On the prevalence and magnitude of resurgence during delay-and-denial tolerance teaching.

Resurgence is the recurrence of target behavior (e.g., challenging behavior) during a worsening of reinforcement conditions (e.

Teaching trainees to implement functional communication training with multiple schedules: An evaluation of training effects and durability.

We evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training on improving participant implementation of functional communication training with multiple schedules when working with a confederate. Behavioral skills training produced mastery-level responding for all six participants who required training, providing the first empirically supported training for this functional communication training approach. Next, we assessed durability during training challenges with (a) procedural changes to the original protocol, (b) a novel confederate with different discriminative stimuli and reinforcers, and (c) relapsed confederate destructive behavior.

Resurgence of destructive behavior following decreases in alternative reinforcement: A prospective analysis.

Basic and retrospective translational research has shown that the magnitude of resurgence is determined by the size of the decrease in alternative reinforcement, with larger decreases producing more resurgence. However, this finding has not been evaluated prospectively with a clinical population. In Experiment 1, five participants experienced a fixed progression of reinforcement schedule-thinning steps during treatment of their destructive behavior.

A demonstration of incorporating discriminative stimuli into an AAC device during functional communication training.

Functional communication training (FCT) is an effective intervention for teaching communication responses and reducing challenging behavior. One limitation of FCT is that frequent reinforcement may be impractical or impossible in many situations. Recently, Mitteer et al.

Resurgence Following Higher or Lower Quality Alternative Reinforcement.

Resurgence is a temporary increase in a previously suppressed target behavior following a worsening in reinforcement conditions. Previous studies have examined how higher rates or magnitudes of alternative reinforcement affect suppression of the target behavior and subsequent resurgence. However, there has been no investigation of the effects of higher versus lower qualities of alternative reinforcement on resurgence.

A review of the concurrent-chains arrangement to assess intervention choice: 2018-2023.

The purpose of this review is to summarize recent literature on the use of concurrent-chains arrangements in the assessment of preference for interventions (or intervention components) in the applied literature. The types of interventions and participants are described briefly, and procedural variations, ethical considerations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Relative preference for distinct reinforcers maintaining destructive behavior.

The literature offers few recommendations for sequencing exposure to treatment conditions with individuals with multiply maintained destructive behavior. Identifying relative preference for the functional reinforcers maintaining destructive behavior may be one means of guiding that decision. The present study presents a preliminary attempt at developing a robust relative preference and reinforcer assessment for individuals with multiply maintained destructive behavior.

Evaluations of heart rate during functional analyses of destructive behavior.

Previous research has examined the predictive validity of heart rate on destructive behavior; however, such research has yet to improve clinical practice or enhance our understanding of the relation between physiology and destructive behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of heart rate on varying topographies and functions of destructive behavior while controlling antecedent and consequent events through functional analysis. We first demonstrated the reliability of the Polar H10 heart rate monitor and assessed the feasibility of its use in simulated functional analysis sessions.

Resurgence of destructive behavior following differential rates of alternative reinforcement.

Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) suggests that resurgence of destructive behavior may be at least partly determined by the rate of alternative reinforcement, with lean schedules of reinforcement producing less resurgence than dense schedules. Findings from basic and translational studies have been mixed, and the effects of alternative reinforcement rate on resurgence remain unclear. In the current study, we conducted a within-subject evaluation of resurgence during extinction with four children following functional communication training using dense and lean (BMT-informed) schedules of alternative reinforcement.

Barriers to Accessing Effective Treatments for Destructive Behavior.

The field of applied behavior analysis has developed and refined a comprehensive methodology for the assessment and successful treatment of destructive behavior: An individualized approach emphasizes (a) function of responding (or its cause) over its form; (b) objective and reliable measurement of behavior; (c) systematic procedures and their application; (d) rigorous, single-case experimental designs; and (e) determinations of successful intervention judged by improvements in the same individual's performance. Outcomes of this approach are often dramatic and reliably surpass those obtained by alternative means. However, significant barriers limit the accessibility of this proven therapy.

Relapse and its mitigation: Toward behavioral inoculation.

Relapse following the successful treatment of problem behavior can increase the likelihood of injury and the need for more intensive care. Current research offers some predictions of how treatment procedures may contribute to relapse, and conversely, how the risk of relapse can be mitigated. This review describes relapse-mitigation procedures with varying levels of support, the quantitative models that have influenced the research on relapse mitigation, different experimental methods for measuring relapse mitigation, and directions for future research.

Further evaluation of treatment duration on the resurgence of destructive behavior.

