Association for Behavior Analysis International

Join the Health, Sport & Fitness SIG for a fun 5K run on Sunday, May 26. We will meet in the lobby of the Hyatt and head out for for a 5K run (more or less is welcome too!) We’ll split up in pace groups and head out to Lakeshore Drive. Let us know if you can join on our Facebook event or email hsf.abai@gmail.com. All paces welcome. Run/Walk and strollers welcome as well!

Although Direct Instruction (DI) has been shown to be an effective teaching method for building a variety of critical skills (language, reading, spelling, and mathematics) across a variety of populations (general education students, economically disadvantaged students, and special education students), the most recent reviews from The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders (2015) and The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT, 2018) do not yet identify DI as an Evidence-Based Practice for individuals with autism. As such, are behavior analysts and behavior-analytically oriented schools missing out on a valuable tool? This symposium will include three presentations that will 1) provide a review of the published research evaluating the effectiveness of DI programs for individuals on the autism spectrum, 2) describe a single-subject study evaluating the effectiveness of the Language for Learning program for individuals with developmental disabilties who use high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) speech generating devices as a primary mode of communication , and 3) review lessons learned following 5 years of a site-wide implementation of DI programs at a public charter school serving youth and young adults with autism.

The target audience for this presentation is Master's level (or above) Board Certified Behavior Analysts and School Psychologists

Direct instruction (DI) is an intensive fast-paced instructional method that can be used to teach skills to students including those with learning and developmental disabilities. Direct instruction incorporates behavioral principles including concise sequenced instructions, immediate reinforcement, and error correction (EC) procedures (Head, Flores, & Shippen, 2018). DI curricula include several academic areas such as reading decoding, reading comprehension, language arts, and math among others. Although DI has been shown effective across various age groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and presenting disabilities, less is known about the utility of DI for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The following review of the literature summarizes 9 experiments published between 2000 and 2018 that use DI with children with a diagnosis of ASD. Studies were analyzed across various participant and procedural variables. Results suggest that DI can produce improvements in targeted skills for individuals with ASD. Recommendations are provided for future researchers about information to report and future research endeavors.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of using Direct Instruction-Language for Learning (DI-LL; Engelmann & Osborn, 1976; Engelmann & Osborne, 1999) curriculum with children (10 to 15-years-old) with developmental disabilities who use high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) speech generating devices as a primary mode of communication. Overall performance of three students was evaluated using identical pre- and post-test measures in a concurrent multiple probe design across participants. Additionally, we evaluated the feasibility of DI-LL with AAC learners by evaluating: 1) responses to target exercises (independent, error), 2) number of repetitions needed to complete lessons with fluency, 3) average duration of exercises, 4) and participant affect during DI-LL exercises. Results show increased correct responding on the post-test measure, lending preliminary support for the effectiveness of this approach. Results for measures1-4 further support the feasibility of the intervention for this population. These preliminary findings have implications for the use of DI-LL with students utilizing AAC in a classroom setting.

The Autism Model School, located in Toledo, OH, is a public charter school providing educational services to approximately 110 students with autism- ranging in age from 5 to 22 years of age. In 2013, the school initiated a site-wide implementation of Direct Instruction programs in the areas of oral language, reading, writing, and mathematics. Specific programs forming the core of the academic portion of the school’s curriculum include Language for Learning (Engelmann & Osborn, 2008) , Language for Thinking (Engelmann & Osborn, 2002), Language for Writing (Engelmann & Osborn, 2002), Headsprout Reading® , Reading Mastery (Engelmann & Bruner, 2003), Corrective Reading (Engelmann et al., 2008), Reasoning and Writing (Engelmann et al., 2001), Connecting Math Concepts (Engelmann et al., 2014), and Read-To-Achieve (Marchand-Martella & Martella, 2010) . Five years after the initial roll-out, this presentation will describe the experiences and lessons learned of those who lead, and continue to lead the implementation. Results of annual outcome testing of students using the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement-Second Edition- Brief Form as well as the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- Fifth Edition will be shared.

Applied behavior analysts are commonly employed to provide services and treatment for children with autism or other developmental disabilities. However, there are a number of other career paths unrelated to treatment for developmental disabilities that are open to those interested in applied behavior analysis. This panel will serve as an introduction to some of these potential career paths. Each speaker will discuss their professional experiences in the field of applied behavior analysis, including the populations with which they work, the types of services they provide for their clients, and how they entered their current line of work. After the speakers have shared their experiences, the remainder of the panel session will be opened up to members of the audience to ask questions regarding careers in applied behavior analysis beyond autism.

Applied practitioners, undergrads and graduate students

There has been abundant research identifying evidence-based interventions for children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). As a result, the funding to support high-quality services is often available for youth with IDD. To the contrary, there have been few studies attempting to identify evidence-based practices for adults with IDD, meaning that high-quality services for adults with IDD are often unavailable. Vocational support is critical for promoting the maximum level of independence of adults with IDD. Given limited resources, it has been difficult to identify a literature of evidence-based interventions that will lead to higher quality lives for people with IDD. Additionally, common misconceptions and a lack of knowledge regarding individuals with disabilities by the general public adversely affects employment opportunities for people with IDD regardless of their ability to meet job requirements. In this session, the expert panelists will discuss the challenges and strategies of implementing vocational related evidence-based services for adults with IDD. The topics include: collaboration with employers, supported employment, staff training, the use of technology, developing a vocational manual, navigating policies and regulations, and coordinating the contingencies involving service providers, individuals with disabilities, and stakeholders, including parents and funding agencies. The panelists will then open the floor for further discussion of strategies and service delivery options for adults with IDD.

BCBAs and BCaBAs

The three talks in this symposium describe studies in which equivalence classes were established using procedures that differed from the more traditional match-to-sample procedures. In the first study, two 4-member equivalence classes of arbitrary stimuli were established using either single-element samples and comparisons or compound samples and comparisons. In the second study, additional alternative response options of “BOTH” and “NEITHER” were presented during specific trials across four groups of college students to assess equivalence class formation with arbitrary stimuli. The third study was a replication of Lantaya, Miguel, Howland, LaFrance, and Page (2018) in which visual-visual successive matching-to-sample was used to establish three-member equivalence classes with college students. This study extended Lantaya et al. by evaluating whether auditory-visual conditional relations (listener behavior), and cross-modal equivalence classes, could be established via successive matching-to-sample. Collectively, the three studies in this symposium extend the procedures that can be used to establish equivalence classes.

The target audience is behavior analysts interested in alternative match-to-sample procedures and researchers interested in conditional discrimination training and testing.

Equivalence classes are typically formed by teaching arbitrary conditional discriminations using match-to-sample (MTS) procedures and discrete stimuli. Because single stimulus equivalence procedures require a large number of trials, it may be helpful to identify more economical stimulus equivalence procedures. One way to do this may be to use compound stimuli as comparisons and samples to train equivalence classes. This study used a pretest-train-posttest between-groups design to compare the establishment of equivalence classes using either single-element equivalence training (consisting of single class members) or compound stimulus training (consisting of pairs of class members). Two 4-member stimulus classes were established during training. The results showed that stimulus classes were established with similar accuracy but in a shorter amount of time and in fewer trials for participants in the compound group as compared to participants in the single-element equivalence group. These results may provide clinicians a way to use stimulus equivalence procedures in a more mainstream setting.

In the present study, response options of “BOTH” and “NEITHER” (BoNe) were presented during specific conditions across four groups of college students to assess equivalence class formation of two, 3-member classes of abstract arbitrary stimuli. One group used BoNe during both training and emergent relations testing; one group used BoNe during training but standard MTS during emergent relations testing; one group used MTS for training, but BoNe for emergent relations testing; and a final group used standard MTS for both training and emergent relations testing (no BoNe options). Computer pretests and posttests included both standard 2-choice MTS trials and 4-choice BoNe trials. Scores improved from the pretest to posttest for both computer and sorting tests for all participants, regardless of experimental group. During the emergent relations testing, the BoNe-MTS group scored better than the MTS-BoNe group. The BoNe-MTS group required fewer remedial training blocks than the MTS-BoNe group. The BoNe-MTS group required fewer emergent relations testing blocks than the BoNe-BoNe and MTS-BoNe groups. These findings indicate that within the different formats of teaching equivalence classes, training and testing formats can impact learning equivalence classes and responding during emergent relations tests although overall efficiency did not vary across experimental groups.

Three applications of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) are presented to demonstrate measurable improvements in business results. First, how graphic dashboards combined with OBM principles can help staff focus on and meet short term objectives. Second, how informational technology staff can be motivated using OBM strategies in project management. Lastly, it will be discussed how staff can be empowered to participate in OBM activities through special projects and training.

ABA Business Leaders and Practitioners

In order to drive growth and maintain quality, a technology platform was chosen that would allow for data based decision making across multiple states. Microsoft Sharepoint was chosen in this example to combine performance data and lead performance initiatives to motivate staff. Custom dashboards provided graphic feedback that is role specific which was a tool for goal setting and self-monitoring. With these tools, monthly incentives were established for achieve critical business targets. To date, all goals have been met and the technology continues to evolve and drive performance.

In order to develop tools that are needed to implement an online Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) platform based on Organizational Behavior Management principles, Information Technology Staff need to produce outcomes that are meaningful for ABA practitioners. This Panel topic will discuss how behavior analysts can work with Information Technology staff to shape greater productivity, meet deadlines, and work cohesively.

OBM can be used to empower staff to step beyond their clinical skills. Using special projects, Behavior Analysts can participate in business applications to grow professionally. Providing staff with this professional development can not only enhance their managerial skills but effect the bottom line for an ABA company.

With the development of many technological advances, behavior analysts have more tools to use when constructing training programs to facilitate skill acquisition in learners. In 1958, B.F. Skinner’s invention of "The Teaching Machine" set the course for the eventual development of Programmed Instruction. Skinner envisioned a world where behavior could be shaped via immediate feedback systems. Now, with access to virtual reality training and computer-based instruction platforms, behavior analysts have the ability to shape new response repertoires through the use of these immediate feedback delivery systems. Within these systems, behavior analysts can also design instructional programs that are systematic in shaping learner repertoires. In service delivery, when behavior analysts are training incoming staff members, there are different levels of mastery with content as incoming staff members enter a training program. By implementing virtual reality and CBI platforms to assist with the training and development of staff, behavior analysts can individualize training to those levels. Ultimately, the world is rapidly changing in the development of technology. This panel will discuss how this technology can develop behavior repertoires, specifically when developing skills in staff training and development.

Behavior Analysts who engage in staff training and development.

This panel offers an opportunity for convention attendees to interact with Jamila Raqib, the 2019 ABAI Presidential Scholar who will make opening comments, and behavior analysts with long interests in nonviolent social action. In some cases traditional approaches to nonviolent struggle have become less successful than previously; for this reason, emphases in this panel will be on exploring nonviolent scientific 21st century alternatives. A particular focus will be on contemporary approaches to understanding and shaping what Gandhi discussed as the “Constructive Programme”—which overlaps substantially with the seminal behavior analyst Israel Goldiamond’s “constructional” approach. The panel will include an audience-driven question and answer period, with time allotted for interactions amongst the panelists and the audience.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Dr. Rakos received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Kent State University and now is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University. He retired in 2016 after 37.5 years at CSU, most recently as associate dean for faculty and program development in the College of Sciences and Health Professions. Dr. Rakos is widely published in the areas of assertiveness training, self-management, law and psychology, and cultural analysis.  He served as Editor of Behavior and Social Issues (and its predecessor journals Behaviorists for Social Action Journal and Behavior Analysis and Social Action) from 1981-1993 and as associate editor of BSI from 1993 to the present. He also served on the editorial board of Law and Human Behavior from 2000-2016 and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. Since retiring from CSU, Dr. Rakos has maintained his behavior analytic scholarly activities while expanding his private clinical practice significantly, focusing on the behavioral treatment of persons experiencing difficulties with anxiety, stress, depression, self-control, obsessions and compulsions, and social/interpersonal relationships.

Crime and criminal behavior is a pervasive problem apparent across nearly all societies. These criminal behaviors exist on a broad continuum ranging from relatively benign behaviors such as jaywalking to more extreme and damaging behaviors such as murder. Just as there is a range of criminal behavior, there also exist a variety of approaches to explaining and understanding the causes of criminal behavior. This symposium will extend behavior analysis into the realm of criminal behavior by focusing on two extreme criminal behaviors as well as explaining common approaches to understanding these behaviors. In the first talk, Meindl and Ivy discuss mass killings and describe how the behavior may be partially environmentally controlled through media reporting. In the second talk, Templin will analyze domestic violence and intervention through the lens of behavior analysis. In the final talk, Niazi and Dracobly will illustrate how the current approaches to criminal profiling differ from explanations offered through behavior analysis.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, graduate level students, faculty

To expand the field of behavior analysis, and out of concern for the public good, we seek out significant social and legal issues. In a 1995 article by David L. Myers, an age-old phenomenon is compared to other types of problem behavior, including potential functions and environmental contingencies. Myers (1995) reviewed how battering can be described within three term contingencies (antecedent, behavior and consequences). Ways that escape, punishment and positive reinforcement play a role. The common interventions to reduce domestic violence and how these can be more effective using behavior analysis. How direct observation can be a methodological barrier for behavior analysts, and some innovative ways it has been overcome. How the issue of domestic violence is an excellent candidate for study within the field of behavior analysis. A 2005 article by Bell and Naugle on why a victim of domestic violence would stay or leave their situation provides information on victim behavior. A reading from the 2014 essay provides details on life in a domestic violence shelter. The concepts of reinforcement, punishment, extinction, behavioral economics and delay discounting are seen in the light of this serious social problem.

Using method analysis and a case study, we compare the criminal profiling approach and the science of behavior in understanding criminal behavior. Criminal profilers emphasize classification (e.g., Crime Classification Manual) via internal psychological constructs (Devery, 2010). Behavior analysts emphasize an organism’s genetic endowment, current environment, history of reinforcement and punishment, and culture (e.g., Skinner, 1969). First, we will compare the two approaches, focusing on history, unique explanatory systems, and peer-reviewed support. Second, we elucidate these difference with a case study of murder. For instance, in a murder with sexual assault, a profiler may hypothesize the murder was based on a desire for power and lust. Therefore, there may be something inherently wrong with the offender’s personality because they inflict physical pain for sexual pleasure. A behavior analyst would look for specific, observable environmental and physiological variables. The murder may have been, in part, schedule induced, as either a side-effect of extinction (e.g., Lerman & Iwata, 1996 ) or (a response to some form of aversive stimulation (e.g., Azrin, Hutchinson, & McLaughlin, 1965). For example, deprivation of a tangible item (e.g., money) or certain physiological sensations (e.g., physical pleasure from sex) may have contributed.

Recent research has led to concerns that the social sciences are in the midst of a replication crisis (Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Camerer et al., 2016; Camerer et al., 2018). This presentation will discuss some of the contingencies that have led to this point, and identify two ways in which behavior analysts can address this problem. First, those of us who hold faculty positions at smaller, primarily undergraduate institutions are ideally situated to design and carry out replication studies. This is largely due to differences in the contingencies associated with career advancement (e.g., funding, scholarship). Several examples of how this can be accomplished in the context of undergraduate honors projects and laboratory courses will be provided. Second, where appropriate, behavior analysts can a) apply our unique skill set (e.g., single subject research designs) to the study of phenomena whose reliability has been called into question and b) increase efforts to expand the use of these methods in other disciplines.

When Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) emerged from its parent science, it continued a comprehensive and demonstrably effective set of methodological practices, summarized by Sidman’s 1960 book, Tactics of Scientific Research. As applied research interests developed over the ensuing decades, however, ABA research incorporated a number of methodological practices that have increasingly raised concerns about the reproducibility of findings in this literature. These practices are in one sense understandable in light of the applied agenda and the complications of applied research circumstances. Nevertheless, they conflict with the long-held best practices of the field’s research methods and unavoidably lead to concerns about the reproducibility of research outcomes. This presentation will review only two of these problem areas: 1) Using discontinuous measurement procedures and 2) Accepting limited pictures of responding in compared conditions. These and other methodological challenges suggest that research findings in the ABA literature may be less informative than we believe. One risk of this tendency is that practitioners may increasingly come to view ABA research as more a source of procedural ideas or treatment options than a body of findings that can be trusted to yield dependable outcomes.

As the number of programs offering coursework in behavior analysis continues to grow, a troubling consequence of this may be seen in the diminishing quality of supervision, as inexperienced BCBAs provide supervision to BCBA candidates. Successful behavior analysts possess the right combination clinical and intangible “soft skills” - commitment to ethics, ability to collaborate, think critically, make appropriate “in the moment” decisions, be effective in different cultural and socio-economic situations, and ability to effectively communicate with all key stakeholders, across settings. As the common supervision paradigm in the field of behavior analysis focuses on “teaching to the test,” the field may have created thousands of “by the book” BCBAs good at following rules but lacking in ability to make decisions that are contextually appropriate. In short, ability to think critically. This, combined with inability to influence parties in the service delivery process, is surely diminishing the effectiveness of the science of behavior analysis. This panel will explore basic, intermediate and advanced critical thinking skills that behavior analysts must possess to be effective service providers and supervisors. We will discuss the importance mastering to fluency critical skills, such as verbal mediation, to help increase problem solving and abstract reasoning skills.

BCBA, BCaBA, BCBA-D, RBT

The field of behavior analysis is growing at an exponential rate as seen with the recent increase to all certification levels (Deochand & Fuqua, 2016). The likelihood that young Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) will serve as someone’s supervisor is high, yet historically, there has not been explicit requirements for teaching a supervisory skill set to behavior analysts in training. Several fieldwide changes have recently been enacted, including the addition of a new course to Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s (BACB) Behavior Analysis verified course sequences (VCS) for Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) and Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA), and additional task list items on the BACB 5th edition task list; both directly address supervision, training, and management of personnel. Yet, gaps on how to effectively train supervisors may remain. This panel will focus on informing individuals pursuing training in the field, or newly minted BCBAs and BCaBAs on supervision best practices. Experts from the field will share their research, professional experiences, and tips on how to be an effective supervisor.

Applied behavior analysts base their programming on Baer, Wolf, and Risley's seven dimensions of applied behavior analysis, as described in their seminal 1968 paper in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. These dimensions describe the necessary functional, ethical, and programmatic features of good applied behavioral work, emphasizing factors that will enhance its objectivity, applied focus, validity, generality, conceptual integrity, reproducibility, and demonstrated effectiveness. While programs that are consistent with the seven dimensions might be behavioral and at least potentially effective, they still might not be well designed in the broader sense of the word. That is, a program might "work," but nevertheless be disorganized, be hard for users and consumers to understand, be unnecessarily resource intensive, lack scaleability and extensibility, and present as generally unappealing to potential adopters. This paper will introduce behavior analysts to Dieter Rams's ten principles of good design, translate the principles into behavioral terms, and suggest ways their application might improve behavioral programming--even to the manner behavior analysts present their views and programs to others. Rams was the chief designer for Braun from 1961 to 1995, and brought a modern straightforward usability and aesthetic focus to its consumer products. He emphasized aspects of design such as clarity of purpose, innovation, simplicity, longevity, understandability, and thoroughness. This presentation will propose that we are no longer a niche discipline designing programs just for ourselves and a few selected clients, but an outwardly focused profession designing for general appreciation and adoption. Thus, considerations beyond those that ensure the conceptual and scientific integrity of our programs could enhance their broader adoption and desirability.

Although the Hyper or hyporeactivity to sensory input is present in Autism Spectrum Disorder, we have a lack of studies of teaching tacts using senses other than vision. This research taught a six-year-old boy with ASD to Tact stimulus by touch, smell or hear the stimuli. The procedure was with DTT and delay of verbal prompt. We used a voice recorder for the hearing trials, and during the smell and touch sessions, the child used a sleep mask and had contact just with the aroma, or shape and texture. The 45 targets were equally divided in the three categories: sounds (e.g., bird sound), smells (e.g., bacon), and objects (e.g., car toy). The session was composed of three groups of five goals in each category. The child learned to tact 73% of aromas, 93% of the object by touch and 93% of sounds. He tried to avoid some of the aroma presented and did not learn tacting these stimuli. We discuss that children can learn tacting stimuli with different sensory input and this can interfere how this child interacts with the environment in his routine.

