms of their basic and applied implications.

One function-based approach to the treatment of destructive behavior with considerable empirical support is functional communication training (FCT). Although FCT has been shown to be highly effective when implemented in controlled environments by well-trained therapists, treatment relapse often occurs when a caregiver is unable to accurately carry out the procedures in the natural environment. For example, a caregiver of a child with severe aggression may be unable to deliver the functional reinforcer (e.g., attention) when the child emits the functional communication response (FCR) because the caregiver is attending to a sick sibling. During this time when the FCR is exposed to extinction, the childs aggression often increases, a form of relapse called resurgence. Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) provides a quantitative method for making stimulus- and consequence- control refinements to FCT that can function as behavioral inoculation so that treatment relapse in the form of resurgence of destructive behavior is greatly mitigated or prevented altogether. Interestingly, some predictions of BMT are somewhat counterintuitive and in direct opposition to clinical procedures recommended as best practices by prominent clinical researchers. In this presentation, I will discuss these refinements of FCT along with illustrative data sets and potential directions for future research.

Measurement systems and data-analysis methods that produce accurate and sensitive measures of the target behavior are requisite for assessment and treatment. The papers in this symposium, collectively, describe efforts toward improving measurement systems and data-analysis methods in applied research. Lesser et al. compared the accuracy and efficiency of five systems for measuring sleep disturbances in children's bedrooms. Zarcone et al. improved the precision of observation methods to detect treatment gains, beyond the common measure of frequency, by measuring the force of problem behavior. Mead and Iwata compared the extent to which sufficient interobserver-agreement scores would be obtained using a proportional reliability method with 10-s versus 1-min intervals. Roberts and Bourret compared the strengths and weaknesses of three methods for quantifying the relation between two events during descriptive assessments. We are fortunate to have Dr. Brian Iwata serve as the discussant for this set of papers, given his exceptional scholarship in this area.

Sleep disturbances affect up to 68% of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (Richdale & Schreck, 2009). The use of direct observation on a second-by-second basis produces qualitative and quantitative information on sleep disturbances, but applying this type of measurement system throughout the night may not be practical. We conducted a measurement comparison across four nights with two children to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of actigraphy, parent diaries, motion detection, momentary time sampling at 5-min and 10-min intervals, and fast-forwarding. All data were obtained from the childrens home and were remotely transferred for analysis via the internet. The sleep measures from each measurement system were compared to a second-by-second criterion record (continuous observation). The dependent variables for accuracy included total sleep disturbance, sleep-onset latency, nighttime wakings, early wakings, and oversleeping. The dependent variables for efficiency included the number of hours to collect data. The results indicated that motion detection closely matched the criterion measure for total sleep disturbance. The most variability within and across measurement systems was observed for night wakings. These preliminary results suggest that motion-detection software is an accurate and efficient measurement system.

A number of different methods are used to calculate and compare the probability of events given specific environmental variables. This investigation includes a comparison of three different methods. The first, an exhaustive contingency space analysis described by Vollmer, Borrero, Wright, Van Camp, & Lalli (2001), compares the probability of an event occurring at any time during an observation to the probability of an event given behavior. The second method, an exhaustive contingency space analysis described by Hammond (1980), compares the probability of an event given behavior to the probability of an event given the absence of behavior. The third method, a non-exhaustive contingency space analysis described by Luczynski and Hanley (2009), evaluated the probability of an event and an environmental variable by subtracting the probability of an event given the absence of an environmental variable from the probability of an event given behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of strengths and weakness across varying frequency of responding.

This symposium features methodological and translational research evaluating behavioral processes involved in preference and reinforcer assessment, conditioned reinforcement, and differential reinforcement. Lisa Hunter will present a study comparing the effects of stimulus-stimulus pairing and discriminative control in the establishment of conditioned reinforcers. Janine Urbano will present a study evaluating a new approach to the analysis of preference hierarchies obtained through pairwise preference assessment. The traditional percentage method was compared to the Thurstone comparative law to test whether the latter analytical strategy may provide better predictions of reinforcing effects. Lorraine Becerra will present a review and analysis of the relation between assessment consistency and validity of multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments. Finally, Michael Kelley will present a translational study allowing for a close evaluation of the reinforcement processes underlying behavior change during differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. Dr. Per Holth, with a background in both experimental and applied behavior analysis, will close the symposium with remarks on the contributions of this research.

Establishing new reinforcers is an endeavor of paramount importance for the implementation of reinforcement-based approaches to treatment among individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Identifying effective reinforcers for low functioning clients may be particularly challenging. Two methods have been proposed to induce reinforcing effects to initially neutral items: stimulus-stimulus pairing and discriminative training. First, stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) consists of the concurrent presentation of a neutral item with an already established reinforcer. Second, the discriminative control procedure (DCP) features a neutral item as a discriminative stimulus signaling the availability of an already established reinforcer contingent upon an arbitrary response. The goal of the present study was to evaluate which of these methods induces greater conditioned reinforcement effects among individuals with intellectual disabilities. We conducted a series of preference assessments to identify established reinforcers, neutral leisure items, and arbitrary responses with no (automatic) reinforcing effects. We evaluated the effects of the SSP and DCP methods in a multi-element manipulation combined with a multiple baseline design across subjects. The results showed that for most participants both interventions induced some conditioned reinforcing effects. While participants engaged more often in the arbitrary response during contingent reinforcement probes following training with either method, responding was highly variable. Moreover, a clear superiority of one approach over the other was not demonstrated in any of the participants.

Preference may be defined as the relative strength of behaviors among two or more choice options and it is often measured as a pattern of choosing. Assessing the preferences of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) is important for several reasons. Preferred items often function as reinforcers and they can be used in intervention programs for establishing new skills and reducing problem behaviors for people with ID/DD. Pairwise preference assessment is often used to evaluate potential reinforcers in this population. The outcome of a typical pairwise preference assessment is a hierarchy of items ranked according to the percentage of trials in which each item was chosen out of the times the item was presented. This hierarchy is an ordinal scale that hardly accounts for variability of choice over time. By contrast, the Thurstone paired comparative method generates interval-level scales over multiple assessments. Therefore, the latter analytical strategy may account better for time-dependent changes in preference. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the Thurstone approach to data analysis would more accurately predict reinforcing effects, thereby enhancing the validity of pairwise preference assessments. We conducted a series of pairwise preference assessments analyzed through the traditional percentage method and the Thurstone method. The reinforcing effects of items with diverging ranks according to either method were subsequently evaluated in a concurrent schedule reinforcer assessment embedded in an ABAB design. Overall, the results indicated that scale values resulting from the Thurstone analysis provided better predictions of reinforcing effects.

Translational research often consists of replicating and extending the results of basic findings. Replications might consist of obtaining evidence of generality (e.g., across species) or application of basic findings to socially important behaviors (e.g., enhancing treatment of socially important problems). In this collaboration, we extended previous translational research by exposing non-human animals to an experimental preparation more consistent with typical application with humans--differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. This approach is in contrast with typical preparations in which humans are exposed to more typical non-human, basic arrangements. Preliminary findings reveal consistent resurgence of our analogue of problem behavior upon discontinuing reinforcement for alternative behavior. These findings provide a platform to assess thoroughly and efficiently factors influencing long-term treatment maintenance of behavioral treatments. For example, we can assess the extent to which multiple contingency reversals, which are common in applied differential reinforcement arrangements to establish experimental control, might influence the occurrence and magnitude of resurgence. This collaboration offers the opportunity to understand the behavioral processes underlying behavior during treatment while developing avenues to improve treatment effectiveness.

Psychological flexibility is enhanced sensitivity to both immediate and temporally extended contingencies. It involves the development of a repertoire that allows for persistence or change to match extended behavioral patterns with verbally constructed valued life directions. The assessment of psychological flexibility has been limited to self-report methods that inquire about behaviors isolated from changing contexts. This symposium addresses measurement issues pertaining to psychological flexibility, and offers a variety of alternatives. The first paper discusses methodological issues in comparing cognitive flexibility and psychological flexibility. The second paper offers Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) as a method of sampling a variety of self-reported responses repeatedly within a specified time frame. The third paper presents information regarding the development of a computer-based behavioral measure grounded in Relational Frame Theory. The fourth paper introduces an alternative computer-based task as a potential marker of psychological inflexibility- the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The symposium will close with a discussion of overarching issues regarding the measurement of psychological flexibility in light of the preceding presentations.

To our knowledge, no publications explore the relationship between psychological and cognitive flexibility. While differences exist, both constructs require individuals connect to contingencies in the present moment to appropriately adapt behavior, given the context. Therefore, it was hypothesized that scores on the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire (AFQ; Greco, Murrell, & Coyne, 2005) - a measure of the inverse of psychological flexibility - would significantly negatively correlate with measures of cognitive flexibility. More specifically, flexible problem solving abilities were assessed with the Functional Fixedness Task (Dunker, 1945), Trail Making Test Part B (TMT; Reitan, & Wolfson, 1993), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST; Berg, 1948) and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010). Non-significant correlations were found between the AFQ and measures of cognitive flexibility (correlations ranged from r = -0.191 to 0.184, ns). Lack of significance may have resulted from the relationship occurring in a non-theorized way, or it may be due to methodological issues. For example, some cognitive flexibility measures had less than ideal internal consistency in our sample. Additionally, comparing one self-report measure to a combination of behavioral and self-report formats, may not have captured variance efficiently. Such explanations will be discussed, along with future research suggestions.

Psychological flexibility seems to be fundamental to psychological health and quality of life. Psychological flexibility mediates the response to treatment in multiple contexts moderating the relationship between distress and problematic overt behaviors in multiple domains. Yet assessment of psychological flexibility has been limited to a single questionnaire--the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ)--and adaptations of the AAQ to different forms of psychological distress (e.g., smoking cravings, body image, obesity stigma, hearing voices). This is problematic for several reasons, including the difficulty respondents have in tacting their "overall" behavior over a week. Despite adequate psychometric estimates of reliability, significant variation in responses may actually be attributable to the immediate context in which the responding takes place. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) takes advantage of this by taking repeated self reports of multiple behaviors over the period of time in which the researcher is interested. Data from three studies will be briefly reviewed as examples of how researchers might apply EMA to measure psychological flexibility. Practical advice on incorporating EMA into research designs, collecting EMA data and analyzing data will be offered.

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has most often been used to examine differences between the performances of groups with a particular set of stimuli (i.e., an IRAP) and between specific trial-types. The present study examines the possibility of using analyses of each word in the IRAP with an individual to identify relatively strong verbal repertoires that may be clinically relevant for that individual or for his/her community. These relatively strong verbal repertoires may be seen as areas of psychological inflexibility. This paper examines multiple methods for examining IRAP outputs at the word level and discusses methods of obtaining convergent validity for this use of the IRAP. Undergraduate students who participated for course credit showed marked variability in IRAP performance across words within trial types. The discussion focuses on the potential to predict and develop interventions for specific domains for individuals where high levels of bias, rigidity, or fusion are present.

Basic research on the topic of conditioned reinforcement has waxed and waned, however since its initial conception an abundance of data has accumulated. Taken together, the results from innumerable studies in the area of conditioned reinforcement indicate several important questions remain regarding the establishment and maintenance of conditioned reinforcers. Additionally, there is a paucity of research aiming to reconcile existing discrepancies in effects across diverse measures of conditioned reinforcement. This symposium will highlight recent work with regard to conditioned reinforcement, including experiments investigating of the role of temporal variables in the establishment of conditioned reinforcers, assessing conditioned reinforcement within a delay-of-reinforcement context, examining the conditioned reinforcing function of multi-stimulus sequences, and exploring the effects of conditioned reinforcement on choice. The discussant will integrate the work presented with prior findings related to conditioned reinforcement. A panel on Contemporary Issues in Conditioned Reinforcement: Concept and Theory will immediately follow this symposium.

Neutral stimuli are thought to acquire the capacity to function as reinforcers for instrumental behavior via Pavlovian conditioning. Experiments in Pavlovian conditioning suggest that animals encode and remember the relative temporal proximities of conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) and integrate these relations across situations to predict significant events. This experiment examined whether temporal encoding of durations of events facilitates the acquisition of a new response with conditioned reinforcement. Two groups of rats received appetitive conditioning in which a 10-s CS predicted response-independent food deliveries. One group received food at the offset of the CS (Delay), and the other 10-s after CS offset (Trace). Both groups then experienced pairings of the 10-s training CS and a novel 10-s CS in backward order (CS1-CS2 pairing). Finally, we assessed the ability of CS2 to function as a conditioned reinforcer for a new response (lever-pressing). Results show that a backward-paired CS functioned to better support the acquisition of lever-pressing in the trace-conditioned group compared to a random control group and the delay-conditioned group. The results suggest that a CS became a better predictor of reinforcement through temporal integration of events.

