Prediction of Response Patterns during Conditional Discrimination Training across Data Recording Methods.

The effectiveness of an intervention is tied to the degree to which a program is implemented as described and the behavior analyst's ability to individualize the program based on client-specific factors. LeBlanc et al. (2020) found that training clinicians to use enhanced data sheets, which represent both the antecedent and response, resulted in greater procedural integrity when compared to standard data sheets. Additional benefits of enhanced data collection systems include the representation of potential error patterns, which may be used to modify the intervention program. The current study compared naïve participants' accuracy in predicting a client's performance when represented on standard and enhanced data sheets. Participants consistently identified error patterns on enhanced data sheets; however, performance did not differ across data collection methods when accurate responding or unpredictable controlling relations were shown. These findings suggest that enhanced measurement may facilitate the identification of error patterns during instruction for behavior analysts.

Simultaneous Prompting to Teach Intraverbal Synonyms to Struggling Readers.

In simultaneous prompting procedures, an immediate (i.e., 0-s) prompt is presented during all training trials, and transfer to the target discriminative condition is assessed during daily probes. Previous research suggests that simultaneous prompting procedures are efficacious and may produce acquisition in fewer errors to mastery when compared to prompt delay procedures. To date, only a single study on simultaneous prompting has included intraverbal targets. The current study evaluated the efficacy of a simultaneous prompting procedure on the acquisition of intraverbal synonyms for six children at risk for reading failure. Simultaneous prompting alone produced responding at mastery levels in seven of the 12 evaluations. Antecedent-based procedural modifications were effective in four of the five remaining evaluations. Errors were generally low for all but one participant. The current findings support the use of simultaneous prompting procedures when targeting intraverbals for young children exhibiting reading deficits.

Control by Compound Antecedent Verbal Stimuli in the Intraverbal Relation.

Control by compound antecedent stimuli in verbal behavior represents an understudied but promising area of research. To date, reference to compound verbal stimulus control has generally only included descriptions of convergent multiple control. A sizeable experimental literature exists on the topic of compound stimulus control, which differs from convergent multiple control in that the stimulus elements often do not have a prior conditioning history (i.e., do not separately strengthen any response). The current study attempted to bridge the experimental and verbal behavior literatures by including a two-component antecedent verbal stimulus during intraverbal training for which neither component currently served an evocative function. Subsequent analyses of stimulus control suggested overshadowing by temporal location in the compound verbal stimulus and lack of emergence of the divergent intraverbal relation across all sets. Additional research is needed on compound stimulus control and verbal behavior researchers may be poised to answer several questions relevant to the experimental and verbal behavior literatures on the topic.