Punishment-induced resurgence.

The phenomenon of extinction-induced resurgence is well established, but there is comparatively little experimental evidence for punishment-induced resurgence. Punishment-induced resurgence can by tested by contingent shocks following the alternative response. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether low-intensity shocks, that do not decrease rate of reinforcement, result in resurgence.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS).

Behavior analysts frequently use the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) to assess the language and social skills of children with autism in everyday practice and in research. Despite the widespread use of the VB-MAPP, its psychometric characteristics have not been extensively investigated. To provide information about its convergent validity, we calculated correlations between scores earned by 235 children with autism on the VB-MAPP and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS), a commonly used assessment with good reliability and validity.

Functional analyses of undesirable behavior by nonhumans: A concise review.

We reviewed 13 articles that used functional analysis in the assessment of undesirable behavior emitted by dogs, cats, a baboon, a lemur, a chimpanzee, and a vulture. The functional analysis produced a clear outcome for 32 of 33 subjects, demonstrating its efficacy with nonhumans. We propose several avenues for further examination of its application to nonhumans.

Young adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities acquire vocational skills with video prompting.

Students with intellectual and other developmental disabilities often require substantial support to acquire the skills needed to secure work experience and paid employment. Prior findings suggest that video prompting is likely to be an effective and feasible strategy for establishing such skills. To evaluate this possibility in a special education transition program, we examined the effectiveness of a video prompting procedure in teaching 8 young adults with developmental disabilities to perform job-related tasks (doing laundry, checking in to work, vacuuming, stripping bed).

Interobserver agreement and procedural fidelity: An odd asymmetry.

We examined articles with experiments published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and in Behavior Analysis in Practice from 2017 through 2021 to determine how frequently procedural fidelity was assessed. When procedural fidelity was assessed, we determined how often a measure of interobserver agreement for those fidelity data was provided. We also determined how often a measure of interobserver agreement for participants' behavior was provided.

Women in Behavior Analysis: A Review of the Literature.

Women have played, and continue to play, an important role in behavior analysis. Their participation as authors of journal articles and as journal editors was first quantified in 1983 and has been the topic of several subsequent articles. Other articles have addressed other aspects of women's participation in the discipline, but no review of articles concerned with women in behavior analysis has appeared.

Increasing Physical Activity in Young Adults with an Intellectual Disability via a Classroom-wide Treatment Package.

The World Health Organization estimates that only 25% of adults meet the current recommendations for weekly exercise. Adults with an intellectual disability are less likely to meet these standards than other people. In the present study, a classroom-wide treatment package that arranged individualized daily choice (between dancing and strength training), modeling (live, followed by video), and token reinforcement, was used to: (a) increase the number of steps taken and calories burned by six participants, two from each of three classrooms, and (b) increase the percentage of students in those classrooms who were consistently engaged in exercise during designated sessions.

Resurgence increases with repetition.

Resurgence refers to a behavioral process in which a recent response is extinguished (or reinforcement conditions worsen) and a previously extinguished response recurs. In previous research, resurgence has been reliably produced when the resurgence procedure is repeated. Changes in the degree of increase of the resurging response across iterations of the procedure have been inconsistent, however, with some studies showing increases and some showing no changes or decreases in resurgence magnitude.

Six Useful Websites for Practitioners Working in Schools.

A substantial, and seemingly increasing, number of Board Certified Behavior Analysts work in pre-K-12 schools. Many of them will be unfamiliar with the roles and activities of other school professionals, as well as with the structure, function, and mandates of schools. This article introduces 6 websites that are devoted to education.

Motivating Operations and Negative Reinforcement.

The motivating operations concept has improved the precision of our approach to analyzing behavior; it serves as a framework for classifying events that alter the reinforcing and punishing effectiveness of other events. Nevertheless, some aspects of the concept are seriously flawed, thereby limiting its utility. We contend in this article that the emphasis it places on the onset of some stimuli (putative motivating operations) making their offset a reinforcer in the absence of a learning history (i.

Participants in Behavior-Analytic Sports Studies: Can Anybody Play?

Participating in athletics confers a wide range of benefits, regardless of participants' gender or disability status. Our review of 95 behavior-analytic sports-performance articles revealed that over half of them included at least 1 female participant, but only 5 included at least 1 participant with a reported developmental disability. Given that females are often underrepresented as research participants, and that female athletes face unique barriers, it is heartening that so many articles involved female participants.

Citations of Murray Sidman's work in JEAB: Evidence of a long and large contribution.

We examined citations of Murray Sidman's publications in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior from the journal's inception in 1958 through May 2020. On average, he was cited 35.6 times per year.

Motivating Operations and Discriminative Stimuli: Distinguishable but Interactive Variables.

The motivating operations concept has been of considerable interest and practical value to behavior analysts, including practitioners. Nonetheless, the concept has generated substantial controversy and has significant limitations. To address some of these limitations, we suggest that it would be wise to redefine motivating operations, to deemphasize the importance that has historically been placed on subtypes of conditioned motivating operations, to emphasize how motivating operations and discriminative stimuli interact, and to further examine the kinds of environmental changes that alter the reinforcing value of particular kinds of stimuli.

Commit Heresy: Stop Using "Contingency".

The term "contingency" has long been widely used by behavior analysts, but their uses of the term are inconsistent with the vernacular definition of the term. Moreover, the term is not consistently defined by behavior analysts, but is instead used to refer to a variety of relations between and among stimuli and responses. In the interest of reducing jargon and potential confusion, we argue that behavior analysts should stop using "contingency" and related terms.

Rapidly training African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) with multiple targets for scent detection.

Since 1997, APOPO, a non-profit organization based in Tanzania, has deployed African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to detect landmines in post-conflict areas. More recent research suggests the pouched rats can also be trained to detect tuberculosis in human sputum samples. Despite proven success on both tasks, the potential impact of each rat is limited by the required training time and constraint to a single target odor.

The Gender Pay Gap for Behavior Analysis Faculty.

We examined publicly available faculty salaries for men and women faculty members at 16 university programs accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI). Overall, 52.4% of the 103 faculty members were women, although there were twice as many men as women at the full-professor level.

Web-based stimulus preference assessment and reinforcer assessment for videos.

This study replicated and extended the use of a web-based multiple-stimulus-without-replacement preference assessment (Curiel, Curiel, Li, Deochand, & Poling, 2018) by adding a web-based single-operant reinforcer assessment. Five adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder participated in this study. The web-based program identified preference hierarchies for 4 of the 5 participants, and the single-operant reinforcer assessment confirmed that the highly preferred videos functioned as reinforcers.

Motivating operations and stimulus control.

The motivating operations concept has generated substantial conceptual analysis and research interest. Following an analysis of how motivating operations affect behavior, one which emphasizes the interactive role of motivating operations and discriminative stimuli, we propose: a) redefining motivating operations as operations that modulate the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of particular kinds of events and the control of behavior by discriminative stimuli historically relevant to those events, b) dropping the distinction between behavior-altering and function-altering effects of motivating operations, and c) reducing or eliminating emphasis on conditioned motivating operations. This reconceptualization of the motivating operations concept is intended to increase its value in predicting and gainfully changing behavior.

Inter-Rater Agreement for the Milestones and Barriers Assessments of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP).

We determined inter-rater agreement for the VB-MAPP, an instrument sometimes used in planning educational goals and evaluating intervention effects for young people with autism. A pair of raters independently rated each of 32 children diagnosed with autism. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the total Milestones and Barrier scores were 0.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Psychotropic Medications: Slipshod Training, Inconsistent Involvement, and Reason for Hope.

People with autism spectrum disorder often receive psychotropic medications and two drugs, risperidone and aripiprazole, are approved for treating "irritability" in this population. A number of authors have suggested that behavior analysts can contribute to the prudent use of such drugs, but little is known regarding Board Certified Behavior Analysts' involvement in practices relevant to the use of psychotropic drugs. We e-mailed Board Certified Behavior Analysts an anonymous web-based survey regarding such practices.

Using a Lottery to Promote Physical Activity by Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities.

Exercise benefits adults with developmental disabilities. A prior study demonstrated that a treatment package comprising goal setting and fixed-ratio 1 reinforcement for goal attainment substantially increased walking. However, continuous reinforcement delivery may be untenable due to cost and time.