Association for Behavior Analysis International

Three plaintiffs in Miami, FL, who had children with autism, challenged a ruling by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) that applied behavior analysis (ABA) was "experimental" and AHCA refused to fund behavioral treatment. The case was taken by a team of attorneys for Florida Legal Services, and the presenter was contacted to serve as an expert witness and testified in this federal case. The witness critiqued the state's method of reviewing the plaintiffs' request for treatment, and AHCA's documents and presented the case for ABA as a proven, evidence-based method of treatment. The presenter will describe the "evidence" that was used against ABA and the scientific data that was presented to the federal judge in rebuttal. The blow-by-blow account of the case will be presented in detail including a description of the misrepresentations of our field and the role that the journal peer-review process and meta analysis played in the final judgment in the case.

In the last decade behavior analysts have renewed their activities and interest in regard to the world's greatest problems. Skinner asked the question "Why are we not acting to save the world?" Underlying all of the world's greatest problems is the behavior of individuals and the cultural practices of its societies. Recent presentations at ABA have suggested that something could be done about these problems and that the science of behavior has a role in solving them. We cannot collectively wait for government to fix these problems nor for our discipline's scientists to discover final answers. We must choose to act or not to act based on our existing science, experimentally applying what we already know. Behavior analysts are not alone in our concerns nor are we the only group currently acting or wishing to act to solve the world's greatest problems (including global warming, environmental degradation, unsustainable cultural practices, collective and structural violence, and failing economic systems). The panel will focus on ways that behavior analysts can work cooperatively with others outside of our own field, initiating a discussion of the potential for establishing active working groups within ABAI and supporting others outside.

Psychotropic medications are widely prescribed to address problem behaviors emitted by people with developmental disabilities and mental illness. The efficacy of a particular psychotropic medication is most often established using randomized placebo controlled studies, subjective rating scales, and inferential statistics. In contrast, behavior analysts typically employ single-subject designs, direct measurements of behavior (e.g. frequency), and visual inspection of graphed data to describe the effects of an independent variable. Here, the most common dependent variables such as the Aberrant Behavior Checklist Irritability Subscale, Clinical Global Impression Improvement Scale, among other dependent variables are first described and explained. Second, a literature review examining the efficacy of many agents on behaviors associated with autism and other developmental disorders is presented. Finally, the efficacy of various drugs on behaviors commonly associated with conduct and mood disorders is presented.

There is growing evidence that psychotropic medication has serious health-related side effects, especially when used over a long period. Furthermore, when the relevant behavioral dependent variables are measured comprehensively and accurately, it becomes evident that medication efficacy is often questionable. At the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), newly admitted JRC students often arrive with prescriptions for psychotropic medications such as antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. In many cases, the student was prescribed such medication for several years prior to JRC admission. At JRC, incoming students with prescriptions for psychotropics are assessed by a treatment team that includes Psychiatry, Behavior Analysis, Nursing and Case Management. Based upon careful assessment, including comprehensive, round-the-clock behavior frequency data that are collected at JRC, a medication taper is often accomplished successfully by the multi-disciplinary treatment team. This paper will present standard celeration behavior frequency charts that display student behavioral performance results when their psychotropic medications were tapered and discontinued within JRCs highly structured behavioral treatment and educational program. Information will also be presented on the health benefits that JRCs students enjoyed upon becoming free of psychotropic medications serious health-related side effects.

A standardized level system that has proven to be particularly effective with adolescents with a range of behavior problems is described. Ten levels are summarized; each of which was associated with a certain set of reinforcers, privileges, and safety requirements. Students were initially assigned to a level that allowed them to access a wide range of reinforcers, activities, and privileges. By showing appropriate behaviors, students were able to advance to higher levels. When students displayed aggression or other inappropriate behaviors, students were dropped to lower levels. Students who were dropped to the beginning levels were required to comply with demands and refrain from all inappropriate behaviors. By demonstrating self-management skills, compliance with requests, and absence of problem behaviors, students were able to reach the highest levels. Data describing problem behavior frequency, physical restraint frequency, regression probability, and other dependent variables will be presented. In addition, we describe concurrent academic improvements.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) presents a significant challenge for many students wishing to attend graduate school in psychology or behavior analysis. Most students report marked anxiety associated with the GRE, the avoidance of which can make adequate preparation nearly impossible. Thus, GRE scores are likely to reflect not only a students skill on the tasks assessed, but also his or her psychology flexibility with GRE-related anxiety. Emerging research suggests that brief interventions can impact psychological flexibility in a way that decreases avoidance and increases engagement in The current study examined the impact of flexibility or suppression-based inductions on GRE practice engagement and performance. Participants were undergraduate and graduate student volunteers with substantial goals for GRE improvement. Participants were exposed to brief induction training either flexibility with or suppression of anxiety, and provided free access to independent GRE practice. Preliminary data suggest increased engagement in GRE practice following flexibility-based training. Implications for the dissemination of brief, effective interventions to address GRE-related stress and anxiety will be discussed.

College students are in a transitional part of their lives, building a sense of self, developing their values, and forging a path toward those values. For many college students, it may be easier to choose avoidance rather than being present to ease the stress. This may be especially true when faced with presenting in front of an audience. Presenters who are present can better interact with their audience and disseminate information. In the same way, students or audience members who are present can have more enriching experiences. Clear behavioral signs indicating that someone is present, whether they are fully aware of their immediate surroundings, have not yet been substantiated. The ability to interpret whether a person is present is the first step to the development of techniques that could improve present moment behaviors. This paper examines whether it is possible to determine if someone is present by comparing self-measurements and audience interpretations of presenters. Implications of identifying present moment behaviors and future directions will be discussed.

Since Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD) was described in 2007 by Ahearn and colleagues, several studies have validated its effectiveness as a treatment for the reduction of stereotypy maintained by automatic reinforcement in children with autism. Our purpose is to provide a systematic review of the recent literature, examining the varied modifications that have developed. We will then describe two practical extensions of this procedure. First, we will illustrate an assessment designed to identify types of responding within the procedure that may increase its efficacy. Second, we will investigate procedures aimed at transferring stimulus control from the treatment setting to generalization settings.

Response interruption and redirection (RIRD) has been shown to be effective in reducing vocal and motor stereotypy maintained by automatic reinforcement. The standard procedure involves requiring the participant to complete three demands contingent on the occurrence of stereotypy. Although effective, one commonly reported limitation of this procedure is that it can be time-consuming. Further, implementing RIRD interrupts the participants access to reinforcement and learning opportunities. The present study attempted to address these limitations by comparing the effectiveness of RIRD when the standard three demands are used and when only one demand is used.

Response interruption and redirection (RIRD) is now a commonly used intervention for stereotypic behavior. Though the evidence of the efficacy of this procedure is somewhat well established, there are aspects of this intervention technique that may greatly influence its effectiveness. This paper will present analyses of some of the variables other than the decrease in stereotypy. One such variable is the time spent in treatment relative to overall session time. A study comparing RIRD and enriching the environment will be used to examine time spent in treatment, time spent engaging in alternative activities, and compliance with directives. A brief examination of transfer of treatment gains will also be examined as will methods of data analysis.

The functional assessment of problem behaviors exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities is considered the gold standard for the treatment of these challenging behaviors. Almost 30 years of research has demonstrated that treatments based on behavioral function tend to be more effective than those that are not. This has led to the wide-scale adoption of functional assessments among individuals with developmental disabilities. Research over the years has led to the methodological refinements, improved accuracy, and extensions to novel populations and behaviors. This symposium will include four papers that focus on methodological refinements and extensions. The first three papers examine variations of the functional assessment methodology to novel populations (i.e., older adults) and novel behaviors (i.e., anxiety and bizarre vocalizations). The final paper examines the continual refinement of functional analysis to simplify procedures. The papers in this symposium demonstrate the utility of functional assessment technology for the assessment (and eventual treatment) of challenging behaviors.

Consequences have generally proven to have the most predictive power in identifying the environmental events that influence problem behaviors. However, all of the essential literature that has drawn this conclusion has been conducted with young, non-demented populations. Behavioral gerontologists have suggested that antecedent events are more influential in the maintenance of problem behavior, but no empirical literature exists to validate this claim. We conducted a series of assessments a functional analysis, an antecedent analysis, and a modified functional analysis to determine the differential effects of common antecedents and consequences that can influence the occurrence of bizarre speech in three women with moderate to severe dementia. Results consistently revealed that antecedents were more effective as predictors of bizarre speech than consequences. Findings from this study provide preliminary data that there may be a shift in sensitivity to environmental events that is inherent in the progression of dementia. Moreover, these findings provide evidence that behavioral assessments may need to be modified to better capture the relevant environmental variables that influence problem behavior in a population that is in desperate need of behavior analytic services.

Approximately 3.8 million people in the United States suffer from dementia. Some of these individuals engage in problematic behaviors such as elopement, aggression, and inappropriate vocalizations (e.g., screaming, perseverative or noncontextual speech). Attempts at utilizing functional analysis methodology to determine the relevant environmental contingencies that may be evoking and / or maintaining inappropriate vocalizations in this population have produced mixed results. One reason for this may be that researchers have not manipulated the relevant contingencies or delivered consequences that were qualitatively similar to those typically delivered in the individuals natural environment. Because the antecedents and consequences for inappropriate vocalizations emitted by individuals with dementia may be different from the events correlated with problem behavior for other populations (e.g., individuals with developmental disabilities), the purpose of this study was to observe staff members at a local senior day care facility to determine environmental events that were correlated with inappropriate vocalizations. Results indicated that events correlated with problem behavior for this population were similar to those found for other populations (e.g., attention); however, some events were qualitatively different (e.g., statements of acknowledgement were common, but reprimands were never observed).

There has been speculation in both research and clinical practice that many children with autism (CWA) experience anxiety (e.g., Kanner, 1943; White et al., 2009). One of the core features of autism, repetitive and ritualistic behavior (RRB), is often associated with anxiety (Rodgers et al., 2012). In the typically developing population, private events such as anxiety are usually detected through verbal report (Skinner, 1945). However, due to communicative deficits it is often difficult to measure anxiety in CWA. The purpose of this study was to develop a method of assessing anxiety in CWA. The Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised was administered for a group of CWA to identify those with high rates of RRB. Interviews and descriptive assessments were then completed to gather more information about RRB and whether the participants seemed anxious. Participants identified as anxious, who also exhibited high rates of RRB underwent an anxiety test. During the test, each child was exposed to three stimuli (an appetitive, neutral, and anxiety-provoking item) in a multi-element design, while measuring heart rate, RRB, and caregiver and neutral observer rating of mood. Results were variable across participants, with at least one participant exhibiting RRB that appears to be an index of anxiety.

The utility of functional analysis methodology in identifying variables that maintain problem behavior has been well established, and numerous procedural variations have been developed. One involves the use of latency to the onset of problem behavior rather than traditional measures based on response repetition (e.g., response rate) as the dependent variable. Thomason-Sassi, Iwata, Neidert, and Roscoe (2011) compared outcomes of 38 functional analyses when data were graphed as response latency vs. rate and found correspondence in 87% of cases; however, they did not examine correspondence based on function nor did they compare assessment durations. We extended the research conducted by Thomason-Sassi et al. by examining 62 sets of functional analysis data, which were graphed as both response latency and response rate or percent of intervals with responding, and observed correspondence in 91.9% of cases (see example). All cases of correspondence showed some savings in time when latency was used as the dependent variable. These results suggest that assessing response latency may be a viable method for improving the efficiency of a functional analysis.

Token economies are frequently used in the instruction of learners with autism. Tokens are previously neutral stimuli that, once paired with established reinforcers, take on conditioned reinforcing properties. However, it is possible that tokens are not established as reinforcers during initial token training, and as such, do not take on a reinforcing value. This protocol was developed to identify the reinforcing value of tokens as compared to primary reinforcement and to determine whether tokens serve as effective reinforcers in skill acquisition programs. To date, two learners with autism have been selected for inclusion in the current study. A reinforcer assessment was conducted with each learner to determine the reinforcing value of tokens used in the students previously established token economy system, as compared to primary reinforcement and tokens with no history of paired reinforcement. Results varied across participants: Established tokens were inconsistently motivating for the Student 1, but appeared as reinforcing as primary reinforcement for Student 2. Follow-up acquisition tasks for both students again resulted in differential effects, with Student 1 demonstrating better acquisition with primary reinforcement than with her token system and Student 2 demonstrating equal rates of acquisition in each condition. Implications of the results will be discussed.

Preference assessments (PA) identify potential reinforcers, but predictions are made under low response requirements that do not guarantee the utility of the stimulus in treatment. We sought to determine if PA rank predicts whether a stimulus will compete with escape for nine children with escape-maintained problem behavior by examining the relation between PA rank and demand elasticity across five fixed-ratio (FR) values using academic tasks. During the demand elasticity analysis (DEA), participants chose between working for one of four preferred foods and taking a break (no work, but no food). The FR requirement for the food increased within session (FR1, FR2, FR5, FR10, FR20). Foods obtained a rank based on how often participants selected them against break at each FR value and we examined the correspondence of these rankings with the PA rankings. Three patterns were observed: 1) all stimuli effective at all values; 2) most stimuli effective at lower FR values; higher rank stimuli more effective at higher values; 3) mixed correspondence. Correlations between PA and DEA ranks were, in aggregate, positive and moderate but tended to improve as the FR values increased, suggesting that increases in effort may magnify small differences in preference.

Few applied studies have examined the complementary nature of reinforcers and how such relations may influence behavior. This research evaluates a method for identifying complementary and substitutable stimuli. In the first study, a reinforcer assessment in which two edibles were available concurrently was conducted with five typically developing children. Unit price was manipulated across sessions for one of the two edibles. Stimulus relationships were identified as substitutable, independent, or complementary when resulting demand curves were analyzed. Next, a modified multiple stimulus with replacement preference assessment was conducted to determine whether subjects would consume the two edibles simultaneously. In the second study, the competing stimulus assessments of 19 individuals were examined to identify cases when problem behavior increased in the presence of particular activities (possibly suggesting a complementary relation). Results of the reinforcer assessments were idiosyncratic across subjects; however for most individuals problem behavior increased in the presence of at least one activity. Results are discussed in terms of (a) advantages and disadvantages of the methodology for efficient identification and demonstration of complementary and substitutable stimuli, and (b) implications of complementary and substitutable stimuli for use in designing interventions for problem behavior.

The science of behavior analysis has been applied to a myriad of human behaviors, including those of a sexual nature. The purpose of this presentation is to explore several research strategies for analyzing sexual behavior, including daily tracking through online surveys and an analysis of delay discounting. This symposium also includes a description of the discoveries and challenges involved in a graduate-level sexual behavior course for behavior analysis students. Presenters will discuss resulting data and their implications, as well as directions for future research, instruction, and applied projects.

An elective course was offered to MA Applied Behavior Analysis students at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. This course informed students about the behavior-analytic principles and processes that relate directly to human sexual behaviors, as well as to their study and treatment. Sex research is often indirect and based on moral assumptions; behavior analysts should have the opportunity for exposure to methods that can address these limitations. The course was intended to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct sex research and applied interventions themselves, both ethically and effectively, as well as provide information about other available resources. Topics included sex education of clients, the politics of sexual decision-making, ethical and legal issues, and the spectrum of gender- and sexual-identity. This course served as a pilot study for future STEP SIG training modules that will be offered to established behavior analysts.

This symposium will include four presentations that blend various educational behavioral technologies, chiefly Precision Teaching and performance analysis, to improve written composition and other language arts skills for both middle schoolers and professional behavior analysts. Three teachers from Morningside Academy, a laboratory school for struggling general education learners, and a behavior analyst who teaches writing in an online program for graduate students at the University of North Texas and other current professional behavior analysts will participate. The first presentation by Mike Wolfson integrates eight research based instructional programs plus Precision Teaching technology to enhance content learning in middle schoolers. The second presentation by Shiloh Isbell describes an empirically based Precision Teaching approach to improving evaluation of the quality of student essays and compositions. The third presentation, by Adam Stretz and Marianne Delgado describes a performance analysis and Precision Teaching technology for teaching the component skills related to inquiry and Project Based Learning. The fourth presentation by Marilyn Gilbert describes her online course to teach graduate students and other professional behavior analysts how to write effective articles in our field.

