Journal of applied behavior analysis最新文献

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are at high risk of being bullied, but research on teaching children with autism self-protection skills for bullying situations is scant. We taught five children self-protection skills for two types of bullying (threats and unkind remarks) and consecutive bullying occurrences. We first evaluated behavioral skills training and a textual prompt to teach children to report threats of physical or material harm, provide a disapproving statement after a first unkind remark, and occupy themselves with an activity away from a bully after a second unkind remark. Additional tactics were necessary to aid in the discrimination of bullying situations for two children. There were increases in the self-protection skills with all children. Results further support that an active-learning approach is efficacious in teaching responses to bullying in simulated situations. Considerations for teaching these skills while maintaining trust and rapport with children and caregivers are discussed.

Only 25% of adults meet both aerobic and strength training recommendations for physical activity. Contingency management interventions have been used to increase physical activity; however, they may be cost prohibitive. Intermittently provided incentives lower costs and are effective for various health behaviors. The present study investigated whether intermittent cash incentives can increase physical activity (step counts). The researchers used a reversal design with 21 participants, and goals during the intervention were set using a percentile schedule. Contingent on meeting goals, participants could earn the opportunity to draw tickets that corresponded to either no cash or cash incentives. Step counts significantly increased from baseline to the intervention phase. Overall, intermittent cash incentives may be a viable and cost-effective approach to promoting health behavior.

Many researchers have evaluated how characteristics of feedback may influence trainee performance, but relatively little attention has been allocated to directly assessing trainee preference for feedback characteristics and its relation to performance. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to use a within-subject experimental design to directly assess trainee preference for the frequency of feedback and its relation to task performance. A secondary objective was to evaluate how trainee preferences varied across specific task components based on component complexity. Thirty-five undergraduate students completed two arbitrary tasks and were given the opportunity to request feedback after each component of the task. For 85.71% of our participants, an inverse relation was observed between preference for feedback frequency and task performance. Participants requested feedback less often as performance improved. Feedback preferences also varied with the complexity of each component of the task. Implications for training, supervision, and feedback practices are discussed.

Among the developmental milestones related to language and communication in early childhood, one that has been the subject of considerable research is response to name (RTN). Delayed or absent RTN in early childhood is a diagnostic marker for autism spectrum disorder and a target behavior in many early intervention curricula. This article describes two related studies. Study 1 evaluated the efficacy and efficiency of a behavioral screening-to-intervention model for RTN proposed by recent research. Overall, trials to mastery were reduced relative to previous research. Study 2 evaluated the efficacy of using behavioral skills training to teach caregivers to implement a RTN intervention with their child after that intervention was successful in a clinical setting. Generalized improvements in RTN with caregivers sometimes occurred but did not maintain without programmed reinforcement. Subsequent behavioral skills training was associated with increases in both child RTN and caregiver intervention fidelity.

Behavior analysts typically assess and treat challenging behavior after it occurs regularly and at high severity. Although effective, this reactive approach is quite costly and resource intensive. A growing literature supports an alternative preventive approach; the first step involves conducting sensitivity tests to screen the topographies and functions of low-severity behavior evoked by establishing operations commonly included in challenging behavior research (e.g., Fahmie et al., 2020). Despite the potential value of sensitivity tests, their correspondence with functional analyses has yet to be established. This study measured the correspondence between social reinforcer classes nominated by sensitivity tests and social reinforcer classes verified by traditional functional analysis outcomes of the same behaviors. Participants included 10 young autistic learners who were reported to exhibit low-severity challenging behavior. Data showed generally high correspondence between both assessment outcomes for challenging behavior but not for appropriate requests.