Recognizing that two sounds are the same is a part of accurate vocal imitation, and the teaching of vocal imitation is an important part of language training for persons with developmental disabilities (DD) and children with autism. Researchers have developed an Auditory-Auditory Identity Matching Prototype Task (AAIM PT) to assess whether persons with DD can identify whether two sounds are the same (Harapiak, Martin, & Yu, 1999). Thus far, the one study (Sewell, 2005) that attempted to teach AAIM tasks to persons with DD who failed the AAIM PT had little success in doing so. The purpose of this research was to evaluate several procedures for teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism. In Experiment 1, the trainer said a word, a matching word was played out of one computer speaker, and a non-matching word was played out of another. The participant was required to point to the speaker that played the matching word. In a single-subject alternating-treatments design, volume fading of the non-matching word (from zero to full volume) was compared to the fading out of a pointing prompt to the speaker that played the matching word. Only one of five participants learned an AAIM task, and that participant did not pass the AAIM PT. Three pilot studies were then conducted to explore various prompting and fading strategies for teaching AAIM tasks, and all were unsuccessful. In Experiment 2, I examined a procedure for teaching AAIM in which the participant was actively involved in producing the sample sound and the matching and non-matching comparison sounds. This procedure also incorporated visual cues and sounds from the operation of a toy airplane as a possible natural, built-in reinforcer. In a single-subject AB design with replication within and across three participants (one person with DD and two children with autism), all three participants learned two AAIM tasks, two participants generalized to a third AAIM task, and one participant passed the AAIM PT. The encouraging results from Experiment 2 provide a promising starting point for future research on teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism.

Recognizing that two sounds are the same is a part of accurate vocal imitation, and the teaching of vocal imitation is an important part of language training for persons with developmental disabilities (DD) and children with autism. Researchers have developed an Auditory-Auditory Identity Matching Prototype Task (AAIM PT) to assess whether persons with DD can identify whether two sounds are the same (Harapiak, Martin, & Yu, 1999). Thus far, the one study (Sewell, 2005) that attempted to teach AAIM tasks to persons with DD who failed the AAIM PT had little success in doing so. The purpose of this research was to evaluate several procedures for teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism. In Experiment 1, the trainer said a word, a matching word was played out of one computer speaker, and a non-matching word was played out of another. The participant was required to point to the speaker that played the matching word. In a single-subject alternating-treatments design, volume fading of the non-matching word (from zero to full volume) was compared to the fading out of a pointing prompt to the speaker that played the matching word. Only one of five participants learned an AAIM task, and that participant did not pass the AAIM PT. Three pilot studies were then conducted to explore various prompting and fading strategies for teaching AAIM tasks, and all were unsuccessful. In Experiment 2, I examined a procedure for teaching AAIM in which the participant was actively involved in producing the sample sound and the matching and non-matching comparison sounds. This procedure also incorporated visual cues and sounds from the operation of a toy airplane as a possible natural, built-in reinforcer. In a single-subject AB design with replication within and across three participants (one person with DD and two children with autism), all three participants learned two AAIM tasks, two participants generalized to a third AAIM task, and one participant passed the AAIM PT. The encouraging results from Experiment 2 provide a promising starting point for future research on teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism.

The present study sought to identify the effects that derived relational training had on simulated gambling behavior with slot machines. Prior to conducting any relational training procedures, participants' relational responses in each contextual condition was probed. Each of the four backgrounds/conditions (red, blue, green, yellow) were presented with various stimuli from differing stimulus classes. Twenty trials were presented with no feedback for correct responding. Upon completion of the probes, pretest preference assessments were administered with blue and red slot machines being concurrently available for twenty trials then green and yellow slot machines doing the same. Following the pretest preference assessment, relational training began, here stimuli from each of the stimulus classes were presented on screen for three of the contextual conditions with the blue contextual condition left out to assess for possible derived relational responses. After completion, the second set of relational probes and posttest preference assessments began to assess if relational training altered the response allocation of slot machines and accuracy of responding during probes. After relational training, all participants showed an increase in response allocation to the red slot machine and a decrease to the blue. The yellow slot machine was selected increasingly with three participants while green was selected more often with one individual, one staying at the same number, and two selecting it less than in the pretest.

Typically developing children learn from play. For example, play serves as a foundation for children to acquire early language and social skills. Children with autism tend to have deficits in play, and often engage in rigid or repetitive behaviors during play. Such rigid play behavior can limit opportunities for these children to learn from play. Researchers have shown that it is possible to increase the variety of play behaviors that children with autism engage in. But, research has not yet shown whether these gains in play behavior will transfer to other play environments and situations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate methods for promoting the transfer of varied and appropriate play to other play situations with three children with autism. In this study, we increased varied play behavior by providing rewards for playing in a varied manner (and not providing rewards for playing in an inappropriate or rigid manner). We did this with multiple different play situations to help the participants learn to engage in varied play in different situations. We then tested to see if the participants would vary their play with completely new play situations. We found that, following some modifications, our procedures were successful at increasing varied play behavior for all three participants, and that their varied play transferred to other play situations.

