The model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) assesses a general, unidimensional behavioral developmental set of tasks and stages that measures difficulty across different domains. Teaching the model is a challenge because of the abstract nature of the model. Using traditional methods of lecturing to t
One young man with autism was trained in botanical skills. He was trained to match different drawings of trees (c), shown with Their respective names (a), and tree leaves (b) using a conditional discrimination procedure. The conditional discrimination Procedures were arranged as a many-to-one traini
Several methods have been devised to measure delay discounting. The present study recruited university students to complete a delay-discounting task involving five different outcomes (finding a dating partner, free cigarettes, winning $100,000, being owed $100,000, and obtaining one's ideal body image) that was administered using either the fill-in-the blank (FITB) or multiple-choice (MC) method. Results showed that the different administration methods sometimes produced significantly different rates of discounting, the direction of which differed by outcome. Hyperbolic discounting and the area under the discounting curve were nearly always significantly correlated when the FITB method was used but were never significantly correlated when the MC method was used. Discounting across the five outcomes produced a two-factor solution when the FITB data were factor analyzed. The MC data were described by a one-factor solution. The present results illustrate that procedural variables have a potentially profound impact on delay-discounting data, and generalizing from studies on delay discounting should be done with caution until those variables are fully understood.
Successful reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals into communities is important because of both the personal and emotional costs to the former offender and the social and financial costs to the community and criminal justice system. Prior research examining reentry success has used structural and psychological explanations for better understanding the processes that contribute to recidivism. Using B.F. Skinner’s (1957) Theory of Verbal Behavior as a theoretical foundation, twelve focus groups totaling 128 formerly incarcerated persons and reentry service providers were conducted that explored perspectives of the current reentry system, views on recidivism, and opportunities for improvement. Results indicate that a Verbal Behavior approach enhances the understanding of reentry when examined as a metacontingency with a goal of a particular outcome. Implications for reentry intervention are discussed.
Within behavioral psychology, self control can be defined as choosing a larger, but more delayed, reinforcing consequence over a smaller, but more immediately available, reinforcing consequence (see Logue, 1995, for a review). Making the opposite choice, that is choosing the smaller, immediately available consequence over a larger, more delayed reinforcing consequence, would be considered an impulsive response. Although there is nothing inherently good or bad about making either type of response, researchers and practitioners have certainly been interested in promoting the display of self control. Reasons for this promotion include the finding that children who display the ability to make a self-control response experience better life outcomes (e.g., greater academic achievement) than do children who display impulsive responding (e.g., Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriquez, 1989). More specifically, preschool children who could refrain from eating a marshmallow in return for getting multiple marshmallows at a later time demonstrated higher scholastic performance and social skills as adolescents than did preschool children who displayed the impulsive response and ate the immediately available marshmallow. A concept related to impulsive responding is temporal, or delay, discounting. Delay discounting refers to the process by which the subjective value of a reinforcing outcome is diminished because its delivery is delayed. The typical finding is that the longer the delay to the delivery of the outcome, the lower the subjective value the individual places on that outcome at the given moment (see Madden & Bickel, 2010, for discussion on the measurement, analysis, and scope of delay discounting). How steeply the subjective value of the outcome decreases as the delay to the full outcome is increased is referred to as the "rate" at which that particular individual discounts that out come. (1) The rate of discounting has also been used as a behavioral measure of impulsivity. Rates of delay discounting have interested researchers because they have been shown to be associated with a number of behavioral disorders such as attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (see Williams, 2010) and substance abuse (see Yi, Mitchell, & Bickel, 2010). Steep rates of delay discounting have also been associated with pathological gambling (Dixon, Marley, & Jacobs, 2003; see Petry & Madden, 2010). This association may not be surprising, given that pathological gambling can be found listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) under impulse-control disorders that are not otherwise classified. This classification also includes a number of disorders that were at one time considered as compulsive behaviors (e.g., addiction; see Hollander, Berlin, & Stein, 2011, for a discussion). In fact, one can still find references in the literature to terms such as compulsive gambling (e.g., Munoz, Chebat, & Suissa, 2010). Although one can find examples of impulsiveness and compulsiveness being used interchangeably, the exact relationship between compulsive and impulsive behaviors is not clear. Given that a measure of impulsivity (i.e., delay discounting) has been associated with disorders that are considered to involve impulse control (e.g., pathological gambling) and those same disorders are, or at least have been, considered compulsive, then one might predict that impulsivity and compulsiveness would be directly related. In fact, some evidence exists to support the idea that similar neural mechanisms are involved in impulse-control disorders and compulsive behaviors (e.g., Voon et al., 2010). Compulsiveness, however, can involve a preoccupation with certain behaviors or thoughts (Kagan & Squires, 1985). Depending on the preoccupation, one might predict that compulsiveness favors the self-control, rather than the impulsive, response. …
A growing number of studies have shown that interteaching produces better student-learning outcomes than more traditional teaching methods such as lecture. But to date, no studies have directly examined whether interteaching is differentially effective for students who typically earn either good or bad grades in their courses. In this study, we alternated between interteaching and lecture several times during the semester and measured the exam performance of students with low, moderate, and high grade point averages. We found that interteaching improved the exam scores for students in each of these groups but that the improvement was most noticeable for students with low and moderate GPAs. Thus, interteaching may be especially useful for students who typically earn lower grades in their courses.