Despite the plethora of studies conducted on conditioned reinforcement, the boundary conditions of conditioned reinforcement remain unclear. The present experiments, conducted with rats, investigated conditioned reinforcement within a delay-of-reinforcement context, as delays to reinforcement are ubiquitous and their effects on behavior are well understood. Experiments 1 and 2 offer a new procedure for examining conditioned reinforcement involving the observing of delay-of-reinforcement signals during non-resetting and resetting delays, respectively. In Experiment 3, preference for the delay signals observed during the first two experiments will be assessed using a well-established concurrent-chains procedure. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicate some of the conditions under which delay signals function as conditioned reinforcers, such as experience with signaled delays prior to experience with unsignaled delays, and reveal various mechanisms underlying conditioned reinforcement effects during reinforcement delays. The results from Experiment 3 should provide an assessment of both the validity of the novel observing response procedure and of preference for delay signals. Taken in sum, findings from the experiments presented contribute to the extant theoretical and methodological literature that informs the contemporary study of conditioned reinforcement.

Stimuli can enhance the ability of a reinforcer to control behavior at a temporal distance. This effect is traditionally thought to be a function of the stimulus becoming a conditioned reinforcer. However, exactly how reinforcement controls responding when a sequence of stimuli is presented is not well understood, as stimuli correlated with reinforcement could serve discriminative or conditioned reinforcing functions, or both. This study is a systematic replication of Cronin (1980), a study often cited as clear support for conditioned reinforcement. Pigeons chose between two stimuli. Responses to one always resulted in food after 60-s whereas responses to the other never resulted in food. In some conditions, stimuli presented during the first and last 10-s of the 60-s delay were consistent. In other conditions, stimuli presented during the first and last 10-s of the delay were inconsistent. Pigeons easily learned the task when the stimuli were consistent (i.e., they would increasingly choose the option that lead to food following the delay). Preliminary data from the inconsistent condition suggest that pigeons began to choose the option that did not lead to food more often. Taken together, the study provides additional support for the utility of the theoretical construct of conditioned reinforcement.

In human gambling, the investment is generally greater than the gain (suboptimal choice). A similar phenomenon can be found in pigeons when they show a preference for a conditioned stimulus associated with a low-probability, high-reward outcome (the jackpot) over a conditioned stimulus associated with a guaranteed low-reward outcome but one that has a higher overall value (not gambling). Research indicates that conditioned reinforcers play an important role in this suboptimal choice by pigeons. For example, it is the value of the conditioned reinforcers rather than the value of the choice alternatives that determine the pigeons choice (i.e., the results of winning rather than the probability of winning). Furthermore, the suboptimal choice is amplified by the finding that conditioned inhibition associated with the stimulus that predicts nonreinforcement declines with training (i.e., the high probability of losing fails to inhibit choice of the suboptimal alternative as one might think it should). Thus, just as with human gamblers, it is the high positive value of the rarely occurring conditioned reinforcer, together with the low negative value of the conditioned inhibitor that is responsible for pigeons (and likely humans) suboptimal choice.

This symposium will highlight emerging trends in basic and translational gambling research. Presenters will discuss findings for choice selection on variable ratio schedules, effective use of behavioral skills training for teaching card counting, and the impact of verbal behavior on slot machine outcomes (e.g., losses disguised as wins) and rule following. Skinner first discussed variable ratio schedules as an addictive reinforcement schedule, and yet little is known about human preference to various types of schedules in a gaming context. Similarly, recent structural changes in slot machine reels, particularly losses disguised as wins, are under researched and therefore not understood behavior analytically. Furthermore, empirical evidence for rule formation and subsequent following are beginning to emerge within gambling contexts; yet further replication and extension of rule following across gaming activities are still needed. Therefore, the symposium will provide empirical support for how structural changes may impact gambling behaviors, both in terms of risk and magnitude of bet size, and in terms of rule formation and subsequent rule following. Implications of empirical findings and directions for future research will also be discussed.

Variable ratio (VR) schedules have been called "the addictive schedule of reinforcement" because they generate persistent high rate responding with little or no pausing. Because, like many gambling games, on VR schedules reinforcement is always uncertain- the very next response always could be reinforced (payoff). The more one responds the more likely responding will result in reinforcement - a win. For these reasons VR schedules are presented as a model of gambling contingencies (how slot machines are programmed, etc.). However in virtually every casino gambling game, increased responding does not increase the probability of winning (e.g. random probability, not VR schedules are used or "sampling with replacement") Nevertheless several studies with non-human subjects have shown that variable schedules are highly preferred over fixed schedules of reinforcement even when responding on the fixed schedule results much greater overall reinforcement. Variable schedules are preferred even when they are counterproductive. The present study examines human preference for VR versus fixed ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement. Subjects remove blank cards and flip them putting cards marked win in one box and others in another box. Wins are paid cash. Subjects are given experience with both FR 5 (card color A), and VR 6 (card color B) schedules and then allowed to chose which color cards they would like to continue flipping. If the VR option is chosen, subject will be given experience with the FR 5 and a VR 7 and then allowed to choose again.

A behavioral skills training procedure consisting of video instructions, video rehearsal, and video testing was used to teach four college students a card counting strategy in blackjack. A multiple baseline design was used to measure card counting accuracy and chips won/lost across participants. Prior to any training, no participant counted cards accurately. Each participant completed all phases of the training protocol, counting cards fluently with 100% accuracy during slow, medium, and fast training exercises. Generalization probes were conducted while playing blackjack in a mock casino following each phase of training. After training, all four participants were able to accurately count cards while playing blackjack. In conjunction with count accuracy, total winnings were tracked to determine the monetary advantages associated with counting cards. After losing money during baseline measures, three of four participants won a substantial amount of money playing blackjack following the intervention.

The current study investigated preferences made by 73 college students when presented with 60 sets of images of slot machine outcomes. These images were categorized into three groups; (1) loss disguised as wins (LDW), (2) wins, and, (3) losses. Three preference tests were conducted (LDW vs. loss; win vs. loss; LDW vs. win) in a random sequence. Results yielded a statistically significant difference between the three preference tests F(2, 71) = 56.15, p < 0.001. A Sidak post hoc analysis demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference, p < 0.001, between LDW vs. loss and the other two tests, not between win vs. loss and LDW vs. win. A chi-square goodness of fit test was conducted to evaluate if preferences in the LDW vs. loss group were acquired through chance. The results were statistically significant X2 (71) = 266.9, p < 0.001, indicating that the preference for LDW over losses were not acquired by chance.

In a replication of derived rule-following and subsequent rule following during a gambling activity, adult participants wagered on a roulette table before and after completing a discrimination task within a non-concurrent multiple baseline design. Participants were instructed to tact three arbitrary symbols that were placed above the roulette wheel. During roulette play, participants wagered one chip on either black or red to win. Following baseline, each participant was presented with a series of discrimination training and testing trials designed to create a three three-member stimulus class including the words "bet" "on" "red/black" depending on baseline response allocation. All participants were then instructed to complete a fill in the blank assessment and an open-ended tact assessment to determine if the rule (e.g., "bet on red/black") derived after training. Results suggested that all participants derived the rule, and altered their response allocations by betting more on the specific color trained. Implications for conceptual development of self-awareness in regards to self-generated rules will be discussed.

This symposium explores how equivalence based instruction can be implemented in a low tech classroom, how equivalence class formation informs a better understanding of meaningful stimuli, how the establishment of joint control of graph-printed description relations can induce paragraph length descriptive writing, and how the delayed emergence of equivalence classes with extended testing challenges Sidman’s theory of class formation.

A special form of arbitrary conditional discrimination training was used to establish relations between interaction based graphs and printed paragraphs that describe the content of the graphs. Thereafter, participants wrote descriptions of the graphs. Each paragraph contained sentences that described the directionality of the functions in the graphs, the interactive effects of the two variables, and the relational elements of the graphs. A quantitative analysis of the accuracy of these two types of elements in each sentence type showed differential effects of the training conditions. The low level of training increased accuracy of non-relational elements in directionality statements and did not improve accuracy of relational statements. It also did not improve accuracy of non-relational and relational descriptions in interaction and intersection statements. The high level of training improved the non-relational and relational phraseology in all of the sentences. This analysis shows how level of training conditional discrimination training differentially influenced the accuracy of completeness of written descriptions of graphs that depicted the interactive effects of two variables on behavior.

The use equivalence based instruction (EBI) class room settings is rarely used. The present experiment describes a procedure that uses answer clicker technology to establish equivalence classes in a class room setting with 40 college students. A sorting test was conducted initially to determine whether the stimuli in the biology based classes were related to each other: they were not. Thereafter, training of AB and CB relations was conducted by presentation of a trial that contained a sample and three comparisons. Students selected the correct comparison with clickers, the responses of which were registered by the clicker software system. When the last student answered, the correct answer was displayed along with the percentage of student who answered correctly. Training continued until all students answered correctly. Thereafter, the procedure was repeated with CB training. Once completed, a sorting test was administered to determine whether the classes were formed. 85% of students formed classes. This demonstrates a means of using equivalence based instruction in a class room setting without the use of computers. The use of the sorting test to assess class formation substantially shortened the duration of an EBI session. Finally, students in the classroom enjoyed learning with this procedure.

Meaning and the enhancement of equivalence classes by prior establishment of arbitrary conditional discriminations. Meaningful stimuli serve as Sds, as elements in conditional discriminations, and as members of categories. The present experiment determined whether the establishment of a conditional discrimination with a meaningless shape, the C stimulus, would enhance the formation of an equivalence class that contains the C stimulus. When the C stimulus was linked to only one other stimulus, CX, its inclusion in a set of other abstract stimuli, ABCDE enhanced class formation but not to the same extent as the inclusion of a C stimulus that was a meaningful picture. When the abstract C stimulus was linked to VWXY and Z stimuli, its inclusion in the ABCDE set resulted in equivalence class formation that matched that produced by the inclusion of a picture. These results then clarify further now the behavioral functions of meaningful stimuli enhance the formation of equivalence classes.

Pop rocks mixed with soda will kill you. Flash your headlights and gang initiates will shoot you. Always observe the behavior of gas station attendants they may be warning you of a killer in your backseat. The perpetuation of urban legends indicates people will believe almost anything they hear or read. Autism treatment has its own urban legends Facilitated Communication reveals buried secrets; Son Rise transports to a different world; and animals intuit needs of kids with ASD. As scientists, BCBAs have an ethical responsibility to evaluate urban legends related to Autism treatment (i.e., alternative or fad treatments). Unfortunately, many BCBAs not only fail to evaluate these treatments according to science, but actually use or promote treatments that have no empirical evidence of effectiveness. This symposium describes the topography of individual BCBAs and companies bad choices; an analysis of the variables related to these choices; and the social, legal, and treatment implications of BCBAs behaving badly.

The Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for behavior analysts is very clear on the point that certified behavior analysts are responsible for recommending scientifically supported most effective treatment procedures. The behavior of behavior analysts must be ruled by science and evidence. Unfortunately, Schreck and Mazur (2008) discovered through their survey that many behavior analysts admit to using treatment strategies that are not evidenced based. This presentation will further identify the irresponsibility of some behavior analysts who use unproven treatments in direct violation of our ethical code. A search on the Internet using key phrases such as BCBA and (name of a fad treatment) resulted in identifying dozens of certified behavior analysts using, promoting, or writing positively about treatments that are not scientifically supported most effective treatments. This presentation will describe these treatments, highlight the lack of evidence, and show the number of behavior analysts who were found supporting such treatments.