Four pigeons had discrimination training that required the choice of a left side-key following completion of a fixed-ratio 10 an the center key, and a right side-key response after fixed-ratio 20. Correct choices were reinforced on various fixed-interval, fixed-ratio, random-interval, and random-ratio schedules. When accuracy was examined across quarters of intervals (fixed-interval schedules) or quarters of median interreinforcerrent intervals (fixed-ratio schedules), accuracy was usually laver in the second quarter than in the first, third, or fourth quarters. When accuracy was examined across quarters of ratios (fixed-ratio schedules) or quarters of median number of correct interreinforcement trials (fixed-interval schedules), accuracy increased across quarters. These accuracy patterns did not occur m random-interval or random-ratio schedules. The results indicate that, when choice patterns differed on fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules, these differences were due to the methods of data analyses.

Between 1% and 1.4% of people who engage in gambling behaviors lead to disordered or pathological gambling (Whiting & Dixon, 2015), while 44% of all money spent on legal gambling is done so with slot machines (Choliz, 2010). Various behavioral concepts have been theorized as a possible source of gambling addition; losses disguised as wins (LDWs), near-miss, gamblers’ fallacy, illusions of control, and verbally constructed self-rules related to these topics. The current study sought to extend the previous research on condition discrimination in altering slot machine preference while also analyzing the effects of vocalized self-rules during slot machine selection. Conclusions are drawn regarding results comparing cumulative selection to various vocal statement categories. Limitations are expressed and future research is suggested.

When teaching discriminations, many researchers and practitioners recommend presenting multiple examples of both the correct and incorrect stimuli. To test this suggestion, we compared two procedures for presenting multiple examples. In one, multiple examples across trials (ME, Across), one correct (S+) and one incorrect (S-) stimulus were presented each trial; examples then changed across trials. In another procedure, multiple examples within trials (ME, Within), three stimuli (either 2 S+'s and 1 S-, or 1 S+ and 2 S-'s) were presented each trial; examples again changed across trials. Two experiments were conducted to test these procedures. The first procedure used a non-fading program to teach discrimination; the second used a fading procedure. In the first experiment, we taught 10 persons to identify words under these two procedures. The former procedure was superior in acquisition; the latter procedure, however, was better under generalization for most participants. In the second experiment, we presented the two procedures within a fading paradigm. The results replicated those in Experiment 1: ME, Across was better for acquisition, but ME, Within was better for generalization. Results were discussed and follow-up studies suggested.

The experimenter asked if documented equivalence class membership would influence the development of shared discriminative stimulus function established through simple successive discrimination training. In Experiment 1, equivalence classes were established with two sets of 9 stimuli. Common stimulus functions were then trained within or across the equivalence classes. Greater acquisition rates of the simple discriminations with stimuli drawn from within the equivalence classes were observed. In Experiment 2, a third stimulus set was added with which no equivalence relations were explicitly trained. The findings of Experiment 1 were replicated, but the Set 3 results were inconsistent across subjects. The outcomes of the two experiments demonstrate that equivalence classes have an effect on other behavioral relations which requires further investigation.

Although tic disorders are diagnosed as neurological disorders, neurobehavioral models suggest that tics are controlled by premonitory urges that may be conditioned to become aversive through childhood, and that tics are exhibited to alleviate such phenomena. However, only indirect measures have been used to assess the presence of the premonitory urge. This study utilized self-report and GSR measurements to examine whether a punishing contingency conditioned stimuli to be aversive during conditions of tic suppression and whether punishing contingencies exacerbate aversive private phenomena in two adults. Results indicated that conditions of response cost (RC) and differential reinforcement (DRO) were effective at reducing the number of tics compared to baseline. Moreover, GSR was unrelated to urge and suppression conditions despite higher self-reported urge ratings in DRO and RC conditions. Implications of findings are discussed.

Skinner (1957) attested that the acquisition of one type of verbal operant will not necessarily occasion the emergence of another type of verbal response topography. In contrast, several studies have shown that multiple exemplar training (MET) is a mechanism that can facilitate the emergence of untrained operants, and it has been considered a powerful tool for establishing generalized operant responses also known as derived relational responses in the language of Relational Frame Theory (RFT). Using a multiple probe design across participants, the current study evaluated the effects of two training protocols in the emergence of untaught intraverbal responses (listing and vocal spelling of words). In Experiment 1, four participants diagnosed with intellectual disability were trained in taking dictation responses and tested for the emergence of intraverbal responses in the form of vocal spelling of words. In Experiment 2, three out of the four participants were trained to relate three sets of three synonyms each using a conditional discrimination training. The results demonstrated that the training procedures used during both experiments were effective in occasioning the emergence of untrained intraverbal responses. It was suggested that participants should have had a history of MET through the course of their academic life which facilitated the emergence of different intraverbal responses in this study.