INTRODUCTION Behavior analysis and education are a natural fit. Basic behavioral principles are ideal tools for teaching. All applied behavior analytic interventions with humans fall under the education umbrella in a general sense, since they are aimed at producing more socially adaptive behavior. For this special issue, however, the editors placed an emphasis on the direct applications of behavioral principles within the education system. Early in the development of behavior analysis, researchers took an interest in the application of behavioral principles to education. Building upon Sidney Pressey's early work with teaching technology, Skinner developed a teaching machine in the late 1950's that allowed a learner to receive individualized instruction with immediate performance feedback (Skinner, 1961). Skinner expanded on this innovation by developing a system of programmed instruction with James Holland (Holland & Skinner, 1961). The system, based on self-directed learning and immediate contingencies of reinforcement, became the foundation for applied behavior analytic work in education and was formalized in Skinner's 1968 book The Technology of Teaching. Sid Bijou (1970) argued that behavior analysis integrated well with the goals of the educational system by providing a robust set of empirically supported principles and a clear single subject research methodology. Bijou's work with children with intellectual disabilities during the late 1950's and 1960's offered strong initial evidence of the utility of behavioral interventions in educational settings. In addition, his methodological innovations set the stage for future research in educational settings (Wesolowski, 2002). In the inaugural volume of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Fred Keller (1968) introduced his personalized system of instruction that emphasized mastery based instructional pacing and frequent student interactions with the instructor and peers. Keller's article entitled "Good-Bye, Teacher," made the case for the teacher's role as an educational engineer and contingency manager and downplayed the use of lecture as a means of delivering information. Ogden Lindsley's (1992) precision teaching model introduced the standard celeration chart as a means for assessing changes in fluency as students progress through a structured curriculum. In addition, Zig Engelmann's direct instruction model, based on highly scripted teaching interactions, showed the effectiveness of a behaviorally based curriculum on a large-scale (Engelmann, Becker, Carnine, G identical feature control, irrelevant feature control, and incomplete stimulus control, and discusses implications for the design of instructional systems. Austin (2000) noted a "relative scarcity of empirical validation for behavioral education methods at the college level" (p. …
* ABOUT MORNINGSIDE ACADEMY Morningside Academy is a behaviorally based laboratory school (Dewey, 1990a, 1990b) that helps elementary and middle school students to catch up and get ahead. It was founded and is currently directed by Kent Johnson. Most of its students did not perform to their potential in their previous schools. Entering students typically score in the first and second quartiles on standardized achievement tests in reading, language, and mathematics. Some have learning disabilities; others are labeled as having attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Some lag behind their peer group for no diagnosed reason. Students' IQs range from low average to well above average. A small percentage of students have poor relations with family members and friends, but most do not. Morningside is a school for children with academic behavior problems, not a school for children with social and interpersonal behavior problems. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: FOUNDATIONS Morningside Academy's Foundations program offers a full day of foundational skills that include reading, writing, math, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Elementary school-aged students enroll in the Foundations program for one to three years or more to catch up to grade level. About half of our middle school-aged students--those who enter without these foundational skills and who require a full day of foundation skills to make a year's progress in school--also enroll in the Foundations program. Many Foundations students who catch up to grade level extend their stay to achieve beyond their grade level. Morningside Academy offers a money-back guarantee for progressing two years in one in the skill of greatest deficit. In 31 years, Morningside Academy has returned less than one percent of school-year tuition. At Morningside Academy, we construct behavioral repertoires to eliminate (a) deficient basic academic skills, such as reading, writing, and mathematics; (b) deficient learning skills, such as goal setting, listening, noticing, reasoning, thinking, studying, and organizing; and (c) deficient performance skills; that is, skills in performing tasks in a timely, accurate, and organized manner, without disrupting others or causing oneself undue grief. The Morningside program focuses upon these three key academic, learning, and performance repertoires to increase the intensity and explicitness