Journal of applied behavior analysis最新文献

In a replication of Daly and K. Dounavi (2020), the researchers evaluated the effect of foreign tact and bidirectional intraverbal teaching on the emergence of untaught relations. Three university students learned three stimulus sets through three types of teaching: native-foreign intraverbal teaching (vocalizing Spanish words that refer to a Japanese textual stimulus), foreign-native intraverbal teaching (reversed relation of native-foreign condition), and foreign-tact teaching (tacting a picture in Spanish). The researchers used an adapted alternating-treatments design to assess the differential effect of each teaching condition on the emergence of untaught relations in a foreign language and collected data on response maintenance. The results replicated previous findings that native-foreign intraverbal and foreign-tact teachings were more effective than foreign-native intraverbal teaching despite previous reporting that the maintenance outcomes may be a result of carryover effects.

Email etiquette is an important skill, especially in professional settings. Research demonstrates that undergraduate students follow email rules when given written instructions plus an example. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of computer-based email instruction on undergraduate students' email etiquette and to assess the social validity of that instruction. The email instruction package was delivered through an online learning management system and consisted of written instructions plus a model, a quiz, and quiz feedback. We measured email etiquette by scoring emails from course assignments using a checklist. The instruction package produced a replicated increase in mean email checklist scores across two sections of introductory psychology, and checklist scores were elevated when participants sent emails in a novel context. The results of the social-validity assessments suggest that the goals were important, the procedures were acceptable, and there were meaningful improvements in email etiquette for some participants.

This concise review summarizes the literature on noncontingent reinforcement in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorder from 2018 to 2022. We reviewed 15 published behavior-analytic feeding studies to identify how often the term noncontingent reinforcement is used, what form of noncontingent reinforcement is delivered, and what the effects of noncontingent reinforcement are on behavior when it is included in treatment. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Rodriguez et al. (2022) discovered that teaching four component skills was sufficient to facilitate the emergence of intraverbal tacts across four applications with three participants. Our study replicated and evaluated an extension of this procedure that was directed at facilitating intraverbal tacts when a child learns the component skills but continues to fail to produce intraverbal tacts. The extension consisted of procedures to enhance the divergent control exerted by the auditory stimulus (i.e., the question) and the discriminability of joint control. Intraverbal tacts emerged for all three participants after undergoing the extension procedures. These results are discussed in the context of a conceptual analysis of intraverbal tacts and the potential role of joint control.

We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S-deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a consequence for a new response. The results demonstrated that previously neutral praise words functioned as reinforcers and nonsense words did not. As in previous studies on establishing reinforcers, the effects were transitory, and praise words did not continue to function as reinforcers after repeated exposure without discrimination training. Recommendations are provided for future research and maintaining reinforcement effects.

Jimenez, S., Wilder, D. A., Brand, D., Carr, J. E., Sellers, T. P., & Mason, M. A. (2023). The Performance Diagnostic Checklist–Human Services (1.1): An initial assessment of validity and reliability. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 56(4), 884–897. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.1017

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (1.1) (Appendix A) contains a minor error. An item scored as NO on the PDC-HS is suggestive of a potential problem and, thus, indicates an opportunity for a specific intervention to improve staff performance. However, item 3 in the Resources, Materials, and Processes section was worded such that an answer of YES (instead of NO) was suggestive of a potential problem. This item has been corrected in the assessment (see Supporting Information) such that all PDC-HS (1.1) items are aligned, with answers of NO being suggestive of a potential problem.

We apologize for the error.

Recommendations for achieving generalized instructional outcomes often overlook the capacity for generative learning for most verbally competent humans. Four children (ages 5–8) participated in this project. In Study 1, we provided decontextualized discrete trial teaching to establish arbitrary relations between colors, pictures of characters, and researcher motor actions. All participants engaged in derivative responding, providing evidence of relational framing. Subsequently, we demonstrated that, with no additional instruction, these derivatives contributed to effective action within a socially valid context (i.e., Candyland gameplay). Study 2 extended the demonstration by teaching frames of opposition. Following teaching, all participants engaged in novel and contextually appropriate responding that entailed the derivation of both coordination and opposition between untrained stimuli. This outcome demonstrates how teaching simple relations can result in learning that manifests at higher levels of complexity (i.e., relational networking), providing some evidence that there can be socially valid benefits to decontextualized discrete trial instruction.

Functional communication training (FCT) is an evidence-based treatment for behavior targeted for reduction that often combines extinction for target responses and arranges functionally equivalent reinforcement for alternative behavior. Long-term effectiveness of FCT can become compromised when transitioning from clinic to nonclinic contexts or thinning reinforcement schedules for appropriate behavior. Such increases in targeted behavior have been conceptualized as renewal and resurgence, respectively. The relation between resurgence and renewal has yet to be reported. Therefore, the present report retrospectively analyzed the relation between renewal and resurgence in data collected when implementing FCT with children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. We found no relation when evaluating all 34 individuals assessed for resurgence and renewal or a subset of individuals exhibiting both resurgence and renewal. These findings suggest that one form of relapse may not be predictive of another form of relapse.

The functional analysis approach described by Iwata et al. (1982/1994) has been used widely to determine the variables evoking and maintaining challenging behavior. However, one potential concern with conducting functional analyses is that repeated exposure to contingencies may induce a novel functional relation. To examine the likelihood of these potential iatrogenic effects, we evaluated social test conditions of the functional analysis for 116 participants and searched for patterns of responding indicative of acquisition. Patterns suggestive of acquisition occurred in 13.70% of tangible reinforcement conditions; however, the prevalence was only slightly lower in the attention condition (8.75%). Much lower prevalence was observed for the escape condition (2.13%). When grouped by quotient score, a pattern of acquisition was just as likely to be observed in the attention condition as in the tangible condition. Additionally, patterns indicative of acquisition were no more likely to be observed with participants who emitted automatically reinforced challenging behavior.

Children are interviewed to provide information about past events in various contexts (e.g., police interviews, court proceedings, therapeutic interviews). During an interview, various factors may influence the accuracy of children's responses to questions about recent events. However, behavioral research in this area is limited. Sparling et al. (2011) showed that children frequently provided inaccurate responses to questions about video clips they just watched depending on the antecedents (i.e., the way a question was asked) and consequences (i.e., the response of the interviewer to their answers). In the current study, we replicated and extended the procedures reported by Sparling et al. and found that two of five children were sensitive to the various antecedents and consequences that we manipulated. Our findings indicate a need for more research in this area to determine the relevant environmental variables that affect children's response accuracy.