Autism is a neurological disorder which impairs the individual's social interactions and communication. Such impairments lead to deficits in learning which accumulate over time. Finding effective and efficient technologies to teach children with autism helps to minimize deficits and teach children new skills to be independent learners. There is previous research on technologies such as discrete trail training (DTT), antecedent based interventions, and consequence based interventions which have to be shown to be effective, however, more research is needed to find more cost effective and efficient procedures.. The PEAK Stimulus Equivalence Training Module seeks to teach children with Autism in a concise easy to follow manual. Past research has shown stimulus equivalence to not only effectively teach children with autism novel skills, but also has shown the emergence of untrained relations. The present study uses the PEAK module with three boys with autism, between the ages of 6 and 8, to teach novel stimuli including, planets, holidays, and sports teams and to test for the emergence of untrained relations. Results showed that the all participants demonstrated derived relations. Implications for future research are discussed.

Current research has shown differences in eye gaze, or ocular observing responses amongst individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with their typically developing counterparts, and with individuals with developmental disabilities other than autism. Eye gaze is currently studied as a predictor for ASD diagnoses and as a potential predictive level of social deficit for individuals already diagnosed with autism. Deficits in language and communication are also studied as predictive risk factors for ASD, and are identified as areas for treatment for individuals with autism. As a behavior analytic account of language, Relational Frame Theory (RFT) suggests that language development is attributed to the development of derived relational responding repertoires. A growing body of literature suggests that there is great benefit in behavior analytic treatment methods for autism that incorporate procedures rooted in RFT. Specifically, relational training procedures that promote derived relational responding (DRR) have been shown to improve language repertoires for children with autism. Previous research using typically developing adults has also suggested that accuracy in eye gaze on relational tasks improves as individuals demonstrate the emergence of novel derived relations. By combining the benefits of relational training procedures on outcomes of language development with technology used to understand eye gaze behaviors, behavior analysts may be able to better understand how to target specific behaviors in treatment that may indirectly improve eye gaze. In turn, improvements in eye gaze may assist in increasing socially significant and helpful behaviors such as attending to appropriate social stimuli within the environment. The current series of studies investigated the relationship between DRR repertoires and ocular observing responses in individuals with autism. Study 1 examined the relationship between DRR of equivalence relations with latency to respond to task items, as well as eye fixation duration and fixation rate toward correct stimuli in the assessment. The results from this study showed a strong, positive correlation between fixation rate and duration with assessment scores. These results suggest more advanced DRR repertoires lead to longer and more frequent eye gaze toward correct stimuli. Study 2 investigated changes in latency to respond as well as changes rate and duration of eye fixations as participants were taught novel relations and tested for the emergence of derived responding. All four participants in the study demonstrated an increase in fixation to correct stimuli from baseline to treatment. Study 3 sought to evaluate the impact that relational training techniques have on eye gaze following a 6-week intervention period compared to a more traditional treatment technique and a waitlist control. Eye gaze measures were assessed before and after the intervention using three different categories of videos of social situations: Person Telling a Story, Conversations, and Social Imaginative Play. Results suggested that the relational training procedure had the most significant impact on eye gaze for Conversation videos compared to a direct contingency group and a waitlist control group. Taken together, the results suggest the potential impact that RFT-based treatments have on ocular observing responses for children with ASD, and how improvements may benefit appropriate eye gaze toward a social environment.

The current research study examined the formation of derived stimulus relations consisting of course content material in an undergraduate rehabilitation class. Specifically, the study examined the degree to which the stimulus equivalence instructional paradigm could be effectively used to teach the relationships between the names, definitions, causes, and common treatments for disabilities using a paper-and-pencil training format. Twenty-two participants were pre and post-tested on definition-to-name, cause-to-name, and treatment-to-name relations by the experimenter in a flashcard-style fashion. Training was conducted using an instructional package consisting of multiple-choice questionnaires in which name-to-definition, name-to-cause, and cause-to-treatment relations were taught and feedback was delivered from the experimenter until mastery. Results suggest that the stimulus equivalence paradigm can be effectively trained in a paper-and-pencil training format with great ease.

In the present study, two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were taught to identify reflexive relations across three varying stimuli using procedures outlined in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Equivalence Module (PEAK-E). Two programs from the PEAK-E module were utilized, programs 2B and 3C, both of which incorporated reflexive relations utilizing two differing sensory modalities. Visual relations were directly trained to the participants while the tactile relations were derived and monitored through probes. The same three stimuli were utilized in both PEAK-E programs for each participant; however, those three stimuli varied across participants. All stimuli were retrieved from the participants’ environments and were familiar objects to the participants. The results indicate that only one sense mode, visual, required corrective feedback and praise in order for cross-modal transfer to occur for the second sense mode, tactile. Both participants demonstrated they acquired the reflexive skills for both visual and tactile stimuli. Participant 1 reached mastery criterion for both skills in 36 trials, and participant 2 reached mastery criterion within 20 trials. Limitations and future directions for implication of cross modal transfer are discussed.

Through examining the variables that contribute to the natural process of language and cognition, a promising path is paved for researchers to identify the variables that influence higher order skills, such as perspective taking, empathy and altruism. The current study implemented the PEAK Relational Training System Transformation Module Pre-Assessment Expressive portion (PEAK-T PA) as an objective behavior measure of relational framing complexity. Two additional self-report assessments were used with all subjects, including a multi-dimensional measure of empathy, referred to as the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ). A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between PEAK-T PA scores and IRI subscale scores. Additional Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine a relationship between PEAK-T scores and VLQ scores. A statistically significant relationship was determined between one of the relational frame subareas of the PEAK-T PA and the perspective taking IRI subscale scores. Results, limitations and future research areas associated with relational framing abilities are discussed.

This study hypothesized a direct relationship among three verbal phenomena: derived relational responding, verbal intelligence, and worry. It also hypothesized that experiential avoidance would mediate the relationship between derived relational responding and worry. Overall, results from this study failed to support a relationship between worry and the other two verbal phenomena, however, results did support a relationship between derived relational responding and verbal intelligence. Additionally, results indicated a significant relationship between experiential avoidance and worry. Future research should clarify the relationship among the three primary variables of interest, improve measurement of these variables, be more sensitive to external validity, and promote the study of acceptance-based treatments that target experiential avoidance.

Children's language and world knowledge grows explosively in the preschool years. One critical contributor to this growth is their developing ability to infer relations beyond those that have been directly taught or modeled. Categorization is one type of skill commonly taught in preschool in which inference is an important aspect. This study explored the development of specific types of inferences within a categorization relation: those among naming items and categories, selecting items based on their names and categories, and answering questions that relate names and categories. Children learned names and categories for a set of unfamiliar cartoon characters through one of two training protocols: (a) Listener training involved selecting a picture upon hearing an item name or category; (b) Expressive training involved saying an item name or category upon seeing a picture. Following training, we tested whether children derived several kinds of untrained responses. Those children who received Expressive training (saying names) completed tests of listener responses (selecting pictures); similarly, those children who received Listener training (selecting pictures) completed tests of expressive responses (saying names). Next, children answered oral questions in the absence of pictures. Results show that children receiving Expressive and Listener training produce naming and question answering responses at levels above chance. However, many children failed to answer all questions correctly. The Expressive group produced naming and question answering responses at significantly higher levels than the Listener group. This suggests that Listener training is a weaker form of instruction when the goal of instruction is the production of untrained responses. However, these results are tentative because unequal proportions of children completed each type of training. Finally, we examined the relationship between naming and question answering. Few children answered questions at a higher level than they produced names. This study shows that children learn to infer responses from both Listener and Expressive trainings. This study also suggests that naming and question answering responses are related responses. The current study highlights the need for later research on teaching inference skills such as naming and question answering to those who do not develop them in the absence of specific instruction.

Relational Frame Theory research involves either of two protocols utilized to establish relational networks and functions for stimuli in those relational networks. Years of research indicate the most prevalent method involves first establishing a relational frame, conditioning one of the stimuli to acquire a particular function, and then providing a test to see if the function trained to one of the stimuli in the network transferred through the relational network to other stimuli. The less common method involves first training a particular function for a stimulus, entering that stimulus in a relational network with at least two other stimuli, and then subsequently providing a test to see if the function transferred. Hayes, Kohlenberg, and Hayes (1991) hypothesized that not only do both procedures work, but there is also no differentiation between the two with regards to transformation of stimulus function. Although both protocols have been used in the RFT literature, a direct comparison has never been made. The current study directly examines that comparison in a within-subject analysis to determine if there may be differentiated results in transformation of stimulus function based on the protocol used. A within-subjects analysis indicates that subsequent probes of transformation of stimulus function probes yielded similar levels of correct responding in both training protocols, and thus supporting the hypothesis put forth by Hayes and colleagues (1991).

No description available.