of instruction. The model at Morningside is in direct contrast to compensatory models that teach children to sidestep their disabilities. Instead, at Morningside, we teach students to face their behavioral deficits head on. The Foundations academic program focuses on reading, writing, and mathematics, including the language, facts, skills, concepts, principles, problem solving, and organizational aspects of each. Literature, social studies, and science provide the content for teaching these foundations in the sense that students learn to read and write about passages from these content areas and learn to apply math facts and operations to problems that each may present. Each student participates in extensive entry assessments of academic, learning, and performance skills. Students with similar needs and goals are grouped together for instruction. However, groupings change repeatedly throughout the day as students move from reading to writing to mathematics. Groupings also change continuously throughout the school year as students make more or less progress than students in their current group. There is no hard-and-fast rule about when a student may move to a new group. Later in the article when we describe our assessment process, we'll return to this issue. The comprehensive reading program includes basic prerequisites such as print awareness, phonemic awareness through auditory blending and segmenting, and the alphabetic principle. Basic foundations in decoding are emphasized, including sound-symbol correspondence, textual blending and segmenting strategies, and reading fluency. …
Food selectivity is the most commonly reported and researched feeding problem in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Seiverling, Williams, Ward-Horner, & Sturmey, 2011). Children have been found to be selective by food type, texture, color, temperature, freshness, as well as other dimensions. In children with ASD, eating a narrow range of foods has been shown to be associated with a variety of problems such as reduced bone cortical thickness (Hediger, England, Mollov, Yu, & Manning-Courtney, 2008), Vitamin A, D, and C deficiencies (Clark, 1993; Duggen, Westra, & Rosenberg, 2007; Uyanik, Dogangun, Kavaalp, Kormaz, & Dervent, 2006), and iron deficiencies (Latif, Heinz, & Cook, 2002). In addition, Lockner, Crowe, and Skipper (2008) found that parents of children with ASD were more likely to give their children non-prescription vitamin/mineral supplements when compared with parents of children without ASD whose children were not as picky and resistant to trying to new foods. This suggests that parents of children with ASD may be more concerned regarding inadequacies in their children's diet variety. Parents may also find mealtimes stressful when attempting to encourage a child with food selectivity to take bites of new or non-preferred foods, as often children will engage in high levels of disruptive behaviors when their preferred foods are not presented (Williams & Seiverling, 2010). The interventions described in studies of food selectivity involve multiple treatment components. These components often include the following: a) stimulus fading combined with reinforcement schedule thinning, in which some dimension of the meal is gradually changed, such as portion sizes being gradually increased; b) differential reinforcement, in which inappropriate behavior is ignored and child acceptance of the presented bites of food is reinforced with verbal praise or access to tangible reinforcers; and c) escape extinction (EE), in which the child is required to consume either a specified number of bites before exiting the eating area, and escape-maintained problem behavior does not lead to termination of the meal. The EE procedure often occurs in one of two forms: (1) non-removal of the spoon, which involves presenting the food until the child accepts it; or (2) physical guidance, which involves physically prompting the child to take a bite. Most intervention studies for food selectivity, as well as for food refusal, have implemented treatment packages involving differential reinforcement, fading, and some form of EE (Anderson & McMillan, 2001; Freeman & Piazza, 1998; Najdowski, Wallace, Doney, & Ghezzi, 2003; McCartney, Anderson, & English, 2005). Further, component analyses have demonstrated that although positive reinforcement is sometimes sufficient, EE is often a necessary component of effective treatments for food selectivity and food refusal (Cooper et al., 1995; Hoch, et al., 2001; Penrod, Wallace, Reagon, Betz, & Higbee, 2010). Although often necessary, EE has been associated with high rates of inappropriate collateral behaviors, especially in the initial stages of treatment and when physical guidance is a component (Gentry & Luiselli, 2008). Thus, these collateral behaviors may at times lead families and clinicians to approach the use of EE with hesitation. Although several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of treatments of food selectivity that do not involve EE (Ahearn, 2003; Buckley, Strunk, & Newchok, 2005; Gentry & Luiselli, 2008; Levin & Carr, 2001; Patel, Reed, Piazza, Mueller, Backmeyer, & Layer, 2007) it is typically unknown whether EE will be a necessary component prior to implementing an intervention. Therefore, EE is often implemented in food selectivity cases. Given the negative side effects that sometimes accompany EE, it is worthwhile to explore alternative approaches that do not include EE or that use minimal use of EE. …
