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Abstract Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display stimulus overselectivity, wherein a subset of relevant components in a compound stimulus controls responding, which impairs discrimination learning. The original experimental research on stimulus overselectivity in ASD was conducted several decades ago; however, interventions for children with ASD now typically include programming to target conditional discriminations in ways that might minimize the prevalence of stimulus overselectivity. The present study assessed 42 children who had been diagnosed or educationally identified with ASD using a discrimination learning assessment. Of these 42 children, 19% displayed overselective responding, which is a lower percentage than that seen in early research. Possible explanations for this decreased percentage, implications for intervention, and future directions for research are discussed.

The current investigation evaluated repertoires that may be related to performance on auditory‐to‐visual conditional discrimination training with 9 students who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The skills included in the assessment were matching, imitation, scanning, an auditory discrimination, and a visual discrimination. The results of the skills assessment showed that 4 participants failed to demonstrate mastery of at least 1 of the skills. We compared the outcomes of the assessment to the results of auditory–visual conditional discrimination training and found that training outcomes were related to the assessment outcomes for 7 of the 9 participants. One participant who did not demonstrate mastery of all assessment skills subsequently learned several conditional discriminations when blocked training trials were conducted. Another participant who did not demonstrate mastery of the auditory discrimination skill subsequently acquired conditional discriminations in 1 of the training conditions. We discuss the implications of the assessment for practice and suggest additional areas of research on this topic.

Abstract We examined the influence of derived rules on roulette betting. Twelve college students selected between red and black bets on a roulette wheel in a pretest, then participated in a relational training procedure that established functions of more than for the color bet least often and less than for the color bet more frequently. When playing roulette again, 11 of the 12 participants increased betting on the color with the same formal properties of the contextual cue for more than in relational training.

In 2 experiments, we examined the effects of programmed reinforcement for compliance with high ‐ probability (high ‐p ) instructions on compliance with low‐probability (low ‐p ) instructions. In Experiment 1, we compared the high ‐p sequence with and without programmed reinforcement (i.e., edible items) for compliance with high ‐p instructions. Results showed that the high ‐p sequence increased compliance with low ‐p instructions only when compliance with high ‐p instructions was followed by reinforcement. In Experiment 2, we examined the role of reinforcer quality by delivering a lower quality reinforcer (praise) for compliance with high ‐p instructions. Results of Experiment 2 showed that the high ‐p sequence with lower quality reinforcement did not improve compliance with low ‐p instructions; the addition of a higher quality reinforcer (i.e., edible items) contingent on compliance with high ‐p instructions did increase compliance with low ‐p instructions.

Research related to the use of mechanical restraint devices (e.g., arm splints) has been limited despite the frequency with which they are used in the clinical treatment of severe and dangerous self‐injurious behavior (SIB). Wallace, Iwata, Zhou, and Goff ( ) used a rapid restraint analysis (RRA) to evaluate the effects of different levels of arm‐splint flexion on rates of hand‐to‐head SIB and adaptive behavior. The goal of the current study was 3‐fold: (a) to extend previous research on RRA by reporting RRA results for 10 participants and investigating post‐RRA outcomes, (b) to investigate whether the RRA might have the potential to eliminate the need for restraint fading altogether for some individuals, and (c) to investigate whether the RRA might help to identify a starting point for restraint fading for individuals for whom fading is necessary. Results suggested that the RRA helped to eliminate the need for restraint fading for 6 participants. With respect to the identification of a starting point for restraint fading, results were mixed. Overall, 8 of the 10 participants were discharged from the inpatient unit at a less restrictive level of flexion or at the same level of flexion identified by the RRA. Implications for adoption of the RRA are discussed.

Pouched rats were employed as mine‐detection animals in a quality‐control application where they searched for mines in areas previously processed by a mechanical tiller. The rats located 58 mines and fragments in this 28,050‐m 2 area with a false indication rate of 0.4 responses per 100 m 2 . Humans with metal detectors found no mines that were not located by the rats. These findings indicate that pouched rats can accurately detect land mines in disturbed soil and suggest that they can play multiple roles in humanitarian demining.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been demonstrated to reduce disruptive student behavior during implementation. The effects of playing the GBG on disruption immediately before and after the GBG are unknown. The current study evaluated the effects of the GBG on disruption in 5 kindergarten classes immediately before, during, and after GBG implementation. The GBG reduced disruption during implementation but did not affect rates of disruption during activity periods that preceded or followed the GBG.

During the maintenance stages of differential reinforcement of alternative responding (DRA), failure to reinforce alternative responses could result in a resurgence of problem behavior. However, translational work done with arbitrary human responses suggests that teaching individuals to emit multiple alternative responses in sequential order may facilitate the resurgence of appropriate, rather than problem, behavior. This paper discusses the practical implications of serial DRA training on problem and appropriate behavior resurgence, as presented in the preceding article, “Serial Alternative Response Training As Intervention for Target Response Resurgence.” Clinical scenarios as well as implications for self‐advocacy and acceptability of behavioral interventions are considered.

In a sequence of studies, we evaluated 2 behavioral interventions designed to decrease undesirable in‐kennel behaviors of shelter dogs. In Experiment 1, we compared the efficacy of a simple pairing of person with food (response‐independent treat delivery) to an increasing interval differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other‐behavior (DRO) procedure and a control condition. Both procedures decreased the median percentage of undesirable behavior from baseline (88.13%, interquartile range [IQR] = 52.78% and 66.43%, IQR = 89.06% respectively), and the control condition increased behavior by 15.13% (IQR = 32.08%), H (2) = 6.49, p = .039. In Experiment 2, we assessed the efficacy of a response‐independent procedure on the whole shelter population. We found a 68% decrease from baseline in the number of dogs that behaved undesirably ( U = –4.16, p < .001). Our results suggest that a response‐independent procedure is equivalent in efficacy to a DRO procedure to decrease undesirable in‐kennel behavior of shelter dogs.