As children we learn our A-B-Cs very early in the educational process. As beginning behavior analysts, we learn the alternative meaning of the A-B-Cs. Unfortunately, many behavior analysts fail to analyze their own behaviors according to the A-B-Cs. This failure becomes most evident relevant to some BCBAs use of non-scientifically supported treatments for ASD. BCBAs recommend and use non-science despite ethical dilemmas (Schreck & Mazur, 2008). These recommendations and implementations for non-scientific treatments for ASD require a behavioral assessment. A variety of environmental stimuli, such as pressure from parents or employers, media hype, and beliefs about treatments or autism may influence BCBAs to experiment with non-scientifically supported treatments. Contingencies (e.g., monetary gain, acceptance by co-workers, etc.) may maintain the use of these treatments, sometimes to the exclusion of ABA (Schreck & Mazur, 2008). This presentation will assess possible A-B-C factors that influence BCBAs to choose non-science and contingencies that maintain this behavior

The proposed symposium includes four presentations addressing recent advances in staff and parent training of assessment and treatment procedures. The first presentation evaluated Internet-based telehealth services to remotely teach parents to conduct discrete trial instruction. The results indicated significant increases in performance and provide support for web-based technologies and other telehealth applications to training. The second presentation evaluated the effectiveness of video modeling with voiceover instruction to train three staff to conduct a paired-stimulus preference assessment. The results demonstrated that video modeling was effective, and suggest that performance feedback may not always be a necessary component of training. The third study evaluated the separate effects of written instructions and in-vivo training on the implementation of a maintenance protocol for nine participants. Results indicated that in-vivo training was necessary, as the written instructions were ineffective at producing the desired change in participant implementation of the maintenance protocol. The fourth presentation evaluated the effectiveness of a behavioral skills training package to train daycare teachers to teach toddlers to request social interactions using manual signs. The results indicate the training package was effective. Collectively these studies provide support for the effectiveness of a range of training approaches for staff and parents.

For many years, there has been an increasing shortage of behavioral healthcare professionals in counties across the United States. Recent advancements in telecommunication technologies make it possible to conduct telehealth services and bridge the gap between urban and rural location. In the current study, we used Internet-based telehealth services to remotely teach caregivers of children with language delays to conduct an expressive identification task within a discrete trial instruction framework. The teaching package included didactic information and video modeling, scripted role-play sessions with immediate feedback, and in-vivo feedback during practice sessions with a child. We used a multiple-baseline-across-participants design to evaluate the effects of the teaching package on caregiver correct responding and child independent correct responding. Robust and immediate improvements in performance were observed across all three caregivers and their performance maintained during follow-up and generalization probes. Increased independent correct responding was observed across all child participants following the caregiver teaching package. The benefits of web-based technologies and other telehealth applications are discussed.

A key component of successful early intervention programming is the identification of stimuli that may function as reinforcers. Behavior analysts have overwhelmingly reported that the paired-stimulus (PS) preference assessment is the most commonly used direct method of determining preference (Graph & Karsten, 2012). Although effective at identifying potential reinforcers, the PS procedure is only useful if staff are trained on the steps necessary to conduct the assessment. The current study examined the effectiveness of video modeling with voiceover instruction to train staff to conduct a paired-stimulus preference assessment. Three staff were trained to identify items to use during the PS assessment, conduct a PS preference assessment with a simulated consumer (i.e., an adult acting as a child), and how to score and interpret the results of the PS assessment. Generalization was assessed with an actual consumer (i.e., a child with autism). The results demonstrated that video modeling was effective, and staff demonstrated high levels of integrity up to 2-months following training. These results support a growing body of literature supporting the use of video modeling as an approach to training. We will discuss the current study in the context of previous staff training studies and suggest areas for future research.

Maintenance of skills is critical for successful treatment of children with autism. Most research has focused on the initial acquisition and generalization of skills, with less research on the maintenance of skills. Researchers have demonstrated that when reinforcement is withdrawn, treatment effects decrease relatively quickly. The use of intermittent reinforcement can promote maintenance of skills. The purpose of the present study was to train direct care staff to implement a maintenance protocol that included 1) varying the order of the responses, 2) using intermittent reinforcement, and 3) conducting error correction at the end of the maintenance trial block. A multiple probe design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of written instructions and in-vivo training for 9 participants. Results indicated that written instructions were ineffective and in-vivo training was necessary to produce accurate performance for all participants. Accurate implementation of the maintenance protocol was observed during generalization probes and at the four week follow-up. These results suggest that in-vivo training produced lasting effects for all participants.

The current experiment evaluates the effectiveness of a brief training package to train daycare teachers to teach toddlers to request social interactions using a manual sign based upon American Sign Language. The training package included instructions, video model, role-play, and feedback. A concurrent multiple-baseline design across 3 teacher-toddler dyads was used to evaluate the training package. An analysis was also conducted on the effects of training on the behaviors of toddlers as a group and individually during free play times in the classroom.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are complex disorders for which the etiology is unknown. While we do not know and/or understand the etiology of ASD, we are developing assortments of treatments that are more or less effective and are more or less evaluated. We suggest that the current situation results from the complexity of ASD and the treatments developed for it. Therefore, we have created a systematic research approach that will allow us to gradually understand the connections between and among the factors of this complex phenomenon. The evidence suggests that Applied Behavior Analysis based treatments are the most successful. However, even these treatments have not been comprehensively evaluated in ways that allow us to connect what was done to an overall understanding of ASD. Our Dynamic Evaluation Model for the evaluation of complex behavioral interventions is designed to uncover and quantify specific relations among various symptom manifestations, complex treatment constellations, and outcomes.

We tested three procedures to condition 3-D stimuli as conditioned reinforcers for observing responses. The first study used a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to condition 3-D stimuli as reinforcers for observing. Following the establishment of 3-D stimuli as reinforcers, participants showed increases in 3-D and 2-D match-to-sample responding and decreases in stereotypy. In the second and third studies 3-D stimuli were conditioned as reinforcers for observing using a visual tracking procedure, resulting the acquisition of generalized match-to-sample repertoires.

We tested the effects of an observing three dimensional object conditioning procedure on pre-listener, imitation and match to sample responses of young children with autism. Three children between the ages of 2 and 4.8 years who attended center based Early Intervention or preschool programs participated in the study. The three dimensional object conditioning procedure involved the students visually tracking preferred and non-preferred items that were placed under transparent and then opaque cups and were rotated a set number of times per phase. Initial probes for the presence or absence of the following behaviors were conducted 1) generalized match to sample for identical three-dimensional stimuli, 2) generalized match to sample for identical two- dimensional stimuli, 3) generalized match to sample of two dimensional to corresponding three dimensional stimuli, 4) imitation of object use and 5) generalized imitation. We also compared the rate of acquisition of skills across the following programs immediately before and after the conditioning procedure was implemented: three-dimensional selective match to sample, instructional control with visual cues, follows school routines with visual cues, selective imitation and object use imitation. The results showed that for all three participants, the three dimensional conditioning procedure was functionally related to increases in generalized three dimensional matching and object use imitation. Decreases in instructional trials to criterion, or increases in rates of acquisition of skills across the aforementioned programs were seen for two of the three participants as well (the third participant left the study before data could be analyzed).

We tested the effects of a visual tracking procedure on the acquisition of 3- dimensional objects as conditioned reinforcement for observing and on generalized matching repertoire. There were 3 participants in the study who were enrolled in an Early Intervention program. The independent variable was the visual tracking protocol, in which the participants were taught to observe clear and opaque cups that were in rotation, with a preferred and eventually non-preferred item placed underneath one cup. We implemented a delayed multiple baseline design and the results showed the protocol was effective to induce generalized visual identity matching repertoire, which were not in the participants repertoire prior to the implementation of the protocol.

The predictive validity of animal models of memory has been disappointing, suggesting a need for new approaches to development of drug treatments. Many of the traditional procedures derive from the cognitive neuroscience approach and pose interpretive difficulties from a stimulus control perspective. EAB-based techniques (e.g., delayed matching to sample) may not address the complexity of stimulus control necessary for translational significance, but can be adapted to do so. This tutorial will provide a brief overview of procedures used in the behavioral pharmacology of remembering and a consideration of their strengths and weaknesses. It also will provide a more detailed analysis of research using novel procedures that vary the number of stimuli to remember as well as the retention interval. For example, the odor span task can be described as an incrementing nonmatch to sample procedure in which the number of sample stimuli to remember increases on each trial. Early results have shown that NMDA-antagonists, but not other classes of compounds, produce selective impairments on performance in this procedure. Variations of these procedures will be described that develop stimulus control by specific combinations of stimulus properties (what stimulus, when it occurred, and where it was presented), making it possible to study drug effects on "episodic" stimulus control.

Behavioral interventions, specifically escape extinction and positive reinforcement, are considered well-established treatments for pediatric feeding disorders. However, further research to understand the necessity of these and other consequence-based procedures in the development of function-based interventions is warranted. Moreover, further development and examination of antecedent interventions is necessary for cases in which escape extinction is ineffective or unacceptable. This symposium presents three studies that extend the existing behavioral feeding literature in these ways. Kirkwood and colleagues will present a study that further examines the use of consequence-based procedures in the treatment of the multiply controlled inappropriate mealtime behavior of 3 children diagnosed with feeding disorders. Wall and colleagues will present a study demonstrating the effects of an antecedent-based intervention, stimulus fading, to establish cup drinking in a child diagnosed with a feeding disorder when escape extinction did not result in treatment success. Finally, Cried and colleagues will present a study examining the effects of backward chaining to establish self-drinking after the successful treatment of liquid refusal.

Behavioral intervention is a well-established treatment for chronic food refusal; however, the evidence base regarding treatment of liquid refusal is limited. Failure to consume an adequate amount of liquids is associated with a number of poor health outcomes, including restricted calorie intake, dehydration, and constipation. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the use of a stimulus fading protocol to establish cup drinking in a 2-year-old female with total food and liquid refusal. Prior to the current study, treatment involving non-removal of the spoon was successful in increasing intake of solids; however, use of a similar extinction-based protocol with 3.5 cc of formula presented in a cup resulted in high rates of expulsion. In order to promote acquisition of cup drinking, treatment involved reducing the bolus to 0.5 cc and systematically increasing the volume of formula by 0.5 cc until the terminal volume of 3.5 cc was achieved. A decision rule guided advancement in liquid volume and probe sessions (3.5 cc) were conducted between each step of the fading procedure as a control condition in a multiple probe experimental design. Results showed lower level of expulsion and higher percentage of mouth clean.

Children diagnosed with feeding disorders often exhibit inappropriate mealtime behavior that may be maintained by multiple reinforcement contingencies (Piazza et al., 2003). Previous research (Bachmeyer et al., 2009) has shown that extinction of both sources of reinforcement may be necessary to achieve treatment success. Functional analyses identified children whose inappropriate mealtime behavior was maintained by negative reinforcement (escape) and positive reinforcement (adult attention). Using a combined multi-element and reversal design, we compared function-based interventions (i.e., differential reinforcement and extinction procedures) individually and combination in the treatment of food or liquid refusal of 3 children diagnosed with a feeding disorder. Interobserver agreement was conducted on at least 33% of sessions. Agreement was above 80% for each child. Food/liquid acceptance increased and inappropriate mealtime behavior decreased to clinically acceptable levels with an intervention matched to only one function (i.e., escape) for one child. By contrast, food/liquid acceptance increased and inappropriate mealtime behavior decreased to clinically acceptable levels only with the intervention matched to both functions for 2 children. Results suggest that it was necessary to treat both functions to successfully treat the food/liquid refusal of 2 of the 3 children. Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Backward chaining (BC) is a well-supported treatment for teaching various skills, including establishing self-feeding with utensils. There are, however, few reports regarding how to establish independent cup drinking in young children with pediatric feeding disorders. The current study demonstrates the use of BC to establish self-drinking from an open cup with a 2-year-old male with a history of chronic food and liquid refusal. Prior to the current study, behavioral intervention increased oral intake of solids and liquids and subsequent treatment involving a least-to-most prompting sequence (e.g. verbal, model, hand-over-hand guidance) established self-feeding involving solids. Least-to-most prompting was, however, ineffective in establishing independent drinking. A BC procedure was developed using a task analysis of the steps necessary to promote self-drinking and a decision rule guided progression through BC steps. Probes involving least-to-most prompting were conducted between each step as a control condition in a multiple probe experimental design. Results indicated that BC represents a potential tool to teach a child to independently drink from an open cup.