Behavioral interventions are increasingly used in a wider array of settings. Individuals with complex sets of needs, such as those with disabilities, require a multi-layered team of professionals to collaborate to produce high-quality care. In the current healthcare environment, where there is a constant striving to improve quality of care, ABA is uniquely poised to meet this goal with evidence-based, data-driven treatment. In order for BCBAs to be highly effective, they cannot operate separate and apart from other service providers; they must collaborate with other professionals. The benefits of this are remarkable: it can lead to higher quality care, enhanced safety for the patient and providers, and treatment integrity. Additionally, all involved could increase their knowledge which may positively affect their perspective and practice. Communication, problem-solving, and decision making are three domains in which identification of discrete collaboration skills would be a logical (and integral) first step to improve one’s practice. If BCBAs take steps to enhance their collaboration skills, they increase the likelihood that individuals in their care receive comprehensive, high-quality treatment.

Provision of a comprehensive fitness program can be strengthened by utilizing the science of ABA to teach different exercises and develop a positive association between the client, the environment, and trainer or coach. Effort put forward to develop a supportive network of individuals, create and/or highlight the importance of personal progress, and communicating competence in a way that is clear to the client are three effective steps in propagating engagement in fitness and will have increased wellness as a result. Individualizing exercise sessions to the client through determining what they will work for, what type or sequence of exercises will be most conducive to their active commitment and providing reinforcement and assistance in a graduated way will lead to efficient and enjoyable workout sessions that the client will want to engage in routinely. This workshop will provide a background knowledge on what motivates individuals to participate regularly in physical exercise, how increasing levels of fitness correlate to a higher quality of life, how to train staff using ABA techniques in the fitness milieu, and specific characteristics to look for in a fitness program.

Behavior analysts are increasingly called to serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations. However, it is unclear the extent to which race, gender, and linguistic diversity are addressed in ABA practice (Talk 1). In addition, it is unclear the extent to which language of instruction affects skill acquisition for individuals from dual language households (Talk 2). After focusing on the role of diversity and language in practice, we will present the results of two studies. The first study evaluates the effect of interventionist’s language on speech generating device language output and challenging behavior for a child with Down syndrome. The second study presents the results of a culturally adapted behavioral consultation framework for the Latino population. Finally, as a leader in this area of Behavior Analysis, Dr. Jeannie Aguilar, will discuss the studies, findings, and implications for research and practice.

Researchers in Applied Research (graduate students, doctoral students, post-doctoral and professors) and practioners working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Diversity may be defined along a number of dimensions including, but not limited to the presence of a variety of genders, races, ethnicities, languages, and socio-economic statuses (Silverman, 2010). As a field, ABA has made great strides in some areas of diversity. This study investigates the results of survey polling individuals in the field of ABA related to racial and gender identity, linguistic diversity (e.g., primary language), and presence of diversity related coursework in training programs either in progress or completed. Results related to formal training on diversity training within programs (e.g., BACB Verified Course Sequences), recruitment of traditionally underrepresented populations, and continuing education will be discussed, as well as recommendations to address areas of need.

Recent research has suggested language of instruction may have an effect of the behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder during instructional sessions. This study aims to add to the literature base by evaluating effects of instructional language on skill acquisition during instructional settings. There were two participants for this study. Both of the children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Both of the participants came from a Spanish speaking family but received instruction primarily in English. Skill acquisition was evaluated using novel responses in both English and Spanish with the schedule of reinforcement held constant. Results indicate that language of instruction did not have an impact for the participating students. Potential moderating factors will be discussed

Individuals with disabilities whose family members speak a language other than English and communicate using speech generating devices (SGDs) require assessment of instructional language and programmed language output of the SGD. In this study, an alternating treatment design was used to examine the effect of interventionist language as a putative motivating operation (English or Spanish) on the (a) choice of SGD language output, (b) frequency of mands, and (c) frequency of challenging behavior for a 10-year old non-verbal child with Down syndrome. Results indicated a slight increase in manding when the interventionist spoke Spanish compared to the English or control conditions. The participant also manded most frequently in Spanish on the SGD, suggesting a preference for Spanish output. These results indicate a potential preference for instructional language and expressive language using an SGD. Challenging behavior was observed more frequently in the English and control conditions. The implications of this research were discussed in the context of potential motivating operations for communication. The ethical practices and standards of Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and educators were also addressed.

Functional analysis involves presenting putative reinforcers contingent on problem behavior to understanding the influence of environmental events and inform subsequent function-based treatment. Safety during a functional analysis of problem behavior is a common concern among clinicians and caregivers because a rich schedule of continuous reinforcement is programmed for the occurrence of problem behavior in the test condition. We conducted this study to determine if safety during a functional analysis could be improved by reinforcing a larger functional class of responses with less severe topographies. Participants were children with autism who exhibited severe forms of problem behavior such as self-injurious behavior, aggression, and property destruction. We conducted two functional analyses for each participant: one targeting multiple severe topographies of problem behavior and another targeting a collection of the severe topographies and less severe topographies reported to co-occur. The results suggest that opening the functional class to include less severe topographies can improve the safety of the functional analysis.

Educators in public school settings have been required to conduct functional behavior assessments (FBAs) when a student’s behavior interferes with his or her learning since the Individuals with Disabilities Act was reauthorized in 1997. Sadly, research on FBAs in public school settings continues to highlight the lack of trained personnel, time, and resources necessary to conduct high-quality FBAs. As experts in behavioral analysis, one of our roles is sometimes to increase the knowledge of educators in FBAs and its application to intervention. It is through this role that we can create systems-level change. This symposium is comprised of behavior analysts who are change agents in public school settings. The first two presenters will discuss their successes in using behavioral skills training to teach educators in FBA and intervention to improve outcomes for students. The third presenter discusses the long-term impact that training school-based behavior teams can have when the teams are supported to train other colleagues. The final presenter gives guidance to measuring educator’s knowledge of FBA so that we have the most accurate understanding of their skills. Audience participants will learn how they also can successfully increase educators’ knowledge and practice in FBA in public school settings.

The target audience is for masters or doctoral-level BCBAs and School Psychologists working in the school setting either directly or through consultation.

The Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) has collaborated with the Iowa Department of Education (DE) since 2009 to support an initiative to improve the quality of functional behavior assessments (FBA) in public schools. Behavior analysts from the CDD provided training in FBA to challenging behavior teams across Iowa. Although team members came from a variety of backgrounds, all were tasked with delivering behavior support in public schools. Targeted skills during training included data collection, graphing, data analysis, descriptive assessment (Lalli et al., 1993; Riffel, 2018), preference assessment (Fisher et al. 1992), concurrent operants assessment (Harding et al., 1999), and antecedent analysis (Carr and Durand, 1995). An increase in trainees’ independent use of the assessments increased with training. The DE has also worked with CDD to insure sustainability of behavior teams to train other practitioners in behavior assessment skills. Thus far, all teams that have graduated from this project have begun training their colleagues in FBA. Additionally, CDD leads an Advanced Behavior Certification team, comprised of graduates from the training project, to help ensure the integrity of training remains high. This presentation will provide outcome data from this training initiative and discuss sustainability of this effort in the state.

Given the prevalence of challenging behavior among students with developmental disabilities in schools, there is a high need for training in building the capacity of teachers in functional behavior assessment (FBA) and function-based behavioral interventions. A range of assessment approaches have been adopted to measure teacher competencies in FBA and function-based behavioral interventions. These assessment approaches include various perception-based surveys, knowledge-based assessment measures, and direct observation of teacher skills. This study conducted a comparative analysis of a perception-based survey and knowledge-based assessment tool across 292 special educators that work extensively for children with developmental disabilities who engage in challenging behaviors. Results indicated that knowledge-based assessment tools appeared to be a more stable measure of teachers’ competencies in FBA and function-based behavioral interventions than perception-based measures. These findings shed light on the use of perception-based surveys and knowledge-based assessments in measuring teachers’ abilities in FBA and function-based behavior interventions to inform planning of relevant teacher training programs in the area of behavior management.

There is an overall lack of services, treatments, and trained professionals to work with children with autism in Kazakhstan. Additionally, university training programs for teachers and psychologists are outdated and rooted in Soviet 'defectology'. To address the lack of trained professionals and training programs, the present research project developed a manualized behavioral skills training program aimed to teach basic ABA procedures. Study 1 used a pyramidal teaching approach where the researcher trained mothers of children with autism to deliver the manualized training program to 21 undergraduate university students. Results from study 1 suggest that the mothers could learn ABA procedures quickly and could implement the training program with high fidelity. The results also suggest that undergraduate students can implement ABA procedures accurately when assessed in a role play scenario. However, study 1 did not assess whether the skills learned in a role play scenario would generalize to use with children with autism. For study 2 the training program was co-delivered by the researcher and 1 mother to a group of 7 tutors. Results suggest that the procedures learned in the training program will generalize to use with young children with autism. This training program provides an innovative solution to training professionals in locations without highly qualified behavior analysts. It also presents a sustainable and cost-effective training format for locations with limited internet access. Limitations and implications for clinical practice will be discussed.

Five adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participated in a 7-week summer training program that targeted conversation skills using computer-based training (CBT) and role-play with peers. Computer-based training provided the definition, rationale, and video demonstrations of one or two individualized targets for each participant (e.g., decreasing interruptions; increasing the duration of utterances). Participants then spoke with other participants during 5-min conversations and received delayed feedback from an experimenter who observed the conversations remotely through the internet. The experimenter used covert audio coaching (CAC) to provide immediate feedback if the initial intervention did not improve performance. The experimenter assessed generalization of the skills to novel adults and in novel settings throughout all phases and maintenance of the skills after the training concluded. Results were inconsistent across participants, suggesting that some conversation skills will require more intensive intervention.

Impairments in social-communication for individuals with autism limits the ability to engage in meaningful and socially reinforcing social interactions leading to social isolation and loneliness. Unfortunately, research on effective social interventions for adolescents and adults with autism is limited. Further, typical interventions aimed at supporting social skill acquisition and maintenance while also fostering independence for adolescents and young adults with autism can be challenging and stigmatizing, particularly given the need for the close proximity of the interventionist. Yet, few studies have capitalized on the use of covert audio coaching (CAC) to deliver evidence-based practices within a natural setting. This study employed a multiple-baseline design across participants to evaluate the impact of CAC with prompting to increase social communication skills in typical social setting for four young adults with autism. Implementation of CAC resulted in increases in the targeted social skill(s) for all participants. Additionally, social validity measures indicate the intervention was viewed favorably by participants. Challenges as well as implications for practice and future research will be discussed.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate effects of a multicomponent training package (scripted self-questions, modeling, and feedback) to establish appropriate stimulus control over social initiations. Participants were three college-age males diagnosed with ASD who were referred to the study based on a history of either initiating or avoiding conversations at socially inappropriate times. First, participants and a sample of typically developing peers completed assessments to inform the development of target scenarios and standards for scoring correct and incorrect performance. Second, we taught participants a self-questioning technique to classify written vignettes as either appropriate or inappropriate conditions to initiate a conversation. Finally, we assessed participants’ initiations under contrived (e.g., scripted interaction between trained research assistants) and naturalistic conditions (e.g., group activity in class). Results indicated that vignette-based training was efficacious for teaching participants to classify untrained written scenarios with preliminary evidence of generalization to interactions with faculty and peers.

Dogs are well known for their superhuman olfaction and audition. Applying behavioral principles and techniques, we can explore the limits of dogs’ sense modalities. Perceptual limitations, however, are rarely a limiting factor when it comes to field or laboratory applications with dogs. Instead, the main challenge is to reliably and precisely bring an identifiable and useful behavior under the control of the relevant stimulus. For example, in a scent-detection scenario, an ideal training outcome is that the dog emits an “indication” response each time a target scent is encountered and never emits the response when the target is not encountered. Because dogs, like people, are never operating in the presence of a single stimulus but, instead, in the presence of a “stimulus soup,” it is also important to know whether stimuli operating through specific modalities are more or less likely to gain control over behavior than those operating through other modalities. In this series of presentations, the topic of stimulus control is explored in the context of basic and applied canine research. Although these presentations are related to canine behavior, researchers and practitioners in other areas may benefit from attending.

Practitioners and Applied Researchers

The development of differential stimulus control has long been of interest since the seminal paper by Reynolds (1961). The responses of dogs to a compound stimulus, composed of visual and auditory elements, was investigated. Twelve dogs were trained to perform a simple behaviour in response to a compound stimulus composed of a hand signal and a voice command. Then during test trials each modality was presented alone and the dogs’ responses were recorded. These test trials were interspersed with standard training trials of the compound stimulus. It was found that for eight dogs the voice command came to control the behaviour more than the hand signal, and for the remaining four dogs the hand signal controlled the behaviour more than the voice command. Each dog, therefore, showed a strong preference in responding to one modality over the other. The learning of the voice command overshadowed the learning of the hand signal for the majority of dogs. For the minority of dogs the learning of the hand signal overshadowed the learning of the voice command. The results suggest that individual dogs may show differences in their response to certain stimuli. These differences are discussed in relation to differences in prior experience and possibly to inherited characteristics of the dogs. The ways that the dogs in this study learned about the relevance of elements of compound stimuli has implications for the methods that are used in training dogs and these are discussed.

Scent-detection research and practice is often compromised by cuing and subjectivity. With cuing, stimuli other than the target scent gain control over behavior and can lead to erroneous experimental results or ineffective applications. Subjectivity in scent-detection research stems from application of topographical, rather than functional, response definitions. These issues can be resolved to some extent by training and testing under blind conditions, but such conditions can be difficult to arrange. We have been conducting research with an automated apparatus that, apart from an initial shaping period, requires no human involvement in the training or testing procedures and can accommodate a wide variety of samples. A brief description of this automated approach is provided, followed by a description of some results obtained from a series of research projects carried out using this approach. Basic research carried out with 5 dogs focusing on the indication response itself is highlighted, as this was demonstrated to be a critical factor in determining hit rate and false indication rate. Outcomes from an applied research project carried out with another 5 dogs aimed at evaluating dogs’ ability to identify water samples that have contained a target fish species (koi carp) are also summarized.

Complex odor mixtures are thought to be perceived configurally, implying that there is little identification of the individual components in the stimulus mixture. Prior research has suggested that the chemical and or perceptual similarity of components in a mixture may influence whether they can be detected individually; however, how training influences the identification of individual components in odor mixtures is less clear. Identification of individual odorants is critical for dogs tasked with discriminating between Home Made Explosives and very similar, but innocuous, complex odor mixtures. In a cross-over experimental design, we evaluated the effect of two training procedures on dogs’ ability to identify the presence of a critical oxidizer (i.e. component in explosives) in complex odor mixtures. In the “Mixture training” procedure, dogs received trial variable odor mixtures with and without an oxidizer. In the more typical procedure for canine detection training, dogs were presented with the pure oxidizer only, and had to discriminate this from decoy mixtures (“target-only” training). Mixture training led to above chance discrimination of the oxidizer from variable backgrounds and dogs were able to readily generalize performance, with no decrement, to mixtures containing novel odorants. Target-only training, however, led to a precipitous drop in hit rate when the oxidizer was presented in a mixture background containing either familiar or novel odorants. Furthermore, by giving Mixture training to dogs previously trained with the target in isolation, they learned to identify the oxidizer in mixtures very quickly. Together, these results demonstrate that the training method has significant impacts on the perception of components in odor mixtures and highlights the importance of olfactory learning for the effective detection of Home Made Explosives by dogs.

Human reliance on plastic, especially single-use plastic items, has produced devastating effects on the environment. Extensive change and clean-up is needed to improve current conditions; however, behavior analysis is well-suited to provide direction and data on strategies to change human behavior in more environmentally friendly ways. Strategies to effectively increase recycling and reduce reliance on single-use plastics are urgently needed. This talk will discuss studies conducted in a university setting to increase recycling behavior and reduce plastic waste. Both studies involved manipulations of effort to produce desirable change in behavior. Advantages and disadvantages of both approaches will be discussed, and suggestions for avenues of future research and collaboration will be offered.

Behavior analysts, researchers, organizations seeking to improve recycling.

Behavior analytic service is highly demanded as indicated by an exponential increase in certified behavior analysts (Deochand & Fuqua, 2016). Although the American Psychological Association requires graduate programs to train students in cultural competence, this type of training is not a requirement in the verified course sequence to certify behavior analysts. The need to integrate cultural assessments into the functional behavior assessment will increase as services are delivered to a broader community. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of data on the demographics served by behavior analysts in practice and in research. Li, Wallace, Erhart, and Poling (2017) indicate that only 10.7% of behavior analytic research reports racial or ethnic characteristics. This issue coupled with the paucity of guidelines regarding training cultural competent practitioners requires the community to start building the framework for such initiatives. This panel will define social justice, discuss how we meet the needs of an evolving consumer base while developing successful cultural and linguistic competency training programs. The field of applied behavior analysis could be uniquely positioned to lead discussions regarding culturally competent services due to its focus on individualized client-centered treatment.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Graduate students, verified course sequence program coordinators

Choice making is a simple antecedent intervention that has been proven effective at reducing challenging behavior. A variety of choices can be provided including choice of activities, materials, and environmental arrangements. Not only can choice making result in reduced challenging behavior, offering choices promotes autonomy and self-determination. Despite the initial evidence supporting choice-making interventions, more research is necessary to identify the variety of approaches to successfully implement choice making into interventions to reduce challenging behavior. The first presentation will report results from the evaluation of a choice-making intervention to reduce resurgence of challenging behavior during schedule thinning following functional communication training (FCT). The second presentation will report results from an examination of the effects of two choice-making interventions, choice of activity and choice of materials, on escape-maintained challenging behavior. The final discussion will summarize these studies, highlight the applied value of the results, and discuss future research.

The target audience includes practitioners are the BAaBA, BCBA, and BCBA-D levels as well as graduate students.

Functional communication training (FCT) is the most effective function-based treatment for challenging behavior. Although FCT often results in robust treatment effects, challenging behavior often resurges after the termination of treatment. Schedule thinning using delays-to-reinforcement is often used to prevent the deterioration of treatment effect following FCT. However, delays-to-reinforcement alone are often not sufficient to prevent the resurgence of challenging behavior. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of choice of alternative activity during delays-to-reinforcement following FCT. Effects of the intervention were evaluated using a single-case ABAC design, with an embedded alternating treatments design in the C phase. Three adults with developmental disabilities participated. Participants were exposed to a pre-treatment functional analysis, initial FCT treatment, and a delay-to-reinforcement. During delays-to-reinforcement two conditions, choice and no choice, were implemented. During choice conditions, participants were given two stimuli and directed to choose one to use during the delay. During the no choice conditions, the experimenter provided the participant with an activity or item to interact with g the delay. Results and interpretation of key findings will be discussed.

Current literature supports the effectiveness of choice-making interventions on reducing challenging behavior. However, choice-making interventions can vary by the type of choices offered, such choice of activity and choice of materials. Few studies have compared these various approaches to choice-making interventions. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of choice of activity and choice of materials on both challenging behavior and task completion with two children with developmental disabilities. The two choice-making interventions were compared within an alternating treatment design embedded within an ABAB design. Both choice-making interventions resulted in a decrease in challenging behavior and increase in task completion, relative to baseline. However, choice of activity resulted in less challenging behavior relative to choice of materials for one of the two participants. Implications of the results will be discussed.

Token economies are commonly used in behavior-analytic interventions, but the relation between the exchange ratio and reinforcing efficacy of a token is not known. The purpose of the current study was to compare the reinforcing efficacy of 2 different tokens, each associated with a different exchange value (e.g., 1:1 and 5:1). Three adolescent males diagnosed with autism participated. A high-preference edible was identified for each participant and was made exchangeable for tokens for the duration of the study. In the first phase of the study participants were exposed to the exchange schedules associated with each token. In the second phase of the study sessions were conducted in which participants could select which token they earned following completion of the target task on a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule. For one participant, differential selection of the token with the smaller exchange ratio (e.g., 1:1) was observed across all token choice conditions. For 2 participants, following modifications to the token choice conditions, differential selection of a full token board containing tokens associated with a smaller exchange ratio (e.g., 1:1) was observed across conditions. Interobserver agreement data were collected for 33% of sessions across participants with an average agreement of 96.79% (range 76-100%).

Many behavior analysts currently consult in schools in a variety of ways, including conducting functional behavior assessments, writing positive behavior support plans, training teachers on effective classroom management, and more. Successful collaboration of an interdisciplinary team requires careful navigation to ensure consultation is effective and efficient. Sometimes referrals are unnecessarily made for individualized interventions where class-wide interventions may be more appropriate. Research has shown that class-wide intervention (e.g. universal strategies) can benefit most students and should be implemented before individualized supports. The purpose of this panel is to discuss strategies relating to conducting efficient observations, building rapport with classroom staff, ethical decision-making, ensuring treatment fidelity, and strategies for individual and class-wide interventions. This panel will also discuss a variety of strategies for building effective classroom management techniques that benefit all learners. In order for gains to be made and sustain in school consultation arrangements, behavior analysts must be equipped with these skills.

The purpose of this symposium is to (a) discuss the interdisciplinary literature on this topic, (b) merge and summarize the behavioral literature to provide a cohesive account, (c) analyze injuries in relation to antecedent classes and context, and (d) develop strategies, informed by a contextual behavioral taxonomy, for firearm safety training that might prevent unintentional discharges and associated injuries.

Behavior Analysts interested in working with police or other law enforcement.

Empirical analysis of the contexts in which UDs occur in law enforcement have only recently begun to emerge. We analyzed a novel sample of UD reports (N = 171) that occurred between 1992-2016, collected from one non-U.S. and three U.S. law enforcement entities. Using an established antecedent-behavior-consequence (A-B-C) taxonomy, reports were analyzed by context, officer behavior, type of firearm, injuries, deaths, and property damages. This study is the first to empirically document reports of UDs caused by the startle response and the first to analyze a substantial sample of UDs that involved handguns with a double-action only trigger mechanism. An expanded analysis of UD consequences suggested that deaths and injuries might be more prevalent than previously reported.

What is the impact of shifting focus in coaching and performance management from behavior to valuable accomplishments, as encouraged by Thomas F. Gilbert in his seminal book, Human Competence? This panel, chaired by the creator of an accomplishment based coaching and performance improvement methodology called Six Boxes Performance Thinking, reports on initial effects of an accomplishment based approach in a large ABA company, already known for its effective use of ABA with clients, employees, and OBM consultation with outside organizations. Executives from Brett DiNovi and Associates will describe how a focus on accomplishments has “changed the conversation” about performance and enabled them to more directly link the behavior of their people to business results through the valuable accomplishments that they contribute to the organization, while helping to prioritize their own efforts leading and managing organizational performance. Panelists will describe and respond to questions about the impact of a paradigm shift from behavior-based management to accomplishment based performance improvement. In an organization passionate about growing while maintaining quality service and optimal employee engagement, an accomplishment based approach focuses everyone on the valuable contributions needed for business success while connecting people more directly to the natural consequences of their day-to-day activities

The target audience includes BCBA's, professionals in leadership roles that supervise employees, and professionals responsible for the training of employees.

Choice is at its core one of the most relevant topics that our field has, does, and must continue to address. The study of choice has been relevant since the beginning - of everything. The concept cuts across nearly every line of research in the field; from philosophical issues to schedule work, from maze work to self-management, from choosing what tie to wear to choosing what program to implement, from behavioral economics to the behavior of the scientist. There lies choice, at every turn. How you respond to the statement: “making a choice” might well define you as a behavior analyst – or a mentalist. The short discussion will cover a brief history of choice research and how it has changed, and not, current directions, and potential future work. I hope you choose to attend while I have a lecture on choice!

I have been a behavior analyst since my mother sat me down in a mall in the 80s and told me to “just watch people”. I formalized that education with undergrad work at Eastern Washington University and graduate study under Thomas Armon Brigham at Washington State University. I focused on experimental evaluations of applied self-management programs, and of course, behavior analysis in general. I later worked internationally doing university development work across Africa and Afghanistan. It is there that I developed an appreciation for open educational resources. I hung up my soft money hat and returned to teach at my alma mater (i.e., EWU). Several years ago, after leaving academia, I joined the team at Northwest Autism Center and am currently the Operations Support Analyst - functionally doing OBM type work in an ABA setting. In my spare time (and that of my friend and colleague, Mr. Brad Bishop) we focus on bringing ABA to the world via YouTube. PsychCore was formed as a vehicle to bring change to how ABA is taught and disseminated. We have thousands of subscribers and ~700 videos covering specific issues related to ABA, EAB, and Behavior Analysis in general. Our success in teaching is not our own - we are students of Behavior Analysis first - and we seek to apply those principles at every level of our delivery of content. I currently reside in Spokane, Washington with my wife and four children, 2 dogs, a cat, and a bunch of fish.

Students who avoid academic work often have long and complicated histories that have established school-based tasks as aversive. Although problem behavior in the presence of academic tasks might be maintained by escape, interventions based on escape (e.g., allowing breaks contingent on work completion, escape extinction) may be counterproductive, even for those who are capable of undertaking the work. This presentation will discuss how the ways we approach interventions for work avoidance may affect students’ choices to attempt academic tasks, as well as how much work they do. Data collected from high school students will demonstrate how interventions designed to match the functions of work avoidance may negatively impact students’ choices about undertaking work, as well as their perceptions about the aversiveness of academic tasks. The presentation also will address the potential importance of incorporating choice into various aspects of intervention delivery for work avoiders, as well as how consideration of more remote reinforcement (and punishment) histories may be helpful in promoting students’ choices to engage with learning opportunities at school.

Jennifer L. Austin, Ph.D., BCBA-D has been applying the science of behavior analysis to improve outcomes for children and their teachers for over 20 years. Both her research and clinical work focus on how behavior analytic assessment and intervention strategies can be applied with typically developing children, as well as examining what adaptations may be necessary for making our science “work” in mainstream classrooms. She has worked with numerous schools in the US and the UK, focusing primarily on those in disadvantaged communities. Dr. Austin received her PhD from the Florida State University and currently serves as Professor of Psychology and Head of Behavior Analysis at the University of South Wales. Prior to moving to the United Kingdom, Dr. Austin served as faculty at the University of South Florida, California State University, Fresno and the University of Houston, Clear Lake. She is the President of the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis and a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavior Analysis in Practice.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Ronnie Detrich has been providing behavior analytic services for over 50 years. His work can be characterized as thorough-going behavior analysis drawing from the conceptual, experimental, and applied branches of our discipline. From 1970-1977, he worked at a pioneering Family Service Agency in Flint, Michigan providing behavior analytic services for anyone requesting help. Later, he developed and was the director of a state-wide educational and residential program for school-aged children with autism in South Dakota. In the 1980s, Ronnie was the director of a residential program based on the Teaching Family Model for adjudicated juvenile offenders in West Virginia. From 1986-2004, he was the clinical director for a large non-public school in the San Francisco Bay Area serving children with intellectual disabilities and serious behavior challenges. In addition, he also co-directed a public-school consultation project supporting students with academic and behavioral challenges. From 2004-2018, Ronnie was a Senior Fellow at the Wing Institute, an education policy think tank that focuses on the implementation of evidence-based practices in public schools. Currently, he is the proprietor of Detrich and Associates, a consulting project based in Logan, Utah. He also holds an appointment as adjunct faculty at Utah State University.

In recent years, Ronnie’s work has focused on the challenges of achieving adequate levels of treatment integrity in large systems, the role of the evidence-based practice movement in behavior analysis, and the large-scale implementation of effective practices in public schools. He is a trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and is on the editorial boards of Perspectives in Behavior Science and Exceptional Children. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Positive Behavior Intervention. Ronnie has also served on the editorial board of Behavior Analysis in Practice and was the Coordinator of ABAI’s Practice Board.

One of the ambitions of behavior analysis is “better living through behaviorism.” Many scholars in behavior analysis have been concerned about the slow adoption rate of effective behavior analytic practices. Perhaps the problem lies not in our practices but in our dissemination efforts. There are two aspects to disseminating our practices. The first is when we are working with families, educators, or businesses and we have identified an intervention to be implemented. In many instances, even though our services have been sought out, the individuals responsible for implementing the intervention do not do so with sufficient integrity to yield benefit. This represents a limited dissemination effort and the failure to achieve promised gains has the potential to harm the reputation of the individual behavior analyst, the organization providing the service, and the discipline of applied behavior analysis.

The second aspect of dissemination is the effort to increase broad scale adoption of the science and technology of behavior analysis. It is often the case that our dissemination efforts, such as publication in journals and presentations at conferences, at this level are passive. We have a 60-year baseline suggesting that these approaches have been largely unsuccessful. A re-thinking of our dissemination strategies may be warranted. Behavior analysis is the science of social influence and dissemination is a social rather than a technical challenge. It involves, at a minimum, someone disseminating and someone adopting what is being disseminated. It may be worthwhile to frame dissemination as a speaker-listener relation and more closely analyze the variables that influence both the speaker and listener.

A first step in doing this requires that we move away from our topographical definition of dissemination to a functional one. The ultimate criterion for judging dissemination is that a practice is adopted. Without adoption, there is no dissemination. Drawing from our own literature as well as the literature from implementation science and dissemination, an approach will be proposed that has the potential to increase the adoption rate of our practices.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

A mentor is considered a “teacher of teachers,” training both less experienced and advanced teachers. To mentor teachers operating within a scientific framework means to emphasize mastery of the components related to a strategic science of teaching. The role of the mentor is to conduct frequent teacher observations and provide data-driven feedback that facilitates the implementation of effective tactics. A mentor or supervisor must foster a symbiotic relationship in order to support teachers who function as strategic scientists, or those teachers who can characterize academic situations in scientific terms when identifying factors that impede student learning. In the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) model, mentors scaffold and facilitate teacher learning through ranked modules of in-service teacher training requiring (a) in-situ demonstrations of the effective application of behavior analysis to schooling and teaching; (b) the use of systematic and scientifically-based teacher observation systems such as the Teacher Performance Rate and Accuracy scale (TRPA); and (c) training in the analysis of the decisions warranted by visual displays of data. The purpose of this panel is to provide an overview of how to train and supervise teachers who can effectively utilize applied behavior analysis within general and special education classroom settings via strategic mentorship.

The target audience for our panel includes those interested in learning more about how to train and supervise teachers operating within a scientific framework.

Medical error is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States. The majority of these preventable events are attributed to miscommunication among healthcare teams. Medical students and nursing students currently receive healthcare communication trainings in a siloed fashion and are often taught differing ways to communicate the same information. Interprofessional trainings that bring medical professionals together early in their education may reduce the prevalence of miscommunication once students enter their respective clinical fields. TeamSTEPPS is a promising communication training package that has been developed to decrease medical errors related to miscommunication. However, methods for assessing the effectiveness of TeamSTEPPS are lacking in their precision and often depend on indirect, self-report measures. This symposium will provide an overview of the TeamSTEPPS model and will present data on the technical feasibility of virtual reality and eye-tracking as assessment tools for more precisely measuring the impact of a TeamSTEPPS training package.

Behavior Analysts working in Healthcare and Medicine; Behavior Analysts working with Virtual Reality

Token economies are tools used in a variety of applied programming; however, little research has evaluated the efficacy of procedures to establish token economies or the procedures necessary to train service providers to implement token economies. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss evaluations and applications of token economies across several settings and participant groups. In the first presentation, Dawson, Lerman, and Shillings examined the effects of paired versus unpaired tokens on responding with typically developing children. In the second presentation, Van Den Elzen, Kodak, Halbur, Niland, and Bergmann compared the effects of two chaining methods on the acquisition of clinically-relevant skills with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the third paper, Monaghan, Kisamore, Vladescu, Reeve, and Novak evaluated the effects of video-based instruction to train parents of children with ASD to implement a token economy. In the final paper, Kirkpatrick, Rehfeld, Rivera, Akers, and Sulak evaluated the efficacy of an intervention to teach undergraduate students to implement a token economy with children with literacy deficits. The discussant will describe the contributions of these studies to the extant research and suggest potential ways to further develop this area of research.

The target audience members for this symposium are practitioners and researchers.

Clinicians commonly use token economies in applied settings, yet there is surprisingly little research on the mechanisms that make token economies successful. Previous research has produced mixed results on the components that impact the success of token economies as well as the durability of responding in token economies over time. The current study assessed the persistence of responding in a token economy across two settings. The instructor in one setting paired tokens with backup reinforcers while the instructor in the other setting did not. Participants were two typically developing 3 and 4-year-old boys. The results showed that the absence of backup reinforcers in the unpaired setting did not affect the acquisition or maintenance of responding for either participant. However, the participants showed a preference for instruction in the setting with back-up reinforcers. These results suggest that the tokens served as generalized conditioned reinforcers but may also have had discriminative effects. These findings have important implications for the maintenance and generalization of responding that is maintained by token reinforcement.

Tokens are stimuli that are accumulated and exchanged for preferred stimuli. Though token economies are used in a variety of educational, residential, and clinical settings, the extant literature provides little guidance on how to condition tokens and establish a token economy. We compared two methods for increasing the exchange production schedule in token economies with a two boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the forward-chaining condition, only one token was initially placed on the board. In the backward-chaining condition, the therapist pre-filled the token board and left only the locations that would be filled within the session open. In both conditions, we increased the exchange-production schedule by one token until a terminal schedule of five tokens was reached. We then compared the acquisition of a new skill across both token conditions, an FR 5 schedule for preferred items, and an FR 1 schedule for preferred items. We found minimal differences across conditions for one participant. The second participant acquired skills more quickly with the backward-chained tokens. These data add to the extant literature by demonstrating two efficacious ways to establish token economies with children with ASD.

Noncompliance can be a concern for some children with autism and can affect their interactions with their parents. A token economy may be an effective and easily transportable strategy for parents to provide reinforcement to their children for compliance with directions. The results of this study (a) systematically replicated Spiegel, Kisamore, Vladescu, and Karsten (2016) by training parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to implement guided compliance and (b) evaluated the effects of video-based instruction to train parents of children with autism to implement a token economy to reinforce compliance and to decrease the need for the presence of a trainer by incorporating a self-scoring checklist. Participants were taught to correctly implement a token economy and evaluated their own performance via video recordings. These results provide clinicians with a means of teaching parents of children with ASD to implement a token economy and decrease the need for the presence of a trainer by incorporating a self-scoring checklist.

Behavioral skills training (BST) is a systematic teaching procedure aligned with the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). BST has empirical support as for its efficacy with populations such as individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). However, research regarding its use as a total package is lacking with educational staff such as teachers. Furthermore, research regarding its use as a teaching procedure for pre-service teachers is almost non-existent. We used BST to teach five undergraduate students enrolled in a special education field based course to implement a token economy using a fixed interval system of reinforcement with children who have literacy deficits, including those with special needs. A multiple baseline design across participant teaching dyads (a co-teaching environment) was used to assess implementation accuracy. Results indicated that BST was an effective teaching procedure and social validity measures indicated BST was agreeable with participants. Limitations and needs for future research are discussed.

Self-control can be conceptualized as preference for a larger delayed reinforcer over a smaller immediate reinforcer. Researchers have examined how to alter an individual’s preference between these types of reinforcers. In this study, the researcher examined the impact of reinforcer quality on preference for immediate or delayed reinforcers. Three 8- to 10-year-old students with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated. Researchers defined reinforcer quality as the reinforcer being available for its preferred duration. A participant chose between two response-reinforcer arrangements: continuous or discontinuous. The continuous arrangement entailed 5 m of access to a delayed reinforcer. The discontinuous arrangement entailed 30 s of access to a more immediate reinforcer. Only one arrangement entailed the preferred duration of reinforcer access. All three participants showed a consistent preference for one type of arrangement, regardless of the manipulation of reinforcer quality. Future research may re-examine the impact of reinforcer quality.

Token economies are commonly implemented in educational settings with individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Tokens stores are used to display available backup reinforcers, but the effects of array size on choice are unknown in this population. Choice overload is a phenomenon in typically developing populations in which an abundance of options leads to suboptimal choices. Recent research on the effects of array size on preference and toy engagement suggests that larger arrays may shift both preference and item engagement in typically developing children (Miller, Kaplan, Reed, and White, 2016), which may be consistent with choice overload effects. However, this preparation did not examine preference between array sizes and included duplicate items in the large array, which is not likely to occur in the natural environment. In the present study, we assessed preferences for small arrays, large arrays, and arrays in which the therapist selected the backup item (no choice) in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. We then assessed preference for array size across presentation modalities and varying levels of response effort. The results to date suggest that (a) larger array sizes were preferred to small arrays or no choice conditions, and (b) presentation modality does not affect preference for array size.

The majority of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not engage in recommended levels of daily physical activity (PA). The motivation to select or engage in PA may contribute to low levels of PA in this population but should be considered in relation to the concurrent motivations to engage in sedentary activities. Researchers observed increased selection of PA in typically developing adults when more PA options were made available and increased selection of appropriate activities as the effort required to access less-appropriate activities increases. The number of options and amount of effort required appear to influence motivation to select sedentary activities, but these effects have not been evaluated in the context of PA in children with ASD. Contrived reinforcement has been shown to increase PA engagement but may also influence the selection of physical over sedentary activities. We manipulated the number of PA options, effort required to access sedentary activities, and/or reinforcement contingency for engaging in PA on PA selection and engagement in 4 children with ASD. Increased PA options and effort to access sedentary activities increased PA selection for two of four participants. Delivering tokens contingent on PA increased selection and engagement for the remaining two participants.

Schedule thinning is an essential step in treating problem behavior, yet little research has been conducted to determine the method associated with sustained treatment effects throughout thinning. A frequently used method for thinning reinforcement involves providing the reinforcer following a programmed response requirement and progressively increasing that requirement (i.e., contingency-based progressive delay [CBPD]). This response requirement during CBPD could be dependent on (1) contextually appropriate behavior (e.g., math completion) or (2) the absence of problem behavior. We designed a computer program for college students to determine the effects of these two response requirements of CBPD on three behaviors: previously reinforced behavior (analogue problem behavior), currently reinforced alternative behavior (analogue functional communication response), and contextually appropriate behavior during the delay. Low rates of responding to the previously reinforced response (problem behavior) were sustained regardless of thinning method. For most participants, undifferentiated high rates of alternative behavior and contextually appropriate behavior were observed. Higher rates of contextually appropriate behavior were observed when the response requirement for math completion was in place during reinforcement thinning. These results support the use of a response requirement for behaviors that are expected of the individual when reinforcement is not immediately forthcoming.

We examined the effectiveness of a daily behavior report card as a tier 3 support in reducing off-task classroom behavior for a high school student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in two settings (i.e., Autism support classroom and inclusive science classroom). A preservice special education teacher in her final student teaching placement implemented the intervention. One 17-year-old female with ASD with high counts of talk outs and distractedness (i.e., looking at others) and moderate counts of finger picking during class was the focus of the intervention. A changing criterion design (CCD) across the three behaviors was used for baseline and intervention implementation data collection. Maintenance data were collected upon withdrawal of the intervention. The data were analyzed using visual analysis. Results indicate significant drops in level during intervention phases across all three behaviors with appropriate reductions in behavior with respect to increases in goal difficulty per use of CCD. Results suggest that the daily behavior report card intervention was an acceptable and effective treatment for reducing off-task behavior with this student. Data were collected to measure the preservice teacher implementation fidelity using a fidelity checklist. Additionally, results show that a preservice special education teacher can be trained to implement a tier three behavior management program for a student presenting inappropriate classroom behaviors with high fidelity.

Some types of repetitive and restrictive patterns of behavior characterized in autism and other developmental disabilities are maintained by automatic reinforcement assessed via functional analysis (FA). Due to the nature of automatic reinforcement (i.e., nonsocial/internal sources of reinforcement), tools that are sensitive to biological/physiological activity, and that can potentially differentiate sources of automatic reinforcement, are needed to measure whether stimulation is gained or attenuated. The current investigation applied the knowledge of FA, treatment analysis, and physiological measures to investigate the role that positive and negative automatic reinforcement play in the treatment of problem behaviors. Functionally equivalent physiological effects were utilized to determine if physiologically matched stimuli were more effective than non-matched stimuli in the treatment of automatically reinforced aberrant behaviors. The results show a connection between non-socially mediated behaviors and physiological outcomes. From a theoretical perspective, this research adds to the empirical basis for differentiating operant psychology principles of automatic positive and negative reinforcement, as well as, assessing the role that respondent conditioning plays in maladaptive behaviors (i.e., the extent to which sensory stimulation affects targeted behaviors – whether stimulation is gained or ameliorated).

