Association for Behavior Analysis International

The efficacy of Applied Behavior Analysis in treating young children with autism in one-to-one settings has been well-established in research, but what happens when those children grow into adolescence and adulthood? For many teens and adults on the spectrum, continued life-long services are critical to creating independent and happy lives, and a change in approach is essential. At Project HOPE Foundation, these needs are being addressed in a variety of ways. Hope ALIVE provides group services to young adults on the spectrum with the goals of building independence and gaining meaningful employment; Hope ALIVE Junior provides a classroom for adolescents focusing on life skills, communication, reduction of severe maladaptive behavior, community engagement, and preparation for the vocational and service options that students will face as adults; and Bridging the Gap utilizes Applied Behavior Analysis in classrooms that focus on traditional academics as well as social skills and classroom readiness. These programs apply evidence-based individualized interventions in group settings to adolescents and adults across the autism spectrum in innovative ways to continue to meet their changing needs.

Hope ALIVE transfers the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to a group setting to help participants build independence and gain meaningful employment. Hope ALIVE focuses on Academics, Life skills, Interests, Vocational Opportunities, and Experiences, while using evidence-based principles to prompt, shape, and reinforce new and growing skills, and to reduce the occurrence of maladaptive behaviors that serve as a barrier to successful outcomes. This innovative program applies the well-documented techniques and principles of Applied Behavior Analysis in a group setting with young adults; participants have shown measurable and significant progress. Although the vast majority of behavior analytic services available to people on the autism spectrum serve young children, the principles of behavior apply to adults, as well. Hope ALIVE seeks to expand the vast base of research in ABA to help young adults achieve greater independence, meaningful employment, and happy lives.

Dr. Machado willpresent a Spencean, synthetic approach to interval timing in animals, an approach grounded on the hypothesis that temporal generalization gradients may combine to produce complex forms of behavior. The hypothesis is instantiated by the Learning-to-Time (LeT) model. First,he will review how LeT accounts for the generalization gradients obtained in prototypical timing procedures. Then,he will show how, by combining these gradients, LeT accounts for more complex data and some surprising findings. Finally,he will discuss some current obstacles to our understanding of timing, including the boundary conditions of generalization gradients, the possibility of inhibitory temporal gradients, and how temporal memories are created, accessed, and retrieved.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Behavior is determined by interactions between current and past contingencies. As such, investigations on the potential effects of behavior history are essential to the understanding of human and nonhumans behavior. The present studies offer examples of history effects on self-control behavior, relapse and resistance to change with both humans and nonhumans (pigeons and rats). Moreira and Abreu-Rodrigues observed, with obese individuals, that a history with self-control training promoted adherence to prescriptions, but did not affect impulsivity as measured by delay discounting procedures. Calmon-Rodegheri and Abreu-Rodrigues isolated the effects of response and reinforcer rates upon the resistance of a target response to extinction and its recurrence with additional contingency changes. They found no covariation between resistance and three relapse phenomena (reinstatement, resurgence and renewal). Finally, Al�, Abreu-Rodrigues, Can�ado, Doughty, Louzada and Silva de Deus manipulated the variation requirement across components of a multiple schedule and observed a negatively accelerated relation between resistance to prefeeding and behavioral variation. Taken together, these studies can help both basic and applied researchers in the task of promoting desirable and weakening undesirable effects of historical variables.

Among the treatments for obesity, there are the dietetics prescriptions and physical activity, often combined with behavioral intervention aimed to increase the adherence to prescriptions. The adherence behavior can be understood as choosing a self-control alternative rather than choosing an impulsivity alternative. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of a behavioral intervention (Self-Control Training) on adherence with three obese participants. Several measures were used to evaluate those effects: (1) behavioral measures of adherence (number of daily meals according to the diet, frequency of weekly physical activity, goal achievement); (2) anthropometric (weight, BMI, waist circumference) and laboratorial (blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides) measures; measures of (3) quality of life (SF-36) and (4) impulsivity (BIS-11 and delay discounting). The participants showed weight loss and an increase in the behavioral measures of adherence and perception of quality of life. There was also a reduction in anthropometric and lab measures, with the exception of glucose levels in the blood. Regarding impulsivity measures, there was a decrease in most of the BIS-11 sub scales, but not in delay discounting. Self-Control Training was effective in the treatment of obesity, producing beneficial behavioral changes, but without reducing delay discounting.

This study compared the effects of response and reinforcer rates upon the recurrence and resistance to change of a target response with three procedures: reinstatement, resurgence and renewal. In Training, a target response (R1) was reinforced according to a multiple FR DRL schedule. In Elimination, R1 was extinguished in all procedures, but in the resurgence procedure, another response (R2) was reinforced, and in the renewal procedure, another context replaced the previous one. In Testing, extinction remained in effect for R1, but in the reinstatement procedure, non-contingent reinforcers were delivered; in the resurgence procedure, R2 was also extinguished; and in the renewal procedure, the initial context returned. In Phase 1, response rates were similar and reinforcer rates differed across components in Training, and in Phase 2, the opposite was in place. With the three procedures, resistance to extinction (Elimination) was greater in the component with lower response rates and higher reinforcer rates. Recurrence of R1 (Testing) was greater in the FR than in the DRL component in the reinstatement procedure, but differed unsystematically across components in the other procedures, despite of response and reinforcer rates. It was concluded that relapse and resistance are not similarly controlled by response and reinforcer rates.

Resistance to prefeeding was evaluated as a function of the degree of behavioral variability required for reinforcement. Rats were exposed to a two-component multiple schedule in which a four-response sequence distributed in two levers would lead to reinforcement or timeout, depending on whether a variability requirement was met. This requirement changed across multiple-schedule components, but reinforcement rates were equated between schedule components. Across six to ten cycles of baseline and test conditions, variability was manipulated using different threshold requirements across components. Yoke and repeat components also were used to test the effects of the absence of a variability requirement and the requirement of no variability. There was a negatively accelerated relation between baseline U values and U-value changes from baseline, for all three rats. Thus, small increments in the variability requirement produced substantial increases in resistance to change, but these increases became smaller as the variability requirement became more stringent.

This session presents the findings of a single case research design, a multiple baseline across participants research design, that examined the effects that a unidirectional peer tutoring intervention had on the academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities in a general education, high school mathematics class. Findings on measures of daily work completion/accuracy, weekly quiz grades, and percent of intervals of academic engagement will be presented.

Panelists will discuss how they implemented a clinically sound Applied Behavior Analytic (ABA) public school hybrid model in a failing private day school serving children diagnosed with Autism and Intellectual Disability. The failing school had parents who were outraged with the programming, along with funding agents and public school liaisons removing students at alarming rates. Panelists will highlight the implementation of structured teaching, verbal behavior interventions, the use of technology, fidelity checklists, and Organizational Behavior Management methodology that increased the goals met by 430% and a data collection system that last resulted in over 1.6 million data points gathered and graphically displayed. Unlike many ABA-based schools, , the Sarah Dooley Center is modeled on the look, rhythm and feel of a public school which has resulted in a tremendous increase in students being transferred back to their local public schools. We have also partially implemented a cloud-based verbal curriculum. Results of on-going studies on the efficiency and efficacy of cloud-based assessment, instruction and curricula will be discussed.

We have initiated, replicated, and extended a programmatic line of research for establishing operant procedures to investigate infant learning and to help young children who are at risk for developing autism or other developmental disorders acquire social repertoires. Infant engagement responses such as vocalizations, eye contact, joint attention, and social referencing are critical developmental milestones that serve as prerequisites for early communication and social skills (Pelaez, 2009). The emphasis in this symposium is that operant learning procedures can be successful in establishing early social-learning repertoires. The first presenter identifies the early behavioral indicators of at-risk infants. She examines the typical infant operant responses studied (e.g., vocalizations, gaze, kicking, smiles, gaze away) and the social conditioned reinforcers used (e.g., adult smiles, touch, nods, cooing, imitating, picking up) in the study of infant social learning. The presenter highlights the operant-learning procedures that have been useful in investigating infant phenomena like mother-infant attachment, acquisition of fears, joint attention, social referencing, and early communication. The second presentation analyzes previous research on behavioral procedures used to establish infant eye contact using a synchronized reinforcement procedure. The third presentation reviews existing research on procedures using two forms of social reinforcement (adult vocal imitation and motherese speech) for increasing early vocalizations among infants and young children. The fourth presentation examines the acquisition of joint-attention and social referencing repertoires via the operant-learning paradigm among typically and atypically developing infants and toddlers. The discussant will comment on these ongoing programs of research and future directions and implications of the research.

Operant conditioning procedures have been used very effectively to investigate infant social learning (Gewirtz & Pelaez, 1992; Novak & Pelaez, 2004; Pelaez, Virues, & Gewirtz, 2011, 2012). Infants and young children who are at risk of developing autism or other developmental disorders can benefit from early interventions that use operant principles and procedures (Neimy, et al., in press). In this presentation we will identify the early behavioral indicators of at-risk infants; examine the typical infant operant responses studied (e.g., vocalizations, eye gaze, kicking, smiles, gaze away) and discuss the conditioned social reinforcers often used in the study of infant social learning (e.g., adult smiles, touch, nods, cooing, imitating, picking up). We will highlight the infant phenomena that has been studied, including mother-infant attachment, the effects of maternal depression on infant learning, the acquisition of fears, joint attention, social referencing, and early learning of imitation.

Parents can successfully increase engagement behaviors such as eye contact and positive affect with young children at risk of autism and other developmental disorders. This presentation reviews and discusses a synchronized reinforcement procedure, described by Pelaez and colleagues (1996), that can strengthen infant eye contact. The procedure includes brief parental training where mothers are taught to provide simultaneous behaviors such as smiling, verbal praise, and rhythmic touch contingently to reinforce infant eye contact in the natural environment. The assumptions is that establishing eye contact in young children can aid the learning of other foundational skills required to build social communicative behaviors. The current presentation stresses the importance of establishing contingencies of reinforcement during mother-child interactions.

The volume of specialized services offered to children with ASD continues to increase to reflect the constantly increasing prevalence rate of the disorder. Access to early, intensive and individualized intervention services is crucial to prevent crystallization of symptoms and ensure optimal development of children. In real life settings, access to early intervention services and their effectiveness are hindered by three major challenges: 1) waitlists for obtaining diagnostic and services, explained in part due to lack of resources; 2) the variable response of children to treatment; and 3) lack of services regarding the support provided to parents. Service providers are challenged to expose all children (quantity, accessibility and equity) to quality interventions (scientifically proven, as for example, Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention programs). This symposium presents different research projects carried out by our team in order to evaluate alternatives to give access to ABA programs to children with ASD and their families in the best possible conditions and in taking into account the ressources of the public clinical settings.

To help eliminate current waitlists in Montreal (Canada) for preschool children requiring assessments to confirm the presence of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Global Developmental Delay or Intellectual Disabilities, the See Things my Way Assessment Centre was launched in 2015. The interdisciplinary diagnostic centre aims to offer the highest quality assessments, to support families in accessing and understanding the much needed early intensive behavioural interventions (EIBI). ABA-based recommendations are also provided in the interim. Objective: The Centres implementation is currently being carefully studied to ensure its viability, sustainability and replicability. Method: Instruments: standardized questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, patients records. Participants: 6 staff members and 35 families. Analysis: quantitative (descriptive) and qualitative (thematic analysis). Preliminary results in regards to its implementation (first year of operation), the overall trajectory of services across Montreal as well as parental satisfaction will be discussed. These findings will highlight the utmost importance of obtaining a diagnosis in order to access EIBI as well as the impact of a seamless continuum of services from first signs to intervention on families well-being and quality of life.

Considering that efficacy of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) programs has been well documented in the rigorous experimental framework, the overall objective of this presentation is to show, in a broader program evaluation perspective, the potential contributions of various types of evaluation studies on the implementation and generalization of the EIBI in real life settings. The reported results are part of a large research project on the evaluation of global public services for children with ASD and their familiy (more than 300 participants). Participants were enrolled in different programs offered by a public rehabilitation center in Quebec (French province of Canada). Data and methodological issues on different questions of the project will be presented : 1) the quality of trajectory of services according to 176 parents, the social validity of waitlist intervention and EIBI program for 94 parents and the effectiveness of EIBI programs on different outcomes for 93 children. In conclusion, two issues will be discussed : 1) the importance of the fluidity of the trajectory of services, from the moment of the diagnostic, to the access of EIBI services until the integration in school ;2) the critical place of the families in the overal process, with a premise that more intervention and research should be family-oriented.

Although the majority of children with ASD show significant gains during EIBI program in terms of intellectual functioning, level of development, adaptive behavior and reduction of autistic symptoms, some children still present fewer improvements after the intervention. The current research in ASD and EIBI does not fully understand the factors that could explain this variability. Our previous work highlighted that Challenging Behaviors (CB) could be one of those factors (Rivard et al., 2013, 2015, 2016). With the goal of offering suitable intervention alternatives for children with ASD and comorbidities, we validated a French version of the Developmental Behavior Checklist Under 4 (DBC-U4, preschool age) on 650 children with ASD. By doing so, we want to better understand the CB : their prevalence, their associated factors and their impacts on the prognostic of children as well as their family. The goal of this presentation is twofold: 1) presenting an overview of the validation of the French version of the DBC; 2) providing the results of a three year follow-up of the DBC for a sub-sample of 37 children (24 boys and 13 girls), from all across the province of Qubec, Canada. By analyzing the evolution of CB over time, we want ultimate to suggest an optimal sequences of interventions, adapted for children with heterogeneous profiles.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an intervention package that combined Skillstreaming procedures for the development of social skills with the use of video modeling for middle school students identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Skillstreaming procedures in the research package include: (a) introduce the target social skill behavior; (b) model the skill; (c) discuss/review the components of target social skills with visual cards; (d) practice/role model; (e) provide feedback and; (g) present visual and oral prompt. A multiple-probe design across participants was employed to assess the effects of the video modeling intervention package on two beginning social skills (i.e., initiate greetings and initiate a conversation). Participants included three middle school-aged students diagnosed with ASD, enrolled in a self-contained classroom, at an urban middle school. The results of this research indicated that all three students improved their social skills performance following the implementation of the video modeling intervention package. Furthermore, during the maintenance phase, the social skills performance of each student was maintained. The research design, resutls and recommendations for further study for teachers of students with ASD will be presented

Autism is defined by the triad of impairments that includes social interaction, communication and restricted behaviour. There are many interventions for improving the lives of children diagnosed with autism |Spectrum Disorder (ASD) but research has demonstrated that Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is the most effective. A significant issue with autistic children is their lack of variation of interests and obsessions in activities or play. However, due to this potentially limited and narrow ranges of interest in activities for children with ASD, this may make it difficult for professionals working with them to identify potential reinforcers to increase their educational and social opportunities. The study investigated how to expand otherwise fixated interests in children with ASD using a multiple baseline design. This was done by using: ? Conditioning: In which the highest preferred item is conditioned with the lowest. ? Video Modelling: Which entailed watching typical developing children playing with the lowest preferred item in different ways. Participants consisted of seven children, between the ages of three and six years, with varying levels of severity along the spectrum, all currently enrolled in early intervention services. Two types of preference assessment (PA) were used: paired stimulus (PS) which is also known as 2-choice paired stimulus and free operant (FO). PA was used to identify the hierarchy of participants preference in order of one to six and to assess if this hierarchy changes throughout the study. The results of this study showed that both conditioning and video modelling were effective at changing preferences for young children with ASD. However, the video modelling condition was superior as it helped changed preference faster and in different way.

A considerable amount of attention has been given to parent training efforts in Applied Behavior Analysis. Still, much remains to be learned, including the extent to which common training protocols are effective with a diverse range of individuals and are viewed as socially valid in different cultural contexts. The present study trained six parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to implement the Natural Language Paradigm in Saudi Arabia. Three of the parents received training using a Behavioral Skills Training model involving instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. All three of the participants who were taught using this protocol learned to implement the intervention effectively. As each parent was being trained individually, an additional parent observed the training (i.e., there were three observer-trainee dyads). While all of the parents learned from observing other parents being trained directly, only one observer parent met the predetermined performance criteria, with the other two reaching criteria after being trained directly. All six parents demonstrated maintenance of their skills at follow-up, and indicated that they enjoyed and training and learned a lot from it. Moreover, parents indicated that their childs behavior improved at home, suggesting strong social validity. Implications for further training research are provided.

Abstract: Applied Behavior Analytic (ABA) services for children with autism in Saudi Arabia are presently scarce. Children with autism who could benefit from such services are unable to obtain them. Involving parents in the implementation of certain ABA techniques may help increasing the number of children who may benefit from the training. The present study evaluates the effects of a behavioral skills training package on parents implementation of discrete-trial teaching with their children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Three mothers of children with autism participated in the study. The training package improved implementation for all three of the mothers. Moreover, these improvements generalized to skills that were not taught during training, maintained during follow-up probes, and resulted in improvements in child behavior. We discussed the implications of these outcomes in expanding the reach of the limited ABA resources in Saudi Arabia. Overall our results support pervious published studies using this behavioral skills training.

Through recent empirical work in behavioral systems analysis, behavior analysis is increasingly placing itself in a position to theorize effectively and test empirically educated guesses about the functioning of leadership decision making in organizations. Change in complex organizations such as medical schools is a challenging and lengthy process. In their role as guides, leaders create new verbal relations between the current and future state of the organization, and between the future organization and its niche in the future environment. On the other hand, by recognizing individuals' implicit responding and values, leaders can design and implement effective organizational contingencies that promote wellness and effective team dynamics. This symposium will outline the collaborative efforts of the School of Medicine and Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Presentations will highlight the creation, and adoption of behavior analytic assessments and interventions throughout an organization-wide curricular restructuring at the School of Medicine.

In 2012, the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) adopted a behavioral analytics framework to guide a number of change processes including curricular restructuring. Over the following few years, this framework was also applied to faculty development and the creation of a new office for continuous institutional assessment. In the context of significant state wide changes in medical education, we extended our behavioral analytical framework for strategic planning. Over the course of one year we applied an iterative approach to institution-wide strategic planning that relied upon data-based decision making and continuous feedback loops. The process produced a systemic plan to guide us through our next phase of development. The newly articulated direction of UNR Med will be actualized through both strong leadership and by engaging the entire school of medicine community. Re-evaluating institutional goals and objectives will facilitate UNR Meds effective interaction with larger metacontingencies of healthcare and medical education in the state of Nevada.

Despite having seemingly greater access to medical and mental health care, as well as medical and behavioral knowledge, medical students and residents suffer from a higher prevalence of depression than do age-matched controls, and physicians have a higher risk of suicide than the general population. The prevalence of depression in medical students and residents appears to have increased over the last 20 years. The prevalence of burnout, a different but related construct to depression, is roughly 50% in all recent studies of medical students and physicians. Depression, if undiagnosed and untreated, is associated with cognitive dysfunction, loss of empathy, professional dysfunction and low esteem, and suicide risk. Burnout is associated with exhaustion, depersonalization, low professional satisfaction and unethical professional behaviors.These data areof great concernto medical educators,and are considered one of the major challenges facing medical education today. This concern is leading to new approaches to assessment, building resilience, eliminating the stigma of seeking diagnosis and treatment, and reducing adverse educational environments, requiring new tools for enhancing self-awareness, providing measurable feedback on behavioral changes, and developing new approaches to teaching.

Preventable adverse events have been identified as the nation's third leading cause of death in the United States. Faulty teamwork and communication amongst healthcare providers has been identified as the root cause of such adverse events. To enhance teamwork, communication, andas a resultpatient safety, the incorporation of interprofessional education (IPE) into healthcare training has been advised. Introduced in June 2011, the I-PASS handoff bundle curriculum is one evidence-based technology currently used in IPE settings. Interprofessional teams who have completed the I-PASS handoff curriculum demonstrate improved communication, coordination, and leadership skills within groups. One component that remains missing, however, is the psychological training of individual values and perspective-taking skills. Within behavior analysis, a methodology known as ACTraining exists to address these psychological deficits. Given this information, the current study implemented a comprehensive IPE programbased on the I-PASS curriculum, ACTraining literature, and descriptive analytic measurement methodsinto a medical and nursing school. Behavioral assessment procedures (e.g., simulated patient handoffs) and measures related to interprofessional communication were taken before, during, and after exposure to the curriculum intervention.

Good spatiotemporal contiguity has long been suggested to be essential for associative learning to occur. But there are only a few demonstrations of this need in the spatial domain, and they all did so with one associate being biologically relevant phase (e.g., Rescorla & Cunningham, 1979). Here we report evidence of the benefit to associative learning of spatial contiguity between two neutral cues. We used a sensory preconditioning preparation with visual CSs in which CS2-CS1 trials during phase 1 were followed by CS1-US trials during phase 2, and then tested on CS2 as well as CS1. The CSs were colored squares and the US was an entertaining video clip. The conditioned response was the participants' looking at the location where the USs appeared. Critically, across groups (ns = 20), in phase 1 we varied the distance between CS2 and CS1. At test, greater conditioned responding to CS2 was observed when CS2 and CS1 were adjacent then when there was a small space between them. Within-subject control conditions assured that responding was due to Pavlovian conditioning of eye gaze direction. Thus, good spatial contiguity appears to enhance the formation of associations between neutral stimuli.

Previous studies have shown that physical properties of a stimulus have impact on discrimination learning (Hanson, 1959 ; Guttman & Kalish, 1956). Others studies modified this properties during discrimination learning. This procedure has been called errorless learning (Terrace, 1963). Nonetheless, modifications are arbitrary, and it is unknown in what extended it can enhance learning and reduce error. The aim of this study to replicate results obtained by anterior study in errorless learning, by using an interdimensional stimulus. Nineteen participants with proper vision in colors were used. Half of the participants had as first condition the "errorless learning" one and "trial and error" as the second one. For the other half the order was reversed. Participants gaze was used as a remote to control stimulus with an eye tracking system. In "errorless learning" condition, the luminance of the S- was modified according 12 modifications based on preset criteria. Our results show an acquisition of the discrimination in errorless learning, and no acquisition during "trial and error" procedure for some participants. These results suggest learning transfer between the two conditions. Discrimination learning can be enhanced by modifying only one property of a stimulus, and experience with a stimulus can blocked discrimination learning.

No one is surprised that pharmacy technicians, EKG technicians, clinical medical assistants, patient care technicians, and a host of others in the workforce must adhere to basic qualifications and be licensed or certified as a demonstration that at least minimum level skills are in place. In 2012, no such standardized system of accountability applied to the applied behavior analysis paraprofessional, also known as a behavior technician. Unofficial survey results estimated that more than 80% of direct behavioral services were being provided by unlicensed, uncertified personnel. The fact that the services were being overseen by licensed or certified professionals appeared to be an acceptable level of oversight for these services. As the need for ABA services continues to grow exponentially the sector was forced to reassess this particular workforce and examine whether the behavior technician should be included in the growing list of allied healthcare professionals. Although there have been several job analyses on the behavioral health paraprofessional workforce including the direct support professional workforce supporting those individuals with a wide-range of intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis Credentialing Board (QABA) completed a comprehensive job analysis specifically looking at the paraprofessional role in providing applied behavior analysis treatment and support to individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In conducting the study, the Task Team chose methods that adhered to established standards in conducting a job analysis study. These principles and procedures are clearly outlined in the US federal regulation (Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures) and those of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The job analysis consisted of the following steps: 1. Initial Development and Validation 2. Validation Study 3. Development of Competency Areas 4. Validation of Competency Areas. This panel will review the process, results, and potential outcomes of this analysis.

Armies across the world have used both respondent and operant conditioning in initial training and task implementation for millennia. However, no military organization credits its use of such conditioning in the training of its troops. Grossman (On Killing, 1996), in his retrospective analysis of training is one of the very rare authors who stated that the US Army and Marine Corps rely on applications of the conditioning techniques of Pavlov and Skinner. The transition back to civilian life can prove difficult for those who have been deployed. The two studies presented here and their analyses are grounded in behavior analysis and standard celeration chart methodology. One presentation reports data from the US Air Force on suicide issues with deployed and returning troops. It also gives the estimated occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all branches of the US military. Salem State University (Massachusetts, US) has implemented a program to assist returning military veterans with university success through the use of SAFMEDS cards (Say All Fast, Minute Every Day, Shuffled). Conclusions from both studies lead to the importance of using behavior analysis, both respondent and operant, with deployed and returning troops.

Suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are some of the current issues the US military. Even though US military suicides occur less frequently in the Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard than in the Army, data from the US Air Force is the most detailed and complete. All data, however, show that suicide remains an issue among US troops. Suicide rates have increased since deployments that came after 2001. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) estimates remain about the same for troops returning from Vietnam and from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, that is, between 18% and 25% of the returning veterans whether they are active duty, National Guard or reservists have PTSD. This presentation will include data displays from all branches of the US military and will include suicide, PTSD, and TBI data.

Adjusting to an academic environment is challenging for many students, and especially the veteran student population. Transitions from military service to civilian life are often difficult due to a shifting role in identity and in the structure of the environments. Layering the challenges of beginning a new academic career and beginning their life as a student can be overwhelming. The goal of the current study was to provide students with a way to structure their time to become more effective at studying, and thus help with the adaptation to university. A series of workshops was developed that include instruction and practice using SAFMEDs (Say All Fast, Minute Each Day, Shuffled) and the PQ4R (Preview, Question, Read, Recite, Reflect, and Review) method. In this presentation, SAFMEDs fluency data will be presented along with an evaluation of the complexity of questions developed using the PQ4R method. In addition, discussion of longitudinal plans for evaluating and extending the workshop program will be included.

In 2014 an Italian National Cancer Institute decided to apply a BBS process in an area of the surgery department because of its higher severity index (2011-2012) [cfr “The First Italian Research On The Efficacy of a B-BS Process in Healthcare Sector” (2015) Tosolin, F. et alii. 41st ABAI Annual Conference - San Antonio, May 24th 2015”]. The staff is committed in measuring behaviors in operating rooms, and providing the consequent feedback. This has allowed reaching a level of safe behaviors between 85% and 100%. Now, 2 years after the introduction of the behavioral process, the impacts on safety indices have been measured in terms of frequency and severity of accidents. On an average of 2,500 checklists compiled per year, with more than 2,000 feedbacks since 2014, the BBS protocol has been taking these results only in this area of the surgery department: - A reduction of accident frequency rate from 7.1 of 2013 to 0 at 2015; - A reduction of accident severity rate from 2.8 of 2013 to 0.1 at 2015. The reduction took indices at an even lower rate than other areas and departments (Intensive Care and High Doses, Ambulatory Surgery plate, Gastroenterology and all areas of Medical Oncology). Because of these results, in late 2016 the Institute decided to extend the BBS application to other departments. In late 2017 the researchers will likely show data relating different departments that started BBS process at different moments: the present case study will change into a multiple baseline design experiment. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the efficacy of ABA in healthcare, indeed to extend the ABA practices adoption in non-psychological fields. This speech will also be the chance to present the work done and the strategies used.

Training is often the initial solution identified by managers or supervisors to "fix" performance problems in the workplace; however, there are situations in which training will not produce the desired outcome. Using behavioral systems analysis (BSA) to better understand how the training department interacts with the rest of the organizational system may lead to better and more appropriate use and evaluation of training in the workplace. BSA highlights vital internal and external feedback loops that can provide trainers with information about the necessity of trained behaviors, along with how well these behaviors are supported within the working environment. The identification of performance discrepancies and why discrepancies exist due to skill deficiency or lack of consequences will be covered as a critical first step to determine whether training versus another intervention is necessary. The importance of different types of feedback for both trainers and employees will be discussed in relation to maintaining training outcomes, along with other methods for supporting employee performance and wellbeing in order to promote employee engagement and retention.

Scientists talk in a variety of ways. Some scientists primarily participate in philosophical discourse, whereas others may focus on research, and still others primarily apply the science in practice settings. By and large, workers in these different areas tend to speak in different ways, and this is likely related to their different aims. The present symposium involves two presentations which directly address ways of speaking about events in science, including common confusions engendered by different ways of speaking, and ways in which progress may be both stunted and enhanced by these different ways of speaking. The first presentation focuses on the relationship between philosophical discourse and investigation specifically, calling into question the extent to which philosophical discourse amounts to nothing more than talk and no action. The second presentation focuses on the relationship between theory and practice, and specifically, the extent to which different ways of speaking about different practices can both compromise and strengthen scientific progress. A discussant will provide commentary on these issues. It is hoped that attention to these topics will stimulate further conceptual work, research, and practice in the field of behavior analysis.

Sciences subjected to formal system building operations find their enterprises articulated in a collection of constructs serving to identify their unique subject matters, coupled with sets of premises pertaining to their origins, developments, structures, and relations with the subject matters of other sciences. This is what would ordinarily be called the philosophy of a systematic science. In accord with this philosophy and guided by it are organizations of specialized activity comprising the remaining aspects of a scientific enterprise, namely its investigative, interpretive and applied sub-domains. The manner in which the subject matter of a science is handled, including the terminology with which its operations are described, vary across these domains. For example, in the language of investigation, psychological events exhibit dependency relations; while in philosophical discourse, their interdependence is asserted. Failure to appreciate this variance, especially when the investigative domain of a science is over-valued, engenders spurious arguments among scientists. This paper addresses arguments of this sort among psychological scientists of the behavioral and interbehavioral varieties wherein the latter are held by the former to be all talk and no action. The aim of this paper is to dispel this confusion.

The growth and development of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has led to widespread dissemination efforts around the globe. While this is a good thing, there have been a number of somewhat unforeseen consequences related to the rapid growth of ABA. This presentation describes the role of theories in the practice of ABA. The example of autism treatment will be considered as an example, especially the great variety of seemingly different more or less behavioral treatments, each with their own unique labels and descriptions. The implications of talking about interventions in this way are considered, and the eventual impact on science and clinical work is described. Ultimately, the audience is cautioned against placing too much emphasis on the language used to describe various intervention packages and urged to pursue a behavioral analysis of such packages. The perceived value of doing so rests upon an understanding of how scientific disciplines make progress, which will be a recurrent theme throughout the presentation. Surely, it isnt all just semantics, for descriptions of things impact how we respond to those things, including what research questions we ask about them, eventually impacting the clinical services we provide.

Supervision of professionals in the field of Behavior Analysis is multifaceted. The BACB® Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysis provides guidance for effective supervisory practices, as supervision impacts both the supervisee and consumers. The purpose of this article is 1) to discuss rationales and consequences relative to supervision issues, 2) to provide directions for professional development in each of the seven identified supervisory areas within the code and 3) to set the occasion for critical discourse relative to supervision. Case examples are used to illustrate each of the seven supervisory subcomponents of the “Behavior Analysts as Supervisors” section of the Code. A rationale is provided for each component, as well as a discussion of possible undesirable consequences resulting from not following the rule. While the code provides clear expectations of the desired behavior, this article explores more of the subtle nuances inherent in each section of the supervision code, with the goal of achieving a better understanding of the Code and enhancing supervisory skills.

Feeding is a behavior essential for survival of every living organism. It guarantees adequate and varied supply of nutriments to maintain appropriate energy levels for basal metabolism, physical activity, growth, and reproduction. In mammals, the maintenance of a high metabolic rate to preserve constant temperature requires constant availability of a sufficient amount of energy stores. The balance between energy demand and expenditure is finely tuned by a constant dialog between homeostatic and hedonic brain systems, and peripheral signals to regulate feeding behavior and energy homeostasis. Understanding mechanisms that control feeding behavior remain a current and crucial scientific subject for understanding both etiology and potential therapeutic approaches of eating disorders that include some forms of obesity, on one hand, and severe forms of anorexia nervosa (AN) on the other. The purpose of this presentation is to describe some of the current animal models used to better understand the feeding behavior and eating disorders with a special focus on AN.

Board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, graduate students.

Stogdill (1974) asserted that there were as many definitions of leadership as there were people trying to define it. This is evidently true among behaviorists as well despite our penchant for definitional precision. Some have defined leadership as effective application of operant principles leading to organizational success of some sort, while others have simply assumed the premise that leadership consists of behaviors exhibited by leaders, adding problem-solving, decision-making, and using verbal behavior to articulate organizational rules to the effective application of operant principles. Similarly, behavior analysis has struggled to define the distinction between manager and leader. The most common criterion for identifying a leader appears to be relative position on the organization chart; the superior is designated as leader, while the subordinate is designated as follower. The present paper presents a new conceptualization of leadership and management as complementary sets of behaviors explained in the three-term operant contingency. Simply stated, management behaviors are those related to organizational mechanics and are operations performed on the antecedent side of an operant/culturant, while leadership behaviors are those related to behavioral dynamics and, therefore are those operations performed on the consequence side of an operant /culturant in an organizational context. Implications are discussed.

Significant changes in a large organization often require interventions that produce immediate results and, simultaneously, interventions that build or transform the system to create sustained improvements. System building usually requires time, which means that leadership change may occur during the course of the change effort in an evolving organization. Previously, we have discussed a case study of interventions aimed at both immediate results and systems building at a large public metropolitan research university (enrollment: 56,000) that were designed to transform the administration of the undergraduate curriculum in order to reorient it toward significantly improving undergraduate student success. The complex set of university-wide interventions were branded the Graduation Success Initiative (GSI) and were able to improve the on-time graduation rate by 16 points in its four years of operation (2011-2015) and win a national award from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Both macrobehaviors (behavioral patterns shared by a large proportion of individuals who occupy various roles in the university) and metacontingencies (recurring patterns of interlocking behavior contingencies that occur in nested hierarchies and exist at the cultural level) were targeted for change. In 2014, leadership changed at the university, and in 2015, rolling reorganizations began. As a result, contingency fields for the universitys existing change projects were de-stabilized, and reinforcement systems became unclear. The universitys production on performance based funding were affected within a year, and it dropped from the top three among the states 11 public universities to fifth, facing the real possibility the next year of falling to the bottom three and losing $26 million in performance based funding. This case study of changes in the contingency fields and reinforcement systems related to new leadership behavior raises the issue of productive ways to handle leadership succession while large scale organizational change is in progress, which is the subject of this paper.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, culture is defined as the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. It includes beliefs, behavior, customs, traditions, and language. Although ABA has decades of research supporting its effectiveness in treating Autism and there are more ABA practitioners across the globe than ever before, there is little research on how to develop ABA programs for consumers in a way that adapts to cultures outside of Western culture. Increased prevalence of Autism and more awareness has resulted in families from all backgrounds seeking treatment. Because of this we must find more ways to provide ABA services to families in a way that is culturally sensitive. This presentation will discuss the role of culture in how consumers respond to treatment intervention. Sample intake interviews will be described. Selection of appropriate treatment objectives which are sensitive to cultural differences but still reflect research-based intervention will also be described. Screening, assessment, and treatment plan development will be discussed to provide participants with information on how to better meet the needs of cultural diversity among clients while still providing evidenced based treatment.

This presentation will define culture and describe the different aspects of culture that practitioners should consider when completing screenings, assessments, or other intake processes. Individuals from different countries may answer or respond to questions differently than those accustomed to western culture. For example, in some cultures families do not wish to receive a formal diagnosis of a disability so as to not stigmatize the child in society. And in other cases, some families do not perceive the absence of skills as a sign of developmental delay. Examples of cultural perception will be reviewed so that practitioners can consider modifying their intake processes to receive more accurate information from the clients they serve. Cultural sensitivity when providing parent education such as in understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder or other developmental disabilities will also be reviewed.

It is our responsibility as practitioners to not only choose appropriate goals but to develop intervention plans that the individual's team can effectively implement. Behaviors that are considered appropriate or inappropriate by the practitioner may not always be considered the same by family members and it is important that goals be carefully selected to ensure they are in fact important to the client. In some cultures, development of speech and language is less important than learning how to respond to directions. In other cultures, it is more important to develop academic skills than develop appropriate social skills. Cultural considerations during goal selection and treatment plan development will be reviewed.

This presentation will review sections 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 of the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysts related to relations with clients. When considering cultural practices, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which practices should be accepted and which practices should not be reinforced so that practitioners keep professional boundaries. In some cultural practices ignoring forms of appreciation offered by families can be perceived as insulting and fracture the practitioner client team dynamic. Ethical considerations related to meals, gifts, and other offerings will be discussed.

Behavioral pharmacology is a sub-discipline of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior that combines operant and pharmacological techniques to better understand brain-behavior interactions. Mesolimbic dopamine neurotransmission has been implicated as a neural basis of reinforcement. As such, behavioral pharmacological procedures that utilize dopaminergic drugs can be used to investigate factors that influence sensitivity to reinforcement. This symposium will feature a series of talks that explore the interaction between developmental, neurotoxicological (methylmercury), dietary (high-fat, high-sugar diet), and genetic factors that lead to changes in sensitivity to dopaminergic drugs, which results in an altered sensitivity to delay- and effort-based reinforcement. These experiments offer further evidence that dopaminergic neurotransmission is a neural mechanism that underlies sensitivity to reinforcement, and disturbing dopamine signaling can produce long-lasting behavioral impairment. Generally, these studies illustrate the utility of using behavioral pharmacology techniques to identify and characterize the extent to which factors impact dopamine signaling and sensitivity to reinforcement.

Diet induced obesity (DIO) is a laboratory procedure in which rats are chronically exposed to a high-fat, high-sugar diet (i.e. cafeteria diet), which results in obesity, altered sensitivity to reward, and changes in the dopamine D2 system. In the current study, we exposed Sprague Dawley rats to a high-fat, high-sugar cafeteria-style diet or a standard rat chow diet for 8 weeks. Following the diet exposures, the rats were tested on a delay discounting task, in which preference for smaller, immediate vs. larger, delayed food outcomes were assessed. Once behavior was stable, acute administrations of haloperidol (0.03 0.1 mg/kg) commenced to assess the extent to which diet-induced changes in dopamine D2 influence impulsive food choice. Analyses revealed no baseline differences in percent larger, later choice as a function of diet; however, following an acute injection of 0.1 mg/kg of haloperidol, rats exposed to a high-fat, high-sugar diet showed a greater reduction in percent larger, later choice relative to rats fed a standard diet. As such, chronic exposure to a cafeteria-style diet alters dopamine signaling and results in an increased sensitivity to haloperidol that leads to increases in delay discounting relative to rats fed standard chow.

Amphetamine has been reported to increase or decrease preference for larger-delayed reinforcers depending on genotype, delay-progression, and signaling-conditions. To identify potential genotype X environment interactions responsible for these disparate findings, d-amphetamine's effects on delay discounting were assessed in two mouse-strains (BALB/c and C57Bl/6) responding under different stimulus conditions using a six-component, concurrent-chained schedule that randomized the within-session order of reinforcer delays. Across conditions, but within-subjects, components were presented without (mixed schedule) or with (multiple schedule) stimuli that signaled reinforcer delays and the effects of d-amphetamine were evaluated. Dose and schedule effects on generalized matching law magnitude and delay sensitivity were determined by a model-comparison approach. During baseline, magnitude and delay sensitivity were identical across stimulus conditions for BALB/cs and overall higher than the C57Bl/6s. For C57Bl/6s, magnitude and delay sensitivity were higher under the multiple than mixed schedule. Amphetamine decreased delay sensitivity under both schedules for BALB/cs, but this effect was attenuated by delay-specific stimuli. For C57Bl/6s, amphetamine decreased both magnitude and delay sensitivity under the multiple and increased each under the mixed schedule. Amphetamine decreased delay sensitivity when baseline levels were high and increased it when baseline levels were low, suggesting that effects were dependent upon baseline conditions.

Decades of research demonstrate that some behavior-analtyic procedures are empirically-supported treatments for food refusal exhibited by children diagnosed with feeding disorders. However, studies examining assessment methodologies to determine the most specific, effective, and efficient function-based interventions are lacking in the behavioral feeding literature. Further, studies demonstrating the effectiveness of function-based interventions to specifically treat varied topographies of feeding problems are scarce. This symposium will discuss recent advancements to a function-based approach of treating pediatric feeding problems. Specifically, Sean Casey will discuss the use of descriptive analyses to determine which procedures are necessary for effective treatment. Melanie Bachmeyer will discuss the correspondence of descriptive and functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behaviors and the outcomes of interventions matched to each. Finally, Kathryn Peterson will discuss the results of a comparison study between behavior-analytic treatment and a wait-list control group with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder who exhibit severe food selectivity.

The impact of applied behavior analysis methodologies to address feeding issues has enjoyed unparalleled success (Sharp et al., 2010). However, most of the literature has been demonstrated that treatment is most likely to occur in the medically oriented settings conducted with trained therapists. There are fewer published studies that are occurring in the naturalistic settings (i.e., schools and homes) with parents and school staff being utilized as the therapists during treatment meals (e.g., Gentry & Luiselli, 2008). Descriptive analyses (Mace & Lalli, 1991) offer the clinician the opportunity to see how each care provider responds to the childs bite acceptance and refusal behaviors which can lead to identification of the schedules of care-provider responses to the childs behaviors. This information can then be used to determine what schedule manipulations (i.e., bite acceptance, refusal, or both) to focus for treatment. The usefulness of this information can expedite and maximize treatment success and help to avid the usage of overly complex procedures and avoidance of highly intrusive procedures for some children. Such procedures may be difficult to maintain by feeders who are unlikely to have any training in applied behavior analysis (e.g., parents, school associates). In this study, descriptive analyses were used to identify the naturally occurring responses for bite acceptance and food refusal behaviors for the care-providers of several young children who possessed total food refusal or food selectivity. The results of these assessments and their concomitant treatment procedures are discussed.

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have feeding difficulties, namely food selectivity (i.e., consumption of a limited variety of foods by type or texture). Food selectivity inevitably leads to inadequate dietary intake, which is associated with learning and behavior problems. If left untreated, children with food selectivity also may suffer from malnutrition or other health problems (e.g., constipation, Type II diabetes). Currently, treatments for pediatric feeding disorders based on ABA research have the most empirical support (Volkert & Piazza, 2012); however, there are not as many studies demonstrating the effectiveness of ABA in the treatment of food selectivity. Health professionals often recommend that caregivers wait to see if their child?s feeding difficulties resolve over time, independent of treatment, or suggest alternative treatments that do not have empirical support. In the current study, we compared ABA treatment to a wait-list control group. Independent acceptance of foods increased for children who received applied behavior analysis, but not for children in the wait-list control group. We subsequently implemented applied behavior analysis treatment with the children from the wait-list control and observed a similar increase in independent acceptance across all foods.

Notions about teaching and learning inform the practice of classroom teachers. Faulty notions and myths about learning lead to a number of common teaching mistakes that limit educational effectiveness and impede the adoption of research-based instructional practices. Examples of faulty notions include assuming that students are learning when they are "paying attention" or using materials that allow students to be right "for the wrong reasons." The presenters will review a handful of commonly held faulty notions, discuss the flaws in such notions, and present both "low-tech" and "high-tech" alternatives to improve teaching practices and the adoption of research-based strategies.

After over five decades of research in behavior analysis devoted to behaviors of making and choosing music, learning of behaviors, teaching behavior and a cybernetic teaching system, as well as verbal behavior and its development, I think I have really been studying reinforcers rather than behavior. I shall describe why I think that identifying and establishing reinforcers that humans can learn (or not learn) to contact suggests the sources of multiple responses to single stimuli and single responses to multiple stimuli. Build reinforcers and the reinforcers will continue to add new responses, new motivational conditions, and numerous discriminative stimuli. Learned reinforcers and motivational conditions make complex human behaviors and contextual control possible.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

There is a limited spectrum of behavioral services available to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who also exhibit severe problem behavior such as self-injury, aggression, and property destruction. In this symposium, presenters will describe four different service delivery models for this particular population. Within these four programs, a range of clinical and research activities are conducted. The first presentation reviews a school-based service model that incorporates the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The second paper describes a brief, but intensive, assessment and treatment model for severe problem behavior that is provided in an outpatient clinic. The third presentation provides an overview of a hospital-based inpatient unit that serves individuals with the most severe problem behavior. The fourth presentation reviews residential services and outcomes for adults with IDD and problem behavior. Finally, our discussant will provide comments on the efficacy of these four treatment models; the impact on service delivery and outcomes for persons with severe problem behavior; and the need for continued research and program development.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a values-based technology, rooted in applied behavior analysis that emerged in the early 1980s as an alternative to escalating concerns over the use of aversive consequences with individuals with developmental disabilities. Today, that same technology is being applied to many different populations, young and old, as well as whole systems (e.g., schools, families) to produce more meaningful and sustainable outcomes. This presentation will provide an overview of Devereux's application of the PBIS model for students with autism spectrum disorder. Included in the presentation will be a description of the three-tiered autism model as well as the needed systems to ensure success, with particular attention being paid to how to best train and supervise direct care professionals and teachers to optimize outcomes. Data on key milieu performance indicators will also be presented, including the following measures: student engagement levels; the use of praise; opportunities to communicate; the use of nonverbal prompting procedures; and the use of visual support systems for communication, reinforcement, and scheduling. Last, a summary of outcomes and future directions will be discussed.

Residential services dedicated to persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) and severe problem behavior remain a big challenge: data on existing services are neither consistent nor reliable; institutions are significantly present; use of physical and chemical restraints is excessive; and evidence-based treatments are not used. We will present data from 10-year experience conducted in group of residential services for adults with ID and behavior problems located in Northern Italy, where an overall process of deinstitutionalization has evolved into the implementation of behavioral treatments into a broader Quality of Life (QOL) approach. First, we will illustrate the service delivery model: starting from the "house" as natural relational environment, we shifted towards a more structured context (Micro-Unit Approach plus QOL Models). Examples are shown on how to adapt ABA treatment to residential services. Then, we will present outcome data: 1) Procedural: implementation of life opportunities and activities; increase of learning opportunities dedicated to staff members (BA consistent); 2) Clinical: increase in adaptive functioning; treatment of behavior problems (reduction of challenging behavior, reduction of psychoactive medications, cut of physical restraints, increase of behavioral procedures, reduction of staff injuries); increase of behavioral satisfaction indices; extreme reduction of the risk of stress and burnout for staff.

The stimulus control of behavior is a critical aspect of how organisms adjust their behavior to the state of their environment and the survival of animals (including humans) often depends on their ability to perform responses that are appropriate to their circumstances. Therefore the ability to appropriately attend to the important features of a complex environment and perceive their relations is a critical survival skill. Importantly, problems related to the allocation of attending are associated with various psychological disorders ranging from attention deficit to substance abuse. Among the many factors contributing to the allocation and persistence of attending, the relation between patterns of attending and the resultant consequences plays an important role. The aim of this symposium is to bring together researchers to discuss current experimental findings and conceptualization regarding the effects of environmental contingencies on stimulus control in humans ranging from associations discrimination and class formations in respondent schedules to eye-movement based observing in operant schedules. These studies reveal both the complexity of attending and observing for stimulus control and the strong need for a unitary theoretical framework to account for the range and diversity of environmental effects on the establishment and persistence of stimulus control.

Associative learning is at the core of several important learning phenomena, notably operant and Pavlovian conditioning. Allan and collaborators have proposed that it could be conceptualized as a perception problem, entailing the application to it the full psychophysical toolbox to quantify a subjects ability to perceive relations between events. This psychophysical framework goes along with a new procedure for the study of associative learning in humans, the streamed-trial procedure, where participants are exposed to rapid flows of stimuli at the end of which a contingency judgment is asked of them. This presentation will review results from an ongoing research project building on Allans pioneering work. Among the conclusions highlighted, (a) Participants are better at perceiving positive contingencies between stimuli; (b) The variability in their is constant; (c) The sensitivity to stimulus contingency cannot be modified through feedback; (d) It relies, at least in the streamed-trial procedure, on attention-dependent visual processing while verbal coding strategies (such as counting stimuli) only play a marginal role.

Researches indicated that stimuli pairing in training is responsible for transfer of discriminative function. The present study evaluated whether transfer of function was a product of temporal contiguity between stimuli or the formation of a functional class. Six college students were exposed to a three-phase procedure: the first phase was a successive discriminative training with three compound stimuli as S+ (A1B1, A1C1, A1D1) and three compound stimuli as S- (A1B2, A1C2, A1D2). The second phase was a successive discriminative training to establish R1 in the presence of B1 and R2 in the presence of B2. The third phase was a test, in extinction, to evaluate whether R1 or R2 would be emitted in the presence of A1, B1, C1, D1, B2, C2, D2 stimuli presented separately and successively. The results showed that 4 of the 6 participants showed R1 in the presence of stimuli from Class 1 and R2 in the presence of stimuli from Class 2. None of the subjects emitted the same response for all the single stimuli presented in the test. Results indicated that transfer of function was probably the product of the formation of functional classes and not a product of temporal contiguity.

Although punishing consequences have been shown to reduce harmful or unwanted behavior when other methods fail, the use of punishment in behavioral interventions has largely been abandoned due to ethical concerns. There is a need for new approaches to punishment that do not produce unwanted side effects. Such methods must be assessed in terms of ethical viability and overall punishment efficacy. That is, the extent to which the punishment approach successfully reduces the future probability of targeted behavior. This symposium presents new approaches to the investigation of punishment and the development of punishment procedures. Presentations will show that a functionally negative stimulus may alone act as a punishing consequence with animals, and considers the extent to which this method may be used to punish sub-optimal choice behavior in animals and humans. Presentations also consider the use of delay to reinforcement as a punishing consequence, and the extent to which environmental variables may moderate the efficacy of punishment of positively reinforced behavior, thereby modelling a component process of some psychopathological phenomena.

The use of punishment in treatments designed to reduce harmful behavior has largely been abandoned for ethical reasons. However, the use of positive reinforcement in behavioural treatments may fail to reduce harmful behavior to safe levels. Use of a functionally "negative" stimulus as an operant punishing consequence offers a new approach to punishment. The present study uses an animal model to investigate whether presentation of a negative stimulus will punish the behavior it follows. Six pigeons are used. The target behavior is key pecks for positive reinforcement. One stimulus (S+) predicts response-contingent food deliveries on a variable interval schedule. Simultaneously, a negative stimulus previously associated with the absence of food (S-) is presented on a variable rate schedule. Food deliveries are not withheld when the S- stimulus is presented. Results show that the overall rate of key pecking for food by pigeons is suppressed when key-pecking also produces the negative stimulus. Therefore, a negative stimulus alone has the potential to be a punishing consequence. Ongoing research investigates the extent to which different environmental variables impact the functional reliability of a negative stimulus as a punishing consequence, and the extent to which a negative stimulus may punish choice. This research provides a foundation for the continued investigation of new approaches to punishment that reduce unwanted behavior without raising ethical concerns.

Behavioral principles have significant relevance to the prevention and minimisation of harm in a number of health-related areas. They are, however, under-utilised. Recent research in New Zealand shows that compulsory interruptions of gambling have marginal benefits. Basic research using animal models suggests that, given appropriate pre-training, punishment of sub-optimal choice strategies may be demonstrated using an ethically sound approach, and that these effects might be mirrored in humans. Our ongoing research investigates the extent to which this approach may be integrated into a simulation of an Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM, poker/pokie machine, slot machine). In most jurisdictions, the majority of gambling-related harm is attributable to gambling excessively on EGMs which are underpinned by sophisticated variations of variable ratio schedules. The present research investigates how, as part of the ongoing gaming experience, specific game symbols may acquire aversive properties, be embedded within the game, and made contingent on excessive or harmful gambling. The implications will be discussed in terms of harm minimization in gambling and related contexts with humans.

When responding delays the delivery of a reinforcer and the reinforcer is obtained by not responding in a specific way, such procedure (named resetting delay / omission training) is an effective method to reduce specific target behaviors. The efficacy of such procedure depends on the duration of the delay, on delays being signaled or not, on application of delays from the outset of training or after training is well established, and on the specific contingency between behavior and consequence, among other factors. Variations in the response-dependent resetting delay procedure involve the use of non-resetting delays (delays being not reset during the delays) or the use of protective response-reinforcer delays. These other methods have advantages in order to investigate theoretical issues, but in general response-contingent delays result in a decrement in response rate that represent effective alternative techniques to suppress behavior in comparison to traditional punishment. This will be illustrated here by their use on modulating schedule-induced drinking in rats, a laboratory model that has been regarded useful for understanding behavioral excess.

Reinforced acts are often subjected to punishment, as when the incautious consumption of prey is terminated in its theft by a rival, or when an enjoyable conversation is cut short by an unconsidered comment. The termination of threats of such punishment generally requires a temporary cessation of ongoing reinforced acts, a cessation which may become less probable as the terminal reinforcer for ongoing behavior approaches. In a test of this notion, pigeons' pecks to a green key were reinforced on ratio schedules; after a random number of pecks during each ratio run, a second key was concurrently and briefly lit red, accompanied by a tone. A single keypeck to red terminated the warning signal and averted a forthcoming blackout period and a zeroing of the green keypeck counter. The probability of warning signal termination was observed to be an inverse function of the number of responses remaining for terminal reinforcement, despite a greater loss of effort when punishment occurred later in a ratio run. The preemptive self-exposure to warnings observed in many psychological disorders, introduced early to maximum effect in evoking a course of behavior incompatible with the continuation of enticing censured acts, may constitute an instance of this process.

A large and continually growing research base has demonstrated the potential for functional analysis (FA)-informed interventions to eliminate challenging behavior in controlled environments. However, some may question the validity of intervention models through which contrived FAs conducted in analogue settings are used as the basis for subsequent treatment validation (Talk 1). Others may raise concerns about FAs designed without consideration of factors related to cultural and linguistic diversity (Talk 2). During intervention, there is little doubt that well designed differential reinforcement programs can simultaneously suppress unwanted behavior and increase wanted behavior; however, surprisingly little applied research has highlighted strategies for incorporating cultural factors (Talk 2) or client preference (Talk 3) into determining what is wanted. Finally, the social validity of interventions may be greatest when desirable treatment effects generalize across all relevant people and settings. However, behavior analysts face an uphill battle when attempting to ensure generality of treatment effects to relevant settings at times during which behavior analysts cannot be present to collect data or coach care providers (Talk 4).

This study evaluated the effect of language of implementation on functional analysis and functional communication training for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Linguistic diversity and choice of language may be particularly important to children with ASD as core communication deficits often contribute to engagement in challenging behavior. Unfortunately, little research has been conducted to identify the impact of culture and language on functional analysis or behavior intervention outcomes. We will present the results of two studies which investigate differences in treatment effectiveness based on language of assessment and intervention.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a common function-based behavioral intervention used to decrease problem behavior by teaching an alternative communication response. Therapists often arbitrarily select the topography of the alternative response. Assessing individual mand topography preference may increase treatment effectiveness and promote self-determination in the development of interventions. This study sought to reduce arbitrary selection of FCT mand topography by determining preference during response training and acquisition for two adults with no functional communication skills. Results were used to implement FCT and reduce problem behavior.

Generalization is essential to the social validity of effective intervention. However, it is difficult to evaluate the generality of therapeutic gains across all facets of a clients life because therapists are not available to collect data at these times. One solution is parent report; however, ensuring consistent and accurate data without presenting undue burden to family is challenging. In our study, we employed an automated texting system to send parents daily individualized-behavioral questions at prescribed times during all phases of intervention (i.e., assessment through discharge). Responding remained high throughout the investigation, suggesting texting may be a viable reporting option (although questions about reliability/accuracy remain). Importantly, obtained data indicate that problem behavior persisted outside of therapeutic sessions for the duration of the study; even after it had been eliminated during these sessions by parents who were trained to fidelity via BST. These results suggest a greater focus on generalization is merited.

Applied behavior analysis can be utilized to affect a wide range of socially significant behaviors across a diverse number of populations. This symposium seeks to address additional areas, practices, and populations that can benefit from applied behavior analysis, and the ways in which behavior analysts can find themselves in these fields. The presenters will discuss their own work in traditionally established recipients of ABA services, review their progress in diversifying the recipients of applied behavior analysis, and provide future directions to be pursued. Historical, legal, and ethical barriers to applied behavior analysis in a variety of domains will be addressed, as well as introducing avenues by which behavior analysts can enter and improve other fields using the science of human behavior. This symposium will explore a number of diverse domains in which behavior analysis can work to improve the lives of a number of populations by affecting socially significant behaviors.

This presentation is an illustration of how both data-based decision making processes and technological tools are relevant in applied settings and how the latter can influence the former in a meaningful and powerful way. Simon Lergs-Dejardin will present a case of a young girl with Potocki-Lupski syndrom that had no functional communication prior to intervention. The intervention consisted in developing a fine motor repertoire (the Big 6) through fluency-based instruction to promote the use of the tablet in order to communicate with a selection-based app. The success of this case will show that both technology of teaching (fluency-based instruction through Precision Teaching, Big 6 and Clicker training), and technology of tools (the use of an on online application to chart data on Standard Celeration Charts aka Chartlytics and the section-based application) are a powerful combination in behavior analysis and should be the standard when one work with students with special needs.

Although behavior analytic services for students with autism and other developmental disabilities remain marginal (only around 30 Certified Behavior Analysts are registered in France), it is growing year after year due to increasing demand by parents and caretakers. The result of this growth is that behavior analysis, or ABA, becomes synonymous with autism treatment despite the our history of working with various populations, settings, and social significant events. Currently there are few Behavior Analysts in France that work outside the field of developmental and related disabilities. In order to extend behavior analysis outside the field of autism, professionals need to address other disabilities and needs. The presenters believe that a good starting point would be to help meet the difficulties that occur within school, as it represents a large number of children and adolescents. During this presentation, Simon and Dorothe Lergs-Dejardin will present the state of evidence-based practices (i.e., Precision Teaching) for students with special needs in France, show data that they have collected about the need for these kinds of services, and provide the process they went through in order to open the first specialized center in France.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a renewed interest in designing educational environments that lead to various practical outcomes for learners. Educational endeavors may be conceptualized as falling within several categories: formal public education, formal private education, independent studies, athletic activities, musical activities, and day-to-day learning through an individual's life. In the past decade, the creation of individual learning opportunities through internet-based applications increased. Behavior analysis, historically aligned with formulating instructional design methods, can lend a helping hand to create meaningful educational opportunities for people of varying ages and ability. An educational technology startup (Institute of Meaningful Instruction, LLC) in Reno, Nevada launched in 2015 with the mission to expand the human potential through instructional material. This presentation will cover the founders approaches to creating instructional materials in-line with the mission and outside mainstream ABA approaches and populations. Successes, failures, and suggestions for the future will be presented.

We will present outcome of early behavioral Iitervention for children with autism from two community based intervention Centers in Norway. First, the Centre for Early Intervention in Oslo, Norway will present outcome following two years of low intensity behavioral intervention for 26 children with autism. They are compared to a group of 25children that have received eclectic special education. Next, the Department of Autism in Bergen, Norway will present outcome after one year of behavioral intervention for 28 children, and compare this to a group of 23 children that were provided generic special education of similar intensity. Finally, we will present outcome from a group of 13 children that continued a behavioral intervention program through third grade in school (age 10), and compare this to a group of children where behavioral intervention was ended when they started school (age 6).

We evaluated outcome of low intensity early behavioral intervention (about 12 weekly intervention hours) for children with autism as it was provided by the public Centre for Early intervention in Oslo, Norway. All the children (n=26) that completed two years of intervention between 2011 and 2016 are included in the study, and outcome was compared to a group of children that received eclectic special education. We measured outcome on autism severity, general intelligence and adaptive behavior. All though, the intervention was less intensive than what is recommended in the literature, the behavioral group did significantly better than the eclectic comparison group. Nevertheless, average gains were more modest than what is reported for more intensive programs.

We evaluate outcome following one year of intensive behavioral intervention (about 20 weekly intervention hours) provided through the public Department of Autism. in the City of Bergen, Norway. All children (n=28) that completed one year of intervention between 2011 and 2016 were included in the evaluation. Outcome was measured in terms of autism severity, adaptive behaviors and the occurrence of problem behaviors and compared to a group of children receiving generic special education.

We found better outcome in intelligence and adaptive behavior scores at age 10, for those children who continued to receive behavioral intervention in school compared to those children who ended their intervention at age 6. The groups had similar gains following intervention on pre-school.The group of children (n=11) that continued their behavioral intervention in school continued to gain in intelligence and adaptive behavior scores, whereas the group that stopped (n=8) lost points. This finding supports the hypotheses that behavioral intervention can continue to benefit some children with autism well into school age.

The literature regarding the use of physical guidance in schools is scant, perhaps due to the controversial nature of the topic. The studies presented evaluate the effects of one component of a comprehensive treatment, systematic physical assistance and graduated fading of physical guidance to decrease aggressive behavior and to increase on-task participation in children with autism. A comprehensive review and discussion of several different physical guidance training packages were undertaken and a training package from the Professional Crisis Management Association (2002), referred to as Professional Crisis Management (PCM), was selected. The settings used for this evaluation were different public French ABA schools (managed by 2 different Associations). These schools provide services for children with autism ranging in age from 3 to 18 years old. This 4-day PCM training was chosen because: 1) it provides strong emphasis on prevention and de-escalation; 2) considerable time is spent training staff on managing disruptive but non-dangerous behaviors, something particularly applicable to the classroom setting; 3) it narrowly defines crisis as behaviors which are dangerously disruptive or continuously self-injurious or aggressive; 4) the training clearly states that physical assistance is not to be used for discipline or compliance; 5) the physical component of all procedures is both safe and as dignified as possible. Additionally, the PCM program also includes physical feedback designed to assist the student in learning that physical assistance is immediately and systematically reduced as a consequence of reductions in physical resistence . Data collected on two behaviors: on-task behavior and aggressive behavior

The study was completed to evaluate the effects of systematically using and fading physical feedback to decrease aggressive behavior and to increase on-task participation for one child with autism. The setting is a French ABA school. This study includes a multiple baseline across teachers design. Baseline data was collected on two behaviors: on-task behavior and aggression. Aggressive behavior was defined as: (a) throwing and destroying objects; or (b) biting, hitting, scratching, or kicking other people. The student was considered on task when he was: (a) following the teacher's instructions; (b) orienting appropriately toward the teacher or task; or (c) seeking help in the proper manner (e.g., raising hand). Data were recorded in students classroom during 15 min of the class period as the students participated in the normal class activities. Data were collected once a day, using time sampling (30 seconds interval). A follow-up phase (6 months later) indicates that on-task behavior remains at high rates. Moreover, no aggressive behaviors were observed during this follow-up phase.

The study was completed to evaluate the effects of systematically using and fading physical feedback to decrease aggressive behavior and to increase on-task participation for students with autism during transitions This study includes a multiple baseline across teachers design. Students were considered on task when: (a) transitioning from point A to point B as instructed. Data were recorded in student's transitions, during 2 hours sessions with at least 10 opportunities for transitions. Data will be presented that includes baseline, treatment and follow-up conditions.

France has been condemned for discrimination against people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by the Council of Europe. Indeed, in 2014, the Council of Europe concluded that the rights of people with ASD were violated with regards to their right to education. The aim of this symposium is to try to apprehend why France seems to lag behind the rest of Europe with regards to autism. We will start by studying the legal and political evolution with regards to autism, then we will focus on the qualitative and quantitative means made available to individuals with autistic disorders in France, focusing more particularly on the daily difficulties encountered by an experimental ABA based center. Finally, we will explore the challenges related to the dissemination of the principles of behavior analysis in France by exploring the issue of postsecondary training and education provided to the future practitioners and the language barrier from English to French.

France is readily lacking training in ABA. There is only one University providing an ABA master degree and implementing research in EAB and ABA and on average 15 students graduate every year. The aim of this program is to train students to implement ABA treatments according to the BCBA's certification. But, the lack of current training options in France is also problematic for practitioners. Postsecondary training and education provided to the future practitioners rarely mention behavioral techniques. The few French centers providing ABA treatments for ASD children thus have to train their own staff. The language barrier is also an issue. The existing materials and literature used in ABA treatments have yet to be translated to French for it to be more accessible. For example, the French version of the ABLLS has been published a few years ago. The BACB, which contributes to disseminating professional standards mainly through its professional certification programs is also working on this language issue. Indeed, the BCBA & BCaBA examinations are to be translated and the French version is scheduled for 2018. These translations should make it easier for more and more French people to be able to implement and also supervise effective ABA treatments.

French government agreed to the opening of a center in the North of France in 2008. In this center, 20 children with ASD, age 0-20 years old, received ABA treatments 36hrs per week in mean and behavioral intervention is provided for free. Behavioral intervention is implemented in all of children's life settings (home, schools, daily care ). This center is experimental and has for main goal to prove effectiveness of ABA treatments. It was crucial step for France because at that time ABA was not recognized as being profitable for children with ASD. Since the opening of this center four children have completed their treatments and some are engaged into professional skills training. French ministry of Health has recommended in March 2012 the implementation of ABA treatments for children with ASD. But people still think that these children need multidisciplinary treatments (eclectic interventions) and ABA still remains perceived as a higher cost treatment (humanly and financially speaking). Furthermore, France is nowadays tremendously lacking formation in ABA. So, difficulties are daily encountered in the center in finding trained staff, organizing a training system for the staff, the parents and the partners in schools.

Albeit, the tremendous expansion in research on ASD during the last decades, the fact that numerous theoretical frameworks are actively looking for the etiology of autistic disorders, the emergence of various treatment packages, the countless governmental reports and guidelines and the millions spent on ASD, a great majority of individuals with ASD are still either suffering from strong autistic disorders and are in inmate facilities or have mild autistic disorders and are struggling with mostly unmet needs for education, employment, housing services and support. This paper aims at investigating and better understanding the current treatment of autistic disorders in France. We will start by studying the legal and political evolution with regards to autism, then we will focus on the qualitative and quantitative means made available to individuals with autistic disorders in France. Finally, we will explore the cost incurred by the government and families of individuals with autistic disorders.

An important modern challenge concerns how to make sure that we use the behavioral science that we already have. However, it is also a challenge to make sure we have the basic science that we need. For example, when working with children with autism, both of these challenges seem constantly relevant. Although basic behavioral science may in some areas be far more advanced than what we have thus far been able to implement in the general services for children with autism, there are also some striking holes in our basic knowledge. The present paper will address some of these shortcomings. For example, when children with autism deviate from other children in the range of stimuli that reinforce their behavior, a highly relevant question concerns how, most effectively to establish new stimuli as conditioned reinforcers. We do not really know. Further, if we simply establish standard reinforcing stimuli, such as other peoples nods and smiles, as conditioned reinforcers, can the children learn standard things from the natural environment, like typically developing children, without much contrived “teaching?” Another important issue has to do with the fact that shaping requires behavioral variability, and we need to know more about how such variability is most effectively established?

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Many organizations struggle with retaining employees, and keeping staff turnover at a low level. ABA companies that deliver treatment services to individuals with autism and other disabilities are often highly aware of this issue. Turnover rates among direct care staff can be extremely high in clinical ABA companies, presenting a significant cost, and negatively impacting the quality of services. The behavior analytic research literature has surprisingly few studies that have investigated this issue, leaving many practitioners at a loss for effective strategies. This presentation will present research from fields outside of behavior analysis and organizational behavior management that address the issue of employee turnover, and will discuss behavior-based approaches to improving turnover. Additionally, case-studies will be presented from work in the field.

It is not easy to implement an ABA protocol in a workplace. Above all the Behavior-Based Safety process that includes peer-to-peer observation, positive and corrective feedback, safety meeting with workers. Above all, in an Italian metallurgic plant that employs people prejudices due to previous contingencies made of command-and-control management style, abuse of punishment, political ideologies, etc. that converted in a deep resistance to cultural change. In 2015, management decided to implement a BBS process in a pilot department with about 100 employees with the prime goals of reducing injury and severity rate. The behavior analysts leading the intervention scheduled and delivered several presentations and trainings to employees all along the project in order to catch their consensus towards ABA and safety issues. Workers? opinions (i.e. verbal behaviors) have been tracked before-and-after the beginning of the observation-and-feedback process: people attitudes changed meaningfully and favorably towards colleagues, leaders, and managers. These outcomes matched consistently with the improvement of motorial safety behavior frequency (mainly by workers), of safety management behaviors intensity (mainly by leaders) and safety results (i.e. frequency fell by 16% and severity index fell by 56%). The speakers will describe the antecedent-based strategy (i.e. presentations) needed to introduce ABA smoothly in a conflictual workplace.

As proven by several RCT experiments and case studies, Behavior Based Safety processes reduce injury indices by establishing safe behaviors. This experiment checked the effectiveness of the BBS process in the emergency management, i.e. building safety behavior in time-pressure conditions. Emergencies are defined as any critical condition that determines a potentially dangerous situation and requires exceptional and urgent actions to be managed and restored. Researchers conducted the experiment in 24-7 paper production facility in Northern Italy. Observations during baseline have been collected in 4 weeks during all work shifts; Observations during the behavioral intervention lasted 2 weeks and covered all 24 hours. The emergency contingency was the rupture of the paper roll that implied an immediate and fast intervention of 3-4 operators to allow the resumption of production. Common sense presumes that the same safe behavior frequent and stable during routine contingencies, may disappear or lose frequency in emergency ones: first of all, the experiment demonstrates the statistically meaningful difference of same safe behaviors frequency between routine tasks and emergency tasks. Researchers used chi square test to affirm this. The 2 first weeks of the BBS intervention consisted in the delivery of positive and negative feedback: the experiment results checked with C Test confirmed a growth of safety behaviors both in emergency and normal condition and verified that those same safe behaviors reached same level of frequency in the 2 conditions after few months of implementation

Pernicious patterns of behavior termed thought, anxiety, mood and personality "disorders" have long been recognized to be related to social punishment, but the relationship remains poorly specified, limiting the effectiveness of preventative and therapeutic interventions. This presentation reviews findings of a series of experiments supporting a view that seemingly maladaptive patterns of behavior such as stereotypic repetition, self-denigration, and idiosyncratic perception serve to terminate stimuli produced in the inchoate emission of socially-punished response forms, a process in which aspects of effective avoidance are reinforced adventitiously.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Behavior-based safety (BBS) entails the application of principles of behavior within systemic management of behaviors critical to occupational health, safety and environmental concerns (HSE). Scientific organizations that promote the application of behavior analysis to socially significant concerns (e.g., Cambridge Center fore Behavioral Studies - CCBS, Association for the Advancement of Radical Behavior Analysis - AARBA) provide an important role in advocating for effective behavioral solutions. This panel discussion considers the development, history, procedures, and results of accreditation/certification processes that assess the quality of BBS applications. Panelists are leaders in BBS and represent international efforts at the forefront of efforts promoting effective behavior management.

The demand for behaviour analytic support across the world can, at times, far exceed the number of BCBA's in a country. Simple Steps (www.simplestepsautism.com) is an innovative multi-media teaching tool to introduce parents, students, and professionals to the science of behaviour analysis in their own setting. The online platform encompasses the use of animation, real-life video, discussion of key topics and principles by eminent European Behaviour Analysts as well as a number of printable materials including teaching materials, glossary and supporting book. The resource is not to replace BCBA supervision but rather to augment understanding for those unable to access intensive clinical behaviour analytic support. Simple Steps, through European funding (www.stamppp.com ) is now available in nine European languages. This presentation will show delegates the animations for showing challenging behaviours and the flow of the product which could serve as an introductory teaching material for students. The impact of telemedicine utilising Simple Steps will also be discussed.

This session will showcase three presentations which highlight the behavioral change processes needed for durable, meaningful, and measurable changes in human behavior. The first paper will describe a series of findings between relational responding and intelligence in children with autism. The second paper will review the literature on multiple exemplar training on the development of relational response repertoires. The third paper illustrates that when staff are taught components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, clients' lives improve because staff change their own behavior. Together this series of papers reveal a wide range of cutting edge behavioral research and analyses of complex language processes.

The theoretical correspondence between the response families described in Relational Frame Theory and the types of behaviors measured in conventional tests of intelligence are well documented, and recent evidence has suggested that improving relational verbal responding can lead to corresponding increases in IQ. Two assessments developed by this research team provide a comprehensive analysis of individuals' abilities to derive non-arbitrary and arbitrary relations, allowing for a direct comparison of the relationship between participants' relational verbal repertoire and intelligence. The first assessment, PEAK-Equivalence pre-assessment (PEAK-E-PA) evaluates the development of multi-modal coordinated relations. The second assessment, PEAK-Transformation pre-assessment (PEAK-T-PA) evaluates the relational development across each of the relational frame families. Obtained results suggest that there exists a strong, significant relationship between these two assessments and conventional IQ tests, with implications for a behavioral analysis of intelligent behavior.

In the behavior analytic literature, two terms are often used interchangeably; namely multiple exemplar training (MET) and multiple exemplar instruction (MEI). The current paper attempted to define both terms, according to their procedural applications, as identified in a review of the existing body of empirical work. More specifically, studies on naming, stimulus equivalence, and relational frame theory were reviewed and analyzed. Procedures were categorized according to their similarities and differences, irrespective of theoretical orientation. Definitions of the terms are proposed, based upon the distinctions in their applications across these areas of study, as well as their outcomes. Additionally, a new term is proposed, with the intent of refining the precision of behavior analytic language pertaining to these procedures and terms. A discussion of the conceptual systems underlying both procedures is included in the hopes of providing a basis for further discussion and research, with the ultimate goal of generating clearer definitions and conceptual analyses.

This presentation will highlight component analyses of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in persons with developmental disorders, as well as front-line staff working with adults with severe developmental disabilities. The studies share in common the application of single components of the ACT in isolation while examining their impact on an objective, reliable measures of behavior change. For example, young adults with developmental disorders participated in cognitive defusion and mindfulness exercises, and a functional relationship was established with the interventions and their performance during a role-play interview task. In addition, frontline staff participated in values clarification workshops related to their jobs and work with clients with severe developmental disorders, and a functional relationship was observed between the values trainings and staff engagement with clients. Implications for the application of components of ACT in services for people with developmental disorders will be described.

We used innovative techniques, and included siblings and peers, in play settings to address the social deficits commonly seen in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Four research studies will be presented. In the first study, a sibling-mediated intervention using the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP) was used to increase appropriate speech of children with ASD during play. Occurrences of happiness and joint attention also increased during these play/speech sessions. In the second study, a theatre-based intervention increased the social skills and socio-dramatic play of dyads of children with ASD. The third study presented a fading prompt program to teach individuals with ASD to ride a bike, while also measuring verbal and non-verbal social behaviors. We saw a trend in that as bike-riding independence increased, so did social behavior. Lastly, a Behavioral Skills Training program was used to teach athletically skilled children with ASD to teach their playmates appropriate play. Ancillary social behaviors yielded positive gains. Taken together, these four studies demonstrate ways to teach play, treat in play settings, and incorporate siblings and peers into intervention.

Sibling-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can potentially improve joint attention (Ferraioli & Harris, 2011) and increase engagement (Celiberti & Harris, 1993). The current study used a multiple baseline design across three sibling and child with ASD dyads to assess whether siblings could use the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP) to increase appropriate verbal behavior of their brother during play. Indices of happiness, joint attention, and appropriate play were measured. Each dyad engaged in free-play sessions during baseline. Following baseline, siblings learned to implement NLP with a trained therapist. After reaching mastery criterion, siblings conducted NLP play sessions with their brother with ASD. Results indicated that siblings effectively learned and implemented NLP, and that sibling-mediated NLP was associated with increases in appropriate language for two of the three children with ASD. Measures of happiness increased for all three children with ASD, and joint attention increased for two children with ASD. The implications of this study point toward further investigation of using sibling-mediated interventions to increase the social behaviors of children with ASD.

Theatre interventions have been used to remediate the social skills deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In general, theatre interventions consist of performing skits, theatrical productions (Corbett et al., 2011; Goldstein & Cisar, 1992), and role-play in games (Guli, Semrud-Clikeman, Lerner, & Britton, 2013). In the present study, a multiple baseline design was used to assess the efficacy of a theatre-based treatment that aimed to teach play and social skills to three dyads of children with ASD. Measures of socio-dramatic play, verbal social behavior, and nonverbal social behavior were used. Each dyad participated in baseline, which consisted of five-minute free-play sessions. During intervention, the dyads engaged in warm up activities, put on costumes, practiced and performed skits. Results indicated that during baseline, there was little or inconsistent evidence of appropriate social behavior. Following treatment, all three dyads met criterion for nonverbal social behavior, and each participant displayed increases in all three dependent measures. The results of this study suggest that a theatre intervention offers promise as an effective play and social skills intervention.

Recreational activities, like riding a bike, can provide individuals with the opportunity to improve their health (Lang et al., 2010), increase their independence (McIlvenny, 2014) and socialize with peers (McDonald & Ulrich, 2009). For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), learning to successfully and independently ride a two-wheeled bike may be quite difficult. An AB design replicated across five individuals with ASD was used to measure a bike prompt fading program, implemented by the iCan Shine organization, that aimed to teach participants to ride a two-wheeled bike independently. Ancillary measures of verbal and non-verbal social behaviors and happiness behaviors were also taken. Using adaptive bicycle equipment, including rollers and rear handles, the participants safely practiced bike-riding skills. Following the fading program, all five participants successfully rode a two-wheeled bike independently, and evidence of all three ancillary social behaviors increased from pre- to post-training. Interestingly, non-verbal social behaviors increased with practice during each fading step and decreased when the level of difficulty was changed. The results of this study indicated that a fading program effectively taught individuals with ASD to independently ride a bike, and that this process may have offered individuals the opportunity to engage in appropriate social interaction.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often lacking in appropriate play and athletic skills (Weiss & Harris, 2001). It is therefore a common occurrence that peers and siblings often view them as a less desirable playmate (Banda, 2015). However, for those children with ASD who do have such skills, it may be appropriate to take advantage of their skills so that they can become a desired playmate. In the present study, an eleven-year-old male with ASD became an athletic instructor for two playmates. Researchers used a multiple baseline across participants and skills design to assess the effects of the child with ASD using behavioral skills training (BST), on the skateboarding skills of his playmates. Social behaviors of joint attention and conversation were also measured before and after training for all three children. Results indicated that the playmates acquired most skills when taught by the child with ASD via BST. Improvements in social behavior were also observed for all of the children following training. Discussion will focus on the implications of interventions mediated by individuals with ASD, as well as on considerations for structuring their teaching interactions.

Social-communication difficulties of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can significantly interfere with their participation in high school activities, where conversation is the primary mode of social interaction. Interventions are needed not only to address these deficits, but also to facilitate social interactions with peers, yet few high school social-communication interventions exist. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across participants was used to assess the effects of a peer-mediated intervention implemented during lunch on the conversational skills of four high school students with ASD. The intervention consisted of training peers the three strategies to promote initiations, maintain conversations, and promote follow-up questions. In addition, focus students were taught how to use visual supports to initiate and extend topics. Peers implemented the intervention during lunch without direct adult involvement and items on cue cards were faded. In addition, probes assessing generalization of conversational gains across a novel trained peer, from another peer network and a novel untrained peer were collected following post-training. Results (10-m observational samples) indicated that focus students increased initiations and follow-up questions following the sequential introduction of each training component (Figure 1). Additional data revealed total number of conversational acts (Figure 2) and assertive acts (Fig. 3) increased for all participants and peers, suggesting that the once passive conversationalists were becoming more assertive. Additionally, probes revealed some generalization of learned skills to novel peers. Social validity measures involving the focus students, peers, and educators naive to the intervention attested to intervention acceptability and outcome quality. This study represents a comprehensive extension of peer-mediation to high school settings.

Socialization and play are essential component of any childs life. Individuals with disabilities, particularly individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience persistent deficits in socialization, communication, friendships, and community integration (Alpern & Zager, 2007; Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Burtenshaw, & Hobson, 2007; Durkin, Boyle, Hunter, & Conti-Ramsden, 2013). These challenges remain problematic throughout life, and directly affect postsecondary transitions and outcomes, specifically college participation, independent living, and employment (Shattuck 2013). Innovations with technology and digital communication may offer solutions to increase postsecondary education successes for young adults with ASD by creating and reinforcing opportunities for positive social interactions. One such method that has generated much attention are massively multiplayer online role-playing games and related augmentative virtual games such as Pokmon Go. A small but significant body of research has begun to emerge, documenting the benefits of gaming utilizing a complex, diverse, realistic, and social medium (Gallup, et al., 2016; Granic, Lobel, Rutger, & Engels, 2014). Further, researchers have suggested that video games may foster real-world psychosocial benefits (Granic et al., 2014), and support friendships and social interactions within the community environment (Gallup et al., 2016). An interesting phenomena of Pokmon Go is that the game has bridged the gap between virtual and physical environment. Additionally, results indicate that individuals with ASD and increased their social interactions and desire to interact within the community.

Recent research suggests autism symptoms can emerge as early as 6 months of age and are reliably detected as early as 12 months of age. Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention is the most established intervention for preschool aged children with autism, however best practices for intervention to treat autism symptoms in infancy are still being established. The present study uses a behavior skills training package to teach parents how to implement parent-mediated behavioral intervention strategies with their infants who are showing signs of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Ten parent/infant dyads participated in the 12-week intervention, which consisted of1-hour weekly parent-coaching sessions, focusing on using daily routines such as mealtimes and play, to teach imitation, joint-attention and verbal behavior to their infants who ranged in age from 7-18 months. Five-minute videos were recorded at the start of every session and scored using partial interval recording for the presence of target behaviors. Three parent and three infant target behaviors were targeting throughout the twelve sessions. Results will be discussed in terms of acquisition of target behaviors, reductions in autism symptoms using a low-intensity parent-mediated behavioral treatment model and the social validity of the intervention.

