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A method for conducting culturally responsive functional analyses with bilingual children and evaluating language effects
Ano: 2025
Abstract Functional analysis has been shown to effectively identify the function of challenging behavior and inform the design of function‐based treatment that emphasizes reinforcement‐based procedures. However, there is minimal research on culturally responsive approaches to functional analysis with bilingual clients with a developmental disability who speak English and Spanish. This study evaluated a method of individualizing assessment conditions using culturally relevant variables, analyzing the data to evaluate the influence of language on functional analysis outcomes and considering the influence of language proficiency and preference on functional analysis results. The data for the influence of language on functional analysis were analyzed separately, which highlighted areas for further exploration and consideration with caregivers that likely would have been missed if the functional analysis had been conducted solely in one language. The influence of language during behavioral assessment and considerations of these variables in clinical practice for bilingual communities are discussed.
A model of changeover behavior in two‐alternative choice
Ano: 2025
Abstract The amount of time that organisms spend on a variable‐interval schedule of a concurrent pair before departing to the other one (i.e., the dwell time on the schedule) follows an exponential distribution, meaning that the probability of switching to the other schedule does not increase or decrease throughout the visit. This appears to reflect an innate behavioral pattern and implies that concurrent‐schedule performance can be modeled using continuous‐time Markov chains. In the two‐alternative case, the behavior of a Markov chain is completely determined by the leaving rates from each alternative (i.e., the number of departures per unit of time), so finding expressions for these leaving rates should suffice to completely characterize changeover behavior in concurrent schedules. Such expressions can be derived from the matching law in combination with either the mathematical principles of reinforcement or Baum's laws of allocation, induction, and covariance. The resulting equations are assessed in the particular case of concurrent variable‐interval schedules using a large data set from a published study that systematically manipulated both the relative and the overall rates of reinforcement, resulting in excellent fits. The performance of the model is also assessed against that of competing models, proving to be superior in most cases.
A preliminary analysis of teaching children with autism spectrum disorder self‐protection skills for bullying situations
Ano: 2025
Abstract Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are at high risk of being bullied, but research on teaching children with autism self‐protection skills for bullying situations is scant. We taught five children self‐protection skills for two types of bullying (threats and unkind remarks) and consecutive bullying occurrences. We first evaluated behavioral skills training and a textual prompt to teach children to report threats of physical or material harm, provide a disapproving statement after a first unkind remark, and occupy themselves with an activity away from a bully after a second unkind remark. Additional tactics were necessary to aid in the discrimination of bullying situations for two children. There were increases in the self‐protection skills with all children. Results further support that an active‐learning approach is efficacious in teaching responses to bullying in simulated situations. Considerations for teaching these skills while maintaining trust and rapport with children and caregivers are discussed.
A quantitative analysis of the effects of target‐ and alternative‐reinforcement rate on resurgence
Ano: 2025
Abstract Resurgence is defined as an increase in a previously reinforced and reduced target response when conditions worsen for a more recently reinforced alternative response. The present experiment evaluated the effects of target‐ and alternative‐reinforcer rate on resurgence in humans. We arranged combinations of contingent high‐ and low‐rate target and high‐ and low‐rate alternative reinforcement across four groups. When extinguishing all reinforcement, resurgence occurred only in groups experiencing a high rate of alternative reinforcement, with resurgence being higher in the group that experienced high rates of both target and alternative reinforcement. Our findings join those of others that indicate that rates of alternative reinforcement contribute more to resurgence than target‐reinforcer rates. A quantitative model of resurgence, resurgence as choice in context (RaC 2 ), tended to underpredict target responding and overpredict alternative responding in Phase 3. Including a misallocation parameter to account for a proportion of reinforcers misallocated between responses provided a better account of the findings.
A scoping review of consecutive controlled case series studies
Ano: 2025
Abstract We conducted a scoping review on the consecutive controlled case series (CCCS) methodology (Hagopian, 2020). The CCCS is an approach to studying functional relations across a series of consecutive cases that share common features. We identified and reviewed 76 studies that used CCCS methodology. Most of these (a) were retrospective CCCS studies that incorporated most of the CCCS elements that were identified by Hagopian (2020), (b) involved child participants with autism spectrum disorder or an intellectual disability, and (c) evaluated the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior within specialized clinical settings. The sample sizes ranged from 3 to 269 participants, with a median of 20 participants. We discuss current trends, gaps in the literature, and implications for statements of the generality of behavioral procedures.
A search for language in birds in the lab and the wild
Ano: 2025
Abstract A search for language in nonhuman animals has intrigued psychologists and ethologists, offering insights into the evolution of human linguistic abilities. Recent findings in both ethology and behavior analysis/animal cognition highlight exciting developments. In behavior analysis, Peter J. Urcuioli (1952–2022) successfully demonstrated the phenomenon of stimulus equivalence in pigeons and proposed a theory (2008) that underlies pigeons' performance. In ethology, Suzuki and colleagues discovered that Japanese tits use two‐word compositional syntax, one of the first demonstrations in animals other than humans. This article compares these two research areas to highlight their similarities and suggests future directions for studying the evolution of language and cognition in both human and nonhuman species. Written in honor of Dr. Urcuioli, this article recognizes his contributions to behavior analysis, psychology, and ethology, advancing understanding of animal cognition and its broader implications for humanity.
An analysis of discounting model selection methods: Assessing the generalization of discounting models
Ano: 2025
Abstract How the subjective value of an outcome changes as a function of time, probability, or effort has been an active area of psychological and economic research for decades. The exact functional form of how a commodity is discounted has been debated, and there have been numerous forms proposed. One of the challenges when trying to determine the functional form of discounting data is how models are compared, what modeling methods are used, how many data points are used, and what comparison metrics were used. Thus, we sought to replicate and extend previous research comparing discounting model selection methods by simulating discounting data from five functional forms: the Mazur hyperbolic model (Mazur, 1987), Rachlin hyperboloid (Rachlin, 2006), Myerson–Green hyperboloid (Myerson & Green, 1995), Samuelson exponential model (Samuelson, 1937), and beta‐delta model (Laibson, 1997). With each of these models we manipulated the number (i.e., density) of data points, used two forms of modeling, and assessed the degree to which each model generalizes to data it has not used in the fitting process. Model comparisons were conducted using the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), and leave‐one‐out cross validation (LOOCV). In general, AIC, BIC, and LOOCV selected the correct model, whereas the Rachlin model had the lowest error across folds of LOOCV when relying on multilevel modeling.
An analysis of renewal following fading of reinforcer type
Ano: 2025
Abstract Renewal is defined as relapse of a previously extinguished target behavior following a change in context. This form of relapse has been shown to occur when an alternative source of reinforcement that was made available during extinction of the target response is abruptly switched to a different type of reinforcement. The current experiment examined a method for mitigating renewal produced by switching reinforcement by fading reinforcer type during extinction. In Phase 1, rats' target‐lever pressing was reinforced with one type of reinforcement (O1). In Phase 2, lever pressing was extinguished and noncontingent reinforcers were delivered. The forward fading group initially experienced all alternative (O2) reinforcement, and the percentage of O1 reinforcement was increased across sessions. The reverse fading group initially experienced 90% O1 and 10% O2 reinforcement, and the percentage of O2 reinforcement was increased across sessions. A third group received delivery of O2 only, serving as a control. In Phase 3, all groups received noncontingent delivery of O1 reinforcement only. Robust renewal was seen in the control group relative to both fading groups. Furthermore, levels of renewal were lower and did not differ significantly between the forward fading and reverse fading group. These findings provide further insight into the role of context in relapse and may provide suggestions for future clinical applications.
An analysis of the generalization of pretend play from real objects to toys
Ano: 2025
Abstract Researchers have reported that children engage in pretend play that reflects the conventional activities of their environment (i.e., learned‐combinations play ). In contrast, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display fewer and less varied play behaviors. Research on teaching pretend play to children with ASD often involves prompting and reinforcing scripted responses. Although effective, these procedures may be limited because they can produce rigid, rote play rather than pretend play reenacting real‐life events. This study evaluated the effects of teaching actions with real objects on the emergence of generalized learned‐combinations play with three children with ASD. Overall, teaching children actions using real objects facilitated generalization of those actions with toys. We provide future directions for research when limited generalization is observed with some toys. Additionally, we discuss the implications of automatic reinforcement and the motivating operation in relation to our findings.