Association for Behavior Analysis International

The symposium "Bridging the Gap: Behavior Analysts' Consideration of Medical Needs in Client Care" aims to explore the intersection of behavioral science and medical needs, showcasing the vital insights and practices that behavior analysts can contribute to improving the overall well-being of their clients. This symposium will feature a collection of presentations, each highlighting various aspects of the consideration of medical needs and collaboration between behavior analysts and the medical community. We will delve into the significance of considering medical conditions during assessment and when designing and implementing behavior intervention programs, thereby creating more comprehensive and effective strategies for individuals with diverse needs. Key topics to be discussed during the symposium include: 1. A review of existing literature on behavior analysis and the consideration of client medical needs, including common comorbid conditions, current recommendations, resources, and case examples. 2. The result of a recent survey focused on assessing the current practices of behavior analysts in the consideration of medical needs of their clients. 3. Examples of and considerations for relationships between client self-injury topography, function, and medical diagnoses. 4. Examples of and considerations for how to leverage the behavior analytic skill set to better understand possible medical influences on client behavior. 5. Ethical Considerations: Presentations will touch on the ethical obligations of behavior analysts in managing client medical needs and how to navigate potential challenges in this intersection.

Intermediate

Community-engaged research (CEnR) presents an opportunity for behavior analytic researchers to engage in research that centers the consumer and their communities at each phase of the research process. Despite a significant amount of literature detailing best practices for community-engaged research (CEnR), there remain gaps and challenges to conducting high-quality CEnR. We conducted a scoping review of the literature on CEnR best practices and convened a group of experts with diverse backgrounds and types of experiences in CEnR, including academic researchers, community-institutional research liaisons, and community members with leadership roles on CEnR projects. Through a combination of literature review and discussion among the group, we identified three major topic areas underrepresented in the literature, which all authors considered important. We then created a set of recommendations for addressing these gaps. This commentary represents a collaborative, iterative process of co-writing across diverse disciplines, research experiences, and identities. We provide an overview of CEnR, and discuss opportunities for structural, educational, and process-related changes that will enhance the quality and impact of CEnR conducted by academic institutions and communities.

a. Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been introduced as a framework to help reduce the “research to practice gap” by guiding practitioners to use research evidence, combined with client values and context and their own clinical expertise, in making clinical decisions (Contreras et al., 2021; Slocum et al., 2014). Discussions on EBP and the “research-to-practice gap” seem to focus primarily on how practice does not reflect the body of research; however, it is worth considering the extent to which the body of research reflects practice situations and how a “practice-to-research gap” might be important to examine. One area where such a “practice-to-research gap” seems to exist is in the use of assent procedures to ensure client participation in their own services (for those who are unable to give legal consent). That is, many practitioners are talking about and using assent procedures, despite an extremely limited literature base. In this presentation, we will discuss how practitioner expertise can be leveraged through community-engaged and practice-based research as a means to inform a research base on assent procedures that meets the needs of practitioners and clients. We will also discuss how community-engaged and practice-based research can be a means to address the research-to-practice gap (and practice-to-research gap) broadly.

RFT can be traced back to a 1984 conference presentation on rule-governed behavior. The study of rule-governed behavior in RFT has tended to be overshadowed by the study of relational frames. However, adequate analyses of rule-governed behavior and related complex phenomena, such as prejudice and political polarisation, arguably require the study of increasingly complex relational networks. A more intense focus in this regard has begun to emerge in recent years. This work has been underpinned, to some extent, by the emergence of a hyper-dimensional, multi-level (HDML) framework for conceptualising research in RFT generally. Specifically, the HDML has encouraged analyses of increasingly complex relational networks along four dimensions, including coherence and complexity. The four papers in this symposium will consider some of this work. Specifically, the four papers will consider (1) the impact of relational coherence vs incoherence in establishing rule-following for speakers from different experimentally established groups; (2) attempts to explore the impact of relative degrees of relational coherence on rule-following and speaker preferences; (3) recent experimental analyses of prejudice as involving transformations of functions through complex hierarchical relational networks; (4) how recently offered concepts within RFT may help advance conceptual analyses of complex social behaviors relevant to political polarisation.

A basic background in behaviour analysis is assumed

Previous experiments have revealed that different levels of relational coherence can affect rule-following behaviors. In addition, relational coherence may be under the control of conditional discriminations. For example, different speakers may generate different rule-following responses in the same individual with the same rule by manipulating the levels of relational coherence associated with the speaker. This presentation aims to address this research topic by presenting two experiments. Experiment 1 attempts to replicate previous experimental results exploring the impact of speakers established as relatively coherent (100%, 50%, 0% coherent) on participant rule-following. Experiment 2 is designed to perform a parametric analysis of different levels of relational coherence (90%, 80%, 70%, and 60%) in three different speakers and assess how participants’ speaker preference is affected. Overall, the initial results have been replicated, and the parametrical analyses involved in Experiment 2 have so far indicated that variability in rule-following increases as relational coherence decreases. The implications of these findings for developing a more detailed perspective of the variables that affect rule-following are considered, as are some next steps for the analysis of this complex human behavior.

Prejudice often leads to regrettable social effects, such as segregation and mistreatment. Derived verbal events underlie this phenomenon, regulating our interactions in the social environment and establishing functions to stimuli without a history of direct learning. A notable gap exists in the experimental study of more complex derived stimulus relations investigating racial bias. The present study investigated if hierarchical relations could affect biased responses. Twelve undergraduate students were trained to respond according to two contextual cues: “includes” and “belongs to.” These cues were used to form three hierarchical levels (top, middle, and bottom). Then, negative or positive functions were established, pairing adjectives to one of the middle-level category labels. The effects of the functions directly paired were inquired for all arbitrarily derived hierarchical levels, characters, and extra non-arbitrary related stimuli, checking for generalization of the responses. In the first experiment, five participants responded according to hierarchical relations, showing transitive and asymmetrical class containment and unilateral property induction. In a second experiment, with a broader testing phase, all participants responded according to hierarchical relations. Additionally, further undesirable effects of prejudice were observed on generalization based on physical traits or color.

There is a growing concern about political polarization in current societies. De Rose and Rocha (in press) suggested that RFT may provide useful elements to analyze the phenomenon of polarization. Political positions may be related in accordance with different patterns of relational responding, such as difference, hierarchy, comparison, or opposition. When positions are related in frames of opposition, transformation of functions result in highly polarized affective functions of the opposing opinions and attitudes, so that if one has positive valence the other will necessarily have negative valence. Recent developments in RFT may contribute to advancing this analysis, taking into account the orienting, evoking, and motivating functions involved in any given act of relating. As such, negative evoking functions may impair the mere contact with the arguments of opposed positions, and thus contribute to confirmation bias and motivated reasoning, to the point that political discussions and search for consensus becomes impossible. This presentation will elaborate on how current RFT developments may lead to refinements in the analysis of political polarization based on frames of opposition as derived relational networks and their differential functional properties.

Renewal is a form of relapse wherein a previously reinforced response increases when aspects of the environmental context change. Typically, target behavior is acquired in Context A, extinguished in Context B, and then reemerges in Context A (ABA renewal) or a novel Context C (ABC renewal). Renewal has been demonstrated across many species in the laboratory and is prevalent in clinically relevant behavior. Renewal examinations have highlighted advantages of translating findings from basic research to inform development of behavioral treatment and, conversely, pulling from observations in applied settings to inform laboratory research. This bidirectional, translational approach deepens our understanding of behavioral processes involved in renewal while enhancing and refining clinical practice. The first presentation evaluates the role of discriminative stimuli in extinction processes during a renewal procedure with rats (Dr. Beatriz Arroyo Antúnez). The second presentation examines the effects of multiple-context training on ABA and ABC renewal via crowdsourcing (Kyleigh Montague). The third presentation assesses the role of effort disparity between target and alternative responses in a human-operant arrangement (Haleh Amanieh). The final presentation involves a retrospective analysis, examining renewal of challenging behavior following changes in therapist, setting, and work task (Alex Pauls). Dr. William Sullivan will serve as discussant.

