Association for Behavior Analysis International

Previous research has revealed that tolerance to cocaine's effects on behavior under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules depends on the FR parameter. In contrast, tolerance to the drug's effects on behavior under fixed-interval schedules has been unrelated to FI parameter. Although FI and FR schedules with equivalent inter-reinforcement times result in roughly equivalent average post-reinforcement pause times, the distributions of pauses differ. Specifically, the conditional probability of ending the pause grows with time on FI schedules, but remains constant on FR schedules, a difference that may be related to the fact that longer pauses on FI schedules are associated with shorter delays to reinforcement, whereas that relation does not exist for FR schedules. To test whether that difference plays a role in the FI-FR difference in drug effects, pigeons were trained under a response-initiated FI schedule, wherein the FI starts timing when the pause ends. Under those conditions, tolerance was related to FI parameter.

This symposium will discuss critical components of effective early intensive behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. There will be four presentations of descriptive or experimental analyses of variables related to providing effective treatment. Doreen Granpeesheh will present two case studies of children with ASDs who have achieved typical or near-typical functioning through early intensive behavioral intervention. Rick Graff will discuss variables related to reinforcing behavior. Effective reinforcement is critically related to accurately identifying events that children prefer. Graff and colleagues compared a childs verbal report of their preferences to assessments that involved varying access to those events. They also surveyed parents of children with ASDs about their childs preferences and compared this to assessments the parents subsequently conducted with them. Bill Ahearn will then present analyses of delayed echolalia and appropriate vocal verbal behavior. An emphasis will be placed on the effects of tact training on appropriate and inappropriate vocal responses. He will then discuss social motivational deficits of children with autism and some of the difficulties these present for the child once they have learned to communicate. Several measures of social preference and joint attention-related behavior will be presented for typically developing children and children with autism.

Effective dissemination of behavior analysis has always been a problem for our field. Although marketing mistakes might account for some of these difficulties, exploration of more basic issues might be warranted before tackling our historical PR problems. Three key issues seem to elucidate the scope of the problem: 1) many people do not know that the field of behavior analysis exists; 2) those who do know that the field exists are often confused about our nature and scope; 3) those who understand the benefits of our science often do not have access to our services. For all three problems, a common outcome is that those who could benefit most from behavior analysis are not afforded the opportunities to realize those benefits. This session will present three potential options for addressing these problems. Specifically, it will address three specific strategies for increasing knowledge about and access to behavior analytic services.

Information clearinghouses, professional organizations, and government agencies have developed criteria to identify Evidence-Based Practices. Three presenters will discuss applications of those criteria. Goldstein will discuss why different stakeholders (i.e., interventionists, client-consumers, policy makers, and scientists) propose different evaluation criteria and why single subject design research has been largely ignored. He will introduce a set of criteria that have general applicability to group and single-subject experimental designs and illustrate its application to47 articles investigating social skills interventions for preschoolers with autism. Results will be summarized using a Consumer Reports format. Dr. Green will focus on the development of the National Autism Centers rating scheme used to develop evidence-based guidelines for behavioral interventions for autism. Application is illustrated using research on "Applied Verbal Behavior" techniques. Dr. Bourgeois will discuss the application of a set of guidelines to evaluate evidence for behavioral treatments for adult neurogenic disorders (i.e., dementia, traumatic brain injury, aphasia). She will discuss shortcomings of current evaluation systems and propose an alternative that will more adequately reflect the empirical support for interventions in the area of dementia in particular. Dr. Camp will offer perspectives on the state of intervention research on low incidence populations in his role as discussant.

A detailed understanding of the prevailing behavioral contingencies is a precondition for the management of most human affairs. This paper presents a language for analyzing and diagramming any system of behavioral contingencies, including the complex ones encountered in the fields of law, business, public affairs, sociology, education, and economics. The language for such analysis, and its associated notation system, specifies the if, then relationships between acts, their consequences, and the termination of time periods. Analyses and diagrams of wide-ranging examples like fraud, betting, blackmail, various games, theft, contracts, racing, competition, mutual deterrence, feuding, bargaining, deception, loan transactions, insurance, elections, global warming, personal tipping, vigilance, sexual overtures, decision making, mistaken identity, etc. are presented as illustrations of the ability of the languages three-term vocabulary (acts, consequences, and time period terminations) and the associated simple syntax to generate the myriad nuances of meaning needed to provide the required generality and reach. A process is outlined for using the system as a tool for addressing practical problems in the above areas. One approach is to develop computer software for simulating and modeling the ways in which various possible assumptions and contingency designs would play out, and the behavioral dynamics that would ensue.

Low functioning children with autism (LFA) have few social skills programs developed to address their specific needs. LFA have often been considered to be recipients of social overtures, but not initiators. In the present symposium, several new social skills interventions have been designed and empirically validated with low functioning children with autism. In presentation 1, LFA were taught social initiations via Discrete Trial Training (DTT) and Multiple Incidental Teaching Sessions (MITS), with a robust assessment of generalization of the social initiations. The results suggested that the MITS procedure was effective with LFA in terms of acquisition and generalization of social initiations. In presentation 2, a functional analysis was performed to determine whether LFA demonstrated inappropriate behaviors that served social functions. After the functional analysis revealed social intent, appropriate social initiations were taught as replacement behaviors. Finally, in presentation 3, a new social skills training procedure, Steps to Social Success was developed, empirically validated, and then compared with the Social Stories procedure. The social skills procedures presented in this symposium will be discussed in terms of creating socials skills protocols that are modifiable for all levels of functioning and provide both empirical evidence and hope for lower functioning children with autism.

Demonstrating reliable changes in children with Autism from behavioral intervention is crucial to advancing the science of ABA. Scientific and accurate representation of treatment benefits is necessary to show others the value of ABA for this population. The 3 presentations in this symposium present data that increases the psychometric knowledge, and thus the utility, of the most widely used measures of intelligence and behavior problems in the autistic population. Data were collected from comprehensive assessments of a large sample of children diagnosed with autistic disorder as they participated in behavioral treatment programs. Sample sizes for the data analytic procedures are thus much larger than usually seen in this area. The first presentation presents a method for determining the reliability of change scores on the most popular comprehensive intelligence test, the WPPSI-III. The second presentation looks at an initial normative base for the WPPSI-III for use with children with autism. The third presentation investigates the interobserver agreement and outcome utility of an efficient behavior report instrument, the CBCL, for this special population. Together, these presentations advance our ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of behavioral interventions.

Recently, Critchfield (2006) urged behavior analysts to submit symposia geared toward diverse audiences as one way of maintaining the continuity of the field. We have attempted to answer his call by developing a symposium focused on reinforcement history, but approaching the topic from diverse perspectives. We therefore included a review of the use of nave animals in studies published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Lattal & Okouchi), a research study examining effects of the order of delays in delay-discounting procedures (Anderson, Diller, & Slezack), and a research study examining the effects of exposure to reinforcement schedules commonly used in applied behavior analysis during baseline and treatment (St. Peter Pipkin & Vollmer). In all, we examine the potential effects of reinforcement history in nonhuman animal, human operant, and applied research in the hopes of building bridges across seldom-connected disciplines. Reinforcement history has important implications for all areas of behavior analysis; we hope to illuminate a portion of these in our presentations.

This symposium describes the use of simulation-based assessment and training to improve the performance of high-risk, low frequency skills that must be performed with high fidelity on every response opportunity. Topics covered include: the characteristics of simulations, the advantages and disadvantages of simulation-based assessment and training, the contributions of behavior analysis concepts to the design of effective simulation-based assessment and training, the identification and training of team skills, and the application of in-situ simulations to assess and improve team skills in critical health care environments.

Why do humans behave so badly towards one another, in the absence on any obvious deprivation or threat? Most importantly, what can practitioners do about it? My talk will look at the pervasiveness of cruelty and aversive interpersonal behavior, which ranges from the common and mundane (A husband trying to "hurt" his wife with words) to the extraordinary (e.g., the holocaust). Situationist, evolutionary, and cognitive theories provide valuable insights into the problem, but fall short in two ways. First, they explain a relatively limited range of aversive interpersonal behavior, and/or second, they provide limited accounts of how to reduce such behavior. I then illustrate how a behavioral model (ACT/RFT) provides a more comprehensive account of how to predict-and-reduce aversive interpersonal behavior. Finally, I will provide some concrete examples of how an ACT practitioner might go about reducing cruelty and promoting kindness.

The effective use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) continues to expand worldwide, as indicated by descriptive and research-based publications regarding autism as well as other developmental disabilities. This symposium will review recent extensions of PECS regarding Occupational Therapy, behavior management, and transitional issues to other communication modalities. We also will review some recent research findings as well as point out a number of myths often associated with PECS.

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically-supported treatment for conduct-disordered young children that emphasizes changing parent-child interaction patterns to increase childrens prosocial behavior and decrease negative behavior. This treatment focuses on two basic interactions. In Child Directed Interaction (CDI), parents engage their child in a play situation with the goal of strengthening the parent-child attachment through differential social attention. In Parent Directed Interaction (PDI), parents learn to use specific behavioral analysis and therapy techniques to direct their childs behavior and follow through effectively. PCIT outcome research has demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvements in the conduct-disordered behavior of young children. These effects were superior to waitlist controls and to parent group didactic training. This symposium will provide an overview of PCIT and present recent data on PCIT efficacy with conduct-disordered children as well as effectiveness data with low income urban families and with families of children with autism.

Three presentations by Per Holth, Martha Pelaez, and Jack Marr, along with the discussion by Michael Dougher, examine theoretical and empirical problems related to category mistakes in psychology, the nature of causation in developmental behavior analysis, the relations between behavioral description and explanation, and current limitations on behavioral explanations of development. Various "isms" (from "holism" to "mechanism") make an appearance, but we hope to clarify the "isms" as well as their relevance to behavior analysis and allied philosophical traditions. The lack of appropriate methodology for capturing the effects of these multiple interactions is emphasized as well as a host of conceptual confusions.

This symposium will present contemporary research relevant to behavioral language training for children with autism. In the first study, Barbara Esch will present data demonstrating that the stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure is useful in increasing vocalizations via automatic reinforcement such that they can be directly reinforced. In the second study, John Esch will present data demonstrating that lag reinforcement schedules can be used to increase vocal variability. In the third study, Jim Carr will present data on the use of multiple schedules and signaled delayed reinforcement in the reduction, but not elimination, of high-rate mands. In the final study, Linda LeBlanc will present data demonstrating how transfer of stimulus control procedures can be used to teach intraverbal categorization.