Association for Behavior Analysis International

Conditioning new stimuli such that they now function as reinforcers for other behaviors serves several important purposes in human development. Increasing one’s community of reinforcers provides individuals with more opportunities to come in contact with reinforcement which increases rates of learning. It also means that individuals’ interests are expanded which, when this occurs, will likely lead to fewer instances and lower durations of such behaviors as stereotypy and other developmentally maladaptive response classes. Maybe most importantly, conditioning certain stimuli as reinforcers for observing responses enables individuals to contact reinforcement in ways they had not been able to do before; hence, the development of a cusp. Training behavior analysts and behavior technicians to implement conditioning procedures can prove more difficult than training other more straightforward discreet trial programs. Therefore, training must be accurate, systematic and because these pairings are so important to human development, highly efficient. Here I will present training systems that meet these criteria, to teach these instructional repertoires to behavior analytic instructors. I will also discuss extending training systems to include successfully training another instructor to correctly implement conditioning procedures as mastery criterion for training.

Behavior Analysts, Supervisors, and Researchers

“The reason you don’t fight for me is because you’re not fighting for yourself fully… Are you ready to heal?... That’s why they repress us as trans and gender variant people, because they’ve done this violence to themselves first.” - Alok Vaid-Menon When supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming clients, students, supervisees, trainees, and colleagues, it is critical that behavior analysts create contexts of affirmation. When considering cultural responsiveness, the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts notes that behavior analysts “evaluate their own biases and ability to address the needs of individuals with diverse needs/ backgrounds,” (BACB, 2020, p. 9). This presentation will examine gender identity as covert or subtle behavior, and the ways in which the tacting of covert events is taught (Skinner, 1945; Skinner, 1957; Moore, 2008). Attendees will be equipped to assess their own biases through the examination of selectionism at the phylogenic, ontogenic, and cultural levels, focusing on their own learning histories. Attendees will also learn how to create environments which forster orienting to appetitive control and which reinforce authentic responding through cultural competency and the movement toward cultural safety (Curtis et al., 2019).

ABA practitioners and professionals

Responding to questions regarding one's environment is a fundamental skill. In neuro-typical children, responding differentially to questions emerges before the age of two through interactions with caregivers, in which novel words are learned in the presence of both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. For children diagnosed with autism, however, such question discrimination skills can be significantly affected. An error frequently observed in clinical practice is that of the child who, despite previous mastery of the relevant colour tacts, says “Ball” when presented with a blue ball and the question “What colour?” Recently, a number of papers have explored the role of multiple verbal and nonverbal control in early intraverbal-tacting as a basis for language intervention with particular focus on autoclitic framing. This tutorial will first provide a theoretical analysis on multiply-controlled tacting; second, it will outline a framework for assessing discriminating questions on nonverbal (visual) stimuli; third, it will illustrate applied techniques to establish this skill.

Behaviour analysts, speech and language pathologists, educators

Several industries are leveraging virtual reality (VR) training to teach a variety of skills. These trainings have been shown to be efficacious, offer cost savings, and offer the potential for more efficient and replicable training. Behavior analysts have expertise in crafting effective learning programs making this area ripe for interdisciplinary collaboration. One example of an effective behavior analytic training procedure is Behavioral Skills Training (BST) involving written and verbal instructions, modeling of the skill, rehearsal of the skill, and feedback on the performance. This training, like other trainings in related fields, typically involves extensive in vivo experience in which trainees and trainers are exposed to risk (e.g., bodily harm to trainer, trainee, and client; and errors in teaching performance). Including BST in a virtual reality (VR) context involving virtual experiences in which training experiences are difficult to be recreated or put an individual at risk may be an effective training method and ameliorates challenges. The purpose of the current presentation is to outline and describe how virtual reality is currently being used across industries and within behavior analysis to guide and train a range of individuals. Furthermore, a case example including data on VR training on behavior assessment and intervention will be provided and discussed.

Scientist practitioners