While classical conditioning is no doubt standard part of most if not all introductory psychology courses, habituation is less prevalent as topic. A search of Teaching of Psychology and others sources uncovered classroom demonstrations of classical conditioning processes, (Gibb, 1983; Kohn and Kalat, 1992; Sparrow & Fernald, 1989; Vernoy, 1987) while no examples of demonstrations of habituation were found. Most psychology students are familiar with the startle which is a universal and phylogenetically ancient reflex, (Howard & Ford, 1992, p. 695); it is one of the innate, defensive reflexes of humans and other vertebrates that occur in response to unconditioned eliciting stimuli such as an unexpected loud noise. A startle reflex that is elicited by an unpredicted noise is referred to as an acoustic or audiogenic startle (Wilkens, Hallett, & Wess, 1986; Brown, Rothwell, Thompson, Britton, Day, & Marsden, 1991; Gluck, Mercado, & Myers, 2008). Habituation is the process by which such reflexes are modified by experience; hence, it is basic form of learning (Bouton, 2007; Gluck et al., 2008). A normal audiogenic startle reflex was first quantifiably studied by Jacobsen (1926), with further study by Landis and Hunt, (1936, 1937, 1939). The acoustic startle reflex consists of eye movements, especially blinking, facial grimacing, contractions of flexor muscles in the neck, trunk and elbows, with extensor muscles being activated much less often. Movements of the head and the remainder of the body are less reliably involved (Brown et al., 1991; Wilkens et al., 1986). Habituation occurred for all of these components with the exception of blinking (Wilkens et al., 1986). Howard and Ford (1992) observed considerable variation between individuals in the topography and duration of the startle reflex. As noted by Wilkens et al., (1986) the startle reflex is subject to habituation. Typically, an unconditioned response or reflex that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus will show habituation if the stimulus is repeated (Gluck et al., 2008). That is, measures of the response will show orderly decreases in magnitude as the stimulus is repeatedly applied. More simply put, habituation is the process by which stimulus loses its attention-grabbing properties, i.e., its novelty, and decreases in responsiveness to the stimulus are seen when the stimulus is presented repeatedly or for an extended period. Through the process of habituation, an organism ceases to engage in attending or other responses to the stimulus; the stimulus comes to be ignored (Bouton, 2007; Gluck et al., 2008). To illustrate habituation, the contingencies needed to elicit an acoustic startle reflex were arranged and repeated to record the habituation of the various responses. * METHODOLOGY Due to difficulties with an audience observing person undergo startle the demonstration to be described was conducted in another setting and digitally videotaped for later use in the classroom. Prior to any observations, protocol approval was obtained from the South Dakota State University Institutional Review Board. Four research assistants were involved, one of whom had volunteered to be videotaped and exposed to an eliciting stimulus; we initially needed to determine an effective unconditioned stimulus (US) with which to elicit the startle with the designated volunteer out of the room. We initially tested balloons being popped as suggested by Vernoy (1987), but found this event was not effective at eliciting significant response. After some trial and error, we decided to strike metal table with standard weight claw hammer, which at an approximate distance of 1 m elicited clearly observable startle reflex. A sound decibel meter allowed us to quantify the decibel level, approximately 80 dB. To produce rapid habituation, an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 15 s was employed. …
Matching-to-sample (MTS) training consists of presenting a stimulus as a sample followed by stimuli called comparisons from which a subject makes a choice. This study presents results of a pilot investigation comparing two packages for teach- ing university students to conduct MTS training. Two groups - control and experimental - with 2 participants in each group were used. Accuracy in conducting MTS training was assessed during baseline and post-training. During training the control group received a manual, and the experimental group received both the manual and computer-aided personalized system of instruction or CAPSI. Baseline and post-training combined scores for control and experimental groups were 72.5% and 100%, and 72.7% and 95%, respectively. Results showed that the manual and the manual-plus-CAPSI packages produced similar effects in delivering knowledge in MTS training. We suggest that future studies using a larger sample size are neces- sary. In addition, we suggest that it is necessary to test new versions of the manual and the interaction of CAPSI with other components, such as demonstration videos.