Students traditionally struggle to make sense of content-area textbooks, as well as to meet state and national grade level writing standards across multiple genres. Providing students with a large repertoire of component skills and starting with accessible content-level texts will better prepare students prepared for the transition from middle to high school. At Morningside Academy, we use a wide range of technologies and curricula in order to fulfill these goals. For the 2012-2013 school year, we have assembled a synthesis of the following curricula: REWARDS Plus: Social Studies, Word Workout, Mastering Reading Through Reasoning, Fluent Thinking Skills, Reading Success, precision teaching of vocabulary and transcription, Master Key, Reading Mastery Signature Edition: Language Arts, and Morningside Persuasive Writing. Data from tool skill charts and from composition rubrics will be shown, as the attached chart illustrates, in order to demonstrate assessment methods, interventions, and student progress. Our students deal with a large variety of learning disabilities and other learning barriers, including Attention Deficit/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, cognitive processing problems, motor skill limitations, confidence problems, or have otherwise not been successful in traditional academic settings.

Students written composition is extremely difficult to measure in a standardized way, taking behavior analytic principles into account. Sliding scale, subjective rubrics do not provide behaviors that can be easily quantified, counted, or meaningfully analyzed. Last year, the writing rubric for our composition program, Morningside Persuasive Writing was analyzed and reconfigured to measure student essay composition performance with the Standard Celeration Chart and Precision Teaching methodology. This year, we are extending this study by applying our findings to other genres, principally expository writing. As a basis, we will be using rubrics from SRAs High Performance Writing program, which are far less explicit and have far fewer component practice opportunities than Morningside Persuasive Writing provides. Chart data, as illustrated in the attached chart, plus rubric data, and work samples will be presented, and program implementation strategies will be discussed. By counting behaviors, we can better measure program progress than by applying rubrics alone to analyze student compositions. In this way, comparisons between students and across classes are more meaningful.

We will discuss how project-based learning can bridge the gap between traditional precision teaching methods and a student-interest driven environment where the student engages with the world critically and creatively. The model uses precision teaching methods to intersect with project-based learning to instruct students in the component skills necessary to be successful in cooperative learning groups. These skills include: grade level decoding skills; solid grammar foundations; all genres of essay writing; home-working and note-taking skills. Supportive instruction includes how to form inquiry teams; create media presentations; and speech and debate, project management and consensus building skills. Meeting these objectives will ensure the generativity of students skills as they are presented with new tasks and goals in their future education. The projects are driven by intellectually stimulating questions that derive from teacher directed areas of living categories, such as transportation, art experience, and health and fitness. Students then choose projects within those areas of living. We will analyze Standard Celeration Charts for faded prompts, time on task during open-ended activities, and pre/post writing samples. This process emulates a precise approach to meeting John Deweys goals of inquiry and active learning to develop thoughtful citizens who can adduce meaning from their projects and apply those skills to new learning situations.

Online at UNT, Writing Solutions for Behavior Analysts attempts to revolutionize writing instruction. Jokes aside, everything about English has utilityor it disappears. These 4 writing solutions are principles gained from a comprehensive functional analysis of the structural patterns and mechanics of the English language: 1. Compose using 3 structural patterns. 2. Control readers attention using rhetorical devices. 3. Control clarity, stress, meaning, and emotional effects with 6 punctuation marks, and use other mechanics to fulfill 6 conventions of print. 4. Read each composition aloud, as an actor reads his script, and revise by matching copy against voice elevations and dips. Data show that application of these 4 solutions produces pronounced improvement in writing skills and, as some students reported, in reading skills as well. Data also provides an empirical process for tryout and revision of instructional programs.

CABAS is a system of organizational behavior management in which behavioral tactics are applied to both students and teachers in order to increase learning and performance. In the following three studies, components of the CABAS system were applied to train teachers to use a decision analysis protocol to visually inspect graphed student data, to increase the performance of educators using a rule-governed feedback procedure, and to improve overall student responses to instructional opportunities. The results of these applications and their impact on students in private and public educational settings are discussed.

We conducted two experiments to assess the effectiveness of interventions designed to train front line data collectors to visually inspect graphed student educational data and detect notable patterns that required the immediate attention of the teacher or behavior analyst. We further examined these interventions to determine if the data collectors could more accurately engage in say-do correspondence as a function of the training. Relevance to signal-detection theory and behavioral skills training is discussed.

We tested the effects of providing rule-governed feedback through a systems approach to school supervision. The supervisors initiated scientific tacts and intraverbals in response to students' instructional problems and measured increases in the teachers' use of research based tactics and pedagogical practices. The participants were two teachers of primary grade students with autism, communication disabilities and other health impairments in resource and self-contained settings. The four students who participated were assessed to be functioning two to three years below designated grade levels. The dependent variables were the teachers' use of tacts and intraverbals to support the use of research based tactics, and the responses of the students to instruction pre and post intervention. The independent variables consisted of a treatment package that included strategic questions related to learn unit presentations, the visual display of data and instructional problems. During pre-probes and post-probes the teachers were given neutral feedback to the answers they provided to the supervisors questions. In the intervention phase the teachers were given feedback specific to the instructional problem discussed. Results showed increases in the teachers use of scientific tacts, intraverbals and research based tactics post intervention, as well as increases in students learning across the curriculum measured.

A comprehensive application of behavior analysis collectively termed CABAS (Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling) was applied to a specialized, publicly funded day school program for children with autism. The CABAS model is an example of a systematic application of behavior analysis to a school setting in which the science of behavior analytic organizational systems are applied to both the education of students and the training of staff and parents. The extension of this model to this setting is described here as it utilizes behavioral principles in schooling applications. The implementation of these components showed that the organizational schooling system improved the quality of science based-teaching, teacher training, parent involvement, and students learning.

Translational research links laboratory findings to applied research and innovations in practice. Scientific communities are experiencing a renewed emphasis on translational research, as evidenced by recently adopted NIH funding priorities and, within behavior analysis, several recent papers in The Behavior Analyst and a new initiative for translational research in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). Effective translational research often requires a partnership between those that have produced provocative laboratory findings and those that understand the necessities and practicalities of the context to which those findings might be brought to bear. Towards this end, the ABAI Science Board has brought together several prominent basic scientists, ready and willing to discuss findings that are on the cusp of translation or in their translational infancy. Allen Neuringer will address the functionality of reinforced variability. Thomas Zentall will describe an animal model of suboptimal choice analogous to human gambling. Timothy Hackenberg describes recent behavioral economic explorations into the nature of generalized reinforcers in the pigeon. To comment on the sort of innovations that may arise from these topics, F. Charles (Bud) Mace, translational science editor for JEAB and one of our fields most prominent applied/translational researchers will serve as discussant.

Behavior analysts well know that animals and people can learn to repeat a response when reinforcement is contingent upon repetitions of that response. Less widely appreciated is that animals and people also can learn to vary when reinforcement is contingent upon variability. In the first case, the response can readily be predicted; in the latter, prediction may be difficult or impossible. Particular levels of variability or (un)predictability, including approximations to random responding, have been generated through reinforcing feedback, such as under lag, threshold, and statistical-feedback schedules. These studies support the claim that variability is an operant dimension, much like response force, frequency, location, and topography. As with these others, contingencies of reinforcement and discriminative stimuli exert precise control. Reinforced variability imparts functionality in many situations, such as when individuals learn new responses, improve skills, explore new situations, attempt to solve problems, or engage in creative work. Importantly, reinforced variability helps to explain the voluntary nature of operant behavior.

When humans engage in organized gambling, they are generally choosing suboptimally (i.e., losses are almost always greater than gains). We present a model of suboptimal gambling in which animals prefer an occasional signaled high payoff (10 pellets 20% of the time; 2 pellets on average) rather than a reliable alternative with a signal for a lower payoff (3 pellets 100% of the time). This effect appears to result from the strong conditioned reinforcement associated with the stimulus followed by a high payoff. Surprisingly, although experienced four times as much, the stimulus that is never followed by reinforcement does not appear to result in significant conditioned inhibition. Similarly, human gamblers tend to overvalue wins and undervalue losses. We also have found that pigeons gamble less when food is less restricted (rich people gamble less than poor people) and they also gamble less when they have been exposed to an enriched environment rather than being kept in an individual cage (for humans, gambling is said to be a form of entertainment). This animal model should provide a useful analog to human gambling behavior, one that is free from the influence of human culture, language, social reinforcement, and other experiential biases.

From money, gift cards and vouchers to grades, promotions and prizes, generalized reinforcers--reinforcers established via their relationship to two or more sources of reinforcement--abound in everyday life. In addition, generalized reinforcers, in the form of token economies, have been used successfully for years in classroom and clinics. Despite their ubiquity and clinical utility, surprisingly little is known about how generalized reinforcers work--the kinds of experiences needed to establish and maintain them as reinforcers, their relationship to other reinforcers, and so on. This talk will describe some recent laboratory research directed to the topic of generalized reinforcement with pigeons in a miniature, self-contained token economy, using data from studies on cross-price elasticity to illustrate some conditions under which generalized tokens reinforcers come to functionally substitute for other reinforcers. The presentation will discuss the data in relation to economic concepts and consider some implications for translational research.

Experimental analyses of behavior pave the way for concept formation and behavioral theory, which lead to further experimental analyses. This symposium will present three topics from a conceptual perspective, and these three conceptualizations suggest further research to question some fundamental assumptions of our field or of other psychologies. In one presentation, the belief that response rate is the best predictor of response strength will be challenged. In another, the application of functional analysis technology to hoarding by humans will be critiqued, and the best practice of determining the function of behavior before treatment will be questioned. In the third presentation the conditions under which the term mental illness, as opposed to behavior problem, is used will be analyzed, and the implications for the concept of mental illness will be described. The discussion will synthesize and evaluate these conceptualizations in terms of their relevance to behavioral theory and potential for generating valuable lines of research.

The demonstrated effectiveness of applied behavior analysis-based interventions has led to its increasing acceptance by insurance providers, parents, and schools as the "treatment of choice" for individuals on the autism spectrum. However, much variability exists in the forms of and quality of what is labeled as "ABA" in practice. How is a parent, school district, or HMO administrator to distinguish between what constitutes "ABA services" and what does not? Who is competent to provide or supervise these services? A real potential exists for harm to consumers and to the positive perception that ABA now enjoys, if we as a field do not establish clear standards for the delivery of "ABA services." The panel will discuss three projects designed to help codify standards in critical areas of behavior-analytic autism treatment. These projects include the BACB Health Plan Coverage of Applied Behavior Analysis Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder, the Autism SIG Consumer Guidelines (for identifying qualified professionals in autism treatment), and the ABAI Empirically Supported Treatments project. The panelists will describe the purpose and status of each project. The implications of not establishing practice standards for practitioners in our profession will be highlighted and the ethical issues that such standards raise will be discussed.

This article questions how prescription medicines reach the market and proposes law-policy reforms to enhance the FDA's science standard for human clinical trials and new drug approvals. The core message is that relying too heavily on clinical research data generated through the global "gold standard" of group experimental design--reliance on statistical analysis to compile and compare group averages--risks predicting little about the actual impact of prescription medicines on individuals, including members of the groups under study. This article introduces a law-policy methodology based upon commercial incentives and intervention by Congress and the FDA to raise the science standard for human clinical research, and to make drug development more closely parallel the reality of drug delivery in the practice of medicine. The objectives of this proposal are to promote several pressing needs: maximize drug performance and minimize adverse events; end the pattern of putting new prescription medications on the market with too much dependence on the medical profession to introduce meaningful clinical understanding of drugs through patient use over time; improve biopharmaceutical R&D decision making; align the regulatory standard with the infusion of added precision associated with contemporary genetics-based R&D; and realize more sound scientific information directly through the regulatory process to support the integrity of science in an age of academia industry integration, aggressive commercialization, secrecy in science, and constantly, rapidly evolving technology.

The experimental analysis of motivation is mostly absent from the 55 years of research in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Research has only recently begun to appear in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, but it too has been historically absent from that journal. However, Skinner made it clear in Behavior of Organisms (1938) that antecedent motivational variables were separate from stimulus variables. Keller and Schoenfeld (1950) further developed this distinction in the section, "A drive is not a stimulus" (p. 276), and suggested the term "establishing operation" be used to distinguish the effects of deprivation, satiation, and aversive stimulation on behavior. Skinner elaborated on motivation with three chapters in Science and Human Behavior (1953), and throughout Verbal Behavior (1957). However, as Michael (1982, 1993) pointed out, motivational variables have been neglected in behavior analysis resulting in, "a gap in our understanding of operant functional relations" (1993, p. 191). The current presentation will focus on Skinner"s treatment of motivation in the book Verbal Behavior, where he describes its critical role in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The failure to address motivation leaves our field vulnerable to claims that ABA is impoverished or incapable of addressing motivation in treatment programs. Suggestions for applications and future research also will be presented.

Discrete trial teaching is a common method used to increase the ability of children with autism to expressively and receptively identify different objects. Prompting is a commonly implemented step within discrete trial teaching. There are many ways that a teacher can prompt a student, including physical guidance, pointing to the correct response, or verbally stating the correct answer. To help clinicians better identify when to implement and fade prompts researchers have created various prompting systems. Today, there are several prompting systems implemented to children with autism, which include: most-to-least, least-to-most, constant time delay, flexible prompt fading, and error correction procedures. With so many prompting procedures being implemented to children with autism, it is unclear which prompting systems are the most effective and efficient when teaching children with autism various receptive and expressive tasks. This symposium will present three papers that compare different prompting systems for children with autism. The purpose of each paper is to evaluate the different prompting systems in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and error rates when teaching children with autism expressive and receptive tasks. Each presentation will explain the results of the study as well as make recommendations for clinicians who work with children with autism.

In this study, we compared a most-to-least prompting system to an error correction procedure for teaching expressive and receptive labels to young children diagnosed with autistic disorder. We taught each participant a total of either twelve receptive tasks or twelve expressive tasks; six of which were randomly assigned to the most-to-least condition and six of which were randomly assigned to the error correction condition. Using an adapted alternating treatment design nested in a multiple baseline design, we evaluated the two prompting systems across several different variables. The primary measure was the relative effectiveness of the two prompting systems (i.e., the number of targets that reached mastery criterion). Other measures included efficiency (i.e., the amount of trials, time, and sessions to reach mastery criterion), error rates, and maintenance of skills following the conclusion of teaching. Results of this study, clinical implications, and areas for future research will be discussed throughout the presentation.

In this study, we compared a most-to-least prompting system to a flexible prompting system to teach expressive labeling tasks to children diagnosed with autistic disorder. We taught each participant to expressively label twelve different pictures of pop culture characters; six of the labels were taught with most-to-least and six were taught with flexible prompt fading. Using an adapted alternating treatment design, we evaluated the two prompting systems across several different variables. The primary measure was the relative effectiveness of the two prompting systems (i.e., number of targets that reached mastery criterion). Other measures included efficiency (i.e., amount of trials, time, and sessions to reach mastery criterion), error rates, and maintenance of skills following the conclusion of teaching. Results of this study, clinical implications, and areas for future research will be discussed throughout the presentation.

This study compared flexible prompt fading to an error correction procedure to teach expressive labeling of different cartoon characters to four children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. A total of twelve different cartoon characters were taught to each participant; six characters were taught with flexible prompt fading and six were taught with error correction. This study was simultaneously implemented across two different research sites with different research groups. An adapted alternating treatment design nested in a multiple probe design was used to evaluate the two prompting systems across several different variables. The primary measure was the relative effectiveness of the two procedures (i.e., number of targets that reached mastery criterion). Other measures included efficiency (i.e., amount of trials, time, and sessions to reach mastery criterion), error rates, and maintenance of skills following the conclusion of teaching. Results of this study, clinical implications, and areas for future research will be discussed throughout the presentation.

The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) is a large-scale service delivery agency that provides treatment, training, and consultative services to over one thousand individuals with autism around the world. CARDs mission is to extend top-quality behavioral treatment to the maximum number of individuals with autism possible. Neither quality nor quantity can be compromised in this mission. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight some of the recent developments at CARD, in hopes of further fostering the development and dissemination of behavior analysis and autism treatment globally.

Beginning with Skinner's earliest writings (1938), behavior analytic psychology has always been intended as a comprehensive science of behavior. However, the emphasis on relatively simple behaviors in individuals with developmental disabilities that continues in the field of behavior analysis reminds us that there is much work yet to be done in achieving a comprehensive science. Thus, cognitive and developmental branches of psychology continue to dominate empirical and conceptual work on areas of complex human behavior. This presentation will discuss "executive functions" and perspective-taking as two areas of complex human behavior that are under-addressed by behavior analysis. We will describe behavioral intervention programs that produce improvements in skills labeled as "executive functions" and perspective-taking by the general community. In all cases, these skills are treated as generalized operants.

The overarching consensus within the medical community is that there is no cure for autism. More than 20 years of research on applied behavior analytic treatment for autism has consistently demonstrated that a significant proportion of children make dramatic gains via behavioral intervention, including achieving a level of functioning indistinguishable from typically developing children of the same age. In this discussion paper, we propose a position on defining recovery from autism. We describe a provisional definition of recovery and we review relevant scientific research. The concept of recovery from autism is controversial but the tone of this paper is not. We describe the results of both scientific research and common clinical observations from more than 20 years of practice in the behavior analytic community.

Behavioral intervention is a well-established treatment for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. However, even the best treatment procedures are not likely to work if they are not implemented with fidelity. This presentation will describe CARDs efforts at developing a cutting edge system for training clinical staff members, as well as providing ongoing quality assurance. The training system includes didactic training, role-playing, practicum assignment, written exam, and oral exams across multiple levels. Practical tips will be provided for implementing top-quality training systems within the logistical realities of real-life clinical settings.

The Institute for Behavioral Training (IBT) is a training group designed to facilitate the education of individuals and groups in the treatment of children with autism and other related disorders by equipping users with knowledge in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), autism, and research-proven techniques. IBT offers a variety of formats for training, both online and in-person. Due to the demand for online training, IBT has created an extensive eLearning program for various levels of professionals, including interventionists, caregivers, supervisors and educators. As the demand for BCBAs has increased, IBT has established a streamlined BCBA remote supervision model providing high quality supervision to those seeking BCBA certification. In addition, people from around the world have participated in our direct in-person training which we provide to organizations and individuals, either through our customizable training packages or through our quarterly 10-day, intensive supervisor-level training.

This study examined the treatment of aggression in a young man with a diagnosis of autism using a variable momentary DRO-5 reinforcement schedule in which teacher-managed and participant-managed programs were assessed. An ABAC design was used to evaluate the effects of two treatments. A VI Momentary DRO-5 reinforcement schedule was implemented throughout the day except when the participant was at lunch. The participant was reinforced with a token on a momentary time basis at the end of the DRO-5 interval if he was not displaying aggression. When he had earned three tokens he was able to exchange them for 7 minutes of access to a preferred item. A functional analysis was conducted and determined that the maintaining reinforcement for aggression was access to tangibles. Frequency of aggression was recorded during the school day. Results showed that frequency of aggression decreased during the teacher- and participant-managed program phases. This supports the use of a participant-managed program as an effective procedure in decreasing aggression in children with autism. Future research should continue to explore the possibilities of using self-managed programs with treatments based on function to decrease maladaptive behaviors in individuals with autism

A 12-year-old male diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) was exhibiting vocal stereotypy during both leisure and work tasks in the classroom that was interfering with work completion. During an initial FBA, various methods including direct observation, scatterplots, parent interview, and teacher questionnaires were utilized. It was hypothesized that vocal stereotypy was maintained by automatic reinforcement and was less likely to occur during tasks that required a motor component. A functional analysis was conducted with 4 conditions (attention; escape; control- Legos; control-music) in treatments rooms within the school. Results of the initial functional analysis suggested the highest levels of behavior in the control with Legos condition. To further evaluate these results, additional conditions were conducted where Legos were present in all conditions or absent in all conditions except the control with Legos condition. Results showed more variability across Legos present conditions with the highest levels of behaviors in the control with Legos condition. These results were replicated in the classroom. The importance of stimulus selection for use in an FA as well as intervention design will be discussed.

Behavior Analysts have been demonstrably successful in providing services to individuals with autism. With this success, however, the number of practitioners providing those services is increasing very quickly. Excellent training will be required to assure that these services continue to be provided in the best manner -- i.e., that treatment integrity will continue to be high. The Train to Code software (TTC, www.ai2inc.com) offers an approach to creating direct (hands on) training of observational skills essential for carrying out treatment protocols. This symposium addresses the current state of knowledge about the effectiveness of this approach. Two individuals will present data collected from staff training at their service organization using TTC implementing their own training materials. One presenter will review initial evidence from a research program that confirmed TTC training directly improves clinical work. Though the concept was confirmed, the efficiency of the training itself was not satisfactory. Adjustments were made to improve efficiency of training. Using behavioral principles and the standard data displays of TTC, the efficiency of the training was improved. This process will be reviewed as will the basic processes involved in creating, evaluating, and revising a TTC training module.

24 paraprofessionals in the school system were divided into 2 groups. Both groups received a pre-test that involved a role-play that showed how well the trainee was able to successfully perform the targeted skills. Group A was trained by the Train-To-Code software that taught discrete trial, identified types of prompts and how to engage the consumer/student in errorless learning. Group B received training in topics determined by the school district. The training did not, in any way, cover the topics targeted by the Train-To-Code software. Group B was also given a second pre-test identical to the first. The groups then switched, with Group A trained in topics determined by the school district and Group B received the Train-To-Code software training. Group B was given an application based role play style post-test identical to the pre-test. At the end, both groups were given an application based role play style post-test identical to the pre-test. Participants performed better on the post-test(s), suggesting that the TTC software had an effect on the participants ability to learn the foundational skills necessary to work with children with autism.

Training new staff efficiently to a uniform level of mastery to implement procedures such as Discrete Trial Instruction for children with autism has been an ongoing challenge for behavior analysts (BA). The time of BAs can be extensive and the degree of skill to which new staff are trained can vary widely and impact effectiveness of applied behavioral programs for children with autism. We evaluated the effectiveness of video-based programmed instruction training modules with built-in data collection throughout training to teach new staff how to implement Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia programs across a multiple baseline within subjects across the three components of a teaching interaction, stimulus presentation, prompt, and delivery of the appropriate consequence. Results indicate that 5 new staff who had no prior experience with the teaching procedures reached mastery criterion for correctly coding correct and incorrect responses on each component of the procedure for ACE skill programs only after training was introduced for each. The time and variability of skill for basic applied behavior analytic teaching procedures may be significantly reduced for many organizations with this approach. We make recommendations for evaluating the extent of new staffs generalization of several clients after mastering multiple procedures through Train-to-Code.

Simulation research using college students suggests that in many cases training an individual to describe what an expert is doing allows the individual themselves to carry out those actions. Such "say-do" transfer has great potential for use in training staff to accurately carry out treatment protocols. The Train to Code software (TTC, www.ai2inc.com) was used by a successful service provider for autism to create materials for training new staff. Observations were made of clinical performance for four participants both prior to training and after training. A multiple-baseline research design with staggered baselines was used to protect against changes due to added experience. While data confirmed the concept that "say-do" transfer produces an improvement in post-training clinical performance, the training itself was judged to be inefficient as first created. TTC, however, provides analyses that allow problem areas in training to be identified (e.g., matrix of correct- and mis-codings for each type of behavior as well as a timeline of all codings). Adjusted training improved in efficiency. Evidence and principles involved in bringing about this improvement will be reviewed as will basic processes involved in creating and evaluating TTC training modules.

This symposium will include a collection of studies evaluating different aspects of variability among children (both typically developing and diagnosed with autism) and adults (diagnosed with intelectual disabilities) across a wide variety of response topographies. Talks will discuss variability among verbal behavior, activity selection, and activity engagement. Additionally talks will discuss the role of stimulus control and response variability.

Behavioral variability is an operant dimension of behavior, which can be controlled by discriminative stimuli and increased with reinforcement contingencies (Page & Neuringer, 1985). Rodrigues, Lattal, Santos, and Matos (2005) found that pigeon preference for schedules of reinforcement that required response variability decreased as the variability requirement increased. The relative rate of reinforcement also decreased as the response requirement increased, and it is possible that preference may have been influenced by the history of reinforcement. Determining preference for schedules that require variability may have implications for increasing the variability of individuals with low baseline levels of variability. In the current study, preference for schedules of reinforcement that required repeated and variable patterns of responding were evaluated for two typically developing children and two children with autism. Using a bead-stringing task, reinforcement in one component of a multiple schedule was delivered on a fixed ratio (FR) schedule of reinforcement contingent on repeated responses (REPEAT). Variable responses that met a Lag schedule of reinforcement produced reinforcement in the second component (VARY). Once responding was under stimulus control, the two schedules were presented within a concurrent chain procedure to assess preference. Three of the four participants showed a preference for the VARY component, despite slightly greater overall reinforcement delivery in the REPEAT component. Implications for the development of varied responding in children with autism will be discussed

Basic laboratory research has shown that variability is an operant dimension of behavior (Page & Neuringer, 1985). Applied research on behavioral variability has been conducted with a variety of populations and response topographies; however, no research has been conducted with adults with intellectual disabilities, and only one study has targeted activity selection (Cammilleri & Hanley, 2005). In the present study, varied activity selection was reinforced according to a Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement. The present study also evaluated whether selection of novel activities occurred in the absence of differential reinforcement and assessed generalization of varied activity selection. Varied activity selection increased for all participants although prompts to select activities were required for 2 of 3 participants. Few novel selections occurred throughout the study and varied activity selection did not generalize to participants natural environments. The results suggest that a lag schedule of reinforcement can be used to increase varied activity selection by adults with intellectual disabilities but should be implemented in the natural environment.

Restricted or repetitive behavior is among the defining features of autism spectrum disorders. Symptoms in this category can range from repetitive simple motor movements (e.g. body rocking or hand flapping) to intense preoccupation with narrow, circumscribed interests (CIs). For verbally competent individuals CIs are commonly observed to dominate their choices of conversation topics when initiating interaction with others. These CI-based initiations can further distinguish the individual from his or her typically developing peers, and reduce the quantity and quality of social interactions. This can have devastating effects on already impoverished and restricted conversation-initiating repertoires. Therefore, the present study used a multiple baseline design with embedded reversal to evaluate the effects of progressive lag schedules (i.e., Lag 0, Lag 1, Lag 3, and Lag 5) to increase the variability of conversation topics of 3 individuals with autism, whose CIs were reported to predominate. During the lag schedule evaluation, praise was delivered contingent on conversation bids that differed from previous bids in accordance with the schedule in effect. Data for one participant indicate that Lag 1 decreased the rate of CI initiations and increased rate of non-CI initiations, and overall produced more variables rates of both initiation types compared to baseline

State-of-the-art behavior analytic procedures for assessment and intervention for changing important behaviors of young children in early childhood environments is needed. The purpose of the papers in this symposium are to discuss some issues that came up in our day-to-day running of a child development center serving young children with and without intellectual disabilities. The first study involved a class-wide implementation of a simple procedure for decreasing problem behavior that occurred during naptime in a preschool classroom. The second study involved evaluation of a simple methodology for determining the conditions under which toddlers acquire skills. The third study involved determining the effects of a simple intervention for increasing compliance of young children with intellectual and developmental disabilities during essential routines (e.g., hair cuts, dental exams, etc.).

Poor academic performance may be a function of performance or skill deficits. This distinction is important in developing instructional interventions that are likely to influence responding (e.g., Duhon, Noell, Witt, Freeland, Dufrene, & Gilbertson, 2004; Elliot & Shapiro, 1990). Lerman, Vorndran, Addison, and Kuhn (2004) developed a skill assessment methodology to match targeted tasks to appropriate teaching interventions for children with autism. The purpose of the present study was to attempt to replicate and extend the use of this assessment procedure with typically developing toddlers. In the present study, age-appropriate tasks were selected from early education curricula. Data were collected on the percentage of trials with correct responding under conditions of reinforcement only, prompting only, and/or reinforcement and prompting combined. Results suggested that (a) increases in correct responding were observed for the majority of tasks, (b) idiosyncratic outcomes were observed across children and tasks, and (c) a larger percentage of tasks required a combination of prompting and reinforcement procedures to increase responding than that observed by Lerman et al. Future directions may include (a) evaluating procedural modifications to increase the efficiency of the assessment procedure and (b) assessing the extent to which classroom teachers can implement the procedure during the school day.

The presence of certain stimuli during essential-routine procedures (e.g., hair cuts, dental exams, etc.) may evoke noncompliance in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Shumacher & Rapp, 2011). Noncompliance with such procedures has the potential to be a serious problem particularly when a given procedure requires the use of sharp objects (e.g., scissors, dental scrapper) that may cause harm to a child who refuses to comply with (or exhibits avoidant behaviors during) the procedure. The current study was designed to evaluate the effects of an intervention consisting of in-situ desensitization plus reinforcement but without extinction for increasing compliance with essential-routine procedures. A multiple baseline across subjects design was combined with a multiple probe design to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention and the degree to which performance generalized to actual procedures conducted by untrained, relevant professionals (e.g., hair stylists, dentists). Two young children with development disabilities have completed the study to date. For one child, compliance increased as a result of mere exposure to the simulated environment. However, for the other child, results showed that the intervention was effective not only for increasing compliance with the simulated essential-routine procedure but also for generalization to the actual environment (local salon) in which the procedure was conducted by an untrained professional (local hair stylist). This research extends the literature by assessing the extent to which treatment effects generalize to the natural setting (e.g., salon, dental office) with the relevant professional implementing the procedure.

This symposium focuses on the effects of varied quality of reinforcement on target behaviors. In the first paper, Effects of Quality of Attention and Liquid Preferences on Liquid Consumption, the authors examined the quality of adult attention contingent on liquid consumption for a child with feeding difficulties. In the second paper, The Effectiveness of High and Low Preferred Qualities of Attention on Behavior, the authors evaluated the effects of the quality of adult attention on behavior using a concurrent operants arrangement. In the third paper, Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement and Manipulation of Break Quality: Effects on Communication, Compliance, and Problem Behavior, the authors altered the break quality and evaluated the effects on problem behavior, break requests, and task completion. A discussant will provide a synthesis of the presentations.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of high and low quality attention on milk consumption. Additionally, we evaluated preference for white and chocolate milk under each condition (i.e., high and low quality attention). The participant, Carrie, was a 5-year-old female diagnosed with feeding difficulties, gastroesophageal reflux disease, developmental delays, and chromosomal abnormality. Interobserver agreement was assessed across 35% of sessions and averaged 92%. Low quality attention was defined as infrequent eye contact, no physical contact, no physical orientation towards Carrie, and encouragement in a flat/monotone vocal intonation. High quality attention was defined as frequent eye contact, physical contact or close proximity, physical orientation towards Carrie, enthusiastic encouragement, and enthusiastic and specific praise. The results of the study demonstrated that high quality attention increased consumption of both white and chocolate milk, but with more consistent effects for chocolate milk (see Figure 2).

Preference and reinforcer assessments are often used to identify preferred tangible items prior to a functional analysis. Piazza et al. (1996) conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of using tangibles to reinforce behavior. They found that highly preferred tangibles tend to reinforce behaviors at a higher rate compared to lower preferred tangibles. Although using tangibles to reinforce behavior is effective, tangibles are not always present in an individuals environment. However, attention is not only a stimulus typically present in most social situations; it has also been shown to reinforce behavior. Diverse qualities of attention have been shown to effectively change behavior (Gardner et al., 2009; Kodak et al., 2007; Piazza et al., 1999). Individuals can be sensitive to and demonstrate preferences for specific qualities of attention. The Quality of Attention Preference Assessment (QAPA) (Gardner, Kurtz & Huete manuscript in preparation) was developed to identify an individuals preferences for qualities of attention. Using the QAPA, our study identified four childrens preferences for specific qualities of attention, and used higher and lower preferred preference profiles to increase behavior via a concurrent operants paradigm (i.e. reinforcer assessment). The study was conducted in three phases: Phase I - administration of a brief tangibles assessment MSWO (Carr et al., 2000) to determine a highly preferred stimulus to be used in the reinforcer assessment, Phase II - administration of the QAPA to determine the childs preferences for qualities of attention. Finally, Phase III results from Phases I and II were presented with a concurrent operants assessment using both high-preferred attention, low-preferred attention, and an alone choice option. Our study examined two main questions: 1.) Does the QAPA accurately identify preferences for qualities of attention for children? Does the identified high preference profile for qualities of attention serve to reinforce and increase behavior compared to a low preference profile of identified qualities of attention? Results will be discussed in terms of how identified preferences of attention can serve as reinforcers to increase or decrease behavior. Behavior was measured by a childs physical time allocation as well as rate of responding within condition areas.

Recent research into verbal behavior suggests that man's ability to use language, or engage in arbitrarily applicable relational responding, could be the process that is at the root of humans' deep psychological suffering. Language, however, is not all malicious. There seems to be a positive side of verbal behavior that current research, from a variety of disciplines, is suggesting is instrumental to psychological well-being. Values are verbal constructions of global life consequences that function as both sources of perpetual reinforcement and motivating augmentals for a particular class of human behaviors described as "valued living." Contact with values appears to have broad impacts including reduction in physiological stress response, openness toward challenging information, and resistance to threats to academic performance. This symposium will cover three topics that highlight the applicability and effectiveness of values practices or values interventions as they apply to self-efficacy and smoking cessation intent, recovery from traumatic interpersonal violence, and relational responding tasks.

Values are life directions that guide actions. Valuing, verbal constructions, predicted psychological well-being in undergraduates (Adcock, LaBorde, Murrell, Madrigal-Bauguss, & Mitchell, 2009). Identifying and clarifying values, and choosing values-consistent behavior (valued living), are important. Valued living can be facilitated by promoting psychological flexibility through the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; 2012). Psychological flexibility is the ability to fully connect with the present moment and choose values-consistent behavior. Ciarrochi, Bilich, and Godsel (2010) reported that strengthening psychological flexibility through ACT improved mental health, well-being, and increased values-consistent behavior. The current study investigated the relationship between flexibility in valuing as measured by the Meta-Valuing Measure (MVM; Adcock, LaBorde, & Murrell, 2007) and measures of well-being in women who experienced interpersonal violence. Data analysis revealed significant correlations between the MVM and psychological flexibility (r = .63, p < .001), post-traumatic symptomology (r = -.46, p < .001), post-traumatic growth (r = -.44, p < .01), general health (r = .33, p < .05), parenting behaviors (r = .37, p < .05), and depressive symptoms (r = -.62, p < .001). Implications of the findings will be discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

With youth having higher smoking rates than ever, existing interventions may not suffice in reducing smoking behavior. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), is starting to gain both clinical and research interest for smoking cessation. However the effectiveness of components of this approach on smoking and cessation related parameters has not been examined. The goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the values component of ACT compared to a psychoeducational intervention for increasing intent to quit smoking and self-efficacy in relation to quitting among youth. Participants were randomly assigned to either a values based intervention group or a psychoeducation group (n = 30 for each group). Participants completed a packet of questionnaires assessing smoking behavior, intention to quit, and self-efficacy prior to, after the completion of the intervention and one month post intervention. Results showed increase in participant self-efficacy for quitting and higher intention to quit in both groups, with the values intervention resulting in greater increases. At one month follow up, both self-efficacy and intention to quit decreased compared to post-intervention but not reaching pre-intervention levels. Results discussed are in terms of effectiveness of a one-session values intervention in increasing self-efficacy and intention to quit smoking.

The science of behavior analysis has been applied to a myriad of human behaviors, including those of a sexual nature. The purpose of this presentation is to provide multiple examples of how sexual behavior issues can be assessed and treated using a behavior-analytic approach. This symposium underscores the need for behavior analysts to provide function-based, individualized, and least-restrictive interventions to influence the occurrence of sexual behaviors that are inappropriate in topography and/or occur in inappropriate environments. Case study data and their implications will be presented, as well as directions for future research and practice in this area.

Often in our work as behavioral clinicians, especially when we work with teens and young adults, we encounter individuals who engage in sexual behavior. Sometimes, however, we are challenged with these behaviors occurring in younger children. This presentation will address sexual behavior as behavior that can be assessed via functional behavior assessment methods and that can be modified using the same functional replacement behavior strategies that are often implemented when addressing other challenging behaviors. The data presented were obtained during baseline and descriptive and functional analyses of inappropriate sexualized behavior of an 8-year-old male with an intellectual disability (vocalizations, gestures, and actions directed at staff and self) and a 9-year-old male with autism (masturbation). Data following function-based intervention was implemented following determination of hypothesis will be presented as well. Implications for functional analysis in future instances of inappropriate sexual behavior will be discussed.

The sexual behavior of persons with disabilities is an understudied area in Applied Behavior Analysis. When a person with a disability engages in sexual behavior it is often labeled as aberrant, and these individuals are then stigmatized, which can impact their quality of life. Limited research has been conducted on these aberrant sexual behaviors and related courses of treatment. Current literature supports competing reinforcement for behaviors maintained by an automatically produced consequence, though does not explicitly address sexual behavior. This presentation will include two case studies of individuals with cognitive disabilities and mental illness diagnoses who engage in inappropriate sexual behavior. The behaviors that individuals in this study engaged in included public masturbation and non-consensual sexual advances toward other individuals with disabilities. The agencys response to the inappropriate sexual behaviors before and after consultation with a BCBA will be discussed. Additionally, a brief review of literature on sexual education for persons with disabilities will be included.

The current case study aims to contribute to the literature of addressing sexual behaviors of persons with developmental disabilities. Public masturbation was chosen as target behaviour for reduction. This behaviour is an example of a sexual behaviour that is appropriate in private, but inappropriate or illegal in public situations. In addition, it may have the potential of placing individuals with disabilities at greater risk for abuse. The participant, a teenage girl diagnosed with autism, living in a residential group home setting, was taught to indicate that she is going to engage in masturbatory behaviours in her bedroom using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). The procedure, potential stimulus control components of the intervention, and limitations will be discussed.

Use-inspired behavior analytic research entails rigorous experimental analyses on issues of societal importance. While use-inspired basic research has yielded much success in informing applied behavior analysis on issues concerning vulnerable populations, the basic processes underlying many real-world issues concerning non-clinical populations remains relatively scant. This symposium will highlight four novel applications of use-inspired basic research, translating findings from the basic operant laboratory to practical applications. The first presentation will describe the utility of experimental analyses of behavior in the understanding of the sunk-cost effect in humans. The second presentation will feature data from a mindfulness intervention on obesity using discounting analyses to model its effects. The third presentation will describe ways in which behavioral economic models of demand and elasticity can aid in understanding fuel consumption and drivers' concerns for fuel efficiency. The symposium will conclude with a presentation on how generalization gradients and issues of stimulus discrimination may be applied to understanding and improving skin cancer detection. The aim of each presentation will be to introduce attendees to analyses and topics from the experimental analysis of behavior and propose ways to understand real-world problems of high magnitude using a use-inspired paradigm of study.

Behavioral economic research has expanded our understanding of aberrant behavior (e.g., addiction, gambling, and obesity). In this area, behavior analysts have largely focused on delay discounting or demand. These fruitful research programs have linked these concepts to poor health behavior (e.g., sharing needles, risky sexual behavior, and the failure to utilize preventive care), altruism, and concern for the environment. The success of these studies suggests that other behavioral economic concepts may be similarly useful. The sunk cost fallacy is a behavioral economic concept that describes the tendency for ones prior investment in a venture to irrationally impact their decision to continue to invest in that venture. Although some behavior analysts have focused on the sunk cost fallacy, it is unclear if this concept will inform our understanding of health and social behavior. The current study demonstrated relations between the sunk cost fallacy and both health behaviors (e.g., seeking help when feeling ill, binge eating) and ones contribution to society by administering validated instruments to a large sample (n=1053) of internet users via a novel crowdsourcing technology (i.e., Amazons Mechanical Turk). The findings demonstrate the utility behavior analysts exploring additional behavioral economic concepts.

Consequences of fossil fuel consumption are disastrous for the sustainability of the planet and its ecosystems. The current study examined government data from the United States and Canada on per capita energy consumption and oil price per barrel between the years 1995 and 2008. The elasticity of the demand curves of both countries were measured and statistically compared across six major modes of transportation including road, air, rail, transit, pipeline, and water. Results demonstrated minimal elasticity in demand across all modes of transportation for both countries. Despite the general inelasticity found across the different modes of transportation, statistical differences were found in the demand curves for air and road transportation. Our findings indicate that despite sharp increases in oil price per barrel over the past decade, the consumption per capita either persisted or simultaneously increased. In a follow-up study on 76 undergraduate students, we used a hypothetical purchase task of fuel to model demand elasticity at various fuel prices using demand curves to determine whether demand would become elastic at extreme prices per gallon. Conclusions and implications from these findings are discussed.

Melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer, is detected visually, but most potential human "detectors" perform poorly on this task. The most common approach to preparing patients and primary-care medical personnel to detect melanoma is to provide brief information about melanoma and show them images of clearly symptomatic and non-symptomatic moles. Using college students as subjects we compared the effects of this intervention with a brief discrimination-training procedure that was modeled after "errorless" protocols. A pretest and posttest involved labeling a series of normal and subtly-symptomatic moles as "normal" or "changed." Discrimination-training participants responded more accurately than "information" subjects on the posttest and also showed better generalization to novel cases. These effects maintained weeks or months after the initial training. We will also present signal-detection data that characterize response biases induced by the two interventions, and self-report data that characterize changes in skin-care behaviors that followed the interventions.

We report findings from the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) model of instruction. The AIL model is based on scientific procedures that emphasizes individualized instruction, where student responses ultimately drives instruction. The classrooms integrate approximately one-third of the students diagnosed with a disability or English language learners. Academically, students in these classrooms perform on average with a range of 2 years below grade level through 2 years above grade level. Communication between the classrooms from year to year allow for continuity of individualized programming for each student. All of the curricular objectives have been derived and behaviorally defined from the national core content standards and school district's general education curriculum across academic areas. As part of the AIL curriculum, self-management objectives are outlined to teach students to monitor their own progress, set their goals, and deliver their own reinforcement. Learning pictures will be presented that show the cumulative number of objectives mastered and the number of learn units it takes to meet an objective for each student across specific curricula domain. We will also report data on the induction of critical verbal behavior developmental cusps or capabilities, such as observational learning and naming. We find that once students acquire these developmental milestones they can successfully access the general education curriculum.

At the onset of the school year, kindergarten and first grade students in Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) classrooms participate in probe sessions which test for the presence or absence of verbal developmental cusps and cusps that are capabilities. Students who are missing these cusps and capabilities are then provided an intensive set of experiences through instructional protocols. Research from kindergarten and first grade AIL classes has shown that various protocols have successfully induced verbal developmental capabilities such as observational learning and Naming. Other protocols, such as variations to the auditory matching protocol, multiple exemplar instruction across selection and production responses, and various conditioning procedures have resulted in higher rates of learning. By inducing cusps and capabilities in students in kindergarten and first grade, we accelerate rates of learning and are able to teach our students in new ways. This paper will discuss several experiments related to the induction of verbal developmental cusps and capabilities, as well as the effects of the induction on students acquisition of new academic repertoires.

The second and third grade Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) classrooms operate on the principles and tactics of applied behavior analysis in an inclusion classroom setting. These classes incorporate many research-based behavioral tactics for both learning and performance behaviors during math, spelling, reading, and writing instruction including learn units (direct, model demonstration), response boards, choral responding, fluency training, peer tutoring, and precision teaching, token economies, group contingencies, and hero contingencies. Through the use of these tactics, we found students could be successfully included in the general education setting. We will also present data that shows the induction of key verbal capabilities and cusps such as naming and observational learning through an intensive set of experiences through instructional protocols. Once we established these cusps and capabilities, we found that students could learn in new ways and access the general education curriculum.

We tested the effects of the implementation of Teaching as Applied Behavior Analysis on 4th and 5th grade general education and special education students selected from an Accelerated Independent Learner Classroom (AIL) that implemented the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) model of instruction. The participants attended a Title I school in a suburb of New York City. We examined students rate of acquisition, number of curricular objectives met, and the acquisition of developmental reader/writer cusps and capabilities. We will present our data on learning pictures, which are the visual display used to show student progress in the AIL model. Specific studies that relate to various areas of the curriculum will be presented, such as writing, reading, math, and self-management. We will present a general overview of the program, including frequently used tactics for students in higher-grade levels.

When dealing with human observers and error, tight control in data collection and methodology is essential for accurate representation of compliance. Although observational studies are popular, little has been done to study the integrity of human observers and the data collection process. Incomplete analysis of data collection integrity threatens functional findings, leading to problematic interpretation and decreased replication. The purpose of the current study assesses whether manipulating the response effort associated with data collection has an effect on the accuracy of data collection. Participants of the study were undergraduate psychology students at a Midwestern university who were enrolled in an undergraduate I/O practicum that took place at a local hospital. To examine and counterbalance the effects of manipulating response effort, an ABAB/BABA design was implemented across two semesters. Initial results from visual inspection of the data demonstrate that with the exception of change between phase one and two during the first semester, all subsequent phases in the first semester and all phases in the second semester generated a visually salient change in data collection behavior when response effort was manipulated. Despite visual changes in the data, statistics failed to demonstrate a generalizable effect.

: Data were collected on hand washing compliance in an inpatient treatment program for children with destructive behavior disorders while a lottery incentive intervention for hand washing was in place. Under the lottery intervention, supervisors entered the names of staff observed complying with the unit's hand washing policy into a drawing. Although data collected overtly suggested that compliance rates were high during the incentive phase, compliance rates were significantly lower during covert observations. The implications of these data for hand washing interventions, and OBM interventions in general, will be discussed.

A multi-component staff management system was implemented in three residential group homes for adults with disabilities to examine if it would increase consumer (resident) engagement in leisure activities. The study was a non-concurrent and concurrent multiple baseline design across homes. Participants included consumers who live in the home and the direct care staff (DCS) who work with them: a total of 48 participants. Sessions were an hour in length and occurred twice a day, Monday-Friday. The study lasted approximately 16 weeks in each group home. There were four phases: (phase A) baseline assessment of consumer engagement and affect/pleasure by researchers, (phase A) supervisor walk-arounds and continued assessment of consumer engagement and affect/pleasure by researchers, (phase B) implementation of the staff management system, with a consumer check-in procedure as its foundation, and (phase C) addition of more individualized, immediate DCS feedback from their supervisors. Researchers collected data on consumer engagement, activity choices and consumer affect throughout the study. Treatment integrity data was collected during phases B and C to assess staff performance. A pilot study was conducted to first assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the procedures in one group home, implementing all phases. The results showed an increase in consumer engagement during Phases B and Phases C.

Since the turn of the 21st century, significant advances have been made in the application of ACT principles to organizational settings. In fact, the organizational application of ACT has solidified sufficiently to give rise to the term ACTraining to distinguish its procedures from those used in clinical settings, though the underlying processes are believed to be the same. This symposium highlights recent work in ACTraining and does so within the context of recent calls to expand the scope of ACT and OBM to the mutual benefit of both literatures. The first presentation in this symposium describes the implementation of brief online modules targeting values-clarification and goal-setting for residential staff of a human service organization in northern Nevada. The second presentation focuses more broadly on the application of ACT to organizations and highlights new developments in the promotion of workplace wellness and performance. Lastly, the symposium concludes with a laboratory study guided by the ACTraining model. The latter study directly answers a previous call for those in ACT and OBM to investigate the functioning of teams. More specifically, the latter study applies brief online modules targeting values-clarification and perspective-taking toward the promotion of adaptive teamwork in a dynamic simulated combat environment.

The nature of front-line work in human service organizations is such that employee burnout and turnover is common. Though not commonly discussed in the traditional OBM literature, studies are emerging on the effects of interventions derived from Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) on these very issues. The current study seeks to contribute to this literature by evaluating the implementation of a brief web-based values-clarification module across three community homes in a human-service organization serving mild to moderate individuals with intellectual disabilities in Northern Nevada. More specifically, this study focuses on the role of teams and conceptualizes each house with its constituent manager and staff as teams working together to produce common goals. The goal of the current study is to have managers and staff examine and articulate their values related to teamwork and how such values relate to larger life values. If successful, this intervention could function as a motivative augmental to alter the reinforcing value of stimuli embedded in this oftentimes stressful workplace and change a variety of outcome measures in positive directions, such as incident report rates, employee satisfaction, staff turnover, treatment integrity and burnout.

Empirical studies utilizing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have demonstrated increased workplace performance and innovation while reducing work stress and work errors. Recently, researchers have turned their attention to brief, non-clinical iterations of the ACT psychological flexibility (PF) model to generate comparable results in a variety of work environments. With relational frame theory viewed as a map and ACT as a previously explored trail, new pathways to workplace wellness and improved performance are under development. In this talk, we present a theoretical account of PF as it relates to organizational behavior management and the design of relevant workplace training. We provide a rationale for the development of novel PF training delivery systems, identify potential complications in the creation of measurement tools, and offer ground rules for their inception. Additionally, we propose the design of hybrid models that incorporate skill training from other third generation contextual approaches such as functional analytic psychotherapy and dialectical behavior therapy.

ACT procedures have been used in clinical settings to undermine the functions of verbal content that impair psychological functioning. However, the past decade has seen significant advances in the application of ACT principles to organizational settings. In addition, recent authors have advocated for a mutual expansion of ACT and OBM into previously unexplored areas. One area that has yet to be explored relates to teams and their adaptation on the fly to dynamic environmental conditions. The current series of studies extends our previous work, which utilized brief web-based values-clarification modules to significantly increase cumulative GPAs and student retention in a university setting. For the current work, we adapted our values-clarification modules from an educational to a team setting in order to examine the generality of our past findings into a highly arousing military combat simulation. This line of research evaluates the impact of values-clarification on physiological and mental arousal, listener behavior, rule generation, and a variety of performance measures tied to the successful completion of mission objectives. If successful, this research will successfully extend the scope of ACT work into new areas and potentially point to cost-effective web-based performance improvement methods for a variety of organizational settings.

