Journal of applied behavior analysis最新文献

Contingency management is a well-validated behavior change intervention; however, the financial incentives can prevent it from being widely adopted. Most Americans have a smartphone with applications (apps) that they find enjoyable and engage with for a considerable amount of time. A potential avenue for contingency management dissemination is a mobile smartphone application that leverages the existing reward value of smartphone apps as a tool for behavior change. The present study examined the acceptability of the Re-Connect concept, which proposes to block nonessential but highly preferred apps and unlock them contingent on meeting the user's health goals. Out of the sample surveyed (N = 146), 63.02% reported that they would be likely to use Re-Connect and 67.81% would recommend it to someone. Acceptability of Re-Connect increased with greater user control. These results suggest that access to preferred smartphone apps could be a socially acceptable incentive in a contingency management intervention.

Contingency management (CM) is notably successful as a substance use disorder treatment and is most effective when targeting monosubstance use. Evidence suggests the effects of CM exceed predictions based on the value of the incentives delivered for monosubstance abstinence. In this systematic review, we examine common variations of CM interventions applied to a single substance to determine what factors may contribute to the larger effect. Our results show that CM produced moderate to large effect sizes when single drugs were targeted, with stable effects over time. We also found that interventions targeting cocaine abstinence overwhelmingly outperformed their predicted effect, whereas interventions for smoking cessation did not. Thus, incentives alone may not account for the success of CM, at least when applied to stimulant use disorder. We propose other potential sources of the effect including social reinforcement and the specific parameters of the reinforcement schedule.

Choice involves engaging in a selection response when multiple options are concurrently available. Choices can be incorporated into many components of behavior-analytic treatment such as providing clients with a choice between multiple items, activities, or tasks. We reviewed the main characteristics of 38 behavior-analytic articles that compared choice and no-choice conditions. We coded the experimental arrangements of choice and no-choice conditions and analyzed potential factors affecting preferences for choice and no choice. The findings suggest that the sizing of alternatives from which to choose, the timing of choice opportunities, and the timing of the delivery of the chosen option varied across the studies. Furthermore, preferences for choice shifted with differential reinforcement history and response effort manipulations of choice or no choice. The findings suggest that individual variables should be considered when providing choices, but more research is needed.

Functional analyses are used to assess maintaining variables of behavior. Despite the large amount of research on functional analyses with humans, there are limited examples with nonhumans and even fewer studies incorporating modifications to standard methods of assessment with nonhumans. One modification that has yet to be evaluated with nonhuman animals is the trial-based functional analysis in which control and test conditions are embedded in naturalistic environments. This study compared a standard functional analysis with a trial-based functional analysis across different topographies of problem behavior with dogs. The results of the functional analyses corresponded for every dog. Individualized treatments were designed to reduce problem behavior. Implications of the trial-based functional analysis include feasibility for privately owned dogs and dogs under the care of shelters. The trial-based functional analysis offers a modification to established functional analyses that may allow increased access to the assessment of problem behavior.

We replicated and extended Kanaman et al. (2022) by comparing outcomes of solitary (leisure items only), social (leisure items with social interaction), and combined (leisure items alone and leisure items with social interaction) stimulus preference assessments to determine the extent to which the inclusion of social interaction influenced the outcomes of preference assessments for five children with autism. We then conducted reinforcer assessments to determine the reinforcing efficacy of high- and low-preferred leisure items when presented with and without social interaction. The results showed that both high- and low-preferred items functioned as reinforcers to varying degrees for all participants and the inclusion of social interaction increased the reinforcing efficacy of some items for all participants. Additionally, the results showed that combined preference assessments predicted reinforcer assessment outcomes for two of five participants but produced false-negative outcomes for three participants. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) affect millions and have substantial negative consequences for individuals and society. Social incentives that leverage social networks for reinforcement or feedback have been used to improve health behaviors such as physical activity. This study investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and usability of a novel digital social incentive system embedded into a web- and smartphone-based platform for SUD recovery. The system leveraged a preexisting care team to deliver social incentives following notifications on recovery-related goal completion and abstinence to members undergoing SUD treatment. In total, 243 notifications were sent to care-team members, resulting in 117 social incentives, nearly all of which (99.15%) were coded as positive. Treatment members and care-team members provided favorable endorsements on acceptability and usability measures. Some areas of improvement were identified, such as increasing personalization and transparency. This digital social incentive system was feasible, acceptable, and usable as an adjunct treatment component for SUD recovery.

A resurgence in research on response disequilibrium theory has prompted a concise review of the literature from the past 5 years. Response disequilibrium, also known as response deprivation, attributes reinforcement and punishment effects to constraints on free-operant baseline levels of behavior. By describing clinically relevant behaviors in terms of instrumental and contingent activities, researchers and practitioners can predict intervention outcomes with a disequilibrium model. We summarize the empirical outcomes of disequilibrium-informed interventions across six articles and discuss areas of future research.

We evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training on improving participant implementation of functional communication training with multiple schedules when working with a confederate. Behavioral skills training produced mastery-level responding for all six participants who required training, providing the first empirically supported training for this functional communication training approach. Next, we assessed durability during training challenges with (a) procedural changes to the original protocol, (b) a novel confederate with different discriminative stimuli and reinforcers, and (c) relapsed confederate destructive behavior. Training effects degraded at least once for all participants and in 62% of training challenges, although continuing to expose the participant to the challenging situations or providing postsession booster training resolved the degradation in most cases. We discuss these findings in relation to their clinical implications and directions for future research.

Using telehealth technology to deliver parent training in evidence-based intervention has been suggested to increase the accessibility of such interventions and improve skill acquisition and generalization. Within behavior analysis, global restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for the development of telehealth supports for families. The current research examined the online delivery of a parent-mediated implementation of the Preschool Life Skills program (PLS). Four parents completed the parent PLS program with their typically developing children (aged 3–5 years) via weekly videoconferencing sessions. A multiple-probe experimental design was employed to assess the effect of the intervention on children's preschool life skills and challenging behavior. Parental embedding of PLS strategies during daily activities was also evaluated. The results demonstrated increases in children's preschool life skills, decreases in challenging behavior, and evidence of parent acquisition and use of PLS strategies.

Inappropriate mealtime behavior (IMB) is a type of feeding challenge within the broader class of food refusal. The purpose of this study was to critically analyze the efficacy of interventions for the treatment of IMB through a meta-analysis of research using single-case experimental designs. We examined the extent to which different interventions resulted in decreases in IMB while also producing increases in food acceptance. This meta-analysis was also used to examine the efficiency of different interventions in achieving clinical significance. We identified 38 studies involving 266 cases in which IMB was treated with a behavioral intervention. The results indicated interventions that combined escape extinction and non-escape extinction had greater effect sizes for both reducing IMB and increasing food acceptance than either escape extinction alone or non-escape extinction alone. However, interventions that included escape extinction were slightly less efficient at decreasing IMB than were interventions that did not include escape extinction. We discuss the implications of these findings and provide recommendations for future research.