A Behavioral Analysis of Two Strategies to Eliminate Racial Bias in Police Use of Force.

Structural racism is rooted in American social systems that were supposedly designed to promote citizens' right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Social systems like policing, for example, are built on a foundation of discriminatory practices designed to disenfranchise Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). One of the most recent visible examples of racially biased policing is the excessive use of force by officers toward BIPOC. In response, advocates, policy makers, and researchers have sought solutions. Police use-of-force reforms such as body-worn cameras (BWCs) and implicit bias training (IBT) have become popular and are currently being applied in many police departments across the country. However, evidence supporting the effectiveness of these reform strategies to reduce the use of force is mixed, and further evaluations are needed to understand why these strategies are purported to be an effective solution. The purpose of the current review is to ignite future empirical evaluations of use-of-force reform. Following a summary of the research conducted to date on BWCs and IBT, we will conclude with a brief discussion of how behavior analysts might improve and foster strategies that are efficacious. Our ultimate goal is to leave the reader with an understanding of where the data have taken us thus far and how behavior analysts and others can contribute to the reduction and eradication of the discriminatory practices present in policing and other social systems.

Computer-based training to teach observers to accurately score problem behavior using fast forwarding at 5x normal speed.

The current study evaluated whether a computer-based training program could improve observers' accuracy in scoring discrete instances of problem behavior at 5x normal speed using a multiple-baseline design across subjects. During pretraining and posttraining, observers attempted to score multiple examples of problem behavior at 5.0x without feedback. During training, participants scored multiple examples of problem behavior at 5.0x with automated feedback. Researchers measured omission (missing problem behavior) and commission (scoring other behavior as problem behavior) errors and the total duration of scoring time to determine the observers' accuracy and efficiency, respectively. After training, all participants scored instances of problem behavior with less than 11% error using 5.0x. The time required to score the videos across 90-min observations was reduced by 66%. Results extend previous evaluations of fast forwarding by demonstrating that the training program could be used to teach observers to accurately score problem behavior using a speed faster than 3.5x.

A randomized clinical trial of a virtual-training program for teaching applied-behavior-analysis skills to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Parents play an important role in the treatment of their children's symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD); thus, developing effective, efficient, socially acceptable, and accessible procedures for training parents to implement applied-behavior-analysis (ABA) interventions is critically important. One potential approach involves delivering training via a virtual private network (VPN) over the internet (Fisher et al., 2014). In this study, we conducted a randomized clinical trial to evaluate a virtual parent-training program with e-learning modules and scripted role-play via a VPN. We evaluated parent implementation of ABA skills using direct-observation measures in structured-work and play-based training contexts. Parents in the treatment group showed large, statistically significant improvements on all dependent measures; those in the waitlist-control group did not. Parents rated the training as highly socially acceptable. Results add to the growing literature on the efficacy and acceptability of virtually delivered training in ABA.

Establishing initial auditory-visual conditional discriminations and emergence of initial tacts in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impaired listener skills, and few studies have evaluated procedures for establishing initial auditory-visual conditional discrimination skills. We developed and evaluated a treatment package for training initial auditory-visual conditional discriminations based on the extant research on training such discriminations in children with ASD with at least some preexisting skills in this area. The treatment package included (a) conditional-only training, (b) prompting the participant to echo the sample stimulus as a differential observing response, (c) prompting correct selection responses using an identity-match prompt, (d) using progressively delayed prompts, and (e) repeating trials until the participant emitted an independent correct response. Results indicated all participants mastered all listener targets, and the two participants for whom we tested the emergence of corresponding tacts showed mastery of most tacts without direct training. We discuss these results relative to prior research on listener skills and tacts.

Evaluation of the accuracy, reliability, efficiency, and acceptability of fast forwarding to score problem behavior.

Technological advances have allowed professionals to obtain extended recordings of caregiver-client interactions in natural settings, but scoring recorded video at normal speed to identify instances of low-rate problem behavior is impractical in terms of scoring time. Fast forwarding is a continuous measurement system in which all seconds of an observation are viewed at a speed faster than normal. In Study 1, we evaluated whether three groups of five observers could discriminate problem behavior at three fast-forwarding speeds across 10-min observations. We analyzed the efficiency of using fast forwarding compared to continuous scoring, and interobserver agreement across the fast-forwarding speeds. In Study 2, we compared the accuracy, efficiency, and social acceptability of fast forwarding (3.5x) and momentary time sampling (3.5 s) across 90-min observations. Results support the use of 3.5x fast forwarding as a viable measurement system of improving the practicality of scoring problem behavior from video.

Infant sign training and functional analysis.

We taught manual signs to typically developing infants using a reversal design and caregiver-nominated stimuli. We delivered the stimuli on a time-based schedule during baseline. During the intervention, we used progressive prompting and reinforcement, described by Thompson et al. (2004, 2007), to establish mands. Following sign training, we conducted functional analyses and verified that the signs functioned as mands. These results provide preliminary validation for the verbal behavior functional analysis methodology and further evidence of the functional independence of verbal operants.