Association for Behavior Analysis International

Parental involvement is a critical component of effective Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)-based interventions, especially for children with autism. Numerous studies emphasize the success of interventions fully implemented by parents, demonstrating their capacity to deliver evidence-based procedures when appropriately guided. Despite this, misconceptions persist that parents should not implement ABA corrective interventions and teaching programs, being relegated instead primarily to a mere observer role. Moreover, measurement serves as the foundation of any effective behavioral intervention, significantly increasing the likelihood of success and ensuring ethical practice. Accurate and continuous data collection is essential in ABA-based interventions, and every behavior analyst should operate in a data-driven manner to achieve meaningful and reliable outcomes. This symposium presents four studies of data-driven autism interventions entirely implemented by parents under the supervision of certified behavior analysts. It underscores the pivotal role of data-informed decisions and advocate for empowering parents to take an active role in their children’s interventions.

The symposium is aimed at behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts who are already capable of teaching new behaviors and reducing problematic behaviors using ABA principles and procedures. Basic skills in OBM (Performance Management) will also be beneYcial for participants. Additionally, participants should have a solid methodological foundation in data measurement and graphical data processing. The symposium indeed offers an overview of how to use behavioral research methodology to document the progress of interventions and make decisions in the best interest of the client, and includes guidance on the use of Performance Management in parent coaching.

The present study examines an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)-based training for Luca, a 5-year-old boy diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Level 3 severity) and oral dyspraxia. The intervention, implemented entirely by Luca's mother under the supervision of a behaviour analyst and an assistant behaviour analyst, was based on the University of California at Los Angeles Young Autism Project (UCLA-YAP) model. At the onset of the intervention, Luca exhibited no ability to imitate oral motor movements and showed a total absence of sound production on request. Additionally, he never emitted vocal mands or tacts. The intervention was intensive and employed a variety of behavioural procedures for both oral motor movements and sound production. During the intervention, Luca showed progress in imitating oral motor movements and vocal sounds with increasing accuracy and fluency. Sound production allowed training to enhance requests and labelling of objects and activities using sounds. The data collected, alongside the social validity reported by the parent, showed a clear improvement in Luca's language skills. Consistent with other findings, Luca demonstrated increasingly rapid learning in the imitation of oral motor movements, the imitation of vocal sounds, and requesting/labelling.

Motor and vocal stereotypies are highly prevalent in Autism Spectrum Disorder and are typically maintained by automatic reinforcement. Research suggests that these behaviours can interfere with learning and adaptive skill acquisition. However, few studies have investigated parent-implemented interventions targeting these behaviours. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a parent-implemented intervention aimed at reducing stereotypy to facilitate skill acquisition. The intervention was based on rule-governed behaviour and contingency management to decrease stereotypy in a 10-year-old child with autism. At the beginning of the intervention, the participant was unable to follow if-then rules and engaged in vocal stereotypy with an interresponse time (IRT) of less than one second. After two months of intervention, the participant no longer exhibited motor or vocal stereotypy throughout the completion of a token economy system consisting of 14 tokens. These findings suggest that a parent-implemented intervention may be an effective strategy for reducing stereotypy and improving learning conditions in children with autism.

Aggressive behaviors, both self-injurious and directed towards others, are highly correlated with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The experimental functional analysis is the gold standard for identifying the function of problem behaviors, and function-based interventions have the strongest empirical support and greater social validity. However, few studies have examined function-based interventions applied by parents in adolescents with autism. This study evaluates a parent-implemented intervention to reduce severe aggressive behavior in a 15-year-old adolescent with autism. The intervention package included instructional control training (incorporating both discrete trial teaching and incidental teaching) with a token economy system, extinction, noncontingent reinforcement, and gradual exposure. At baseline, the participant engaged in 2 aggressive behaviors per hour, posing a high risk of injury to self and others. Following the intervention, aggressive behaviors were completely eliminated, and the participant maintained zero occurrences for over 12 months. Additionally, the adolescent demonstrated improvements in social interactions, daily living skills, and independent functioning both at home and in the community. These findings support the effectiveness and feasibility of parent-led ABA interventions in adolescents with autism, emphasizing the importance of function-based treatment approaches for reducing severe problem behaviors.

