A comparison of blocked and mixed-trial methods for teaching auditory-visual discriminations.

Behavior analysts typically teach conditional discriminations in a mixed-trial format but may switch to a blocked-trial format for learners displaying limited acquisition. No known research has shown that mixed-trial methods are more effective or efficient than blocked-trial methods for teaching discriminations, so it is not clear why this format has been adopted as the "first-line" intervention. We compared blocked and mixed-trial formats for teaching novel auditory-visual discriminations to three adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Evaluating the Effects of Matched and Unmatched Stimuli on Nail Biting in Typically Developing Children.

We evaluated the effects of matched and unmatched stimuli on nail biting for three typically developing children and adolescents. Antecedent-based assessments identified conditions when subjects were most likely to engage in nail biting. Treatment included the noncontingent delivery of four types of highly preferred stimuli: items hypothesized to match the oral, the tactile, or both the oral and tactile stimulation inherent to nail biting, as well as items that did not involve oral or tactile stimulation.

Differential suppression of arousal by sex offenders with intellectual disabilities.

Previous research that has evaluated the ability of sex offenders with intellectual disabilities (ID) to suppress sexual arousal has produced mixed results. The current study had 2 purposes: (a) to replicate prior research on arousal suppression by sex offenders with ID and (b) to evaluate whether it is possible for offenders with ID to maintain arousal to nondeviant stimuli while suppressing arousal to deviant stimuli. Both participants were successful in suppressing arousal to deviant stimuli, and 1 participant was successful in maintaining arousal to nondeviant stimuli while suppressing arousal to deviant stimuli.