The Polyvagal Theory describes the role physiological state has in facilitating the expression of different classes of behavior. Applying the theory to behavior modification protocols leads to a refinement in the historical S-O-R model in which the state of the organism (O), now indexed by autonomic state, influences the accessibility of classes of behavior to stimulus control. Polyvagal Theory, based on evolutionary biology and comparative neurophysiology, identifies autonomic states that facilitate or impede the expression of specific classes of behavior. The theory identifies three stages of phylogenetic development that are characterized by parallel changes in behavioral repertoire and neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system: 1) an ancient autonomic system (i.e., unmyelinated "vagal" pathways) shared with most vertebrates that conserves metabolic resources (e.g., slows heart rate and breathing, decreases blood pressure) and supports immobilization behaviors (e.g., passive avoidance, fainting); 2) a system that increases metabolic output (i.e., sympathetic nervous system) and supports mobilization of the trunk and limbs (e.g., active avoidance, fight-flight behaviors); and 3) a uniquely mammalian system integrating the regulation of striated muscles of the face and head with the heart (i.e., myelinated "vagal" pathways) to create a functional social engagement system that regulates the phylogenetically older systems, often through social interaction, to promote physiological resilience and optimize health growth and restoration. Functionally, the theory proposes that modification of these "classes" of behaviors (immobilization, mobilization, and social engagement) will be optimized by monitoring autonomic variables and understanding the contextual cues that trigger transitions in autonomic state. Consistent with this model several variables, independent of stimulus manipulations, characterizing experimental conditions, and participants in behavior modification protocols (e.g., context, development, illness, medication, etc.) will influence the accessibility of different classes of behavior to stimulus control.

Graduate students, practitioners, academics, and scientists.

This presentation, from the Positive Behavior Support Special Interest Group, focuses onthe contributions of applied behavior analysis to positive behavior support. School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) is a decision making framework that guides selection, integration, and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving important academic and behavior outcomes for all students. Almost 20,000 schools have adopted SW-PBS as an implementation framework based on the principles of applied behavior analysis across a multitiered system of support. Dr. Dunlap will review the implementation of school-wide positive behavior supports with treatment integrity in schools and its impact on academic success and behavior climate. Data on outcomes and the factors leading to successful implementation will be presented both in the domain of implementation integrity, but also regarding behavioral reduction outcomes school-wide. Using PBIS, a behavior analyst at a macro level can examine school-wide data to provide a functional examination leading to system level interventions that help prevent and reduce behavioral problems for a large number of students.

The goal of the evidence-based practice movement in education is to assure that all decisions about services that impact students are informed by evidence. It is disappointing that this is often not the case. One of the reasons this is the case is there is a significant culture within education that has a very different perspective about what constitutes science, the nature of teaching, data, and the effects of reinforcement. This alternative culture has made it difficult to introduce and implement research-based programs and interventions in schools. In this symposium we will describe what we mean by culture, the cultural gap in education, why it is important to bridge the gap, and how the differences in culture impact educational decisions. Finally, a set of principles and strategies based on the work of dissemination and implementation scientists will be described to bridge the gap. It will be argued that the adoption and implementation of an intervention is a social process and as such there are social contingencies that influence the rate of adoption and the quality of implementation. An understanding of the relevant contingencies may allow for greater adoption of effective, scientifically supported interventions.

Verbal-nonverbal "correspondence" is defined as consistency between what one says and what one does, and "noncorrespondence" refers to a lack of such consistency. Previous research has examined correspondence in either a say-then-do (say-do) sequence, in which the student is asked what (s)he will do and then is given an opportunity to respond, or a do-then-say (do-say) sequence, in which the student is given the opportunity to respond and then asked what (s)he did. In lay terms, correspondence in the say-do sequence is like "keeping a promise," and correspondence in the do-say sequence is like "telling the truth." Because both forms of behavior are valuable, research that identifies the variables that influence both correspondence and noncorrespondence should assist in determining how to strengthen the former and decrease the latter. The current research examines the influence of two potential determinants, the likelihood that one would (or would not) engage in the response promised or reported, and whether engaging (or not) would be detected.

Since the 1980s, Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) and Performance Management (PM) methodologies have been introduced and spread in Italy. Fabio Tosolin has been at the forefront of this dissemination. In the 1990s, he began to apply O. Lindsley’s Precision Teaching and Fluency Building Approach to e-learning and introduced Behavior-Based Safety process (B-BS) in Italy. Since 1985, he has led the Milan-based management consulting firm, Fabio Tosolin & Associates, which deals with Performance Management, learning technologies and behavioral safety for many national and multinational companies. This talk will highlight the role leadership networks and decision making play in the process of large-scale dissemination of behavior analysis across sectors of Italy.

Forthcoming

The issues surrounding conservation and climate change are complex and require scrutiny by scientists, business leaders, and policy makers alike. Behavior analysts interested in organizations and/or climate change have much to contribute through an analysis of (1) critical conservation behaviors, (2) optimal venues in which to conduct behavior-based interventions, and (3) the interlocking contingencies that can extend the lifespan of domestic and organizational conservation initiatives. The analyses in this symposium range from conservation initiatives at a local scale to a conceptual discussion of interlocking contingencies on a corporate level. By linking the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences of traditionally disparate factions (conservationists and corporate business leaders), we hope to provide an initial framework that will allow for progress in business and conservation. The consistent theme across presentations is a process through which organizations such as the Association for Behavior Analysis International and the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Science can support local and corporate initiatives.

Morningside Academy in Seattle, Washington has participated in merging behavior science with education for over 30 years. Recently, the Morningside staff has taken on a new challenge: blending behavior science with conservation. This presentation will focus on using behavior science to bolster green initiatives within our organization. By sharing our successes and opportunities for improvement we hope to encourage other organizational leaders and staff who have implemented green initiatives. Moreover, we hope to engage others who are considering implementing green initiatives in their organizations and advance the larger discussion of melding behavior science with conservation. The specific topics discussed will be (1) challenges in identifying areas of conservation (2) developing behavioral conservation initiatives (3) rolling out the initiatives to the employee and student population (4) the data generated from the initiatives (5) the financial impact of the initiatives, and (6) lessons learned and plans for future initiatives. The data presented will include behavioral and outcome measures from staff and student behavior.

Human service agencies have a number of ongoing challenges with respect to maintaining high levels of clinical quality and ensuring fiscal solvency. These ever present concerns may not always result in staff and management placing sustainability and green practices high on the priority list. In fact the provision of home-based services in early intervention, home based early intensive behavioral (EIBI) services and the operation of community residential services requires staff and management to engage in a number of practices that directly contribute to global climate change. The current presentation describes how Human Service Management Corporation (HSMC) has fostered both individual and corporate sustainable practices across a broad range of programs serving persons with disabilities. The talk will highlight specific actions taken by four agencies (Beacon ABA Services, Criterion Child Enrichment Centers, Evergreen Center School and Evergreen Community Programs)under the direction of HSMC to reduce their individual and collective carbon foot prints. The process of meeting with each management team to develop company specific sustainable initiatives as well as the reinforcement systems developed at HSMC will be reviewed.

Behavior analysts interested in environmental sustainability can produce large-scale behavior change working within the corporate context. We consider the idea of corporate sustainability teams (CSTs) to benefit corporations, people, and ecologies that are affected by corporate operations as a venue for our discipline. As a member of CSTs, behavior analysts can implement behavioral sustainability interventions and other members (ecologists, mechanical engineers, public relations officers, etc.) can provide additional metrics and support to assess the impact of such interventions. Behavior analysts can join CSTs as employees of corporations or function as consultants on operational management and leadership of the CST. Leadership entails a complex set of competencies to direct the behaviors of many individuals. Effective leadership might be enabled by knowledge of interlocking behavioral contingencies and metacontingencies as these concepts organize assessment of complex, dynamic systems in which many behave. If behavior analysts are to extend their knowledge, skills, and capabilities to corporate sustainability, new emphasis will be needed in behavior analytic training programs. Corporate sustainability teams offer a new foray for behavioral scientists to contribute to society and, in doing so, can sustain behavior science as a socially relevant discipline.

The panelists will discuss recent developments at the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). The most current data on the BCBA and BCaBA certification programs will be provided, including the overall number of certificants, the number of approved university training options, and recent examination pass rates. In addition, a number of recent and impending developments at the BACB will be described, including ongoing efforts to raise standards and the development of a credential for behavioral technicians.

The roots of behavior analysis are found on empirical philosophers, on Pavlov, Pieron, and other thinkers. However, during the larger part of its history behavior analysis has been a discipline cultivated mainly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. The pioneers of behavior analysis as an area of research were part of the Anglo-Saxon culture (Watson, Skinner, and Baum) and was also the case with applied workers (Wolpe, Eysenck, Rachman, Keller, and Azrin). Probably the philosophical assumptions of the Anglo-Saxon culture were in tune with behavior analysis as a science and applied area. On the other hand, during the past few decades, an internationalization of behavior analysis has taken place. Work of high quality is carried out in Norway, Japan, Spain, Brazil, and other nations. The situation of behavior analysis and its international growth is analyzed, including the role of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in this process. At the present time, behavior analysts are "thinking globally and acting locally."

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students and anyone interested in learning about the international growth of behavior analysis.

Clinical behavior analysis involves the application of strategies derived from behavioral concepts and principles to traditional (outpatient) psychotherapy settings and populations. Like many of the different domains of behavior analysis, clinical behavior analysis strives to efficiently disseminate effective treatments, understand the process and effectiveness of treatments, and accurately measure behaviors of interest. This symposium takes a broad look at issues that impact the science of clinical behavior analysis in the aforementioned domains. In the first study the authors investigate the efficacy of dissemination of behavioral activation via a one day training. The second study investigates the dissemination of motivational interviewing techniques through a single day training. The third study is designed to evaluate the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in a depressed high school student population. The fourth study is designed to evaluate the predictive validity of a measure of classes of behavior that can function as target behaviors.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a brief, evidence-based psychosocial intervention for increasing behavior change tendencies. The approach in MI is consistent with behavior analysis (Christopher& Dougher, 2009). Dissemination of MI to practitioners requires evaluation of training procedures. In the present study novice therapists received training in MI during an 8 hour workshop following the Behavior Skills Training model (Miltenberger, 2008). The efficacy of the workshop was evaluated at the lower levels of Kirkpatricks model for training evaluation: satisfaction and acquisition of knowledge, reasoning that evaluation at higher levels would not be warranted if the training failed at lower levels. Across 2 trainings, 35 participants received training for which they reported high satisfaction (M = 4.11 [.63] on 1-5 Likert scale), which was significantly higher than a neutral score of 3, t(34) = 10.45, p = .000. In addition, participants knowledge from pre-workshop scores (M = 9.14, SD = 6.55) was significantly different from post-workshop (M = 23.28, SD = 5.114), t(35) = 17.42, p < .001, and 1-month follow-up, t(14) = 5.57, p < .001. The workshop, based on the BST model, appeared to be appreciated by participants and resulted in a significant increase in knowledge of targeted MI principles.

The Functional Idiographic Assessment Template Questionnaire (FIAT-Q) is a questionnaire that allows a clinician to assess the interpersonal strengths and weaknesses of a client. The scale was designed in such a way to assess the extent of client problem behaviors and suggest improvement response classes that may be a focus of treatment (Callaghan, 2006). To date, there has been no research published on how scores in the FIAT-Q relate to behaviors in day to day life. In the current study, students from a large Midwestern university were given an online version of the FIAT-Q. After completing the online questionnaire, participants were invited to participate in a second phase. The second phase of the study consisted of participants filling out a brief demographics questionnaire, a questionnaire assessing psychological characteristics (the Outcome Questionnaire-45) and complete 13 brief role plays derived from the Simulated Social Interactions Test. The relationship between participants scores on the FIAT-Q and the Simulated Social Interactions Task will be reviewed during the course of the study. Currently 93 participants have completed phase one of the study, and 12 have completed phase two. It is expected to have 300 in the first phase and 50 in the second by presentation.

The prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity in both adults and children presents a problem of great social significance in this country and around the world. The behavioral assessment and promotion of physical activity is an emerging area of research, which behavior analysis is well suited to undertake. Research presented in this symposium will focus on behavioral and technological assessments and interventions related to sports, health, and fitness. Hayes and Van Camp will present a self-management and reinforcement intervention aimed at increasing physical activity of subjects during their regularly-scheduled recess at school. Valbuena and colleagues evaluated the FitbitTM program and a behavioral coach for increasing physical activity in adults. Quinn and colleagues evaluated TAGteach to enhance dance movements in young dance students. Miller and colleagues assessed physical activity preferences in preschool-age children. Continued research in the assessment and promotion of sports, health, and fitness is necessary in developing effective strategies and technology to combat an increasingly obese and sedentary population.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate TAGteach to increase the fluency of three dance movements in a multiple baseline across behaviors design with 4 students of dance. Target behaviors included a turn, kick, and a leap, respective of the level of the class. A dance instructor was trained to implement the TAGteach procedure by the primary researcher. The targeted dance movements remained at a stable level during baseline and improved for each participant following the introduction of the TAGteach training. Implications for future research are discussed.

