Correspondence Between Vocal-Verbal Behavior and Go/No-Go Responses During the Successive Matching-to-Sample Procedure.

In the current study, eight college students were exposed to a successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure utilizing non-verbal auditory stimuli consisting of common sounds. During emergent relations tests, participants were asked to talk aloud, and their vocal-verbal statements were transcribed and categorized as class-consistent, class-inconsistent, or irrelevant. All participants met emergence criterion for symmetry and four did so for transitivity/equivalence. Analysis of vocal-verbal statements showed a positive correlation between class-consistent statements emitted by participants and correct selection responses during S-MTS tasks. Such results suggest possible verbal mediation during emergent relations tests.

The Use of a Behavior Chain Interruption Strategy to Teach Mands for Help with an Adult with Intellectual Disability and Deaf-Blindness.

Individuals with deaf-blindness and co-occurring diagnoses, such as intellectual and developmental disabilities, may experience difficulty with independence, specifically with communication. One behavior-analytic procedure that may be useful for increasing independence and teaching communication to this population is the behavior-chain interruption strategy (BCIS). The current study examined the use of the BCIS to teach a 65-year-old deaf-blind participant with severe intellectual disability to use a SadoTech Elderly Monitoring Pager to notify others in the environment when help was needed. The researcher alternated between establishing operation (EO; help needed, items missing, or inoperable) and abolishing operation (AO; help not needed, items present, and operable) trials for three previously mastered daily living routines. The results demonstrated that following intervention, the participant used the device independently during EO trials and never used it during AO trials across behavior chains, and similar results were obtained during a treatment-extension phase. Limitations and implications for applied practice are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-024-00204-8.

Treatment Integrity Reporting in Behavior Analysis in Practice 2008-2019.

Treatment integrity is the extent to which procedures are implemented in a manner consistent with their prescribed protocols and is necessary for reaching accurate conclusions regarding functional relations between dependent (i.e., behavior) and independent (i.e., the environment) variables. Several studies assessing the frequency that studies report treatment integrity have been conducted. However, no review has included articles from Behavior Analysis in Practice. Thus, the current study reviewed Behavior Analysis in Practice between 2008 and 2019 to assess the frequency of studies reporting treatment integrity data. A total of 193 articles consisting of 205 studies met the inclusionary criteria for this review. Ninety-six studies (46.83%) reported treatment integrity data, compared to 193 (94.15%) that provided interobserver agreement data. Additionally, 98 studies (47.80%) were considered high risk for treatment implementation inaccuracies. Recommendations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Use of the Go/No-Go Successive Matching-to-Sample Procedure with Nonverbal Auditory Stimuli to Establish Equivalence Classes and Speaker Behavior.

The purpose of the current study was to extend the findings on the use of the go/no-go successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure to establish auditory equivalence classes. Eight college students learned to conditionally relate nonverbal auditory stimuli into three, 3-member classes. Following training, all participants met the emergence criterion for symmetry, and six out of eight participants met the emergence criterion for transitivity/equivalence. Furthermore, all participants responded with either an experimenter-defined or a unique tact, and five participants related these names intraverbally. Although these results replicate previous findings, albeit with stimuli that cannot be echoed, possible verbal mediation via tact and intraverbal behavior seems to have occurred.

The establishment of auditory equivalence classes with a go/no-go successive matching-to-sample procedure.

The go/no-go successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure involves the presentation of a sample followed by one comparison in the same location. Participants are required to either touch (go) or refrain from touching (no-go) related and unrelated comparisons, respectively. One advantage of S-MTS is that both sample and comparisons can be auditory. Thus, the purpose of Experiment 1 was to establish three 3-member auditory equivalence classes using familiar dictated words. After training AB and AC relations, 16 out of 16 participants met emergence criterion for symmetry (BA/CA), 12 out of 16 for transitivity/equivalence (BC/CB), and 9 out of 16 for intraverbals, for which testing involved vocalizing relations among auditory stimuli. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to assess the potential influence of stimulus topography on equivalence class formation and the emergence of intraverbal behavior. After training AB and AC relations with unfamiliar stimuli, 16 out of 16 participants met emergence criterion for symmetry (BA/CA), 13 out of 16 for transitivity/equivalence (BC/CB), and 8 out of 16 for intraverbals. Results suggest that the S-MTS procedure may serve as an alternative to simultaneous MTS in the development of auditory equivalence classes.

The establishment of auditory-visual equivalence classes with a go/no-go successive matching-to-sample procedure.

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a go/no-go successive matching-to-sample procedure (S-MTS) to establish auditory-visual equivalence classes with college students. A sample and a comparison were presented, one at a time, in the same location. During training, after an auditory stimulus was presented, a green box appeared in the center of the screen for participants to touch to produce the comparison. Touching the visual comparison that was related to the auditory sample (e.g., A1B1) produced points, while touching or refraining from touching an unrelated comparison (e.g., A1B2) produced no consequences. Following AB/AC training, participants were tested on untrained relations (i.e., BA/CA and BC/CB), as well as tacting and sorting. During BA/CA relations tests, after touching the visual sample, the auditory stimulus was presented along with a white box for participants to respond. During BC/CB relations tests, after touching the visual sample, a visual comparison appeared. Across 2 experiments, all participants met emergence criterion for untrained relations and for sorting. Additionally, 14 out of 24 participants tacted all visual stimuli correctly. Results suggest the auditory-visual S-MTS procedure is an effective alternative to simultaneous MTS for establishing conditional relations and auditory-visual equivalence classes.