Research into factors underlying the dissemination of evidence based practice is limited within the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). One of the most comprehensive models of evidence based practice, the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework (Rycroft-Malone et al, 2004), suggests that the perceptions of decision makers are often the most significant facilitators of, and barriers to, research utilisation. Within autism education in the UK there is evidence to suggest that parents are key decision makers. This study is the first to try to quantify UK parental perceptions of behaviourally based approaches to the education and support of children with autism. Using an internet based survey, it is also the first to explore the perceptions of parents whose children have not had experience of behaviourally based approaches. We found that current and or past use of ABA, and parental education were significant predictors of parental perceptions of ABA even after controlling for key demographic variables, with experience of ABA and higher parental education resulting in scores that reflected a more favourable disposition towards ABA. The findings support the idea that parental perception of ABA may influence dissemination. Further investigation is clearly necessary.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the application of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) to teaching facial emotions both as an isolated stimulus and within a social context. Nine children with ASD aged 9-12 years were taught to identify six facial expressions of emotions (A) correctly, and to relate them to the situational context (C) by using the stimulus equivalence technology. The participants were using a tablet and the stimuli were presented to the participants on the tablet’s screen. A pre-test was conducted to assess the participants’ ability to match pictures of facial expressions (A) to written labels of emotions (B) and to match pictures of emotional situations (C) to pictures of facial expressions (A). In the test phase, a matching-to-sample procedure was used to teach the participants to match AB and BC. A post-test assessed the participants’ ability to match AC. Generalisation probes were conducted using novel picture stimuli and video clips. Preliminary group data on each emotion are presented in conjunction with individual performances. The results contribute to the literature suggesting that stimulus equivalence training can be effective in teaching emotional recognition to children with ASD. However, generalisation results varied remarkably between participants. Clinical and further research implications will be discussed.

Behavioral rigidity, or a lack of behavioral variability, is a defining characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Over the past several years, researchers have begun to study the operant characteristics of behavioral variability and to develop interventions designed to increase response variability in contexts where behavioral variability is desirable. In the current presentation, I will discuss recent research at Utah State University where we examined behavioral strategies for increasing variability in requesting behavior and play behavior in young children with autism. Strategies employed included social scripting and script fading, lag schedules, and discrimination training. Data from the studies presented indicate that behavioral variability is, in fact, an operant dimension of behavior that can be controlled by both reinforcement and discriminative stimuli. We also found that behavioral variability can be increased for both verbal behavior and play behavior in young children with autism using behavioral interventions. The implications of this series of studies for applied practice will also be reviewed and discussed as well as suggestions for future research in this area.

Applied Behavior Analysis services are increasingly delivered in locations outside of North America. Providing ABA services to diverse populations in international settings creates substantial challenges for Behavior Analysts. Among the many practical challenges are those related to language and communication; integrating local social, cultural, and religious practices into intervention; advocacy and efforts to increase awareness of disabilities; local regulation, government relations, and government support for services; and availability of qualified local personnel. Each of these challenges must be considered when developing and delivering ABA services outside one's own familiar area. In this symposium, presenters will discuss considerations related to these challenges as experienced during service delivery in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and India. Sharifa Yateem will discuss advocacy, government relations, and establishing linkages with higher education institutions. She will also describe her experience establishing the UAE-ABA Affiliated Chapter. Saleh Shaalan will discuss factors that lead to adoption of a bilingual ABA curriculum. He will also present data on a longitudinal study of bilingual vocabulary acquisition in children with autism. Amber Mandler and Amy Atwell will present challenges and successes in establishing ABA services in Kuwait and India, respectively.

A frequently-heard expression is that it "takes a village" to raise a child. But for a child with autism, it takes more than a village. To establish effective and sustainable autism services requires the involvement of individuals, organizations, and government authorities. Program developers, parents, practitioners, and government must all be involved in program development to ensure long-term viability. Autism services often cross government agency boundaries as well: health, education, social affairs, higher education, and even immigration authorities (when hiring expatriates) may be involved. This places a special challenge on program developers, who must be aware of regulations and policies of all concerned government entities. Advocacy for autism services often begins with parents but may also involve practitioners and program representatives. This presentation will include information about the various agencies that helped support the creation of an effective and sustainable autism program in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, as well as a description of the establishment of the UAE ABAI Affiliated Chapter.

When the New England Center for Children-Abu Dhabi started its in 2007, a decision was made to implement bilingual service delivery, where children receive ABA services in both English, the lingua franca of UAE and the medium of instruction of the NECC parent program in the US, and Emirati Arabic, the native language of most of our clients. This policy raised concerns among families and professionals due to the common practice of limiting exposure of children with ASD to one language only. We discuss the rationale for our policy and the different cultural, linguistic, and other practical factors that we considered when implementing this policy. We also present evidence from the literature on bilingualism in children with ASD and from our own research that justifies our position on bilingual exposure in ASD. The findings of our longitudinal study of our bilingually exposed students show that a bilingual ABA-based intervention has no detrimental effects on the dominant language(s) of our students. These findings support the growing body of literature that finds no evidence for the common practice of recommending the exposure of children with ASD who come from bilingual backgrounds to one language only.

The first center in Kuwait to provide services to children with autism opened over 20 years ago. In the past two decades, the number and quality of centers has gradually increased. In the past six years, Applied Behavior Analysis has become more known and utilized in the country. The practice of ABA in Kuwait faces resistance; however, there is a growing base of support from parents and schools who see positively correlated progress in the children for whom they care. Increasing independence for one child improves the quality of life for a family, making it more likely for them to share their hope and progress with others. As support grows and social stigmatization decreases, service delivery can be tailored better to meet the needs of individuals. Community outreach, school collaboration, and parent education are among the successful practices to be discussed in this symposium. A synthesis of past and current barriers to progress will also be presented, with suggestions for future development.

Behavioral experiments that compare participants' performance of theoretically equivalent operants, whether to determine the effects of different treatments, or of other differences determined by the experiment's independent variable, must necessarily take into account the potentially confounding effect of operant bias: a consistent preference for one operant over another. During a series of studies involving human participants, persistent systematic operant biases were observed. These studies used two different types of operants, one of which required the participants to draw shapes on a computer graphics tablet; the observed biases were associated both with the hand motions involved in executing each operant (kinesthetic bias), and with the operants associated visual stimuli (perceptual bias). In some cases there was an interaction effect that combined the two biases. Other operants studied involved typing non-word sequences of letters on the computer keyboard. In those experiments, in addition to biases related to the specific letter patterns (verbal associations), an ergonomic analysis of the hand motions required to execute them revealed systematic and robust kinesthetic biases very similar to those found using the other operant type. These results have implications for any research involving operant behaviors with similar kinesthetic or perceptual aspects, particularly studies in which human participants work on a computer or tablet.

It is known that stimulus control requires more than the mere presence of stimuli signaling contingencies: the relation between the stimuli and the response is critical. Here we explore this biological constraint on learning with humans using an oculomotor learning paradigm called saccadic adaptation. The saccade target is surreptitiously displaced during the saccade to induce a position error that can increase or decrease saccade angles depending on the orientation of the target second step. Stimuli affecting the motor command (such as target direction as clockwise and counterclockwise) differentially control saccadic adaptation leading to two distinct and simultaneous distributions of saccades angle, but surprisingly purely visual cues fail to do so (e.g. target color or shape). We conducted three experiments, which consisted in adding a differently colored distractor to the target presentation. For the first time in twenty-five years of experimentation, we observed strong discriminative control of saccade adaptation. These results show that any stimuli could potentially control differentially saccadic adaptation provided that the relation between the stimuli and the saccadic response is made relevant. The functional significance of this control extends well beyond saccade adaptation and provides strong evidence for a SD-response relevance effect in humans.

Writing is a complex behavior for which children are often assessed on the quality of the grammar and the spelling instead of the content and the originality of the ideas they bring about in their text (Vargas, 2009). As a behavior, writing can be improved by applied behaviour analysis techniques. Yet, some measurement is necessary to enable the quantification of novelty and creativity. The purpose of this study is to present the Guay-Gauthier Grid (GGG) for the evaluation of creativity in writing exercises. The grid consist of a procedure appraising originality by identifying specific content in a writing exercise, one of Guilfords divergent thinking competencies. Two correctors evaluated two hundred and thirty students applying for an enriched high school program on the writing of a short text about a prescribed subject. The grid is construed to identify the twelve targeted contents for which a score is attributed based on the rarity of the content. Results show that the correctors had an inter-rater agreement of 88,61 % and that a majority of children scored low which is to be expected. Different ways to improve creative writing behavior using the grid procedure could be easily implemented in a classroom setting.

The purpose of the current experiments was to evaluate differences between self-control behaviors as a function of both hypothetical and real rewards, as well as using a modified discounting procedure that more closely resembles the natural environment than other, more commonly used, procedures. This modified procedure required participants to complete a task in order to earn monetary rewards rather than simply offering a choice between two alternatives. Each participant was presented with a series of choices between completing two algebra problems that differed with respect to the effort to solve, and each associated with a different monetary reward. In Experiment 1, between-subject comparisons used constant monetary rewards. In Experiment 2, between- and within-subject comparisons incorporated varied monetary rewards. Subjects were informed of the reward they could earn before being instructed to complete the assessment. The results show that in general hypothetical and real rewards groups responded differently. Participants earning real rewards were more likely to choose the high effort problem than participants earning hypothetical rewards. Hypothetical rewards are often used in lieu of real rewards in research on delay discounting under the assumption that they produce comparable behavior. The results of the current studies, however, suggest caution when interpreting data generated by hypothetical rewards.

Key-pecking of four pigeons was maintained under a multiple variable-interval (VI) VI schedule of food presentation. In two experiments, the effects of the component duration on the interaction with the frequency and magnitude of reinforcement were investigated. Sessions had six phases; each phase lasted for one-hour to assure long exposure to programmed contingencies. The first phase consisted in a baseline condition in which frequency and magnitude of reinforcement were equal. In Experiment 1, after baseline, one component had its reinforcement frequency increased, in one session, and decreased in the following session. The frequency in the other component was held constant. Four components durations were tested between sessions (5 , 10 , 40 and 150 s); each duration was in effect for an entire session, during which the constant component alternated with the lean or the rich component. Behavioral contrast occurred mainly with shorter component durations when the constant component alternated with the rich one. In Experiment 2, reinforcement frequency was unchanged during the session and, after baseline, magnitude of reinforcement was increased or decreased. A weaker contrast effect was found in the shorter-component durations. The present data confirm the importance of component duration and reinforcement frequency in determining behavioral contrast.

Many behavior analysts wish that behavior analysis would be mainstream behavioral science. The factors that may be important in determining the status and position of behavior analysis have been discussed and debated in the past. These questions are still open. To begin with, it is possible to consider a large number of different causes for behavior analysis not being mainstream. Mentalism is described as the opposite of behaviorism and the reasons for its prevalence touch upon the main question here. In this presentation, I suggest several reasons or causes for this situation. Among others, I consider the following questions: (1) Mentalism is correct. (2) Mentalism has face validity. (3) Behavior analysts are not many enough to have influenced the society largely. (4) The dissemination of behavior analysis has not been effective enough for several reasons. (5) The phenomena to be explained and influenced are very complex and mentalism has been there earlier. (6) Science in general does not have a good enough position to affect the position of behavior analysis. (7) Clients of different services are not able or do not demand adequate services. In conclusion, I maintain that all the points above, except point 1 are partly true and that several other problems can be derived from these points. I also offer some solutions to these problems to improve the position of behavior analysis and help to spread it more successfully.

It is generally accepted that B. F. Skinner first approach to behaviorism was closely related to Pavlov's reflexology and that he, at some point, distanced himself from that Stimulus-Response theory, especially with his theory of operant behavior. When exactly that occurred is debatable, however. Some argue that this occurred quite early in his career, while others argue that this happened alter and gradually. Instead of positioning myself somewhere on that continuum, I will address the issue conceptually. The question then becomes when and how did Skinner change his basic concepts, from those that derive from a simple stimulus-response model towards what in the end became the modern day experimental analysis of behavior. Put differently, when did Skinner amend his conceptual apparatus, in relation to the fact that his theory was no longer a pavlovian theory, but a full blown functional account of behavior? To answer that Skinner's basic theoretical terms are presented as they originally appeared and an attempt made to describe the gradual change towards his final version of radical behaviorism. At the end of the lecture an attempt will be made to suggest how this gradual change has continued and what an experimental and functional analysis of behavior will look like in the future.

Both, Skinner and Morin, point to a possibility of a better world were human beings would fulfil their potentialities in love, science, art and wisdom. Both agree that the progress to a "good life" is not assured, but that we must put all our efforts to reach this objective. They diverge about the means to reach that end. For Skinner, "only science can save us, if we are to be saved." Morin, however, asserts that there is no salvation, neither from science, nor religion or politics. "We are definitively lost." It is only when we recognize that condition, that we begin to value being in earth and begin to experiment a universal fraternity with our human brothers and sisters.

The twentienth century was a period in which expressions of hope for a better future unfolded in contrasting ways. Especially after World War II, hope for the achievement of a perfect society faded, with the proliferation of literary dystopias as an expression of hopelessness. Some of those dystopias have portrayed a specific disenchantment over science and its role for changing the world. Notwithstanding, there were also fierce defenders of science as an important tool that should shed light for the path for world's improvement. Two great thinkers have had several insights on this, equally brilliant, although relatively contrasting: B. F. Skinner and Isaiah Berlin. While Skinner openly criticized anti-utopianism and proposed an experimental stance for the reform of society, Berlin inquired into the motives of the decline of utopian ideas, concluding that much of it was due to the disregard for pluralism as a value. In this presentation, I will explore in detail some of the insights offered by Skinner and Berlin on utopianism and its fallout. After that, I will show how despite obvious divergences, there are ideas of the two of them that could positively inform and enhance each other, contributing for the achievement of their humanistic goals.

In the early 1970s a psychologist/filmmaker from UCLA began making a biographical film with B.F. Skinner. The Harvard University Archives contain correspondence between Skinner, the filmmaker, producer and other participants in the film. These letters document a multi-year process that transforms from initial enthusiasm to ultimate frustration. The Harvard Film Archive contains the actual raw footage from the production and serve as a sort of ethnography of the film project. This paper is developed from research for a new film biography and traces the 1970s filmmaking process, making special note of previously unavailable interviews with Skinner's colleagues, including W.V.O. Quine, and describing the difficulty of differentiating the person from the science and the science from the philosophy. Additionally, a comparison is drawn between the problems in making the film and the contemporary project of disseminating Behavior Analysis. The presentation will include previously unavailable footage from the film and correspondence from the archive relating to the filming process and Skinner's critique of how the science is described.

Easterseals Southern California has been serving individuals with Autism and other developmental disabilities for many years. The recent growth in ABA based services has led to the growth of the supervisor position for both BCBAs and mid-tier managers. This panel will consist of several members of the Easterseals Autism Leadership team who have experienced personal growth in the field and now lead a team of hundreds of supervisors. The panel will discuss factors that have led to supervisory growth, development, succession planning and strategies that Easterseals has taken to retain supervisors. Topics include but are not limited to: Leadership Structure Supervisor Engagement Supervision of Managers A Formal Mentorship Program Professional Growth of Leaders through University Partnerships Educational Advancement for Supervisors Job Enhancements through Research, Workgroups and other Opportunities Measurement and Feedback of Leaders through Scorecards Training and Feedback for Supervisors The presentations/discussion will be followed by a question/answer period.