Guided notes were employed in two undergraduate Psychology courses involving 71 students. The study design utilized an alternating treatments format to compare Traditional Lectures with Guided Notes lectures. In one of the two courses, tests were administered after each class lecture, whereas the same type of test was administered at the beginning of the next week’s class for the second course. Regardless of test delay, the Guided Notes condition was associated with substantially higher
The field of behavior analysis has done an excellent job of not only raising public awareness about certain disorders (e.g., Autism), but also developing the best treatments for those disorders. The field has not yet, however, done so for many behavioral disorders. For instance, pathological gambling is a major societal issue, but little behavior-analytic work has focused on it despite the fact that the disorder occurs at several times the frequency of other, more publicized, disorders such as Autism (Dixon, Marley, & Jacobs, 2003). One possible reason for the dearth of behavior-analytic research could be B.F. Skinner's (1953) conclusion that gambling behavior could be understood in terms of schedules of reinforcement. Subsequent research, however, suggests that multiple factors likely control gambling behavior (e.g., see Weatherly & Dixon, 2007). According to most prevalence studies, the rate of pathological gambling in the general population likely ranges between 1 -2% (see Petry, 2005, for a review). In terms of absolute numbers, these percentages represent millions of individuals in the United States alone. The numbers do not, however, encapsulate the problem. That is, pathological are individuals who officially meet diagnostic criteria according to the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Other people are labeled as gamblers because they display some symptoms of pathological gambling, but not enough symptoms to be diagnosed clinically as pathological. The prevalence rates of problem gambling are also difficult to estimate, but it seems reasonable to conclude that the number of problem exceeds the number of pathological gamblers, possibly another 5% or more of the population (see Petry, 2005). Pathological gambling is currently classified as an impulse disorder that is not otherwise classified. (1) To meet diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling, an individual must display at least five of the ten possible symptoms. Three of these symptoms are generally considered in nature. The possible cognitive symptoms include a preoccupation with gambling, feeling the need to increase one's betting so as to maintain the original level of excitement or arousal, and feeling restless when one attempts to cease gambling. (2) Six of the remaining seven symptoms are descriptive of behaviors in which the gambler might engage. They are trying to cease gambling but failing, increasing one's betting in an attempt to win back what has been lost (i.e., chasing one's bet), lying to others so as to conceal one's gambling, engaging in illegal behavior to finance one's gambling, putting one's opportunities (e.g., job, personal relationships, etc.) in jeopardy because of continued gambling, and turning to other individuals to finance one's gambling or to address financial issues that have resulted from one's gambling. (3) Interestingly, only one of the official symptoms for pathological gambling specifically identifies a contingency that might be controlling the person's gambling behavior; that the person gambles as an escape. It will therefore likely come as no surprise to behavior analysts that this particular symptom may have special relevance, which will be addressed later in the paper. As one might imagine, the research literature on gambling is immense (and beyond the scope of the present paper to review all of it), and many researchers have attempted to identify the factors that lead to pathological gambling. Unfortunately, the vast majority of this research is correlational in nature. As such, associative relationships can be, and have been, identified. However, the causal mechanisms underlying the disorder have not been firmly established. Regardless, research has potentially identified the establishing operations (Michael, 1993) or setting events (Kantor & Smith, 1975) for pathological gambling. As outlined by Petry (2005), there are six major risk factors for pathological gambling, several of which may be intercorrelated. …
This paper presents the empirical basis for the phenomena known as stimulus overselectivity. Stimulus overselectivity involves responding on the basis of a restricted range of elements or features that are discriminative for reinforcement. The manner
Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) can present unique behavioral and academic challenges within the school environment. The Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) move- ments have sought to formalize intervention systems to address the needs of all children. An integral component is the need for initial and ongoing assessment strategies to guide decision making. The assessment strategies reviewed were selected to provide a menu of available resources to assist in matching assessment methods to levels of student needs within the RTI and PBIS framework.
Behaviorally-designed educational programs are often based on a research tradition that is not widely understood by potential users of the programs. Though the data may be sound and the prediction of outcomes for individual learners quite good, those advocating adoption of behaviorally-designed educational programs may need to do more in order to convince school districts to adopt large-scale implementations of their programs. This article provides an example of a successful approach that suggests quickly gathering local evidence using more familiar evidence-based and experiential methods may increase the likelihood of program adoption. The actual report to the large urban district is included.
