The present study evaluated preference for choice and its effect on motivation during response acquisition of receptive identification targets in children diagnosed with autism. Prior to the study a multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment was conducted in order to determine the highly preferred stimulus. Choice was evaluated during a high-preferred, free-choice, and control condition for each participant. During the high-preferred condition, participants were only able to work for the high-preferred stimulus identified during the MSWO. During free choice, participants could choose among the five items presented in the MSWO, and during control each participant was unable to exchange his or her tokens for reinforcement. Choice was also evaluated during a concurrent-chain arrangement, where each participant was able to choose the condition he or she wanted to work under. The results showed that two out of the three participants did not show differentiation during the acquisition phase; however, during the concurrent-chain phase, all three participants demonstrated a stronger preference for free choice.

For many educators, finding enough time to complete all that is require of them is a daily challenge. Those in special education have the added burden of making sure that their staff members are highly trained in the skills required to work effectively with students. There are many different ways to train staff members, one of which is using a video model. This study looked at the effects of video modeling alone on the training of staff members to use the multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment. The participants in this study were paraprofessionals who work with preschool students who had a variety of disabilities. Data were collected on how well staff members were able to perform necessary skills to conduct the preference assessment before and after watching a video model. The results of this study showed that staff members could learn a new skill with the use of video modeling as a training tool. Using video modeling as a training tool is an effective way to save educators time while still ensuring that students are benefited.

Past research has not evaluated the effectiveness of a remote behavior skills training (BST) package with pre-service special education teachers’ implementation of a multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment (PA). Thus, this research was needed to evaluate the effectiveness of a remote BST package on pre-service special education teacher’s implementation of a MSWO PA. This study was conducted to first, evaluate the effects of pre-service special education teachers’ fidelity of conducting a MSWO PA using remote BST and next, to evaluate the intervention gains maintained over time, and last to determine if pre-service special education teachers believe the MSWO PA results in favorable social validity measures. The components of behavioral skills training used were remote instruction, remote video modeling, a remote quiz, and feedback. Results suggest that a remote BST package is a useful training strategy when teaching pre-service special education teachers PA. During 1-week follow-up across participants, each participant maintained their skills of implementation. Keywords: video conferencing, remote, BST, MSWO, multiple stimulus without replacement, preference assessment / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Abstract This experiment evaluated the effects of noncontingent and contingent access on relative preference for items identified through a series of preference assessments. Four typically developing children participated in multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments to establish a relative hierarchy of preferred activities. Following the MSWO, the participants were exposed to contingent access or noncontingent access conditions that were separated by preference assessments to assess stability of the preference hierarchy. Results were discussed in terms of preference, preference shifts, and the response deprivation hypothesis.