Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysts who are Board Certified now have Guidelines for Responsible Conduct that clearly define our ethical responsibilities to our clients, students, colleagues, society, and to the field of behavior analysis itself.Remaining to be codified, however, are a set of values statements that represent the best our field has to offer those individuals we serve. Often, the services we provide involve life-saving behavioral procedures. Because we are now in constant competition with other professions who work hard to sell their "values" (almost in lieu of an effective technology of behavior change), I believe it is critical that we address our own values. In a recent survey of leaders in ABA we found that the question, "What values are important for our field?" yielded a diverse range of responses from "empiricism" to "logic" to "induction" and "save the world through BF Skinner" none of which are likely to appeal to consumers.In this presentation I will attempt to offer some guidelines for the development of a set of values statements for behavior analysis that will appeal to advocates and consumers in autism, education, rehabilitation, and community treatment.

Failures of self-control and social cooperation may both be described in terms of hyperbolic discounting: failures of self-control as due to discounting by delay of reinforcement -- failures of social cooperation as due to discounting by social distance. Moreover, both self-control and social cooperation may be seen as choice of distributed rewards over individual rewards: self-control as choice of rewards distributed in time -- social cooperation as choice of rewards distributed over social space. An experiment is described in which reinforcement history and reward magnitudes were balanced; under these conditions normal people learned self-control but not social cooperation. It is speculated that addicts behave towards their own future selves as normal people behave towards other people (relatively distant from them on a social scale). That is, for an addict, the problem of self-control is the same as the (usually much more difficult) problem of social cooperation.

Children and adolescents can be treated effectively using functional behavioral assessment and behavioral interventions for social, emotional and medical difficulties in a variety of settings. These settings include: a hospital treating children for chronic or terminal illnesses, a permanent residence with a loving family, a group home specifically designed to treat adolescents with multiple diagnoses, and a regular public school. The speakers in this symposium will present research-based approaches from the behavioral literature, as well as techniques they have used in clinical case studies, that effectively deal with numerous social, emotional and medical difficulties in children. Diagnoses that have been given to the children in these case studies include: Cancer, Diabetes, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Moderate Mental Retardation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Motor Stereotypy, Depression, Psychosis, Learning Disability, School Phobia with Panic Attacks and Social Anxiety Disorder. In each of the case studies discussed, these children either: were able to be receive necessary medical treatments that were previously refused, had one or more of their diagnostic labels removed or were able to be served in a typical setting after previously being removed due to their behavioral, social and emotional difficulties.

This symposium includes four papers describing recent research on trichotillomania (chronic hair pulling) with adults and children and represents the most recent behavior analysis research in this area. The first paper describes a treatment study evaluating habit reversal and adjunct treatments for hair pulling by adults. The second study describes factors, identified from a descriptive functional assessment, that are functionally related to hair pulling by adults and that may predict treatment success and relapse. The third study reports the types of comorbid mental health conditions experienced by children diagnosed with trichotillomania seen at a specialty clinic for children with chronic hair pulling. The fourth study evaluates the utility of different self-monitoring methods for chronic hair pulling by children.

This symposium provides an overview of the Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and summarizes research related to three of its major behavioral characteristics: food preference (poor diet), exercise, and self-injurious behavior.

B. F. Skinner (1957) provided a conceptual tool for analyzing the acquisition of language or verbal behavior. His conceptual analysis has encouraged research to emprirically verify his claims of the benefit of a natural science approach to the understanding and development of verbal behavior. During the past 25 years a body of empirical literature has emerged which has begun to provide support for the basic concepts he outlined in his theoretical analysis. The purpose of this symposium is to present four(4) data based research papers which apply Skinners conceptual analysis of verbal behavior to three (3) important topics in the treatment of children with autism, e.g. teaching the mand repertoire, use of alternative communication methods to develop vocal responding and methods to strengthen the echoic repertoire. The first two (2) papers will present data regarding methods to bring the mand repertoire under the control of motivational variables and methods to increase the number of items in the environment that will serve as a form of reinforcement. In the third paper the author will present data to support the use of sign language and other independent variables that successfully increased the frequency and variety of speech sounds produced by children with limited vocal repertoires. The last paper will provide data comparing the effects of two (2) different methods of teaching the echoic repertoire. Final comments will be offered regarding the application of these experimental findings to treatment programs for children with autism.

Explanations of the phenomenon of observational learning as well as its operational definition have been a source of debate and research since the early 1960s (Bandura &Walters, 1963; Catania, 1998; Staats, 1975; Gewirtz, 1971; Metz, 1965). Individuals with developmental disabilities, such as those with a diagnosis of autism, share a common deficit in the area of social and academic skills (Bauminger, 2002). An example of these deficits includes the ability to learn through observation, a critical repertoire in succeeding in less restrictive environments. The research reported herein provide an expanded analysis of several tactics on the development of observational learning in children with autism who did not have such repertoires.

The Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center has been in the process of incorporating Precision Teaching with frequency building procedures over the past several years in an effort to answer a multitude of research questions regarding best practice for older learners with autism. The papers will address an overview of the research outcomes compiled over a one-year period utilizing a multiple probe across subjects design. The first paper will review the results of frequency building with an adult with autism and childhood hemiplegia. Data will be presented on the acquisition of a fluency target (free-grasp/place/release) and the generalized effects of this type of instruction on vocational performance. The second paper will focus on the implementation of frequency building procedures with an adult with autism and a genetic syndrome. The results of frequency-building of conversation topics (see-say topics, followed by free-say topics) and the generalized effects of instruction on spontaneous conversation throughout the work day. The third paper will discuss the results of fine motor skill frequency building (free-grasp/place/release) for an adult with autism and cerebral palsy. The effects of frequency building on the performance of activities of daily living will be discussed. The three subjects participated in a multiple probe design, with implementation of frequency-building procedures staggered in three-month periods.

Research on naming has traditionally investigated naming in terms of its relation to stimulus equivalence or relational frames. More recently naming has also been investigated as a verbal development capability related to Skinner speaker-as-own listener and the experimental identification of multiple exemplar experiences as a sufficient intervention to induce naming in children who were missing naming capabilities. We shall present experiments on the induction of naming, its prevalence in, and relations to functionally analyzed theory of mind tests, and tests of a role of verbal behavior in equivalence relations in children with and without language delay diagnoses.

The education and treatment of individuals with aggressive destructive behavior is complicated and confounded by controversies that exist within the disabilities field. These controversies relate to treatment approaches, philosophy, ethics and ideology. This panel discussion will include a review of the literature since the 1989 NIH conference on destructive behavior, presentation of an index for assessing severity, and discussion of two cases illustrating the state of the art.

The mission of the Standards and Professional Affairs Committee (PAC) is to focus on the practice of behavior analysis, including certification, continuing education, codes of ethics, practice standards, legislation and public policy, and third party payments. This panel discussion will involve brief presentations of these topics of interest to behavior analysts who are researchers, academicians, and clinicians. The discussions and issues raised by the panel and audience will be considered by the PAC for possible presentation to the ABA Council.

Mindfulness is often described as paying attention to present-moment experience in a nonjudgmental or accepting way. It originates in Eastern spiritual traditions and has been adapted in a variety of ways for inclusion in several interventions that are now widely available in mental health settings. These interventions include acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction, among others. Although empirical support for these interventions is increasing rapidly, the assessment of mindfulness has received much less attention. Assessing mindfulness is critically important for understanding its relationships with other psychological variables and for investigating the processes by which mindfulness training leads to desirable outcomes. To date, most attempts to assess mindfulness use self-report methods. This talk will review the available mindfulness questionnaires and describe empirical studies of these instruments that examine components of mindfulness and their relationships to variables important to mental health. Implications for teaching mindfulness skills and for exploring the processes by which mindfulness training achieves beneficial effects will be discussed.

In this presentation, Dr. Kameenui, Commissioner for the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), will discuss the statutory mission and requirements of the NCSER, its operation in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and its current activities. He will also explore the status and place of special education research in educational research writ large, and comment on the appropriate theoretical, historical, and conceptual evidentiary framework for special education research. Finally, he will describe a set of organizing principles for explicating, enhancing, and expanding special education research in the context of current federal and state initiatives, and discuss research topics that are of current importance to NCSER and IES.

Utilizing the language and theory outlined in Skinners Verbal Behavior (1957), language and learning interventions for children with autism will be explored. Empirical data from two experiments will be presented and analyzed with an emphasis on clinical first study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining motor echoic training and manipulating motivating operations to elicit generative and spontaneous verbal behavior across operant classes. The second study addresses the efficacy of training echoic rehearsal strategies to improve task performance and enable responding under joint control for autistic youth. Theoretical and process issues raised by each experiment will be addressed, particularly the superiority of topography-based, over selection-based language interventions. Additionally, the role of generalized imitation in higher order processes will be examined.

This symposium will present information about the service delivery model based on Skinners analysis of verbal behavior to serve children with autism, their parents, and their teachers that is used at Behavior Analysts, Inc. The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS), will be described as the focal assessment tool used in the Strategic Teaching and Reinforcement System (STARS) model classroom. Additionally, ABLLS-training opportunities are provided on an international level and will be described in the presentation. The service delivery methods used in the STARS classroom, the STARS Integrated Sites model classrooms, the Start Teaching and Reinforcing Today (START) program which provide in-clinic and in-home services to parents, and the training activities and processes used at Behavior Analysts, Inc. will be described. Exemplary data will be provided throughout the symposium to validate the models effectiveness.

A central focus of applied behavior analysis is the demonstration of functional relationships between independent and dependent variables. The failure of an intervention to produce desired behavior change may be related to the incomplete application of the programmed independent variable. Conversely, an initially robust treatment outcome may be weakened when an intervention is not implemented will full procedural integrity. This symposium will present a series of experiments designed to explore the issue of treatment integrity in behavioral interventions. Specifically, these studies sought to determine: (1) the extent to which independent variable integrity is assessed and monitored in applied experiments, and (2) whether positive treatment outcomes maintain in the face of varying levels of procedural integrity.

Given the increased interest in the role that Precision Teaching can play in behavior analytic intervention for children with autism, our discipline has seen increased numbers of presentations and publications addressing the matter. Relatively few of these, however, have demonstrated the ways in which Precision Teaching may benefit intervention programs for children with very severe autism and very low skills. This symposium will present three data-based case studies that outline such applications.

Increased interest in the more complex social responses of individuals with autism has been evident recently. As a result, we have seen the advancement of behavioral accounts of the social deficits noted in individuals with autism and the development of teaching strategies to ameliorate such deficits. The papers in this symposium will address social deficits of individuals with autism with respect to joint attention, perspective taking, empathy, and sharing behavior. Through the use of single-subject experimental designs, the researchers have investigated strategies of teaching the above social responses to students with autism, ranging in age from pre-school to adolescence, and will demonstrate the effective use of such strategies to increase appropriate social responding in the presence of target discriminative stimuli. In addition, each presenter will define methods by which the generalization of these important social skills was targeted and the extent to which these responses were displayed under non-training conditions. Finally, each presenter will detail the acquisition and generalization of these responses through a learning-based account and comment on the importance of these skills in advancing the social repertoires of individuals with autism.

This symposium includes three research papers focusing current technological trends in Organizational Behavior Management. Each paper includes reports of data-based research conducted in warehouse settings where performance variables of interest included productivity, measured in the number of cased picked per hour, and accuracy, measured by the average numbers of errors committed by employees. The first paper reports on research where an incentive program in a distribution warehouse was enhanced by the implementation of proximal performance goals and immediate feedback based on Engineered Labor Standards and delivered on handheld scanning devises. The second paper reports on the implementation of oral prompts and immediate feedback delivered by computer-voice headsets on selectors in a warehouse. The final paper, in a separate study, compares the impact of the handheld scanning devises, where feedback is delivered visually, versus the voice headsets, where feedback is delivered through an auditory devise, on both productivity and errors. The discussant for this session will review the merits and deficiencies of each study as well as comment on the growing impact of technology on OBM interventions.

The purpose of this session will be to describe how behavior analytic principles are being applied to the organizational implementation of school-wide behavior support practices and systems. Emphasis will be on a blueprint for establishing district/state level leadership teams and directing the development of action plans that emphasize building implementation capacity for coordination, coaching/facilitation, training, and evaluation. Efforts to establish durable use and controlled expansion of behavior analytic principles and practices will be summarized.

Four participants demonstrated two independent groups of three seven-member equivalence classes, one with and one without a speed contingency. Each participant then experienced transfer training and testing. During transfer training, only one A-stimulus from the speed classes served as sample for the A-stimuli from the non-speed classes. Transfer test involved all the remaining non-speed class members. Test results showed increases in the response speeds of the non-speed class members, with largest increases in classes 1 and 3 members. The results suggest better differentiation of class membership than previously observed, but has not resolved questions about the independence of class members.

College students in a course which involved weekly field trips to a variety of community organizations seldom asked questions of field hosts and presenters, limiting the students learning and engagement and creating an uncomfortable situation where the instructor had to ask most of the questions. The instructor, convinced that the problem was caused primarily by the students lack of question-asking skills rather than their shyness or lack of interest, used the ABC (Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence) model to develop and implement a training module to teach students how to ask pertinent and probing questions, modeled and prompted the behavior on site, and provided positive consequences for asking questions. As a result, there was a significant increase in appropriate and higher level questions asked by students at the community sites. (descriptive case study, not data-based)

Recent research has found marked individual differences in patterns of rhesus monkey biobehavioral development throughout the life span. Approximately 20% of monkeys growing up in naturalistic settings consistently display unusually fearful and anxious-like behavioral reactions to novel, mildly stressful social situations throughout development; another 5-10% are likely to exhibit impulsive and/or inappropriately aggressive responses under similar circumstances. These distinctive behavioral patterns and their biological correlates appear early in life and remain remarkably stable from infancy to adulthood. Both genetic and experiential mechanisms are implicated not only in the expression of these patterns but also in their transmission across successive generations of monkeys. For example, a specific polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene is associated with deficits in infant neurobehavioral functioning and in juvenile and adolescent control of aggression and serotonin metabolism in monkeys who experienced insecure early attachments but not in monkeys who developed secure attachment relationships with their mothers during infancy (maternal buffering). Moreover, because the attachment style of a monkey mother is typically copied by her daughters when they grow up and become mothers themselves, similar buffering is likely to occur for the next generation of infants carrying that specific polymorphism.

In 1990, Francis Fukuyama wrote an essay entitled The End of History? By that title, he raised the question of whether the final form of government had evolved, namely, Western liberal democracy. Although not as widely agreed upon, an argument can be made that our understanding of the fundamental processes that shape behavior is also approaching its final form. Our understanding of the reinforcement process and of its implications for stimulus control is quite advanced at the behavioral level of analysis. We have identified the conditions required for reinforcement and the processes that occur during stimulus discrimination and generalization. What remains for experimental analysis is an understanding of the biological processes that underlie these behavioral findings, but these are tasks for neuroscience not behavior analysis. Of course, many important unresolved problems remainfor example, reconciling the relations observed between molar-defined variables (reinforcement rate and response rate) with the molecular accounts advocated by Skinner. However, these problems will likely be addressed through interpretation rather than experimental analysis. Much more demanding tasks remain such as understanding complex human behavior, most notably verbal behavior. But these too are primarily subjects for interpretation, not experimental analysis. If it is indeed the end of the experimental analysis of behavior, it is not because we have failed but because we have succeeded. It is now time to move on to other matters whose understanding is informed by the fruits of the experimental analysis of behavior.

Verbal behavior deficits are central to the communication impairments of individuals with autism. Development of a vocal verbal behavior repertoire can be challenging when a learner demonstrates a lack of spoken language. Previous research and clinical demonstrations have suggested the efficacy of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to develop or expand the vocal repertoire of learners with absent or limited functional vocal behavior. This session reports the impact of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure for two young children with autism. In the first paper, procedural variations and comparison to previously documented strategies are highlighted. In the second paper, one learners development of a vocal echoic and mand repertoire are presented, along with a discussion of other generalized effects. The third paper reports the collateral effects of the procedure demonstrated in two learners who showed a significant decrease in stereotyped vocalizations. Clinical implications and future directions will be discussed.

The literature regarding the efficacy of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to increase the vocal verbal behavior of young children with autism has been promising but mixed. The current paper presents a model of implementation for use of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to increase the verbal mand and echoic repertoires of two young learners with autism. Specifically, the current paper describes the impact of the stimulus pairing procedure within individual pairing sessions, and over the course of time, an aspect which has not been extensively explored in the literature. In addition, the current paper describes how the use of the pairing procedure was systematically transferred to a contingent reinforcement procedure over the course of its implementation, and presents data regarding the subsequent impact of this shift. Further, the current clinical application utilized a variety of stimuli in the pairing component of the procedure, rather than one specific stimulus paired with each target speech sound. The clinical utility of these procedural variations will be discussed.

The effects of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure on the production of appropriate speech sounds in a six-year-old boy with autism are presented. The student presented with a limited repertoire of speech sounds and used a picture system to communicate. Sounds were identified that the student did not emit when asked and had never been heard to emit. Using a multiple baseline design across sounds, a pairing procedure was implemented in which the instructor repeatedly produced the target sound while delivering preferred items non-contingently. The student's production of the target sound was recorded before, during, and after pairing sessions. The pairing procedure produced a measurable increase in the students production of the sound during and immediately after pairing sessions. This improvement was augmented by adding contingent reinforcement for production of the target sound in the second phase of the procedure. Probe data indicated that during the course of the procedure, the student acquired the ability to produce the sound on request and began to utilize the sound communicatively in other settings. These data support the potential contribution of the stimulus pairing procedure for increasing the vocal repertoires of individuals with autism where other procedures have been ineffective

While research and clinical case studies have demonstrated the impact of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure on the development of vocal verbal behavior for learners with extremely limited or absent vocal speech, there is very little literature regarding the impact of such strategies on the rates of non-functional stereotyped vocal behavior. For two learners with autism exposed to a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure, targeted increases in functional vocalizations were accompanied by significant decreases in non-functional vocalizations and other stereotypic behavior. These changes occurred predictably during the periods immediately following the stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure, and the degree of reduction increased over time and exposure to the pairing procedure. Changes in stereotyped behavior were documented although these behaviors were not targeted specifically. Clinical and theoretical implications of these findings will be discussed.

Recent research has focused on a variety of methods to increase safety skills. However, given the on-going national growth in accidental injuries and deaths, there is a continued need for empirical investigations on the establishment of these vital skills. Three papers will be presented on teaching children safety skills. First, research will be presented on enhancing the effectiveness of behavioral skills training for teaching safety skills to prevent gun play across 45 6-7 year olds. Second, the results of implementing a group contingency to decrease dangerous playground behaviors among typically developing children will be presented. Finally, research on training safety skills to children diagnosed with autism will be presented in addition to the results of training caregivers of children from this population to decrease potential home safety hazards.

Many behavior analysts devote a considerable amount of time to teaching new skills to children and adults with developmental disabilities. The ongoing improvement of instructional procedures is likely to make teaching sessions more effective. In this symposium, papers are presented that address different aspects of instructional programming. In the first paper, the researchers compare the effectiveness of two different prompting procedures. In the second paper, the authors present a training process for special education undergraduate students to learn a range of instructional procedures that are often effective. The authors of the third paper utilized the ABLLS to guide curriculum for an adult with severe disabilities. The researchers then taught three of the identified skills and examined the results within an experimental design. Finally, in the fourth paper, the author describes a comprehensive approach to teach new skills while addressing a serious problem behavior.

The goal of intensive, ABA-based, early intervention services for young children with autism is admission to typical kindergarten or first grade. Often, the initial intervention consists of highly structured, 1:1 teaching interactions, either in a home-based or a segregated, center-based program. At some point during this intervention process, decisions are made by relevant individuals (e.g., senior clinical staff, parents, other service providers) regarding the learners readiness to make the transition to a small group preschool or inclusion environment. Many professionals refer to readiness criteria (e.g., Johnson, Mayer, & Taylor, 1996) to help guide that decision-making process. Other researchers and clinicians de-emphasize prerequisite criteria for inclusion and, instead, integrate young children with autism with typical peers right from the outset of intensive intervention. Empirical data to guide the decision-making process, to include or not to include, has been limited. The purpose of the panel is to present the range of views and practices regarding readiness criteria and inclusion of young children with autism, and will attempt to answer the ultimate question: Under what conditions should a young child with autism participate in a more typical pre-school setting?

Child Maltreatment Prevention is receiving increased attention in behavioral research and practice. Due to the associated long-term negative health and social consequences of Child Maltreatment, its prevention is also a priority for the CDC. This symposium examines the effectiveness of Parenting Programs implemented at agency and state levels. The first presentation focuses on a population-level evaluation of Triple P (Positive Parenting Program). Triple P is an evidenced-based program with five Levels of Intervention. The second presentation takes a closer look at one of the specific Levels of Intervention within Triple P (Primary Care Level 3), focusing on parents generalization of strategies across settings. The final presentation examines both Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Project Safe Care. PCIT was implemented within a Child Welfare Services agency. Project SafeCare was implemented both within a Child Welfare Services agency for high-risk families as well as statewide for active Child Welfare cases. These presentations will include discussions of fidelity monitoring, the challenges with large-scale implementation, and program dissemination.

Faculty and students from four behavior analysis graduate programs will discuss issues relevant to the application process. Attendees will be welcome to ask questions and join the discussion.

Functional communication training is commonly used to treat problem behavior. However, further research is needed on factors related to the selection and maintenance of communication responses, especially during periods of extinction. In the first paper, Laura Grow and colleagues demonstrate a methodology for identifying communication responses that are already in the individuals repertoire prior to treatment and for determining if the responses are in the same response class as problem behavior. In the second paper, Carrie Dempsey and colleagues examine the benefits of using signaled versus unsignaled reinforcement while maintaining communication responses on VI schedules. In the third paper, Jeffrey Tiger and colleagues present a study on the use of signaled reinforcement with preschool-aged children. The authors examine the effects of signaled reinforcement on childrens tolerance for periods of extinction and assess the children's preference for signaled versus unsignaled reinforcement. Finally, Anna and colleagues examine a strategy for teaching children with autism to discriminate between periods of reinforcement versus extinction under multiple, naturally occurring situations.