Obesity is a problem of vast social concern in the United States. One factor that has been linked to reduction in body fat and the health problems associated with obesity is increasing physical activity. Although in-person behavioral interventions have been shown effective at increasing physical activity, attention is now being placed on disseminating these interventions through the use of technology. Several internet-based interventions have been developed and are readily available. The purpose of this study was to evaluate "Fitbit"; a web-based behavioral intervention for increasing physical activity and losing weight. Additionally, this study examined if the addition of contact from a behavioral coach through videoconference and email enhanced this program. Through a multiple-baseline design across seven participants this research project evaluated the effectiveness of the "Fitbit" program with and without a behavioral coach. Step counts were recorded by a Fitbit sensor as a measure of physical activity. The Fitbit program alone increased physical activity for some of the participants, and the addition of the behavioral coach resulted in further increases in mean step counts.

In the past three decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has tripled, and currently, nearly one in three children are overweight. As the concern for overweight and obese children in the United States continues, there is a need for effective interventions aimed at increasing health conscious activities of children. Increasing children's physical activity is one way to combat the overweight and obesity epidemic. School recess, which occurs daily in the vast majority of public schools, may be a good opportunity for children to be physically active, as a high percentage of children in the United States are enrolled in both public and private schools. The present study evaluated effects of a self-management and reinforcement intervention aimed at increasing physical activity of subjects during their regularly-scheduled recess at school. Physical activity was measured using a Fitbit accelerometer and reported as the number of steps taken. The results showed that the intervention was effective in increasing physical activity. Other interventions appropriate for similar populations and settings will be discussed.

Low levels of physical activity are correlated with negative health outcomes such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. This is alarming given the rise in the prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity over the last few decades, especially in young children. Developing assessment strategies that can readily identify the variables related to both healthy and unhealthy patterns of activity might be useful in informing interventions that aim to increase physical activity. The current study extended previous research in the functional analysis of physical activity by evaluating the utility of a concurrent-chains procedure to identify participant preference to several common outdoor activity contexts. Together, the two assessments strategies were able to identify both healthy and unhealthy patterns of responding in four preschool-age children. The role of participant preference, as it relates to physical activity, will be discussed in the context of developing intervention strategies that aim to increase activity levels in sedentary individuals.

More traditional computer simulations of human behavior have involved information processing models of the brain, whereby the brain is assumed to be modeled after the way computers are architected: lots of data stored in memory with programs that retrieve the data given certain inputs. Adaptive network systems are elemental computer learning programs that have enabled the simulation of behavior at an operant level, whereby that behavior which is followed by reinforcing consequences is more likely to occur again. This symposium explores how adaptive networks can generate simple verbal operants, and how more diverse and complex behavior can then be generated as a result. Implications for the interpretation of more complex human linguistic behavior and the development of effective teaching programs also are considered.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, and graduate students interested in exploring how adaptive networks can generate simple verbal operants, and how more diverse and complex behavior can then be generated as a result.

Adaptive networks are in essence, computer programs that learn. This very fact places them squarely in the domain of behavior analysis, although few in the field conduct research with them, or develop them for commercial or other purposes. This talk will provide an overview of what Adaptive Network Systems (ANS) are and how they differ from typical computer programs; provide insight into how they work; and show how they can adhere to the behavioral principles that the experimental analysis of behavior has uncovered over the years. The basic components of such a network will be explored including the architecture, some simple learning algorithms, and design features which preclude hard-wiring responses, or using brute computer power to solve problems or to produce more complex behaviors. Finally, some simple examples of ANS will be illustrated, particularly related to the elementary verbal operants.

Because the experimental analysis of verbal behavior is constrained by practical and ethical considerations, most of our understanding of complex cases arises from verbal interpretations. But such interpretations are limited by the sheer number of relevant variables and our ignorance of subjects' histories. In contrast, adaptive network simulations permit complete control over both complex contextual variables and historical variables. If such simulations are tightly constrained by behavioral principles, they offer powerful demonstrations of the explanatory adequacy of such principles. Dr. Palmer will discuss several examples that seem to defy verbal interpretation, examples such as the problems of novelty, nesting, generalization of neologisms according to apparent grammatical form, conditioning the behavior of the listener, mysterious structural regularities in verbal behavior, and the problem of acquisition of complex forms. He will suggest that adaptive network simulations of verbal behavior may be the best interpretive tool and in some cases the only one.

The presentation will describe a robot whose behavior is learned via an adaptive network based on behavior analytic principles, embedded in a body with sensors including vision and hearing and with responses including spatial movements and vocalizations. The demonstration will first show how that robot learns elementary verbal operants, then more complex verbal behaviors based on them. We will examine in detail how some of the puzzling verbal behaviors described in the preceding papers in the symposium are learned, illustrating how using a robot makes it possible to examine moment-to-moment changes in the conditions that control the behavioral sequence.

Seven children diagnosed with autism participated in this study. All participants can respond to simple WH questions, for example, stating their names or identifying objects and actions when being asked. However, they can only engage in multiple verbal exchanges with verbal prompts. In this study, trainings were provided for all participants to engage in multiple verbal exchanges with specific topics. Participants were also taught to talk about specific topics according to the interests of their conversational partners. There are total of five training phases. First, participants were taught to tact immediate family members, teachers, and friends. Then, they were taught to match topics of interests to each person. Then, they were taught to generate five statements about each topic. Finally, role-play and generalization of intraverbal responses were introduced. Result shows that all participants were able to reach mastery criteria of 80% independence.

Most children with autism lack the natural ability to develop speech. They have to be trained using specific teaching models to develop speech. There is substantial research for increasing vocalizations in children by using stimulus stimulus pairing (Normand & Knoll; 2006), automatic reinforcement procedures (Sundberg et al; 1996), and manual sign mand training with prompt delay (Attanasio et al; 2012 ). However there is not enough research using the same methods for inducing speech in non vocal children. This study included 3 non vocal children with a diagnoses of autism aged 4 years, 7 years and 13 years. A multiple baseline design across participants verified the effectiveness of the procedure which included teaching the child to mand using signs with stimulus stimulus pairing. Once communication through sign was achieved to independence under motivating operation, the protocol was modified to a 2 sec time delay in vocal prompting. Results in all three children exhibited acquisition of sign mands followed by emergence of vocal mands across environments.

This symposium will provide three papers focusing on service delivery and comprehensive programs for very young children identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder. First, Levy and Sainato will provide a conceptual overview of the literature on focused and comprehensive interventions used in the delivery of services to young children with ASD. Then, Schwartz and McBride will detail a comprehensive program for toddlers with ASD consisting of an integrated play group with typically developing peers, intensive 1 on 1 programming along with other behavioral interventions, and weekly home visits. Finally, Garfinkle, Emerson, and Gibbs will present an overview of the challenges facing the delivery of Montana's statewide program for young children with ASD. The use of innovations in distance-based technical assistance, providing access for the to professional development opportunities, the development of teaming and membership strategies to decrease turn-over and the creation of innovative business models to support the program will be presented.

Applied behavior analysis is the basis for many effective interventions aimed at improving language skills and reducing problem behaviors. Often innovative and highly effective interventions are developed using single-subject experimental designs. One barrier to disseminating empirically supported behavior analytic interventions to the wider population of treatment providers is the dearth of larger scale studies examining outcomes across a larger sample. This symposium will present data from three papers examining the effectiveness of behavior analytic interventions in larger samples. The first study presents outcomes of behavioral parent training (BPT) program on parenting skills and problem behavior in children with autism in a sample of 220 families. The second study examines treatment outcomes of a behavior analytic intervention aimed at increasing mands from single to multi-word utterances in a larger sample of language-delayed children (n=30) receiving ABA intervention. The last study presents a literature review and meta-analysis on the effects of stimulus-stimulus pairing on vocalizations in children with language delays.

Intensive behavioral interventions are effective at reducing maladaptive behavior but can be costly and procedural fidelity following sessions can be lacking (Jacobson, Mulick, & Green, 1998). An alternative is behavioral parent training (BPT) based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. These programs are relatively inexpensive, shorter in duration, and place emphasis on the importance of caregiver involvement, training, and education (Serketich & Dumas, 1996). This investigation examined the effects of a BPT program on parenting skills and problem behavior in children with autism. Participants included 220 families consisting of at least one caregiver and a child with ASD. The BPT program consisted of didactic, role-play, and in-vivo training sessions spread across 12, 2-hour sessions. The primary dependent variables were pre- and post- assessments of parenting skills, parent reported maladaptive behavior as measured by the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised and caregiver stress level measured by Parent Stress Index questionnaire. Descriptive statistics will be utilized to describe the children and parents who participated in the program across a variety of domains (e.g., age, diagnosis, marital level, etc.). Inferential statistics will be used to determine if statistically significant differences exist between pre and post when compared to acquisition of targeted parenting skills.

Children with autism often require targeted intervention for development of functional language skills (Eigsti, Marchena, Schuh, & Kelley, 2011). Initial language training may focus on production of single word mands; however, it may be desirable to increase the mean length of utterance of those mands as the child progresses through treatment. Few published studies have examined treatment effects of interventions designed to increase mean length of utterance (MLU), and most have relied on single-case research design and small samples. The present study examines treatment outcomes of a behavior analytic intervention designed to increase the MLU of mands in a larger sample of language-delayed children (n=30) receiving ABA intervention. In order to quantify data across participants, the nonoverlap of all pairs (NAP) index (Parker & Vannest, 2009) was utilized to obtain an overall measure of intervention effectiveness (effect size). Our sample consisted predominantly of males (80%) ages 2 to 13 years (mean 5.4 years) who were diagnosed with autism (76.6%). Overall treatment effects were medium to large (average NAP=.89; average d=1.91). Using NAP, the majority of the sample (70%) demonstrated strong treatment effects. Results suggest that targeted intervention to increase MLU was effective for the majority of participants in our sample.

Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) is an intervention designed to increase vocalizations. This procedure has been used specifically with children diagnosed with developmental disabilities; however, the single-subject research literature regarding efficacy of the procedure has produced mostly mixed results. This paper provides a current review of the SSP literature, summarizing 11 experiments published on the use of this procedure with children with severe language delays. The nonoverlap of all pairs (NAP) index (Parker & Vannest, 2009) was also used to examine treatment effectiveness of SSP with 35 participants in 8 of the studies reviewed. Results indicate that a variety of procedural variations were used across studies and participants varied in terms of age, gender, diagnosis, and level of functional language abilities. Overall treatment effects were small to medium (average NAP=.70; average d=.29). A closer examination revealed that 64% of participants with no functional language showed medium to strong NAP scores, whereas, 0% of participants with functional language showed a strong NAP score. Overall, results support the general finding that the results of the SSP procedure are mixed. However, results also indicate that the procedure may be more effective with some individuals suggesting the need for more research into profiles that will benefit.

In this symposium, two programs using the VB-MAPP (M. Sundberg, 2007-2008) will report outcome data across a large number of learners with autism. The VB-MAPP is an assessment tool based on Skinners functional analysis of verbal behavior, which assesses baseline skill levels across 170 critical verbal and related competencies (i.e., milestones), compares them to the learners typically developing peers, establishes and guides an individualized curriculum for each learner, and assesses each learners progress on the targeted skills. This comprehensive, data-based assessment, repeated at regular intervals with a large number of learners, provides a nominal measure of program efficacy. A large-scale public school initiative (PATTAN Autism Initiative) using the VB-MAPP to both establish individualized curricula and track learner progress, will present changes in performance for over 800 students across a single school year. In addition, the Behavior Analysis Center for Autism (BACA) will present outcome data for over 40 learners who have been assessed and tracked using the VB-MAPP while receiving intensive ABA/Verbal Behavior therapy.

Outcomes from over 800 public school students' VB-MAPP protocols, administered in fall 2012 and then re-administered in spring 2013, will be reviewed. The results were compiled in public school autism support programs. Over the course of the 2012-2013 school year, interventions including discrete trial instruction, mand training, and natural environment training were implemented as part of training and technical supports provided by the PATTAN Autism Initiative. Data on fidelity of implementation for trained interventions will be presented. The pre-post change scores will be discussed in relation to estimated initial milestone acquisition rate for students prior to the school year that was reviewed. The results suggest the utility of the VB-MAPP as a tool to both establish and guide individualized curricula for learners, and to assess the effectiveness of instruction in public school autism support programs. Further, pre-post scores for all the VB-MAPPs reviewed indicate progress and skill acquisition. Results will be discussed in relation to overall changes in VB-MAPP Milestone scores as well as student performance in various domains including mand, tact, intraverbal, and listener responding.

The Behavior Analysis Center for Autism (BACA) will present outcome data for over 40 learners who were assessed and tracked using the VB-MAPP. These assessments were conducted between 2009 and 2013 by BCBAs who supervised the intensive ABA/Verbal Behavior therapy at BACA. The VB-MAPP was administered to each learner upon intake, then re-administered every 6 or 12 months to track progress across a large number of verbal and related skill areas. Pre-post Milestones, language barriers, and transition scores will be discussed. The results indicate the utility of using the VB-MAPP as a curriculum guide and demonstrate the efficacy of intensive ABA/Verbal Behavior therapy for treating individuals with autism.

Gaze behavior (i.e., gaze shifting with eye contact; GS & EC) is a fundamental part of developing early social communication in young children. Gaze behavior is impaired in children with autism across both requesting and joint attention (JA) functions. These early impairments negatively impact social communication development. GS & EC has not been addressed across both requesting and JA functions and both responder and initiator roles. In two studies, we used multiple baseline probe across participants designs to examine the effectiveness of prompting and reinforcement to teach GS & EC in the context of a sample of requesting and JA situations to seven toddlers with autism. All participants demonstrated acquisition of GS & EC across requesting and JA with generalization to a repertoire of related social communication skills and interactions with children?s mothers and collateral changes in autistic symptomatology. Results suggest that GS & EC may be a pivotal skill and may need to be taught to toddlers with autism as soon as they enter the early intervention system.

Gaze behavior, including shifting gaze from an object to make eye contact with a social partner (GS & EC), is severely impaired in children with autism across social communication functions such as requesting and joint attention (JA). These early impairments negatively impact social communication development in autism. Children have been taught GS & EC to initiate JA, but GS & EC has not been consistently required during responding to JA bids or when requesting. In this study we used prompting and reinforcement to examine the effectiveness of teaching GS & EC in the context of responding to a request and initiating JA to four toddlers with autism, using a multiple baseline probe design across participants. Generalization to related social-communication skills was assessed as well as generalization across people and time and changes in autistic symptomatology. All participants showed acquisition of requesting and IJA with generalization to a repertoire of social communication skills and improvements in symptomatolgoy. Findings suggest that GS & EC may be a pivotal skill. Early intervention for toddlers with autism should emphasize teaching gaze behavior as early as children are diagnosed to maximize the benefits of early intervention.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders show significant impairment in their use of gaze shift with eye contact in the roles of responding and initiating in both requesting and joint attention functions of social-communication. Shifting gaze from a toy to make eye contact with a social partner (GS & EC) is an early form of social-communication seen in typically developing infants, but significantly impaired in young children with autism. A multiple baseline probe design across participants was used to investigate the effects of prompting, prompt fading, and reinforcement to teach a sample of roles/functions using gaze shift as a common response form. All three children (ages, 2-3 years) diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder showed acquisition of GS & EC. Two children showed generalization across roles and functions; all three children showed generalization of GS to interactions with their mothers in a semi-structured play situation. Gaze shift and eye contact may be a pivotal skill with far reaching impact on social-communication and characteristics of autism.

Drug and alcohol use disorders impose heavy personal, familial and societal burdens. Strategies to reduce the prevalence of these disorders have included, but are not limited to, attempts to identify risk factors that detect individuals more likely to develop these disorders. While some attempts have focused on genetics or other biomarkers, others have examined behavioral markers (e.g., temperament/trait variables). This symposium examines individual differences in two such markers: impulsivity (delay discounting) and aggression. Research will be described that examines the ability of these to variables, measured when subjects are in a drug-free or a drug-naive state to predict responses to alcohol or subsequent alcohol drinking. Research will examine several species: rats, nonhuman primates and humans. Discussion will focus on the issues involved when translating findings derived from animal models, as well as larger issues such as the ability of temperament, which may be modified by drug use, to serve as a predictive marker for drug use, and the interaction between responses to a drug and its ability to serve as a reinforcer.

Anxiety and aggressive are frequently associated with alcohol use in humans, though the direction and strength of these associations is unclear. Anxious-like and aggressive-like behaviors were measured in response to a variety of novel stimuli via a human intruder test (HIT) prior to ethanol exposure in 24 rhesus monkeys (11 female, 13 male, macaca mulatta). The HIT reliably assesses differential responses to a human intruder entering the testing room and standing in profile to the monkey (no eye contact), and entering and making direct eye contact with the monkey. Ethanol self-administration was induced via a schedule induced polydipsia procedure, consisting of daily induction of specified volumes of water or 4% ethanol. Subsequently, ethanol (4% w/v) and water were available concurrently 22 h/d. Blood ethanol concentrations (BEC) were determined 7h after the start of the 22h session every 5-7 days. Monkeys characterized as reactive (anxious, aggressive, or anxious-aggressive) at baseline self-administered significantly more ethanol than non-reactive monkeys. Specifically, monkeys aggressive at baseline self-administered significantly more than their non-aggressive counterparts, while no other groups significantly differed. These results indicate that an aggressive but not an anxious temperament in monkeys may serve as a risk factor for future heavy drinking.

In this symposium, the efficacy of various interventions designed to increase consumption of non-preferred foods as well as promote self-feeding are examined with children with food selectivity. Studies included in this symposium evaluated antecedent-based interventions such as modeling, and different applications of escape extinction combined with differential reinforcement. Mechanisms responsible for behavior change and directions for future research are discussed. Further, contextual factors that may play a role in the differential effectiveness of antecedent interventions are examined.

Several studies have examined non-removal of the spoon (NRS) and 3-step prompting (3P) to increase non-preferred food consumption; however, there is limited research on how these methods increase or promote self-feeding of non-preferred foods. Self-feeding is an important aspect of feeding programs as it promotes independence. The purpose of the current study was to investigate and compare the effectiveness of two methods (i.e., NRS and 3P) used with differential reinforcement of alternative behavior to increase self-feeding of non-preferred foods and non-preferred food consumption or acceptance for children with food selectivity. In addition, side effects during each procedure (e.g., crying, spitting, etc.) were assessed. Due to the varied results from participants, results are still inconclusive as to which method is more effective at promoting self-feeding of non-preferred foods. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Behavior analytic feeding researchers have found that escape extinction procedures are often a necessary component of effective behavior intervention plans. These procedures may involve a number of side effects, however, and are not practical in many settings (e.g., in home-based settings it is difficult to prevent a child from avoiding a bite). Moreover, extinction procedures are not always necessary. In fact, there now exist several strategies, considered antecedent in nature, which have been found to be effective in the absence of escape extinction. It is possible that an analysis of contextual factors, which are often underemphasized in behavior analytic research (especially that published in popular behavioral journals), participate in the differential success of antecedent strategies. This review examines recent research in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (2000-2012) that evaluates antecedent interventions. We found the intensity of the feeding problem and presence of feeding-related medical conditions were related to the differential success of antecedent interventions.

About 27% of students in secondary and post-secondary schools report being involved in some way with bullying (Craig et al., 2009) and about 16,000 children in the United States report missing school because of fear of being bullied (National Education Association, 2011). Children with special needs have an increased risk of being bullied (Banks et al., 2009). The prevalence of bullying has sparked a number of prevention and intervention strategies and programs. These strategies involve students, parents, and teachers working together to influence the behavior of bullies and victims. The main focus of this panel will be to discuss the use of empirically supported programs for bullying interventions and prevention. Programs that focus curriculum content on bullying appear to have little or no replicated protective impact, and may actually increase risk of being bullied. A better approach may involve altering context based on evolutionary theory and behavior analysis, which may have superior protective effects on multiple mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. The panel will suggest expanded use of Contextual Behavioral Science as a tool in intervention and prevention of bullying, with audience members able to contribute to the discussion of further testable solutions.

The manipulation of motivating operations can be an effective intervention component. In this symposium we present research regarding the application of motivating operations in assessment and treatment of individuals with developmental disabilities. The first paper investigates the use of mand training immediately prior to children being exposed to natural environments in which the reinforcer is visible, but not available. Results indicate that participants have lower levels of challenging behavior in the natural environment after mand training. The second paper investigates functional analysis results of behaviors that persist when motivating operations are not present (i.e., free access, no demands). Although this pattern is consistent with automatic reinforcement, in some individuals over-arousal may occur after a social function session that leads to behavior shifting to a pattern consistent with automatic reinforcement. Methods for detecting over-arousal are identified. The third paper evaluates the effects of systematically-identified durations of reinforcer access prior to intervention. Durations of reinforcer access were identified based on a percentage of the mean latency of satiation. Results indicate that this method can be utilized to identify a precise duration of reinforcer access to influence an evocative effect. Collectively, studies present innovative uses of the manipulation of motivating operations.

Manipulating motivating operations can be an effective antecedent strategy for reducing or avoiding challenging behavior for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study included two children with ASD in a home setting and two in a school setting who exhibited challenging behavior in order to access tangible items. To replicate and expand previous research in this area, the current study used a mand training procedure to satiate participants on tangible items. Mand training provided a more naturalistic and educational means of satiating participants. Functional analyses were conducted with all participants to verify behavioral function, and then participants went through 10 minutes of mand training prior to returning to natural instructional environments where tangible items were visible but not available. A multielement design was used to evaluate intervention effectiveness, and generalization probes were conducted for participants. Results showed that participants had lower levels of challenging behavior and higher levels of academic engagement following the mand training satiation intervention. The outcome of this study provides educators with an effective and applicable intervention to enhance student learning in various natural environments, and demonstrates that therapy and instruction can be arranged in order to prevent challenging behavior while teaching new skills.

Functional analyses represent the most sophisticated procedure for determining the function of challenging behavior. In conducting functional analyses, the rates of problem behavior from experimental conditions (e.g., attention, demand) are compared to a control condition in which the motivating operation (MO) is absent. In the event of socially-mediated problem behavior, target behavior presumably occurs more frequently when the MO is present (while access restricted, when demands presented) and less frequently when the MO is absent (free access, no demands). In some cases, problem behavior may occur while the MO is absent. This pattern is generally consistent with automatic reinforcement. However, there are some patterns of responding during the MO absent phase that may suggest alternative explanations. One such explanation is over-arousal. Over-arousal can be described as when problem behavior has a social function in the initial phase of a session (problem behavior occurs primarily when the MO is present), but shifts to a pattern consistent with automatic reinforcement after a period of sustained arousal (occurring MO present and MO absent). In current investigation, we used within session analyses to detect over-arousal patterns and used the findings to inform treatment strategies (the type of attention provided).

A critical factor in determining the educational outcome for students with disabilities is the use of effective educational practices. Central to effective teaching is tailoring instruction to meet the unique needs of each student. Educators of individuals with disabilities are often faced with the challenges of reducing behaviors that compete with academic engagement, identifying reinforcers sufficiently potent to maintain responding on academic targets, and selecting effective prompting strategies. The current symposium presents recent research in each of these areas. The first study presents a protocol for identifying stimuli that function as reinforcers without promoting stereotypic/repetitive behavior. The second study examines the interactive effects of preference and response effort and discusses the implications of such interactions when choosing reinforcers for behavioral programming. The third study operationalizes graduated guidance as a prompting procedure, determines student-specific delays to prompt, and compares graduated guidance to most-to-least prompting with a delay. Each presentation will include a discussion of the implications of the findings to effective programming for students with disabilities.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have unique core characteristics that require specialized and individualized intervention approaches. Stereotypic/repetitive(S/R) behavior is one of the core features of ASD. During a preference assessment, children with ASD who show this behavior are likely to select the items with which they can engage in their S/R behavior. The identified highly preferred items are usually provided as reinforcers during behavioral interventions. Considering that a reduction of S/R behavior is a frequent aim of behavioral interventions, it is contradictory when the given reinforcers during the intervention unintentionally encourage it. Therefore the reinforcers used for this population need to be cautiously selected by considering their unique behavioral characteristics. In order to find alternative efficient reinforcers, this study compared the effects of three different types of stimuli in terms of reinforcing value and occurrence of S/R behavior: a) a tangible that is associated with high engagement and suppresses stereotyped behavior; b) a tangible that is associated with high engagement but does not suppress stereotyped behavior; and c) a form of social interaction. The participants were three children, aged 4 to 7 years old, with ASD. The three stimuli were identified through a competing stimulus assessment and then evaluated for their reinforcing power via a reinforcer assessment. The results will be discussed with respect to identifying efficient reinforcers that match the unique behavioral characteristic of ASD. Considerations when making reinforcement decisions for this population will also be discussed.

Preference assessments are frequently used to identify stimuli which will later be used as reinforcers during behavioral programming. However, the identified stimuli do not always function as reinforcers for academic responses when presented contingently. This lack of reinforcing efficacy may be the case if the effort required to complete a particular task is greater than the reinforcing value of the preferred stimulus. Reinforcer assessments that utilize progressive ratio schedules are uniquely designed to assess such interactions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the interactive effects of item preference and response effort on task completion by children with developmental disabilities. Progressive ratio schedules were used to determine whether stimuli identified in a structured preference assessment would maintain responding across three tasks of varying response effort and to identify the break point for each item. High preferred, moderately preferred, and low preferred items were assessed. Results and the implications for designing effective behavioral programs will be discussed.

Graduating from a doctoral program signals the start of new adventures and challenges, and options for developing ones career. Assuming the role of a post-doctoral researcher is one option to consider upon graduation. One purpose of a postdoctoral appointment is to gain specialized expertise in a particular area that may prepare one for their career in that area. We formed a panel of post-doctoral scholars from an applied field of behavior analysis. The presenters come from multiple institutions and have unique experiences with regard to applying behavior analysis in their respective positions. In particular, the presenters have experience with severe problem behavior and drug abstinence programs. The goal of this panel discussion is for the invited presenters to provide insight into their experiences, their advisors expectations, and their goals following their term. At the end of their presentations, the panel will provide an opportunity for the attendees to ask questions in a question-answer format.

Other than research on behavior's basic principles, the analysis of child behavior is the longest sustained program of research in behavior analysis. It includes replications of the basic principles (e.g., reinforcement), analyses of behavior of societal importance (e.g., cooperation), applications to behavior of individual importance (e.g., temper tantrums), and extensions of these applications to parent training (e.g., child socialization). This program's brief history, however, has a long past that includes the histories of behavior analysis (e.g., childrearing practices in Skinner's Walden Two, Bijou's Institute of Child Development, Bijou and Baer's theory of child development), behaviorism (e.g., Watson's classical behaviorism), psychology (e.g., child and developmental psychology), and childrearing and child welfare in America (e.g., Child Welfare Stations). A common connection among these histories is Watson and Watson's 1928 book of childrearing advice, The Psychological Care of Infant and Child. Now more infamous than famous (e.g., "pathological," "punitive") the book is, in part, Watson’s legacy to research, application, and theory in the behavior analysis of development. As such, its fame and infamy bear close examination. In this presentation, Dr. Bigelow will describe Watson’s childrearing advice in the context of the culture, the childrearing, and the advice of his day--and our day; address the criticisms of it in those contexts--and at present; consider the nature and existence of “behavioristic” childrearing advice--then and now; and comment on the legacy of Watson’s advice for the behavior analysis of development today.

Graduate students, practitioners, research scientists, and educators.

Stimulus equivalence has been used to teach individuals to develop not only the trained relations, but novel relations (Sidman, 1971). The use of such technology becomes important as a means of effectively teaching multiple relations simultaneously without having to teach each individual relation, essentially speeding up the learning process. The following studies looked at the use of stimulus equivalence to develop novel forms of complex behavior, such as manding, tacting, intraverbals, and rule governed behavior. Participants in these studies were typical adults who were taught a variety of discriminations and relations using novel stimuli. Across the three studies, participants were asked to respond to the same stimuli in multiple ways. The first study looked at the emergence tacts, mands, and intraverbals through stimulus equivalence training. The second study used stimulus equivalence to expand functional and equivalence classes. The third study evaluated the development of novel rules and repertoires during the development of stimulus relations. Overall, the data show that stimulus equivalence can effectively be used to develop novel relations and the corresponding repertoires that are necessary to respond accurately when presented with those stimuli. These findings can be helpful in developing new procedures and methods for teaching more complex discriminations and relations.

The purpose of this study was to assess a behavioral analogue for the emergence of untrained tacts, mands and intraverbals via the formation of classes of equivalent stimuli. Two typically developing adults were taught to name nonsense forms (B1 and C1, B2 and C2 and B3 and C3 forms received the same nonsense name). Following this training participants were able to match B comparison stimuli to C samples and vice versa, and the B and C comparison stimuli to auditory samples (A: spoken nonsense sounds) without any further training. This finding documented the emergence of three, three member equivalence classes. Participants were then taught to match B comparison stimuli to D samples. Testing revealed that all possible stimulus-stimulus relations emerged, including D naming (emergent tacting) and A-D matching (emergent intraverbal control). Finally, participants were taught to sequence stimuli (first, second third). Once they acquired these sequences one stimulus was removed and to complete the sequence participants had to request (e.g., mand) for the missing stimulus. All participants manded for the correct stimulus without any further training. The results are discussed in terms of a stimulus equivalence analysis for the emergence of untrained tacts, mands and intraverbals.

In Experiment 1 (Persson and Maguire, 2011) were taught conditional discriminations; matching two, 4-element complex samples to a specific and invariant color comparison (e.g., red versus green). Following training testing was conducted to assess all possible stimulus-stimulus relations to evaluate the formation of two-5-member functional classes (the four individual sample elements and the related color comparison). Participants demonstrated that the elements of the complex sample and comparison stimuli had become members of the same functional stimulus classes. Experiment 2 then taught participants to name two novel elements, followed by conditional discrimination training (matching a novel element comparison to an element sample from each of the complex stimuli). Subsequent testing documented the emergence of equivalence relations (untrained complex element-to-novel element and vice versa), the naming of all complex elements with the trained name of the novel element and the emergence of untrained auditory-to-visual matching-to-sample relations (e.g., matching complex elements to the spoken novel element name). Theses results are discussed in term of a stimulus equivalence analysis for he expansion of classes of functional and equivalent stimuli.

In the current study, typical adults were taught novel complex conditional discriminations using symbolic stimuli. Sample stimuli were either auditory or visual and comparison stimuli were visual. All visual stimuli consisted of nine elements. Participants were tested on their ability to identify parts of the complex sample stimuli before and after discrimination training. Eye tracking equipment was used to measure the participants observing during testing. After all testing was completed, participants were given a self-report to collect data on how they were tacting their own observing behavior. Participants stated the development of naming and rule-governed behavior as well as methods of observing stimuli that were effective or not effective in helping them respond to the stimuli. The participants statements regarding their own behaviors and the development of rules were supported by the data on collected by the eye tracking equipment. This study provides valuable insight into the development of rule-governed behavior as well as individuals ability to tact their own covert behavior.

This symposium will highlight emerging evidence for the functional assessment and treatment of disordered gambling. Presenters will discuss evidence for using the Gambling Functional Assessment Revised with disordered gamblers, applying experimental functional analytic methodology for identifying maintaining variables in gambling treatment, and outcomes of an eight-week treatment model of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for gambling. Data will be presented on how to properly assess function of gambling play, both with paper pencil assessments and with experimental analyses. Further, process and outcome data gathered during behavioral therapy for gambling will also be presented.

The Gambling Functional Assessment-Revised (GFA-R) was designed to determine the extent to which the respondent's gambling behavior is maintained by positive reinforcement or escape. Research to date indicates it performs well in university- and general-population samples. The present studies tested the GFA-R in a sample of problem/disordered gamblers and in a sample of treatment-seeking disordered gamblers. Data from 105 probable problem/disordered gamblers were subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis, which indicated that a 15-item GFA-R described well the data from these participants. Other psychometric properties of the GFA-R were very good to excellent. The GFA-R was then completed by individuals who were receiving treatment for disordered gambling. For this group, endorsing gambling as an escape, but not for positive reinforcement, was a significant predictor of the number of symptoms of the disorder the individuals displayed as well as their scores on the South Oaks Gambling Screen. These results replicate those from previous research using non-treatment-seeking participants. Overall, the results from these studies indicate that the GFA-R is a valid measure for use with disordered gamblers and that the contingency of escape is closely linked to disordered gambling.

Given the high rates of gambling in the United States and the growing population of disordered gamblers, there is a need for effective assessment that informs intervention or treatment for eliminating or reducing disordered gambling. Simulation and experimental functional analysis (FA) assessments have been incredibly successful in various areas of psychology. An experimental FA of gambling behavior was developed for initial testing. A laboratory simulation was used so that gambling behavior could be directly observed under a variety of possible controlling variables. Contextual factors of a gambling environment (sounds, other players, etc.) were simulated with equipment and confederates. Additionally, alternatives to the gambling environment (e.g. non-gambling games, work tasks, etc.) were available in the FA, which was adapted from items in versions of the Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA).

While a multitude of behavioral treatments are available for disordered gambling, empirical support is increasing for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The current presentation will put forth case study evidence that support ACT as an empirically based treatment option. Treatment involved 8 one-on-one sessions, each session ranging from 60-90 minutes. Sessions were constructed around the ACT model, consisting of six interdependent processes: acceptance, defusion, contact with present moment, self as context, values, and committed action. Client goals included gambling responsibly and completely abstaining. Data were collected throughout treatment involving individuals who scored a 5 or above on the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), indicating a high proclivity to gamble. Direct and indirect measures were taken before, during, and after the completion of ACT sessions. Direct behavioral measures include risk, persistence and magnitude of gambling behaviors on an actual slot machine. Indirect measures include psychometrics, a thought diary, and near-miss ratings. Results show changes in gambling behaviors throughout treatment, including an improvement in psychometric scores, and self-reports of having more control over gambling behavior. These results add empirical support of ACTs effectiveness on decreasing gambling behaviors across pathological gamblers.

"Choice" can be viewed in at least a couple of different ways in school settings. First, it can be viewed as a discrete skill children must display when faced with a choice opportunity. For example, a teacher may say "Do you want chocolate or white milk with your lunch?" To make a choice in this context, the child must display a specific response to indicate his or her choice. Second, it can be viewed as a free operant, in which a discrete "choice" response is not displayed. Rather, in this situation, allocation of behavior is examined. For example, when a teacher asks a question, a child could either shout the answer out or raise his/her hand. This second situation is often misunderstood as a "choice" context. This tutorial will discuss the concept of "choice" in school settings, how choice responding is taught and managed, and the role choice can play in effective behavior management.

Throughout history and more recently, countless people have changed the world in significant ways. They forged new paths and demonstrated a remarkable ability to inspire others to follow. Margaret Mead suggested: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Was she right that the actions of not one but a few individuals under special motivating circumstances are what account for profound change? Or is it the case that leaders possess incomparable and unique repertoires that enable them to affect change single-handedly? Are there common traits and systems-based strategies that effective leaders use to bring about change? As behavior analysts, we must reflect on these questions and wonder if our scientific approach can account for the change.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in leadership and the science of behavior change.

Goal setting is a very popular intervention component in behavioral studies, yet there are still many unknowns regarding goal setting. Do goals uniformly increase performance? What are the most effective types of consequences to pair with goal setting? What other intervention components are effective when paired with goal setting? This symposium will attempt to explore these and other questions regarding goal setting. We will first explore the research surrounding goal setting found within the field of behavior analysis, and examine variables that may influence the effectiveness of goals. Then the scope will expand to examine goal setting outside of the behavioral literature, with special emphasis given to incentives. Finally, we will conclude with a lab study that examines the interaction of goals and feedback medium. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of further research on the topic, as well as ways in which our knowledge of goal setting should influence practice.

Many well-respected authors, researchers, and practitioners recommend behavior analytic -based interventions for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Very little empirical guidance, however, is available to practitioners working with adults. In this symposium, two presentations highlight promising procedures for applying evidence-based strategies to adults in community-based settings. Presentation 1 focuses on the role of technology in the training and support of individuals living and working in the community. The use of technology to teach is playing an ever-increasing role, yet a review of the literature reveals few research studies validating the causal relationship between the use of technology and increased independent functioning. Data will be presented on several cases of systematically applying technology to different individuals learning various skills in a number of community settings, and demonstrating a causal relationship between the use of technology and increased independent function. In presentation two, Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Support Plans were developed for individuals with problem behavior in community supported employment settings. Preliminary results suggest that assessments can be adapted to adult populations using Acceptance and Commitment Training and commercially available technologies. This symposium promotes examples of effective strategies that have been used with adults to increase community participation, and will serve as good models for other providers to expand in similar ways.

It is well established that instruction in natural settings promotes independent ability and generalization. Community-based training provides excellent opportunities to train functional life skills in the settings in which they will be used, such as grocery stores, exercise facilities, and vocational sites. Preliminary results demonstrate that community instruction paired with the use of readily available technology (iPhone, IPad, Android Device; Bluetooth) as a tool for instruction can increase skill acquisition and independent function. A literature review of the use of technology for individuals with autism show that although such devices and applications are used widely, there have been few research studies published showing a causal relationship between the use of technology and the acquisition of functional skills. In this presentation, several young people with autism were taught to use a variety of technology devices and apps, to increase independence in several community environments. Results show that the use of technology can result in establishing life skills that increases independence among this population. Future research questions related to technology and instruction will be proposed.

As university courses become increasingly accessible via online technology, there is a growing obligation to train behavior analysts where they live and work--sometimes at a distance from the convenience of university lab programs and well-established behavior analysts. This panel will present "what works" in supervision of pre-professional behavior analysts using technology-aided distance or remote supervision. The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) has set forth standards for supervision, but pragmatic questions remain as to how universities can provide quality supervision experiences, especially for non-traditional students. Panelists convened in this presentation have all supervised and developed programs for pre-professional behavior analysts in either university programs or through privately contracted services. Panelists will be asked to discuss (a) their programs in terms of pre-requisites, BACB requirements, site placements, and the management of supervisee/supervisor hours, (b) curricula and the supervisor's instructional method for teaching behavior analytic skill competencies, (c) data collected on supervision and/or program evaluations, (d) technology that works well and what needs improvement, and (e) future directions and plans for supervising pre-professional behavior analysts. University contact faculty, supervisors, and agencies that provide supervision should all consider attending this important and timely panel. Christine Ratcliff (BACB) will co-chair.

Despite more than 60 years of published information clearly showing that null-hypothesis significance tests (NHSTs) and the p values associated with them provide essentially no information about the reliability (i.e., probability of replication) of research outcomes, they remain at the core of editorial decision-making in the behavioral sciences, including psychology, with statistical significance serving as the major gateway to publication of research results. Two reasons appear to contribute to the continuing practice. One, information available suggests that a majority of psychological researchers incorrectly believe that p values do provide information about the reliability of research results. Two, among the minority thatare aware that p values do no such thing, a position sometimes taken is that even though p values do not provide the information many think they do, using them to make decisions about whether to believe in research results is and has been essentially benign. This paper addresses both reasons. Because the first has been pointed out many times, it is briefly covered, because of the apparent persistence of the misunderstanding. The second, that NHSTs have no significant negative effects on behavioral sciences, is the focus of the major portion of the paper, which describes seven “side-effects” of NHSTs that continue to retard effective development of psychological science. The paper makes an appeal to journal reviewers and editors to de-emphasize or eliminate the role of NHSTs, and it closes by offering a few suggestions about alternatives that could be considered and with a challenge to psychological researchers to develop new methods that more fully assess the reliability and generality of research findings.

Anyone interested in data-analysis techniques.

ABAI welcomes all of its members to Chicago. Join us for the student breakfast organized by the ABAI Student Committee. This is an opportunity for students to meet and greet with each other as peers get the chance to speak to some great behavior analysts. It's a great time and place for students to come together with all the members of ABAI.

Shaping procedures are widely used in the experimental analysis of behavior. However, these procedures include a variety of ways in their implementation, which could have an effect on the strength of the operant (frequency and / or response rate). The present study aims to evaluate different conditions of shaping and their effect on performance in temporal schedules. Twelve rats served as subjects, divided into 3 groups at random. Group 1 was exposed to three experimental phases. In the first phase, the rats were exposed to a schedule of non-contingent delivery FT 60s. Later, during phase 2, rats were exposed to a concurrent schedule crf-FT 60 s. Finally, during Phase 3, subjects were exposed to a temporal schedule, the T cycles lasted 60 s. Group 2 was exposed to the same conditions as Group 1, except for the FT 60 s schedule. Subjects in group 3 were exposed only to the temporal schedule. The results showed that Group 1 presented a response distribution closer to the T cycle length rather than the other two groups.

The present study investigated the effect of the training of strike units and strike sequences over the performance in a simulated Karate-do fight and offers a new methodology to study learning in martial arts, based on the Operant Recombination paradigm. Four university students from 18 to 30 years old, with no previous experience in martial arts, were divided into two groups: Group Element (P1 and P2) where the participants started learning single strikes, and Group Sequence (P3 and P4) were the participants started learning strike sequences. The participants performed two experimental conditions. In Element Condition, 6 strike units of punches and kicks were taught and, in Sequence Condition, 4 sequences built with three strike units were trained. Each condition was composed of three stages of training (acquisition, standing focus and moving focus). During acquisition Karate-do strike units or strike sequences were taught by instruction, shaping and modeling. In standing focus stage the participant practiced the previously learned strikes on a stationary target. In moving focus stage the participant repeated the previously learned strikes on a moving target. All participants learned quickly and with fewer errors all the strikes and sequences. Before and after each condition a test with a real adversary was held. In the tests the adversary punched and kicked slowly and repeatedly. The training increased the movement rates of strikes in subsequent tests. The Element Condition increased the rates of strike units and the Sequence Condition increased the rates in strike sequences. Each experimental condition ended with generalization test, just like a Karate-do fight. In these tests the movements of defense were more frequent and attacks decreased compared to the previous test, but there was no systematic effect of the experimental conditions. During the fights the participants used the strikes and sequences previously taught, but also sequences that were not taught with strike combination. The results were discussed based on studies of recombinative learning and methodological refinements were suggested.

Within psychology Interbehavioral has begun analysis of fear, based on the theoretical elucidations performed was marked the same as: a) A particular type of behavior, b) An interaction that requires a conventional reagent system (language), because the person makes linguistic constructions regarding an event, object or organism, this constructions are made according with the individual's referential and/or situational history; and c) Fear behavior is configured as a behavioral tendency. In order to empirically test the fear behavior characterization, a study was conducted, the aim was: evaluate the effects of the referential history on the behavior of fear in children and adults. Participate 10 children (between 10 and 12 years of age) and 10 adults (between 20 and 25 years of age), they were assigned to one of three groups: 1) Control Group, 2) Confirmed Referential History Group, and 3) Denied Referential History Group. The results were discussed around to the Interbehavioral notion of fear, mainly emphasizing in linguistic constructions made by the participants.

The purpose of this study is to determine challenging behavior's patterns for school and preschool aged children with disabilities by age in the Korean residential facilities. Participants were 13 residential facilities for disabilities in South Korea. The number of records were 1,151 for 10 years. The Data was analyzed by frequency analysis and percentage. Type of challenging behavior were aggressive, depression/anxiety, self injury behavior, anti-social behavior, stereotype, sexual abuse, somatic, eating, elimination, sleep problems, attention deficit by criteria of DSM-IV, Lee(2004). On-line behavior analysis system, Homi.Info was used for collecting data of challenging behaviors. The data's rate of agreement for accuracy was 89%. The results of this study are as follows, This table shows the frequency of challenging behaviors by age. The frequency of preschool aged is 241, school aged 8 to 13 years is 460, and the from 14 to 18 is 450. The total frequency is 1151. In preschoolers, the most frequent challenging behavior types are somatic, and SIB. Number of somatic is 82, and SIB is 75. Depression and anxiety are the next most frequent. These behaviors are correlated with medical problems. In school aged 8 to 13 years, there are 4 outstanding behaviors for this group. Number of somatic and SIB is still quite high in frequency. In addition, Elimination and Aggressive behavior are remarkably common in this age group. The most frequent behavior in this age group is Urinate in other inappropriate place as elimination type, with a frequency of 61. Frequency of teasing peers and biting peers as aggressive type are 23, 15, respectively. In the period of school aged, 14 to 18 children, behaviors are different from other age groups, Frequency of somatic and SIB are still presented but there are not high. Frequency of stereotype, depressive/anxiety, and attention deficit are higher than others. The patterns in this age group are various and wide. Therefore, children with disabilities in facility have different behavior patterns by age. Preschooler have noticeable somatic behaviors and SIB. School aged children(8 to 13) also have Somatic and SIB, and even elimination and aggressive. Elimination problem is not serious for preschooler, however, it's problem for school aged children by teacher's perception. School aged children(14 to 18) display more various challenging behavior-Stereotype, depressive/anxiety and Attention deficit behaviors-than other group.

Our goal in this poster is to discuss the origin and development of the concept of metacontingency and of its auxiliary concepts (e.g., interlocking contingencies, aggregate product, macrocontingency, and receiving system) by analyzing the variables that controlled the textual verbal behavior related to its proposals. Three papers will be analyzed: (a) Glenns paper Metacontingencies in Walden Two, for being the first in which the term metacontingency appeared; (b) Glenns 1988 paper Contingencies and metacontingencies: toward a synthesis of behavior analysis and cultural materialism, since its one of the first in which Glenn added new terms and refined its definitions; and (c) Glenns and Malott 2004 paper Complexity and selection: implications for organizational change, for being one of the latest containing significant reviews and the proposal of a new concept. We will argue that the verbal behavior related to the origin and development of the metacontingency explanatory model was not based on empirical data, but mainly on (a) Skinners interpretations (as opposed to explanations) of social behavior (especially his book Science and Human Behavior, and paper Selection by Consequences); (b) Skinners utopian novel Walden Two, which is not an empirical source; and (c) analogies between the selection processes occurring at three different levels natural selection, operant selection and cultural selection which is not consensually well received by behavior analysts and by non-behavior analyst scientists and philosophers that work on the fields of evolutionary biology, sociology and anthropology. In this context, we intend to discuss some of the dangers of establishing a conceptual model of explanation which origin and development were not necessarily driven by data. The main problem is the verbal distance between the events studied by the scientist and his verbal behavior of proposing explanations, meaning that scientists verbal behavior is controlled by variables other than the phenomenon that he is trying to explain. This distance, by its turn, increases the probability of faulty inferences, surplus meaning, undesired speculations, and eventual lack of parsimony. We will argue that these problems should be viewed as a word of caution in the field of social behavior and metacontingency.

The formal education in Mexico has a structure that understands the gradual and progressive students performance. Apparently this approach promotes satisfactory results for the students, however, in the same conditions to which they are exposed students is possible to analyze the factors favoring sufficient or insufficient performance, in terms of problem solving. Hence in the present study the interest was focused on preparing different training conditions for elementary school students, the aim was evaluate the effects of implement conditions organized in sequence vs conditions organized in random order. Under the conditions organized in sequence, students had to move from the development of a skill to another, considering an increase in the level of complexity. Meanwhile, conditions organized in random order, students transiting from skill development to another, participating in varying levels of complexity. The results were discussed in terms of the potential benefits offered by the implementation of conditions organized in sequence and conditions organized in random order to formal education in Mexico.

This study examined the effects of intensive tact training on two elementary school student's pure tacts and mands in non-instructional settings. Participant one was a seven-year-old male diagnosed with autism. He had beginning speaker and listener levels of verbal behavior. Participant two was an eight-year-old male diagnosed with autism. He also had beginning speaker and listener levels of verbal behavior. This study was a delayed multiple probe design across participants. Both participants attend a private not-for-profit school that practices Applied Behavior Analysis methods and services children with Autism and other developmental delays. The school is located outside of the metropolitan area. The purpose of this research was to show the effects of the intensive tact protocol across two participants with Autism. The intensive tact protocol instructed the teachers to increase the number of tacts taught to the students daily, while maintaining other instruction at the same level. The results showed that there is a functional relationship between intensive tact training and the increase of pure mands and tacts in non-instructional settings.

Engaging in motor or vocal stereotypy often prohibits learning among children with autism. Recent literature suggests that allowing free access to stereotypy immediately prior to instructional periods may result in temporary satiation of sensory reinforcers associated with stereotypy. This results in greater engagement in teaching sessions relative to sessions preceded by periods in which stereotypy is restricted. This study replicated those procedures by comparing a childs responsiveness to a play intervention preceded by periods in which stereotypy was either permitted or restricted. Results indicate that allowing access to stereotypy may increase sensitivity to instructional programming.

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often display inappropriate social behaviors including repetitive, non-contextual, or idiosyncratic speech. These behaviors can be disruptive, and can have a negative impact on an individuals ability to integrate in social and community settings (Koegel, Koegel & Frea, 1992). If the variables maintaining inappropriate social behaviors (e.g., non-contextual speech) can be identified, this information could help in the development of interventions to improve social outcomes. Previous research has demonstrated that functional analysis methodology has been successful in determining the maintaining variables of such speech patterns. (Rehfeldt & Chambers, 2003). This poster describes an analog functional analysis and subsequent intervention to address non-contextual and idiosyncratic speech for a nine-year-old boy with ASD. During the functional analysis, five conditions were alternated in a multielement design, after conducting an initial probe to determine relevant conditions. Treatment includes DRA + Extinction, and subsequently, the addition of differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior.