Association for Behavior Analysis International

What makes us human? That is an old question, much older than the modern division of science. Today anthropogeny tries to explain the origin of humans with a multidisciplinary approach. To answer that question one first has to define culture. For some biology researchers, “culture is information that is capable of affecting individuals’ behaviour, which they acquire from other individuals through teaching, imitation and other forms of social learning. Here, ‘information’ includes knowledge, beliefs, values and skills.”. In behavior analysis, Skinner has shown a definition that can cover all of the meanings of previous attempts, with the advantage of specifying what and how it is learned; in his own words, “the usefulness of any lawful relation depends on the sharpness of reference of the terms in which it is stated.” In behavioral terms, culture is the set of conditional relations, or contingencies, which regulates the power to reinforce or punish members of a group. Large groups usually have some controlling agencies for different kinds of behavior.

This award will be accepted by Julia Todorov-Thomsen on behalf of João Todorov.

Although steep delay discounting is associated with various behavioral problems (e.g., substance abuse), it is best not conceived of as a character flaw such as impulsivity. Such a view, while part of a centuries-old tradition, does not distinguish between actions whose outcomes involve gains and losses, or between delayed outcomes and probabilistic outcomes, nor does it acknowledge that how steeply an individual discounts one of these kinds of outcome often is independent of how steeply they discount other kinds. Therefore, consistent with a behavior-analytic view, we advocate an approach that does not require making judgments about the character of the individual. We show that when drug- (i.e., cocaine, nicotine) dependent individuals are compared with controls, a substantial number of the drug-dependent individuals discount delayed monetary rewards less steeply than the average (median) member of the control group. Moreover, a substantial number of the controls discount more steeply than the average drug-dependent individual. Finally, many everyday choice situations differ from those studied in most discounting experiments in that they involve both gains and losses as well as qualitatively different outcomes that may be both delayed and probabilistic. Past research on discounting that focused on simpler choice situations has provided a solid foundation, but research on more complicated situations is needed. The principles revealed by such research both inform the choices of treatment providers and improve our understanding of the complicated decisions that people face every day.

Len Green received his undergraduate degree from the City College of New York (CCNY) and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After completing post-doctoral research, he ventured west of the Mississippi (despite thinking he still would remain east of the river) where he is Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies. His research concerns choice and decision-making in rats, pigeons, and people, with a particular interest in models of self-control, impulsivity, and choice and decision-making. He is one of the developers of ‘behavioral economics,’ a transdisciplinary field that combines the experimental methodology of psychology with the theoretical constructs of economics. He is co-author of the book Economic Choice Theory: An Experimental Analysis of Animal Behavior, and editor of Advances in Behavioral Economics, the third volume of which is subtitled Substance Use and Abuse. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging, and the McDonnell Center for Higher Brain Function. He served on the Executive Board of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior (SQAB), was President of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB), and was Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). He is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and was President of Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of the American Psychological Association. He received the Victor G. Laties Award for Lifetime Service from the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior in 2018.

When I arrived at the University of South Wales (then the University of Glamorgan) in 2008, I was the sole behaviour analyst in a department comprised mainly of cognitive and health psychologists. Hired to lead an undergraduate programme in child development, I immediately began the task of infusing behaviour analysis into any space I could find or create. Since that time, I have worked with a team of incredible colleagues to build undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in behaviour analysis, develop the first university-based behaviour analysis clinic in Europe, and capitalise on opportunities to demonstrate the breadth and power of behaviour analysis across underserved populations and settings. In this presentation, I will share some of the outcomes of these endeavours and analyse the contingencies that generated them.

Jennifer L. Austin received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the Florida State University, where she had the privilege of studying under the supervision of Dr. Jon Bailey. For over 20 years, she has worked as a behaviour analytic researcher and clinician, whilst also playing a key role in the development of behaviour analysis programmes in the United States and the United Kingdom. She currently serves as Professor of Psychology and Head of Behaviour Analysis at the University of South Wales, where directs the MSc Behaviour Analysis and Therapy and PgDip Behaviour Analysis Supervised Practice programmes. She also serves as the Clinical Director of the USW Behaviour Analysis Clinic, which is the only university-based behaviour analysis clinic in Europe. Dr. Austin’s research and clinical interests have focussed primarily on behaviour analytic applications in mainstream education, as well as applying our science to populations that are relatively underserved by the field, including children who have experienced trauma and prisoners. She has been a key driver in the development of the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis, which seeks to protect consumers of behaviour analysis, whilst also working toward professional recognition of behaviour analysts in the UK. Dr. Austin has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and is a former associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Education and Treatment of Children.

Serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”. So, it was serendipitous that Jock Millenson, a Columbia PhD in operant conditioning, moved to London in the 1960’s, because this led to the beginnings of behaviour analysis in Ireland in the 1970’s. By the late ‘60’s Jock had a research position at Oxford University and in a brief time window he taught me at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and introduced me to Leo Baker who was in a faculty position at Trinity College Dublin. When I moved to Northern Ireland in the mid-70’s, Leo and I established a small group to support behaviour analysis in Ireland. This began as entirely concerned with EAB but gradually became more involved with ABA. To help deal with applied and professional issues it morphed into the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland around 15 years ago. Now, behaviour analysis is taught in most of the universities in Ireland, North and “South”, and there are three well-established ABA Masters programs. Masters and Doctoral graduates from Irish programs are in teaching and professional roles across the world, including a group of Ulster graduates in the Middle East. Researchers trained in this Irish network have contributed substantially in both basic and applied fields. It has been a great pleasure to witness this growth which I am sure will continue.

I obtained my doctorate in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University in 1974 since when I have been in academic posts in Northern Ireland where I have been a full professor since 1986. I published textbooks on behaviour analysis in 1979, 1996, 2000, 2002. As well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, I have successfully supervised 48 students who have obtained PhDs in fields including, experimental analysis of behaviour, applied behaviour analysis, psychopharmacology, behavioural neuroscience, experimental psychology, applied psychology. Three PhD’s were concerned with behavioural strategies to address environmental issues. In 1977 I was co-founder of the group, Behaviour Analysis in Ireland which became a chapter of ABAI. In 2004, the group became the Division of Behaviour Analysis of the Psychological Society of Ireland, and I am currently the Division chair. I organised the Third European Meeting for the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour in Dublin, Ireland 1999, and have co-organised 13 annual conferences of the Division of Behaviour Analysis from 2007 to 2019, variously in Dublin, Galway and Athlone. I have been a keynote speaker at the European Association for Behaviour Analysis in Milan in 2006, in Crete, Greece in 2010, at the Brazilian Association for Behaviour Analysis, Salvador 2011, and at the 30th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology 2018, and at the 10th International Conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Stockholm, September 2019.

In 1968, Baer, Wolf and Risley wrote: “Better applications [of behavioral science], it is hoped, will lead to a better state of society, to whatever extent the behavior of its members can contribute to the goodness of a society.” I grew up with that idea and passion—even before I was their student, but they had the practical science. Only a few things from ABA have been brought to population-level scale—with measured population-level benefits. My talk is how my colleagues and I have achieved population-level impact on violence, mental health, addictions and academics using ABA and other proven science. The driving example in this talk, and paper, uses the Good Behavior Game, because it was the first ABA publication on a whole classroom implementation of ABA. Scaling up and scaling out GBG is a function having worked with Sesame Street, implementing my national child-safety effort in NZ, implementing an ABA tobacco control strategy, and understanding and building a business based on sales rather than grants. Achieving population-level benefits with ABA is unlikely to happen as a direct result of an NIH grant. The contingencies are not aligned. Both the Good Behavior Game at micro level and as our international prevention-science company involve selection by consequences to achieve the vision that Baer, Wolf and Risley envisioned. My talk lays a step-by-step pathway to population-level impact of ABA informed prevention science that Don, Mont and Todd foresaw 50 years ago, but did not live to see. From these lessons, we might succeed in bettering the world they predicted.

Dennis D. Embry received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, focused on using ABA for population-level efforts with Sesame Street and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety—ultimately implementing that work throughout New Zealand. Dr. Embry is president/senior scientist at PAXIS Institute in Tucson, and co-investigator at both Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.  Founded in 1998, PAXIS Institute is an international prevention science company, focused on preventing mental, emotional, behavioral and related physical disorders at population-level. He is a SAMHSA/CMHS National Advisory Council member, the board of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, and the scientific advisory board of the Children’s Mental Health Network. In the 1990s, he implemented the first RCT at population-level to reduce youth violence (PeaceBuilders) using ABA principles. In 1999, he began replicating the longitudinal Hopkin’s studies of the Good Behavior Game. Today Dr. Embry’s prevention efforts affecting more than one million children in 38 states, multiple provinces of Canada, and EU countries with multiple studies showing population-level reduction of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders using PAX GBG and evidence-base kernels. As grad student, Dr. Baer (his advisor) asked Dennis why he wanted to study ABA having a political and history background, the answer: “I want to use science to make our world a better place for children.”

A fortunate part of my early academic environment was exposure to behavior analysis, which has been critical to my investigation of drugs, addiction, risk behavior, and therapeutic pharmacology. One topic is behavioral economic demand analysis, which I have used to examine the relations among tobacco products, such as traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and the effects of a potential cigarette nicotine-reduction policy. Another topic within the realm of behavioral economics is delay discounting. I have conducted studies helping to identify delay discounting as a fundamental behavioral process underlying addiction across a variety of drugs. My research has applied delay discounting to understand risky sexual behavior in the form of condom use decisions. My drug administration studies show that cocaine and alcohol acutely increase sexual risk behavior by decreasing likelihood of condom use through a delay discounting mechanism. I have conducted drug administration studies with drugs from nearly all drug classes, investigating abuse liability and behavioral effects. These have included first-in-humans studies and studies of novel or atypical drugs such as salvinorin A, the active agent in Salvia divinorum. Finally, I have conducted extensive research with the psychedelic drug psilocybin, including studies showing large long-term reductions in depression and anxiety in cancer patients, and high smoking cessation success rates in treatment-resistant smokers. Overall, my research has provided me the opportunity to speak to the media about a larger number of topics such as: the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs; novel psychoactive drugs largely unknown to the public; the risks associated with alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other drugs; the effects of drugs on sex and sexual risk, and the changing landscape of tobacco/nicotine and cannabis products. My behavior analytic background has not only been instrumental in conducting my research, but also in responsibly communicating about these topics to the public.

Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., has broad expertise on psychoactive drugs, addiction, and risk behavior. Early contributions include research contributing to the recognition that delay discounting, or the devaluation of future consequences, is a fundamental behavioral process broadly relevant to addiction. His early research also validated methods and developed analytic techniques that have since become widely adopted in delay discounting research. He has conducted tobacco/nicotine research throughout his career, determining the role of nicotine and nonpharmacological factors in tobacco use and addiction. This includes recent research on e-cigarettes and current research funded by the Food and Drug Administration using behavioral economics to evaluate cigarettes with potentially modified risk. Applying behavioral economics to sexual risk behavior, Matt has conducted seminal research implicating delay discounting in condom use decisions. He published the first human research determining the effects of cocaine administration on sexual decision making and risk, providing important information for addressing the high rates of HIV among cocaine users. Matt is also a leading expert on the effects of psychedelic drugs and has conducted seminal work that has expanded basic and therapeutic interest in these compounds, including research suggesting potential therapeutic effects of psilocybin in cancer-related psychiatric distress and smoking cessation. He has conducted studies administering nearly all classes of psychoactive drugs. Matt has published 119 articles and chapters including studies on cocaine, tobacco/nicotine, methamphetamine, alcohol, psilocybin, dextromethorphan, salvinorin A, GHB, cannabis, opioids, benzodiazepines, and cathinone-like compounds (“bath salts”). He has been internationally sought as a science communicator on psychoactive drugs and addiction, being interviewed by the CBS 60 Minutes, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Show, Fox Business News, BBC, National Public Radio including Morning Edition and the Kojo Nnamdi Show, Labyrint (a public television show in the Netherlands), the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, the Daily Mail, USA Today, CBS News, the Baltimore Sun, the Atlantic, the Washingtonian, Psychology Today, Scientific American, and Nature, among others. Matt was quoted and his research was described in Michael Pollan’s best-selling book How to Change Your Mind: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.

The purpose of these three studies was to evaluate different variables that may impact skill acquisition in individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The first paper evaluated the order in which stimuli were presented (i.e., sample-first or comparison-first) during receptive discrimination in six children. Results suggest that all participants learned faster during the sample-first condition. The second paper examined if the participants acquired receptive identification and tacting of unknown stimuli presented in array of stimuli that included directly trained tacts. Results suggest that receptive responding may emerge after tact training and that for some individuals tacting and receptive identification may be acquired through exclusion. Finally, the last paper investigated whether the form of visual stimuli affects the acquisition of object-to-picture matching in three young men. Results suggest that the use of stimuli with greater visual similarity to the target object may yield greater efficiency in mastering object-to-picture relations for some individuals diagnosed with ASD.

RBTs, BCaBAs, BCBAs, graduate students

Behavior Analysts in the applied setting have a unique opportunity to contribute to a robust literature base by providing replication of existing best practices, and by evaluating treatment models rooted in behavior analytic literature. We are compelled by our ethical code (and our funding sources) to continue to disseminate evidence that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an effective treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder. The call to disseminate, combined with the opportunity of capturing progress in real-world settings, is a powerful argument for conducting meaningful applied research. In practice, there are numerous potential hurdles to conducting quality applied research. This panel will propose an approach for creating infrastructure to support in-house research initiatives, as well as strategies for implementation within the time and resource constraints faced by practicing Behavior Analysts. Additionally, the panelists will review the benefits of mentorship and collaboration between academics and practitioners, as well as self-reported benefits to clinicians who participate in research efforts in the applied setting.

Behavior Analysts

Individuals without a fluent speaking repertoire may show disproportionate levels of strength across samples of verbal operants. Verbal behavior is inherently social in that its reinforcement is mediated by a listener. Common examples of verbal behavior within the applied literature include conditioning mand, tact, echoic, and intraverbal control. Sampling responses from these four operant classes allows us to infer the overall strength of these populations of behavior, and analyze differences in their relative strength. The null hypothesis for this type of analysis is that the levels of strength across these four operants is proportionate, a phenomenon commonly described as “fluency” that facilitates transfer of stimulus control across changing environmental conditions. The alternative hypothesis is that the levels of strength across these four operants is disproportionate, a phenomenon commonly described as “autism” that inhibits transfer of stimulus control due to certain response prepotencies. Assessment strategies and implications for treatment will be discussed.

Individuals without derivational stimulus control may show disproportionate levels of strength across samples of intraverbal relations. Derivational stimulus control refers to the extent to which listeners effectively respond to verbal stimuli along a generalization gradient. Common examples of derivational stimulus control within the applied literature include reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity. Sampling responses from these three operant classes allows us to infer the overall strength of these populations of behavior, and analyze differences in their relative strength. The null hypothesis for this type of analysis is that the levels of strength across these three operants is proportionate, a phenomenon commonly described as “listener comprehension” that facilitates prolonged verbal episodes and facilitates the development of other social skills. The alternative hypothesis is that the levels of strength across these three operants is disproportionate, a phenomenon commonly described as “autism” that inhibits transfer of stimulus control due to certain response prepotencies. Assessment strategies and implications for treatment will be discussed.

In this panel discussion we will identify parent barrier behaviors and treatment indications resulting from parent barrier behaviors. We have developed a basic checklist of parent barrier behaviors observed in an ABA clinic in Arizona and corresponding data will be described. These identified parent barrier behaviors have been hypothesized to impact treatment duration and ultimately impact the child’s long-term access to effective ABA intervention. Many of the families with high barrier behaviors often begin ABA services with various providers in a geographic area with limited duration of services at each location. These barrier behaviors are often seen in various settings with the caregiver, therapy, school, and other medical providers. This checklist was designed to identify what barrier behaviors may be exhibited by parents or caregivers, establish a threshold score to indicate a specific treatment focus, and a suggestion for high intensity parent training at the onset of ABA therapy and other treatment indications should be discussed. The goal is to focus on parent barrier behaviors and address them behavior analytically in order to increase duration of effective ABA services for the child.

BCBAs in practice, BCBA administrators that may have policy control, practitioners that have direct contact with parents on a regular basis.

Efficient and effective training on evidence-based practices including applied behavior analysis (ABA) based interventions may not be accessible to caregivers and professionals implementing interventions. In order for caregivers and professionals to effectively implement ABA-based interventions, training and ongoing coaching are critical. However, numerous training barriers associated with traditional didactic models exist (e.g., time, costs, scheduling, shortage of qualified individuals). Telehealth is a model that can address these barriers and support individuals as they learn to implement ABA-based interventions. Telehealth is the use of online and communication technologies to deliver explicit training and ongoing coaching from a distance. This presentation aims to address the need for efficient and effective training on ABA-based interventions through the use of telehealth. The results of four single-case design studies in which caregivers and professionals (e.g., teachers, early intervention providers, and parents) were taught and coached via telehealth to implement ABA-based interventions are presented. Data regarding implementation fidelity, child outcomes, and social validity are shared.

Practicing BCBAs

This single-case investigation was designed to evaluate the effects of telehealth training on practitioner implementation of a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI). Six general education preschool practitioners engaged in an intervention with six children with varying disabilities in inclusive classroom settings. The telehealth training package included a collaborative approach to intervention planning, online training module, video self-evaluation, and performance feedback via videoconferencing. Following telehealth training, practitioners reached criteria for implementation fidelity and increased communication opportunities. Additionally, child participants increased communication behaviors above baseline levels. All behaviors generalized to a different activity context and maintained over time. Social validity was measured and results suggest high levels of acceptability for the telehealth training package.

Applied Behaviour Analysis is the basis of the most effective interventions for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. However, there is a significant shortage in appropriately qualified individuals (i.e., Board Certified Behavior Analysts; BCBA®) that can design and oversee the implementation of individually-tailored interventions that meet service-recipients needs. To address this gap in professional training and service provision, telehealth has emerged as a model that makes use of technology to increase treatment efficiency and accessibility by providing remote training and supervision of behaviour analytic treatment. Given existing research on the use of telehealth presents important methodological flaws, rigorous experiments are warranted before telehealth can be classified as evidence-based practice. Our work has focused on the creation and experimental testing of two parent and professional training packages that use instruction and live coaching to teach skills that promote communication and independent living skills. In this presentation, we will share data on efficacy in terms of parent/professional skill acquisition and child outcomes, fidelity of implementation and social validity.

Growing evidence suggests complementary findings in research on verbal development and relational responding. A large body of research in relational responding demonstrates stimulus control involving complex human behavior and communication including language. Simultaneously, decades of research findings in verbal development and applications identified stimulus control for the range of cusps and how this changes children’s prognosis. This program of research suggests experiential and reinforcement sources of stimulus control that lead to incidental language learning as bidirectional naming (BiN) and the component unidirectional naming (UniN). Another body of research on BiN increasingly points to the presence of BiN as a facilitator of relational responding. We present and discuss two papers whose findings show correlational and functional relations between the presence of and onset of the BiN cusp and arbitrary derived relations (AAR). Each body of research represents extensions of behavior analysis to domains traditionally seen as exclusive properties of cognitive psychology. Findings showing the intercept of stimulus control for these lines of investigation are evidence of a more mature science that promises a bright future for the science of behavior.  

Intermediate level, behavior scientists,

Bidirectional Naming and derived relational responding have both commonly been used to explain the accelerated rate in word learning that often occurs within the second to third year of life. However, there has been limited research on how these repertoires may intersect and relate to each other. Across two analyses we evaluated the relation between Bidirectional Naming (BiN) and derived relational responding demonstrated by 31 preschool students with and without diagnoses. Within the first experiment we tested the presence and strength of relations between BiN, arbitrary and non-arbitrary relations which were mutually and combinatorial entailed. Data from the first analysis indicated a strong, significant correlation between participants’ degree of BiN and scores on tests of derived relations. The second analysis compared the mean differences between the establishment of arbitrary unimodal and cross-modal relations for 18 preschool students, selected from participants included within Experiment 1. The data indicated a significant difference for both cross-modal and unimodal derived relations. The obtained results of both experiments have implications for research in how Bidirectional Naming and derived relational responding may lead to learning at accelerated rates and in new ways.

This invited panel is sponsored by ABAI’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board; it represents the first of an annual series of program events highlighting topics identified as central to success in DEI achievements. After a brief review of the Board’s activities this year by Carol Pilgrim, the panel discussion will focus on the critical issue of recruitment efforts in DEI. Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson will address recruitment strategies and challenges within practice and field settings, Dr. Sarah Bloom will discuss recruitment of university students, and Dr. Mike Perone will speak to recruitment practices targeting university faculty and administrators. Time for questions and comments from the audience will be included to allow for sharing relevant experiences and lessons learned. Future panels in the DEI series will target themes including retaining individuals once recruited, mentoring programs, inclusion and equity strategies at the organization level, inclusion and equity strategies at the individual level, and others.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science, and the Director of the Center for Service Learning at the University of Kansas. She is also an Associate Director with the Center for Community Health and Development. She attained a Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology and a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Kansas. She applies behavioral science methods and interventions to improve how communities address issues related to community health and development. Her research has focused on behavioral-community approaches to neighborhood development, substance abuse prevention, and youth and community violence prevention. Dr. Thompson supports community-engaged scholarship using participatory approaches to address social determinants or factors that may contribute to disparities, particularly for marginalized groups and communities. She has researched the effects of community-based processes and behavioral-community interventions to promote mobilization and change in communities. Dr. Thompson has co-authored articles on community capacity-building, youth development, and prevention and received numerous federal, state and local funding awards. She is as an Associate Editor with Behavior and Social Issues. Dr. Thompson has extensive experience providing training, technical support and evaluation for coalitions and community-based initiatives.

This symposium involves studies investigating the effects of lag schedules and teacher presentation rates on academic, play, and social behavior of children with autism. The first presentation will discuss using a lag schedule to teach variable play behavior in preschoolers with autism, and assessing preference for variable or repetitive play. The second presentation will discuss using fixed and varied instructional arrangements to establish varied intraverbal responses. The third presentation will discuss the role of intertrial intervals of instruction presentation on skill acquisition and rates of problem behavior. The final presentation will discuss skill acquisition and problem behavior rates during two different intertrial intervals of instruction presentation, as well as student preference for instruction presentation rate. The discussant will provide comments on each of these studies.

BACBs, graduate students, researchers

Although individuals with autism tend to behave repetitively, certain reinforcement contingencies (e.g., lag schedules) can be used to increase and maintain behavioral variability. In a lag schedule, reinforcement is only delivered for responses that differ from recent responses. We designed the present study to promote variable play behavior in preschoolers with autism interacting with playsets and figurines, and to assess preference for variability and repetition contingencies. Limited data have shown a preference for variability in pigeons and college students, but this effect has not yet been explored in clinical populations. In this experiment, three preschoolers with autism were taught to discriminate between variability and repetition contingencies. With one set of discriminative stimuli, only play behaviors that met a lag schedule were reinforced, and with another, only repetitive play behaviors were reinforced. After differential performance was established, participants were presented with a choice between the two sets of stimuli, and participants completed a play session with the corresponding contingency. Two participants showed a slight preference for variability over repetition, and the other showed indifference. These results indicate that some individuals with autism play repetitively, not because they prefer repetitive play, but because they would require additional teaching to play variably.

Research on the importance of antecedent variables when teaching persons with autism has the potential to provide pragmatic methodologies for the applied setting. This study replicated and extended the work of Roxburgh and Carbone (2013) on the effects of the rate of teacher-presented instructional demands as an independent variable. An alternating treatment design was used to evaluate the effects of the rate of teacher presented instructional demands across three intertrial intervals (1 s, 5 s, 10 s). Dependent variables were frequency of problem behavior, frequency of teaching trials for target skills, frequency of error responses, frequency of mastered skills presented, and rates of reinforcement during discrete trial instruction with four students with autism. Results indicated that reduction of intertrial intervals resulted in a commensurate increase in rates of socially mediated positive reinforcement, increased rates of instructor presented teaching trials, and a decrease in frequency of problem behavior. Issues related to the importance of replication, the role of translational research in applied settings, and conceptual analyses of the role of motivating operation on the occurrence of problem behavior will also discussed.

This study was a partial replication and an extension of Roxburgh and Carbone (2012). The purpose of the study was three-fold. First, we evaluated the effects of varied teacher-presented instructional demands (inter trial interval = 1s, 5s) on the opportunities of respond, the number of responses emitted, percentage of correct responses, and percentage of intervals with disruptive behavior for three children with autism. Second, we compared the effects of varied teacher presentation rates on responding, especially the accuracy of responding and occurrences of disruptive behavior during easy and hard tasks. Third, we used a concurrent-chain procedure to assess participant preferences for teacher presentation rates during easy tasks. An alternating treatment embedded in ABAB without baseline design was used to compare the effects of the two treatment conditions (inter trial interval = 1s, 5s) and two task conditions (easy and hard). The results of the study demonstrated that as compared to extended intertrial interval (ITI), brief ITI increased the rate of instructional demands presented, rate of learner responses emitted, and rate of correct responding during both tasks while increasing percentage of correct responding and reducing problem behaviors during hard tasks only. During easy tasks, the participants’ choices between two rates were inconsistent, suggesting avoidance contingency might have been in effect.

The current symposium outlines dissemination efforts in countries beyond the United States of America and in fields beyond autism, with the aim of inspiring the audience to become better ambassadors for applied behavior analysis (ABA). Our first paper reviews the power of social media and the challenges that can be faced when becoming a social behavioral influencer. The second paper examines the current status of the dissemination of ABA in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, including an overview of efforts related to the translation of behavior analytic works and collaborations with non-behavior analytic professional peers. The third paper brings us into the field of health and fitness, and specifically football, with an evaluation of the antecedent and consequent components of the standard Behavioral Skills Training procedure. Our final paper will discuss current growth rates of certified behavior analysts, barriers to dissemination, and avenues for support in Africa. The discussant will highlight and integrate the contributions of all presenters in relation to and under the framework of her #dobetter professional development movement.

Basic level event designed for: BCaBAs, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds and anyone interested in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and its dissemination.

“Behavior analysts are responsible for disseminating behavior analysis by making information about the science available to the public, professional peers, and government officials” (Kelly, Martin, Dillenburger, Kelly & Miller, 2019; p. 440). This presentation examines the current status of the dissemination of applied behavior analysis (ABA) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Middle East (Kelly et al., 2016). Dissemination efforts will be shared including: the initiation of the first graduate Verified Course Sequence in the country; presentations at non-behavior analytic conferences; translation of behavior analytic works; and collaborations with non-behavior analytic professional peers including experts in educational technology, and members of the Ministry of Education. Finally, an overview will be provided of results from an online survey that investigated levels of awareness of autism and ABA amongst 232 pediatricians in the UAE. The results indicated suboptimal awareness of the causes and characteristics of autism as well as alarming support for unestablished interventions for individuals. Dissemination efforts with pediatricians will be shared.

Behavioral Skills Training (BST) has been a common procedure to help teach or improve various behaviors for some time, and it involves instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. However, there might be instances in which some components of BST are not necessary. For example, common coaching techniques in American rules Football involve a coach providing antecedent instruction without detailed feedback immediately after a rehearsal, and the players appear to often learn the desired skill. This means that there might be times when antecedent instruction might be sufficient when attempting to change behavior, and consequent feedback could be an unnecessary laborious task. Thus, we evaluated antecedent and consequent components of the standard BST procedure to teach proper tackling form to 3 football players. Overall we found that instruction and modeling helped all players improve their behavior. However, the immediate feedback following rehearsal proved to help all participants improve their behavior to desired levels. Procedures, results, and implications will be discussed.

Individuals who are unable to use conventional speech are at risk for challenging behavior, social isolation, and poor long term outcomes. Approximately 30% of children with moderate-severe disabilities are at high risk for complex communication needs; most of these individuals would benefit from AAC. AAC has been supported as effective for a variety of implementers, procedures, and target outcomes. However, many questions remain regarding the quality of reporting this research, critical outcomes, and features of implementation. Without this information, it is difficult to determine when and how AAC-based interventions are most effective. Comprehensive systematic reviews examining the impacts of AAC for individuals with complex communication needs, including individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities, were conducted by the presenters and their research teams. The presenters will synthesize available evidence about AAC to address the methodological quality of the literature, effects of AAC intervention on speech production, the use of telehealth in AAC interventions, and factors related to parent-implementation of AAC-based interventions. Participants will gain an understanding of critical points related to implementing AAC and will be able to summarize the current state of the science.

Researchers, Graduate Students, Behavior Analysts

In this symposium, four studies will be described that evaluated procedures to facilitate emergent responding and/or equivalence class formation with adults of typical development or adults diagnosed with ASD. In the first study, equivalence-based instruction (EBI) was compared to a PowerPoint lecture to teach differential reinforcement procedure descriptors to college students. In the second study, EBI was compared to self-study of videos to learn examples of American Sign Language and to combine them in novel ways using both listener and speaker behavior. In the third study, adult participants were trained on nutrition Information for different food items using conditional-discrimination training. In the last study, adults with ASD learned classes of stimuli representing computer hardware (i.e., hard drive, CPU fan, RAM, processor, and power supply) using EBI and then demonstrated the emergence of untaught relations, intraverbals, and assembly of a hard drive. Collectively, these studies inform best practices of procedures used to promote emergent responding and equivalence class formation across a broad domain of skill areas.

College instructors / BCBAs

Mastery criteria are a ubiquitous component of skill acquisition programs; however, there is limited research on its use. Studies in this symposium will cover a range of issue related to an educator's use of criteria. Our first talk discusses data analysis and how the continuity of data collection affects mastery. The second and third talks manipulate an aspect of mastery criterion and evaluate its effect on skill acquisition. The final talk focuses on appropriate criteria and instruction to promote eye contact.

Researchers and practitioners who design educational interventions for children with developmental disabilities

Data collection procedures must be chosen to work for the clinician, rather than expending inefficient effort on gathering underutilized information. Balancing clinician use of time with effective instructional interventions and decision-making. This study applied a multiple baseline across participants design to compare the two approaches using parallel data-based decision protocols regarding the impact on client skill mastery, false mastery indicators, rate of instruction, and overall clinician intervention decisions. The data collection systems of the programming for 6 children with autism were manipulated in a private day school in suburban Virginia. Licensed special education teachers supervised by behavior analysts designed the skill acquisition programming. The data indicate that while mastery of targets was similar between the conditions, significant differences were found in teacher decision-making effort, rate of instruction, and targets falsely flagged as mastered. Exploring the potential effects a data collection system may have on client skill acquisition and the efficient use of limited clinician time can help service providers determine which systemic processes they will use in their practice.

In humans, eye contact is one of the most important nonverbal communicative behaviors. However, deficits in eye contact are characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. Interventions targeting increasing eye contact in this population are important as eye contact can be conceptualized as a behavioral cusp that allows the individual to access novel environments and contingencies. Previous research has used a variety of procedures to increase eye contact in this population with limited success and arbitrarily determined mastery criteria. Thus, the purpose of this presentation is to discuss three studies which evaluated eye contact. In the first study, researchers used descriptive analyses to determine normative levels of eye contact in a sample population. In the second study, researchers used eye tracking software to increase eye contact in individuals with disabilities and evaluated generalization across settings. In the third study, researchers used a progressive model to teach eye contact and evaluated maintenance during follow-up probes. Limitations of these studies are discussed along with suggestions for future research on increasing eye contact in individuals with developmental disabilities and programming for generalization and maintenance.

Since its inception in the late 1960s Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) has been applied across a wide variety of industries. Within these various industries different goals, populations, and procedures make OBM one of the broadest applications of behavior analysis. However, the differences across settings require a range of skills in an OBM practitioner that include industry specific terminology, knowledge of safety procedures, government regulations, among others. This symposium contains two presentations in a human service setting, a study that took place within a hospital, and a final study that took place in a manufacturing plant. The goals and methods of the studies vary widely and highlight how OBM procedures can be implemented. The applications of OBM will be compared and contrasted by the discussant.

Behavior analysts

Signs are a commonly used antecedent intervention. There are a number of variables that make a sign more likely to be followed (proximity, response effort, changing vs. static), but there is little research into whether a sign is more effective if the message is provided in a “do” versus a “don’t” format. Providing a “do” request is generally considered more effective in clinical populations but has not been studied in an employee population. In the current study, written requests, in the form of a posted sign on a door, were used to measure the effectiveness of a “do” message (find another way) and a “don’t” message (do not enter) with employees in a school setting. Adherence to the signs did some to be influenced by the message.

Pay-for-performance broadly describes systems where an employee’s behavior is tied to her or his performance. The current applied study describes the effects of transitioning a team of four behavior analysts from a standard pay-for-time paradigm to a pay-for-performance system. In the pay-for-performance system a percentage of pay was made contingent upon the number of hours billed. Results indicated an increase in the number of monthly hours billed across all behavior analysts. Additionally, the improvements in performance achieved in the pay-for-performance program made the department profitable for the first time.

Hospital errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. One way to reduce errors is to increase communication between doctors, nurses, and patients. Each stakeholder brings valuable information to the discussion and can serve as a second check during medical decisions. In this study, we examined a package intervention that included task clarification, prompting, and feedback for increasing discussion among doctors, nurses, and patients during morning rounds on two units. Communication was measured using a checklist of items to be discussed during rounds. Furthermore, nurse presence and submitting orders during rounds was measured. Results indicated that they intervention was successful at improving communication.

Organizational behavior management (OBM) techniques have long made positive impacts in businesses and organizations. One successful area within OBM is performance management or focusing on employee behaviors to reach organizational goals. The current study used performance management techniques to improve casting productivity and efficiency in a copper manufacturing company. Combinations of goal-setting, task clarification, and feedback were used to target both pounds of copper casted and the amount of time needed to complete a cycle (cycle time). Overall, productivity increased by 7.2% and cycle time decreased by 4.4% during the intervention and this change was estimated to be worth over $5 million. Methodology and other results will be discussed.

As access to information increases with internet searches and almost instantaneous global communication, behavior analysts become exposed to a wide-variety of perspectives and strategies for treatment implementation. This exposure can cause behavior analysts’ worldview to shift from applying the theoretical foundations of behavioral science to incorporating other worldviews (e.g., mentalistic, non-scientifically supported theories) into their clinical practice. Some behavior analysts have confused the technologies of behavior analysis (e.g., curricula, assessments, etc.) for behavior analysis itself or have not adopted a behavioral worldview. “If this were a theoretical issue only, we should have no cause for alarm; but theories affect practice… Confusion in theory means confusion in practice” (Skinner, p. 9, 1968). This symposium, which includes four presentations and a discussion, will examine the variables that impact the shift to or away from a behavior analytic "worldview", the necessity for incorporating a behavioral worldview into ethical practice, and the impact for not utilizing a behavioral worldview.

Practicing behavior analysts, students of behavior analysis, clinical supervisors.

A worldview is the lens through which we look and make sense of the world. A worldview constructs the foundation of what we believe, and dictates how we explain, assess, and deal with the phenomena of interest. Behavior analysts, through their training, are exposed to and supposedly embrace the worldview of behaviorism and all that that means, such as adherence to scientific attitude and practice, that informs our assessment and treatment of behavior. However, there is accumulating evidence that behavior analysts are using and supporting treatments and interventions that are not based upon the behavior-analytic worldview or conceptualization of behavior. Such practice hurts consumers, hurts our field, and demonstrates ethical disarray on the part of the behavior analyst. Behavior analysts have an ethical and practical responsibility to adhere only to behaviorism as their worldview and behave according to only its tenets and philosophy.

Despite ethical requirements that behavior analysts function under a behavioral world view, it appears that some behavior analysts have adapted more of a conspiracy theory – flat earth world view not based upon our science. In fact, evidence indicates that some behavior analysts believe that the behavioral world view only applies to specific populations and age groups – not the full earth. This may be due to a lack of understanding and application of the fundamental philosophy of the science or an over-reliance on marketing behavioral analysis to specific populations and commercialized guides as easy to use as a point-and-click google search. Marketing may have been appropriately conducted to disseminate to the public behavior analysis’ effectiveness for specific populations, it may have marketed too well – changing behavior analysts’ world view. Although curriculum and guides initially may have been appropriately developed to assist behavior analysts, but not replace the fundamental applications of the science, the over reliance on their simplicity may be replacing the comprehensive understanding and use of the behavioral world view and application of such. Without a thorough understanding and application of a comprehensive behavioral worldview, behavior analysts may evolve into superficial and unethical, point-and-click behavioral technicians and not analysts.

Clinicians may implement a number of preliminary assessments (e.g., functional analyses, demand assessments, preference assessments, etc.) prior to developing behavioral programs for clients with autism. The researchers in this symposium will describe two applications of concurrent-operants preparations for evaluating stimulus functions prior to initiating treatment. Lindsay Lloveras and colleagues will describe a concurrent-operant demand assessment (CODA) to identify a hierarchy of preferred and nonpreferred demands. Allie Rader and colleagues will describe a concurrent-operants assessment for determining the relative reinforcing efficacy of events hypothesized to maintain problem behavior. Implications for practitioners and applied researchers will be discussed.

Graduate students in behavior analysis, clinicians working with individuals with problem behavior, applied researchers

We conducted a concurrent operant demand assessment (CODA) to identify a hierarchy of preference for demands in 17 individuals who exhibited problem behavior. We presented demands in pairs, with selection between demands serving as the primary dependent variable. The reinforcing efficacy of escape from the most- and least-selected demands from the CODA were evaluated for 7 participants using progressive ratio (PR) schedules. Outcomes from the PR analysis corresponded with the rank order of demands from the CODA. Four of these seven participants were subsequently exposed to a brief CODA with only two items, which consisted of successive presentations of the most- and least-selected demands from the CODA. Outcomes of the brief CODA corresponded with the PR analysis and CODA for 3 out of 4 participants. These results suggest that the CODA might be an effective technology to determine a hierarchy of preference of demands for assessment and treatment purposes.

This symposium includes three papers two of which evaluate interventions for efficiently teaching safety skills to children with developmental disabilities. Miltenberger, Novotny, Maxfield, and Baruni evaluated video self-modeling with children with autism and preliminary data show the procedure is effective. Orner, Miltenberger, and Maxfield evaluated small scale simulation training with kids with autism and found it effective for only one of three children. Lastly, Maxfield, Park, and Blair discuss the results of their meta-analysis on 26 single subject design studies on safety skills interventions for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

BCBA and BCaBA

We investigated a variation of video modeling, video self-modeling (VSM), for training firearm safety skills. The participants were prompted through the individual steps which was compiled to create the video where the participants would watch themselves engage in the appropriate safety skills. The participants were assessed following the creation of the video to ensure the skill was not learned from the creation of the video. Three children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder between the ages of 7 and 13-years-old were recruited for this study. The participants were required to not touch the firearm, leave the room, and tell an adult. The VSM was effective for two of the participants and the skill maintained at a 1 and a 2-month follow-up. One participant required in situ training before engaging in all the safety skills correctly. This study is the first demonstration of video self-modeling for firearm safety skills.

Every year children are unintentionally injured or killed due to finding an unattended firearm. Although research evaluating various approaches to teach safety skills shows that behavioral skills training and in situ training are effective, limited research exists evaluating small-scale simulation training in teaching safety skills to children. Furthermore, there is no research evaluating this approach with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study evaluated the effectiveness of small-scale simulation training in teaching firearm safety to 5 to 6-year-old children with ASD. Simulation training was effective for one participant, in situ training was necessary for one participant, and an incentive was required for the third participant to demonstrate the safety skills.

This study provides the results of a meta-analysis of 26 single subject design studies on safety skills interventions for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Results indicate that individuals who have mild to moderate ID, particularly school-age children, have benefited most from the safety skills interventions, and that that the interventions have demonstrated low-to-large effect sizes across safety skills (e.g., abduction prevention, fire safety, first aids, daily living safety, pedestrian safety skills). The behavioral skills training (BST) with and without additional components was the most commonly used safety skills intervention for individuals with ID; however, BST alone demonstrated a larger effect than BST with additional components, and video modeling had the largest treatment effect of all intervention types. Outcomes for abduction prevention skills were larger than those of other safety skills. Implications for practice and future research are discussed in the following areas: implementer, dose of intervention, treatment fidelity, and social validity.

This symposium gathers elements of what has been learned so far in a variety of areas of behavioral inquiry about the spread of the novel coronavirus and the effects of COVID-19. Because many of the phrases in our new lexicon—“social distancing,” “flattening the curve”—are calls to emit a particular set of behaviors (hand-washing, mask wearing) and to avoid others (proximity to others, face touching), with reinforcers conditional on group behavior (reduction in cases reported), behavior analysts are well suited to help inform our global responses. Papers in this symposium will cover diverse and interlocking topics: (1) how the pandemic has affected service delivery, and how behavior analysts can use telehealth ethically and effectively; (2) the necessity of looking beyond the proximal influences on mortality, such as pre-existing conditions and age, to those of harmful contextual conditions of disadvantaged populations; (3) behavioral economic methods to study social isolation decisions amidst different public health messages; and (4) the importance of behavior-based safety protocols that take into account current contingencies and limitations of training systems. The discussant will provide comments on each paper and highlight the links among them.

In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, ABA providers have been recognized as essential workers who are not subject to emergency shelter-at-home directives. This recognition has challenged behavior analysts to redesign treatment models to minimize the spread of the virus while also minimizing disruption to medically necessary services. As a result of federal and state guidance to insurance carriers to authorize telehealth for services that would otherwise be authorized for in-person treatment, ABA providers have had the option to shift their in-person models to telehealth, and behavior technicians are, for the first time, permitted to deliver 1:1 ABA remotely. The adoption of a telehealth model by both providers and families has been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success. The decision by some providers to continue home-based services or keep centers open has sparked discussions about ethics and revealed the need for clear guidance. As experts in shaping behavior, ABA providers have a critical role to play in minimizing spread of the virus by identifying, disseminating, and implementing best practices. With the integration of health and safety protocols into center-based practices and an effort to maintain telehealth options, ABA providers will be positioned to apply the lessons of COVID-19 to future events and preserve access to ABA in times of crisis.

The linchpin of COVID-19 mitigation has been social distancing (staying at least 2 m away from others, refraining from large gatherings). This tactic places human behavior squarely in the center of slowing the spread. Unfortunately, the rapid nature of this virus made proper behavioral analysis of social distancing nearly impossible for several reasons: 1) Acquiring steady-state responding is long and arduous. 2) Employing proper within-subject design considerations requires extended baselines for some individuals, reversals of policy potentially placing the public at substantial health risk, or manipulating experimental policies in rapid alternation. 3) Direct observation of social distancing is difficult, infeasible, and potentially unethical. However, contemporary behavioral economic research has generated hypothetical decision tasks to safely and swiftly assess behavior that is difficult to observe, risky, and/or ethically-challenging to study via prototypical operant methods. Backed by decades of operant study, behavioral economists evolved delay discounting and operant demand methods to safely proxy public health crises such as safe sexual practices, the opioid epidemic, and illicit drug trade. Rigorous validation methods suggest participant responses on such tasks significantly relate to actual/overt human responses. Toward this end, we adapted behavioral economic methods to safely surveil how a crowdsourced sample of adults would make social isolation decisions amidst different public health messages. Results suggest small but significant effects in favor of strategic messaging. Translated to potential population-level outcomes, these small effects have the potential to prevent the spread of infectious disease to a large portion of the population, and thereby help save lives.

Appropriate application of hygiene focused behaviors is the essential component that can make a change in today’s uncertain environment, where we suffer from the risks of COVID-19 infection and often feel powerless. Behavior Based Safety (B-BS) seems to be the only evidence-based method that ensures both high levels of production and high frequency and accuracy of prevention behavior. However, some aspects of the classic BBS process do not seem suitable for the current needs: presentations to managers, trade unions and workers, the constitution of a management team, the establishment and activities of a project group plus the training of observers and safety leaders take months before the start and further weeks before achieving a significant growth, indicating an acceptable success. Unlike the usual BBS processes, these long times and rituals would result in a huge risk for the infection to spread. Hence, late successes in terms of behavior would not be as successful in terms of results. A B-BS protocol that specifically focuses on COVID-19 situation has been developed in order to: a) be largely prepared in advance, b) allow the start of the process in just 4 days, c) provide an accurate measurement through bi-daily observations and, d) get the ultra-rapid ascent of the performance curves within 10 days from the start of the process. The protocol does not only focus on the appropriate implementation of the health requirements determined by companies and hospitals, but it also highlights the importance of when such behaviors actually need to be adopted in order to guarantee safety to individuals. Furthermore, through the adoption of specific checklist as templates and the daily/weekly supervision by a single skilled Behavior Analyst, it is possible to comply with all the scientific principles of BBS but transferred to new intervention technologies. Some insights will also be presented on whether to develop a superordinate system to verify the correct application of the protocol and its results, suitable by public institutions, downstream of a consensus conference of the scientific community on the guidelines to be suggested.

Traumatic experiences can have significant, and long-lasting, effects on the individuals who survive them. Frequently, clients who live through trauma experience a host of behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical health problems. When these individuals come to therapy, most of them are hoping that they will be able to eliminate the nightmares, memories, anger, anxiety, and other posttraumatic symptoms that they experience. In fact, most of them have tried many things (such as isolation, substance abuse, even suicide attempts) to manage these symptoms. However, what many of these individuals fail to realize is that their heroic efforts to avoid the pain of their posttraumatic experiences may actually be making things worse - and may even be the heart of the problem. In many ways, despite their best efforts, trauma survivors frequently find themselves trapped in a life that is largely devoted to the avoidance of pain. Effective empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic symptoms have been developed to aid trauma survivors in improving traditional PTSD symptoms. However, they are not universally effective, and not all clients are willing to engage in exposure-based treatment. In addition, given the high levels of psychiatric comorbidity with PTSD, treatments are needed that can cut across diagnostic categories and begin to treat presenting problems based on functional dimensions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a contemporary behavior therapy, provides an alternative to the feel-good agenda and instead focuses on helping clients to reconnect with those ideals and principles for living that are deeply important to them and that dignify the difficult events that they have survived. This presentation will introduce clinicians to contextual behavioral tools to work with trauma survivors on identifying each person’s valued life directions and then help motivate experiential acceptance and behavior change in the service of those values.

Clinicians, supervisors, students

In this symposium we provide a discussion of unique presenting concerns and clinical evaluations in clinic settings. The first two papers address schedule thinning considerations functional communication training (FCT). The study by Smith and colleagues evaluates a comparison of a compound schedules of reinforcement involving discriminative stimuli (e.g., multiple or chained schedules, Greer et al., 2016) or within the context of probabilistic, progressive-delay schedules (e.g., contingency-based progressive-delay schedule, Ghaemmaghami et al., 2016) and the relative efficacy of these two methods during schedule thinning for individuals with severe challenging behavior. Similarly, the study by Salvatore and colleagues investigates the efficiency and preference for alternative activities during schedule thinning within FCT. Garcia and Wunderlich extend the work of Edgerton and Wine (2017) by using a function-based treatment to increase appropriate voice volume responses. Last, another unique study by Weber and colleagues implemented an adaptation of the Good Behavior Game with a sibling dyad to decrease destructive behavior. Dr. Tracy Kettering will provide comments on navigating challenges presented by adaptations of assessment and treatment to address unique cases in a clinical setting.

Behavioral specialists Graduate Students Practitioners

Functional communication training (FCT) is an effective treatment for decreasing socially-reinforced destructive behavior (Carr & Durand, 1985). Multiple schedules are frequently used to thin the reinforcement schedule during FCT (Hanley et al., 2001). An extinction burst is possible with each schedule thinning step, contributing to slow treatment progress. In clinical practice, individuals are often expected to sit and wait during periods of restricted access to functional reinforcers; however, in the natural environment, they generally do not wait without alternative items/activities available. Ten children referred for treatment of destructive behavior participated in this study. Therapists conducted functional analyses and taught participants a functional communication response to access functional reinforcers. Therapists implemented a multiple schedule during schedule thinning, comparing a control condition (nothing available during S-delta intervals) to separate conditions with embedded items/activities during S-delta intervals (moderately preferred tangible items, attention, demands). After reaching the terminal schedule in at least one condition, therapists assessed participant preference across S-delta conditions. For 80% of participants, the terminal schedule was only reached with alternative items/activities. All participants demonstrated preference for alternative items/activities and therapists indicated preference for conducting these sessions. For 6 participants, we simultaneously targeted an escape function during the S-delta condition including demands.

Inappropriate prosodic production is often observed, but rarely treated, communication skill deficit for individuals with autism. Few studies have evaluated the acoustic characteristics of prosody in children with ASD, and obtaining a pragmatic measurement of their conversational skills is typically limited to parent and teacher report measures. In one exception in the research, a previous study by Edgerton and Wine (2017) implemented an intervention for shaping the conversational speech volume of an intellectually disabled participant. Expanding on the previous literature, we conducted a functional analysis of the voice volume responses (VVR) of two children with ASD utilizing similar procedures to those from Edgerton and Wine. Further, we evaluated the efficacy of using a function-based treatment, in conjunction with the visual feedback from the app, to increase appropriate VVR. Results of the evaluation, as well as implications for the treatment of inappropriate voice volume and other prosodic behaviors, will be discussed.

Criminal behavior is a broad, socially significant problem that affects many individuals and wider communities across the world. For example, in America, mass shootings occur on average 334 times per year, and smuggling activities contribute towards acts of terrorism which cause devastation and costs countries billions to manage. A factor that can increase the likelihood of a person committing criminal activity is a previous learning history with crime, and operant behaviors with which it is associated. If conceptualized behaviorally, environmental factors and functional relations maintaining criminal repertoires could be addressed pragmatically and effectively. The possible applications of behavior analysis to criminal activity are broad-ranging, and we will present the application of the science in a port setting to analyze and explore behaviors of interest, explore behavioral skills training for active shooting scenarios, present a behavioral conceptualization of mass killings, and research the use of behavior analysis in criminal justice systems. Although the applications presented in this symposium are diverse, they represent an attempt to understand criminal behaviors, and how these can be manipulated or changed with behavior analysis.

Any individual who wants to learn more on a new dissemination topic Those in behavior analysis with interest in expanding into their communities

Active shooter scenarios have become increasingly prevalent in school and healthcare settings. Unfortunately, little information is available on training for active shooter scenarios when a staff member is also responsible for a client. Previous research suggests that around 75% of individuals freeze across a variety of emergency situations. Through training, it is likely this freezing will decrease. Behavioral skills training has been shown to be an effective way to train safety skills in prior research. We found that behavioral skills training was more effective than an informational video at increasing correct responses to three different active shooter scenarios among three behavioral clinicians. Responding was also assessed for generalization to novel antecedent stimuli for the conditions of run, hide, and fight. All participants generalized after one or fewer sessions. Furthermore, responding maintained over a 2 week period at 83% correct responding or higher. These findings may impact how active shooter training is conducted specifically in terms of needed active participation of the learner.

Domestic dogs are routinely used for scent detection tasks in increasingly wide-ranging domains, from explosives, to disease, pest, and rare species. How training, handling, and selection of dogs and handlers influences performance are important questions for this expanding field. This symposium reports research into the effects of these dimensions on scent dog performance. First, detection threshold of dogs and dogs' ability to generalize to new odor concentrations will be explored as it relates to the odor concentration they were initially trained on. Such research provides insight into applied questions of what concentrations to train on, as well as basic questions of stimulus generalization. A second paper investigates the influence of handler knowledge of target locations, an essential question given that teams often test in situations where the handler knows target locations, but do not when they are in the field. Finally, a third paper investigates the feasibility of training owned dogs with their owners to serve as citizen-science teams detecting agricultural diseases and pests, and whether selection tests based on reinforcer efficacy and persistence can predict success. Given the ubiquitous nature of conservation and agricultural issues, training and deploying pet dogs could greatly increase communities' ability to protect their environment.

Practitioners interested in applied nonhuman research and how results might apply to human training issues Practitioners interested in basic research and how results might apply to human training issues Researchers interested in applications of basic and applied research to nonhuman domains

In this symposium, we will review strategies for utilizing competing stimuli and matched stimulation to reduce automatically maintained problem behavior in children with autism. The first presenter will explore procedural variations of delivering competing stimuli to treat automatically maintained stereotypy. This included presenting alternative stimuli when item contact is absent and in the absence of functional engagement providing manual prompting to engage appropriately. Data are presented on item contact and functional engagement along with stereotypy. Our second presenter will share data comparing the implementation of matched stimulation versus preferred stimulation on reducing stereotypy in children with autism during work sessions, a setting in which previous matched stimulation research has yet to target. Data will be presented on engagement in stereotypy and on-task behavior during sessions. The final presenter will review data evaluating the competing stimulus assessment (CSA) in identifying appropriate treatment for automatically and attention-maintained problem behavior. The CSA in this study was designed to match the function and topography of the target behaviors.

BCBAs; clinicians working with individuals with automatically maintained problem behavior

The present study investigated the efficacy of matched stimulation (MS) on reducing frequency of stereotypic behavior for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during their work sessions. Children with ASD engage in rigid, repetitive, stereotyped behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), and this behavior is often targeted for reduction, because it can interfere with appropriate behavior and engagement with learning opportunities (Cunningham & Schreibman, 2008). Research has demonstrated matched stimulation’s efficacy in reducing motor stereotypy during periods of continuous, non-contingent access (Gunter et al., 1993; Lanovaz et al., 2009; Lanovaz et al., 2012; Lanovaz et al., 2011; Love et al., 2012; Luiseli et al., 2004; Rapp, 2006; Rapp, 2007), but no previous study has examined the implementation of matched stimulation in short intervals while the participant is engaged in a work session. Compared to baseline sessions and preferred stimulation sessions, four of five participants demonstrated a decrease in stereotypic behavior during matched stimulation sessions with no impact on measures of on-task behavior.

While there is a growing body of research examining early symptoms of ASD, the point at which this pattern of atypical social responding begins to deviate in children who are later diagnosed with autism is unclear. Researchers are now identifying early behavioral markers in children 6-12 months of age (Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005), however, more recent data suggest emergence of symptoms before 3 months of age (Graupner & Sallows, 2017). The first paper in this session describes data obtained using a newly developed research tool, the Early Markers of Autism, on infants under 6 months of age. Assessment data using the EMA reveal the presence of five key early markers in infant siblings and the accurate assessment of each using this tool. The second paper in this session describes the use of telehealth technology to train parents to implement treatment protocols in their young children with autism. Caregiver fidelity of implementation of treatment techniques and changes in child specific behaviors showed the effectiveness of these training procedures. These findings have implications for the early identification and treatment of autism in infants, leading to long term positive outcomes for infants and families.

Researchers and BCBA clinicians

This project was designed to conduct a multiple-subject component analysis study of treatment to ascertain the “active ingredients” that lead to symptom improvement in infants with early signs of ASD. Six infants (6-12 months of age) exhibiting early signs of ASD and their primary caregivers participated in this study. A multiple-baseline-design across subjects was used with counterbalanced introduction of three treatment techniques (Step into the Spotlight, Imitation, Talking to Baby). Treatment sessions occurred three times per week for one month for a total of 12 sessions. Treatment techniques were introduced weekly to the caregiver and allowed for caregiver practice with immediate feedback. Caregiver fidelity of implementation (FI) of treatment techniques and child ASD-specific behaviors were coded from 10-minute caregiver-child dyad intervention video-recorded probes. Caregivers met FI requirements quickly, with interobserver agreement (IOA) of 88% overall. Since time is of the essence when presented with an infant with early signs of ASD, identifying which key treatment techniques to teach first that produce the most change quickly in infant behavior is ideal. In addition, learning more about the successes and challenges of using telehealth technology to coach caregivers will inform future clinical practice and research efforts in this area.

The first book-length treatment of RFT was published almost 20 years ago in 2001. In recent years, a number of conceptual advances have been made in the theory that have implications for its application in both educational and clinical domains. The first of these is the emergence of a type of periodic table for conceptualizing derived relational responding, known as the multi-dimensional, multi-level framework (the MDML). The presentation will explain how this framework provides opportunities for conceptualizing and remediating the core skills required for basic and advanced language and cognition in educational contexts. The second of these is a recent extension to the MDML framework, called the hyper-dimensional, multi-level framework (the HDML), that incorporates the orienting and evoking functions of stimuli that participate in derived relations. The presentation will explore how this recent extension connects basic research in RFT to clinical behavior analysis. Overall, the case will be made that although RFT should be seen as a work in progress, the theory continues to offer insights that will potentially improve functional-analytic methods for assessing and treating behavioral problems.

Behavior analysts with an interest in development and clinical behavior analysis.

The effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) is supported by over 300 randomized controlled trials. ACT was developed on the basis of behavior analytic principles but most previous research has been in the context of psychotherapy interventions. More research is needed on the basic mechanisms responsible for behavior change within ACT. This symposium brings together two laboratory studies that examine components of ACT, from a relational frame theory perspective. The first presentation, by Barbara Gil-Luciano, consists of a study that evaluated the effects of two different defusion strategies on lab measures of rumination and memory. The second presentation, by Jorge Ruiz-Sanchez, examines the effects of a rule-governed behavior protocol on experimentally induced fear and avoidance.

Behavior analysts

Psychological inflexibility is made of distinct reactions that are oriented to lessen distress. In this sense, worry and rumination (RNT) are strategies that seem to be common denominators in many psychological disorders. Cutting-edge RFT approach suggests that both strategies are triggered by framing thoughts in hierarchical relations. This study had two parts. Firstly, we explored such a hierarchical organization of thoughts with two ruminative induction procedures, analyzing their impact on a memory task. Secondly, we examined the differential effect of two defusion protocols that aimed to alter the discriminative avoidant functions of triggers for RNTand a control condition.Results suggest that inducting RNT with stronger triggers (thoughts at the top of the hierarchy, or “big ones”, that symbolically contain or are inclusive of weaker thoughts or triggers) showed a more negative effect in the task performance than inducting RNT with less stronger triggers. Results also indicate that participants that were intervened with the defusion protocol that specifically containedhierarchical cues to reduce the discriminative avoidant functions of triggers for RNTshowed a better performance at post-test, in comparison with participants that received a defusion protocol that only contained deictic cues, and with a control condition. Results also informed that, when promoting a hierarchical relation between the individual (deictic I) and his or herstronger triggerfor RNT, the level of concentration was higher at post-test than when targeting an individual’s less stronger trigger – all triggers being related.Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Defusion and values-based protocols are built of interactions that involve responding under the overarching motivative functions, as higher-order establishing operations, while integrating rules-driven emotive functions present at the moment. The present study aims to analyze the impact of a higher-order motivate protocol (values) on experimentally induced fear responding. Firstly, 55 participants underwent an aversively conditioned task where non-avoidance was followed by shocks and noises, whereas a black screen followed avoidance responding. Next, participants randomly received one of three protocols: (a), conditional motivative protocol, which involved a conditional relation between non-avoidance and earning money; (b), as (a) plus adding a higher-order function for non-avoidance (conditional + higher-order motivative protocol). And (c), the same as previous but only a higher-order function was included (higher-order motivative protocol). Lastly, participants repeated the experimental task. Results show that the conditional motivative protocol has little impact on avoidance behavior, whereas higher-order motivative protocols suppress completely avoidance behavior, even in the presence of elicited fear responses.

Social justice can be defined as the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges to promote fair and just relations. Although behavior analysts’ efforts towards social justice can be traced back to the late 1980s, analyses of the movements are still in their infancies. The current symposium will consist of three presentations directed at the promotion of social justice within the field. First, an analysis of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis will be provided to discuss inherent power imbalances between behavior-analytic researchers and human research subjects. Recommendations to diffuse such power will be approached from the perspectives of collaboration and cultural humility. Next, findings will be presented on the presence of Latina professors teaching in educational programs accredited through the Association for Behavior Analysis International. To date, researchers have not examined racial and ethnic identities of professors in the academy, which is necessary if diversity and equity is truly being targeted. Barriers to gathering such data will be discussed, in addition to the proposal of solutions to sustain diversity and equity within the field. Finally, an approach to increase social justice narratives will be described. The approach will discuss the importance of taking perspectives of others experiencing social injustice, which is foundational towards ensuring the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges for all.

Behavior-analytic researchers, behavior-analytic faculty, students in behavior analysis, behavior analysts

Increasing diversity and equity has recently gained momentum in behavior analysis. In the previous five years, data have supported significant progress in the presence of women in our discipline (Nosik, Luke, & Carr, 2018; Li, Curiel, Pritchard, & Poling, 2018), including the creation of the Women in Behavior Analysis conference (Sundberg, Zoder-Martell, & Cox, 2019). Despite these accomplishments, there is a lack of information regarding the racial and ethnic identities of behavior analysts, which should be considered when promoting diversity and equity. With Latinxs (a gender-neutral term) growing in the U.S., the number of Latinx behavior analysts is likely to increase. Although there are more women than men at the ranks of assistant and associate professor in programs accredited through the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI; Li, Gravina, Pritchard, & Poling, 2019), it is unknown how many Latina professors there are, which has great implications for the training and mentoring of future behavior analysts who come from similar backgrounds. In addition to presenting data on Latina professors teaching in ABAI-accredited programs, the current presentation will also discuss the barriers encountered when identifying such individuals. Moreover, viable solutions that can create change will be proposed, including the development of networks to provide coherent support to Latinas interested in pursuing higher education and the establishment of outlets for research related to sustaining diversity and equity.

Presenting choices to nonvocal and early verbal learners is frequently achieved by arranging concurrent choices wherein two or more stimuli are put in front of the learner with the prompt “choose.” The paired-stimulus preference assessment is one example of a paired-choice arrangement. Some choices, such as the choice of intervention or choice of music to listen to, present challenges as they cannot be easily represented by an item or icon. The first presentation will describe a concurrent chain procedure for offering choice between errorless instruction and error correction within the Picture Exchange Communication System and a receptive identification task. We will report data on the relative efficiency of these instructional strategies and client preference for instructional strategy. The second presentation will report the effects of presenting choice of music via an iPad on vocal stereotypy. Data will be reported on the effects of music- and song-level interactions. Our discussant, who has in-depth experience in basic and applied research on choice and concurrent operants, will then provide her comments and considerations.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts

We conducted a preference assessment that included musical stimuli and, for those that selected music, we examined the effects of presenting musical stimuli via an iPad on sensory-maintained vocal stereotypy in three children with autism. Pressing an icon resulted in the corresponding song playing through headphones and the participant could change the song by pressing a different button at any time. Data were analyzed across condition type (music vs. no music) and song type. This intervention produced a reduction of vocal stereotypic behavior three of three participants, with socially significant decreases for at least one participant. Future research will be discussed to include the assessment of specific stimulation maintaining vocal stereotypy, competing stimulation, and the role of concurrent choice for substitutable reinforcers to treat automatically-maintained behavior.

As our population ages, age-related diseases, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, become more prevalent. Therefore, treatments to increase quality of life and adaptive independence are in high demand. In this symposium, we will explore two ways in which research within behavioral gerontology are seeking to answer questions within this area. Both focus on ways behavior analysts can work to establish adaptive verbal repertoires in older adults. Our first presenter will explore how the establishment of conditional discriminations and the formation of emerged relations were influenced by simultaneous matching-to-sample (MTS) or delayed matching-to-sample using many-to-one or one-to-many training structures. The second presenter will share the data collected during a four-month study involving older adults with mild-cognitive impairment and dementia, which targeted immediate and delayed tacts (recall) and other memory-related measures before and after an intensive Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) procedure. Implications and future directions of these studies will be discussed.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, behavioral gerontology practitioners, behavioral gerontology researchers

As our population ages, age-related diseases, such as dementia, become more prevalent and treatments to increase quality of life in high demand. The present study utilized a crossover multiple baseline design across participants to examine the efficacy of an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) intervention on the improvement of remembering behaviors (immediate and delayed tacts) and neurocognitive impairment and present moment awareness screening scores in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage dementia. Results demonstrated some improvement on both immediate and delayed tacts across participants. Lower scores post-treatment and at follow-up on the Trail Making Test (TMT) were also observed for most participants. Additionally, those with the lowest initial St. Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) assessment scores demonstrated the greatest increase following treatment and at a two-month follow-up. Implications of this study suggest that Acceptance and Commitment Training may be a beneficial to prolong remembering behaviors in individuals diagnosed with dementia, which may remain stable across time. Future directions will be discussed.

Stimulus preference assessments (SPA) are commonly used to identify stimuli that can be used in both assessment and intervention. Much of the literature on preference assessments has focused on the design of the assessment, including stimulus presentation format, stimulus modality, and consequences for selection. Overall, single, two-item, and multiple item formats, with immediate access, can be effective methods to identify preferences. More recently, researchers have examined adaptations to SPAs, focusing on different modalities and consequences. For example, some items or activities may be difficult to present; therefore, it may only be possible to present a picture of the name of the item. Additionally, it may be difficult to repeatedly present an large item or activity. Likewise, some stimuli may have multiple parameters that could be presented as separate items during SPAs. The purpose of this symposium is to present two studies that address adaptations to SPAs, focusing on stimuli with multiple parameters and problem behavior during SPAs. In the first study, the authors evaluated preference for different types of attention and the relation between preference assessment results and reinforcer assessment results. In the second study, the authors evaluated problem behavior during different modalities and consequence arrangements of paired-stimulus preference assessments.

Practitioners, Applied Researchers, Graduate Students

Effective writing ability is arguably one of the most important skills an individual must acquire. Despite the crucial role of effective writing skills in today’s society, many individuals do not possess strong writing ability and do not consider themselves good writers, as only 27% of 12th grade students met the criteria for “Proficient” writing, while 21% of 12th grade students met the criteria for “Below Basic” writing (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). This distribution is even more concerning for black and Hispanic students. These findings suggested that many individuals leaving the public secondary education system lack the skills required to successfully meet the writing demands of the workplace and of higher education. With that in mind, this symposium will demonstrate several ways in which behavior analytic methods may be used shape different aspects of the writing process. The first presentation will review an intervention package consisting of programmed instruction and rate-building to develop revision skills. The second presentation will examine the use of lag schedules to increase variable fictional writing with children with autism. The final presentation will present an integration of precision measurement, pinpointing, and multiple learning channel practice with mechanics exercises.

The target audience for this symposium are behavior analysts, teachers, supervisors, and anyone else who is required to either develop written products or to review written products as apart of their job.

Clear technical writing is critical for communicating complex information to professional and lay audiences. Due to a lack of instruction and practice, behavior analysts and researchers who venture beyond formulaic article writing are prone to structural and stylistic errors. Such writing patterns are noticeable and less desirable to some readers. In her technical writing course Writing Solutions for Behavior Analysts, Marilyn Gilbert introduced a series of Flags—stimuli that signal a particular situation in one’s writing that may need to be changed. The course helped students fluently identify and change Flags that make writing unclear, misleading, or unnecessary. When teaching stylistic writing, Gilbert employed an age-old copywork exercise or the rewriting of an exemplar text to shape an easy and approachable style that effectively communicates scientific information. Many successful writers, including Benjamin Franklin, have used the copywork exercise to improve overall and domain-specific writing (e.g., sales copy). This paper will present an integration of precision measurement, pinpointing, and multiple learning channel practice with Gilbert’s mechanics exercises (Flags) and an eyes/ears copywork approach to promote high-level writing among behavior analysts and other science writers.

Tootling interventions involve using interdependent group-oriented rewards to enhances student reports of classmates’ student-helping-student behaviors. Tootling has been shown to decease typical inappropriate classroom behaviors including out of seat behavior and calling out, but not antisocial behaviors. In Study I, a withdrawal design showed that tooting caused immediate decreases in antisocial behaviors (e.g., mean behaviors like name-calling). Researchers have not evaluated the effect of tootling on the behaviors which students are reporting. In Study II, social skills training was used to teach compliment-giving behavior, and during the tootling intervention rewards were delivered contingent upon peer reports of classmates’ giving compliments. Visual analysis of our A-B-A-B figures showed that the tootling intervention enhanced students compliment giving behavior, not just reports of compliment giving behavior, in a generalized setting. This behavior-specific tootling intervention enhanced compliment-giving behavior in a generalized setting. In Study III, a multiple baseline design was used to sequentially enhance three recently-taught social skills in a generalized setting. Discussion focuses on using tootling to reduce antisocial behaviors and promote generalization and maintenance of recently-taught social skills.

Those who work in educational settings

The current study was designed to extend research on tootling interventions. Tootling involves reinforcing students’ reporting of their peers' incidental prosocial behaviors, specifically student-helping-student behaviors. Reinforcement is provided via the application interdependent group-oriented bonus rewards. While previous researchers reinforced the class contingent upon the number of tootles (i.e., peer reports of classmates’ student-helping-student behaviors), during the current study group rewards were delivered contingent upon the number of different students who received tootles. A withdrawal (A-B-A-B) design was used to determine if a tootling intervention decreased antisocial/disrespectful interactions of four, teacher-nominated students in an after-school, third-grade classroom. Visual analysis of a repeated measures graph and effect size estimates suggest that the tootling intervention decreased these interactions. Discussion focuses on the failure to maintain gains during the withdraw phase and future research designed to enhance and evaluate the generalizability of tootling interventions and the effects of similar interventions over time and across dependent variables.

Performance feedback is one of the most common strategies employed in interventions within the field of organizational behavior management (OBM) and has been demonstrated to improve performance across a variety of settings and behaviors when used effectively. Despite its accumulation of empirical support overall, the key variables influencing feedback efficacy, maintenance, and treatment implementation require further evaluation. The presentations in this symposium seeks to further this evaluation by 1) providing an updated review on the existing evidence regarding the use of feedback in 75 articles published in the Journal of Organization Behavior Management from 1998 to 2018, 2) assess performer preference for feedback timing relative to task completion (e.g., after step, after trial, and after session), 3) and evaluate the effects of performer reactions to feedback on subsequent feedback delivery and observation accuracy. Each presentation will highlight the importance of identifying various feedback components as they relate to treatment efficacy and implementation. Implications for future research and the utilization of performance feedback in applied settings will be discussed.

Open to all audiences.

In organizational behavior management (OBM), feedback can effectively increase and maintain performance across settings and target behaviors. Feedback has been extensively studied, being one of the most studied independent variables in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM). Alvero, Bucklin, and Austin (2001) conducted an objective review of the effectiveness and essential characteristics of performance feedback in organizational settings between 1985-1998. This talk will present an update and extension of the Alvero et al. (2001) review by summarizing the effective characteristics of feedback based on 75 articles that implemented feedback as an intervention in an applied setting that were published in JOBM, and in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) between 1998 and 2018. Feedback effectiveness will be presented for the following characteristics: feedback source, feedback medium, feedback privacy, feedback participants, feedback frequency, the immediacy of feedback, feedback combinations (e.g., feedback + goal setting or feedback + incentives), and feedback nature (increase or decrease behavior).

Performance feedback can be a valuable tool for behavior change when used effectively. Despite its utility, delivering feedback may be aversive to the observer, affecting the accuracy of subsequent observations and feedback. A study conducted by Matey et al. (2019) evaluated the effects of required feedback delivery on observer accuracy and found that accuracy was lower when performance feedback was required compared to observation-alone, suggesting the performer’s reaction to feedback may be one variable influencing subsequent accuracy. The current study sought to evaluate the effects of feedback reaction-type on observer accuracy and feedback delivery. First, undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either positive, neutral, or negative reaction groups. Then, in phase one, participants were trained to score a confederate’s posture as either “safe” or “at-risk”. During phase two, participants were instructed to deliver feedback to the confederate after each session. The confederate reacted to this feedback differently depending on group assignment (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral). Preliminary results indicate observation accuracy in the negative-reaction group may be lower after feedback delivery compared to accuracy in the neutral-reaction and positive-reaction groups. Implications for these findings and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

This symposium will include three recently completed projects by the 2019 Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (VBSIG) research and student grant competition winners. The VBSIG aims to support the advancement of verbal behavior research and to disseminate theoretical, empirical, and practical information about verbal behavior. These papers exemplify that aim. The first paper by Frampton, Axe, Covall, and Padmanabhan will describe procedures for teaching problem solving skills to answer novel intraverbal questions utilizing a mobile application. The next two papers focus on the emergence of untrained skills. Zaltzman, Parry-Cruwys, MacDonald, and Sweeney-Kerwin examined the use of observational learning in a young child with autism who was taught to engage in echoic, tact, and intraverbal behaviors following exposure to a model. The final paper, presented by Aragon, Rodriguez, McKeown, and Luczynski, describes procedures to facilitate the emergence of verbal behavior in the form of Intraverbal-tacts. The studies present results that may inform verbal behavior researchers and practitioners alike.

graduate students, researchers, clinicians interested in verbal behavior

Learning by observing others has great benefits as it allows an individual to learn new skills without directly contacting the contingencies. Results from previous research on teaching skills necessary to emit OL responses are promising but an analysis of OL using Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior (1957) is lacking. The purpose of the present study was to address the limitations of previous research by conceptualizing OL using Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior (1957) in the context of a replication and extension of DeQuinzio and Taylor (2015). After teaching one child diagnosed with an ASD to emit a chain of vocal verbal responses including an echoic, the statement of a rule, and either the same response as the echoic or the correction statement "I don't know" she was observed to correctly tact previously unknown pictures after observing a model. Interobserver agreement was collected for 35% of OL and tacting responses and for 34% of vocal response chain (VRC) responses and was 79% and 100% respectively. Future research should continue to analyze OL using Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior (1957) as it might lead to a more parsimonious and conceptually systematic analysis.

Consent is embedded in the foundation of behavior analytic research and clinical practice. The processes of obtaining consent and assent require that researchers and practitioners share information regarding procedures in a way that is understandable to the recipient, which often appears to be a straight-forward process. Beyond the process of information sharing, though, are important matters related to whether or not someone has the capacity to consent or assent and whether that capacity has changed or will change over time. Additionally, it is often incumbent on researchers and practitioners to use their judgement when deciding whether or not assent has been provided noncoercively. This can be especially difficult when working with more vulnerable populations like individuals with developmental disabilities or dementia. This symposium will address issues related to decision-making capacity, commonly used capacity assessments and assent procedures, and socially valid methods for gaining assent that avoid coercive procedures. These issues will be discussed as they relate to older adults with dementia and children and adults with developmental disabilities.

BCBAs

Determinations of decision-making capacity affect a person’s civil rights. When reasoning or decision-making capacity is in question, the onus is to balance autonomy and safety, maximizing self-reliance and independence while programming for assistance to prevent harm and maintain safety. Assessment of decision-making capacity is a research area, nevertheless, myths about decision-making capacity abound. Contrary to common belief, decision-making capacity is not unitary – it is specific to the task or domain in question (e.g., financial, medical, research consent or assent); cognitive difficulties do not automatically imply a lack of capacity; and individuals may lack capacity in one area of functioning while retaining capacity in other domains. Individuals may also transition from more to less assistance with decision-making, and capacity can be regained. This primer will review basic tenets of decision-making capacity and broadly introduce research and currently existing guidelines, considering the impact on a person’s life and advancing providers’ competency to navigate ethical and practical issues.

Behavior-analytic research with adults with dementia is often conducted with people who lack the capacity to consent on their own behalf. However, commonly used capacity assessments and assent procedures are often ill-defined and subjective. Although there are some objective behavioral measures of dissent (e.g., moving away from the area, indices of unhappiness), assent procedures requiring vocal responses may produce verbal behavior under stimulus control of past or unobservable events. For example, “Can I sit with you today and show you some activities?” might result in the topographically-irrelevant response, “I told him that the birds are blue.” Researchers must then judge whether assent has been given, which can be uncomfortable. We will discuss the utility and pitfalls of our ethics committee-approved assent and consent procedures, and the use of compassionate misinformation in relation to the BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts. We will present data showing the prevalence of vocal responses not under conditional control of discriminative stimuli used in assent procedures. We will discuss the need for socially valid, effective vocal and non-vocal methods for gaining assent from participants with dementia to enable people to be involved as much as possible in the consent process (i.e., have choice).

Whether conducting behavior analytic research or providing behavior analytic services to individuals with developmental disabilities, it is important to gain consent for the provision of the procedures in question. Several issues arise when considering how informed consent is obtained to ensure individuals with developmental disabilities who are their own guardians are not coerced into providing consent. There are also several considerations that must be made to ensure consent is effectively informed. When adults with developmental disabilities are not their own guardians or when children with developmental disabilities are involved, they may not be able to legally provide consent. However, the majority of the time, such individuals must still provide assent. Thus, similar issues apply. This presentation will provide an overview of the concerns that can arise when attempting to gain consent or assent from individuals with developmental disabilities. We will provide a behavior analytic perspective on these issues, as well as present potential solutions behavior analysts might consider as ways to evaluate assent and consent that avoid coercive procedures.

The present symposium explores the ways in which verbal behavior and behavioral economics may shed light on some of the larger societal problems we face as humans. In the first presentation, we empirically explore RFT-based conceptualizations of gambling behavior beyond those of equivalence to frames of comparison and the ways in which those contextual variables (along with our own verbal behavior about them) may push around our behavior. Second, we'll address conceptually-cutting-edge perspective, wherein we propose different interventions for distinct repertoires within what we might broadly consider, impulsivity. Finally, we explore delay and social discounting within the context of climate change, and the need for modern behavior analysis to hold a seat at the table of discussions around sustainability initiatives.

-intermediate-advanced

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct, including inability to wait, rapid action without forethought, and an inability to inhibit inappropriate behaviors. In behavior analytic research, impulsivity is often studied by examining choices between smaller-sooner reinforcers over larger-later reinforcers, as in delay discounting. However, researchers have begun to acknowledge what could be an important distinction, between ‘‘impulsive disinhibition,’’ e.g., Go/No-Go tasks, and ‘‘impulsive decision-making,’’ e.g., Delay-Discounting tasks (Reynolds, Ortengren, Richards and de Wit, 2006). This presentation will conduct a radical behavioral conceptual analysis of this distinction and identify the separate implications for both repertoires of behavior, both for studying them in the lab, and for application to socially significant behavior. In particular, it seems probable that different intervention procedures may work for addressing the two different repertoires. For example, present moment attention training may help individuals focus on moment-to-moment self-control, as in go/no go tasks, whereas values-based interventions may help individuals behave with respect to longer-term self-control tasks, such as delay discounting.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, considerable changes in human behavior are needed to curb the impacts of climate change. Current estimates suggest that we may reach the climate point of no return (PNR) by the year 2035 assuming a 2% increase in the relative rate of no emission consumption. We describe several studies conducted by our research lab from a Behavioral Economic and Relational Frame Theory synthetic framework that address preferences for policies that attempt to limit or constrain CO2 emissions by affecting human action. The first series of studies evaluate policy preference to delay PNR as analogous to monetary discounting of reinforcer loss. Results show that people discount high emission commodities similar to currency. Results also show that redistributive policies may generate greater policy support and willingness to forego high emission commodities in service of the value of climate change sustainability. The second series of studies extend this model by directly comparing policies developed by politicians seeking presidency in the upcoming US election, as well as embedding measures of social discounting. Results again support preference for redistributive policies and that policies that redistribute reinforcement locally are more likely to be accepted and produce greater willingness than policies that seek to redistribute reinforcement internationally. These series of studies speak to a need to inform policy with modern advances in applied behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Collaborating with professionals in other disciplines is vital to the success of those we serve but is also one of the most difficult parts of the job. Teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, pediatricians, social workers, and psychiatrists bring unique areas of expertise, and collaboration means finding common ground. Successful collaboration may also require some persuasion and translating behavior analytic terms into their language to teach others what our science has to offer. This panel includes experienced behavior analysts from school, hospital, and mental health settings who have experience collaborating with diverse professionals from other disciplines. They will provide their perspectives on the benefits of working with others and provide strategies for how to navigate potential challenges. They will give insight into navigating ethical issues that may arise when working with multidisciplinary teams. They will offer recommendations on how to make friends and influence people to provide the best services possible for those we serve.

The target audience in practicing behavior analysts who work in setting that require collaboration with professionals from other disciplines.

Teaching children to play is an integral part of development because it sets the occasion for having social and communicative interactions with peers, increases the likelihood of learning in natural and inclusive settings, and offers flexibility to be used in multiple environments (Barton & Wolery, 2008). Children with disabilities are observed to engage in spontaneous play less often and demonstrate fewer varied pretend play behaviors than children with typical development (Barton, 2015). The long-term effects of an impoverished play repertoire are observed in social interactions later in life. The purpose of this symposium is to review the research supporting the efficacy of the Pretend Play and Language Assessment and Curriculum (PPLAC) as an effective tool to systematically assess and teach both independent and sociodramatic pretend play and language skills to children ages 2-7. The PPLAC is a behaviorally-based curriculum formulated from the typical developmental sequence of play and language and utilized to establish and expand a child's pretend play repertoire. The five elements of pretend play are identified and separated in teachable components including: agent of play, object of play, category of play, advanced play and the essential skills to sociodramatic play.

BCBA, BCBA-D, BCaBA, SLP, Special educators

Children diagnosed with autism and other developmental delays often demonstrate a deficit in toy play when compared to typically developing peers and frequently require specific interventions to acquire appropriate toy play (DiCarlo & Reid, 2004). Teaching play skills to children diagnosed with autism by isolating the individual components within each stage of play can increase acquisition, maintenance, and generalization. The purpose of this study was to replicate the research presented by Nancy Champlin and Melissa Schissler to teach four children diagnosed with autism, ages 3-7, with varying profiles, single play actions and vocalizations across 20 targets in Stage 1: Single Agent from the Pretend Play and Language Assessment and Curriculum (PPLAC). Actions and vocalizations were taught across three elements of pretend play: agent, object, and essential skills to socio-dramatic play. Following mastery of single play actions with corresponding vocalizations, generalization to untrained toy items was assessed. Facilitators will discuss the modifications to the PPLAC made to accommodate the barriers presented by higher-needs participants.

Both independent and sociodramatic play is vital to a child’s development. Children often relate to one another with compatible roles within a play scheme engaging in reciprocal roles that reflect complimentary social relationships (Goldstein & Cisar, 1992). The purpose of this study was to teach two children diagnosed with autism complimentary character roles in a play scheme. Each participant was taught a sequence of seven actions and corresponding vocalizations one for the primary role in the camping play and one for the secondary role in the camping play scheme. Contingent on each participant independently acquiring the character role in the target play sequence the participants were taught to engage in sociodramatic play by alternating actions and corresponding vocalizations to expand on the sequence of play that was taught. Acquisition of the independent play scheme and alternating actions with a peer were assessed and generalization to novel schemes and peers was evaluated.

This symposium addresses issues related to management and application of operant procedures to teach and extend both behavioral and verbal behavioral cusps within children and individuals who present with weak or missing cusp capabilities. The four presentations will include descriptions of clinical application of research findings in the area and discuss the importance and teaching of Naming as a verbal developmental cusp. To this end, the use of multiple exemplar instruction, speech generative devices and the role of contingent reinforcement and behavioral variability in establishing and extending Naming capabilities will be discussed.

BCBA clinicians.

Behavior analysis investigates behavioral change in human and animal. Inspired from a selectionist analogy which has been largely adopted in biology, behavior analysts have focused on interactions between behavior and environmental contingencies to explain these changes. However, in these investigations, consequences have been maybe one of the main themes since the works of Skinner (Skinner & Ferster, 1957). This talk aims at replacing the place of behavioral variations in the selection process. Indeed, if consequences enable selection of responses, at an optimum level behavioral variations are involved in this process. In fact, literature with animal has demonstrated that behavioral variation facilitates the acquisition of new responses (Grunow & Neuringer, 2002). Considering the importance of behavioral variability, we ran an experiment in which we compared the emission of repetitive and variable behaviors in the acquisition of complexes target sequences with four groups of human participants (n=20). We found that at the opposite of repetition, behavioral variability facilitates the acquisition of complexes responses. These results are congruent to literature with animal (Grunow and Neuringer, 2002) but different from those with human (Bizo & Doolan, 2013).

Although physical activity is associated with improved long-term health outcomes, a large number of adults and children fail to meet physical activity guidelines. Contingency management is an effective approach to increasing physical activity, however the cost of the incentives is a barrier to dissemination and implementation. The first speaker two speakers will address this issue by exploring novel strategies for reducing costs. McCurdy and colleagues will describe his research using a group-deposit-incentive, prize-bowl approach with adults, whereas Hanashiro-Parson and colleagues will describe their study comparing token economy vs monetary incentives to increase physical activity among individuals with intellectual disabilities. The last two speakers will address novel strategies for evaluating physical activity, for example using heart rate in a bout analysis with children (Batchelder) and a hypothetical behavioral economic measure of demand for physical activity (Burrows). Dr. Donlin will discuss the implications of these finding.

Researchers interested in conducting research on physical activity

The current recommendation for physical activity for children is 60 min or more of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) per day (CDC, 2015). Many children are not currently meeting the CDC recommendations for MVPA, though they may engage in intermittent exercise while playing outside. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to evaluate HR measures when children engaged in a vigorous (run) physical activity 50% of the session, alternated with rest (sitting), light activity (walking slowly), or moderate activity (walking briskly) for the remaining 50%. First, participants ran for bouts of either 30-s, 1 min, 1.5 min, or 2 min alternated with rest periods. HR remained in the moderate zone for the highest percentage of session in 30-s and 1 min bouts, but decreased below the moderate zone during rest periods extending to 1.5 and 2 min. We then alternated run activities with rest, light, and moderate activities in 1.5 min bouts. Preliminary results indicate spending non-running time engaged in a light or moderate activity maintains HRs in the moderate zone more so than spending rest time sedentary. Findings will inform the most efficient way for children to meet CDC recommendations when engaging in physical activity in bouts.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of token reinforcement and monetary reinforcement for increasing physical activity among adults with intellectual disability and to assess choice of token or monetary reinforcement. An ABAB design with an alternating treatments design was used to compare token and monetary reinforcement for increasing steps during daily 1-hr sessions. In the second intervention phase, the participants chose between the two reinforcement conditions. Results showed that both reinforcement conditions increased physical activity and that some participants chose tokens and some chose money as the reinforcer for steps.

In the last two years, diversity, social justice, and cultural humility have received a surge of interest in the applied behavior analytic (ABA) community, likely largely bolstered by social movements such as MeToo and BlackLivesMatter. This symposium brings together four presentations that provide practical action items for research and practice. The first presentation, by Elizabeth Fong, will bring a broader historical perspective to the conversation surrounding diversity in ABA and will engage the audience in some brief self-reflective and group activities. The second presentation, by Jacqueline Ramirez, reviews research on cultural humility training and provides specific actionable recommendations that the audience can put into practice today. The third presentation, by Robyn Catagnus, presents results of a review of research published in six behavior analytic journals and assesses the presence of cross-cultural research published in these journals. The fourth presentation, by Zoey Ulrey, presents a conceptual functional analysis of leadership behaviors relevant to preventing harassment in organizations. The symposium concludes with a discussion by Denisha Gingles.

Any behavior analysts

The topics of cultural competence and cultural humility have received increasing attention in the behavior analytic profession. Although the terms are often taken as synonymous, they are not the same. The concept of cultural competence assumes that, after sufficient training, one might become competent in another’s culture. The concept of cultural humility asserts that one can never become fully competent in another’s culture, so a more realistic and productive goal is to become humble and open with respect to culture. The field of applied behavior analysis has done very little research addressing the topic. In fact, few training programs in behavior analysis include training in cultural humility as a requirement. A best practice for teaching these frameworks has not been identified and there is a critical need to outline the relevance of cultural humility and to expand on studies from similar disciplines that have a head start in identifying what works. Identifying best practices will enable practitioners to provide ethical, socially significant, and socially validated interventions to our consumers and families, thus remaining true to our ethical code and dimensions of applied behavior analysis.This presentation will make specific, testable recommendations for how behavior analytic training and research may be brought to bear on establishing culturally humble clinician repertoires of behavior.

Toilet training is one area of applied behavior analysis that is practically manualized. Several studies have outlined an effective treatment package to improve toilet training for most subjects who participate (Azrin & Foxx, 1971; Foxx & Azrin, 1973; Greer et al., 2015; LeBlanc et al., 2015). The current symposium will present recent research in this area that focuses on 1) increasing the efficiency of toilet training and 2) improving the effectiveness of toilet training procedures. These studies will present modified toilet training programs, variations to individualized interventions, and methods for increasing both self-initiations to use the bathroom as well as continent bowel movements.

Behavior analysts who are providing services to individuals who are not fully toilet trained. Even if these clients are urine continent, they might still require bowel movement training and/or self-initiation training.

Independent toileting is an essential self-help skill for all children (Cicero & Pfadt, 2002). Typically developing children generally achieve continence by age 3 (Blum, Taubman, & Nemeth, 2003); however, over half of all caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report difficulty in toilet training which causes the acquisition of toileting skills to be delayed or never mastered (Williams, Oliver, Allard, & Sears, 2003). For these individuals, incontinence can have a negative impact their personal hygiene, self-confidence, physical comfort, and social development (Cicero & Pfadt, 2002). Furthermore, incontinence can result in a restricted school placement, exclusion from extracurricular activities as well as hindering interactions with peers and increases burden of care. Numerous studies have evaluated variations on a study conducted by Azrin and Foxx (1971), which outlined an intensive behavioral treatment package for toilet training; yet, limited research exist on less intensive approaches. This study examines the outcomes of children who received toileting services through a consultative toileting program that primarily focuses on training the caregiver in how to implement toileting procedures. Additionally, the differences between children who were successful and those that were not were examined to determine if any pattern emerged.

Independent toileting skills provide multiple benefits (e.g., access to variety of settings and an increase in sanitation). Common procedures used to successfully train toileting skills include operant conditioning procedures with a positive practice component (LeBlanc, Carr, Bennett, & Detweiler, 2005). Given that positive practice is a form of punishment (Kroeger & Sorensen-Burnworth, 2009) and frequent exposures to punishment contingencies may increase the probability of evoking problem behaviors (Cicero & Pfadt, 2002; Post & Kirkpatrick, 2004), more research is needed to examine how punishment exposures within toilet training procedures can be reduced. The purposes of this study were to 1) replicate LeBlanc et al. (2005) for five children with autism, 2) evaluate the effects of schedule modifications designed to minimize the positive practice exposures during intensive toilet training for children who had accidents, and 3) after urine continence was achieved, evaluate generalization to bowel movements. The results of this study demonstrated that the toilet training procedures with schedule modifications were effective in training urinary and bowel movement continence across all children during intensive toilet training and follow-up. These results suggest that modifications to intensive toilet training procedures can be made to reduce the aversiveness of the procedure while still maintaining its effectiveness.

Clinicians regularly use preference and reinforcer assessments to identify effective reinforcers. Typically measurement of stimuli occurs subsequent to the assessment of preferences to confirm putative reinforcers. The types of preference assessment and tests of reinforcing efficacy used vary widely and usually to take into account ecological fit. Consideration of the assessment and measurement of effects of different types of stimuli must be taken. This symposium includes four presentations that report on multiple types of methods to assess preference and measure the effects of reinforcers, which advance methods in preference assessment and reinforcer measurement . Two studies involved the use of video-based stimuli to assess preference in paired-choice and multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments. One study compared two different types of preference assessments (i.e, . multiple stimulus without replacement and response restriction). In two studies researchers examined the reinforcing effects using a progressive-ratio schedule, while in a different study researchers

Scientists, Students, practitioners

Recent research suggests benefits of the presence of pets in social responding of children with ASD. It follows, pets may be preferred and valuable as rewards in treatments for these children. However, preference for animals, and contingent access to animals to increase desired responding has not been clearly demonstrated in research. This study aimed to investigate preference for, and rewarding efficacy of a typical animal pet (i.e., dog) in children with ASD. We conducted in vivo and video-based paired-preference assessments including a dog. We subsequently conducted reinforcer assessments using progressive ratio schedules. Results of this study revealed in vivo and video-based preference assessment outcomes highly correlated for 2 of 3 participants. Outcomes of reinforcer assessment revealed access to a dog served as a reinforcer. However, relative reinforcing efficacy of the dog was not as strong as other social interactions for 1 of 3 participants.

The role of behavior analysis in understanding composite variables, such as life satisfaction, is best understood in small steps. Questions of what effects the value of different reinforcers have are important steps in understanding how we can make life better. In this symposium four different investigations of reinforcement will be presented. The first presentation is a proposed instrument for exploring the relationship between task interest and time on task; influenced by the work of John Holland. The second presentation discusses behavioral predictors of burnout, and how a lack of fit between personal interests and the demands of their environment leads to emotional exhaustion. The third presentation discusses how artistic ability, and science and research interest relate to creativity. The fourth presentation discusses how gratitude evolves with developmental stage, and how intimate relationships, and emotional complexity contribute to gratitude. Each of these presentations shows steps toward developmental behavioral economic modeling of reinforcement and its effects.

The target audience is people who know behavioral science, and want to increase their knowledge of the developmental pathways in acquiring new and effective behaviors. People who are interested in how to combine behavior analysis with behavioral development. People who want to have a broad perspective of critical applications of behavior analysis to real world problems.

Burnout is a multivariate psychological syndrome, described and measured by, per Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), one’s emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. The job-person fit framework states that a poor fit between a person’s interest and the nature of the job and day-to-day tasks increases the risk for burnout. In order to determine whether burnout scores would be higher for those whose interests do not match their job, participants (N= 55) were asked to take an anonymous online survey. The survey consisted of: modified Holland RAISEC Inventory (HRI), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and questions about their job and the amount of time they spent doing tasks that would appeal to one of the 6 RAISEC groups. The HRI was modified to make it shorter, more behavioral and face valid. The results indicated that a mismatch in their personal interests and the task they performed at work indicated burnout in 2 out 3 variables: Emotional Exhaustion (r = 0.323) and Depersonalization (r = 0.334). Implications for future research are discussed.

The focus of this article is to provide an understanding of what caring is and why it is one of the bases of behavioral economics. It addresses the definition of care, how it differs from the actions of gratitude, stages at which caring can be identified and how caring underlies societal actions and development. The paper also analyzes how caring changes depending on which stage an organism is performing at, how big of a social structure the organism is in and how caring is necessary in human societies. The paper details the results from an anonymous online survey designed to measure the perceived value of caring and gratitude. The first factor noted both an intimate relationship and immediate reaction. The first factor had a loading of 0.819. This included either parental relationships, immediate reactions to other people’s actions or both. The second factor with the indicated less intimate relationships and longer reaction time, not with more emotional complexity. The second factor had a loading of 0.816. This included strangers, non-relatives, and reactions that require long term memory retrieval to perform.

Behavior analysts can play an important role in the implementation of evidence-based strategies in school settings (Kohler & Strain, 1992). Support to students and teachers in a wide variety of contexts often leads to better student outcomes and classroom management (Johnson & Street, 2012; Malott & Moran, 2004). As such, this symposium highlights four different applications of behavior analysis in school settings. (1) The application of trial-based function analysis (TBFA) in public schools when functional behavior assessments (FBAs) were inconclusive. The feasibility of TBFAs will be addressed. (2) The use of behavioral skills training (BST) and coaching to train special education teachers to implement incidental teaching to increase verbal operants in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Considerations for teacher training and methods to improve verbal behavior will be analyzed. (3) A study that examined pre-meal presentation of vegetables to increase vegetable consumption for children with autism spectrum disorder. Recommendations for intervening on food selectivity will be examined. (4) A teacher-implemented toilet training procedure with two elementary students. Considerations for toilet training in formal educational settings will be discussed. Implications for the application of behavior analysis in school settings are addressed.

Practitioners, graduate students, educators

The use of a functional behavior assessment to assess challenging behaviors in public schools is a widely accessed, evidence-based practice and required by state and federal laws. However, due to the variability of the environment in a school, a functional behavior assessment can often produce ambiguous or difficult to interpret outcomes which impacts the effectiveness of the selected interventions. Trial-based functional analyses have been shown as an effective method to identify problem behavior in schools. This study was designed when FBAs completed by the school system personnel were inconclusive and challenging behaviors remained severe and dangerous. This study expanded the use of trial-based functional analyses into a public school special education classroom for two students with autism and intellectual disabilities after FBAs were inconclusive. All trial-based functional analyses resulted in identification of behavioral functions and subsequent interventions were taught by teachers and paraprofessionals. Additional social validity data were collected about the feasibility of using trial-based functional analyses and associated interventions from the public school teachers and paraprofessionals.

Food selectivity is a common behavioral concern for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Schreck, Williams, and Smith (2004) found that 72% of children with ASD were reported by parents/guardians to consume a limited range of food items. This study examined the effect of pre-meal presentation on the consumption of vegetables in a sample of 16 students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These 16 students (75% male; mean age = 13 years; age range 8-19 years) were enrolled in a private school serving children with autism. Researchers offered participants 10 small pieces of two vegetables during lunch (baseline) or prior to lunch (pre-meal presentation). Observers recorded the number of bites students consumed. The pre-meal presentation condition was associated with increased levels of vegetable consumption for 9 of the 16 participants. A reversal to baseline demonstrated expected decreases in bites consumed and the subsequent return to intervention demonstrated expected increases in bites consumed. Our results suggested the pre-meal presentation of vegetables can serve as a low-cost, low-effort intervention for increasing consumption of vegetables for some children with ASD.

Collaboration amongst interdisciplinary teams to manage treatment outcomes should be a first line of defense in effective behavior support with adults. Most of the time, figuring out the function of the target problem behavior is an easy task. The difficulty arises when treatment objectives are targeted in isolation thus creating a significant barrier to effective intervention. Often times adults with disabilities are served by various providers including behaviorists, psychiatrists, mental health professionals and non-behaviorally trained direct support staff. More often the consultation model for behavior services is used and the behaviorist is charged to work with a team of professionals and paraprofessionals that may or may not be focused on the same objectives. Initial and ongoing collaborative treatment planning will allow for more effective interventions. The talks that are presented in this symposium show measurable effects of professionals and paraprofessional who use a collaborative treatment model to support various individuals.

The target audience for this presentation includes any professionals working in the field alongside other professionals and paraprofessionals.

When working with dually diagnosis adults, behavior analysts want to minimize the need for medication for behavior challenges. The treatment evaluations presented here include collaboration between a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and a psychiatrist to achieve medication stabilization and behavior reduction. The targeted individuals include (1) a 59 year old woman diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder, Depressed type and Moderate Intellectual Disability, (2) a 41 year old woman diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Severe Intellectual Disability, and Autism, and (3) a 30 year old woman diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia, Moderate Intellectual Disability, Epilepsy and Pseudo-Seizures. All of the ladies live in a group home setting (not all in the same home) and have a history of frequent hospitalizations as well as residing in state-run facilities. A collaborative model was used with the psychiatrist and direct staff that included development and implementation of a behavior plan, as well as visual/graphical feedback for decision-making with medications. Across all individuals, behavior challenges reduced and medication changes due to increasing behavior problems was no longer needed.

Working with adults usually means utilizing a consultative approach where the BCBA is the consultant and paraprofessionals are the direct line staff. When this happens, collaboration with the service providers who employ the paraprofessionals and the paraprofessionals themselves is essential. In addition, the behavior program must include a strong staff training component to ensure accurate and consistent delivery of the behavior program. Without collaboration and staff training, the behavior program cannot be fully adopted to ensure effective support for the individual. This presentation includes treatment evaluations of collaborative models for three males, ages 23-28. All have dual diagnoses and have 2:1 staffing ratios due to the intensity of problem behaviors. Attendees will be presented with data that represent collaborative work with paraprofessionals that is focused on behavior plan implementation and overall behavior excess reduction.

The term “trauma-informed schools” has achieved buzzword status in our current educational landscape, fueled by the urgency schools feel to address the devastating effects of trauma on the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of our students. However, there is no clear consensus regarding the inputs, or the core components, of trauma-informed schools and there have been no rigorous evaluations of their outputs, or the effects on students, teachers, or schools. If trauma-informed schools are to become more than a passing trend, we must work harder to describe the inputs, document the outputs, and explain the complex processes that link the two. In this presentation, I will summarize the core components of trauma-informed schools, identify key implementation factors thought to facilitate the adoption and maximize the impact of trauma-informed approaches, and review strategies to evaluate the impact of trauma-informed schools.

Educational practitioners and researchers.

Stacy Overstreet, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at Tulane University.  Over the course of her career her research has focused on how sociological, cultural, familial, psychological, developmental, and biological processes influence and interact with one another over time to shape child adaptation to trauma.  Over the past ten years, she has translated that research to inform the implementation and evaluation of trauma-informed schools.  She has published several empirical and conceptual papers related to these areas and she was co-editor of a 2016 special issue on trauma-informed schools in the journal, School Mental Health.  Dr. Overstreet is a founding member of the New Orleans Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative.  Her work through the Collaborative includes a grant from the National Institute of Justice to determine whether a multi-component implementation strategy for trauma-informed schools improves school safety as well as a grant from the Department of Justice to develop and evaluate a Train the Trainer model for the implementation of trauma-informed schools.  

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Chrish is a Feldenkrais® practitioner (1998) who works with people of all ages and backgrounds, using movement as a primary tool for improving self-awareness, posture, thinking, voice, and overall health and wellness.  Chrish is also an actor, producer and director. She is passionate about using her diverse skills and background to help people find their optimal selves, innate dignity and composure. Chrish has been teaching the Feldenkrais Method® across the world for over 21 years in places such as the U.S., Ghana, Morocco, France, and Nepal.  During her teaching of the Feldenkrais Method, Chrish offers her students an enriching experience consisting of mental and physical improvement through natural, easy, and pleasurable ways of moving, using the brain’s amazing capacity to reorganize the body. In addition to working with performing artists and business executives alike, Chrish specializes in working with children with disabilities and trauma, and is a graduate of the Anat Baniel Neuromovement® Method for Children. Her studies with Ruthy Alon (Movement Intelligence) have also informed her work in many ways. Chrish has served three terms on the national Board of Directors of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America and has chaired numerous annual Feldenkrais Method® conferences in North America.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Miranda Morris, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Bethesda, MD. She treats a broad range of difficulties and specializes in trauma and anxiety. Miranda is a Peer Reviewed ACT Trainer and the founder of DC ACT, a organization with two primary objectives: 1) the dissemination of contextual behavioral therapies in the DC region and beyond, 2) the provision of support and training opportunities for aspiring ACT trainers. Miranda conducts regular workshops in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and related contextual behavioral therapies including Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) and Clinical RFT. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and is President Emeritus of the the Mid Atlantic Chapter of ACBS (MAC-ACBS).

Many people who could benefit greatly from ABA services cannot gain access to them due to lack of financial resources and insurance. Medicaid funding of ABA services is one mechanism to enable financially and socially disadvantaged people to benefit from ABA services. The session will involve behavior analysts from 4 states discussing how behavior analysts have and could address public policy issues leading to state Medicaid programs funding ABA services. The activities and contributions of behavior analysts in 4 states will be presented. The sequences of events in each state differ, but some general strategy recommendations will be addressed. Audience participation will be encouraged.

Licensed Behavior Analysts and BCBAs/BCBA-Ds who are leaders in state behavior analysis organizations

Skinner (1987) stressed that acting to solve the world’s problems required changing the environment of which the problem-solving behavior is a function. In the ensuing decades since he called on behavior analysts to become more involved in system level change, the relevant environment did change – e.g., the introduction of new or stronger journals, organizations, researchers, grant programs, etc. – and behavior analysis matured into a discipline that now applies its theoretical and methodological approach to the remediation of social and cultural problems. This symposium presents a sample of current behavior analytic work addressing systems-level change, with presenters drawn from chapter authors of the forthcoming book Behavior science perspectives on culture and community (Mattaini & Cihon, Eds.). Presenters will discuss behavior analytic advances in promoting environmentally sustainable practices, moderating problematic climate change via both community organizing models and working with the corporate sector, fostering social justice through research and clinical practice, and engaging in activism and advocacy efforts to promote progressive social change. The four topics are interrelated with each other and, combined with discussant remarks and 20 minutes for audience questions, will offer a rich introduction or update to cutting edge applications of behavior analysis to saving the world

Graduate students and professionals

The humans of today are among the most important to share the Earth. The efforts that lay ahead—reducing our carbon footprint, preserving our natural landscapes, drastically changing our resource consumption—are likely to yield outcomes we may never directly experience. Although technological ingenuity will be critical, efforts by behavioral scientists to encourage sustainable lifestyles will be among the leading means by which to proactively maintain Earth’s habitability. In this vein, behavior analysis has a rich history of work promoting sustainable living. We conducted a systematic review of behavior analytic research in sustainability using key phrases derived from leading climate and Earth science reports (e.g., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). We coded the resulting fifty-two empirical studies published across six primarily behavior analytic journals according to intervention methods and target behavior to reveal gaps in the existing literature. The goals of this presentation will thusly be to (a) summarize the efforts of behavior analysis to-date in the areas of sustainable living, (b) highlight areas for which empirical research is lacking, and (c) highlight areas where future behavior analysts can make the most meaningful contribution to advance global sustainability

Global warming (GW) will continue to accelerate unless exceptional efforts are taken soon to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. Increasingly dire consequences are apparent now across the globe. GW is a behavioral problem at its root -- a "super wicked problem" whose solutions seem unsolvable within the time available for action. A science of the behavior of individuals is relatively clear about the contingencies that influence individuals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and behavior analysis has made significant contributions to our understanding but has little impact on the problem, given the lack of evidence on strategies for influencing entire populations. This talk outlines a theoretical account of the behavior of individuals and the practices of organizations relevant to the trajectory ahead. The challenge for the behavioral science community is to identify, understand and manage the variables that will bring about massive, crucial changes in individual behavior and organizational action to prevent further warming or help prepare for what lies ahead. Prevention may be beyond behavior science community skill set, but successes in applications of behavior analysis suggest that this community may be orchestrated to address behaviors needed for adaptation to a warming planet and resilience during climate crises.

A wide array of populations and communities are trapped in complex, multi-level systems of interlocked behaviors that offer no clear path toward dignity and social justice. The impact behavior analysts can have with progressive social change is enhanced through the strategic adoption of three key repertoires: activism, advocacy, and accompaniment (AAA) and a thorough analysis of evidence-based policy change efforts. Understood as value-oriented practices whose effects are primarily observed at the systems level, activist activities involve building knowledge about issues impacting various social communities and engaging in on-going efforts to improve the quality of life on a large scale. Advocacy and accompaniment actions are functionally related to these values, which are discrete plans of action with specific operationalized outcomes. AAA efforts may be enhanced with support from the behavior analytic community, armed with evidence-based strategies that effectively produce policy change, and more importantly, improvements to quality of life for society at large. In this presentation we provide a conceptual analysis of social change efforts and provide suggestions for establishing systemic behavioral change as an aggregate product of the behavior analytic community.

The study of procedures and variables that impact behavior during delays to reinforcement continues to be important in terms of the treatment of problem behavior. For example, although functional communication training (FCT) has been demonstrated to be a highly effective treatment for problem behavior, delays to reinforcement must be considered given naturally occurring times in which reinforcement is delayed or unavailable and in the interest of practicality (e.g., clients might mand for reinforcement at high rates rendering the treatment impractical for careproviders). This symposium is comprised of three data-based presentations concerning aspects of delays to reinforcement including the evaluation of procedures aimed at enhancing toleration of delays to reinforcement during FCT and variables that impact allocation of responding across different delay-to-reinforcement arrangements. Specifically, the current symposium will focus on delays to reinforcement and present data on (a) the effects of discrimination training and denial trials during FCT, (b) the effects of vocal signals during FCT, and (c) preference for mixed vs. fixed delays to reinforcement.

Graduate students and practitioners

Functional communication training (FCT) can be successful in replacing problem behavior with a functionally equivalent response. One potential challenge of this intervention involves learners requesting reinforcers at an unsustainable rate. To address this challenge, FCT often includes strategies to thin the reinforcement schedule, including delays to reinforcement. Previous studies have incorporated signals to delay using timers (Kelley, Lerman, Fisher, Roane, & Zangrillo, 2011) or occasional vocal statements (Hagopian, Contrucci-Kuhn, Long, & Rush). To date no studies have systematically evaluated the necessity of a signal indicating delay to reinforcement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to empirically evaluate the use of a vocal signal, in the absence of a delay timer, on the efficiency of increasing delays to reinforcement. Results indicated the inclusion of a vocal signal preserved the functional communication training outcomes during the reinforcement thinning procedures for a 5-year-old male with Autism Spectrum Disorder to a greater extent than schedule thinning in the absence of a vocal signal.

There exists a continuous discussion on the role of research training for applied behavior analysis practitioners in their professional development (Critchfield, 2015). However, practitioners who work in applied settings often have limited access to research training and participation. This is especially the case for practitioners located in China. Isolating practitioners from research may lead to a lack of updated evidence on the intervention that practitioners expect to undertake and result in selecting an intervention that may be less effective (Kelly et al, 2015). Training practitioners to embed research in their intervention may lead to their increased awareness of research, critical analysis of existing studies, and empirical contribution to the behavioral literature. In this symposium, the presenters will discuss two studies using different research methodologies to demonstrate how to actively involve practitioners in China in rigorous applied research to help improving intervention efficacy for their clients with autism and solving clinically significant problems based on empirical evidence.

Graduates, researchers, and practitioners in the field of behavior analysis

Individuals with autism often have difficulties initiating and maintaining reciprocal conversations with others. Among the few studies that examined reciprocal conversations with children with autism, Koegel, Park, and Koegel (2014) proposed a reciprocal conversational framework that include the basic components that may facilitate continued conversational exchanges. In this study, we used an interdependent group contingency to improve reciprocal conversation responses of children with autism based on Koegel et al. framework. We paired the children with autism as conversational partners. Given that the interdependent group contingency may also promote cooperation and interaction between children (Smith et al. 2019), we further assessed children’s social preference through their choices between spending time with their peers or by themselves. In a multiple baseline design, we found that the group contingency immediately produced independent reciprocal conversation responses and increased preference for peers across all participants. In addition, the framework allowed children to sustain their conversation. Improvements were further maintained even after the group contingency was removed and novel peers were introduced. Practitioners in China implemented the study and participated in data collection. Verbal reports from the practitioners further indicate that they plan to include this intervention during their daily behavioral interventions.

Challenges in delayed recall of events and stimuli are common in individuals with autism (Naoi, Yokoyama, & Yamamoto, 2007). However, few studies have evaluated the interventions that can improve recall with children with autism. Previous studies have found that individuals who used a rehearsal strategy during the delay are more likely to recall past stimuli than those who do not rehearse the recall (e.g., Bebko, Rhee, Ncube, & Dahary, 2017). This study is to examine if teaching rehearsal strategy to children with autism and providing reinforcement for recall would improve their delayed recall. Children with autism will be randomly assigned into three groups: control, rehearsal, and rehearsal + reinforcement groups. Thus, we will also assess if reinforcement for the correct recalls is necessary to improve participants’ performance. Practitioners will participate in this study as instructors who will implement the procedure and collect data. In addition, they will also collect data on treatment fidelity and interobserver agreement of each other. We will discuss fostering the role of researcher-practitioner during this presentation. Data collection will start in November 2019 and be completed by January 2020.

Estimated 75,000 board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) are needed in order to support the growing need for behavior analytic services in the United States (Hartley et. al., 2016) with only 32,000 current BCBAs (Behavior Analysis Certification Board, 2018). The United States employment demand for Behavior Analysts from 2010 to 2019 found that increases were observed for each state from 2010 (BACB, 2019). Furthermore, there are many other countries, such as Japan, where there are simply not enough behavioral service providers to serve people with developmental disabilities. With such rapid increases in the demand for ABA services within US and possibly even more in other countries, how can the field of Behavior Analysis and organizations work together to provide the services for people with varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds? How can we modify our traditional service delivery to better-accommodate to their various needs or level of resources? The panelists will discuss how behavior analytic services in the above-mentioned areas can be implemented and their experience on delivering services across socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

Business owners, managerial level BCBAs

The talk will describe the properties of neurons in the brain’s reward systems and how their action contributes to economic decision-making. Each of several reward systems, including the dopamine neurons, striatum, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, play a unique role in these processes. The details of this function are currently being investigated using designs based on behavioral theories, such as animal learning theory, machine learning and economic utility theory.

Anyone interested in brain processes.

Wolfram Schultz is a graduate in medicine from the University of Heidelberg. After postdoctoral stays in Germany, USA and Sweden, and a faculty position in Switzerland, he works currently at the University of Cambridge. He combines behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neural mechanisms of rlearning, goal-directed behaviour and economic decision making. He uses behavioural concepts from animal learning theory and economic decision theories to study the neurophysiology and neuroimaging of reward and risk in individual neurons and in specific brain regions, including the dopamine system, striatum, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala.

The Wright Brothers first powered flight by a human lasted 12 seconds in 1903. A year later—using processes of variation, testing in the real world, and selection—the Wright brothers had an airplane that flew for 90 minutes—an improvement of 450 times. Today, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner—my favorite aircraft with nearly 3 million air miles between American, United and the deceased Pan Am in my life—can fly straight up during takeoff and fly from New York to Sydney non-stop. The aircraft improved a million times over since the first powered flight, and a result of continuous variation, testing and selection.

Applied Behavior Analysis, as conceived by Don Baer, Mont Wolf, and Todd Risley, was a technical methodology to achieve greater good that philosophers of many stripes posited. The contingencies of reinforcement on behavior analysts, determine how well and thoughtful the behavioral technology gets selected to achieve the vision conceived my dissertation advisors.

Reading through the older Journals of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), it is clear that many of the second-generation grad students, like me, were thinking and testing ABA for improving all manner social and behavioral ills. If you flip through those JABA’s, you can find all sorts of studies that could have been turned into commercial, real-world products and services that could have made an enormous beneficial change in our precious blue water and green jewel in space and for its inhabitants. That said, most of the contingencies, were and still are, for publications and grants, rather than real-world change. Outside of that, today, the major employment is for behavioral specialists working with children with Autism or other disorders.

Only a few ABA “products” are true large-scale enterprises, one of those being the PAX Good Behavior Game® and Triple P Parenting both touching millions of people. Both PAX GBG and Triple P have deep roots in the original science, but are both sold, trained, and supported around the world to very diverse customers.

My talk is about how to build the First Carbon Based Valley of behavioral scientists (mimicking the Silicon Valley) to develop, test and disseminate practical, proven, cost-effective strategies rooted in behavioral science to be scaled up, sold, implemented well with sustainable effects on human wellbeing for whole populations—not just private practice clients or persons with diagnoses. I will use examples of the population-level strategies I’ve built my career on: working with Sesame Street, Implementing a National Safety Program in New Zealand, state-level multiple baseline on tobacco control, parenting interventions, mission readiness involving military families, reducing county-wide meth use, and, of course, the Good Behavior Game. All of this has been done in the context of a for-profit business engaging in continuous improvement based on the principles of applied behavior analysis.

My call to the audience is to create the First Carbon Valley—linking early career and established career behavioral scientists to better the world with commercialized, continuously-proven behavioral science. I am willing to help start and support this effort, which we have already begun to do informally.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Dennis D. Embry received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, focused on using ABA for population-level efforts with Sesame Street and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety—ultimately implementing that work throughout New Zealand. Dr. Embry is president/senior scientist at PAXIS Institute in Tucson, and co-investigator at both Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.  Founded in 1998, PAXIS Institute is an international prevention science company, focused on preventing mental, emotional, behavioral and related physical disorders at population-level. He is a SAMHSA/CMHS National Advisory Council member, the board of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, and the scientific advisory board of the Children’s Mental Health Network. In the 1990s, he implemented the first RCT at population-level to reduce youth violence (PeaceBuilders) using ABA principles. In 1999, he began replicating the longitudinal Hopkin’s studies of the Good Behavior Game. Today Dr. Embry’s prevention efforts affecting more than one million children in 38 states, multiple provinces of Canada, and EU countries with multiple studies showing population-level reduction of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders using PAX GBG and evidence-base kernels. As grad student, Dr. Baer (his advisor) asked Dennis why he wanted to study ABA having a political and history background, the answer: “I want to use science to make our world a better place for children.”

Research investigating self-control often focuses on choice between two desirable outcomes – those in which an individual can produce either a small outcome delayed by short amount of time or a large outcome delayed by a long time; however, individuals encounter another kind of choice situation in daily life – one in which a choice can produce both desirable and undesirable outcomes. The present symposium arranges three recent studies that attempt to further our understanding of self-controlled choice in situations involving both desirable and undesirable outcomes. The goal of this symposium is to explore recent approaches to investigate this type of choice situation and to encourage future research on this underrepresented area.

Some problematic human behavior occurs when a single choice produces reinforcing and aversive consequences. The present experiments explored this type of choice situation using rats to investigate how the value of an immediate food reinforcer that is followed by a shock changes as a function of the delay to the shock. The rats chose between two food pellets delivered immediately and followed by delayed shock, and two food pellets delivered alone after a delay. Within each condition, the delay to food was adjusted based on each rat’s previous choices until both consequences were chosen equally often and the delay to food was stable. At this “indifference point,” the delayed food was equal in value to the immediate food followed by shock. Depending on the experiment, either the delay to shock or whether the delayed shock was signaled was manipulated across conditions. Generally, the shock devalued the immediate food to the greatest extent when the delay to shock was short. As the delay to shock was raised, these effects weakened in a pattern resembling a hyperbola. The signaling procedure did not affect the value of the immediate food systematically. The findings parallel research on temporal discounting of positive reinforcers.

The failure of a large proportion of children in early education to reaching desired standards of reading competence is a concern in many countries. Many small scale studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Headsprout (R) in enhancing reading skills in young children but computer-based behavioral interventions have rarely been implemented on a wide scale. There are many obstacles to this, mostly cultural rather than scientific, but it is important to overcome these if behavior analysis is to make a major contribution in this essential area of basic education. As Headsprout is currently available inexpensively there is an opportunity to make rapid progress with this agenda and we have been working on this in Northern ireland for a number of years. The first paper in this symposium reports a large-scale study recruiting participants from a number of primary schools in the region, and the second paper reviews the series of studies conducted to date, identfying successes and also the scientific and a cultural issues that remain to be addressed.

Professionals and researchers working in mainstream and special education settings.

A quarter of UK primary school children leave school below the expected literacy level. In Northern Ireland, although the literacy of primary school children is improving, the gap between disadvantaged and other children is not closing. This study is providing an HER intervention for children across 8 schools in Northern Ireland with high levels of disadvantage, using a pre-test, post-test study design to test the impact of HER on literacy performance. Additionally, this research analysed the correlation between the time spent on HER and subsequent improvements in literacy performance. Distinctive features are the relatively large scale, and the use of school staff and resources to deliver HER, thus increasing ecological validity and sustainability. Measures include a standardised reading assessment in combination with a bespoke fluency and accuracy test, administered before, during and after HER training. Baseline, midpoint and post intervention data will be reported. Findings suggest HER contrubted towards closing the gap in reading attainment between disdadvantaged primary school children and their age-matched peers, and that this type and scale of study can contribute to school-wide adoption of computer-aided behavioural interventions to support children’s reading progress.

Many countries face continuing problems in developing literacy and reading skills in primary education with substantial numbers of children missing national literacy targets. Behaviour analysis focusses on the need to specify key skills that comprise any higher-order activity and then train them explicitly in a program that is individualised. For reading, key skills are phonemic awareness, use of phonics, fluency, guided oral reading, and acquisition of new vocabulary words. The Headsprout Early Reading© program, developed by behaviour analysts, is an online package which targets each of the skills through intensive systematic phonics training. It makes use of computer-based instruction and promotes higher levels of student engagement and enjoyment. We have carried out several studies within mainstream schools in Northern Ireland using Headsprout© to improve the reading skills of disadvantaged children and have obtained encouraging results. The most recent stage has been to carry out a study involving a number of schools, and have the classroom teachers implement the Headsprout© program. This is closer to our overall goal of district-wide implementation. There are further challenges in sustaining behaviour-based interventions in schools, and it will be suggested that we can usefully draw on the huge literature on autism interventions to address these.

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), when compared to typical developing peers, continue to have lower post-secondary outcomes (e.g., employment rates, community integration) (Migliore & Butterworth, 2008; Papay & Bambara, 2014). As the transition pathways expand beyond employment (i.e., education, independent living, community integration), multidisciplinary teams are searching for ways to better prepare students with IDD for life after high school. Behavior analysts can support education personnel in all major facets of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 2004). This panel aims to discuss how Behavior Analysts can collaborate with multidisciplinary teams on assessment, intervention, and thoughtful programming, highlight areas for improvement within the transition process, and discuss how to approach conflicting views on best practices.

The target audience for this panel are professionals who work as behavior analysts within school districts and consult with school staff members on transition programming. A secondary target audience are behavior analysts who have a vested interest in assessing students with IDD.

Conduct Disorder in contemporary psychiatric diagnosis systems refers to a pattern of antisocial behaviors including acts of aggression, property destruction, stealing, vandalism, and cruelty. This is a lifelong impairing condition that has enormous costs to individuals, families, and society. This presentation highlights the problem, risk and causal factors and current treatments. One of the treatments we have studied is parent management training, which relies on principles and techniques of behavior analysis. Changing child, adolescent, and parent behavior seemed to be the major challenge as my work began. That turned out not to be anywhere near as daunting as addressing the challenges in society that directly support, foster, and in some cases cause aggression and antisocial behavior. The presentation will convey limitations of current intervention research, using my own work as a case study, and attend to broader foci that fall outside of any single model of behavior or discipline. Novel models of intervention delivery will be illustrated to convey ways to reach people in need but who receive none of our interventions or services.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; scientists; graduate students.