Resurgence is the transient recurrence of a previously reinforced, but not currently occurring activity, when reinforcement conditions of some ongoing Alternative response are worsened. The degree to which reinforcement conditions need to be worsened to evoke resurgence, however, is not fully understood. This experiment assessed resurgence when the Alternative response was extinguished, in different phases, when an empty food hopper was presented dependent on keypecking and when the hopper presentations were omitted. Three pigeons were exposed to a three-phase resurgence procedure in which the Resurgence Test phase consisted of a single 6-hr session. Two cycles of the three-phase procedure were studied. During the first cycle Resurgence test, hopper presentations (without food) were delivered according to a VR 40 schedule of reinforcement during the Resurgence Test session. During the second cycle Resurgence Test session, the Resurgence Test occurred without any consequence for Alternative responses, that is, conventional extinction. Resurgence occurred during both Resurgence test conditions; however, generally more resurgence occurred in the absence of the hopper presentations and the time course of resurgence differed between the two conditions.

Resurgence is the increase in performance of an extinguished instrumental (operant) response that coincides with the extinction of a response that had been reinforced to replace it. Resurgence may involve processes relevant to relapse in applied and clinical behavioral interventions. While resurgence is a robust phenomenon in human operant extinction, the processes that control it remain unclear. We examined whether methods that reduce resurgence in animals also reduce it in humans. Undergraduate participants first learned to emit an operant response (R1) for a reinforcing outcome (snack food; O1). In a second phase (Phase 2), extinction was introduced for R1 and a second response (R2) was simultaneously introduced and reinforced with a monetary reward (USD $0.10 coins; O2). In a test phase, extinction was then introduced for R2 and resurgence of R1 was assessed. In Experiment 1, periodic exposure to R2 extinction during Phase 2 attenuated resurgence. In Experiment 2, response-independent presentations of O2, but not O1, during the test prevented resurgence. The results identify a role for generalization from Phase 2 to the test in determining resurgence in humans. Evidence suggests that resurgence may result from common processes in animals and humans, and it supports a contextual account of resurgence.

The last several years I have taught a workshop for board certified behavior analysts on the application of behavior analysis to improve organizational performance so that clients can achieve efficient progress. The workshop always begins with a discussion of Skinner’s pragmatic philosophy of science and its applications to research and practice. I ask participants if they can define pragmatism and if they have read any of Skinner’s writings that illustrate his pragmatic approach. Usually no hands are raised. Hence I have invited the presenters to discuss Skinner’s pragmatic philosophy of science, “Radical Behaviorism,” and its applications to behavior analysis research and practice. What role did Skinner’s pragmatism play in the discovery of more useful explanations of behavior and procedures for producing behavior change? How does a pragmatic approach differ from other approaches to research and practice? What might be the consequences for the future of behavior analysis if practitioners abandon Skinner’s pragmatism?

Researchers who prefer more useful explanations and practitioners who prefer more effective procedures will find this symposium useful in achieving their goals.

Several recent developments that have grown out of behavior analysis have, to varying degrees, strayed from Skinner’s pragmatic approach to the study of behavior and, therefore, threaten the scientific and theoretical framework of behavior analysis and, by extension, the Association for Behavior Analysis International. They are delayed discounting, relational frame theory (RFT)/acceptance and commitment theory (ACT), positive behavior support (PBS), and the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB). Each, in my opinion, has contributed to the erosion of the basic scientific foundation upon which behavior analysis is built. The combined effect is, to paraphrase B. F. Skinner by way of Mike Perone, the “circumvention of an operant analysis,” moving our discipline from being largely analytic to one that is increasingly descriptive and technological. One conclusion that can be drawn from this dramatic change is that those of us who consider ourselves true behavior analysts, that is, those who actually analyze behavior—not certified behavior analysts or behavior scientists—now possibly find ourselves in the minority. My point in this talk is that straying from Skinner’s pragmatic approach and the experimental and theoretical foundations of behavior analysis will dilute our science and, ultimately, our discipline.

Pragmatic considerations tend not to be uniformly well understood in behavior analytic research and practice. According to pragmatism, the value of an analytical or explanatory statement is found in its practical implications in the world of human affairs, rather than in some claim that it represents a metaphysical truth or reality. In this regard, the contemplative forms of science, such as the development of equations and models, are sometimes distinguished from the technological, such as interventions aimed at prediction and control. This presentation argues that these forms are more usefully understood as continuous than dichotomous. Equations and models are presumably derived from prior efforts to predict and control. These forms are valuable because of the further opportunities for prediction and control that they occasion, rather than any claims they represent laws of nature. In the applied arena, treatment fidelity and effect size surely seek to highlight pragmatic considerations for interventions. However, the complexity of clients’ histories and the setting sometimes makes the practical contribution of an intervention difficult to assess, especially when the intervention is balanced against ethical considerations. Throughout, the value of scientific statements in behavior analysis lies in the identification of the participating factors in contingencies.

Since 2009, ABAI has been working with the American Medical Association to establish billing codes for ABA. In 2014, the AMA adopted Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Category III (or temporary) codes for adaptive behavior services, and the majority of those codes became Category I (permanent) codes, effective January 1, 2019, as a result of joint efforts by ABAI, APBA, Autism Speaks, and the BACB. The AMA codes recognize that ABA services represent empirically supported and medically necessary interventions. As insurers, health plans, and managed care organizations have implemented the CPT I codes, behavior analysts have grappled with a wide array of issues, including contradictory interpretations of the codes, claims denials, and newly imposed hour limits. In this presentation, we will review the activities that the codes are intended to capture, identify the varying interpretations of the codes by funding sources, and discuss what comes next as we work to preserve and expand access to ABA that reflects best practices.

Behavior analysts

The panelists will discuss recent developments at the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). The most current data on the BACB’s certification programs will be provided: Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst, and Registered Behavior Technician. In addition, a number of recent and impending developments at the BACB will be described, including changes to certification standards, various international development activities, and the transfer of the VCS program to ABAI.

Behavior analysts

The benefits of regular physical activity and healthy eating are well known. Despite this, adherence to such regimes is often weak. As a result, interventions rooted in the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis have become increasingly popular and have been shown to be effective; however, many of these are limited to the application of direct acting reinforcers, and once removed, the effects are often short lived. Interventions based on verbal processes and non-associative processes may prove to be effective and allow for more enduring results. This symposium will present three papers examining the effectiveness of such interventions. The first presentation will examine the use of joint control procedures to increase acquisition rates for individuals in a group fitness setting. The second paper will examine the influence of habituation and satiation on food consumption with college students, and finally, the third paper will be a review and analysis of the effectiveness of interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on healthy eating behavior. Discussion of the results and overall implications will follow.

Graduate students, practitioners, researchers.

Cooperation among members of groups, or between groups, represents the challenge of these days. Understanding how cooperative behaviors can be developed and promoted, both at conceptual level and in the applied field becomes strategic. This symposium will address several perspectives on cooperative behavior, starting with a conceptual discussion of ways language may affect cooperation at the sociocultural and behavioral levels of analyses. In the process, we will analyze the important contribution by the Nobel Prize in Economics, Elinor Ostrom in the form of the eight Core Design Principles, associated with successful management of common resources. In this context, pro-environmental behavior can be seen as a form of cooperation in managing the common resources of our planet. Accordingly, an important step in our analysis of cooperation is the development of applied tools to foster individuals’ cooperative choices in relation to the environment and, in principle, for any social situation in which cooperation and not competition is required for the benefit of everybody.

Multilevel Theory of Selection offers a biological model to explain cooperative behaviors (seen as traits) that may challenge the traditional Darwinian view of natural selection favoring only the individuals. Cooperation in groups, established in order to manage conditions that benefit the individuals but that each individual cannot accomplish alone, is often negatively affected by behaviors of members of the same community that are able to take advantage from the group effort but do not contribute to cover the associated cost for its production. This situation may end up negatively affecting the survival of the community itself. Nobel Prize in Economics Elinor Ostrom defined eight Core Design Principles (CDPs) that characterize communities able to avoid the exploitation and the destruction of the common resources (as portraited by Gareth Hardin’s Tragedy of the commons) without resorting to an external regulating authority or privatizing their use. By drawing upon the behavioral analytic, as well as sociological perspectives, we will discuss the importance of verbal networks and rule-governance in the analysis of cooperation.

Human actions are causing damage to the environment and technologies that promote effective environmental education need to be developed and evaluated. Games have been used to teach different behaviors, as they improve the involvement of the student in the task and enable new contents to be learned. Building an educational game assumes a set of steps which, if they are followed, increase the likelihood of the game fulfilling its education and recreational function. The objective of this symposium is to describe and discuss the process of building a game aimed at teaching pro-environmental behaviors - “The Elected”. The process began by describing the game’s goal. We then specified the contingencies for achieving the game’s goal and established its formal elements - technology, mechanics, story and aesthetics. The game tells the story of a world in which the environment has collapsed, and humankind has been sent to outer space, but some people have been elected to return and make the Earth an inhabitable planet once more. The game should be played collectively, enabling the teaching of relevant social behaviors such as cooperation. A large number of people who use board games justifies the development of this type of technology.

Building Opportunities through Networks of Discovery (BOND) is a program for first-year students in the College of Science and Mathematics at Fresno State. The program includes behavior analytic education, is in its fourth year and was designed to improve student retention in the sciences. Students engage in practice, provide the solutions based on their research, and develop a sense of belonging to the College and University. The projects undertaken are intergenerational, collaborative, and “course-based research experiences” (CUREs) that are supported by campus Facilities Management and Water and Sustainability Institute administrators, who help with course content and provide students the campus data needed to propose research and solutions to real-life campus problems. Using “high-impact practices” that involve year-long authentic sustainability research on campus, the students in the program show increased STEM persistence as well as reduced achievement gaps when compared to control groups.

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is common among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Little is known about the relations between the forms and functions of SIB and the injuries it produces, yet there is reason to believe relations may exist. Hausman et al. examined the relations between automatic and social reinforcement functions of SIB and the location, type, and severity of injuries it produced in 64 individuals hospitalized for SIB. Results indicated that, of the 55% of individuals with injuries, engaging in a single topography of SIB increased risk of injury, and automatically reinforced SIB increased risk of head injury, specifically. Similarly, Rooker et al. examined the physical characteristics of SIB-produced injuries across groups of individuals with socially reinforced SIB and Subtypes 2 and 3 automatically reinforced SIB (see Hagopian et al., 2017). Results indicated that Subtype 2 automatically reinforced SIB produced the most frequent and severe injuries. Further, an inverse relation was found between the level of differentiation in the functional analysis and the number of injuries across groups. Although results of both studies are preliminary, they suggest the function of SIB may influence the severity and location of injuries produced. Implications for future research and clinical practice will be discussed.

Limited research has examined how the functions of self-injurious behavior (SIB) relate to the production of injuries and the location, type, or severity of those injuries. In the current study, clinical and medical records were coded for 64 individuals hospitalized for SIB. When injuries were present, the physical properties of SIB and injuries were assessed across groups of individuals with automatically and socially maintained SIB. Results indicated that injuries were observed for 35 of the individuals who engaged in SIB. Individuals who engaged in a single form of SIB were more likely to have injuries (p < .05). Further, individuals with SIB maintained by automatic reinforcement had significantly more severe injuries to the head than those in the social group (q < .05, p = .0132, H = 12.54). Although results are preliminary, the results provide evidence that the function of SIB may influence the severity and location of injuries produced.

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is inherently problematic because it can lead to injuries, including those that are quite severe and may result in loss of function or permanent disfigurement. There is reason to suspect that the function of SIB can affect its form, and consequently the injuries that SIB produces. The current study classified the physical characteristics of injuries across groups of individuals with automatically reinforced SIB (ASIB Subtypes 2 and 3) and socially reinforced SIB (attention and tangibly maintained). Differences were identified between groups, with individuals with ASIB Subtype 2 having the most frequent and severe injuries. Further, an inverse relation was found between the level of differentiation in the functional analysis and the number of injuries across groups. Additional research is needed to replicate these findings, and determine how the function of SIB affects the injuries it produces.

Regardless of an individual's age, toilet training is a critical life skill. Seminal behavioral research on toilet training was conducted with adults (e.g., Adrian & Foxx, 1971). As early intervention for children with autism has expanded, more recent research on toilet training has focused on evaluations with you children (e.g., Greer, Neidert, & Dozier, 2016; Tarbox, Williams, & Friman, 2004). However, needs may vary based on an individual's age. For example, after learning to eliminate in a toilet, young children may have a limited history with using the bathroom independently. This may require specific training on approaching the bathroom for eliminations. Later in life, individuals may have a long history of problematic behavior that interferes with independent self-care skills. Therefore, the purpose of this symposium is to present recent research on issues unique to participants from distinct developmental periods: early childhood and mature adulthood. The authors will present two evaluations of procedures designed to address issues prevalent in each developmental period (self initiations for young children and problem behavior that interferes with toilet usage for an adult). Finally, our discussant will provide recommendations on identifying issues unique to individuals of differing ages and ideas for methods to address these issues.

Researchers interested in the development of self-care skills; Practitioners who work with young children and older adults

Incontinence can adversely impact an individual’s quality of life, often increasing the likelihood of physical ailment, poor hygiene, stigmatization, disruption of schedule, and restriction of activities (Kroeger & Sorensen-Burnworth, 2009). Previous research suggests that multiple demographic factors may produce barriers to acquiring and maintaining continence. Such factors include: age, IQ, mobility, available resources and the prevalence of disturbing behavior patterns (Lohmann, Eyman & Lask, 1967; Eyman, Olmstead, Grossman & Call, 1993; Sadler & Merkert, 1977; Kahng, Iwata & Lewin, 2002). Our participant was a 51 year-old woman, diagnosed with a profound intellectual disability, who engaged in high rates of severe self-injurious behaviors (SIB) predominantly in the forms of head banging and head hitting. A changing criterion design and systematic generalization was implemented to enable appropriate toileting behavior in the natural environment. Treatment consisted of conjugate reinforcement for optimal toilet positioning with the absence of SIB, episodic positive reinforcement of eliminating in the toilet, and programed generalization across environments and staff. Results showed the maintenance of optimal toilet positioning, decreases in SIB (under 1 instance per min), and appropriate elimination in 96.3% of all available sessions. Direct support staff were trained to implement the program with 100% fidelity.

We present two sets of studies that evaluate teaching procedures for early acquisition of social behaviors in two populations: children with neurotypical development and children with Autism. This symposium extends the findings of Pelaez and colleagues (1996, 2011, 2012) by presenting parent-training procedures where the caregivers implement protocols that involve a number of behavior analytic tactics. The first presenter presents studies conducted with neurotypically developing infants that test the 1) effects of two forms of contingent vocalizations as well as control condition on the acquisition of vocalizations, 2) effects of three different caregiver bids on the acquisition of joint attention responses, and 3) effects of a behavior skills training approach on the acquisition of social referencing. The second presentation extends the first presenter’s findings to toddlers with autism. She tests the1) effects of social reinforcement versus no social reinforcement on the acquisition of eye contact, 2) effects of two forms of contingent vocalizations as well as control condition on the acquisition of vocalizations and 3) the effects of three different caregiver bids on the acquisition of joint attention responses. The discussant highlights the developmental sequencing of these social skills as well as prerequisite repertoires for early learning of communication and other more complex social skills such as perspective taking. The operant procedures and the data reported have significant implications for future research and for effective interventions with children with ASD.

This study consists of three experiments. The first experiment tests the effectiveness of social reinforcement on the emission of eye contact in toddlers with autism in an ABAB design. The second experiment examines the effectiveness of two forms of contingent social reinforcement (vocal imitation and Motherese speech) on increasing the overall frequency of vocalizations in toddlers with autism using an alternating treatments design across participants. Additionally, a third experiment tests the effectiveness of behavior analytic teaching procedures on the acquisition of joint attention responses in a multiple baseline design across participants. The findings extend previously published efficacy of these procedures in the training of eye contact, vocalizations, joint attention modeled after Pelaez and colleagues’ (2012) operant learning paradigm. The results of the study provide valuable information about identifying reinforcers for social responses as well as the sequencing of behavior chains as they relate to the development of more complex social responses.

As replications of previous research conducted by Paleaz and colleagues (1996, 2011, 2012), a series of three experiments were performed to examine teaching procedures for increasing vocalizations, joint attention, and social referencing in young children. The first experiment examines the effectiveness of contingent social reinforcement in the forms of vocal imitation and Motherese speech on increasing the frequency of vocalizations in neurotypically developing toddlers. An alternating treatments design across participants was utilized and results demonstrated a functional relationship between the implementation of the teaching procedures and an increase in participant vocalizations. The acquisition of joint attention through the implementation of behavior analytic teaching procedures was examined in the second experiment. A multiple baseline design across participants was employed and findings show a functional relationship between the increase in toddler joint attention responses and the intervention procedures implemented. Lastly, the third experiment examines the effectiveness of a Behavior Skills Training approach involving written protocols, vocal directions, role play, in-vivo practice and immediate feedback on teaching caregivers to increase their child's ability to engage in social referencing. Overall, the findings extend the research previously conducted by Pelaez and colleagues’ (2012) in demonstrating that the operant learning procedures employed were successful in the training of vocalizations, joint attention, and social referencing.

When provided with the opportunity to select between conditions in which multiple responses may produce reinforcement or conditions in which one response produces reinforcement, human and non-human animals more often select (i.e., display preference for) the conditions associated with multiple response options (i.e., choice-making conditions). However, this finding is neither static within, nor universal across participants. This data-based presentation will discuss learning histories and variations in choice presentation methods which impact these preferences.

Dr. Tiger is an associate professor of psychology and the behavior analysis program director at Marquette University. He completed his Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology at the University of Kansas under the guidance of Greg Hanley and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center with Wayne Fisher. Dr. Tiger is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and licensed behavior analyst in the state of Wisconsin. He has served on the board of editors of Behavior Analysis in Practice and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) and is a current Associate Editor for JABA. He also received the B. F. Skinner New Researcher Award in 2012, awarded by Division 25 of the APA. Dr. Tiger’s research emphasizes the development of effective intervention practices for individuals with developmental disabilities, while extending our knowledge of the basic processes that result in behavior change. Some examples of his research include evaluating the value of choice-making opportunities, developing stimulus control over social behavior through multiple schedule arrangements, and teaching braille related skills to individuals with and without visual impairments.

Relative to nondrug reinforcers, illicit drugs may be uncertain or variable in terms of their availability, quality, price, and time and effort to obtain. Thus, variability may be an important aspect that differs for illicit drugs relative to nondrug alternatives. Research has demonstrated that reinforcers available under variable schedules of reinforcement are generally chosen over reinforcers offered under fixed schedules. As such, illicit drugs may more effectively compete with more predictable, nondrug alternatives, perhaps due to an inherent variability of the conditions associated with the acquisition of illicit drugs. Conversely, drug choice could be reduced by making nondrug reinforcers available under variable schedules. To examine these issues, male and female rhesus monkeys are given choices between fixed and variable schedules of cocaine or food. In control conditions, both schedules are a fixed-ratio (FR) 50, 100, or 200. In test conditions, the schedule of cocaine or food delivery is changed to a mixed-ratio (MR) 50, 100 or 200 on one lever and an equal on average FR on the opposite lever. At sufficiently large MR values, choice of cocaine or food under an MR schedule tends to be greater than choice of the same reinforcer under an FR schedule. However, we see individual differences in the degree to which MR schedules are chosen across different cocaine doses and schedule values. Our findings suggest that variable availability could contribute to excessive allocation of behavior toward procuring illicit drugs at the expense of more predictable, nondrug alternatives, and this effect appears likely to persist during periods of scarce drug access.

