Association for Behavior Analysis International

For individuals with complex communication needs, learned relations between pictorial stimuli and their referents can serve as the basis for communication. One young man with autism participated in this study investigating whether the form of visual stimuli used in training object-to-picture matching would affect accuracy of responding to untrained variations of those objects. Matching between objects and 2-dimensional stimuli was trained and assessed with color photos, black and white photos, black and white line drawings, and written words. A parallel treatments design compared the number of teaching trials required to reach the mastery criterion and the accuracy of responding to novel variations of the object. Color photos resulted in more efficient mastery and more accurate responding to a wider array of novel stimuli. When novel objects differed in size or shape, selection of the corresponding comparison stimulus was most likely with color photos. However, when novel objects differed in color, selection of the appropriate comparison stimulus was more likely with black and white photos or line drawings. These preliminary data suggest that for some individuals with autism, the degree of similarity between pictures and corresponding target objects may influence acquisition of the stimulus relations needed for communicating.

We replicated and extended research teaching children with autism to mand for information (e.g., Ingvarsson and Hollobaugh, 2019) by evaluating transfer of the “I don’t know please tell me” (IDKPTM) response across operants. We used a progressive prompt delay and echoic prompts to teach two school-aged boys and one school-aged girl with autism to mand for information when presented with unknown questions (intraverbals) and unknown pictures (tacts). Sessions consisted of three known targets intermixed with six unknown targets, only three of which were exposed to the teaching procedures. For all participants, we saw generalization of IDKPTM within but not across operants. All participants required some exposure, albeit brief, to direct prompting and reinforcing of the correct answer following presentation of the initial question. Upon returning to a delayed prompt to the mand for information, all participants acquired the target intraverbals and tacts based on the therapists answers to their mands for information. Ivan and Bonnie did not need this additional exposure to prompting and reinforcement to the correct answer in the subsequent operant whereas Xander did. Although generalization of the IDKPTM response was observed within operant, acquisition after acquiring this mand for information in the baseline condition differed across participants.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely than their neurotypical peers to experience bullying at some point in their lives. Previous research has taught individuals with ASD to respond to statements of bullying using behavioral skills training (BST) and in-situ training; however, there is limited research on teaching individuals to respond differentially to examples and non-examples of bullying. The purpose of the current study was to teach individuals with ASD to respond differentially to examples and non-examples of bullying in short video clips. Specifically, we included close non-examples and far non-examples of bullying in the training. Following limited generalization of responding to untrained exemplars, we also taught participants to specifically tact exemplars as either bullying or non-bullying. Results of the current study extend the literature on teaching individuals to respond to bullying using video stimuli while including both close and far non-examples.