Principles of behavior ought to be shared by human and non-human organisms. However, many studies have shown that in similar circumstances human behavior often differs from non-human behavior. This discourse explores some variables that uniquely operate on human behavior. The most critical feature of human operant behavior is that verbal behavior and nonverbal behavior are intermingled in time. Both verbal and nonverbal responses may enter into common three-term contingencies of reinforcement and punishment. For example, verbal stimuli can evoke emotional changes and can work effectively as an establishing operations. For example, aversive verbal messages spoken or written by others may lead people to engage in avoidance behavior. Verbal events can also function as discriminative stimuli or reinforcing stimuli, as shown in our daily life. Thus, to clarify the variables controlling human operant behavior, an integrated perspective on human behavior must include an analysis not only of how verbal behavior and nonverbal behavior interact with each other, but also of what happens when verbal and nonverbal contingencies conflict with each other and produce inconsistencies in verbal-nonverbal correspondences.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Delay discounting (DD) and Probability Discounting (PD) are behavioral measures of impulsive choice. Discounting patterns tend to be predictable, where immediate (or certain) rewards are valued more than relatively delayed (or uncertain) rewards in a systematic way. However, some participants exhibit nonsystematic response patterns (NSR) that diverge from general expectations, which could have implications for the validity of discounting-related experiments. We meta-analyzed the findings from 114 discounting studies (from 78 total papers) that reported using Johnson and Bickels (2008) algorithms for identifying NSR and examined (1) the frequency of NSR patterns across studies; and (2) potential methodological factors that contribute to increased or decreased frequencies of nonsystematic responding. The overall frequency of NSR across DD and PD studies was 18% and 19%, respectively. Non-monetary outcomes (e.g., drugs, food, sex) yielded more NSR patterns (21%) than did discounting for monetary outcomes (16%; Q(1) = 3.87, p = .049). Our review indicates also that researchers are inconsistent in whether or how they report NSR in discounting studies, which is relevant for a clearer understanding of the behavioral mechanisms that underlie impulsive choice. We make several recommendations regarding the assessment of NSR in discounting research.

Feedback is one of the widely used and studied interventions in Organizational Behavior Management. It has been shown to be even more effective, in increasing performance, when accompanied with performance-contingent rewards (Johnson, Dickinson, & Huitema, 2008). The purpose of the current study is to assess the cumulative effect of incentives, feedback, and coaching. Johnson (2013) pointed out that the effectiveness of feedback often depends on how it is implemented. Research studies have shown some of the attributes of a good feedback system. It must contain some element of evaluation and must be individualized whenever possible (Johnson, Rocheleau, & Tilka, 2015). What is missing from the literature are the social components involved in effective delivery of feedback, and coaching on those components. The phases of the study include baseline, incentive, incentive and feedback, and incentive and coached feedback. The incentive component of the research involves rewarding employees with $4 for every additional product made above a target number, in addition to their hourly pay. The two other phases are yet to be implemented. Feedback will be given by the supervisor in the incentive and feedback phase. In the final phase, the supervisor will receive coaching on the proper delivery of feedback.

An evidence-based effective and efficient education models for young children with ASD and other Developmental Disorders, based on the CABAS 40 years of research in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), has been a goal for several educators in Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Introducing teaching as ABA was a logical step in order to provide novel methodologies in early childhood programs. Today, we will hear how CABAS model affected the educational practices in several Early Intervention programs in Italy and B&H, and what prognosis a different intensity of intervention can yield for children with Autism and other Developmental Disorders. The efficacy and efficiency of different intensity of Early Intervention and Preschool ABA programs were analyzed via several standardized diagnostic, assessment and monitoring tools. The outcomes of each are discussed in more details and the analysis of the effects on the level of functioning for children in these programs are discussed. The data from these studies are also discussed in terms of program design, significance of evidence-based early childhood developmental approach, and implications such results can have on health and education policies in the countries.

We investigated the efficacy and effectiveness of implementing different intensivity CABAS- based (Greer, 1994; 2002) early intervention programs, and analyzed results including diagnostic standardized tests. Thus, we could communicate with School and Health Public Agencies, advocate for the creation of a database, share research with other fields and impact local health policies. Participants were 7 children aged 2 to 5, diagnosed with autism and showing a pre-listener and pre-speaker level of verbal behavior (Greer & Ross, 2008). They were selected for the study because they had an early-diagnosis but no evidence-based interventions provided by their School or Health Department. A pre-post probe single subject design for each participant was implemented, with pre-post group statistical analysis (ANOVA).The dependent variables were the scores, collected for each child by a blind clinician, before and after 12 months of intervention, using the tests ADOS-2, (Lord et al., 1989), CARS (Shopler et al., 1988) and PEP-3 (Shopler et al., 2004). Results showed high social and statistical significance for every kid. The study is in progress: more participants should be added and follow up data should be collected. Results are discussed in terms of efficacy, efficiency, social impact and sustainability of early intervention programs.

In partnership with UNICEF-B&H and relevant ministries in B&H, EDUS was able to work on developing a system of Early Detection and Intervention for the country, to provide services based on a behavioral but transdisciplinary approach. We have created and standardized a behavioral developmental instrument, to detect and monitor early childhood development and tested it on over 1100 children. This tool enabled a creation of Early Detection System in the country. I will talk to you about the process of standardization and the creation of the B&H developmental norms. Also, the screening behavioral developmental tool was then used for 2 years in EDUS Early Intervention and Preschool ABA programs and pre-post data from those classrooms will be presented here to show the effectiveness of CABAS� based ABA program with 30 children. CABAS� component classrooms and the intense ABA programming was the independent variable. I will talk about promoting early childhood development through concrete steps, measures, tools and applications using the science of Applied Behavior Analysis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Through partnership with UNICEF-B&H and relevant ministries, EDUS was able to work on developing a whole system of Early Detection and Intervention for Bosnia and Herzegovina. This included creating EDUS Guides for Developmental Assessment and Creation of the Individualized Education Program for children ages 0-3 and 3-6. Guides are both the developmental behavioral assessment and curriculum for children ages 0-3 and 3-6. They have been tested and used for the past 3 years in EDUS early intervention and kindergarten programs. Dependent variable in this analysis was number of skills in students repertoire and number of acquired skills post applied behavior analytic intervention assessed with EDUS Guides. All EDUS classrooms implemented programs/curricula scripted from the Guides. All data on the students learning and advancement through curriculum were collected as responses to learn units, based on the CABAS model of teaching as a science (independent variable). The results showed an increase in numbers of mastered skills across all developmental domains in a curriculum.

At the foundation of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968) have had the concern to keep fostering research that provided significant advancement and targeted socially important behaviours. In their 2016 Report, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, an expert committee demonstrated that food-related illness cost their lives to more people than cigarette, alcool, drugs and unprotected sex altogether. Given the importance of alimentation and eating disorders to public health and functional analysis put forward by the ABA, this issue seems to be an opportunity to make a significative contribution to science and society. However, the field seems to come short on this responsibility, as it fosters limited research in this domain, and mostly for specific populations and difficulties that impact few people. This symposium will deploy in three parts. First, the available literature on the feeding behaviours in the ABA perspective will be reviewed. Second, methodological elements will be assessed and a proposition for data collection in tune with the ABA will be suggested for further research on feeding behaviours. Last, Epling and Pierce’s Activity Anorexia model will be revisited in a negative reinforcement perspective.

This critical review of literature explores the recent contribution of the field of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) on the subject of the feeding behaviour by screening publications from influential scientific journals and conventions. The feeding behaviours, although being a significant subject regarding public health, are represented in only 43 of the 1,270 (3.38%) articles issued from January 2010 to September 2016 in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), The Psychological Record and the Behavior Analysis in Practice altogether. Similarly, it was included in a meagre 2.87% of the publications in the 41st and 42nd Annual Conventions of the ABAI. Moreover, the subjects revolved around a limited number of issues. A vast majority of articles were aimed at children, with a great proportion presenting with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In the JABA, 45% of the articles included subjects who had Leaky Gut Syndrome or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Other issues mentioned included rumination, binge eating, food refusal, and food selectivity, whereas anorexia, bulimia, obesity and unhealthy food choice, which are proven to have major detrimental effects on health, were severely neglected. The recension underlines the lack of implication of ABA in this domain which could greatly benefit from the field’s methods.

Most studies about feeding behavior include little targets for data collection and limit it to behaviors associated with mealtime. A more comprehensive way of apprehending changes in eating behaviour following the principles of Functional Analysis (FA) might provide more benefits in treatment of feeding disorders. As FA suggests, complex behaviours like eating roots from multiple factors and the feeding behaviors of a person impacts many important aspects of his or her life. Also, a transfer can occur as one detrimental behaviour may switch presentation in the course of extinction. This study presents data on a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to illustrate the use of a grid on social and problematic behaviors in conjunction with changes in feeding habits. The grid includes 16 behaviours reflecting the diagnostic criteria of ASD and detailed in an observable and measurable fashion. This is particularly relevant with ASD since a change in eating habits can play on the child?s rigidities, in such a way that it would impact more than just the mealtimes. This type of global observation might profit other areas of study linked to feeding (e.g. anorexia and hyperactivity, food-related OCD and other rituals, bulimia and substance abuse).

Rooted in a strict behavioural perspective, Epling and Pierces Activity Anorexia model suggest that given the simultaneous occurence of food deprivation and physical hyperactivity an organism could develop anorexia. Studies on rats submitted to severe restriction of food and concurrent unlimited access to a training wheel have shown to trigger anorexic-like behaviours in the subjects (e.g. self-limitation in food intake, excessive energy expenditure through exercice, life-threatening weight-loss). The model also finds support in human studies such as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and population investigations suggest that 65% to 81% of anorexic patients exhibit physical hyperactivity. Effective treatment for human anorexia nervosa have been developed from the Activity Anorexia Model. In the last decade, although the ripple effect of the combination of food deprivation and increase in physical activity is robust and well documented, not much research has spawn from this conceptualization. We offer directions for research guided by a negative reinforcement reinterpretation of the model. Revolving around hunger as an aversive state, we argue that physical activity and food act as in a concurrent program of negative reinforcement: given certain contingencies, exercice could become a more effective source of reinforcement, leading to food intake suppression.

Aesthetic responses are pervasive in human behavior and therefore deserving of scientific study. The term aesthetic is associated with certain types of surprise-tinged emotional responses evoked by stimuli consisting of synergetic interactions (interactions that have transformative effects) among elements that may be neutral individually. Such interactions are pervasive in nature (chemical reagents reacting to create another substance, DNA creating organisms, or photosynthesis creating leaves). Depending on art form or discipline, the interacting elements may be sounds, visual stimuli, words, abstract concepts, flavors, or actions of others. Artists, composers, poets, performers, chefs, etc. create aesthetic effects by assembling and combining these into “synergetic brews.” The synergetic interactions become stimuli for individuals who have a relevant priming history—familiarity with the elements of the brew and the memes of the relevant culture. Aesthetic responses occur when suitable potentiating circumstances prevail. Aesthetic responses have reinforcing effects traceable to their biological utility during our evolution. Such biological utility can be the result of certain types of instructional or informative events that result in surprise, often upon disconfirmation of expectations, expansion or refreshment of existing conceptual classes or relations; or learning of new concepts or relations. Examples drawn from music, poetry, visual arts, performing arts, and other disciplines, illustrate how artists, composers, poets, etc. use a limited set of devices to create synergetic brews. Some of these involve repetition, symmetry, and parsimony. Orators, actors, and other performing artists include, in their synergetic brews, emotionalizing elements generated by the audience’s mirroring of the performer’s emotional displays.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Changes in funding, delivery models, and other variables over the past 20 years have affected applied behavior analysis (ABA) services for people with autism. This symposium reviews some of these changes and their likely contribution to treatment outcomes for individuals with autism

Many individuals with autism have significant communication deficits. Attempts to address those deficits often entail individual or small group speech and language services being provided separately from, and/or in addition to, ABA services. We describe an integrated model where the expertise of a speech and language pathologist is utilized in a comprehensive ABA treatment program for young children with autism. Outcomes from this integrated model are compared with those resulting from an eclectic approach (i.e.,,a mixture of services such as low levels of ABA, speech and language pathology, sensory integration therapy, etc.). The benefits of the integrated model are outlined.

Which intervention to provide to young children with autism is among the most important decisions made by parents, teachers, clinicians, funders, and policymakers. Multiple studies have compared intensive ABA intervention to the most widely available alternative for young children with autism, eclectic (mixed-method) treatment. Results showed that ABA treatment consistently out- performed the eclectic model on standardized measures of cognitive functioning and adaptive skills (e.g., Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green, & Stanislaw, 2005; Howard, Stanislaw, Green, Sparkman, & Cohen, 2014). For instance, Howard et al (2014) found that after 3 years of treatment, more than 60% of the children who received intensive ABA scored in the normal range of cognitive functioning compared to only 25% of the children who received eclectic interventions, even when the latter was intensive and specifically designed for children with autism. Implications of findings that early intensive ABA intervention can prevent intellectual disabilities are discussed in terms of child well-being, independent adult functioning, and associated costs.

Intensive, comprehensive ABA intervention for young children with autism has been shown to be highly effective (e.g., Howard, Sparkman, Cohen, Green, and Stanislaw, 2005; Howard, Stanislaw, Green, Sparkman, and Cohen, 2014; Eldevik, Hastings, Hughes, Jahr, Eikeseth, & Cross, 2010). Historically these services have been provided in homes, university clinics, or private schools. This presentation describes a center-based model for delivery of comprehensive, intensive ABA intervention. Defining features, benefits, and challenges of such programs are described, and suggestions for adding components to clients treatment packages are offered.

In many locations in the United States, public policies now state that ABA services for people with autism are to be covered by health insurance. Successes and difficulties with adoption and enforcement of those policies are summarized. Suggested strategies for persuading healthcare systems in other jurisdictions to fund ABA services as medically necessary behavioral health treatments are offered.

This research focused on an investigation into the efficacy of four error-correction procedures used in the education of individuals with a diagnosis of ASD. It begins with an overview of current literature related to the use of error-correction procedures as part of discrete trial teaching. Study 1 aimed to examine the different error-correction procedures in use within schools across Ireland. The results gained supported the hypothesis that there was significant diversity in the error-correction procedures used within and across schools. In Study 2 information with regards to the participant ability was gathered. This was with a view to isolate the effective components and processes operating within different error-correction procedures and to discover the most effective application of these procedures on an individualised level in subsequent studies. In Study 3 error-correction procedures were implemented with children with ASD (n=31) across four conditions). Results demonstrated statistically significant differences in the rate of skill acquisition with particular error-correction procedures dependent on learner ability. Study 4 replicated the research carried out in Study 3 with adult learners with ASD (n=10), with similar findings Participants preference for error-correction procedures were also formally assessed in Chapter 5 using a modified concurrent-chains procedure (Hanley et al., 1997). Results showed that the majority of participants showed preference for the error-correction procedures which maximised their rate of skill acquisition. The findings of the studies are discussed in relation to the current literature and importance of matching error-correction procedures to individual learners needs and abilities. From this, an assessment procedure was designed with which professionals can determine the most effective error-correction procedure to implement prior to program design. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is one of the most widely used treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of our review was to examine the research on EIBI.We found a total of five studies that compared EIBI to generic special education services for children with ASD in schools. Only one study randomly assigned children to a treatment or comparison group, which is considered the gold standard for research. The other four studies used parent preference to assign children to groups. We examined and compared the results of all five studies. A total of 203 children (all were younger than six years old when they started treatment) were included in the five studies. We found that children receiving the EIBI treatment performed better than children in the comparison groups after about two years of treatment on tests of adaptive behavior (behaviors that increase independence and the ability to adapt to one's environment), intelligence, social skills, communication and language, autism symptoms, and quality of life. The evidence supports the use of EIBI for some children with ASD. However, the quality of this evidence is low as only a small number of children were involved in the studies and only one study randomly assigned children to groups.

Technology Aided Instruction and Intervention (TAII) refers to a range of academic, social, and behavioral interventions in which technology is used as the primary method to deliver instruction. TAII has long been recognized as having an important role in the development and delivery of effective, theoretically grounded interventions for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of the current study was to use meta-analytic methodologies to examine the methodological quality of the research, calculate effect sizes to quantify the level of evidence for TAII, and compare effect sizes across single case and group-based experimental research. We also utilized a novel statistical method for estimating effect sizes from the included single case design studies. Based on the single case research, we concluded that one type of TAIIcomputer assisted instructionwas an evidence-based practice. However, the primary outcome domains varied, which limits interpretations of the summary. The other categories of TAIIalternative and augmentative communication devices and virtual realitywere determined not to be evidence-based practices.

Behavior analytic procedures have been largely successful in establishing auditory-visual conditional discriminations with children with autism. Nevertheless, some children may not learn such discriminations. In this study we examined if functional discrimination training could help. We compared the number of trials needed to establish auditory-visual conditional discriminations through functional and traditional arbitrary discrimination training in an adapted alternating treatment design. Five out of the eight participants showed more rapid acquisition and also demonstrated discrimination between more items in the functional discrimination condition. The remaining three participants did not exhibit any discriminations in either condition within the allotted 500 trials/20 days. These findings suggest that in some cases, functional discrimination training may facilitate the establishment of auditory-visual conditional discriminations.

Friendly Schedule is an application for children and youth with ASD which was developed as a joint initiative of Gdansk University of Technology and Institute for Child Development in Poland. The application was created as non-profit project. Over two decades of research and linical experience shows that activity schedules are very effective in teaching people with autism many new skills. The Institute for Child Development (IWRD) in Gdansk has been using activity schedules in ABA program for children with autism since ten years. We will show the effectiveness of teaching children with autism to follow both forms of the daily activity schedules: the traditional version and the modern version. Multiple baseline across children shows that manual prompts are effective in teaching children with autism to follow the daily activity schedules in the paper version and also on tablets (the application Friendly schedule). Activity schedules on tablets can be used as an effective teaching technique for a variety of new skills. The application allows therapists to implement scripts into activity schedule so we can effectively teach our students new verbal and social behaviors, for example to initiate conversations. 100% of IWRD students were using activity schedules and 72% of them were using tablets with the application Friendly schedule during a school year 2015/2016. The data shows that for 13 children with autism we established 36 educational programs with the application Friendly Schedule. A number of programs per child varies from 1 up to 5 consecutive programs using the application with an average 2,8 program per child. The more detailed data on using the application in different programs are provided in Table 1.

The purpose of the current symposium is to present some experimental and conceptual issues within equivalence class formation. The first paper by Arntzen and Nartey is an experiment on pre-training with pictorial stimuli. In one group, all stimuli were abstract shapes and in another group C stimuli were pictures with the remainder being abstract shapes. For the remaining five groups, however, various preliminary training involving the establishment of conditional relations between the abstract C stimuli and the familiar picture stimuli were done prior to the attempt to form equivalence classes. The main finding was that the effect of the pre-training groups that produced class enhancement to that of the PIC group, enhancement seems to be a function of increasing delay duration. The second paper (Steingrimsdottir & Arntzen) focus on tracing some of the variables that we have manipulated when exploring the possibility of using paper-and-pencil test instead of the computerized training and testing, as the former can be much quicker than the latter. As can be seen in Figure 2, some variables were more likely to lead to the establishment of the conditional discriminations during training. The third paper by Hansen and Arntzen employ a within-participant design. Fifteen participants were randomly presented for one of three different MTS training sequences, one part of the training sequence per day on three consecutive days, in order to establish five 3-member classes in a concurrent training format, using the MTO, OTM, and LS training structures. As can be seen in Figures 3, differences in sequential pattern of eye-fixation to both sample and comparison stimuli, as a function of both training structure and training structure sequence. Results have applied value, as effects of eye movement economy are discussed. The fourth paper by Fields and Arntzen discuss to maximize the speed of forming equivalence classes which is desirable in applied settings. This involves minimizing the trials and time needed to acquire all of the baselines that are the prerequisites for the classes, minimizing the trials needed to document the emergence of the classes and maximizing the proportion of participants who form the classes or yield. Finally, procedures that reliably produce the delayed emergence of equivalence classes an area that has been substantially under-explored.

Eighty-four participants in seven groups of 12 attempted to form three 5-member equivalence classes (A/B/C/D/E). In one group, all stimuli were abstract shapes and in another group C stimuli were pictures with the remainder being abstract shapes. For the remaining five groups, however, various preliminary training involving the establishment of conditional relations between the abstract C stimuli and the familiar picture stimuli were done prior to the attempt to form equivalence classes. Afterwards, they attempted to form equivalence classes using the same stimuli set as the ABS group. In the SMTS group, arbitrary conditional discriminations were formed between the abstract C and the familiar C-stimuli using simultaneous matching-to-sample while 0 s, 3 s, 6 s and 9 s delayed matching-to-sample procedures were used in the 0s, 3s, 6s and 9s groups. The main findings showed that 6.7 % of participants in the ABS formed classes while 83.3 % formed classes with C-PIC (see Figure 1). Thus, the formation of equivalence classes is enhanced with the inclusion of familiar pictures as middle nodes in a set of other meaningless stimuli. Furthermore, comparing the effect of the pre-training groups that produced class enhancement to that of the PIC group, enhancement seems to be a function of increasing delay duration.

When using computerized matching-to-sample each training trial starts with a presentation of a sample stimulus, followed by three (sometimes two) or more comparison stimuli. Upon a selection of one of the comparison stimuli, the participant is exposed to programmed consequences in accordance to experimenter defined correct/incorrect responding. During the course of the computerized training, the participants learn the experimenter defined conditional discriminations, and when responding in accordance to a set training criterion, the experimenter tests for whether the training has led to stimulus equivalence class formation. However, this training arrangement can be time consuming. The current presentation will trace some of the variables that we have manipulated when exploring the possibility of using paper-and-pencil test instead of the computerized training and testing, as the former can be much quicker than the latter. The results show some variables that were more likely to lead to the establishment of the conditional discriminations during training. However, the currently manipulated variables have not lead to stimulus-equivalence class formation. The results will be discussed along with providing information about future directions.

The relative value of reinforcers and punishers was measured in human participants who played a customized video game. Each participant used the computer mouse to move a submarine around underwater obstacles in order to contact objects that occasionally added monetary value to (a reinforcer) or removed it from (a punisher) the participant's earnings in daily sessions. Different distributions of reinforcers and punishers between the two halves of the monitor screen were achieved by means of conjoint interdependent concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules. Each participant's electroencephalogram was recorded during each session using a fixed array of scalp electrodes. The hedonic scaling of reinforcer value relative to punisher value was achieved using the generalized matching law. A strong, positive correlation was demonstrated between the ratio of values and the ratio of average amplitudes of the evoked potentials elicited by reinforcers and punishers. Implications of the correlation are discussed.

In the present paper, experiments on excitatory backward conditioning in a secondary reinforcement paradigm are reviewed. The experiment were conducted with human subjects. All the experiments were composed of three phases. US reinforcing value (i.e. time reduction of a timer) was assessed in phase 1 using a concurrent FR schedule. In phase 2, discrete stimuli were paired with the US varying in magnitude using an operant contingency. Backward contingencies were systematically arranged as well as control conditions. Finally, in phase 3 for all groups the CSs were delivered in a concurrent FR schedule similar to phase 1, but with no US. Responding during phase 3 showed conditioned reinforcement effects and hence excitatory backward conditioning. Implications of the results for conditioned reinforcement models, like the conditioned-reinforcement hypothesis, the delay reduction theory, or the signal hypothesis are discussed. Implications for associative learning models and for the conceptions on backward conditioning are also discussed.

The use of Functional Analysis (FA; Iwata et al., 1982/1994) has been established as the standard for determining the function of a specific problem behavior for several years. The technology has extended its initial applications with adults whom engaged in severe self-injury to: 1) persons of all ages, 2) with various levels of functioning (e.g., persons with multiple severe disabilities to typically developing children), 3) who display different topographical forms of challenging behavior (e.g., aggression, destruction, elopement, etc.), and 4) across various settings (i.e., residential settings, hospitals and clinics, and schools). Thus, FAs have been demonstrating to be an assessment technology that has broad reaching implications for nearly all individuals who display challenging behaviors. As a result, the field has produced various procedural modifications (i.e., Indirect Assessments, Descriptive Assessments, and other Experimental Analyses) of the FA that make up the constellation of technologies under the umbrella term "Functional Based Assessments" (FBA) because of the various limitations of FA's. These limitations (e.g., lack of training, time to conduct) are often cited as reasons for why FBA technologies are seldom used is schools. To permit broader usage of FBAs, specifically in school based settings, having professionals who possessed the skills and knowledge (i.e., breadth) of the technologies that make up the FBA continuum would better permit the "system" to have the capability to work with a larger universe of students who possessed challenging behaviors. In this symposium, four different teams will discuss their the process of training educational staff in the continuum of FBA technologies and discuss the resulting outcomes for the targeted school-based professional trainees who were trained by each model as well as the concomitant outcomes for the students and consequently the schools who were benefited by increased access and usage of FBA technologies. Finally, discussion will center of the broader implications of these training models.

The primary aim of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a web based training program in the area of functional behavior assessments (FBA) and behavioral interventions. As higher levels of challenging behavior are observed across students in special education (SPED) schools in Singapore, this training program was offered to special educators that are involved in the direct care of these children. To cater to a larger target audience, the training program was offered across two instructional modalities: a) traditional face to face workshops and b) Web Based Instruction (WBI). Specifically, the study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of each instructional modality in meeting the professional development needs of SPED school teachers in the area of FBA and behavioral interventions. We hypothesized that both instructional modalities would be equally effective in meeting professional development needs of SPED school teachers. The descriptive and quantitative outcomes of this study would suggest that WBI could be used as an alternative sustainable tool for conducting future training workshops in FBA and behavioral interventions for in-service teachers in Singapore and worldwide via online learning platforms. Thus, building human resource capacity for meeting unserved needs.

Even when practitioners understand the importance of function-based interventions for challenging behaviors, their skill and confidence deficits may prevent them from incorporating valid data within the Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) they are required to develop and implement. The Tennessee Department of Education contracted board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) from Vanderbilts Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) to pilot a program training 8 school-based consultants (e.g. school psychology, special education) to improve the quality of their FBAs for students. In a small-scale replication of the work of Bassingthwaite, Casey, Wacker and colleagues, TRIAD BCBAs conducted behavioral skills training using a combination of live and telepresence support to teach trainees how to plan, conduct, and analyze preference assessments and descriptive assessments, and to synthesize assessment results into a valid and complete FBA. This presentation will include data reflecting consistent, marked improvements in trainee knowledge and self-assessment of their skills over the course of the project, along with rising procedural fidelity, inter-observer agreement, and accuracy for assessments and reports generated. These findings suggest that these training procedures are likely to result in improved FBAs conducted by school-based consultants, and include several practical implications.

The present study sought to extend the current literature on utilizing behavioral skills training (BST) to teach practitioners how to implement functional analyses (FA). Using a multiple baseline design across participants, this study measured the effects of using a remote BST package on accurate implementation of FA procedures. Specifically, we used the latest HIPAA-secure teleconsultation technology and BST to train 10 practitioners who had limited formal training in FA methodologies. Each participant experienced four phases, which included baseline (only instructions with simulated clients), BST (instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback with simulated clients), post training probes (probes with simulated clients), and in-situ probes (probes with actual clients). All participants increased their performance in conducting FAs during the remote BST phase. Seven out ten participants maintained their performance at or above mastery criterion during post-training probes with simulated clients and during in-situ probes with actual clients. These results suggest that the use of remote technology for training purposes could be a cost-effective and feasible solution to increase the quality of services and number of trained professionals in underserved rural areas.

Parents of children with special needs play an important role in their children's learning and development. Many of them face numerous challenges on a daily basis. From getting their children to eat their breakfast to bedtime routine, many activities and routines most families take for granted, can be difficult. To improve the quality of life of these families, empowering them to support their children is essential. Through working with a local special needs school in HK in the school year of 2015/2016, a parent training program designed for Chinese families was created. This parent training program focused on using evidence based strategies on routines that were relevant for the participated parents. The training was run in a small group format. Through short lectures, focus on discussions and role play, and home visits, we had anecdotal reports of dramatic decrease in problem behaviours at home with most of the participants. Encouraged by this outcome, we are working with another local special needs school in HK and with a special education centre in southern China to run this parent training program in the school year of 2016/2017. Data will be collected this time to investigate the effectiveness of this program.

A characteristic of a quality applied behavior analysis curriculum for teaching young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is that it is comprehensive. Behavior analysts have to master teaching a wide variety of skills such as communication, imitation, play, social, self-help, and academic. In recent years, more emphasis has been placed on teaching play and social skills as part of a quality program. The majority of clients with ASD are boys, and a large component of play and social interactions for many boys involves sports. Thus, it is important for behavior analysts to teach basic locomotor and object-control skills that will facilitate future participation in sports, what we call pre-sports skills. For behavior analysts who have limited experience participating in sports and/or teaching pre-sports skills, collaborating with an expert from the field of kinesiology, the study of body movement, can be valuable. This presentation will introduce the study of body movement to behavior analysts by (a) discussing the benefits of collaboration between behavior analysts and experts in body movement; (b) reviewing an easy to use assessment tool, Test of Gross Motor Development (3rd edition); and (c) presenting teaching targets for pre-sports skills such as jumping, hopping, sliding, striking, catching, and running.

Even though the Matching-to-Sample (MTS) procedure has been widely used for the establishment of conditional relations in both applied and laboratory settings, it is not without its limitations. The current symposium will present a series of studies that attempted to establish conditional relations and equivalence classes using alternatives to MTS. In the first study, college students learned to touch (go) a single stimulus when it was followed by a related sample, and not go when it was followed by an unrelated sample. The second study evaluated the effect of the qualifying autocratic is to establish conditional and emergent relations. Finally, in the third study, children with autism learned to only select compound stimuli (go) that were related, while refraining (no-go) from selecting those that were not related. All procedures seemed to have established conditional relations and some established derived performances consistent with equivalence class formation for almost all participants. Limitations and future directions for research and practice will be discussed.

Although researchers have demonstrated the utility of matching-to-sample (MTS) to produce conditional discriminations or equivalence classes, MTS requires several prerequisite skills for a learner to respond accurately. In the absence of these prerequisites, MTS may produce faulty stimulus control. Animal research has shown that alternatives such as compound stimulus discrimination and successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) have been sufficient to produce conditional relations. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of S-MTS as an alternative method for the establishment of stimulus classes with adults. S-MTS trials consisted of the presentation of a single sample stimulus followed by one comparison on a fixed location on the screen. Depending on the relation of the sample and comparison stimuli, the participants touched (i.e., go) or did not touch (i.e., no-go) the comparison stimulus. Twenty-four undergraduate college students participated in the study. Following training of baseline relations (AB/BC), participants received tests to evaluate whether untrained relations (i.e., BA/CB and AC/CA) emerged. Although all participants passed symmetry tests, many failed transitivity. These results suggest that SMTS may be a promising procedure for the establishment of conditional relations, especially for participants for whom traditional three-array MTS procedures may be challenging.

Verbal Behavior has been appointed as a variable that can facilitate the formation of discrimination responses and equivalence classes. Nevertheless few researches have concentrated on investigating the effect of autoclitic behavior in these behavioral processes. The purpose of the current research was to analyze if an instruction that oriented the participant to emit a vocal verbal response with a qualifying autoclitic and assertion is between the presentation of the sample and the choice of the comparison stimulus, in a matching to sample task, produces effects in the formation of new classes of equivalence and influences the number of necessary trials for the acquisition of conditional discriminative responding. The participants were 20 adults, divided in two groups: Control Group and Experimental Group. All participants were submitted to three phases of training and three phases of tests. In the first phase of training they were trained in relations A1B1, A2B2, A3B3 and A1C1, A2C2, A3C3 and tested for the formation of equivalence classes between stimuli B1C1, B2C2, B3C3; in the second phase they were trained in relations A1B1, A2B2, A3B3 and A1C1, A2C2, A3C3 and tested for the formation of equivalence classes between the stimuli B1C1, B2C2, B3C3; in the third phase they were trained in relations A1B1, A2B2, A3B3 and A1C1, A2C2, A3C3 and tested for the formation of equivalence classes between the stimuli B1C1, B2C2, B3C3. Each training session was composed of twelve trials, and learning criteria was the occurrence of 100% of correct responses. The instruction was given only to the participants in the Experimental Group. The Experimental Group had an initial acquisition superior than the Control Group in the average of correct responses in the training phases and in the average of correct responses during all equivalence testing. It is possible to conclude that the initial affect of the autoclitic was to increase response precision, making the acquisition of conditional discrimination and the formation of stimuli equivalence easier.

The Go/no-go procedure with compound stimulus is a viable alternative to matching-to-sample (MTS) to produce conditional and emergent relations in typical developmental adults. The aim of this study was to evaluate an adaptation of this procedure with children diagnosed with autism. Two children diagnosed with autism were trained and tested with the Go/no-go procedure with compound stimuli. Compounds stimuli were successively presented at the computer screen and participant had to respond or not respond to each presentation using the keyboard. Responses to AB and BC compounds with elements from the same class were followed by reinforces and responses to compounds AB and BC with elements from different classes were not. In tests, new compounds (BA, CB and AC) were successively presented in extinction. Both participants learned all the trained conditional relations without developing position or response bias, and showed the emergence of symmetric relations. Difficulties to establish equivalence relations were attributed to testing conditions.

This presentation will address the theme of complexity and the need and possible contribution of the science of behavior to cope with complex problems in a rapidly changing world.

Licensed behavior analysts, psychologists, graduate students.

Join us in celebration as we say goodbye and thank you to our French hosts for an incredible program location and conference.