Association for Behavior Analysis International

Objective: Performing daily activities requires physical movements, which involve changes in joint angles driven by joint moments. Traditional measurement methods often involve attaching multiple infrared reflective markers and force sensors to participants’ bodies to record these movements. However, such methods significantly limit their clinical applicability. To address this limitation, we developed a system that directly captures daily behaviors by estimating joint angles and moments using artificial intelligence. Method: The system consisted of three web cameras, one infrared camera, and personal computers equipped with ready-made applications, including VisionPose, VP-Ergono, and Leap Log Exporter (Next System, Japan). Participants’ behaviors were recorded by the cameras, and artificial intelligence was employed to estimate the joint angles and moments in real time. Results: The system achieved a time resolution of 0.02–0.13 seconds, a joint angle resolution of 2.8e-6 to 2.4e-5 degrees, and a joint moment resolution of 0.01 Nm during participants’ daily activities. Conclusion: These results suggest that the system can effectively measure participants’ daily behaviors by estimating joint angles and moments in real time, offering significant potential for practical applications in rehabilitation therapies and behavior analysis studies.

Objective: Visual prompt fading is widely used in rehabilitation but remains difficult to implement effectively during behavioral practice. This study aimed to address this issue by developing VRactice a virtual reality system enabling real-time visual prompt fading for target behaviors like reaching. Additionally, the study validated the accuracy of VRactice. Methods: The healthy adults participated. VRactice used trackers attached to the wrist and elbow, recording three-dimensional coordinates via an optical sensor. Additionally, reflective markers were attached to the participant’s hand, and the position coordinates were measured with high precision using three infrared cameras (VICON) as the gold standard. Participants performed 10 forward-reaching movements while simultaneously measuring VRactice and VICON. However, VRactice was used without fading to assess its validity in this study. The three-dimensional coordinates of the participant's hand position, as measured by VRactice and VICON, were regarded as the dependent variable. Results: The mean hand position error between VRactice and VICON was 4.6 cm, suggesting that VRactice, despite minor errors, reliably reflects body coordinates. Conclusion: VRactice is a valid system for measuring body coordinates. It has the potential to provide real-time feedback on discrepancies between model motions demonstrated by therapists and practitioners’ movements, offering a valuable tool for rehabilitation.

Differential Reinforcement (DRA) has been evaluated as a treatment for increasing acceptance of nonpreferred foods for children diagnosed with Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD). Past evaluations have not evaluated DRA in the absence of escape extinction (EE) (Piazza et. al., 2003) or other treatment components (e.g., simultaneous presentation; Peterson, et. al., 2024). Most studies have shown DRA to be ineffective in the absence of EE (Berth et. al., 2019). One reason may be the low rate with which the child is contacting the reinforcement contingency in the absence of another procedure. One way to mitigate this potential limitation would be to establish reinforcement contingencies with an eating behavior that the child is likely to cooperate with (e.g., eating a preferred food) prior to evaluating DRA for an eating behavior that the child is not likely to cooperate with (e.g., eating a nonpreferred food). Thus, for the current evaluation, we established reinforcement contingencies with a high-frequency eating behavior prior to evaluating DRA with a low-frequency eating behavior (i.e., eating 4 novel foods) in the absence of EE for 3-5 children diagnosed with PFD. Overall, DRA alone was not sufficient to increase acceptance to high levels in the absence of EE.

Objective: Urinary symptoms inhibit activity and decrease quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of home physiotherapy and applied behavior analysis on urinary symptoms, muscle strength, quality of life, and activity and participation in frail older people with lower urinary dysfunction. Participants 10 men (77-84 years old) and 15 women (76-88 years old) participated in the study.Study Design: A single-subject design was used. Intervention: A physiotherapist visited the participants' homes every two weeks to teach lower limb strength training and provide feedback on their urinary diaries and strength training performance records. Dependent variables: Lower limb muscle strength, incontinence frequency, and King's Health Questionnaire, TMIG Index of Competence were measured.Results: Three months after the start of the intervention, the average muscle strength of the 25 participants improved, incontinence frequency decreased and their sense of well-being improved. There were also improvements in activity and participation, particularly in the social role items for women.Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the usefulness of improving dysuria to promote activity and participation in older people. They also suggest the effectiveness of integrating physiotherapy and applied behaviour analysis.

Escalating schedules with reset contingencies are often considered to be the most effective schedule to use in Contingency Management interventions for substance use disorder. In the current review, several peer-reviewed journal articles were identified in which escalating schedules with reset contingencies were directly compared to any schedule(s) of contingent reinforcer delivery; in all articles, the target behavior was substance use as verified by sampling of biological specimens. Findings from most studies indicated that, as compared to other contingent schedules (e.g., fixed schedules; escalating schedules without reset contingencies), escalating schedules with reset contingencies were the most effective in terms of promoting greater consecutive numbers of drug-negative samples. Some potential reasons as to why escalating schedules with reset contingencies were not always the most effective schedule may have been due to the relative aversiveness of the reset contingencies and/or to large differences in reinforcer magnitudes between contingent schedules. Future directions for translational and intervention research on contingency management are discussed.

Persons holding diagnoses of intellectual disability, a mental health condition, or dual diagnoses may display self-injurious behavior. Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is among the most frequent and dangerous acts that are often displayed by persons with intellectual disabilities (ID), a mental health diagnosis (MH) or dual diagnoses (Bird et al., 1989; Mazaleski et al., 1993). Since these individuals are also among the most vulnerable groups of people who are at risk of human rights violations it is imperative that they be provided with effective, evidence-based procedures based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) that begin with a least-restrictive approach. This literature review includes 28 articles that implement non-restrictive ABA interventions with adult patients holding these diagnoses who were engaging in some form of self-injury. Each article was examined across many dimensions including participant’s ages, diagnoses, behavioral topography, intervention type, setting, and outcome. Based on this analysis, the research shows that least-restrictive procedures can be successful in drastically reducing or eliminating self-injurious behavior. Limitations of the research are discussed, and suggestions are made towards future research.

Alcohol use disorder and unemployment are concentrated among people living in poverty. The present study evaluated effects of a Therapeutic Workplace intervention in promoting alcohol abstinence and employment, and reducing poverty among homeless adults with alcohol use disorder. As part of a 6-month clinical trial, 119 participants were randomized into two groups and received either standard treatment for alcohol use disorder (Usual Care; n=57) or standard treatment plus Abstinence-Contingent Wage Supplements (ACWS; n=62). All participants wore alcohol biosensors that continuously monitored alcohol use. ACWS participants received abstinence-contingent stipends for working with employment services and abstinence-contingent wage supplements for working at a community job. Hourly earnings depended on recent abstinence from alcohol. In the trial, ACWS participants reported significantly higher rates of alcohol abstinence, employment, and income from employment that exceeded poverty thresholds compared to Usual Care participants. The present study reports on the persistence of treatment effects in the year after the study period, when the intervention was removed. Results from this study will provide information on the lingering effects of the ACWS intervention on alcohol abstinence, employment, and poverty among homeless adults with alcohol use disorder.