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board Guidelines for Responsible Conduct and other published documents and texts within the subject area of Behavior Analysis have provided guidelines and suggestions for how behavior analysts practicing within clinical and research settings should ethically behave. These documents can be argued to fall within the realm of applied ethics (i.e., the examination of particular issues in private and public life to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life, specifically those practicing as research and/or clinical behavior analysts). Relatively little has been written or discussed regarding the metaethical principles that these documents are premised upon (i.e., What is the meaning of the moral terms or judgments used? What is the nature of the moral judgments we are making through such applied ethical documents? How may these moral judgments be supported or defended?) A behavior analytic approach to these metaethical principles and concepts will be argued as the appropriate next step the field of Behavior Analysis ought to take in order to continue to move Behavior Analysis further along the process of professionalization. The benefits of such a movement for the fields of Behavior Analysis and Bioethics as well as where Behavior Analysis should go moving forward will also be discussed.

Pathological gambling affects a significant portion of the population, and may become more prevalent if gambling establishments continue to increase in availability. One particular area of concern for pathological gamblers involves the near-miss, a losing outcome that gamblers rate as close to a win that commonly increases gambling behavior though the outcome is actually a loss. While much of the literature targeting the near-miss effect relies on cognitive interpretations, studying this effect with an approach built from techniques of behavior analysis could prove beneficial to treatment and control of gambling problems. First, the pre-gambling behavior of children while playing games of chance in an arcade is examined. Next, the near-miss is examined on five-reel slot machines to observe how new configurations of stimuli affect the presence of the near-miss. Finally, the effect of the near-miss on brain activation is observed in gamblers who bet money for different functional reasons (tangible, social, escape, sensory). Because the near-miss effect is commonly observed in pathological gambling populations, research on the development and presence of the near-miss in varying contexts and populations will yield a better understanding of its effects so that more effective treatments can be built to prevent or eliminate pathological gambling.

Many adult pathological gamblers have demonstrated the near-miss effect; the belief that an outcome that is "close" to a win means a win is coming. While some research has been done on the predictors of children becoming pathological gamblers, the presence of the near-miss effect in children has not yet been examined. The current study examined the presence of the near-miss effect in children. The sample included 20 typically developing children between the ages of 6 and 10. The participants were instructed to play on a roulette-like arcade game at a local bowling alley. Each trial consisted of the participant choosing one color by pushing the corresponding button, and rating the outcome of the trial as to how close the participant felt the ball was to landing on the chosen color. Participants rated the outcomes on a five-point Likert-type scale, with 1 representing a total loss and 5 representing a win. Significant differences were found between ratings of wins and near miss, near miss and total loss, and wins and total loss. These results imply that the near-miss effect, a characteristic of pathological gamblers, may be present in children as young as five years old.

The Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA-II) is a clinical assessment that measures the maintaining function of gambling behaviors. Research suggests this assessment measures four possible factors: social attention, escape form aversive events, access to tangible objects, and sensory input. However, little is known about differences across these gambling subtypes, particularly in relation to brain activation patterns as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate differences in brain activation during slot machine activity across gambling subtypes. Thirty-five gamblers were asked to play a slot machine activity during an fMRI scan. During the gambling activity, participants were asked to rate each outcome on a closeness to win scale, ranging from 1 (not at all close) to 5 (extremely close). Brain activation during various slot machine outcomes (i.e., wins, losses, and near-misses) was compared across gambling subtypes. Results suggest that dopaminergic systems activate differently across attention, tangible, and sensory maintained gamblers during winning and almost winning trials; yet self-reported outcomes on closeness to win did not differ across subtypes. These results suggest that gamblers may represent a heterogeneous population. Implications for these findings, including how these results may inform treatment approaches, will be discussed.

Functional Behavior Assessment is considered "best practice" when creating interventions for problem behavior (Graham, Watson, & Skinner, 2001; Steege & Watson, 2008). Sometimes, however, problem behaviors may arise because of general classroom management and instructional issues. For example, problem behavior may arise in the classroom because the classroom teacher rarely attends to appropriate student behavior and consistently provides attention for inappropriate behavior. At the same time, the classroom teacher may use ineffective instructional practices. Current practices in the classroom may not represent a "best practice" baseline, which should be in effect before an individual child is targeted for highly individualized assessment and intervention. In such situations, another approach to the assessment of problem behavior is warranted, specifically an assessment of the classroom environment and the instructional routines in place. Such assessment might indicate that a functional analysis for one individual child should not be the first course of action. Rather, more broad-scale intervention may be warranted and may benefit all children in the classroom, while decreasing problem behavior in the targeted child at the same time. This presentation will discuss the rationale and utility for such an assessment, as well as propose a possible method of such assessment.

Take-home idea: Behavior analyses reveal surprising psychological features and neurobiological mechanisms underlying intense motivations of reward-related "liking" and "wanting," and relations to negative-valence motivations of fear and disgust. Abstract: Clinical disorders of addiction, binge eating, depression and schizophrenia often involve intense psychopathological mood or motivation states. So it is of interest to understand how limbic brain circuits (involving nucleus accumbens) generate intense motivational states of reward "wanting" and "liking," and also of fearful or aversive states. Behavioral analyses and affective neuroscience studies indicate that "wanting" a reward is generated by a different brain mechanism from "liking" the same reward. The difference between wanting versus liking has implications for understanding addiction and related disorders. Yet surprisingly, desire and fear can both can both be generated by an overlapping mechanism, which may have different modes for each. This lecture will address such dissociations and convergence in affective brain mechanisms.

Difficulty in understanding and finding their way in the social world is one of the key challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. From childhood through adolescence and into adulthood this inability to navigate the social world makes these children and adults easy targets for isolation and bullying. Addressing social challenges effectively can be critical to success at school, at work, and in the community. Improved social skills can also lead to more and better relationships with other people. This panel will bring together presenters who will share the methods and outcomes of three innovative social skills groups that go beyond traditional methods of teaching social skills. One of these is a gamers club where social skills groups take place through video gaming for pre-adolescents and adolescents. Pathways offers community-based social skills classes that build friendships through a variety of shared experiences, and TheatreWorks, is a program which uses theatre as a platform for building social skills. Presenters will share the methods and outcomes of these programs with the audience.

The presenter will outline the evidence on how children come to learn language incidentally (incidental naming). According to the evidence, children do not receive direct instruction/reinforcement to learn either the speaker or listener responses for word-object relations, despite speculation to the contrary. Nevertheless, typically developing children need and do acquire as many as 85,000 words. Research in verbal behavior development identified how this occurs and how to establish this capability in children who lack naming.The presenter willoutline the protocols to do so and how instruction should change following its establishment, along with why naming is an essential for inclusion.

Graduate students and practicing BCBAs.

This presentation first will review how ethical behavior is considered from a behavior-analytic perspective, outlining unique features as well as those that overlap with other views on ethics. The review also will include the potential impact on ethical behavior of some general topics of concern to behavior analysts, such as values and value clarification, long- and short-term consequences of actions, the role of rules and contingencies in ethical behavior, behavioral control and counter-control, and the context in which actions occur. This will be followed by a review of how selected specific methods used in assessment and intervention and contemporary research findings in both the experimental analysis of behavior and in applied behavior analysis might influence ethical decisions and practices related to treatment of behavior disorders.

Self-control is sometimes necessary for optimal choice behavior, and perhaps even for future-oriented decision-making. Humans sometimes show self-control by choosing better, but more delayed outcomes over more immediate outcomes. However, the failure of self-control (impulsivity) underlies many problematic human behaviors, and has led humans to train themselves to overcome their "animal impulses." But is it fair to assume that animals cannot do the same, and also exhibit self-control? The presentation will argue that it is not fair, and that many species do show some degree of self-control. Delaying gratification (or postponing a response to a present reward for the sake of a future bigger or better reward) is one of the hallmark aspects of self-control. It also is not a unique human capacity. The presentation will discuss recent studies with chimpanzees and other animals that examine the capacities of those animals to delay gratification and the behavioral strategies that they employ to cope with impulsivity. In some cases, there are close parallels between nonhuman animal performance and that of humans, but in other cases those similarities decrease. But, overall, comparative research suggests that humans are not alone in their capacity to demonstrate some degree of "willpower."

According to the Pew Research Center in October, 2012, Facebook had more than 1 Billion users, LinkedIn had 175 Million users, Twitter had more than 140 Million users, and Wordpress had 75 Million blogs. This is the tip of the iceberg, as there are countless other social networks that have millions of their own followers and participants. The availability of these networks raises the question of how best to leverage them to promote our science. This panel discussion includes members of ABAI who are very active in social media networks and outlets. The participants will discuss their experiences using those networks to promote behavior analysis, along with what approaches have been successful and unsuccessful, and which outlets have proved most fruitful in their dissemination attempts. Tips and tricks for using these networks will be included, with the goal that audience members will leave the session with a better understanding of how to use social networks and be motivated to help disseminate our principles through these channels.

We cannot teach effectively without defining what is learned. In The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching article (1954), B. F. Skinner outlined the relevance of behavior analysis to education. Learning occurs when contingencies change behavior; teaching consists of appropriately implementing those contingencies. Computers make powerful teaching machines feasible, but educational systems rarely avail themselves even of what was known when such technologies were severely limited. It follows from Skinner's analysis that what students do is what they learn, that teaching involves arranging stimuli that occasion relevant behavior, and that consequences must be contingent upon that behavior. Too often, educational systems focus on teacher rather than student behavior. Changing what teachers do by modifying curricula or media or even by allowing them to modify their teaching based on student feedback is inadequate if student behavior is neglected. Students are disadvantaged when teachers are expected to help them more, as when they are urged to provide more detailed lecture outlines when it would be better for students to do outlines themselves. These points lead to advice for both students and teachers, and are illustrated with examples from the teaching of behavior analysis within standard undergraduate course structures.

Living with dogs is risky for humans; over four million people are bitten by dogs each year in the U.S., mostly children ages 5-9. Living in close proximity to humans is risky for dogs, as well, with millions of dogs surrendered to Shelters and/or euthanized every year for bad behavior. Some top behavioral reasons for dog surrenders are bites, aggression towards humans, escape, destructive inside or outside, problems with new pet and old pet living together, aggression towards other animals, house-soiling, and vocalizing too much. Though functional assessment and analysis has been common in human behavior change for decades, it is not a common practice in the world of canid behavior. As a science, behavior analysis does not discriminate between organisms, and the use of assessment and analysis of behaviors of the animals that live amongst us is a contemporary necessity. These studies of dog and wolf behavior demonstrate that functional assessment and analysis can be important and valuable tools in the world of canid behavior.

When things go wrong with a dogs behavior in the home, dog owners often get help from self-chosen dog trainers, whose backgrounds in behavioral training are wildly variable. They may also rely on books, television, and the advice of friends. The typical advice or training is unlikely to include behavior analysis methodology, and will attempt to modify behavior without considering function. In this study, a direct behavior assessment tool was created for dog trainers to use, which would allow them to identify environmental variables maintaining problem dog behaviors. Functional analyses based upon this canine behavior assessment tool (CBAT) were performed on the behavior of two dogs: one with aggression towards humans, one with leash-pulling. Behavioral interventions were then created using the function of the behavior as indicated by the tool. Reversal designs were used to demonstrate functional relations between the causative variables and the interventions, showing that CBAT could be a useful tool to introduce functional analysis technology to the world of dog training.

Behavioral problems in dogs account for nearly half of the reasons given for relinquishing them to shelters, and thus constitute a significant animal welfare issue. Any successful attempt to manage these problems will require an understanding of the mechanisms that control these behaviors. However, for some of the behavioral problems cited, such as jumping up on people, available treatments are not prescribed after a systematic assessment of the environmental contingencies contributing to the behavior. The current study assesses the use of functional analysis, an established technique for identifying the variables controlling problem behavior in humans, to determine the environmental factors supporting the behavior of jumping up on people in dogs. Statistically significant differences were found in the rate of jumping up behavior across conditions for each dog in the assessment phase. Treatment conditions used the maintaining variable found in the assessment phase. By comparing the rates of jumping up behavior in these conditions, we found the rates to be of lower statistical significance in the treatment condition. Therefore, results show that this methodology is effective in determining the maintaining variables for these individuals, leading to a more precise treatment.

Functional analysis technology has wide spread use in identifying behavior functions for humans and non-human animals. Recent research has applied this technology to dog problem behavior, specifically, unwanted jumping up on owners. We extend this research by conducting a functional analysis of a dog's repetitive light chasing behavior. The owner reported the dog's (Daisy) light chasing to be problematic, as the dog would spend large portions of time chasing light reflections. In Phase 1, we tested whether the movement of light (automatic positive) or the disappearance (automatic negative) of light reinforced chasing the light. An initial test for social reinforcement was subsequently dropped as high rates of light chasing maintained in the absence of social consequences. Light movement, and not its disappearance, reinforced light chasing, as repeated sessions of the disappearance condition led to extinction (see Figure 1). In Phase 2, we attempted to decrease light chasing or "pouncing" by teaching an alternative "waving"(paw lift) response and by removing the light contingent on contacting the light (Extinction). Increased light intensities were faded in across sessions and the reinforcement schedule for paw lifting was decreased to an FI 5 sec schedule. Paw lifting increased across sessions while contacting the light, or pouncing, decreased.

Social play in nonhuman animals is considered a behavioral indicator of welfare that has largely been examined through ethological or naturalistic studies and descriptive assessments. This has led to a structural, rather than functional approach toward understanding social play, making the relevant variables difficult to identify to promote its occurrence in captivity. The present experiment employed a modified functional analysis to identifying environmental variables that evoke social play in 12 hand-raised gray wolves. Reciprocal social play and play initiation responses were recorded in three 5-minute experimental conditions (alone, ignore, and attention). Experimental conditions were counterbalanced across six 15-minute sessions. Four out of six pairs exhibited social play or play initiation during experimental sessions with varying trends (see Figures 1-4). Overall, the level of play behaviors observed were highest in the staff attention conditions for all subjects that exhibited the behavior (see Figure 5), suggesting that interspecific attention from a familiar human may serve as an establishing operation for automatically reinforced behavior. Behavior analytic approaches have versatility for examining possible proximate functions of why human-socialized canids engage in social play.

This symposium examines interventions for treating anxiety and distress in various populations. The first talk describes the use of defusion, one of the six core processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which involves the use of metaphors to promote a decrease in the functions associated with disturbing private events. Specifically, this talk will describe a defusion instruction protocol used to affect a decrease in discomfort and believability associated with perseverative thoughts in adolescents on the autism spectrum. As most current measures of defusion rely on self-report of private behavior, the second talk will discuss the development of an implicit measure of defusion through experimentally altering fusion with distressing self-referential stimuli. The third talk will discuss the necessity of the inclusion of metaphors in ACT and provide a comparison of the effectiveness of an ACT intervention with and without metaphors. The symposium will close with a talk describing the use of a prompting and reinforcement intervention to promote interaction with novel foods in children with neophobia.

This investigation evaluated the use of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) to facilitate defusion from negative thoughts and feelings related to social interaction in adolescents with PDD-NOS. Using a multiple probe design, participants were taught to discriminate between different aspects of their own perspective (i.e., self-as-content and self-as-context). Defusion was measured using ratings of the believability and comfort associated with specific negative thoughts. The percentage of time engaged in appropriate social interaction was recorded for each participant in order to assess generalization of defusion skills to natural social interactions. Results revealed a decrease in believability and an increase in comfort associated with problematic thoughts for all participants following MEI in the absence of directly observed changes in social interaction in the natural environment. These results support the use of MEI as a therapeutic strategy for teaching defusion skills to individuals with PDD-NOS. Results also suggest methods for improving generalization of skills to the natural environment and enhancing measurement of private events in this population.

In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, defusion exercises are designed to de-emphasize the literal interpretation of thoughts (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011). Research has demonstrated the tendency for individuals to report decreased believability in self-referential stimuli after engaging in defusion exercises (e.g., Healy, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, Keogh, Luciano, & Wilson, 2008; Hinton & Gaynor, 2010; Masuda, Hayes, Sackett, & Twohig, 2004). Although self-reported changes in believability are an important step in establishing the utility of defusion interventions, it is worthwhile to develop an implicit behavioral marker of fusion/defusion with self-referential content (Masuda, Feinstein, Wendell, & Sheehan, 2010). While previous research has employed matching to sample procedures with regard to self-relevant stimuli (e.g., Barnes, Lawlor, Smeets, & Roche, 1996; Merwin & Wilson, 2005), it is necessary to experimentally manipulate the degree of fusion to demonstrate the utility of the procedure in this context. Therefore, this study uses a matching to sample procedure that incorporates ideographic self-referential adjectives in manipulating fusion. Participants either engaged in a task designed to increase or decrease fusion with distressing stimuli. Subsequently, they performed a matching to sample task to determine the extent to which the procedure was sensitive to varying levels of fusion.

