Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Knee osteoarthritis is among the most prevalent chronic diseases. Total knee arthroplasty is a common solution that effectively addresses the continued structural degeneration of the articular cartilage. However, effective physical therapy is critical for recovery. Despite participating in physical therapy, many patients fail to recover. This study investigated the potential efficacy of a behaviorally informed approach to surface electromyographic biofeedback following total knee arthroplasty relative to the clinical standard, neuromuscular electrical stimulation...

Functional analysis methods allow clinicians to determine the variable(s) that maintain destructive behavior. Previous reviews of functional analysis outcomes have included large samples of published and unpublished data sets (i.e., clinical samples). The purpose of this review was to conduct a large retrospective consecutive controlled case series of clinical functional analyses. We sought to identify the prevalence of differentiation, procedural modifications for undifferentiated and differentiated cases, and identified function(s) of destructive behavior...

In a replication of Daly and K. Dounavi (2020), the researchers evaluated the effect of foreign tact and bidirectional intraverbal teaching on the emergence of untaught relations. Three university students learned three stimulus sets through three types of teaching: native-foreign intraverbal teaching (vocalizing Spanish words that refer to a Japanese textual stimulus), foreign-native intraverbal teaching (reversed relation of native-foreign condition), and foreign-tact teaching (tacting a picture in Spanish)...

Email etiquette is an important skill, especially in professional settings. Research demonstrates that undergraduate students follow email rules when given written instructions plus an example. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of computer-based email instruction on undergraduate students' email etiquette and to assess the social validity of that instruction. The email instruction package was delivered through an online learning management system and consisted of written instructions plus a model, a quiz, and quiz feedback...

This concise review summarizes the literature on noncontingent reinforcement in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorder from 2018 to 2022. We reviewed 15 published behavior-analytic feeding studies to identify how often the term noncontingent reinforcement is used, what form of noncontingent reinforcement is delivered, and what the effects of noncontingent reinforcement are on behavior when it is included in treatment. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Rodriguez et al. (2022) discovered that teaching four component skills was sufficient to facilitate the emergence of intraverbal tacts across four applications with three participants. Our study replicated and evaluated an extension of this procedure that was directed at facilitating intraverbal tacts when a child learns the component skills but continues to fail to produce intraverbal tacts. The extension consisted of procedures to enhance the divergent control exerted by the auditory stimulus (i.e., the question) and the discriminability of joint control...

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We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S-deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a consequence for a new response. The results demonstrated that previously neutral praise words functioned as reinforcers and nonsense words did not. As in previous studies on establishing reinforcers, the effects were transitory, and praise words did not continue to function as reinforcers after repeated exposure without discrimination training...

The functional analysis approach described by Iwata et al. (1982/1994) has been used widely to determine the variables evoking and maintaining challenging behavior. However, one potential concern with conducting functional analyses is that repeated exposure to contingencies may induce a novel functional relation. To examine the likelihood of these potential iatrogenic effects, we evaluated social test conditions of the functional analysis for 116 participants and searched for patterns of responding indicative of acquisition...

Functional communication training (FCT) is an evidence-based treatment for behavior targeted for reduction that often combines extinction for target responses and arranges functionally equivalent reinforcement for alternative behavior. Long-term effectiveness of FCT can become compromised when transitioning from clinic to nonclinic contexts or thinning reinforcement schedules for appropriate behavior. Such increases in targeted behavior have been conceptualized as renewal and resurgence, respectively. The relation between resurgence and renewal has yet to be reported...

Recommendations for achieving generalized instructional outcomes often overlook the capacity for generative learning for most verbally competent humans. Four children (ages 5-8) participated in this project. In Study 1, we provided decontextualized discrete trial teaching to establish arbitrary relations between colors, pictures of characters, and researcher motor actions. All participants engaged in derivative responding, providing evidence of relational framing. Subsequently, we demonstrated that, with no additional instruction, these derivatives contributed to effective action within a socially valid context (i...

Children are interviewed to provide information about past events in various contexts (e.g., police interviews, court proceedings, therapeutic interviews). During an interview, various factors may influence the accuracy of children's responses to questions about recent events. However, behavioral research in this area is limited. Sparling et al. (2011) showed that children frequently provided inaccurate responses to questions about video clips they just watched depending on the antecedents (i.e., the way a question was asked) and consequences (i...

Response interruption and redirection (RIRD) is a common treatment for automatically reinforced vocal stereotypy; it involves the contingent presentation of task instructions. Tasks that are included in RIRD are typically selected based on caregiver report, which may affect the efficacy of RIRD. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the role of task preference in the efficacy of RIRD for four participants who engaged in vocal stereotypy. We conducted task-preference assessments and selected tasks of varying preferences to include in RIRD...

The functional assessment of challenging behavior (e.g., self-injurious behavior) has evolved over many years of research and practice. This concise review summarizes the positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of common procedural adaptations reported to improve functional assessment safety and efficiency. We conclude with suggestions for clinicians and researchers.

Children with pediatric feeding disorder may refuse to consume an adequate variety and/or volume of food to maintain expected growth. They can consume food but may actively or passively refuse, resulting in escape or avoidance of eating. Behavioral interventions like positive reinforcement with escape extinction can increase consumption. However, sometimes these interventions are insufficient, especially in treating passive refusal. In these cases, physical guidance may be used to prompt an open mouth to deposit food...

Arranging assent opportunities is an increasingly common strategy for involving clients in therapeutic decisions within behavior analysis. Recent behavior-analytic articles have helped create a basic behavioral definition and conceptualization of assent, but much more guidance is needed for practitioners and researchers interested in embedding assent into their practices. The purpose of this article is to advance the conceptualization and understanding of assent and assent practices by refining previous definitions and conceptualizations of assent and providing six essential considerations for embedding assent into practice...

Visual inspection of single-subject data is the primary method for behavior analysts to interpret the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable; however, there is no consensus on the most suitable method for teaching graph construction for single-subject designs. We systematically replicated and extended Tyner and Fienup (2015) using a repeated-measures between-subjects design to compare the effects of instructor-led, video-model, and no-instruction control tutorials on the graphing performance of 81 master's students with some reported Microsoft Excel experience...

Tummy time is an activity for infants to practice their early motor skills. Although most pediatricians recommend tummy time, parents may avoid the procedures due to indices of infant discomfort during this period. This consecutive controlled case series evaluation compared the effects of preferred items selected from a preference assessment with those of parental attention on head evaluation and negative vocalizations during tummy time. In addition, we directly evaluated parental choice by inviting parents to select which tummy time treatment they wanted to implement...

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.

This study investigated the effects of self-monitoring and public posting on the cycling performance of competitive youth cyclists. We measured three primary dependent variables: performance volume, intensity precision, and performance-duration deviation. In addition, we evaluated self-monitoring accuracy and social validity. The participants were three males aged 14-16 years. We used an ABAB design to evaluate an intervention package that consisted primarily of self-monitoring and public posting. Athletes self-monitored their performance after training using an online summative Google Form...