Reading comprehension requires phonics skills, described as “blending phonemes in a word.” Adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often experience poor reading comprehension. The aim of the present study was to explore whether it is possible for an adolescent with ASD and intellectual disability to learn reading comprehension skills without direct teaching, focusing instead on phonics skills. An adolescent with ASD, profound intellectual disability, and a limited behavioural repertoire participated in the study. The participant received intensive ABA-based interventions following the University of California at Los Angeles–Young Autism Project (UCLA-YAP) model, along with intensive phonics training. The intervention was implemented by a parent. Intervention data demonstrated the emergence of early reading comprehension skills, such as matching words to pictures and responding to written instructions. It is suggested that implementing similar interventions could expand opportunities for individuals with autism who have a limited behavioural repertoire and who did not begin ABA-based interventions until adolescence. Furthermore, the data support the implementation of intensive ABA interventions for adolescents by their parents.

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) represents a functional-analytic approach to human language and cognition, offering valuable insights into the analysis of complex human behaviors in which derived relational responding plays a central role. This symposium is dedicated to exploring and analyzing various complex behaviors, such as altering avoidance functions, time perception, hierarchical categorization, and humor behavior, within the framework of personal values. The first study investigates the impact of personal values on modifying avoidance responses, shedding light on how these values shape behavior. The second study aims to provide an in-depth description and discussion of the historical and contemporary contexts that influence the experience of time. The third study examines the conditions under which hierarchical categorization is established in controlled laboratory environments. Finally, the fourth study focuses on the emergence of humor behavior in laboratory settings, analyzing the specific conditions that contribute to its expression. All of the data gathered in these studies are analyzed through an idiographic approach, with each case being considered individually. The findings will be discussed within the context of the experimental conditions under which these behaviors were observed, offering a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing human cognition and behavior in the context of RFT.

Experimental and applied researchers, Practitioners conducting applied research

One goal of clinical interventions is to increase the number of value-based reinforcing actions that clients carry out, especially when they have to face aversive functions. Previous experimental research has shown that personal values can transform avoidance into approach when approaching one aversive stimulus was valuable. However, what could happen if other stimuli with different functions were present as well? The present experiment studies the effect of examples of personal values on altering an avoiding tendency in a context where three functionally different options are competing with each other. Three functionally different behavioral classes served as within subjects control comparisons. Results showed that participants changed their tendencies and approached the valuable-aversive class, while maintaining the avoidance to the non-valuable-aversive class and maintaining the approach to the appetitive class. Furthermore, when the three classes were competing with each other, the valuable-aversive class was the one preferably selected. No changes in tendencies were found between Test I and Test II in the participants in the no-intervention comparison group. These results show that the personal value function altered the avoiding and approaching tendencies established experimentally, influencing the behavior over other direct aversive or appetitive functions.

Since the dawn of experimental psychology, the enigma of human time perception has captivated researchers. Over the years, the interplay between time perception and emotion has emerged as a fascinating area of study, driven largely by cognitive approaches. However, the diversity of experimental methods and emotional manipulations has complicated the synthesis of overarching conclusions. This study that shifts the paradigm by adopting a functional- analytical perspective to investigate time perception in tasks with aversive or appetitive functions. Utilizing a robust intra-subject design, we engaged seven participants in a sequence of four 18-minute experimental conditions: a variable task, a repetitive task, a repetitive task paired with electric shocks, and a repetitive task with electric shocks amplified by personal significance. Time perception was assessed through participants' estimates and qualitative valuations, while emotional states were meticulously analyzed. Results reveal the following: tasks involving electric shocks, perceived as highly aversive and inducing significant nervousness, led participants to perceive time as longer. Conversely, variable tasks and shock-free repetitive tasks elicited calmer emotional states and shorter time perceptions. Strikingly, when personal significance was added to the aversive tasks, participants perceived time as even longer, suggesting a complex interplay between emotional salience and temporal experience. This study not only deepens our understanding of how aversive and meaningful experiences shape time perception but also opens new avenues for research at the intersection of emotion, cognition, and behavior.

Hierarchical responding is defined as a response in which a class of stimuli such as "living organism" includes subclasses of stimuli such as "plants" or "animals", and each of these subclasses includes sublevels. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) conceptualizes a hierarchical network as a type of arbitrarily applicable relational response (AARR), where specific words (is part of, more than...) denoted as “relational cues” are learned through exposure to multiple examples with non-arbitrary relations between stimuli, which are later applied to stimuli with arbitrary relations. The present study aims to investigate the non-arbitrary training that allows the establishment of hierarchical relational cues. A total of 12 adults participated in the study. First, a coordination ("is the same") and a hierarchical relational cue ("includes") were trained, second, these cues were used to train arbitrary networks and functions were assigned to some stimuli of the network, finally, a test was conducted to explore derived responses in these networks. The results showed that most participants responded according to coordination and hierarchy in the respective networks.

Humor is a complex behavior, and there is no consensus regarding under which conditions it emerges. The present study aims to isolate part of the processes that might hinder the emergence of humor, mostly focused on derived relational behavior according to RFT. Four protocols have been promoted: One condition was a mix of perspective-taking and discomfort functions applied to some of the characters in the typical joke. The second condition manipulated only the perspective-taking. A third condition involved applying only the discomfort function. Finally, a fourth condition involved the manipulation of the joke through a desliteralization protocol. Moreover, two control conditions were implemented without any manipulation in the jokes. Fifty-eight participants were distributed among five conditions (9 or 10 participants in each condition). In all conditions, the jokes were presented successively in the same order differing in the type of manipulation implemented. Results show the mix and the desliteralization protocols, resulting in the higher reduction of humor responses. These findings are discussed according to the contextual components defining each experimental protocol and highlight the functions that might be derived according to the interaction between the manipulation and the participants’ histories of relating events.

Over 80% of Canadians aged 15 to 34 regularly use social media; and over 70% of adults in the United States use at least one social media site. Social media use has many upsides (e.g., social relationships, long distance communication, dissemination of knowledge, etc.) and downsides (e.g., distracted driving, impact on interpersonal relationships, the spread of misinformation, etc.). Social media use is still a relatively new technology, and a gap exists in the state of assessment and treatment of problematic social media use within a behavioral framework. This symposium will present the results from a series of studies that investigate how a behavior analysts can shed light on factors that contribute to potentially excessive and or problematic social media use via pilot studies using novel assessments. Study 1 will describe an examination of the validity of a newly developed functional assessment questionnaire - the Social Media Use Functional Assessment (SMUFA; Malkin et al., 2021). Study 2 will describe the results obtained using the hypothetical social media purchase task (SMPT). Both studies present implications for the assessment and treatment of problematic social media use.

Some basic knowledge of psychometrics and behavioral economics

This symposium brings together three studies that address critical aspects of elderly care, focusing on assessment tools, training methodologies, and enhancing resident autonomy. The first study examines the use of the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) in elderly care and the challenges related to subjective interpretations and variability in assessments. The study highlights the need for extensive training to ensure consistent and reliable use of MADRS and recommends supplementing it with behavioral assessments for a comprehensive evaluation of depression in older adults. The second study analyzes the establishment of conditional discrimination in older adults, based on data from previous research. The findings suggest that many participants may not progress in training without additional instructions, pre-training, and fading procedures. The analysis aims to identify the establishment of experimenter-defined and participant-defined relations, providing insights into improving training methodologies for older adults. The third study explores the impact of staff training on enhancing residents' autonomy during mealtimes in elderly care settings. The study demonstrates that structured training and systematic observations significantly improve the quality of care by increasing the number of choices offered to residents. The findings emphasize the importance of creating an inviting atmosphere and engaging residents in decision-making, leading to improved well-being and satisfaction for both residents and staff. Together, these presentations highlight the importance of tailored training and assessment tools in improving the quality of elderly care, promoting autonomy, and ensuring accurate and reliable evaluations.

intermediate

Este workshop combina uma apresentação equilibrada de exposição, discussões em grupo e atividades práticas para garantir que os participantes adquiram tanto conhecimento teórico como oportunidade de aplicação prática.

• Palestra e Instrução: O conteúdo principal será apresentado por meio de uma palestra interativa, abordando os princípios do reforço, as características de sistemas de reforço eficazes e estratégias para lidar com desafios comuns e partilhados por profissionais na sua implementação, como saciação de reforços e dependência.
• Estudos de Caso: Os participantes terão a oportunidade de analisar estudos de caso reais em que foram aplicados sistemas de reforço inovadores em contextos escolares, familiares e terapêuticos.
• Atividades em Grupo: Os participantes irão colaborar em pequenos grupos para desenvolver sistemas de reforço adaptados a perfis de clientes específicos. Os grupos apresentarão as suas propostas e receberão feedback imediato.
• Discussão e Perguntas: Discussões abertas em grupo permitirão que os participantes partilhem experiências, dúvidas e sugestões, e façam brainstorming de soluções para os desafios apresentados na parte prática do workshop.
• Materiais Suplementares: Os participantes receberão modelos de recursos apresentados e explorados durante o workshop, para adaptar e implementar na sua própria prática.
 
This workshop combines a balanced presentation of lecture, group discussion and hands-on activities to ensure participants gain both theoretical knowledge and practical application skills.
• Lecture and Instruction: Core content will be presented through an interactive lecture, covering the principles of reinforcement, characteristics of effective reinforcement systems, and strategies to manage shared challenges such as reinforcer satiation and dependency.
• Case Studies: Participants will have the opportunity to review real-world case studies of innovative reinforcement systems implemented in school, home, and therapy settings.
• Small Group Breakout Activities: Attendees will collaborate in small groups to design reinforcement systems tailored to specific learner profiles. Groups will present their designs and receive feedback to refine their approach.
• Discussion and Q&A: Open group discussions will allow attendees to share their experiences, ask questions, and brainstorm solutions to challenges they face in their practice.
• Supplemental Materials: Participants will receive templates explored during the workshop, to adapt and implement in their own settings.

The current study focused on identifying the behavioral variables that are involved when adults and children learn incidentally to name objects from observing two adults engaging in naming interactions (i.e., the child engages in attentive overhearing of the adult naming behaviors). A non-simultaneous (delayed) presentation naming procedure was employed, similar to that used by Sivaraman et al (2021). Additionally, the study explored the potential impact of specific relational contextual cues (i.e., pointing, mutual eye gaze, and linguistic pre-terms) on incidental naming through attentive overhearing. The study thus sought to determine the relative impact of these cues on the learning of novel names when a delay between an object and its name occurs. In other words, would incidental naming, based on attentive overhearing, be impacted negatively when typical naming cues are absent? The current study adopted ABA and BAB reversal designs with the adult participants and AB and BA designs with the children. Preliminary findings indicate that relational cues do indeed play a role in incidental naming through attentive overhearing. Overall, the results highlight the potential importance of contextual cues for incidental naming using a procedure (attentive overhearing) that has not previously been explored in behavior-analytic research.

Research exploring class-wide behavioral strategies for improving behaviors of students with emotional disturbance (ED in self-contained placements is limited. A recently completed funded research study developed and pilot-tested a modular approach to support teachers of elementary students with ED to identify, select, and implement specific evidence-based practices or modules that best addressed class-wide behavioral concerns. A multiple-baseline design was implemented to evaluate the feasibility of implementation and outcomes for five classrooms. Results indicated improved academic engagement and decreased challenging behavior. Subsequently, a randomized controlled trial pilot study was completed with sixteen self-contained classrooms across four school districts. Treatment teachers were paired with project research coaches who guided teachers to (a) identify and define class-wide behavioral concerns, (b) select one module to address the concern, (e) customize the module into procedural steps for feasible implementation, (f) provide training to implement the module, and (g) provide ongoing coaching and performance feedback. Data on students’ behaviors, teacher fidelity, teacher efficacy, and social validity were collected. Results showed disruptive behavior significantly decreased (p =.006) in treatment classrooms, treatment teachers’ sense of efficacy increased, and they gave the intervention high social validity ratings.

This presentation discusses a line of research evaluating synchronous music reinforcement for movement on a treadmill by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In synchronous music reinforcement, the music plays only when a specific pace is achieved on the treadmill and stops playing when the pace is below the threshold. Our first study evaluated synchronous music reinforcement for increases and decreases in pace on a non-motorized treadmill. In experiment 1 music provided by the researchers led to schedule control for just 2 or 10 participants. In experiment 2, self-selected music led to schedule control for four of nine participants. The results suggest choice of music is an important variable for success of synchronous reinforcement. Our second study evaluated synchronous music reinforcement for increased pace across three phases (10%, 20% and 30% increases across phases) with 30 neurotypical college students. Schedule control was achieved for 70% of participants. The third study is a replication of study 2 with adults with ASD to determine whether synchronous music reinforcement for increases in pace across three phases will lead to schedule control. The implications of this research for promoting exercise for adults with ASD will be discussed.

Difficulties in social skills represent one of the main barriers to developing meaningful interpersonal relationships for autistic individuals, often contributing to isolation and social exclusion. Despite social and professional efforts to foster inclusion, acquiring advanced social skills, such as responding to disguised mand, promoting impulse control, providing empathetic responses to non-verbal cues, and adopting another person’s perspective, remains a complex challenge. However, the behavioral literature offers well-established strategies to promote flexible and generative teaching of these skills. Effective interventions include Behavioral Skills Training (BST), multiple exemplar training, and the use of stimulus equivalence relations, which support the generalization and adaptation of social behaviors in different contexts. This symposium will discuss ways to integrate these strategies into personalized programs. Through four different scientific contributions, innovative interventions will be presented to improve autistic individuals' ability to understand and respond appropriately to the complexities of social interactions, thereby promoting social inclusion and the possibility of acquiring new skills with less need for direct teaching.

BCBAs, BCaBA, RBTs

Empathy is the ability to identify verbal and non-verbal stimuli associated with different affective states and to respond to them appropriately. The deficit in showing empathy, commonly found in people with autism, can significantly compromise the ability to establish, maintain and develop social relationships. The purpose of this study is to increase the ability of people with autism to identify nonverbal affective stimuli and respond to them with empathic responses. The present research included two participants, aged 9 to 13 years, with autism spectrum disorder. Across multiple exemplars training, nonverbal affective stimuli were presented, commonly associated with various private events, such as physical pain, sadness and fatigue. The therapist (a) provided a rule, (b) presented the non-verbal stimulus, (c) suggested leading questions in order to lead participants to identify non-verbal stimuli associated with other people's private events and to respond with empathic statements. The results indicated that both participants acquired the ability to respond with empathic statements and generalized the ability to novel situations, on which training had never been conducted before. These data show that children with autism can learn to detect non-verbal affective stimuli and provide empathic responses as a result of behavioral interventions.

A new approach to perspective-taking has been adopted by behavior analysts through Relational Frame Theory (RFT), which views perspective-taking as generalized operant responding. RFT posits that perspective-taking involves deictic frames such as I-YOU, HERE-THERE, and NOW-THEN, which specify relational responses from the speaker’s viewpoint. Complex visual perspective-taking leads to cognitive development, where visual cues become less central, as demonstrated by the principle "seeing leads to knowing." This concept is central to False Belief tasks, where perspective-taking is crucial. This study used the Sally and Ann False Belief Task to assess perspective-taking in three children (ages 7-8) with ASD. Baseline results showed difficulty in answering questions about Sally and Ann's knowledge and behavior. The training was conducted in a group format using the Full Perspective Taking Protocol (McHugh et al., 2004), which includes 44 deictic-relations-based questions at two complexity levels (single and reversed relations). Percentage of correct responses was calculated for each session of group activity for the three participants. Corrective feedback was provided in case of errors for each participant. Post-training assessments showed improved performance in the False Belief Task, demonstrating the potential of the protocol for generalized perspective-taking skills acquisition as part of Theory of Mind.

Reinforcement of conditional discriminations may begin to strengthen responding consistent with symmetry and transitivity before baseline discriminations are fully acquired. But is repeated exposure to baseline contingencies necessary, or can single-trial reinforcement produce these effects? To answer this question, we analyzed archival data from 71 participants who had received direct, simultaneous training on all 36 relations involved in three 4-member stimulus classes. CA relations (C1A1, C2A2, C3A3) were randomly selected as the targets of analysis. We examined the probability of correct responding in the first trial that targeted each CA relation as a function of the participant’s history of reinforcement of (a) the corresponding AC discrimination, and (b) overlapping same-class discriminations, such as BC and BA. When neither type of history was present when a CA trial was encountered for the first time, participants selected the experimentally defined correct comparison at chance levels. History (a), single-trial reinforcement of a corresponding AC discrimination, increased correct responding to 40-50% of all cases, regardless of history (b). By contrast, history (b), reinforcement of one or more pairs of overlapping discriminations, was not associated with increased rates of correct selection. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.