Many children exhibit a problematic avoidance response in the presence of novel, nutritious foods, a condition called neophobia. The purpose of the present research was to examine to the impact of a brief prompted attending plus interaction procedure on the subsequent consumption and approach toward novel target foods by children at a child care facility. Specifically, three children were exposed to a baseline condition consisting of pairs of target and control novel foods presented during snack time. During the intervention condition, participants were prompted to attend to, describe, and interact with the formal features of the novel target food prior to the meal time. Correct identification of formal features was directly reinforced, whereas no direct reinforcement was delivered for the consumption and approach of the target during meal time. Preliminary results indicate that consumption of novel food occurred at higher, stable level following intervention. This current study suggests that prompting attending, description of, and interaction with the formal properties of food may increase consumption of novel foods.

As behavior analysts the opportunity for staff training, mentoring, supervision, collaboration and research are as varied as the situations in which we work. Each of these roles presents ethical challenges. At times these challenges are just quagmires or quandaries, while other times they have the potential for harm. The behavior analyst faces numerous questions every day about the appropriateness of treatment decisions. This panel will address, through an interactive and at times entertaining discussion, how to prevent and remedy unethical behavior analytic practices. Panelists will outline current ethical guidelines while drawing on their experiences and expertise in each of these areas. As a behavior analyst others, usually trained or supervised by you, do much of the actual behavior treatment; however you are ultimately responsible for the programs effectiveness. Panelists will represent issues that arise in everything from early intervention to adult services, community and center based settings as well as academia and private consultation. Attendees will leave the discussion with models for improved conduct and practical strategies that translate into everyday ethical action.

This panel will discuss the challenges of delivering staff training and evidence-based services in international settings. Specific strategies for resolving problems in a culturally sensitive manner will be addressed.

Different types of attention (e.g., reprimands, tickles) may be differentially preferred and may also be differentially reinforcing for both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors (e.g., Fisher, Ninness, Piazza, & Owen-DeSchryver, 1996). We attempted to examine the utility of identifying preference hierarchies across a range of attention types and use those data to inform the design of an attention analysis and subsequent treatment evaluation with an 11 year-old boy diagnosed with autism and moderate intellectual disabilities whose aggressive and self-injurious behaviors were, in part, attention-maintained. First, results of a preference assessment for different types of attention (e.g., Piazza et al., 1999) indicated two types of verbal attention and one type of physical attention were identified as preferred. Next, the degree to which these forms of attention differentially affected attention-maintained problem behavior was examined (see Kodak, Northup, & Kelley, 2007). One attention type found to function as a reinforcer for problem behavior and a second attention type which did not function as a reinforcer were compared using an alternating treatments design embedded within an ABAB reversal design. Results indicated that the attention type which did not also function as a reinforcer for problem behavior produced the most significant reductions in problem behavior.

Attention has been shown to increase appropriate behavior; however, little research has isolated the effects of different common types of attention for increasing appropriate behavior. Participants in the current study were 12 preschool-age children. The current study includes (a) assessment of preference for common types of attention delivered in a preschool classroom (e.g., praise, physical attention, conversation), (b) determination of the reinforcing efficacy of these different types of attention under low schedule (fixed-ratio 1) requirements, and (c) evaluation of the reinforcing strength of these different types of attention under progressive-ratio schedules. Thus far, our results have shown that the majority of children preferred conversation as compared to physical attention or praise; no children preferred praise. In addition, we validated our preference assessment by showing that children responded at higher levels under both low response requirements and progressively increasing response requirements to access their highest preferred type of attention; however, some individuals responded at similar levels for all types of attention. Implications of these findings suggest that our preference assessment results are useful for determining the most effective type of attention to use for increasing appropriate behavior in young children.

Although attention is an important variable in the acquisition and maintenance of behavior, further investigation into the characteristics of attention that may differentially affect the reinforcement value of attention is warranted. The purpose of this study was to identify the topographies of attention typically delivered in preschool classrooms and to evaluate the reinforcing value of the identified topographies. The results of a descriptive assessment suggested that the most common topographies of attention provided by teachers were verbal, physical, and facial attention. Initially, the reinforcing effectiveness of attention, that included all identified topographies, on levels of activity engagement was evaluated using a concurrent operant arrangement and reversal design. Subsequently, the reinforcing effectiveness of each topography of attention was evaluated in isolation using the same design. For three participants, compound attention produced a reinforcement effect. For two participants, each topography in isolation produced a reinforcement effect. For one participant, verbal attention produced a reinforcement effect. For three participants, attention did not produce a reinforcement effect. These results suggest that for many preschoolers, attention alone may not be effective in producing desired response allocation, and thus, additional research is needed to increase the effectiveness of attention with this population.

Implementing a choice procedure increased the effects of Functional Communication Training (FCT) in the current study, which was a replication of Peterson et al. (2005). The participants in the current study were five adults with developmental disabilities, including diagnoses of mental retardation and other intellectual disabilities. First, participants completed a functional analysis, and those participants whose data showed the highest levels of problem behaviors in the escape condition were eligible to continue in the remaining phases of the study. Next, participants completed an FCT condition, which was followed by an FCT plus choice condition in which they were allowed to select between working and contacting a long break afterward, or contacting a short break and working after the break. Results indicated that adding the choice procedure led to increases in the duration of time spent working on an appropriate task. The combination of FCT and the choice procedure also not only decreased frequencies of problem behaviors to near zero levels, but increased levels of appropriate responses.

Individuals with autism may engage in problem behaviors rather than engage in appropriate mand responses. Functional Communication Training (FCT) has proven to be effective in teaching individuals more socially appropriate ways of communicating, which may function as a replacement for problem behavior. This study utilized a multiple-probe design across stimuli in an attempt to teach two individuals with autism how to appropriately mand for the removal of nonpreferred items rather than engage in problem behavior. One participant successfully learned to emit the mand response in the presence of all trained items, and the response generalized across settings and individuals. For the second participant, mand training proved to be ineffective, due to the severity of his problem behavior. The results of this study lend some additional support to the use and effectiveness of FCT for teaching negatively reinforced manding, and thereby decreasing problem behavior, for individuals with autism.

Some individuals with intellectual disabilities may be more likely to engage in inappropriate behavior when transitioning between activities. This may be most common when transitions are from preferred activities to less-preferred, or non-preferred activities occur. Basic research has shown that both the previous, and upcoming reinforcer may affect pausing during transitions, and similar results have been shown with individuals with intellectual disabilities. In the first paper, Brewer and colleagues conducted a large-scale survey with caregivers of children with autism to identify the most problematic transition type. In the second study, Steimer and Dickson conducted descriptive analyses to identify problematic transition types, and evaluated potential strategies for minimizing problematic transitions. Finally, Luffman and colleagues evaluated transitions between preferred and non-preferred foods during mealtimes for children who engaged in severe food refusal. Across all studies, shifts from rich, or highly preferred context, to lean, or less preferred contexts, were deemed problematic, when compared to other shifts. Directions for future research and suggestions for similar applications will be discussed.

Transitions between one activity and the next can be a major source of problem behaviors in habilitative and education settings in individuals with autism. However, it is unclear whether a transition per se or a specific type of transition is the major source of problem behavior in this clinical population. Translational research with animals and persons with developmental disabilities has shown that a specific type of transition is more aversive than other transitions'a discriminable transition from favorable- to less-favorable reinforcement conditions. To gain a better understanding of what types of transitions may be problematic for individuals with autism, an online survey was administered to parents/caregivers of individuals with autism in the west Texas area (n=59). Results indicated that the transition type with the highest rate of problems was moving from a preferred activity to a non-preferred activity (e.g., coloring to cleaning up toys), with 86% (n=51) of respondents reporting problems during that transition type (between non-preferred: 44%; between preferred: 19%; non-preferred to preferred: 15%). The finding that a specific type of transition- a preferred to non-preferred activity transition- is a major source of problem behavior in persons with autism is in agreement with the aforementioned translational research.

Two young men who were students at a residential school for children with autism participated in this study. Study 1 was a descriptive assessment of challenging behavior during transitions between daily activities. For both participants, the highest level of challenging behavior occurred during transitions from more- to less-preferred activities. Study 2 was an analysis of effects of three different strategies for ending highly preferred activities and transitioning to less-preferred activities (no notice, advanced notice, and intervening activity). Of primary interest was pausing, the time it took for a participant to comply with an instruction to begin a new activity after the end of the prior activity. Pausing duration during transitions from more- to less-preferred activities were greatest in the no notice condition, somewhat less in the advanced notice condition, and least in the intervening activity condition. Strategies for minimizing challenging behavior during transitions will be discussed.

The current study examined the effect of transitions between bites of preferred and non-preferred foods on the latency to accept bites with children with feeding disorders. Both preferred and non-preferred foods were presented during each session; these transitions were conceptualized as rich-lean and lean-rich. This study extends the work of previous research, which demonstrated an effect on behavior when transitioning between tasks involving differential magnitudes of reinforcement. Perone and Courtney (1992) found that pausing on a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement was longest when transitioning from a small reinforcer to another small reinforcer; the shortest pause occurred when transitioning from a large reinforcer to another large reinforcer. Furthermore, subjects paused only on the multiple schedule arrangement; the mixed schedule did not yield differential pausing. Participants in this study paused longer on unfavorable transitions (i.e., lean-lean, rich-lean) than on favorable transitions (i.e., rich-rich, lean-rich). Instances of problem behavior were associated only with these unfavorable transitions. Similar to previous research, participants only demonstrated differential pausing when the upcoming transition was signaled (i.e., multiple schedule). This line of research is important for informing clinicians and caregivers about meal arrangements that are most conducive to producing successful meals, with shorter durations and less problem behavior.

Results from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 1 and 2 indicate that more and more young adults with disabilities are pursuing a postsecondary education after high school. However, young adults with intellectual disabilities continued to be the group that was the least likely to participate in any postsecondary education. As a result, these individuals are not likely to benefit from occupations that offer opportunities for advancement and financial security in this economy (Wagner et al., 2005). One of the factors that lead to the low enrollment of young adults with intellectual disabilities in postsecondary education is their limited academic skills, particularly in the areas of reading and writing. Therefore, educators should prepare learners with intellectual disabilities with the academic skills necessary to succeed in the postsecondary education settings. The symposium will include three studies that focus on teaching academic skills to young adults with intellectual disabilities at the postsecondary level. We will also discuss the implication of our findings.

The combined repeated reading and question generation procedure is a reading intervention designed to target both fluency and comprehension for students with disabilities. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention for school age children with learning disabilities. This study extended the research by utilizing the program with 4 postsecondary learners with intellectual disabilities. We will present the results in the context of a multiple baseline across participants design and discuss the implication of the finding.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching a paraphrasing strategy on expository reading comprehension of young adults with intellectual disabilities. Four learners from a postsecondary education program for individuals with disabilities participated in the study. During the intervention, the instructor taught a three-step paraphrasing strategy using the strategy instruction model. In the context of multiprobe design, we found that cognitive strategy learning resulted in higher number of main idea and details retold by the participants.

This study investigated the efficacy of a writing strategy designed to improve the essay-test taking perfromance of young adults who were enrolled in a post-secondary education program for individuals with developmental disabilities. A random assignment to treatment or control groups and a pre- and posttest design was employed. The students were taught a six-step ANSWER strategy that addressed the following skills: the analysis of essay test prompts, creation of outlines, construction of essay responses, and editing essay responses. The treatment group scored significantly higher on three dependent measures (i.e., a strategy scoring rubric, an analytical rubric, and a comparison of words written from pre- to posttest) than the control group. The results supported the use of the ANSWER strategy as an effective tool in improving the essay responses of post-secondary students with developmental disabilities.

The science fiction and horror genre is often used to explore difficult subjects at a distance from our current time and space. The genre Zombies, Dr. Who, and Vampires have all been used by the symposium presenters to explore operant and respondent behavior analyses in fun and interesting ways for both students and philosophers of science. In this symposium, each of these genres will be used to explain behavioral concepts, principles, and procedures. Some of the topics to be covered include motivating operations, unconditioned and conditioned positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, stimulus control, generalization, and functional behavior analysis. In addition, an exploration of the basic philosophical underpinning of determinism is evident in each of the talks.

Personal experience and communications with those who teach behavior analysis has yielded anecdotal evidence suggesting that individuals first exposed to behaviorism may find topics such as the prediction and control of behavior to be aversive, opting instead for a more free-willed approach to human behavior. It may be the case that covering the same materials with animal analogues could serve to alleviate that concern. While the gap between human and animal research may constitute another barrier to overcome in the education of college students, the horror genre in popular culture may provide an alternative source for teaching many of the assumptions of behaviorism: that of the zombie. Recent trends have shown an increase in the acceptance of zombie-themed materials and marketing, including those in the sciences. It is in this light that we offer several methods by which zombies may be incorporated into the behavior-analytic classroom.

The use of science fiction to understand science, and the science of behavior, is experiencing a resurrection in some classrooms. Basic behavior analytic principles such as punishment, negative and positive reinforcement, stimulus control, and generalization can all be understood from an analysis of the characters in Dr. Who, including the Cybermen. In addition, the robots in both Dr. Who and other science fiction genre media can be used as examples of rule-governed versus contingency-based behavior, establishing operations, and conditioned reinforcement. Many of the stories can be used to describe how scarce resources and the need to survive leads to behavior that is viewed as undesirable by other planets (i.e., other cultures), leading to a meta-contingency analysis. In this presentation, Dr. Who and other science fiction examples will be used to examine how to explain behavior analysis to students.

The current study examined the effects of establishing comparative relations between coins on intraverbal responding in children with disabilities. Specifically, pre-test probes were conducted assessing participants ability to answer questions about the value of three coins (nickel, penny, and dime), which coin is more/less (e.g., Which is more, a penny or a dime?), and the ability to choose the coin worth more/less when presented in an array of two. Training was then conducted on matching the coins to a number of dots representing the coins values. The more than relationship between the dime (A) and the nickel (B) and the more than relationship between the nickel (B) and the penny (C) were then taught. Finally, post-test probes were conducted to assess the effects on intraverbal responding and testing for mutual and combinatorial entailment. Preliminary data suggest this is an effective procedure in producing emergent intraverbals and emergent comparative relations.

The objective of the present study was to train intraverbal relations using conditional discrimination and fluency training in children with intellectual disabilities. Three children from a service program for children with intellectual disabilities in Bogota-Colombia were recruited. A pre-test post-test design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programs. Participants were selected using the Spanish version of the ABBLS (Assessment of Basic Language & Learning Skills), but only tacts, mands and intraverbals were evaluated. During the pre-test condition, participants were evaluated in tact relations (e.g., sadness, happiness), followed by direct and bidirectional intraverbal relations (opposition and sameness) (e.g., fear/courage) and verbal fluency (i.e., response speed and accuracy). In the training phase, participants were taught to tact different emotions (e.g. sadness, happiness, fear). Once the mastery criterion was met, they were trained in intraverbal relations using conditional discriminations for both sameness and opposition relations. For instance, participants were presented with one laminated card that contained the emotion (e.g. happiness), and were asked to point to the one that was the same and the one that was opposite. Then, intraverbal derived relations were tested for the same and opposite relations. In the final training phase, participants were exposed to fluency training with all the intraverbal derived relations. This was followed by a post-test to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program compared to the pre-test phase.

Many students with autism and other developmental disabilities have difficulty sequencing their own behavior during free-choice situations. Rather, they rely on adults to prompt them to engage in particular activities. Many do not interact appropriately with play materials or may select one activity and engage in it for an extended period of time. Photographic activity schedules have been shown to be an effective tool to teach children to sequence their own behavior and transition smoothly between multiple activities. Children learn to follow the visual cues in the activity schedule to make transitions instead of relying on adult-provided prompts. Activity schedules also provide a context for teaching basic and complex choice-making behavior. As children develop verbal behavior, social scripts also will be added then later faded to promote social interaction. Activity schedules have been used successfully in a variety of settings with both children and adults with various disabilities. They are easy to use and can be adapted to most environments. As children learn to follow activity schedules, the schedules themselves can be modified to more closely resemble those used by their typically developing peers (e.g., planners, daily calendars, "to do" lists, etc.).

Behavior analytic practitioners who work with children and adults with autism and related developmental disorders.

Early studies showing that drugs that people take illicitly can maintain IV self-administration in laboratory animals have led to a continuing role for such studies to measure abuse potential of existing and new drugs and, as well, continuing interest in understanding the multiple determinants of the reinforcing effects of drugs and how to measure them. Laboratory studies have shown that, in addition to subject-related and drug-related variables, contextual factors can qualitatively and/or quantitatively influence drug-maintained behavior. Among these factors are the schedule of availability, drug-taking history, and reinforcement options. Their influence will be reviewed with examples of differences in the dose-related effects of selected drugs under varying schedule conditions, the role pharmacological history can play in the expression of a drug's reinforcing effects, and the utility of using the availability of an alternative reinforcer under concurrent schedule conditions to study drug-maintained and drug-seeking behavior.

The target audience is researchers and practitioners interested in substance abuse and current laboratory procedures for assessing abuse liability of drugs.

Behavior analysis has applications in education as a means to improve student academic performance and increasing student participation in class. Various teaching methods such as active student performance have been found effective when used in a variety of classrooms. This symposium will present research that evaluates three different methods of instruction (guided notes, response cards and online lectures) and their effects on student’s academic performance in undergraduate and graduate level courses.

The effects of guided notes and response cards for in-lecture review on post-lecture quiz scores, competing academic behaviors and academic responding in two graduate level university behavior analysis courses will be evaluated and compared, as well as the effects of response cards when compared with traditional lecture on the competing academic behaviors of undergraduate level students. Finally, an evaluation of the effectiveness of online or in-class lecture formats on undergraduate students’ weekly quiz scores will be presented.

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of two differing conditions on the competing academic responses of undergraduate students during a lecture using an alternating treatments design. One condition will consist of questions pertaining to lecture material interspersed during classroom instruction to be answered by students with the format of a white board while the other condition will involve a standard lecture format with no class participation via white board activities. A 16-week long evaluation will be conducted in an Undergraduate course in Behavior Analysis at the University of South Florida. Results and future directions will be discussed.

Behavior analysts have a long history of exploring the application of basic principles to instructional design in education (Keller, 1968; Skinner, 1968; Tiemann & Markle, 1983). Recent technological advances and the push toward online or blended learning environments have created new opportunities for course redesign. Behavior analysts are conveniently poised to evaluate the relative efficacy of alternative modes of instruction. However, to date there have been few studies that use single-subject research methodology to explore these questions. We evaluated the comparative effectiveness of online or in-class lecture formats on undergraduate students weekly quiz scores. We were particularly interested in individual student responsiveness to the lecture formats and how these data compared to group means. The comparative effects of the two lecture formats were evaluated using an alternating treatment design counterbalanced across course sections. Data from two studies conducted across four sections of an Introduction to Behavior Analysis course will be presented. The results suggest that students responded favorably to both lecture formats. The implications of these findings will be discussed in the context of course redesign and opportunities for blended or online instruction.

Interpersonal contingencies present in the family, peer group, and community contexts support the emergence of important behaviors from emotional development to daily living. One way that the interpersonal context impacts these behaviors may be by facilitating psychological flexibility, which, in turn fosters more sensitive and effective behavior. The papers in this symposium will examine the impact of different aspects of the interpersonal context on psychological flexibility and wellbeing. The first paper will consider the development of social identity and out-group relations among members of an obese population. The second paper will examine data on the development of psychological flexibility and its role in parent-child relationships. The third paper will examine the impact of local tragedy on avoidant and valued behaviors in community members. Implications for the development of interpersonal contexts that support positive growth and effective living will be discussed.

Humans readily engage in social categorization on the basis of both physical and arbitrary features of the individual. Once these categories, or stimulus classes, are formed, functions are easily transformed among members of the classes. Preliminary research has shown, for example, that arbitrary stimuli can easily acquire stigma functions when derived as equivalent to obese. The most basic form of social categorization is the distinction of I from you and, by extension, us from them. It is commonly assumed that functions of outgroup and ingroup members diverge in such a way as to protect the self from taking on aversive functions. This is not the case, however, for obese individuals, who demonstrate explicit and implicit weight bias. This conceptual paper will explore the learning history that might contribute to self-stigma among the obese. Particular attention will be paid to the transformation of function across deictic relations that might result in such self-stigmatization, and the social context that might control it.

Practitioners and researchers have used preference assessments to identify stimuli and activities that will function as reinforcers for a variety of populations, including children and adults with, and without, developmental disabilities. Recently, researchers have extended the utility of preference assessment procedures by examining a number of procedural manipulations that are discussed in the current symposium. First, researchers have examined the use of different assessment modalities. Specifically, researchers have manipulated the methods for presenting individuals with choices between stimuli/activities (e.g., using tangible stimuli, pictures, vocal-verbal instructions, or video presentations). Additionally, researchers have manipulated the consequences delivered following participants' selections (e.g., immediate or delayed access to the stimuli selected, or no stimulus access). Second, researchers have examined preference for new types of stimuli including protracted activities and negative reinforcers. Third, researchers have examined the use of progressive-ratio schedules of reinforcement for identifying preferences, and for validating preference assessment outcomes. The researchers will discuss the reliability and validity of different preference assessment modalities, the implications of using different preference assessment procedures, and the results and efficacy of using progressive-ratio schedules to evaluate preferences and reinforcer potency.

Preference assessments are used to identify items that will function as reinforcers. A number of preference assessment methods have been conducted with adults with developmental disabilities, such as the stimulus paired-choice assessment (Fisher et al., 1992) and verbal paired-choice assessment (Northup, Jones, Broussard, & George et al., 1995). Verbal assessments may be an efficient preference assessment method, yet limited research is available addressing the validity of such methods. In experiment 1, the validity of verbal paired-choice preference assessments conducted with adults with developmental disabilities was evaluated by comparing the outcomes of three assessment formats (i.e., stimulus paired-choice, verbal-no access, and verbal-access assessments) that differed in the way in which choices were presented, and the consequences delivered following selections. The extent to which assessment formats correlated was assessed by calculating Spearmans rank correlation coefficients. In experiment 2, the reinforcing potency of preferred activities (identified in Experiment 1) was assessed using a single-operant progressive-ratio schedule of reinforcement. The validity of each assessment format is discussed.

Researchers have found presenting tangible items to be a valid method for identifying the preferences for a variety of populations (e.g., Fisher et al., 1992; DeLeon & Iwata, 1996). More recently, researchers have begun to evaluate the utility of determining preferences by using pictures of stimuli or a vocal tact of stimuli. However, it is often the case that tangible items are not presented following a participant's selection in these methods. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the validity of pictorial and verbal preference assessments under immediate, delayed, and no access consequences. We conducted three administrations under each modality and consequence with preschool age children. We then conducted reinforcer assessments using the top items across modality and consequence. We found inconsistent correspondence between the modalities of assessments and across the consequences. During reinforcer tests, we found stronger reinforcement effects with items identified as preferred using the pictorial and tangible-item modalities, and with the delayed and immediate access consequences. The procedures were replicated with several additional participants. Results of this study will allow us to determine the most efficient and accurate procedure for determining preferences of young children.

Mathematics is one of the academic areas assessed for all students as proposed by No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002). Students with severe developmental disabilities participate through alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards. For this population, in general, the field knows more about teaching reading than teaching mathematics. The purpose of this symposium is to present evidence on instructional procedures and evidence-based practices for teaching mathematics content to this population. The first study, presented by Fred Spooner, will focus on a comprehensive literature review for published articles in an attempt to document evidence-based practices for teaching mathematics content. The second study, presented by Keri Bethune was a field test which included progress monitoring with a series of AB designs for seven individual case studies. The third study, presented by Alicia Saunders examined the effects of computer-based video instruction (CBVI) to teach grade-aligned mathematics skills using a single-case multiple probe design across skills with concurrent replication across three students with autism spectrum disorders. The study also aimed to determine the degree to which generalization of skills occurred in the general education classroom. The implications for instructional interventions and evidence-based practices will be discussed.

A comprehensive review was conducted on teaching mathematics to individuals with significant cognitive disabilities and to identify evidence-based practices. Guidelines from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) were used to begin to identify studies from 1975-2005. Sixty-five articles yielding 54 single-subject and 14 group studies were identified for an overall total of 68 experiments, as two articles reported multiple experiments, and one had both single-subject and a group experiment. Evidence was found that students with significant disabilities could learn mathematics based on overall strong effect size. Articles also were found that addressed all five NCTM components of mathematics (number & operations, measurement, algebra, geometry, & data analysis), but most addressed numbers and computation or measurement with high school/transition aged students who had moderate intellectual disability (ID), in classrooms, teaching the mathematical component identified by NCTM as measurement (e.g., money), using systematic prompting and feedback in a massed trial format, and about 30% met all five quality indicators identified in the recent literature. Issues for the future include level of support to allow students to acquire mathematical content, the intensity of instruction, and more guidance from the research-based literature, as the literature at this juncture is sparse.

Competence in early numeracy skills highly correlate with success in mathematics in later years; however, many students, including students with moderate and severe disabilities, lack a sound foundation in early numeracy skills. This presentation provides a conceptual model for teaching early numeracy skills to elementary students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities, as well as presents pilot research in both special and general education settings. This study included three special education teachers, three paraprofessionals, three general education elementary math teachers, three doctoral students in special education (who provided support to the teachers and paraprofessionals), and eight elementary students with moderate/severe disabilities (one student was dropped due to poor school attendance). The study took place in the special education teachers classrooms (for small group story-based math instruction) and the general education classroom (where the general education teacher provided group instruction and the paraprofessional provided embedded instruction). Special education teachers provided scripted math instruction to small groups utilizing systematic prompting techniques and graphic organizers. Data showed that all students made progress towards the targeted math objectives as measured on individually administered weekly math assessments, and that students were able to generalize those skills to the embedded instruction in the general education classrooms.

Computer-based video instruction (CBVI) has been shown to be effective in teaching discrete mathematical skills to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (Chen & Bernard-Opitz, 1993; Whalen et al., 2010); however, no studies to date have examined teaching more complex mathematical skills. CBVI is likely to be effective in teaching students with ASD because it is a multi-treatment package which can include explicit instruction, feedback, modeling, prompting, repetition of instruction, and positive reinforcement (Ota & DuPaul, 2002; Mechling, 2005; Pennington, 2010). This presentation will discuss the results of a study which examined the effects of computer-based video instruction on grade-aligned mathematics skills in three students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and intellectual disabilities. It will also discuss the generalization of skills to general education mathematics problems in an inclusive general education mathematics classroom. The study used a multiple-probe across behaviors (topic areas) with concurrent replication across students. Sample projected data for this study have been included.

Parents play not only a pivotal role in the treatment of children who are developmentally delayed, but may also play the role of their childs best teacher when armed with strategies that are implemented under motivational and natural conditions. While treatment staff and clinical specialists may have various expertise and responsibilities on a case, their overriding job is to progressively improve the abilities of parents to be effective with their children. Irrespective of their success when directly working with the child, if they do not accomplish this transfer, they have not done their jobs. Having well-qualified treatment staff to provide quality parent education is paramount to any successful treatment program, such as when working on language and social skills; skills that parents want more than nothing else for their children who exhibit deficits in these areas. These three presentations examine the effects of parent implemented interventions in order to evoke language and social-play skills in their children with developmental disabilities. Discussions on teaching parent-implemented strategies to evoke language and social-play skills, as well as a thorough discussion on how to develop quality training programs for treatment staff that provide parent education, will be highlighted in detail.

Although children with Down's syndrome have been described as sociable and well behaved in community settings (Rosner, Hodapp, Fidler, Agun & Dykens, 2004), direct observations of their social behavior reveals low levels of reciprocal social interaction and adult prompt dependency within social contexts (Sigman & Ruskin, 1999). No studies to date have focused on teaching social initiation skills to children with Downs syndrome or parent education to evoke such interactions. In the present study, a multiple baseline design across activities shows the effective implementation of a collaborative parent education program for teaching a child with Downs syndrome to socially initiate with typical peers through the use of a portable video modeling intervention. The participants parent also demonstrated rapid acquisition of the behavioral strategies throughout treatment. Inherent in the intervention was the use of preference assessment to evoke establishing operations in the presence of teaching activities, thus contributing to more natural interactions. Potential future implications are discussed in terms of using portable video modeling interventions to target various social and functional skills and the value of a collaborative approach with parents to address social skill deficits in children with Downs syndrome.

Role-Reversal Imitation is an early developing skill that plays a pivotal role in language development and is the process by which an individual comprehends how a communicator is using some communicative act towards him, then reproduces that same communicative act back in kind within the context of a social interaction (Tomasello, 2008). An interdisciplinary approach was used in the present study to teach parents of three developmentally delayed children between the ages of 24-36 months to successfully implement a Role-Reversal Imitation protocol during play activities. The goal of implementing such a program was to teach parents to evoke a greater frequency of spontaneous verbal behavior as well as sequencing imitative actions in novel play situations initiated by their children. To demonstrate these effects, Role-Reversal Imitation was incorporated into each childs current treatment program and taught through role play, modeling, and practice with feedback. A discussion of the effects of Role-Reversal Imitation within the context of a childs treatment program as compared to treatment programs which do not explicitly target RRI will be discussed. Additionally, research on the use of Role-Reversal Imitation with non-vocal children and the use of an interdisciplinary approach to parent education will also be detailed.

Snakes, fish and cockroaches exemplify organisms whose anatomy, physiology, and motivation are seemingly divergent from animal models typically used by researchers to demonstrate learning. This symposium presents modified methods that researchers developed to study operant conditioning in nontraditional models. These studies represent a cutting-edge approach to develop interventions to affect ecological threats of nonindigenous animals, enhance the knowledge of behavioral scientists, and diminish fiscal barriers historically associated with establishing experimental laboratories. The three studies presented within this symposium will show how: (a) An operant was established for snakes so visual processes could be studied, (b) a fish lab was developed so students could examine behavioral processes as part of a graduate curriculum, and (c) Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches can be used to demonstrate behavioral processes. Logistical issues (e.g., dealing with IACUC rules and regulations, fiscal concerns, shaping the animal to eat smaller consumables) will be compared and contrasted with the utility of advancements to behavioral science. Data will be used to establish the utility of operant conditioning using nontraditional organisms to study biological and behavioral processes. Additionally, the successes and pitfalls of using nontraditional organisms will be discussed within the context of behavioral science.

Skinner built our science on the hard work of mice and pigeon pushing levers and pecking keys inside a box sporting his name. They worked hard, but were well rewarded. Skinner even more so. Today's graduate students are more and more likely to enter the workforce having never seen a rat or pigeon, an unfortunate circumstance. We believe that this experience is critical for graduate training and sought a solution. Given the challenges facing behavioral departments that desire to begin and operate traditional animal labs using rats or pigeons, we have explored a less-traditional species to populate our operant learning lab: Carassius auratus. This paper will discuss the trials and tribulations of bootstrapping a new operant lab. It will examine the benefit of this species given the current constraints of animal care requirements and budgetary concerns that schools face. Additionally, we will present an overview of a curriculum to teach graduate students in an operant lab course piloted via this lab. The results derived from our aquatic operant chambers will be discussed and compared with traditional behavioral patterns on schedules and future implications and directions detailed.

Pigeons and rodents have been conditioned to demonstrate a wide variety of behavior topographies, schedules, and discriminations in the laboratory setting. While an important research and instructional tool, many programs cannot afford to establish or maintain such animal research labs due to financial constraints and increasingly complex animal research regulations. Many invertebrate organisms, such as the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa), fall under few research regulations and cost far less to maintain than the typically utilized model organisms. The following paper will provide a brief overview of the behavioral literature involving invertebrate organisms, introduce the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach as a financially feasible model organism, and present current research being conducted with these giant three inch insects. Research demonstrations of positive reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, preference, stimulus discrimination, and shaped behaviors will be highlighted. Additionally, the paper will discuss the specific laboratory requirements, methodological difficulties, and apparatus modifications involved in the study of these unique organisms.

The Competent Learner Model is a multi-component package addressing the individual learning needs of children who have difficulty participating in typical learning environments. The four components of the Competent Learner Model are learner assessments, learner curriculum, online staff training course of study modules, and collaborative teaming with on-site coaching in classrooms. Over the past 22 months, the Competent Leaner Model has been implemented across public, center-based, and private school settings in the state of Virginia. This symposium will describe the significant impact across 3 specific learners. Each learner engaged in high frequency of singular and/or combined problematic behaviors (i.e., aggression, self-injury, property destruction and elopement). Decreases in these behaviors were necessary to maintain student and staff safety, as well maintain placement in public school. All four components of the Competent Learner model were utilized across the 3 learners and school settings. Data collected showed increases across non-established or defunct learner repertoires (both in number and topography), decreases in frequency and rate of undesired behaviors, as well as the use of restrictive procedures.

