Analysis of Verbal Behavior最新文献

Procedural fidelity refers to the degree to which procedures for an assessment or intervention (i.e., independent variables) are implemented consistent with the prescribed protocols. Procedural fidelity is an important factor in demonstrating the internal validity of an experiment and clinical treatments. Previous reviews evaluating the inclusion of procedural fidelity in published empirical articles demonstrated underreporting of procedural fidelity procedures and measures within specific journals. We conducted a systematic review of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) to evaluate the trends in procedural fidelity reporting from 2007 to 2021. Of the 253 articles published in TAVB during the reporting period, 144 of the articles (168 studies) met inclusionary criteria for further analysis. Our results showed that 54% of studies reported procedural fidelity data, which is slightly higher than previous reviews. In comparison, interobserver-agreement data were reported for a high percentage of studies reviewed (i.e., 93%). Further discussion of results and applied research implications are included.

For speakers belonging to multiple verbal communities, functional analyses of verbal behavior allow for dynamic control over response topography. The simple practice of allowing the speaker the freedom to select the language of instruction minimizes cultural bias and hegemony. We extended the research on functional analyses of verbal behavior to include a speaker of multiple languages in a quasi-experimental case study. We employed verbal operant experimental (VOX) analyses as a repeated measure of language acquisition with a linguistically diverse, 7-year-old Indian boy with autism. The VOX analyses were conducted as part of the child's early intensive behavioral intervention, and we observed the impact of an immersive foreign language experience on his verbal repertoire with follow-up VOX analyses conducted in three topographically distinct languages: English, Telugu, and Tamil. The results show a dynamic hierarchy of strength between the three languages, with overarching patterns across the three assessments. The implications for using VOX analyses to assess the functional language skills of multilingual speakers with autism are discussed, and areas of future research are highlighted.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty acquiring intraverbal behavior. The present study compared manipulations of stimulus salience (i.e., volume increase, elongation) to teach intraverbals (e.g., "You drink [juice]" and "You drink from [cup]") to three participants diagnosed with ASD whose pre-treatment responding suggested restricted stimulus control. We used an adapted alternating treatments design to compare the efficacy and efficiency of increased volume, elongated, and unmodified antecedent verbal stimuli on correct intraverbal responses. Results suggested the volume increase condition was the most efficacious and efficient for two participants, whereas all conditions were similarly efficacious and efficient for one participant. High levels of responding maintained as the stimulus salience manipulations were removed.

Parity is one source of automatic reinforcement that increases the probability of verbal behavior that conforms to models provided by the verbal community. Parity as a conditioned reinforcer could explain the acquisition of grammar in the absence of direct, explicit reinforcement. This possibility has been explored in previous research on children's use of tacts with passive-voice autoclitic frames. In this study, we assessed the effects of modeling on the emission of passive-voice autoclitic frames using a pre- and post-test design with multiple training and testing phases. Thirteen children, aged 3 to 5 years, participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either a control, model-only, or model-plus-vocal-imitation group. None of the participants in the control group emitted tacts with passive-voice autoclitic frames. Eighty percent of the participants in the model-only and model-plus-vocal-imitation groups emitted passive-voice autoclitic frames, but the degree of change varied across participants. We measured whether participants attempted to echo the experimenter's passive-voice model in training, and participants in the model-only condition were much more likely to echo the model than participants in the model-plus-vocal-imitation group; nevertheless, participants in the model-plus-vocal-imitation group emitted more tacts with passive-voice autoclitic frames during testing phases. We discuss the results and mechanisms, including parity, which may account for these differences.

It is important for children to learn to identify safety stimuli in their environment; however, there has been limited research in the field of behavior analysis related to effective and efficient strategies for teaching these skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of using secondary targets to teach tacts of visual stimuli, little research has evaluated procedures to teach children with ASD to tact auditory stimuli. The purpose of this study was to teach individuals with ASD the function of auditory safety stimuli using secondary target instruction across two different instructional arrangements (Condition 1-Single Presentation and Condition 2-Re-presentation). Sessions to mastery and total training time were used to evaluate the efficiency of procedures. The results showed that participants learned all primary targets that were directly taught and that the secondary targets emerged in the absence of direct teaching in both conditions. Results also suggested that Condition 1-Single Presentation, resulted in more efficient learning across target sets for both participants, with one exception.

Language delays are commonly displayed by children on the autism spectrum. To help facilitate the development of verbal behavior, practitioners often implement intensive one-on-one, face-to-face instruction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hindered typical face-to-face service delivery and caused practitioners to assess alternative approaches to facilitate clients' continued progress. Instructive feedback (IF) is one teaching strategy to enhance instruction or make it more efficient. During this teaching procedure, instructors provide formal teaching of target responses and embed demonstrations of secondary target responses within sequences of instruction. In the current study, we investigated the efficacy of IF provided within telehealth instruction. Four participants on the autism spectrum participated in the study. Participants received two forms of telehealth instruction that targeted speaker-responding. The first form consisted of discrete trial instruction (DTI), and the second form combined DTI with IF. These results indicate that both forms of instruction improved speaker-responding of primary targets for all participants. Additionally, a secondary analysis of secondary targets indicated that two of the four participants acquired some secondary targets. These results suggest that including IF within DTI might be beneficial for some participants receiving DTI via telehealth.