Association for Behavior Analysis International

Neuroscience constitutes a branch of the biological sciences that is easily integrated with Behavior Analysis in several ways, including direct analysis of neural signals in behavioral experiments, the use of behavioral approaches to help rewire the brain and improve lost skills after brain injury, and theoretical integration of biological measures and neurological events into the behavioral paradigm. This symposium will present varied basic, applied, and theoretical work in the Neuro-operant realm currently conducted at the University of North Texas in association with the Beatrice H. Barrett Endowment for Research in Neuro-Operant Relations. Two basic talks will integrate physiological, neurological, and behavioral data into an analysis of covertly mediated stimulus equivalence, and into an examination of humor responses. An applied project will show the results of using a Wii gaming system to improve rehabilitation of balance deficits after brain injury. Finally, the divide between stimulus and response when considering events occurring inside the skin will be considered on a theoretical and practical level.

The Wii Fit U game utilizes a Wii Balance Board™ (WBB) that provides precise feedback contingencies, thereby potentially increasing the dose of quality therapy with or without the presence of a therapist during post-stroke rehabilitation. Additionally, an engaging video-game could improve treatment adherence, a critical aspect of making progress, by potentially increasing the rate and quality of reinforcement embedded in therapy. The present study has three aims: 1) Develop a behaviorally rigorous therapy for improving balance in chronic stroke victims using the Wii Fit U and WBB; 2) Evaluate the program’s effects on Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Center of Balance (COB) scores using a within-subject experimental design; 3) Assess social validity of behavioral gains by evaluating the program’s effects on participant’s "subjective balance confidence" (i.e., their Activities-Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scores). A reversal design is used wherein the experimental gameplay condition and no intervention condition are alternated for 6 to 10 weeks. It is expected that participants will exhibit greater performance in the game as well as better BBS and COB score improvement when the Wii Fit U game is administered at a high therapeutic dose, and that increased ABC scores will correlate with improved BBS and COB scores.

While the descriptive understanding of stimulus equivalence is widely accepted within the field of behavior analysis, its interpretation is more contentious. The emergence of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity without direct reinforcement of the responses that make up these relations is puzzling in light of our basic understanding of reinforcement contingencies. The present study explores the role of covert verbal behavior in the emergence of equivalence relations in an arbitrary matching to sample task using participants recruited from the general population, as well as college students. Participants engage in a computerized matching to sample task with arbitrary stimuli under three different conditions. Baseline consists of matching to sample training of four conditional discriminations using arbitrary stimuli yielding two, three-member equivalence classes and tests for the resulting symmetry, transitivity and equivalence relations. The order of the two experimental phases is counterbalanced across participants and these phases consist of one of two conditions, engaging in behavior that was either compatible with covert verbal behavior or incompatible with covert verbal behavior concurrently with the tests for equivalence. A final phase consists of a return to baseline. Behavioral data collection is ongoing and EEG data collection will follow to assess N400 response changes across conditions.