The Use of Contingency-Based Procedures to Promote Tolerance of Schedule Thinning for Hypothesized Multiply Maintained Problem Behavior.

Contingency-based procedures have been found to be effective in facilitating delays to reinforcement for escape-maintained behavior within research and clinical contexts. Few studies have evaluated the use of these procedures for multiply maintained problem behavior. A contingency-based procedure was conducted with two participants to evaluate the effectiveness this procedure had on increasing tolerance to schedule thinning for problem behavior that was hypothesized to be multiply controlled. Results suggested that the procedure was effective at facilitating tolerance for a delay for both participants after switching to a lower effort task.

A retrospective analysis of stereotypy: Applicability of the behavioral subtyping model.

Recent research on automatically reinforced self-injurious behavior (ASIB) has identified specific patterns of responding in functional analyses that correlate with intervention efficacy (Hagopian et al., 2015; Hagopian et al., 2017). Whereas research by Hagopian et al. (2015, 2017) points to an important development in the assessment and treatment of ASIB, it is unclear if the applicability extends to automatically reinforced noninjurious behaviors, including stereotypy. Therefore, the current study replicated the methods of Hagopian et al. (2017), extending this research to published cases of stereotypy and related behavior. The behavioral subtype for each case was identified, and where applicable, the subtype was compared to intervention outcome data. The categorization of data sets as either Subtype 1 or Subtype 2 did not correspond with specific treatment outcomes. Unlike the results of Hagopian et al. (2015, 2017), reinforcement-based interventions were not more likely to be effective for Subtype 1 stereotypy than for Subtype 2 stereotypy.

The stability of function of automatically reinforced vocal stereotypy over time.

Although prior research has suggested the function of socially reinforced problem behavior can change across time, the stability of the function of automatically reinforced behavior is largely unknown. Further, some authors have suggested automatically reinforced behavior is likely to enter into socially mediated contingencies. The present study compared 2 functional analyses conducted on the same target behavior at least 1 year apart. Participants were 6 individuals diagnosed with an intellectual or developmental disability displaying automatically reinforced vocal stereotypy. Results indicated the function of each participant's vocal stereotypy remained stable over time (i.e., no new functions were acquired); however, future research on functional stability for automatically reinforced behavior of other topographies is needed.

Effects of serial and concurrent training on receptive identification tasks: A Systematic replication.

The current study compared the use of serial and concurrent methods to train multiple exemplars when teaching receptive language skills, providing a systematic replication of Wunderlich, Vollmer, Donaldson, and Phillips (2014). Five preschoolers diagnosed with developmental delays or autism spectrum disorders were taught to receptively identify letters or letter sounds. Subjects learned the target stimuli slightly faster in concurrent training and a high degree of generalization was obtained following both methods of training, indicating that both the serial and concurrent methods of training are efficient and effective instructional procedures.

Assessment and treatment of automatically reinforced self-induced emesis.

Frequent emesis can cause substantial deleterious effects to a child's health and environment. We conducted a functional analysis of a 3-year-old girl's self-induced emesis and confirmed that emesis was maintained by automatic reinforcement. In a reversal design, we evaluated the efficacy of implementing response blocking at 100% and 50% treatment integrity levels on both attempts and successful production of emesis. One hundred percent blocking, but not 50% blocking, was successful in reducing attempts and emesis below baseline levels.

Data analysis of response interruption and redirection as a treatment for vocal stereotypy.

Vocal stereotypy, or repetitive, noncontextual vocalizations, is a problematic form of behavior exhibited by many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent research has evaluated the efficacy of response interruption and redirection (RIRD) in the reduction of vocal stereotypy. Research has indicated that RIRD often results in reductions in the level of vocal stereotypy; however, many previous studies have only presented data on vocal stereotypy that occurred outside RIRD implementation. The current study replicated the procedures of previous studies that have evaluated the efficacy of RIRD and compared 2 data-presentation methods: inclusion of only data collected outside RIRD implementation and inclusion of all vocal stereotypy data from the entirety of each session. Subjects were 7 children who had been diagnosed with ASD. Results indicated that RIRD appeared to be effective when we evaluated the level of vocal stereotypy outside RIRD implementation, but either no reductions or more modest reductions in the level of vocal stereotypy during the entirety of sessions were obtained for all subjects. Results suggest that data-analysis methods used in previous research may overestimate the efficacy of RIRD.

Effects of serial and concurrent training on acquisition and generalization.

Despite a large body of research demonstrating that generalization to novel stimuli can be produced by training sufficient exemplars, the methods by which exemplars can be trained remain unclear. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate 2 methods, serial and concurrent presentation of stimuli, to train sufficient exemplars. Five preschool children with developmental delays were taught to identify letters or letter sounds using serial and concurrent presentation. Generalization to untrained exemplars was evaluated for targets trained using each method. Participants reached the mastery criterion in fewer training sessions, on average, using the concurrent method of presentation than the serial method, and the concurrent method also resulted in greater generalization to untrained exemplars.