Association for Behavior Analysis International

The Association for Behavior Analysis International® (ABAI) is a nonprofit membership organization with the mission to contribute to the well-being of society by developing, enhancing, and supporting the growth and vitality of the science of behavior analysis through research, education, and practice.

Search

39th Annual Convention; Minneapolis, MN; 2013

Event Details


Previous Page

 

Symposium #217
CE Offered: BACB
The Role of Stimulus Control in the Acquisition, Maintenance, and Generalization of Behavior
Sunday, May 26, 2013
3:30 PM–4:50 PM
M101 A (Convention Center)
Area: DEV; Domain: Applied Research
Chair: Pamela L. Neidert (University of Kansas)
CE Instructor: Pamela L. Neidert, Ph.D.
Abstract: Stimulus control is the process by which antecedent events exert control over behavior through differential pairing with consequences for responding, and understanding factors that influence stimulus control is critical for generalization and maintenance of successful behavior changes. This symposium consists of four presentations describing applied investigations involving stimulus control in various contexts. The first presentation describes the use of a multiple-schedule training procedure to establish discriminative control over appropriate social behavior by a young man with developmental disabilities. The second presentation describes an investigation of behavioral mechanisms (adventitious reinforcement and stimulus control) that influence the maintenance of behavior under fixed-time schedules of reinforcement. The final two presentations describe examinations of the ways in which stimulus control influences vicarious reinforcement effects (i.e., changes in the behavior of one individual as a function of observing reinforcement delivered to another individual). Taken together, these presentations offer important practical, conceptual, and methodological implications for behavior analysts regarding the role of stimulus control in applied settings.
 

Teaching Discriminated Social Approaches to a Teenager With Angelman Syndrome

CAITLIN SHEA PEPLINSKI (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Jeffrey H. Tiger (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Abstract:

Angelman syndrome is a neuro-genetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental disability. Common behavioral characteristics of this disorder include a heightened interest in social interactions and frequent bids to initiate interaction. These bids can be problematic, for instance when a child attempts to hug strangers in public places. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a discrimination training program to teach appropriate and inappropriate times to initiate a social interaction with a 16 year-old male with Angelman Syndrome whose mother reported frequent hugging as a problem. During a baseline, we alternated periods in which attention was delivered on an FR-1 schedule following hugs with periods in which hugs were blocked (i.e., placed on extinction). Following this baseline, we implemented a discrimination training program to bring hugs under the stimulus control of a salient discriminative stimulus and then presented that stimulus during FR 1 conditions in sessions that were similar to baseline. We evaluated the effects of presenting the discriminative stimulus in a combination reversal design and multiple baselines design across therapists. In the second baseline, the childs mother conducted sessions. Upon development of discriminated hugging, we then extended treatment to the participants home during longer observation periods.

 
An Evaluation of the Effects of Fixed-Time Schedules on Response Maintenance
STEVEN W. PAYNE (University of Kansas), Adam M. Briggs (University of Kansas), Claudia L. Dozier (University of Kansas)
Abstract: Some researchers have suggested that responding may maintain under time-based schedules, but it is unclear as to what mechanisms are responsible for this maintenance. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate whether responding would maintain under fixed-time schedules and to evaluate possible mechanisms by which response maintenance under fixed-time schedules occurred. Three typically developing preschool-age children have participated in this study thus far. For one participant, we showed that responding did not maintain under fixed-time schedules. For two participants, however, we showed that responding did maintain under fixed-time schedules. Further evaluation was conducted in which the possibility for adventitious reinforcement was removed by using response-contingent delays to reinforcement. Responding maintained under these conditions, suggesting that adventitious reinforcement was not necessary for the maintenance of responding. In the next evaluation, several stimuli (therapist, session room, presence of reinforcer) were changed in the sessions to remove potential discriminative stimuli that may have influenced responding. Responding did not maintain under this condition for either subject, suggesting that stimulus control was the likely mechanism for response maintenance under fixed-time schedules.
 

An Evaluation of Stimulus Control on Vicarious Reinforcement Effects

DANIELLE L. GUREGHIAN (University of Kansas), Pamela L. Neidert (University of Kansas)
Abstract:

Vicarious reinforcement (VSR) refers to a change in behavior as a result of observing another individual receive reinforcement (Kazdin, 1973). VSR has implications for programming reinforcement-based procedures in classroom and therapeutic settings. The purpose of the study was to conduct a systematic replication of Camp and Iwata (2009; unpublished dissertation) on the extent to which vicarious reinforcement effects are influenced by stimulus control. Six typically developing preschool children have participated in the study to date. During each phase of the study, sessions were conducted in each of two different rooms (SD and S?), and the participant was seated next to a peer model. During baseline (BL), the model did not engage in the target response in either the SD or the S? setting, and no programmed consequences were delivered to the model or to the observer. During VSR, the model engaged in the target response in both the SD and the S? settings. Model responses resulted in reinforcement only in the SD setting, but observer responses were never reinforced. During Discrimination (Dis.) Training, both model and observer responses resulted in direct reinforcement (SD setting only). Overall, results showed that vicariously reinforced responding (a) was more likely following a history of direct reinforcement, but (b) rarely maintained across sessions. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for operant mechanisms involved in vicarious reinforcement effects and programming reinforcement in classroom settings.

 
Vicarious Reinforcement: Stimulus Control Effects
JILL M. HARPER (Melmark New England), Brian A. Iwata (University of Florida), Sarah C. Mead (University of Florida)
Abstract: Vicarious reinforcement occurs when the behavior of one individual changes as a result of observing reinforcement delivered to another individual. We examined the influence of stimulus control over vicarious reinforcement effects by comparing conditions under which reinforcement delivered to another person served as either an S? or an SD for responding in the absence of direct reinforcement. We compared rates of responding on a task for which reinforcement was never delivered (vicarious reinforcement task) following a history of differing schedules of direct reinforcement for responding on other tasks in the presence of a reinforced model. The particular histories of reinforcement included extinction (S?), continuous reinforcement (SD), and various variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement (varying degrees of stimulus control). Two individuals with developmental disabilities have completed this study to date. Varied degrees vicarious reinforcement effects were observed across participants following a history of intermittent reinforcement for other tasks.
 

BACK TO THE TOP

 

Back to Top
ValidatorError
  
Modifed by Eddie Soh
DONATE
{"isActive":true,"interval":86400000,"timeout":20000,"url":"https://saba.abainternational.org/giving-day/","saba_donor_banner_html":"Help create a brighter future for behavior analysis by donating on Giving Day!","donate_now_text":"Donate Now"}