Laboratory models of relapse (e.g., renewal, resurgence) offer techniques to assess challenges to behavioral treatments involving differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) with extinction. Resurgence emerges as conditions of reinforcement for desired behavior worsen, whereas renewal occurs during transitions away from a treatment context. Traditionally, target behavior is acquired in training Context A, extinguished in treatment Context B, then reemerges in Context A (ABA renewal) or novel Context C (ABC renewal). The current study recruited adult participants through the crowdsourcing platform Prolific to investigate the effect of conducting treatment in multiple contexts on the relapse of operant behaviors. Participants engaged in an online button-pressing task to earn points exchangeable for money, and contextual changes occurred through background image changes. Experiment 1 evaluated differences in relapse among participants who experienced DRA with extinction in three contexts (B, C, D) prior to experiencing extinction for both target and alternative responding in the training context, and Experiment 2 evaluated these differences in a novel context (E). Multiple-context training did not mitigate ABA renewal; however, previous literature suggests multiple-context training does mitigate ABC renewal. Results of the present study provide insight into behavioral techniques that best attenuate relapse of operant behavior following successful treatment.

The evolutionary theory of behavioral dynamics is a computational model of behavior that integrates Darwinian rules of selection and reproduction to study the behavior of artificial organisms animated by the theory. A considerable body of research shows that the behavior of artificial organisms is indistinguishable from the behavior of live organisms under concurrent arrangements, and supports the theory for modeling a wide array of behavioral phenomena. In the past decade, studies have evaluated the degree to which the behavior of artificial organisms corresponds to live organisms under novel conditions. The purpose of this symposium therefore is to discuss several of these novel applications and future research in this area. The first presentation provides an introduction to the evolutionary theory of behavioral dynamics with an overview of supporting evidence. The second presentation discusses the correspondence between the behavior of artificial organisms and live organisms under delay discounting arrangements. The third presentation reviews conceptual and methodological considerations on the application of the theory to clinical phenomena, such as severe behavior in treatment-resistant populations. Finally, the fourth presentation discusses how the theory be applied to investigate patterns of responding during reversal learning tasks in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Collectively, these presentations describe novel applications of the evolutionary theory of behavioral dynamics and how it can be used to investigate issues of social importance.

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by the occurrence of rigid and repetitive patterns of behavior. One way this has been evaluated is using reversal learning tasks in which the behavior of individuals with autism has been found to adapt less quickly to unpredictable changes in the contingencies of reinforcement. We attempted to replicate and extend research in this area by incorporating preferred, individualized reinforcers. We failed to replicate the findings of previous research: our clinical evaluation yielded much more extreme inflexibility than has been previously documented. We applied the evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics to investigate potential causes of this replication failure. First, we developed several models and artificial organisms animated according to each model were exposed to a reversal learning task. Second, we identified models that most closely corresponded to the findings of previous research as well as our clinical evaluation. Third, we exposed selected models to reversal learning tasks with varied reinforcer values to model the effects of including generic versus individualized, preferred consequences. Results indicate two distinct patterns of responding during reversal learning tasks, both of which are negatively impacted by the use of higher value reinforcers. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