Dr. Sally Huskinson is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neurobiology and Behavior Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Erin Rasmussen at Idaho State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree (2007) in psychology. She went on to earn her master’s (2011) and doctoral (2012) degrees in psychology at West Virginia University with the mentorship of Dr. Karen Anderson. In 2012, Dr. Huskinson went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology with Dr. William Woolverton until his untimely death in 2013. Dr. Huskinson finished her postdoctoral training with Drs. Kevin Freeman and James Rowlett, also at the University of Mississippi Medical Center where she currently resides. Her research interests are in drug abuse with an emphasis on drug self-administration and choice procedures, including delay discounting and uncertain drug access.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Several recommended practices for behavior-analytic supervision have recently been identified (e.g., Sellers, Valentino, & LeBlanc, 2016; Turner, Fischer, & Luiselli, 2016). These include establishing a committed and positive relationship, evaluating the effects of supervision, incorporating ethics and professional development, continuing a professional relationship after certification, and establishing a plan for structured competence- and performance-based evaluation. This tutorial will review specific strategies to address each of these practices. Given the recent emphasis on training and monitoring of supervisee skills throughout training (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2017), we will focus on how to use the BACB task list to implement competence- and performance-based evaluation throughout supervision. Additionally, we will make suggestions for the ongoing evaluation of the effects of supervision.

New and experienced BACB supervisors who have completed the 8-hour supervision training.

Dana Reinecke is a doctoral level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a New York State Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA).  Dana is a Core Faculty member in the Applied Behavior Analysis department at Capella University. Dana provides training and consultation to school districts, private schools, agencies, and families for individuals with disabilities. She has presented original research and workshops on the treatment of autism and applications of ABA at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in published books, and co-edited books on ABA and autism. Current areas of research include use of technology to support students with and without disabilities, self-management training of college students with disabilities, and online teaching strategies for effective college and graduate education. Dana is actively involved in the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA), serving as President in 2017 and 2018.

Cheryl Davis is a licensed and certified behavior analyst as well as a special education teacher who received her doctoral degree from Endicott College in Applied Behavior Analysis. Cheryl is an Assistant Professor at The Sage Colleges, as well as owner of 7 Dimensions Consulting, LLC. She received a Master’s of Science Degree in Intensive Special Education from Simmons College in Boston, MA after attending The University of Connecticut where she received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development. Cheryl then pursued her BCBA, while working in a world renown ABA school. With over 25 years of experience working with children and families with autism, developmental disabilities, and related disorders, Cheryl specializes in effective supervision for upcoming BCBA/BCaBA candidates. She has a passion for supervision, in both providing it to people who are in locations with limited access to behavior analysis and working with other supervisors to develop best supervision practices. Cheryl also specializes in skill acquisition programming for clients in need, online teaching, and active student responding. She has had experience as a supervisor, teacher, job coach, home therapist, residential supervisor, public school consultant, staff trainer and professor. Cheryl has extensive experience in developing training topics for both parents and teaching staff.

Task-analysis instruction is widely used for teaching and learning how to visualize data using computer software. Numerous studies demonstrate the efficacy of specific task analyses for teaching students and behavior analysts how to create graphs; however, little is known about the properties of task-analysis instruction that promote skill acquisition. Findings are reported from two component analyses of the instructional content presented in a computer-based tutorial for creating a reversal-design graph in Microsoft Excel. The first study demonstrated the relative effects on learner performance of describing and presenting images of: (a) stimuli to which a learner must respond, (b) the target responses required to create the graph, and (c) stimulus changes in the graph and the software's graphical user interface that are produced by correct responses. The second study further analyzed the relative effects of presenting text and images on graphing performance. The findings informed the development of a checklist of best practices for designing and evaluating graphing instruction, which will be shared.

Behavior analysts visually analyze graphs to interpret data in order to make data-based decisions. Front-line employees, such as the Registered Behavior Technician, are the forefront of behavioral intervention and responsible for its direct implementation. Though front-line employees implement behavioral interventions on a daily basis, they are not often trained to interpret these data. A clinical decision-making model may aid front- line employees in learning how to interpret graphs. Such training will allow front-line employees to evaluate whether the data suggest a learner is struggling with a prescribed intervention, if variations in treatment implementation may be affecting obtained data, and to identify these potential outcomes to provide optimal and individualized therapy. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a clinical decision-making model on the percentage of correct clinical decisions interpreted from line graphs. All of the participants increased their percentage of correct responses after the introduction of the clinical decision- making model. Two of the 8 participants required additional feedback. The implications of these findings are discussed.

While equivalence-based instruction has been thoroughly investigated using a variety of stimulus-stimulus relations (e.g., auditory-visual, visual-visual etc.) across settings and participants, the formation of equivalence classes with video stimuli has yet to be fully systematically investigated. Videos are widely used by learners of all ages in training and educational settings, and the widespread availability of high-speed internet across devices makes an investigation into how to incorporate video-based stimuli into emergent learning protocols socially relevant and necessary. The current study evaluated the use of video vignettes to teach Skinner’s verbal operants to ABA practitioners, and the establishment of six 4-member equivalence classes (the elementary operants) where only two relations in each class were directly trained. Specifically, the purpose of the current study was to assess whether the use of video vignettes as part of an EBI system using selection-based conditional discrimination and match-to-sample training, and topography-based tact training, would result in the establishment of equivalence classes and emergent responding across response topographies. Initial data suggest that, like other stimulus-stimulus relations, compound auditory-visual stimuli, such as videos of applied vignettes, can be used to form equivalence classes with minimal direct training and a near immediate emergence of derived relational responding. Implications and future research questions will also be discussed.

Internal validity in research is demonstrated through the careful implementation of experimental designs and procedures that mitigate the impact of threats to validity or confounds caused by variables that are challenging to completely eliminate (e.g., opportunities to learn with another in other settings, participant abilities that change throughout study, and testing effects). Within-subject designs are uniquely able to reduce the threats to internal validity with repeated measurements of performances, the establishment of stable baseline responding, the measurement of effects of the repeated application of the independent variable, and the replication of the effects of the independent variable in a multiple-baseline design. However, in research with skill acquisition where gradual changes in learner performances are difficult to observe (e.g., in equivalence-based instruction (EBI) protocols in which skills are generally acquired quickly and posttests demonstrate the near immediate emergence of untrained responding), traditional experimental designs have been seen as insufficient in mitigating threats to internal validity. We discuss some of those criticisms and propose a possible solution based on experimental isolation that might control for threats to internal validity inherent in pretest-posttest designs, particularly in EBI research.

The discipline of behavior analysis is experiencing rapid growth, which is especially noticeable in recent the increase of university programs offering training in behavior analysis. There are currently two mechanisms for university training programs to be recognized: accreditation of degree-granting programs and verification of course sequences. This panel will present these systems, including their procedures for obtaining and maintaining recognition along with their respective goals. This session is designed for current VCS coordinators, program directors of ABAI-accredited programs, and those interested in applying for either system of recognition.

Welfare can be a complex construct to define and measure. Some caretakers approach welfare in a topographical sense that is characterized by implementing certain environmental arrangements that are presumed to improve animal well-being. Alternatively, a functional approach can be taken which involves objective outcome measures. Identifying objective outcome measures comes with its own challenges and it is not always obvious if and how a behavior is related to welfare. We may consider welfare on a continuum that caretakers must consider and make decisions upon regarding what it means to make progress towards greater welfare of the animal. Furthermore, histories of the individual animal and species influence what efforts are required to assess and improve the animal’s well-being. Organizational contingencies may also make it difficult to sufficiently address welfare concerns. This symposium will provide examples of how behavior analysts have contributed to behavior-informed welfare measures in a variety of applied settings. Insight into the challenges of navigating organizational constraints will be discussed, as well as recommendations for collaborating with other professionals towards improved welfare of animals.

Behavior analysts interested in utilizing our science and technology to positively influence the welfare of animals are encouraged to attend.

With improvements in shelter adoptions and reduced volume of animals entering many shelters, some shelters now have the ability to keep animals for longer periods of time until they are adopted. However, with this comes new challenges for keeping dogs behaviorally healthy during their stay at the shelter. This, coupled with most shelters limits on staff and resources, makes finding programs that are easily implemented essential. We will discuss research looking at assessing welfare of dogs in shelters using behavior and two programs that were focused on improving welfare while minimizing the impact on staff time and shelter resources. The two programs are co-housing shelter dogs and brief sleepovers. In the co-housing study, dog-friendly dogs were paired with another dog or kenneled alone and behavior was assessed over a seven-day period. The brief sleepover study evaluated dogs before, during, and after a one- or two-day sleepover with a volunteer foster. We will discuss what impacts those programs had on the behavior and welfare of shelter dogs and where they point for future interventions.

In an animal shelter, welfare ideally includes husbandry, enrichment, behavior assessment and training, as well as finding the right home for the animal. The right home ideally includes families who are motivated to train the pet to be a good family and community member. To further this mission, for animals with special behavioral needs, a pre-adoption behavioral counseling session was required that entailed a discussion of the problem behavior, what assessment had been done, and what training had been effective (or not). The adopter was then instructed in how to carry out the training before they took the animal home, and they reported progress as the animal made the adjustment with its new family. They then came back in in the following month to report as to how the training was going and to ask any questions. Along with other programs, this can be an effective model for adoption of animals with problem behaviors.

This symposium reviews four studies conducted in a school for children and young adults diagnosed with autism and a learning disability. Teachers within the school are encouraged to replicate research conducted in other settings (schools and clinics) and to evaluate the results of their work. They are encouraged to conduct basic research to determine the effectiveness of different tactics in the classroom and also advanced research in terms of inducing emergent behaviour. The first study reviewed a variety of procedures for addressing vocal stereotypy and established the most effective procedure for each individual participant. The second study focused on establishing a more creative curriculum with embedded reinforcement to increase the rate of learning in the classroom. The final two studies focused on using multiple exemplar instruction to induce emergent behaviour: either the joining of speaker behaviour and writer behaviour or emergent intraverbal vocal responses. A school setting that encourages and reinforces research within its setting clearly results in positive outcomes for the student population.

BCBAs

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of embedded reinforcement on engagement with curricular stimuli and acquisition of learning objectives for a 5 year old male with an autism spectrum disorder. Weekly learn units to criterion were compared for 6 weeks prior to the treatment; whilst the participant followed a typical individualised curriculum in an ABA school with a token economy reinforcement system in place. During the 6 week treatment phase the curricular stimuli was manipulated to incorporate the participants known reinforcers and key interests, all other conditions remained the same as baseline. Embedded reinforcement resulted in a significant decrease in learn units to criterion demonstrating an increased acquisition of learning objectives and indicating that individuals preferences and interests should be considered and creatively embedded into their curricular stimuli. Implications of these findings and further research suggested to address limitations of the study are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of multiple exemplar instruction on the transfer of stimulus function across writing and vocal spelling responses. The participant was a 13 year old boy with a diagnosis of autism. Prior to the onset of the study, he did not demonstrate joint stimulus control of spelling across saying and writing. Multiple exemplar instruction was utilised to induce this emergent behaviour. The participant required a modified multiple exemplar instruction procedure which included an additional opportunity to see the letters of the word after saying them and hear the letters of the word after writing them. The results showed an increase in the number of correct untaught responses to the initial set of words. Furthermore, when a novel set of words were taught as a written spelling response, the untaught vocal spelling response emerged. Similarly, when a further novel set of words were taught as a vocal spelling response, the untaught written topography emerged. The findings demonstrate the inducement of transfer of stimulus function across vocal spelling and writing as a result of MEI procedures. This has implications for incidental learning in the classroom once transfer of stimulus function has been acquired.

The present study replicated a study by May, Hawkins, and Dymond (2012) by testing for the emergence of intraverbal vocal responses following tact training with four children diagnosed with autism. Participants were taught to tact the name and favourite food item of two contrived cartoon monsters in the presence of a picture of the monster. Following tact training, test probes revealed the emergence of untrained vocal intraverbals, in the absence of the pictures, in one participant. The present study therefore extended the original study by implementing multiple exemplar instruction with a different set of materials for the remaining three participants. Once the criterion was met on the multiple exemplar instruction procedure then the initial test for the emergence of intraverbal vocal responses was conducted. All three participants were successful with this post-test and a subsequent re-test using a novel set of stimuli. Using multiple exemplar instruction to induce emergent intraverbal vocal responses is discussed along with the limitations of this study.

Children are routinely exposed to potential hazards in everyday environments that may lead to injury, harm or even death. Safety skill instruction remains an important area of focus for scientist practitioners. This symposium will present four diverse papers focusing upon safety skills. The first paper will review strengths and gaps of safety skills research of individuals with ASD. The second paper will present research evaluating the extent to which BST conducted in a single context would evoke the safety response across a range of contexts. In the third paper, research on the use of social referencing to teach safety skills to toddlers with autism will be presented. The fourth paper will present findings on the use of videomodeling to establish differential responding to lures across known and unknown people. This symposium will commence with comments from an expert in safety skill instruction, Dr. Ray Miltenberger. Effective instructional strategies and areas of additional research will be discussed.

scientist practitioners

Teaching individuals a safety response when they encounter a firearm may be one way to prevent accidental injuries or death. Previous researchers have used behavioral skills training (BST) with and without in-situ training to teach individuals with and without disabilities to engage in a safety response in the presence of a firearm. However, few studies have arranged BST to ensure the safety response occurred in response to a representative sample of all relevant stimulus features for which a response should be evoked. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which BST conducted in a single context established stimulus control that would evoke the safety response across a range of contexts under which a dangerous stimulus could be encountered in a room in a house. All participants demonstrated a discriminated safety response following BST. Further, safety responses generalized across all contexts not associated with training for all participants.

The purpose of this study was to teach safety skills to 2 toddlers with autism through a social referencing chain. Experimental control came from a concurrent multiple probe design across stimulus categories within subjects, and a concurrent multiple probe design across stimulus sets. Participants were trained using differential reinforcement and least-to-most prompting to gaze shift from an item in a bin or a lunchbox to an adult and reach or use an “all done” response based on the adult’s facial expression. Mastery of the skill with the stimuli used in training were followed by social referencing probes where the child could not see the items within the bin or lunchbox and a novel items probe where unfamiliar items were presented in the bin and lunchbox. Results show acquisition of both discrimination between safe and dangerous stimuli and the maintenance of a social referencing chain in the presence of novel stimuli. Interobserver agreement was calculated for 31.6% of sessions and averaged 91.4% (range 75%-100%). These findings are discussed as they relate to the implications of teaching socially valid safety skills to toddlers with autism.

Deficits in safety skills and communication place individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at risk of danger. Abduction prevention remains an understudied area. Video modeling has effectively resulted in the acquisition of safety skills for individuals with developmental disabilities and ASD. Existing research has yet to evaluate responding to lures from known people. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video modeling to teach appropriate responding to lures from strangers using a multiple probe across participants with an embedded adapted alternating treatments design. We extended research by assessing responding to lures from known people by securing a code word using video modeling as the sole intervention. In addition, we programmed for and assessed generalization using multiple lure types, confederates, and locations. Participants learned to appropriately respond to lures from strangers and known people after viewing a video model and generalized responding to novel community settings, people, and lures. Maintenance was assessed for three participants at least one week following mastery criteria and maintained the skills. Procedures, goals and outcomes were considered socially valid among parents, clinicians, and educators.

The treatment of rumination disorder in neurotypical adolescents has received an increase in attention over the past 10 years. Behavioral interventions have been shown to be the mainstay of treatment, with approaches studied such as the use of diaphragmatic breathing, biofeedback, habit reversal therapy (HRT), distraction, gradual refeeding, and habituation. Most demonstrations of efficacy, however, have utilized case studies or a group of patients undergoing non-standardized treatment protocols. As such, the utility and generalizability of results has remained difficult to ascertain. The current paper demonstrates the challenges in outcome variable selection, data collection, and presentation of results by presenting three case studies. Each adolescent took part in an inpatient intensive treatment program specifically designed to treat adolescent rumination syndrome. While the general approach to treatment was similar across patients, each patient’s rumination presentation, individual needs, and treatment goals were distinct enough to make similar data collection across patients a significant challenge. Treatment and data from each admission will be presented to highlight these challenges and the need for a methodology to compare results across patients and studies.

Meta-analysis of single case experimental designs (SCEDs) can uniquely advance the scientific literature and guide evidence-based service delivery–particularly for comparatively rare populations and/or syndromes (e.g., rumination disorder). Notwithstanding these potential benefits (e.g., cross-field interoperability, identification of moderators and mechanisms of change, increased external validity of ideographic results), meta-analysis of SCEDs has been stymied by a lack of feasible, valid, and translational methods. For instance, visual analysis of time-series data, especially data with autocorrelation, can be unreliable and prone to overestimating the presence and/or level of an effect. Additionally, the ubiquitous autocorrelation in SCEDs’ time-series data contraindicate conventional statistics, including common meta-analytic computations of statistical significance and effect size. Although some extant methods do address autocorrelation, they typically require an oft-prohibitive number of data points per phase. One notable exception is simulation modeling analysis (SMA), a free, user-friendly bootstrapping technique designed to perform both univariate effect-of-phase and multivariate process-change analyses with autoregressive data streams while maximizing power and minimizing Type I error rates. Prior studies have demonstrated SMA’s utility with individual SCEDs, but the current presentation will propose and illustrate a novel application of SMA for meta-analyses with SCEDs and discuss potential implications for behavior analytic scholarship, practice, and policy.

The purpose of the current meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of common treatments for rumination disorder in an intellectual/developmentally disabled population with limited verbal abilities. No publication to our knowledge has yet to statistically evaluate and compare these treatments in one comprehensive study. Our literature search resulted in a total of 45 articles and 72 individual cases receiving treatment. The mean age for participants was 22 years and 30% were female. We used simulation modeling analysis (SMA) to determine the effect size of the change in rumination between baseline and treatment phases. The cases were categorized into establishing operations (EO), punishment (PU), and reinforcement (RE). The effect sizes were then combined within each group and an ANOVA was used to determine statistical significance between groups. Results of this study can inform the field by identifying effective treatments to be implemented for rumination disorder as well as what treatments have been shown to be ineffective. The study also serves as a pilot of utilizing a novel methodology in the estimation of comparison of effect sizes in single case designs.

It is important for the experimental and applied domains of behavior analysis to collaborate. Recent basic and translational research has demonstrated that practitioners can use quantitative models (e.g., Behavioral Momentum Theory and Resurgence as Choice Theory) to improve applied treatments for socially significant behavior. The presentations in this symposium will discuss the implications of basic and translational research evaluating the effects of baseline and treatment duration on the resurgence of target behavior. The symposium will consist of four presentations followed by comments from Dr. Timothy Shahan. First, Holly Pericozzi will present on the effects of baseline reinforcement history as a mediator of the resurgence of target behavior in adults with developmental disabilities. Next, Madeleine Keevy and Kayla Randall will present studies evaluating the effects of treatment duration on the resurgence of problem behavior in children. Finally, Kaitlyn Browning will discuss the effects of treatment duration on the resurgence of target behavior in rats.

Practitioners, faculty, graduate students, and professionals

In functional communication training (FCT), resurgence of destructive behavior may occur when reinforcement is not delivered for the alternative functional communication response (e.g., when the caregiver is busy with a sibling). Researchers have used quantitative models such as Behavioral Momentum Theory (BMT; Shahan & Sweeney, 2011) and Resurgence as Choice Theory (RaC; Shahan & Craig, 2017) to make predictions about this type of treatment relapse. Both BMT and RaC suggest that more time arranged in extinction for target responding (e.g., destructive behavior) will lessen resurgence. Whereas BMT would predict time in extinction as a highly influential variable on the resurgence of target behavior, RaC would predict time in extinction may not be as influential. Basic and applied investigations (e.g., Wacker et al., 2011; Winterbauer, Lucke, & Bouton, 2013) have generated mixed findings about treatment duration and its effect on resurgence. In this study, we exposed participants with destructive behavior to three durations (i.e., short, moderate, and extended) of FCT which each consisted of three phases (i.e., baseline, FCT, and extinction) to clarify the necessary duration of treatment to produce the least amount of resurgence.

The four presentations in this symposium will illustrate evidence based practices in teaching higher order instructional objectives. The first two presentations examine teaching higher order thinking and planning repertoires, beginning with Vivian Mach, who will describe procedures for teaching children to generate questions when faced with a discrepant situation - the critical initial step in the reasoning process. Next, Shiloh Isbell will detail a a schoolwide extension of an executive functioning curriculum that assesses specific skill deficits, teaches students relevant planning and tracking repertoires, and probes self-reflection of students’ developing skillsets. In the third presentation, Drew Bulla will present a study that investigates how to select and craft specific active student responding questions to promote higher order conceptual learning. Finally, Aoife McTiernan will discuss the process of launching a learning center in Wales to teach a wide array of these foundational and higher order instructional objectives to typical learners. The chair will make comments on each presentation in turn as the symposium proceeds.

behavior analysts and other psychology and educational professionals

The Academics Intervention Service (AIS) at the University of South Wales provides academic tutoring to children between the ages of 6-11, using behavior analytic instructional approaches. An overview of the service is provided, as well as case examples, which demonstrate typical instructional components and outcomes. The AIS has recently been developed within the Behaviour Analysis Clinic at the University, and provides opportunities for both psychology and behavior analysis students to gain experience in the application of behavior analysis in educational settings. In addition to providing a description of services, we describe the clinical training provided, and discuss the advantages and potential barriers to growing such a service. Further analysis and data should be collected in order to evaluate long-term benefits for both clients and trainee professionals learning to provide behaviour analytic services. However, early data demonstrates benefits for each client in targeted academic domains and that the AIS a valuable setting for students and trainee professionals.

Individuals with developmental disabilities often have difficulty acquiring functional repertoires in written expression. Writing skills are critical as they are often required for success across academic, social, and employment contexts. Of the many written expression skills, sentence writing serves as a foundational unit for more complex responses (e.g., paragraphs, essays). Unfortunately, there is limited research on the effects of intervention on sentence writing skills within this unique population. In this session, the presenter will describe a series of recently published single case studies (i.e., concurrent multiple probe designs) demonstrating the efficacy of an instructional package for teaching sentence writing skills across 10 individuals with developmental disabilities. The package, comprised of response prompting, modeling of autoclitic frames, and technology, resulted in the rapid acquisition of targeted responses and generalized responding across novel instructional stimuli. The presenter will describe findings based on individual learner performance and suggest areas for further iteration and new investigation.

With the rising incidence in young children being suspended and expelled from pre-school settings, on-going examination of evidence-based social/emotional/behavioral interventions is essential. The present pilot study explored the feasibility of a social/emotional/behavioral intervention on teacher and student behavior. Children and teachers were recruited from an inclusive early childhood center in a Midwestern city to participate in this study focused on explicitly teaching behavioral expectations. Using a multiple probe design across three children, the impact of scripted stories, role plays, prompts, and positive reinforcement was examined. Teachers were trained on how to implement the intervention through simple technical assistance meetings, including on-going feedback. Although teachers did not implement all intervention components with high fidelity, a change in behavior was observed for all three target children which resulted in an established functional relation between the intervention package and child adherence to behavioral expectations.

Supervisors often use performance-feedback to train staff members to implement behavioral interventions. However, few studies have focused on evaluating methods to teach supervisors to provide effective feedback. The purpose of the current study was evaluate the use of video modeling with voiceover instructions to teach supervisors to provide performance feedback. In Study 1, we used a multiple-baseline design to evaluate the use of video modeling with voiceover instruction to train nine supervisors to provide performance feedback to a confederate therapist implementing a guided-compliance procedure. Specifically, we assessed supervisors’ accuracy with implementing eight feedback component skills during scripted role-plays before and after video modeling. We also assessed the extent to which supervisors’ skills generalized when providing feedback to an actual therapist implementing the guided-compliance procedure with a child with autism. All supervisors mastered the feedback component skills following video modeling. During Study 2, five of the supervisors trained in Study 1 used performance feedback to teach five therapists working with children with autism spectrum disorder to implement a guided-compliance procedure. All therapist learned to implement the guided-compliance procedure with a child with autism. Overall, the results of the current study suggest that video modeling may be an efficacious and efficient method to train supervisors.

There is an estimated annual turnover of 48.1 to 53.6% (M = 50%) in direct support professionals working with adults with autism and related developmental disabilities. Risk of turnover is substantially increased when direct support professionals are required to manage challenging behaviors, such as aggression, in the work environment. Such a high turnover rate translates into reduced continuity of care, negatively impacted quality of behavioral interventions that are delivered, and in turn reduced quality of life of care recipients. The current study explored the relationship between subtypes of aggression experienced, turnover, and cognitive outcomes of direct support professionals supporting adults with developmental disabilities. Results found that being the recipient of verbal aggression from adults with DD predicted a significantly higher risk of burnout and job turnover in direct support professionals than other aggression subtypes, such as physical aggression, despite caregivers indicated experiencing an equal severity of aggression across subtypes. These findings are used to make recommendations for the implementation of function-based treatments for verbal aggression while exploring opportunities for promoting direct support professionals’ coping behavior, such that risk of burnout and staff turnover is minimized.

Rarely are verbal responses, even the simplest ones like saying the colour or name of a common visible object, not preceded by a verbal antecedent, such as a question. The ability to discriminate questions is therefore one of the most fundamental listener and speaker skills, yet it is poorly understood and underappreciated by ABA curricula. The present study will present both an analysis of intraverbally-controlled tacting and the first investigation to date on how to establish it effectively. Following chance responding on baseline measures across multiple probes of different stimulus classes (coloured items, numbers, animals), four children with autism underwent a procedure that brought tact responses under multiple echoic, intraverbal and non-verbal control on one set of stimuli only. Results showed that all participants were able to discriminate questions with respect to trained stimuli and demonstrated generalisation to novel stimuli across novel classes. In other words, once children learned to understand the question, they were able to demonstrate such understanding by answering questions on completely new stimuli. The present research provides clinicians with a conceptually systematic framework for teaching complex and generalised verbal behaviour to children with autism that is firmly based on a Skinnerian analysis of verbal stimulus control.

We evaluated a procedure to teach answering questions about visual stimuli (i.e., intraverbal-tacts) by echoing the key word in the question. For example, in the presence of a blue cup and the question, “What color?” the participants were required to respond, “Color blue.” We evaluated two categories of questions: Object/Color (i.e., “What is it?” “What color?”) and Shape/Number (i.e., “What shape?” “What number?”). Stimuli in each category were distributed into one trained and two generalization sets. Cross-category probes were untrained combinations of trained components of visual stimuli: colored numbers, colored shapes, and colored shapes with numbers. We used a multiple probe across behaviors and participants design with 3 preschoolers with autism. After mastering the trained sets, all participants demonstrated generalized question answering across all generalization probes. IOA data were collected in 100% of sessions across participants and phases; means were 95-100%.

Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) has been shown to be an effective treatment strategy for a range of populations, including individuals with autism. Recent behavior analytic attention has been paid to ACT, as evidenced by a recent surge of behavior analytic training/workshops, curriculum materials and protocols, research publications, etc. While promising, limited information is currently available for practitioners to assess their integrity with implementing ACT with their clients. Similarly, behavior analysts have minimal resources to consider ethical conduct when implementing behavioral therapies in general, and ACT specifically. Therefore, the current panel will discuss relevant scope of practice for behavior analysts when implementing ACT in their practice. The goal of the panel is to provide attendees with insight into specific areas, to ensure ethical and quality implementation of ACT. The following topics will be discussed: implementation strategies, ethical considerations, and strategies for targeting private events. All three panelists have published empirical studies using acceptance and commitment training and relational frame theory (RFT), and are board certified behavior analyst-doctoral.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts

A simple behavior usually occurs in the presence of a stimulus followed by a response. This response then obtains a reinforcer depending on the reinforcement contingency. In a sequence from a behavioral chain, the response serves as a stimulus for a different response. That response leads to reinforcement, depending on the reinforcement contingency. Multiple sequences make up a chain of behavior. The chain of behavior is complete when the “task goal” is met. Chained behaviors are often rule-governed. One essential rule is that each step in the sequence has to be completed in order to move to the next step. Completion of sequences eventually leads to completion of the chain of behavior. The failure to complete even one step in the sequence prevents the completion of that particular sequence, making it impossible to complete the chain or “task goal”. This paper will discuss what causes interruptions in or “breaks” chains of behavior in humans, in turn preventing them from achieving their goals. It also discusses the ways in which one can prevent long-term broken chains taking into account the value of completing tasks in the RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Entrepreneurial and Conventional) domains.

This talk outlines the background, nature, explanations existential crises. About 75% of people have unresolved existential crisis. Existential crises occur in route to discovering meaning in life through successful resolution of conflicts. The route itself is explored as one which is identifiable due to historical periods of time increasing the overall availability of choice within societies. There is a further key differentiation between availability and accessibility of choice. Each crisis differs in their complexities and the goals that are pursued in desire of their resolution. These goals are further explored within the scope of their fulfillment or lack thereof. Furthermore, the explanations of existential crises are broken down into sociological, cultural and biological factors. They all play key and differing roles in how they structure not only the occurrence of existential crises but also a person’s likelihood to resolve their crises. Existential crises themselves should be regarded not negatively but positively for its allowing of people to find the meaning that they desire in their lives. People resolve for themselves what their true interest are and how to fulfill them through behavioral choice. Conformity and lake of “smarts” interfere with finding such meaning.

From a behavioral selectionist perspective, it is not the individual who chooses, but the consequent stimuli (e.g., reinforcers) that select out responding. New reinforcers are learned throughout the lifespan, just as new responses are learned. When new reinforcers are acquired, stimuli that do not function to reinforce are transformed such that new stimulus control is established. The question is: How do stimuli that did not have value come to be transformed into reinforcers, or, how are new reinforcers learned? This presentation will describe three ways in which new reinforcers are established with children: stimulus-stimulus pairings, operant procedures, and observational conditioning-by-denial procedures. These procedures have been successful in altering the value of stimuli leading to changes in a) musical preference and “appreciation,” b) food preferences, c) social reinforcers, d) educational reinforcers, e) foundational verbal developmental cusps, such as observing responses, and f) stimulus control for social learning.

Dr. Jessica Singer-Dudek is the Director of Transdisciplinary Programs in ABA at Columbia University Teachers College. She also serves as a Senior Behavior Analyst Consultant to schools implementing the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) model, and serves as the CABAS® Professional Advisory Board Secretary/Treasurer. Dr. Dudek’s research interests include component analyses of successful behavior analytic models of education, teacher and supervisor training, verbally governed and verbally governing behaviors, establishment of early observing responses, verbal behavior development, conditioned reinforcement, and observational learning.

Classic models of signal detection assume that subjects set a criterion on a similarity dimension, calling all events below that S1 and all above S2. The criterion should be set at the point that maximizes the expected (long run) payoffs. This tutorial describes that model and the effect of discriminability (d’) on the ability to accurately position the criterion. It is shown that the forces driving the criterion toward optimal are too weak and complicated to ever work when discriminability is poor. How do subjects do it? They don’t: They deviate systematically from optimality. Why? What do they actually do? Will any model successfully predict their behavior? How is Gerd Gigerenzer relevant? These questions will be answered, and those answers questioned.

Peter received his doctorate in 1969 under the perplexed gazes of Howie Rachlin, Dick Herrnstein, and Fred Skinner. His first (and only) position was at Arizona State University (in the department Previously-Known-As Fort Skinner in the Desert). He has studied choice behavior and schedule-induced responses like polydipsia, reinforcement schedules, timing, and delay discounting. His reinforcers include the Poetry in Science Award; the APA Div. 25 Med Outstanding Researcher Award; the Hilgard Award for the Best Theoretical Paper on Hypnosis (!); the F. J. McGuigan Lecture on Understanding the Human Mind (!!); Presidents of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior, and the 3rd International Seminar on Behavior (SINCA). A year at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Oslo birthed a paper that received The Faculty of 1000’s “Must Read” for its behavioral energetics theory of ADHD. His statistic prep was an Emerging Research Front Feature on Thomson Reuters Sciencewatch. He has written oodles of screeds on Choice; his first, now receiving social security, showed that pigeons were indifferent between free food and schedules where they had to work for it https://goo.gl/E8gzSo; his last was a deep dive into the logistics of choice https://goo.gl/y9GjJG. What matters in his golden years is family and friends, the well-being of behavior analysis, and thinking deep thoughts. He is urging our field to turn some of their efforts to understanding the role of emotions in behavior, and bridging to the outer world through embodied cognition. About these you will hear more at the presidential address.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Misophonia is an understudied but relatively common respondent behavior condition, the effects of which range from annoying to debilitating. Misophonia is known as a condition where commonly occurring innocuous stimuli (e.g. chewing sound) elicit anger and accompanying physiological responses which function as motivating operations for overt aggression and escape. Although there are some common misophonic stimuli, each person has a unique set of stimuli, which often includes auditory and visual stimuli, but can be any sensory modality. Misophonia is similar to general sensory sensitivity which is common with autism, but the management and intervention for each are quite different. Misophonia was first identified and named by audiologists and has been considered a hearing disorder. Recently misophonia has come to be viewed as an anger disorder and the focus of psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscience. Behaviorally, misophonia may be considered a classically conditioned physical respondent phenomenon, and it may be more appropriate to view misophonia as a conditioned behavioral disorder.

Behavior analysts, psychologists, school counselors, and other clinicians

Misophonia is characterized by an autonomic response that is elicited by certain innocuous or repetitive sounds (Edelstein, Brang, Rouw, & Ramachandran, 2013), and individuals with misophonia may display an extreme, overt response commonly associated with rage, hatred, and a loss of self-control (Dozier, 2015). In this investigation, we used an operant approach to treat problem behavior evoked by bodily sounds (i.e., coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and clearing throat) for a young adult with autism spectrum disorder. The procedure involved pairing bodily sounds with preferred edibles at fixed intervals and withholding attention from the participant if he engaged in problem behavior (i.e., attention extinction). In addition, problem behavior did not produce any delays to the presentation of the next bodily sound (i.e., escape extinction). The intervention produced immediate reductions of problem behavior and the effects of treatment maintained during progressively lean schedules of reinforcement. A brief review of past research, along with implications for research and clinical practice will be discussed.

Michael Pettit is an associate professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, CA where he teaches in their unique Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology program. He is the author of The Science of Deception (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and over a dozen articles on the history of the social and behavioral sciences.

The behavior of nonhuman animals continues to elicit considerable interest not only from scientists, but from a wide range of publics. This fascination means studies of animal behavior often have a double life, a source of a scientific knowledge while also providing edifying entertainment. For this reason, students of animal behavior have had to grapple with an array of (both wanted and unwanted) audiences for their research. In this talk, I will offer examples from the history of psychology, with a particular focus on the controversies over animal sexuality and cognition, to illustrate the ways in which scientific knowledge has been consumed and contested.

The audience includes those interested in the history and theory of psychology and the behavioral sciences.

This presentation will provide an overview of the origins of the present opioid crisis, now in its second decade, in the United States. This year alone it is estimated that approximately 50,000 lives will be lost to opioid overdose with innumerable others suffering other consequences of the disorder. Effective interventions must span the continuum from prevention (both through education and improved opioid prescribing practices), expansion of evidence-based treatment and increasing additional harm reduction approaches to decrease the health risks associated with opioid use and injection drug use. The basis for the use of pharmacotherapies for the treatment of opioid use disorder are grounded in the principles of behavioral pharmacology, and the empirical evidence for the efficacy of our pharmacological armamentarium will be reviewed. The utility of additional behavioral approaches to augment the effectiveness of pharmacotherapeutics will be discussed. Finally, innovative programs that are having significant impact on the crisis will be discussed.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

The assessment and treatment of problem behavior has long been a focus of behavior analytic research and practice. By conducting literature reviews, researchers connect relevant literature, synthesize empirical findings, and discover important relations that might not be detected by reading a series of empirical papers. In this way, literature reviews may help guide future research and practice. This symposium seeks to highlight and summarize literature on current assessment and treatment practices. The presenters will discuss: the extent to which descriptive assessment and functional analysis (FA) results correspond; the prevalence and use of synthesized contingencies in FAs; the scope and outcomes of different function-based treatments for multiply-maintained problem behavior; and the extent to which stimuli identified through a competing stimulus assessment have been incorporated into treatments for problem behavior. The potential merits and implications of the existing literature for assessment and treatment of problem behavior will be discussed, and recommendations for future research and practice will be provided.

BCBAs, applied behavior analytic researchers, students of behavior analysis

Several recent studies have compared the relative effects of, and preferences for, reinforcer arrangements that provided either a) immediate, but discontinuous, access to a reinforcer following a small response requirement (i.e., distributed reinforcement) or b) delayed, but continuous (or uninterrupted), access to the same total quantity of the reinforcer following a larger response requirement (i.e. accumulated reinforcement). Most (but not all) comparisons have revealed that learners prefer, and work more efficiently, under the accumulated reinforcement condition despite the inherent delay to first contact with the reinforcer. The studies in this symposium extend our understanding of these effects in multiple contexts and under multiple conditions. The themes collectively explored include implications for varying applied contexts (e.g., feeding disorders, skill acquisition, problem behavior); effects of effort permutations (e.g., task difficulty, task mastery), and effects of schedule requirements (e.g., reinforcer production schedules, token exchange-production schedules). Collectively, the studies contribute to our understanding of the determinants of choice and preference and advance our knowledge of best practices for individualized learning arrangements.

Intermediate

We evaluated preference for and efficacy of distributed and accumulated response-reinforcer arrangements during discrete-trial teaching for unmastered tasks. During the distributed arrangement, participants received 30-s access to a reinforcer after each correct response. During accumulated arrangements, access was accrued throughout the work period and delivered in its entirety upon completion of the work requirement. Accumulated arrangements were assessed with and without the use of tokens. In Experiment 1, four of five participants preferred one of the accumulated arrangements and preference remained unchanged across mastered and unmastered tasks for all 5 participants. Four individuals participated in Experiment 2 and we conducted replications with new target stimuli with three of these individuals (for a total of seven analyses). Target stimuli were mastered more quickly in one of the accumulated arrangements in six of the seven analyses. Partial correspondence between preference and efficacy outcomes was obtained for two of the three individuals for whom both experiments were conducted. These results support prior research indicating that many learners with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities prefer accumulated reinforcement and that accumulated arrangements can be as effective as distributed arrangements in teaching new skills.

Sleep problems are ubiquitous among children and adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These problems are unlikely to abate without treatment, resulting in adverse long-term effects on the daytime functioning and wellbeing of people with ASD and their siblings, parents, and others. To effectively address sleep problems, it is important to first identify the variables controlling relevant behavior. Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is a process that can help facilitate an understanding of the reinforcement contingencies that either disrupt or facilitate bed preparation, sleep onset, self-soothing behavior following night wakings, and waking at an appropriate time in the morning. From this process, caregivers and clinicians are more equipped to devise individualized and function-based treatment programs for individuals diagnosed with ASD whose sleep is chronically disturbed. This symposium contains a series of presentations as follows: (a) discussion of the core behavioral model of sleep with specific considerations of how this needs to be adapted for individuals diagnosed with ASD, (b) efficacy evaluation of function-based treatments with and without melatonin for sleep problems of children diagnosed with ASD, (c) effectiveness of adolescent-led or combined parent/adolescent-led behavioral treatments for sleep problems in 7, 9-15 year old participants diagnosed with ASD, and (d) outcome data for 40 participants diagnosed with ASD who have received function-based treatments for their sleep problems.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Graduate Students of Behavior Analysis, BCaBA, RBT, Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Pediatricians

Sleep is essential to health, wellbeing, and development and chronic sleep disruption has many adverse consequences. Children and adolescents with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder have high rates of sleep disturbance. For typically developing children Blampied and France (1983; JABA, 26, 477-92) proposed a bio-social-behavioral model of pediatric sleep disturbance for typically developing children that explains sleep disturbance in terms of (a) stimulus control (or its lack) for sleep-interfering and facilitating behaviors, and (b) related contingencies of reinforcement for the behaviors. Going to sleep is a state transition supplying primary reinforcement for a terminal link in a concurrent chain, where choice of sleep facilitating or interfering behaviors is dynamically influenced by the salience of the stimuli for the concurrent chains and the associated schedules of reinforcement. This model guides functional behavioral assessment of sleep disturbances and the design of remedial interventions. This talk will outline the model and elaborate on those aspects that need particular attention to adapt it for children and adolescents with ASD, such as the impact of extended device use, stereotypic behavior and or high-intensity challenging behavior. This is intended to provide background information for papers to follow in the symposium.

Sleep problems are prevalent and persistent in young children, especially children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These problems negatively impact the health and development of young children and are often challenging to address for caregivers and clinicians. Pharmacological interventions, such as melatonin, are commonly recommended for pediatric sleep problems despite limited research on their efficacy and social acceptability. Function-based behavioral interventions shows merit as a promising alternative but has yet to draw to focus of mainstream treatment providers. This present study evaluated the efficacy of personalized and assessment-based behavioral intervention with and without melatonin on the sleep problems of children diagnosed with ASD. Nighttime infrared video and sleep diary were used to measure sleep interfering behaviors, sleep onset delay, night and early wakings, the total amount of sleep, as well as other relevant variables in the participating children. Parents and caregivers were encouraged to assist with treatment development during the assessment process and served as interventionists at home following behavioral skills training. A multiple-baseline-across-subjects designed was used to evaluate the treatments. Parents also provided feedback on the acceptability of each treatment and on their satisfaction with the outcomes. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option, their comparative efficacy, and the extent to which parents can implement the strategies with integrity are discussed.

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit significant sleep problems e.g., delayed sleep onset latency, and frequent and prolonged night wakings throughout their life, but there is little research into effective interventions for them. Previous research has largely focused on sleep problems in non-verbal preschool or school-aged children with autism, where parents are the primary intervention agents. We illustrate how behavioural sleep interventions can be adapted to include young people with ASD, who are verbal and have various levels of functioning, in therapy. The current study used a single-case multiple baseline design to evaluate the effectiveness of adolescent-led or combined parent/adolescent-led behavioral treatments for sleep problems in 7, 9-15 year old participants with ASD. Selected participants displayed sufficient communication abilities to participate in therapy, assessed by clinical judgement and the Communication domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales; inclusion was not limited by IQ. Preliminary analysis indicates both young person-led and combined parent/ young person-led treatment approaches resulted in a reduction in target sleep variables for 6/7 participants. Parent and young person treatment fidelity and social validity data will also be presented. The process and implications of including young people with ASD within the therapeutic process will be discussed.

Sleep problems in children and adolescents with autism are often maintained by antecedent variables and reinforcement contingencies unique to the individual. Functional Behavioural Assessment (FBA) is a tool used identify this unique combinations of variables for each individual. To date, few large N studies replicating the evaluation of function-based interventions for sleep problems in people with autism exist. This presentation reports the outcomes of a series of single-case multiple baseline design studies evaluating the effects of function-based, parent-implemented interventions for 40 children and adolescents with ASD. Data was gathered using a combination of daily parent-reported sleep diaries, videosomnography and actigraphy and was used to calculate a Sleep Problem Severity score for baseline, treatment, and short- and long-term follow-up. Treatment fidelity, reliability and social validity data were also collected. Preliminary analysis indicates that FBA-based interventions led to a reduction in some or all sleep problems for all children who completed intervention. These gains were generally maintained at short- and long-term follow-up. The implications of these findings for clinical practice and future research will be discussed.

Behavior analysis has been shown to be effective in addressing behavior in a multitude of populations and settings. However, there are still many populations that remain underserved and understudied in behavior analysis. The current symposium will address various methods of assessment and treatment for criminal offenders, an understudied population. The first presentation will cover a multicomponent intervention to reduce problem behavior and multipharmaceutical interventions with adolescent offenders diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The second presentation will discuss a study on the use of rules, role playing, and feedback to increase appropriate behavior with adjudicated adolescents. The third presentation will cover the use of relative risk to determine high- and low- risk environmental and behavioral factors related to severe aggression in juvenile offenders. Finally, the last presentation will discuss the use of behavioral interventions such as differential reinforcement to increase appropriate behavior and decrease inappropriate behavior with adult male prisoners. Implications and future directions will also be discussed.

Behavior analysts who currently work with or are interested in working nontraditional populations such as juvenile offenders, prisoners, and/or ID offenders would benefit from the research in this symposium.

Psychotropic medication is frequently used to treat behavior disorders in adolescents with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, despite the risk of severe side-effects from the medication. A multi-component behavioral intervention was associated with a reduction in severe problem behavior presented by three male adolescents attending a residential program in the UK. Prior to their admission to the program, the three young people had been prescribed 3-4 psychotropic medications by community-based psychiatrists. None of the participants were attending school prior to their admission to the program and two had received criminal convictions. Alongside intensive behavioral treatment concurrent with systematic withdrawal of their psychotropic medication, the participants all attended the on-site school and gained a range of awards and qualifications. They were also able to participate in staff supported community-based activities such as food and clothes shopping, visits to the cinema, sports events, and restaurants. During their time in the program, two of the young people went on to attend college and work experience. The success of the behavioral treatment concurrent with the withdrawal of the medication perhaps demonstrates that the increasing prevalence of polypharmacy should be questioned by behavior analysts.

Adolescents who have been adjudicated may engage in excess behavior immediately following verbal directives or reprimands from staff. Excess behavior may include verbal aggression, indices of disrespect (e.g., eye rolling, grunting, obscene gestures), or even physical aggression. These excess behaviors may evoke further directives or reprimands from staff which in turn escalates the excess behavior. These cyclical interactions may result in severe consequences for both staff (e.g., risk of injury, involvement in an incident report) and adolescents (e.g., risk of injury, time out). Teaching adolescents who are detained to respond appropriately to staff directives and reprimands may produce large collateral changes in the way staff interact with adolescents in detention facilities. We taught eleven adolescent males who had been adjudicated to respond appropriately to staff directives and reprimands through the use of behavioral skills training. All participants showed low percentages of appropriate reactions in baseline and high percentages of appropriate reactions during treatment and generalization sessions. Implications of programming to teach appropriate reactions to diverse populations are discussed.

Although functional assessment is an ideal approach for developing behavioral treatment, there are some scenarios in which it is difficult or infeasible. For behaviors that occur infrequently and are extremely dangerous, obtaining objective and reliable information can be challenging. For example, it would be unethical and dangerous to conduct a functional analysis of aggression that is likely to result in severe injury to staff members and it would be difficult to obtain indirect information if the behavior occurs infrequently. However, relative risk can be used to determine risk and protective factors for the occurrence of these difficult-to-assess behaviors. A relative risk calculation compares the conditional (factor-specific) rate or probability of a behavior to the unconditional (overall) rate or probability to provide information about conditions in which the behavior is more or less likely to occur. The current study was conducted in a long-term detention facility for juvenile offenders. We used environmental and resident behavior characteristics to calculate relative risk for severe aggression. Examination of specific factors such as the time of day, day of week, location, and latency to first instance of behavior indicated risk and protective factors for severe aggression. Implications for treatment, assessment, and future research are discussed.

Most behaviors recommended to slow, prevent or adapt to global warming entail delayed consequences that may be inadequate to maintain behavior change. A challenge to any effort to organize behaviors responsive to climate change is increasing the current value of those behaviors to individuals, organizations and communities and consideration of their value to future generations. A framework for research and practice to govern consumption of community resources and preserve natural capital for future generations might consider what determines ‘sticky’ interventions that persist over time and attract others to invest in their expansion. Central to this framework are principles governing collective action, policies that define contingencies and organizational models that promote valuing of natural resources over unchecked consumption. Presentations in this symposium will highlight the emerging discussions and research associated with socially relevant issues.

Academicians, students, and practitioners who are interested in performance improvement in organizations.

Large populations in urban centers leads to increasing complexity and concurrency between contingencies that affect individuals and groups. Modern urban mobility debates focus on how to implement policies that address this issue in an environmentally conscious account. Private automobiles are the preferred transportation in urban centers, however bicycles are gaining attention as an environmentally friendly alternative. This presentation discuss methodological developments to measure the impacts of the implementation of bicycle lanes on the use of bicycles as a basic means of transport. Counting of individuals biking were conduct in two two-hour time intervals by two independent observers on four days before bike lane implementation and four days after implementation. Follow-ups with equal measures were made in two months after the bicycle lanes are open. Video feeds from public security cameras were obtained, which allowed the use of BORIS software. A complementary software was developed in PASCAL to increase measurement precision from the video feeds in BORIS. Preliminary results indicated precise measurement and high IOA (≥90%). These developments are important to discuss the difficulties of evaluating public policies in developing countries such as Brazil, which can have direct implications for efficient urban planning and sustainable development.

Solid waste management has often been target of interventions in behavior analysis therefore this research had the purpose to develop a cultural design to this practice. Two studies were made in a community. The first one followed a systematized guidance used to cultural designs and 21 people participated. The procedure was divided into two stages to gather information about the community demand for pro-environmental practices and about the inappropriate practice of solid waste management. As a result, the cultural design was planned. The second study consisted of the implementation of a cultural design and 33 children participated. It was divided into: environment modification, instruction activities, gamification strategy and a practical activity. A baseline procedure was performed before the interventions and at the end of the program, two follow-up sessions were held. After each phase, the products of behaviors were measured. The results showed that the proportion of correct discards in Follow Up I and II was significantly higher than the first baseline (p = 0,0001?5%), as well as the proportion of separations by recyclable and organic items in both Follow Ups was significantly higher than the second baseline (p = 0,0001?5%). It was concluded that the cultural design was effective.

For many practitioners, protecting clients’ sexual behavior rights and the safety of clients and others can be a challenging balancing act. Clear operational definitions of sexual behavior are a key component in choosing supports that best serve our clients and those around them. This symposium presents behavior analytic conceptualizations of defining problematic sexual behavior, and difference between sexual behavior and romantic behavior. This symposium also presents data on the implementation of interventions for treating harmful sexual behavior using best practice and technology. Presenters will discuss resulting data and their implications as applicable, and will discuss recommendations for future research, instruction, and applied projects.

For many individuals in the US, cultural and formal education conflate romantic interest with sexual interest. It is often taught that a sexual relationship necessitates a romantic relationship, and vice versa. Because of this, skill set needs may be assumed and training may focus on skills that don’t align with client desires. For clients with asexual or aromantic identities, there is still great room for growth in providing ethical and affirming services with skill building that validates these identities and their unique needs and that centers bodily autonomy. Examining cultural assumptions about interpersonal closeness, this talk examines tacting different components of desire, communicating desire, and skill building to meet idiosyncratic interpersonal goals.

Prior research has demonstrated that response rate pertaining to target responding can affect levels resurgence (e.g., Reed & Morgan, 2007; Da Silva, Maxwell, & Lattal, 2008). However, the effects of response rate have not been evaluated with clinically relevant populations. We conducted a two-experiment study in which we translated the results of Da Silva et al. (2008). In Experiment 1, we assessed resurgence of respective mands with distinct response rates (in Phase A) including a relative high response rate (i.e., under a FR 6 schedule of reinforcement) versus a relatively low response rate (i.e., under a FR 1 schedule of reinforcement) with an equal rate of reinforcement in individuals with autism. The results of Experiment 1 were idiosyncratic and inconsistent with basic findings. In Experiment 2, based on aspects of the findings in Experiment 1, we incorporated a discrimination procedure and subsequently evaluated relative resurgence of responding across conditions with different rates of responding. The results of Experiment 2 were consistent with the basic findings in that higher levels of resurgence were associated with higher rates of responding. Future avenues of research and potential implications of the current results will be discussed.

This symposium presents four papers using methodological variations to ask new and interesting questions about stimulus control and equivalence relations and their role in the organization of complex behavior. The first paper, by Dunvoll et al. examines the differences in N400 peaks when unrelated familiar and unfamiliar stimuli are presented during equivalence testing. When compared, the results indicate no difference in N400 peaks. The second paper, by Braaten and Arntzen, explores whether participants are able do discriminate between stimuli of a variety of sizes when presented in the periphery of a matching-to-sample task. The results show a significant difference in participant’s ability to discriminate stimuli of difference sizes and positions. The third paper, by Niland and Vaidya, examines the effects of common reinforcers on the emergence of simple discriminations. The results indicate differences in performance across the two arrangements and are related to Sidman’s theory of equivalence. The final paper, by Luc and Vaidya, asks whether the Stroop effect is produced by conflicts among stimulus classes by training stimulus-stimulus relations using equivalence procedures and using a go/no-go task so measure responding to congruent and incongruent combinations. Results replicated findings in Stroop literature which demonstrate slower reaction times to incongruent stimuli.

Research has demonstrated that equivalence class formation is reflected in the electrophysiological (EEG) component N400. Stimulus pair related through symmetry and transitivity/equivalence do not produce a negativity at 400 ms after stimuli presentation while unrelated do. In the current experiment, 6 adults with high function autism participated. They were trained in 6 conditional discriminations with C-stimuli as meaningful before a priming test with EEG-measures. Here related and unrelated stimulus pairs were presented, symmetry relations and half of the unrelated consisted of stimuli with one meaningful picture. The results show that the transitivity/equivalence pairs produced a greater peak in the N400 than symmetry pair (see Figure 1). The unrelated stimulus pair with familiar stimuli produced a N400 similar to the unrelated stimulus pair without familiar stimuli. The conclusion is that meaningful stimuli in itself did not produce a change in the N400 component.

In visual search, peripheral vision plays an important role. The present experiment investigated to what extent participants attends to stimuli that vary in size and positions in the periphery. Participants were taught eight conditional discriminations. In the test conditions, four stimuli sizes and three stimuli positions were manipulated in 12 blocks, 24 trials each. In the test trials, participants had to fixate their gaze on the sample while selecting a comparison stimulus. Eye movements were measured with a head-mounted eye-tracker. In Experiment 1, arbitrary relations were trained and tested. In Experiment, 2 participants were exposed to identity matching of abstract stimuli, and in Experiment 3 participants were exposed to identity matching of simple shapes. Initial results show that participants in Experiments 1 and 2, discriminated between abstract stimuli in the periphery when they were 0.7 cm or larger. If stimuli were 0.7 cm and more than 12 cm from the fixation point, discrimination ceased. Participants were unable to discriminate stimuli that were 0.3 cm regardless of position. When stimuli were simple, participants discriminated stimuli as small as 0.3 cm when they were 6 cm and 12 cm from the sample position but when the distance was 18 cm discrimination decrease.

Behavior analyst practitioners use reinforcement-based procedures to increase desirable behavior and to reduce undesirable behavior. The success of these procedures depends in part on the clinician’s ability to identify reinforcers and deliver them in an effective manner. Understanding how to identify reinforcers is critical to designing and implementing effective reinforcement-based interventions, and requires a working knowledge of preference assessments. However, there are few resources available to practitioners that synthesize the rich technology of reinforcer identification that behavior analysts developed over the past 30 years. This tutorial reviews different preference assessment methods that have been published in the behavior analytic literature, how to identify stimuli to include in assessments, the prerequisite skills required for each assessment, and the conditions under which assessments should be conducted to maximize the validity of preference hierarchies that are established. Variables that influence preference assessment outcomes are reviewed, including the effects of pre-assessment motivating operations, displacement effects that result from including items from different categories (edible, tangible, social) on the same assessment, and the role of differential consequences following selection responses.

Behavior analytic practitioners and clinicians who work with individuals with autism and developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Richard B. Graff, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LABA, has worked in the field of autism and developmental disabilities for 32 years. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Training and Services at the May Institute. He previously served as Senior Scientist and Clinical Director at the New England Center for Children and as a clinical consultant to the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. Rick is on the Board of Directors of the Berkshire Association for Behavior Analysis and Therapy and serves on the Conference Planning Committee for the Association of Professional Behavior Analysts. Rick also serves on the Code Compliance Committee of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board® (BACB®). He is an Adjunct Faculty member for Western New England University and Endicott College. Rick's research interests include preference and reinforcement, choice, functional analysis and treatment of challenging behavior, and skill acquisition in learners with severe disabilities. Rick has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Interventions, and his research has been published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavioral Interventions, Behavior Modification, Research in Developmental Disabilities, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and The Journal of Special Education.

The topic of field experience supervision has received growing attention in recent years, as evidenced by the continuously evolving BACB field experience standards and the recent special edition on supervision in Behavior Analysis in Practice. In addition to the exponential growth of new BCBAs functioning as supervisors and supervisees pursuing this supervision, there is also growing variability in the topography of training experiences and the capacity in which BCBAs function as supervisors. However, the field experience standards and the majority of literature to date on best practices in providing this supervision discuss the provision of supervision in a simplistic, supervisee-supervisor dyad. There has been little discussion of navigating complex and multifaceted supervisory relationships, from both the perspective of the supervisor and the supervisee, in service of producing optimal supervisee learning outcomes. In this symposium, supervisors and former supervisees will share their experiences in navigating these multifaceted supervisory relationships and the effect it had on their ability to provide and receive socially valid, effective supervision. We’ll conclude with suggestions for empowering both supervisors and supervisees in creating socially valid field experiences, aligned with Biglan’s (2015) recommendations to “make everyone’s environment more nurturing—less coercive and more caring, supportive of human development, and focused on doing what works” (p. 213).

current or future field experience supervisors; current or future field experience supervisees

Large institutions, such as universities, can be compared to large, slow-moving barges. With established processes and procedures already in place, it can be near impossible to change the direction quickly. And yet, with the continuous, unanticipated changes from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), we have been expected to change our graduate training programs quite abruptly (in the context of how long it takes for such changes to be processed and approved by the governing institution). One such adjustment is required to meet the new field experience standards. With the upcoming removal of university oversight from the field experience standards, we have been compelled to think outside of the box to determine how we can continue to facilitate quality field experiences to our students. Looking towards other professions as models, this discussion will include comparisons to other professions and the role of universities in overseeing their training requirements, how the removal of university oversight from the field experience standards may impact graduate training programs, and details about how one institution has navigated these changes in order to continue facilitating socially valid field experiences for its students.

Consultative supervision models have developed out of necessity; in many instances, supervisees pursuing field experience supervision may not have access to a local BCBA, or the BCBA directly responsible for the supervisee’s clients may not have the capacity to provide field experience supervision. As a result, BCBAs sometimes act as “3rd party” supervisors, such as when a supervisee hires a BCBA to provide field experience supervision or when university faculty provide field experience supervision outside of traditional lab settings. While this model has increased the accessibility of field experience supervision for supervisees, providing adequate supervision and training in a consultative model has its challenges. It is often difficult to provide effective training and feedback due to the nature of this model, in which 3rd party supervisors may have little to no control over clinical decisions regarding the supervisee’s clients. In addition, when providing feedback to a supervisee in this model, it can be challenging to do so in a way that is perceived to be collaborative, as opposed to critical, by other supervisors involved. The consultative supervision model creates several competing contingencies for the supervisee, their direct supervisor, and the consultant supervisor, which can severely affect the efficacy of the consultative supervision and impact the social validity of the experience for everyone involved. By creating stronger contingencies for a more collaborative training model, both direct and 3rd party supervisors can more effectively support the development of their supervisees and improve delivery in our field as a whole.

While it is pertinent that students equip themselves for accruing supervision hours by fully engaging in their coursework, it is also imperative that students advocate for themselves when the coursework is not sufficient. In order to ensure that the supervision experience is well-rounded, it is important that aspiring Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) take an active role in this experience through seeking opportunities for further developing technical skills and generalizing environmental assessment and analysis to the behavior of their supervisor to ensure that the supervisor is filling the gaps that academic training could not. While it can be argued that the supervisor’s job is not to be their professor, the supervisor’s job is to be a mentor that guides the student through how to apply the coursework concepts to the task list and the clients receiving services regardless of when supervision starts, whether that is the first or last day of classes. In this session, the supervision experience’s benefits, as well as its drawbacks, will be addressed from the perspective of a former student and supervisee.

