Experimenters provided 33 graphical displays of hypothetical data depicted in a multielement experimental design to editorial board members of prominent, applied, behavior-analytic journals via an online survey. For each display, participants indicated (a) the presence or absence of experimental control and (b) the degree of experimental control (rated on a 1-100 scale). Each depiction varied systematically in (a) the number of data paths, (b) the number of data paths elevated above the control, (c) the mean difference between affected data paths and control conditions, and (d) the degree of variability within conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Procedural fidelity is the extent to which an intervention is implemented as designed and is an important component of research and practice. There are multiple ways to measure procedural fidelity, and few studies have explored how procedural fidelity varies based on the method of measurement. The current study compared adherence to discrete-trial instruction protocols by behavior technicians with a child with autism when observers used different procedural-fidelity measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of an auditory-distractor stimulus and vocal-blocking task on performance on a math task and measures of overt verbal operants. College students served as participants, and they were instructed to solve an arithmetic problem while continuously emitting overt verbal behavior. The overt verbal behavior consisted of either talking aloud while solving the problem or reciting the alphabet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study taught 6 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to increase passive compliance of wearing a facemask across sequentially increasing durations of time. A changing-criterion design embedded within a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a resetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) without escape extinction procedure on passive compliance. Terminal probe sessions determined DRO fading intervals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment integrity is the extent to which components of an intervention are implemented as intended (Gresham, 1989). Recent behavior-analytic literature has begun to evaluate the effects of reduced-treatment integrity on the efficacy and efficiency of skill-acquisition interventions. This study extended the current literature on the effects of errors of omission and commission of reinforcer delivery by replicating and extending Hirst and DiGennaro Reed (2015).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study analyzed the effects of two frames for durations of time-calendar unit and calendar date-on measures of compliance to hypothetical social-distancing policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants reported the extent to which they would comply with hypothetical social-distancing policies lasting different durations of time. Durations of time were framed as calendar units (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough Skinner (1957) provided a behavioral account of verbal thinking, additional research is needed to evaluate stimuli that may influence covert verbal behavior that occurs between the onset of a verbal stimulus and the emission of a response during an episode of verbal thinking. The present investigation examined the effects of auditory distractors and/or textual stimuli during arithmetic problems and tangram puzzles on the participants' response latency and accuracy. In addition, we measured and categorized occurrences of vocal verbal behavior during the response interval.
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