A rapidly growing literature supports training models with remote components, given their potential cost-effectiveness, convenience, and accessibility; however, most studies target relatively simple procedures (Gerencser et al., 2020). This symposium includes three presentations focused on remote or hybrid training, each featuring distinct methods and aims, for a more complex repertoire: implementing practical functional assessment and skill-based treatment (PFA/SBT; Hanley et al., 2014). The first presentation reports the findings of a randomized controlled component analysis of an asynchronous computer-based instruction program on the skill-based treatment integrity of behavioral service providers serving in diverse roles and contexts (n = 78), informing conclusions about efficacy at the group level, or for the “average” trainee. The second presentation features a large-scale hybrid training model for school staff implementing PFA/SBT and includes social validity and student outcomes as reported by school staff, facilitating examination of training effectiveness at the group level. The final presentation examines effectiveness at the individual level, featuring parent treatment integrity and child outcomes in a series of three applications of teleconsultation to support in-home, parent implemented PFA/SBT. Collectively, presentations demonstrate the potential of remote technology for preparing and supporting individuals responsible for implementing complex behavior intervention packages such as PFA/SBT.

Intermediate

Using computer-based instruction to train intervention implementers may require substituting alternative interactive activities for direct skill rehearsal, although little is known about what activities are most efficacious (Gerencser et al., 2020). In this study, an underpowered randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the relative impacts of two alternative activities on behavioral service providers’ integrity to and mastery of skill-based treatment procedures (Hanley et al., 2014). Implementation was assessed at two time points for a total of 78 total participants randomly assigned to a no-training control, complete computer-based instruction, or one of two partial computer-based instruction groups each characterized by a missing interactive activity (i.e., multiple exemplar training or treatment integrity evaluation) to facilitate component analysis. Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Square tests revealed significant effects on treatment integrity and mastery, respectively, for all training groups relative to the control group. Differences among training groups were not statistically significant, however descriptive data indicated greater changes in treatment integrity for the treatment integrity evaluation, complete, and multiple exemplar training groups, respectively. Findings suggest a variety of interactive activities may support treatment, warranting further research. Future directions include further examination of the contributions of interactive activities, training efficiency, and potential moderators of response.

Computer technology, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning are not new tools to behavior analysis, especially in the experimental realm. However, there is incredible untapped potential for these tools to aid both basic and applied scientists in their understanding and treatment of behavior. One primary area of interest to incorporate computers and artificial-intelligence is in data-recording. In the basic realm, programming technology to provide continuous streams of data allows for a finer-grain analysis of the impact of different schedules of reinforcement on animal and human behavior. In the applied realm, relinquishing data recording of problem behavior to a computer or artificial intelligence allows for direct-support staff to focus more on treatment implementation. This symposium describes three studies that either create or extend computer programming and artificial-intelligence as tools to record animal or human behavior. The first two studies describe the creation and application of computer programming to investigate human relational behavior during a transposition task and interindividual spatial behavior with rats. The second study attempts to reverse engineer existing technology (anomaly-detection cameras) and extend it to the detection and recording of problem behavior in children with autism.

Audience members who are interested in artificial-intelligence applications to the science of behavior will benefit from a basic understanding of computer-related terminology. Audience members with a basic understanding of transposition tasks and methods to study relational behavior will enjoy this talk.

Operant studies of interactions between individuals have focused on evaluating the effects of reinforcement schedules based on discrete responses, with little attention to the impacts on interindividual spatial dynamics or the use of spatial responses relevant to establishing interindividual behavior. Using real time recording of organisms’ movement, our lab has reported that individual spatial dynamics are sensitive to reinforcement schedules based on spatial features, such as travel distance, which suggests that interindividual spatial dynamics may also be affected by reinforcement schedules based on spatial features, such as distance between subjects. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if a schedule of reinforcement, based on distance between conspecifics, would affect interindividual spatial behavior. Using a real-time sensing system, water reinforcement was delivered under a Fixed Distance (FD) 15 cm between subjects schedule, for six Wistar water-deprived rats. The results indicated an increase in approach responses between subjects during the FD15cm schedule, whereas it decreased when food was absent or presented independently of distance. We discuss our findings in terms of their contributions to advancing the study of inter-individual behavior, the utilization of new technologies for continuous sensing and response recording, and the translational implications for the field of social behavior.

Behavior frequency data is collected for individuals with autism to monitor progress and inform decision making by behavior analysts. This data impacts important life decisions, such as restrictive procedures fading, psychotropic medication prescribing, and residential placement (Vollmer et al. 2008). Studies have demonstrated exorbitant training and monitoring hours are required from a behavior analyst to ensure this data collected by direct care staff is accurate (Mozingo et al. 2006; Reis et al. 2013). If an artificial intelligence (AI) camera software can be programmed to detect the rate of target behaviors from individuals served, this will likely increase the accuracy of behavior data and inform better treatment, while also reducing the workload of direct care staff. This project will extend Lesser, Luczynski, & Hood’s 2019 study which used an AI camera to detect sleep disturbances in learners with autism. In that study, all movements exhibited by the participants were recorded by the camera. This extension aims to program the camera to discriminate successive approximations of analog topographies of gross motor movements such that the camera will calculate instances of head directed self-injury but will ignore other topographically similar movements, such as hand waving.

Organizational Behavior Management involves the application of behavioral principles in the workplace in order to change employee behavior and achieve sustained improved business outcomes. This symposium focusses on research aimed at advancing our knowledge and understanding of the basic behavioral principles involved when implementing interventions commonly used in the workplace, such as feedback, incentives, and group contingencies. Toussaint Bernard-Pantin will present the results from a study that assessed the efficacy of and preference for corrective feedback and a combination of positive and corrective feedback. Wine will detail a study that was conducted to determine effective magnitudes of incentives when administrative staff completed a filing task. Newcomb will describe research that involved comparing the effectiveness of identified and anonymous preparations of dependent group contingencies when applied to direct care staff responsible for graphing data at the end of the workday. The results from each study allows for preliminary recommendations regarding best practice within organizational settings.

Intermediate (Background and/or education in ABA/OBM, familiar with single-subject research methodology, understanding of group contingencies and incentive magnitudes)

Forty-three percent of the world’s population is bilingual, and yet research focused on the identification of optimal procedures to teach one or more foreign languages is limited. Such research can benefit children with developmental disabilities, who generally have language deficits that require effective and efficient teaching procedures. This symposium describes research aimed to determine (a) whether learning tacts in one language is better than learning tacts in two languages, (b) whether learning tacts and listener responses in two languages simultaneously is better than sequentially, and (c) what role preference plays in the acquisition of tacts in a foreign language. Across studies, we examined and compared multiple learning outcomes (e.g., effectiveness, efficiency, and the emergence of other verbal operants). Child participants learned tacts in one language more efficiently than in two languages. Child participants learned tacts simultaneously more efficiently than sequentially; the sequential condition was more efficient for adults learning listener responses. The simultaneous procedures produced higher levels of emergent bidirectional intraverbal compared to sequential procedures. Finally, child participants learned tacts of preferred items more efficiently than tacts of nonpreferred items. The preferred condition also produced higher levels of emergent bidirectional intraverbals. These findings can inform foreign language instructional design.

Basic knowledge of verbal behavior and stimulus control.

The population of the United States is becoming more diversified culturally and linguistically. Bilingualism has been shown to have positive effects in neurotypical children’s development (e.g., Bialystok, 2010). However, there are little known on how to best teach and support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to learn a second language and if teaching a second language might hinder and confuse their language acquisition. Previous studies examined the effect of tact and listener responses on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations with six neurotypical Brazilian children and found that tact training was more effective in producing bidirectional intraverbal responding. The present study examined the optimal procedures for teaching two languages using tact training to children with ASD. We compare the effectiveness of acquiring a small set of tacts when (a) teaching two languages simultaneously, (b) teaching two languages sequentially, and (c) teaching one language only (i.e., control). Results showed that simultaneous procedures were more efficient in teaching two languages and effective in promoting conditional discrimination. All participants acquired one language much more efficiently than two languages. However, all participants acquired a small tact vocabulary in two languages. Overall, simultaneous procedures produced higher levels of emergent intraverbal compared to sequential procedures.

For autistic individuals and individuals with developmental disabilities, acquiring daily living skills (DLS) represents a critical component in establishing independence as they transition into adulthood. Researchers have suggested that designing instructional programming towards behavioral fluency, can help increase and maintain skills for individuals in these populations beyond traditional accuracy criteria. A frequency aim constitutes a level of performance that reliably predicts critical outcomes (e.g., retention, application) associated with behavioral fluency. Although frequency aims exist for academic skills, no research has identified the frequency aims needed to reach behavioral fluency for DLS. The present project sought to explore the frequency aims needed to reach behavioral fluency for a variety of DLS. Sixty college-aged participants performed 12 different tasks while researchers collected data on the movement cycles observed and the amount of time required to complete each task. We will present results from the project as well as discuss implications for practice.

A number of challenges exist when a disproportionate number of students concentrated in urban schools require the highest levels of academic support yet have inequitable access to evidence based interventions within multi tiered systems of support. The present investigation examined the effects of an explicit decoding plus frequency building intervention on consonant vowel consonant word reading fluency. Participants included three second-grade students receiving Tier 3 academic support at an urban public school in the southeastern United States. Using a dosage approach, the interventionists applied the intervention 5 to 8 minutes per day, over 8 to 9 days per word list. Results indicate a significant increase in words correct per minute and decrease in words incorrect per minute on the three words lists, curriculum-based assessments, and curriculum-based measurements. The session will include a statistical analysis using the standard celeration chart, implications for research and practice, and shared protocols for participant application in the field.

The topics of cultural responsiveness and cultural humility in behavior analysis have garnered increased attention over recent years. Despite all that has been published and discussed, it can be challenging to translate into skills that can be easily employed by practitioners. Thus, identifying ways in which practitioners can embed behaviors aligned with cultural responsiveness and humility in their repertoire is of great value. The presentations in this symposium highlight ways in which cultural humility, cultural responsiveness, trauma-informed care, and consideration of linguistic differences can improve behavior analytic clinical practice. Presentations will include a conceptual review of culture and how to be a culturally humble clinician with clear examples and non-examples. Presentations will evaluate the efficacy of the use of checklists and goal setting to promote culturally responsive behavior. Additionally, presentations will review bilingual communication training using picture exchange communication. The presentation supports Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts for individuals in clinical practice.

The prevalence of non-English speaking individuals in the United States has been steadily growing, with over one-fifth of the current population using a non-English language in the home (Dietrich & Hernandez, 2022). This provides a challenge to the field of Applied Behavior Analysis: providing effective bilingual services to culturally and linguistically diverse clients. Though evaluation of non-English behavioral services has increased in recent years, no studies to date have addressed the added skill of discriminating between two languages (e.g., using Spanish with a Spanish communicator and vice versa). The current studies addressed these gaps by 1) evaluating the effects of a bilingual picture exchange (PE) communication system on manding behaviors in English and Spanish and 2) examining at what point, if at all, language discrimination arises during communication training. If language discrimination did not spontaneously arise, 2a) the effects of a discrimination training procedure for language discrimination between English and Spanish were evaluated. Results revealed the bilingual PE communication system effectively increased manding behaviors for both participants across targets. Additionally, accurate language discrimination spontaneously arose during communication training for both participants across targets with the exception of one target. For this target, discrimination training procedures effectively increased language discrimination accuracy. Learning Objectives: 1. Attendees will learn about linguistic diversity and review the current literature on bilingualism in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 2. Attendees will learn about culturally-adapted communication and discrimination training.

The purpose of this symposium was to evaluate two new procedural applications to teach conditional discriminations and form equivalence classes with adult participants. The current methods to establish new conditioned reinforcers may be unreliable and the typical approach to establishing equivalence classes, matching-to-sample training and testing, can be labor intensive and time consuming. The first presentation, entitled “Transfer of Reinforcing Function Facilitated by Differential vs. Common Outcomes” sought to establish new conditional reinforcers via equivalence class formation and differential outcomes. The results indicated that stimuli from an equivalence class containing other, reinforcing stimuli, acquired reinforcing properties and was effective as a reinforcer to establish new classes. The second presentation, entitled “Establishing Equivalence Relations Utilizing a Sorting Procedure” used a stimulus sorting protocol to teach and test for the emergence of new conditional discriminations, indicative of equivalence class formation. The results indicated that teaching via a sorting protocol not only established new equivalence classes but did while substantially decreasing the teaching and testing trials necessary. The results of this symposium are discussed in terms of efficacy of instructional protocols used in more applied settings (e.g., classrooms, etc.).

