In the latest issue of Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Davison and Elliffe systematically replicated Shanan and Podlesnik 2006 study where they used a conditional-discrimination procedure to investigated the division of stimulus control in relation to reinforcer frequency.
Even if this study is basic animal experiment it may provide useful information in understanding stimulus control, and the results indicate that the degree of stimulus control is dependent on reinforcer differentiation, and are gradient – not all-or-none. As they states in their discussion:
it suggests simply that the degree of stimulus control of choice by dimension-specific stimuli depended on the frequency of reinforcers for correct responses to that dimension relative to reinforcers for conditional control by the other dimensions.
Link to the article; http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/abstracts/JeabAbstracts/94/_94-013.Htm
In studying relational responding within Relational Frame Theory, the matching to sample procedure is the most commonly used. There has been are are used several procedures that relies on matching to sample, such as stimulus pairing, multi element compound stimuli, constructed response protocols and variations of simultaneous discrimination. As an alternative methodology some studies have used the Relational Evaluation Procedure, and based on this the Relational Completion Procedure.
In this number of Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Simon Dymond and Robert Whelan have published a study comparing the match-to-sample procedure and the relational completion procedure. This article gives a thourogh and good description of the different procedures, and their possible benefits and shortcomings as an introduction to the study they have conducted.
In their study their findings support the further development of the relational completion procedure within Relational Frame Theory, and that the use of a confirmatory response in training of relational responding had a facilitative effect. Hopefully there will come further studies examining the different procedures in establishing arbitrary relational responding.
Link to the article http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/abstracts/JeabAbstracts/94/_94-037.Htm
Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is the intervention with the most extensive scientific documentation for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the knowledge and skills in implementing EIBI are in some areas limited, and EIBI services may be difficult to get and/or they may in some cases be carried out by personnel without the necessary knowledge and skills. So development of effective methods of spread the knowledge and skills in implementing and conducting EIBI may contribute to ensure more children and families with the services they need and will benefit from.
In this number of Infants & Young Children, Hamand, Serna, Morrison and Fleming published a report of using an online curriculum for teaching behavioral intervention knowledge in autism to families and service providers. The online course was a short 3-module course, and results shows significant difference between pretest and post test scores. Data also indicate that the user satisfaction was high.
The three modules where (1) positive reinforcement, (2) relationship building, and (3) prompting and prompt fadig. And participants where assessed with a multiple-choice test as pre- and post test.
This is a promising method of spreading knowledge on EIBI, but as EIBI often are implemented daily by paraprofessionals, parents and teachers without behavioral training, it will probably not reduce the need for supervision of an trained and experienced behavior analyst. But efforts like this may increase the quality and efficiency of EIBI along with high quality supervision.
Lang et al published in the recent number of Behavior Modification a study on abolishing operations intervention to reduce stereotypy and challenging behavior during play skills intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Finding that when children with ASD were allowed a period were they freely could engage in stereotypic behavior before intervention, the level of stereotypy and challenging behavior were lower and funcional play skills were higher during intervention.
The play intervention included modeling, promping, and reinforcing play behavior i addition to redriecting stereotypy and challenging behavior to apporpriate play behaviors. The study researched te effect of adding a reinfocer-abolsining element would increase this research-based intervention´s effect.
Based on this study the researchers suggest two points; first, that the described play intervention is potentially effecktive, and secondly that when a play intervention is planned for children who frequently display stereotypic behavior is may be beneficial to allow a period were children can freely display stereotypy before the intervention.
All working or living with children with autism recognize the diagnostic feature of repetitive and invariant behavior. And the research on interventions for such behavioral have been somewhat limited.
In the current volume of Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis Napolitano, Smith, Zarcone, Goodkin and McAdam have published research on increasing response diversity in children with autism. Their intervention used a lag reinforcement schedule (reinforce responses different from previous) to increase the diversity. Some of the participants in this study also received prompting and additional teaching.
This procedure increased diversity on block building with the participants, indication that lag reinforcement schedules may be useful in increasing diversity.