Overview of the Learner: Implementation of the Competent Learner Model began with the learner in the Fall of 2011. He was enrolled as a 1st grade student in a public elementary school in rural Virginia. The student was using a combination of symbols, gestures, and some vocals (English and Spanish) in limited frequency and effectiveness to communicate. The learner engaged in frequent problematic behaviors, including climbing (i.e., Attempts or occurrences of one or two feet off floor or body elevated on a table, counter, air conditioner, desk or chair), aggression toward others, property destruction and elopement. A modified daily schedule (i.e., 30 minutes of home-based instruction and 30 minutes of school-based instruction per day) was put in place for the learner in the special education resource room with a 2:1 staff to student ratio. Overview of Procedures: All four components of the Competent Learner Model were implemented for this learner. These components include learner assessments and curriculum, online course of study for staff, and on-site coaching in the classroom. The learner was placed into Lesson One of the curriculum. The targets for this initial lesson were manding for items or actions using any form of motor behavior, remaining in close proximity of instructors and accepting highly preferred items. The team participating in the online course of study included the learner's special education teacher, paraprofessionals, SLP and OT. They began completing one unit per month in the fall of 2011. The coaching component also began in the fall, with modeling of behavior interventions and learner formats, implementation of concepts learned in the course of study, and the use of staff fidelity checklists. Data: By the Spring of 2012, an increase was observed in skill acquisition from 2 repertoires to 6 repertoires, and in communication frequency and type. The development of the Problem Solver (mand) Repertoire was observed as learner NA made distinct sounds during preferred activities and distinctly asked for preferred items across people and places. An increase was observed in mean occurrence of 8.5 mands per 30 minute session to 18 mands and tacts per 30 minute session. In regards to reduction of problematic behaviors, participation across learning environments, staff, peers and items also occurred. The learner's climbing behavior occurrences decreased in frequency from 5 occurrences per hour to 0 occurrences per hour.

Overview of the Learner: Competent Learner Model implementation began with the learner in April of 2012. He was enrolled as a second grade student in a center-based regional program in Virginia with no formal communication system in place and limited items and activities that he enjoyed. He engaged in high rates of head banging (i.e., fist to head, head to wall, and head to floor). The intensity of the behavior was such that his mother suffered a broken nose. Overview of the procedures: Learner assessment and curriculum, online course of study for staff, and on-site coaching in the classroom occurred for the learner and staff. The learner was placed into Lesson One of the curriculum. Targets for this lesson were manding for items or actions using any form of motor behavior, remaining in close proximity of instructors and accepting highly preferred items. Coaching included modeling and prompting of behavioral interventions and curriculum formats, and implementing concepts from the course of study. Data: Implementation of Lesson 1 showed immediate gains. Interval data were collected in collaboration with the teacher to demonstrate program effectiveness and increase her compliance to implementing the strategies. Each occurrence of head banging (hitting the head with hands or banging head on floor or wall) was counted as 1 response. A random alternating conditions design was used comparing intervals between Lesson 1 targets and baseline. During the baseline condition, staff members blocked head banging and did not reinforce subtle mands. Each interval lasted 5 minutes. A range of 8-132 occurrences of head banging were observed across alternating conditions. Rate of head banging decreased from 26.8 per minute in April of 2012 to 0.38 per minute by October of 2012. In regards to skill acquisition, the learner increased from no mands in April 2012, to using motor responses (i.e. reaching/leaning towards desired items and staff) to request items and actions and returned items to staffs hands to indicate when he was finished. Tolerance of staff proximity increased as shown by decreased pinching and head banging. In April 2012, pinching and head banging occurred within one second of a staff standing within 2 feet of the student. Pinching decreased to near zero rates; while staying in proximity of staff occurred for up to 14 minutes. Duration of time spent with helmet on at school decreased from 7 hours daily in April 2012 to 30 minutes daily in October 2012.

Overview of the learner: A.K. was an 8 year old 2nd grade student enrolled in a multiple disabilities elementary school classroom in Virginia. Prior to intervention, AK did not participate in any instructional conditions. Specific problematic behaviors included aggression toward staff, non-compliance, property destruction, and elopement. Overview of the procedures: The Competent Learner Model was implemented in A.K.'s classroom in October 2011. All instructors and service providers participated in the online Course of Study, with in-situ coaching provided by 2 coaches. The weekly classroom coaching included modeling and coaching of learner assessment, data collection, behavioral interventions and curriculum formats, coaching to assure mastery and implementation of Course of Study concepts, and weekly team meetings to problem solve and monitor progress. In October 2011, the learner was placed into Lesson One of the curriculum. The targets for this initial lesson were manding for items or actions using any form of motor behavior, remaining in close proximity of instructors and accepting highly preferred items. Data: By April 2012, the learner had made significant gains across six skill repertoires. The learner increased participation skills across instructional conditions, across instructors, and across learning environments and materials while showing significant reductions of problematic behaviors. In October 2012, the learner engaged in problematic behavior which included aggression, property destruction, non-compliance, and elopement up to 65% of the school day. By April 2012, problematic behaviors were reduced to less than 8% of the day. Specifically, the learner engaged in aggression toward staff up to 89 times per day. By April 2012, instances of aggression were no more than 5 times per day with 3 data probe dates in April completely absent of aggression. Property destruction, which occurred up to 28 times per day, reduced to no more than 5 times per day with 3 data probe dates in April completely absent of property destruction. Instances of both non-compliance and elopement were significantly reduced. Elopement occurred up to 30 times per school day and non-compliance occurred up to 104 times per school day. Non-compliance was reduced to 5 instances in April 2012 from 21 instances per day in the fall of 2011. By April of 2012, the learner had entered Lesson 6 of the curriculum and had shown mastery of lesson criteria across 6 repertoires.

Behavior modification procedures have strong research support as a treatment option for ADHD. White noise is one such environmental manipulation. Continuous white noise played through headphones was used as a classroom intervention to reduce students off-task behavior and increase their percentage of attempted and correctly completed items on assignments. Three students on medication for ADHD received 75dB of white noise or no noise on a single-subject reversal design 5 days per week for 7 to 17 weeks. All 3 students showed a reduction in off-task behavior when listening to white noise relative to their respective baselines One student attempted and correctly completed a higher percentage of items, one attempted fewer but correctly completed 100% of items, and one showed almost no difference in items attempted and percent correct when working under white noise compared to baseline. Data is also included for a case study, which used the same above intervention and outcome measures, however demonstrated the practical use of the intervention in a classroom. The case study also included additional strategies to increase on-task behavior, including self-monitoring, reinforcement, and prompting.

The emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relations that indicate the formation of equivalence classes is a well-documented phenomenon, particularly within laboratory settings. Unfortunately, the application of this efficient technology to concerns outside of the experimental realm is limited. This symposium presents three studies that used stimulus equivalence technology to address real-world issues. The first study, by Macauley and Maguire, established and expanded classes of equivalent stimuli consisting of middle school vocabulary words. The second study, by Rochefort and Maguire, taught typical second grade students equivalent classes of geometric stimuli. The third study, Leonard and Maguire, investigated an efficient technology to teach and then establish and expand classes of equivalent stimuli for an entire class of typical science concepts via computerized instruction. The results of discussed in terms of how stimulus equivalence technology can be used to address a variety of applied educational issues.

In Experiment 1 Participants were initially administered an academic vocabulary pre-test that consisted of cloze activities, analogies, and synonym/antonym questions based on the vocabulary words to be trained in this study. Following the academic pre-test, the participants were trained to form four three-member classes of equivalent novel vocabulary words using a specific training sequence that resulted in the emergence of untrained equivalent relations. In Experiment 2 one member of the established equivalent class was trained to a synonymous vocabulary word already present in their repertoire. Following the training to expand the class, participants were administered an academic post-test. The results are discussed in terms of applying stimulus equivalence technology to academic and educational tasks.

In Experiment 1 equivalence classes were established for typical third grade science concepts of carnivore, herbivore and omnivore with a single participant. Initially, the participant was taught to match visual pictures of skulls to the printed word samples carnivore, herbivore and omnivore. Then he was taught to match the printed descriptions of carnivore, herbivore and omnivore, again, to the same printed word samples (e.g., carnivore, herbivore and omnivore). Subsequent testing of all possible stimulus-stimulus relations documented the formation of three, three-member equivalence classes. In Experiment 2 this protocol was then applied to an entire class of third grade students via computerized instruction. The results indicated the emergence of novel stimulus-stimulus relations indicative of equivalent class formations of science concepts. The results of these two experiments are discussed in terms applying stimulus equivalence technology to groups of general education students teaching general education concepts.

Stimulus equivalence research has documented the efficiency of this process in that novel stimulus-stimulus relations emerge after an initial conditional discrimination training. However, critics has often cited the facts that past research investigating the formation of equivalence classes typically trained and tested only a single participant at a time and employed computer assisted instruction and data collection. Both may be limiting factors for some public school districts. The current study tested and trained typical second students using pencil-and-paper worksheets and delayed reinforcement. After teaching two conditional discrimination in this matter, testing for the emergence of untrained stimulus-stimulus relation indicative equivalence class formation. The results are discussed in terms of employing stimulus equivalence technology in typical educational settings.

To achieve desired client results with an acceptable return on investment, agencies must engage in the necessary system, process, and individual performance. The clients' progress depends on the quality of the teachers' performance, as well as the performance of the agency's teacher-trainers, supervisors, evaluators, program designers, and director. In order to evaluate and improve their organizational performance, agencies need sensitive measures of client performance and progress, in addition to sensitive measures of individual, process, and system performance. These measures may also be used to identify causes of inadequate client progress and recommend solutions. The measures must be collected and evaluated frequently, so that the agency can respond rapidly when clients are not making efficient progress towards their goals. Agencies can then improve client outcomes by designing and implementing resource, training, and management solutions. This symposium will present an overview of organizational performance engineering followed by its application to improve client outcomes of two different agencies that serve children with learning difficulties.

The presentation will describe an "organizational performance engineering" project to improve the efficiencies with which special education students served by a public school agency learn the language, social or academic skills they need for successful transitions to less restrictive environments. The consultant implemented a data-based continuous improvement process, that began by defining the school's desired student and stakeholder results, collecting sensitive measures of student performance and progress, defining necessary system, process, and individual performance, and collecting sensitive measures of these to identify the school's performance problems. Both frequency and learning efficiency measures of student and staff performance were evaluated. These data were then used to analyze causes of system, process and individual staff performance problems and recommend solutions, which included resources, training, and management. The presentation will provide examples of the resources, staff training procedures, and performance management program that were implemented. Solution effectiveness, efficiency and return on investment were evaluated.

The aim of this symposium is to bring together individuals interested in discussing, designing, and developing programs that teach recreation, fitness, and leisure skills to a variety of populations. This will be discussed in terms Bosch and Fuqua's (2001) definition of behavioral cusps. Recreation and leisure skills: (i) will allow the learner to access new reinforcers, contingencies and environments; (ii) are socially valid; (iii) are stepping stones to the acquisition of novel behaviors that are not programmed or specifically taught; (iv) will have an impact on individuals within the learner's verbal community and (v) are incompatible with many inappropriate behaviors and learning specific target skills will help make previous challenging behaviors obsolete. This symposium will briefly review the behavioral cusps literature in reference to recreation, fitness, and leisure skills; discuss the theoretical underpinnings of related interventions; and discuss potential roadblocks to research and application. The symposium will conclude with a discussion intended to create opportunities for networking, collaborating and supporting research and application related to human challenges in health, sport, and fitness.

Simple Behavioral Activation utilizes goal-setting and naturally occurring contingencies to increase productive behaviors, typically in clients diagnosed with depression based on Fersters (1973) functional definition of depression as behavioral patterns resulting from previously reinforced productive behaviors no longer contacting reinforcement. Building on this premise, in the current study, simple activation was used with typically developing obese adults to increase exercise behaviors they previously engaged in while maintaining a healthy BMI. Results showed that the intervention was effective at increasing targeted exercises and decreasing weight, BMI, and body fat percentage. Additionally, exercising appeared to occur in direct correspondence with goal specifications. These results will be discussed in regards to effective self-management of exercise behaviors functioning as a behavioral cusp in that they (i) allowed participants to contact new sources of both extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement; (ii) resulted in socially significant physiological and psychological changes; (iii) resulted in generalization to other healthy behaviors; (iv) impacted on the participants self-perception and (v) made adding additional healthy behaviors to their repertoires more likely.

The incidence and prevalence of teen obesity have risen sharply over the past decade, and related "adult onset" conditions, such as Type II diabetes and hypertension, are now commonplace among adolescents. Obesity and associated medical problems can be prevented through regular exercise, but this behavior is difficult to shape and maintain. New research shows that exposure to nature may confer health benefits; moreover, contact with nature's sensory stimulation is immediately reinforcing. The purpose of the three studies detailed in this presentation is to determine ways in which nature-based physical activity experiences impact adolescents' subsequent choices of whether and how much to exercise. In one study, older adolescents enrolled in a backpacking course were more likely to adopt and adhere to a personal fitness plan after an initial hiking experience. A second study demonstrated that a female middle school participant in mentored nature walks increased her weekly exercise minutes and decreased servings of junk food. The third study tracks high school students' choices of high- and low-activity community service projects following alternating exposures to nature-based physical activity and sedentary projects. Generally, results suggest that because nature-based physical activity influences adolescents' exercise choices, it may be an effective intervention for sedentary teens.

Based on recent funding from Ontarios Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the Autism Services program at ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development expanded to include a focus on teaching specific sports skills to children with an ASD. Myriad research shows that increasing community participation and quality of life for clients and their families should be the desired, long-term outcomes of service from treatment centers (King, Tucker, Baldwin, Lowry, LaPorta & Martens, 2002; World Health Organization, 2001). The soccer program that will be featured in this symposium was designed to teach participants target skills (e.g., kicking a ball) as well as social skills (e.g., attending, listening and responding to peers) because there is an excellent opportunity for improvement in their physical, social and cognitive abilities when children with an intellectual disability receive early instruction in basic motor skills and developmentally appropriate play (Fevens, McGillivray-Elgie & Kishiuchi, 2010; Gutstein & Burgess, 2007). Following a presentation of the soccer program, the focus of the discussion will shift to summarizing the ways that these types of services meet the criteria for a behavioral cusp, enable participants to interact more fully in leisure activities/settings as well as hone their social skills in a natural environment with friends and family (Solish, Perry and Minnes, 2010; Bosch & Fuqua, 2001).

The metaphor of reinforcement plays a central role in how behaviorists view psychology. The response strengthening effects of reinforcement conveyed by this metaphor provide the foundation upon which the law of effect is constructed. Like previous quantitative theories of operant behavior, behavioral momentum theory has provided a formalized approach for characterizing how reinforcement affects response strength and has been suggested as a quantitative version of the law of effect. Based on research findings on behavioral momentum and on other evidence, the presentation will explore an alternative account of behavior based on information theory that dispenses with the notion of response strength. The presentation also will explore how such an information-based account might be reconciled with and integrated with the fact that reinforcers do seem to invigorate behavior. Finally, the presenter will argue that such an information-based account is at least as grounded in natural science as a traditional behavioral approach.

Language has always been assumed to be uniquely human. And many linguists (for example, Chomsky and Pinker) still subscribe to this assumption. However, extensive research since the 1970s has shown that primates are capable of acquiring language skills. This presentation focuses on language studies with bonobos at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University and at Great Ape Trust, using a keyboard with lexigrams as a communication system. The language environment the bonobos were exposed to will be described, as well as their language acquisition process and the language skills they acquired. Theoretical and philosophical implications of these studies will be discussed along with methodological issues and criticism this research raised. The ape language studies have challenged traditional views on language and cognition: findings regarding the abilities of nonhuman primates to acquire symbols, comprehend spoken words, decode simple syntactical structures, learn concepts of number and quantity, and perform complex perceptual-motor tasks have helped change the way humans view other members of the primate order.

Photo: Russ RuBert, RuBert Studios 2012

General.

Successful avoidance behavior poses a puzzle known as the “avoidance paradox.” Consider the paradigm case of a rat pressing a lever to postpone electric shocks on a free-operant schedule. At steady-state when responding is proficient, there is no apparent aversive stimulus in the environment before the rat presses the lever, and there is no apparent change in the environment after the rat presses the lever. What reinforces the response? Motivated by this question, studies of avoidance and related phenomena have created a rich source of information about situations in which the factors controlling behavior are obscure—for example, when the consequences of behavior are delayed, or distributed diffusely in time, or cumulative.The presidentwill review recent findings that illustrate how experiments on avoidance, and aversive control more generally, contribute to the analysis of situations in which the controlling factors are elusive. These are the very situations that behavior analysts must understand if we are to help prevent diseases of lifestyle (e.g., obesity, heart disease, cancer) and promote healthy behavior (e.g., exercise and proper nutrition).