Advanced. Participants should at least a working knowledge of stimulus equivalence and conditional discrimination training.

Several primary methods for establishing new reinforcers have yielded varied results. Stimulus equivalence procedures, while not traditionally used for such purposes, may prove beneficial. In the present study, two groups (Condition A & B) of three adults completed a series of match-to-complex sample trainings. Condition A participants completed a match-to-complex sample training in which unique reinforcers were utilized for each stimulus class. Following initial training, participants completed an additional training in which stimuli that functioned as discriminative stimuli in the first training were tested for a reinforcing function. Tests for equivalence class formation were conducted via sorting tests. Procedures for Condition B participants were identical to those for Condition A participants except for the reinforcers used. For Condition B participants, across all trainings a common reinforcer was used across stimulus classes. Results for one participant demonstrated via a reinforcer assessment that three different tokens functioned as reinforcers prior to training. Preliminary training data collected suggested that the first match-to-sample training will be successfully completed with the use of unique reinforcers. It is expected that participants trained using differential outcomes will demonstrate greater accuracy across phases, compared to those trained using common outcomes.

In line with this year’s conference theme, this symposium highlights the history and future of behavioral analysis applied to mental health services through multiple lenses. We begin with the history and current status of functional analysis in clinical case formulations for mental and behavioral health presentations illustrating strategies that increase a clinician’s abilities to contextualize client presenting concerns. This will be followed by two presentations that focus on the evolution of behavior analytic conceptualizations of depression and anxiety from the early work by Skinner and Ferster to present day. The depression and anxiety presentations are also accompanied by case illustrations. Our fourth presentation focuses on the ethical issues of assent when working with vulnerable populations and the enduring relevance of Goldiamond’s work in guiding ethical clinical practice. Finally, we have an international expert on Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), a radical behavioral approach to interpersonal therapy, provide commentary on the history and future of clinical behavior analysis.

Individuals with advanced graduate degrees that target the application of behavioral principles.

Relational Density Theory (Belisle & Dixon, 2020) provides a quantitative extension of Relational Frame Theory that attempts to model or describe higher-order interactions within relational behavior. RDT has been used in multiple studies to the examine complex relational networks involved with gender stereotyping (Sickman et al, 2023), consumer behavior and climate (Hutchenson et al, 2023), and racial prejudice (Belile et al, 2023). RDT describes these higher-order interactions by using terms such as density (strength of relationship) and volume (size of relational class, or nodal distance). The current study extended upon results reported by Belisle and Dixon (2020) and Cotter and Stewart (2023) by training 3- and 6-member coordinated classes differing in nodal distance. The relative strength of relations in the network was measured using a metric multidimensional scaling procedure that included time-based responding. Results showed that class size and nodal distance differentially influenced the response strength of multiple network relations and allowed for the prediction of resistance to change following counterconditioning. These results have implications for understanding the concept of volume within an RDT extension of Relational Frame Theory.

ABAI has been accrediting high-quality training programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral level since 1993. As interest and the need for accreditation grows, we invite you to learn about ABAI’s Tiered Model of Education from experienced professionals. Topics discussed will include the benefits of accreditation and value of the self-study process, gaining buy-in from stakeholders, and overcoming barriers to obtain accreditation and recognition. This session is designed for program coordinators, faculty, and those interested in recognition and accreditation.

The audience should have basic knowledge about higher education, coursework requirements, and curriculum development, and a general interest in learning about accreditation.