The four papers in this symposium extend research demonstrating the application of principles of behavior analysis to improving learning in undergraduate and graduate courses. In a graduate course, Perrin and Wilson compared two methods of fluency-based practice of terms – see/say versus see/type definitions – and found both improved weekly quiz scores, though the see/type method was preferred. In an online graduate course, Axe, Chase, Breault, and Neault found that oral quizzes administered at the start of live sessions improved written quiz and exam scores. In a graduate course, Bird and Chase reduced procrastination by providing study materials contingent on completing practice quizzes, though students did not prefer distributing their practice until bonus points were contingent on distributed practice. Finally, in a study focused on low-performing students in an undergraduate course, Dalfen, Fienup, and D’Ateno showed that requiring a passing criterion on weekly quizzes improved exam scores. These studies will be discussed in terms of the behavior analytic strategies of fluency-based instruction, self-control, choice behavior, and mastery learning.

behavior analysts, professors, graduate students, researchers

Previous research has shown that a large percentage of students procrastinate and a majority of those students wish to reduce it. The purpose of experiment 1 of the current study was to replicate previous findings that contingent access to study materials would produce distributed studying patterns. The current study extended previous research by evaluating preference for treatment using both a choice procedure as well as an end-of-semester survey. Results indicated that although contingent access to study materials was successful at reducing procrastination, students chose to pace themselves when allowed. Given that the intervention was disliked by a vast majority of students and was time intensive for researchers, professors may be reluctant to use the contingent access intervention. Experiment 2 evaluated a treatment for procrastination that was likely to be preferred by the students and more efficient to implement. Effects of a bonus point contingency for pacing was evaluated. Results indicated that a majority of students who procrastinated opted to distribute their studying behavior to access bonus points in the course. The data from both studies are discussed in terms of recommendations for future research regarding the use of bonus points in college courses and implications of student and professor preference.

The motivating operation (MO) as defined by Jack Michael and others has been increasingly used over the past few decades in support of applied treatment. In particular the MO concept has been used in early intensive behavioral treatment (EIBI) of children on the autism spectrum. However, Michael defines the MO concept in terms of its hypothesized effect on consequent stimuli (behavior changes and value changes). Of particular concern is the concept of “value”. Changes in the value of a stimulus are inferred rather than directly observed phenomenon. This indirect measure is problematic, since direct measures of responding are available. Additionally, the use of the MO as an antecedent causal account of specific topographies of behavior conflicts with a Skinnerian selection by consequences view of behavior, this dichotomy will be discussed with respect to discrimination responding. Challenges in discrimination of MOs and discriminative stimuli (SD’s) with respect to the standard of the “availability” of a reinforcer will also be evaluated. The author will propose alternatives to the problematic conceptual description of MOs and Conditioned Motivating Operations (CMOs).

Dr. Marguerite (Maggie) O’Haire is an internationally recognized Fulbright Scholar who is currently an Associate Professor of Human-Animal Interaction in the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University. She earned her BA in Psychology from Vassar College in New York and her Ph.D. in Psychology from The University of Queensland in Australia. Her research program focuses on the unique and pervasive ways that humans interact with animals. From research with household pets to highly trained service animals, her findings have been instrumental in evaluating the value of the human-animal bond. She has received funding from three different NIH institutes to fund her human-animal interaction research, including an NICHD-funded trial of animal-assisted intervention for autism. In addition to her peer-reviewed publications and textbook chapters, her work has also been highlighted in over 1,000 media stories around the globe, including NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. For more information, see www.humananimalinteraction.org.

The field of human-animal interaction encompasses the unique and pervasive relationships between humans and animals. These relationships can influence human health, well-being, and development. An emerging body of research has begun to systematically evaluate these effects across a broad range of populations and settings. One population that has received growing attention is children with autism spectrum disorder. This talk will review the evidence base for this practice as well as provide concrete examples of research with various animal species, including guinea pigs in inclusion classroom settings and therapy dogs in a specialized psychiatric hospital program.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Over the last century, diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has continuously increased, drastically changing education systems across the country as more and more students with autism, as well as other disabilities, are educated in public school settings. Higher rates of maladaptive and challenging behaviors are often observed in classrooms, as one significant area of development that is often associated with a diagnosis of autism is behavior regulation. The field of education continues to shift theory and practice to better accommodate and teach children of all abilities in public school settings. Further, school personnel are often required to implement high levels of intervention to support and meet the needs of all students in accessing presented curriculum and instruction. Research identifies an overall lack of training and behavioral skills in teacher preparation programs to effectively intervene on challenging behavior while maintaining high quality instruction. In order to meet the needs of all students educated in public school settings, Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) are increasingly utilized in a consultation model of collaboration, aiming to develop effective behavior interventions for students with challenging behavior. In order to create sustainable interventions in classrooms, one major factor that should be considered is the contextual fit of potential behavior plans. Further, it is critical that interventions include analysis of contextual fit during the development phase of interventions to ensure plans created by BCBAs can easily be implemented in the already occurring systems and supports of each unique classroom. This leads to higher positive outcomes of intervention for students and teachers, as intervention easily fits into the particular nuances of each classroom. Ultimately, this strong contextual fit leads to high fidelity of implementation of developed plans. This panel will discuss barriers and constraints that affect high fidelity of implementation in school settings, as well as present an interview protocol developed as a tool to guide BCBAs in development of intervention plans from the onset of the consultation experience. This interview tool aims to identify contributing factors to sustainability of interventions in each unique classrooms in order to develop behavior intervention plans that are individualized to the student and particular classroom, ensuring that they are effective, feasible, and sustainable.

BCBAs and teachers that are involved in school based behavior consultation.

Within certain areas of healthcare, it has been documented that treating patients with compassion and empathy can have important benefits, such as increasing patient satisfaction, enhancing adherence to treatment, and improving clinical outcomes. While current empirical support for these outcomes is mixed (Kirby, Tellegen & Steindl, 2017), there is increasing scientific interest in the benefits of compassionate care. Behavior analysts have recently begun to articulate the importance of attending to relationships in our clinical work. For example, Taylor, LeBlanc and Nosik (2018) proposed that clinical outcomes of clients may be enhanced by improving relationships with caregivers. The panel will review survey data documenting parent perception of compassionate care by behavior analysts, as well as behavior analysts’ impressions of training needs in this area. Panelists will present their respective clinical and or research programs that incorporate compassionate care, such as ACT in parent training, and staff training programs to increase the therapeutic relationship skills of BCBA’s. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with panelists.

Target audience is Master or Doctoral Level clinicians, BCBAs or BCBA-Ds.

An opportunity exists for behavior analytic providers to expand their practice to reach a wider population within the arena of integrated pediatric primary care. One-third of youth will experience behavior concerns in their lifetime, but the majority will not receive behavioral health treatment. Primary care pediatricians (PCPs) are often the first and only professionals to identify and treat pediatric behavior problems, despite lacking time and appropriate training to do so effectively. Insufficient access to evidence-based behavioral interventions is associated with poorer long-term health outcomes and greater health care cost. Behavior analytic providers are well-suited to provide brief, problem focused evidence-based interventions. However, behavior analytic providers need to adapt their practices for implementation in primary care medical settings. Flexibility in data collection, analytical rigor, and ways in which evidence-based treatment protocols are delivered will be essential to effectively promote ABA as a broad-reaching clinical discipline. This presentation will aim to describe the integrated behavioral health model and discuss ways in which behavior analytic providers can adjust their practice to meet the needs of primary care settings.

Though grief is a universal piece of the human experience, it has received little attention from a behavior analytic perspective. In behavior analysis, we maintain that behavior is the dependent variable where context is the independent variable. In normal behavior analytic experiments, we might directly manipulate the independent variable in order to determine the cause of the behavior. This is more difficult with applied behavior analysis and becomes exceedingly more difficult in situations where we cannot manipulate particular pieces of context. While basic behavioral principles might allow for a primary understanding of the grieving process, a more in-depth analysis of bereavement might be more challenging for that very reason. With bereavement behaviors, the most significant piece of context is not manipulable for the very reason someone is grieving over it. That is, the person or object is lost or no longer exists in the same way as it did historically. While basic behavioral principles might allow for a primary understanding of the grieving process, a more in-depth analysis of bereavement might be more challenging for that very reason. This panel will provide analyses and address issues in the analysis of bereavement and grief behaviors.

Functional analysis of problem behavior has become the "gold standard" assessment to be used. However, the use of functional analysis involves some risk, because it creates conditions that occasion problem behavior (Khang et al., 2015). Safety precautions should be part of the considerations when designing and implementing a functional analysis (Poling et al., 2012). Despite the widely accepted use of functional analysis technology to assess problem behavior and the need for safety precautions to reduce risk during a functional analyses, there is not a single source to access recommended safety precautions. Instead, they are scattered throughout the literature. As such, Wiskirchen, Deochand, & Peterson (2017) suggested the need to develop a formal risk-benefit assessment for proceeding with a functional analysis. This session discusses ethical considerations when designing and implementing a functional analysis as well as safety precautions that should be considered in the evaluation of problem behavior. The panelists will also address when to use alternative assessments when the risks of a functional analysis cannot be ameliorated satisfactorily. These safety precautions must also be considered during treatment implementation, because problem behavior is likely to occur during treatment as well. Thus, the panelists will also address safety precautions and considerations within treatment during the discussion.

Behavior analysts working with individuals who engage in severe and challenging behavior

The rise of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the co-occurrence of visual impairment (VI) and intellectual disability suggest that restricted or repetitive behavior (RRB), a key diagnostic feature of ASD, and stereotypy in particular may be a growing concern for educators and families working with children with VI. Furthermore, previous reviews have suggested that the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to decrease RRB may be moderated by visual impairment. A comprehensive search of the single case literature resulted in 30 studies that reported results of 40 experiments involving at least one participant with VI to test a behavioral intervention to reduce RRB. Study quality, participant characteristics, components of intervention, intervention agents, setting, and specific target behaviors were coded to answer questions about what behavioral interventions were effective for whom and under what conditions. Results showed that nearly all participants had severe to profound intellectual disability, half of participants were deafblind, and only two participants had an ASD diagnosis. Furthermore, success rates were higher for participants with low vision (88.9%) than for participants with blindness (68.4%). Intervention was also more successful to reduce non-self-injurious behavior (81%) than self-injurious behavior (68.4%) and the success rate of interventions involving punishment (73.1%) were comparable to those that included punishment (73.1%). Following, a single case multi-element withdrawal design was used to test the additive effects of systematic prompting, reinforcement of incompatible behavior, and blocking on hand-related stereotypies and object manipulation of leisure items for a nine-year-old boy with deafblindness and a severe to profound intellectual disability. A functional relation was observed to show that hand-related stereotypy decreased due to prompting object manipulation and further decreased when object manipulation was reinforced with edibles. Adding the blocking component to the intervention had inconsistent positive effects on stereotypy, and a functional relation was not observed. Prompting alone did not appear to increase object manipulation until contingent reinforcement was added, and response blocking did not appear to have an additive effect to increase object manipulation.

Putting a student at the appropriate academic place developmentally in a teaching curriculum increases their likelihood of success. This information is used to match the behavioral-developmental stages of a person in a domain. The Model of Hierarchical Complexity (MHC, 2008) is a framework employed to assign the Order of Hierarchical Complexity (OHC), i.e., difficulty, to the specific behavioral tasks. First, a set of conditions for a specific task must be provided. Each behavioral task must consist of these conditions: a) Level of difficulty; b) Reinforcement schedule/contingency; c) Positive/negative feedback; d) Presentation of discriminative stimulus (SD). In order to assign the appropriate MHC stage to the behavioral-developmental task, one needs to know whether positive/negative feedback was given immediately; if corrections are given for incorrect responses, what the reinforcement schedule/contingency is (i.e. fixed ratio/antecedent), if a verbal or nonverbal SD is present and how they were presented. Second, we pair this information with developmental milestones to accurately map the specified behavioral task to a MHC stage. Mapping teaching curricula onto the MHC will facilitate the creation of efficacious intervention plans. These curricula can be beneficial for both typically developing children and children with developmental disabilities across a variety of cultural settings.

Abstract Common to all personality disorders are long-term patterns of behavior falling on the following eight variables: 1) Attachment (strength of caring); 2) Empathy (social-perspective taking skills); 3) Impulsivity (acting without delay); 4) Anger (hostility and aggression); 5) Depression (feelings of sadness); 6) Narcissism (exaggerated dependence on self-serving reinforcements); 7) Psychoticism (paranoia); and 8) Awareness of boundaries (differentiating oneself from others). A self-report instrument was developed to measure these variables to predict the presence of personality disorders from a behavioral-developmental perspective. Item selection is generated from both previously established scales (Li, Duong & Going, in press) and novel scales. Scales for narcissism, psychoticism, and awareness of boundaries are developed in this study. The pilot study’s results are factor analyzed to see how well the items line up with the notions of each scale. The unidimensionality of the variables is also analyzed using Rasch analysis after the formal study is run. There were high factor loading values (≥ .700) for items in the five established scales. This brief and valid self-report measure is a valuable tool for improving further assessment of personality disorders and in planning optimal treatments. The proposed instrument is also necessary in understanding personality disorders from a behavioral framework.

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) experience significant barriers to academic achievement. Parents of children will IDDs often feel overwhelmed in finding ways to effectively promote their children’s academic success. Behaviorally-based parent training has been shown to improve parents’ use of evidence-based behavior and academic strategies, and promote subsequent child outcomes. This symposium will include two presentations focused on methods implemented in the context of an academic evaluation and intervention clinic to provide parent training for the purposes of (1) improving parents’ behavior management skills, (2) promoting academic outcomes for children and adolescents with IDDs, and (3) increasing parents’ treatment integrity implementing academic interventions. Participants included parents and their child/adolescent with IDD. A series of multiple baseline designs were used to determine the effectiveness of the parent training program on parents’ behavior management skills and treatment integrity and child/adolescent academic outcomes. Collectively, results indicated that (1) parents improved their use of effective instructions with concomitant improvements in child/adolescent compliance and (2) parents improved their treatment integrity for delivering academic interventions with concomitant improvements children’s reading skills. Results obtained from this program inform both research and practice related to promoting academic achievement for children and adolescents with IDDs.

Behavior analysts who work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, behavior analysts who work in educational contexts, clinical psychologists, school psychologists, and graduate students in applied behavior analysis, school psychology, and/or clinical psychology.

Successful interviewing skills help maximize the probability that a job candidate will make a positive impression upon a prospective employer. Stocco, Thompson, Hart, and Soriano (2017) described a method using Behavioral Skills Training (BST) to increase appropriate interview skills that used post-session feedback. Immediate feedback has been shown as an effective method that may improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the training package described by Stocco et al. This study aimed to replicate Stocco et al. using BST to improve interview skills of college students and extend the study by comparing post-session and immediate feedback. All participants demonstrated improvements in interview skills, thus replicating the findings of Stocco et al. More specifically, BST with immediate feedback showed greater acquisition, maintenance, and generalization, with fewer training minutes required to meet mastery criteria compared to BST with post-session feedback.

Based on the BACB®'s US Employment Demand for Behavior Analysts: 2010-2017 report published on 06/14/2018, "annual demand for individuals holding BCBA/BCBA-D certification has increased approximately 800% from 2010 to 2017." As of October 3rd, 2018, there are 30,540 individuals who hold a BCBA; in 2013, there were only 12,625 BCBA's. As a field, we have 59% of our credentialed workforce operating with 5 or fewer years of experience. ALULA has 25 years of experience uplifting business performance. We have a proven track record of helping Fortune 500 companies improve strategy execution. ALULA will present on the methodologies and tools we use to inspire and accelerate the extraordinary growth of individuals and exceptional performance of business. You will learn about how we coach leaders at all experience levels (early career to CEOs) and apply the wealth of Organizational Behavior Management techniques – all of which you can use in your daily workflow. We are offering a cohesive pragmatic technology to equip BCBAs with practical supervision methodology.

BCBA's who are supervisors at all experience levels (early career to CEOs).

In this talk, you will learn the difference between BST and supervision. BST is a content-based training model, but supervisors are responsible for more than designing and implementing training solutions. In this talk, you will learn about the supervision process, what it means to be a supervisor across each phase of the supervision process, and what key behaviors you should be engaging in within and across phases to unlock extraordinary performance.

This talk will build upon what you learned during the first talk. You will learn about how and why management is different than supervision. The tools used to manage and the management behaviors you need to engage in differ in areas, such as: process control, planning, resources allocation, and project management. You will learn how to balance between managing and supervising. Although, good supervision can unlock extraordinary performance, good management techniques are imperative to create an environment where extraordinary performance can occur.

For our final talk, you will learn about leadership from a behavioral perspective. We will discuss how effective leadership is different from management and supervision, and will give you tools and techniques to take your leadership skills to the next level. You will learn about different types of leaders and the results they typically see, key behaviors that leaders should engage in, and the types of data managers and supervisors should produce to enable effective leadership. Lastly, you will understand how leadership, management, and supervision are interconnected and, when effective, produce extraordinary performance and exceptional value.

Behavior Analysis (BA) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT) are integrated in a continuum dimension that is rooted to the functional and contextual perspective of behavior. The implications are simply huge. In this presentation, I will travel back to those times where BA began to provide formulas about how contingencies organized behavior. These effective experiences accounted for part of the enormous variability shown in behavior and very soon B.F. Skinner realized the impact of rules on contingencies. Even more, the relevance of generative self-rules and self-knowledge as well as how we respond to the one`s own behavior were on the table. This door was identified to further scientific inquiry, however it took some time for an insightful behavior to occur in the middle of practical experiences, an insight pointing to the emergent or derived responding. It was when the door was clearly opened to the analysis of further and more sophisticated forms of variability as generativity or derived responding as altering the meaning of contingencies. Relational Frame Theory was a step forward into the analysis of such behavioral phenomena. Consequently, an extension of the functional dimension was in place to account for relevant behaviors as those pointing to human suffering or, conversely, responding to living in peace with oneself. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is nowadays the contextual Therapy more compromised with the identification of the interactions involved in moving from suffering to living. Very good news for the functional and contextual perspective of behavior with the focus in the emergence of insightful behavior in the days to come that might connect still isolated points.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Conceptually, “choice” can be theoretically fraught for radical behaviorists because of its incompatibility with strict determinism. Pragmatically though, choice has been an important and popular topic in behavior analysis research and practice. Broadly defined, choice is consistently among the most popular topics at this conference and in behavioral journals. It has yielded some of the most significant conceptual and empirical advances in behavior analysis. From substance abuse to consumer activities to problem behavior, few areas of behavior analysis have escaped the influence of choice. Choice is a critical variable in mathematical elaborations on the matching law that serve as the foundation for quantitative models of behavior and client preference assessments alike. This panel follows six individual presentations about key concepts, cutting edge research, and contemporary thinking about choice in behavior analysis education, research, and practice. In this panel, three distinguished behavior analysts will reflect on the value of choice for behavior analysts and offer their thoughts about where the field might go in the future. The panel is also an opportunity for an interactive discussion with the audience about the future of choice in behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Teaching mentalism and naturalism in the behavioral, cognitive, and social sciences – and in the culture at large -- is difficult, especially when advancing a naturalistic perspective. Western philosophy and languages teach a mentalistic construct of mind. Behavior analysis teaches a naturalist concept of mind. This presentation teaches the distinction through an analogy based on the everyday relation between the climate and the weather. Although the content of the analogy can vary, its underlying logic is the same. One form of the analogy is this: “the climate is to the weather as personality is to behavior.” The climate does not cause of the weather. It describes uniformities in the weather over time (e.g., heat, humidity). Likewise, personality is not the cause of behavior, but describes uniformities in behavior over time (e.g., altruistic and aggressive behavior). According to Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976), to assume that climate and personality exist independently of weather and behavior is a “category mistake.” The presentation then expands on the analogy in other domains, among them, the relations between knowledge and knowing, competence and performance, memory and remembering, and language and verbal behavior. It concludes with a discussion of effective pedagogy in teaching behavior analysis.

The present symposium explored relatively uncharted territory of PEAK. Specifically, the authors investigated the extent to which the system facilitated a basic musical repertoire in playing notes on a piano, empathetic responding supported by a scenario-based empathy training, and advanced verbal operants with typically-developing children.

beginner-intermediate behavior analysts or students of

Great behavior-analytic attention has been afforded to the better understanding of the core skills to an empathetic repertoire. However, these efforts have predominantly remained in the conceptual and theoretical domains of our science. To expand the extent to which behavior analysis has a place in the discussion of a more advanced skill, the current study sought to tease out theoretically-couched prerequisites to a typically-developing empathetic repertoire and, in the absence of said skills, propose a training for those skills.