Translation of promising procedures for mitigating treatment relapse has received considerable attention recently from researchers across the basic-applied continuum. One procedure that has demonstrated mixed support involves increasing the duration of treatment as a strategy for blunting resurgence. In a recent translational study, Greer et al.

Basic and applied research on extinction bursts.

Discontinuation of the contingency between a response and its reinforcer sometimes produces a temporary increase in the response before its rate decreases, a phenomenon called the extinction burst. Prior clinical and basic studies on the prevalence of the extinction burst provide highly disparate estimates. Existing theories on the extinction burst fail to account for the dynamic nature of this phenomenon, and the basic behavioral processes that control response bursting remain poorly understood.

A Brief Review of Expanded-Operant Treatments for Mitigating Resurgence.

Resurgence following expanded-operant treatments (i.e., increasing the number or variability of alternative responses to problem behavior) has been the focus of numerous studies over the last five years.

A concise review of recent advancements in the graphical training of behavior analysts.

This Concise Review is an appraisal of contemporary research on teaching single-case experimental design (SCED) graphical creation published between 2017-2021. Recent work on SCED graphical creation is summarized and areas for future research are highlighted.

Erratum: Publisher Correction to: Using GraphPad Prism's Heat Maps for Efcient, Fine-Grained Analyses of Single-Case Data.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40617-021-00664-7.].

Using GraphPad Prism's Heat Maps for Efficient, Fine-Grained Analyses of Single-Case Data.

Behavior analysts sometimes consider various forms of data analysis when making clinical decisions and when attempting to illuminate interesting relations in existing datasets. For example, an ongoing plot of when problem behavior occurs across days and times can yield useful information regarding the function(s) of problem behavior. In a post-hoc analysis, a plot of within-session error patterns can reveal which variables may be contributing to faulty stimulus control.

Reliability and validity of using structured visual-inspection criteria to interpret latency-based functional analysis outcomes.

Prior research has evaluated the reliability and validity of structured visual inspection (SVI) criteria for interpreting functional analysis (FA) outcomes (Hagopian et al., 1997; Roane et al., 2013).

Translating quantitative theories of behavior into improved clinical treatments for problem behavior.

The most important advancement in the treatment of destructive behavior has been the development of the functional analysis, which is used to prescribe effective treatments like functional communication training. Although this approach can be highly effective, extinction bursts and forms of treatment relapse commonly occur when function-based treatments are implemented by caregivers in natural community settings. In recent years, researchers have increasingly applied quantitative theories of behavior like behavioral momentum theory (BMT) and the temporally weighted matching law (TWML) to understand, prevent, or mitigate extinction bursts and treatment relapse.

Relapse during the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders.

Resurgence and renewal are treatment-relapse phenomena in which previously extinguished behavior returns after the conditions for an alternative response worsen or the context changes, respectively. Recently, researchers have evaluated the prevalence of resurgence and renewal when treating destructive behavior with functional communication training. However, resurgence of inappropriate mealtime behavior has yet to be evaluated; perhaps because treatments involve qualitatively different resurgence opportunities (e.

On the scope and characteristics of relapse when treating severe destructive behavior.

Prior studies on treatment relapse have typically examined the prevalence of resurgence or renewal of target behavior (e.g., destructive behavior) in isolation.

Applied Quantitative Analysis of Behavior: What It Is, and Why We Care-Introduction to the Special Section.

Science evolves from prior approximations of its current form. Interest in changes in species over time was not a new concept when Darwin made his famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands; concern with speciation stretches back throughout the history of modern thought. Behavioral science also does and must evolve.

Empirically Deriving Omission and Commission Errors for Relapse Tests: A Demonstration of Reverse Translation.

Most studies examine treatment relapse by programming contextual changes with perfect treatment integrity or with omission errors in the absence of a context change (i.e., all alternative responses placed on extinction).

Procedures for determining and then modifying the extinction component of multiple schedules for destructive behavior.

As a component of reinforcer schedule thinning following functional communication training, multiple schedules of reinforcement produce desirable rates and patterns of communication responses as an alternative response to destructive behavior. However, reinforcement schedule thinning is a gradual process that can take many sessions to obtain therapeutic goals. The desired outcome is that manding occurs only during signaled intervals of reinforcement with a sufficiently lean terminal schedule of reinforcement availability and low rates of destructive behavior.

Phase duration and resurgence.

Resurgence, the recurrence of responding due to a worsening of reinforcement conditions for current behavior, is a prevalent form of treatment relapse. Resurgence as Choice in Context predicts that increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for target responding during Phase 1 will increase resurgence magnitude, whereas increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for alternative responding and extinction for target responding during Phase 2 will decrease resurgence magnitude. We conducted an experiment evaluating these predictions with human participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform.