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 present study sought to examine the use of two teaching procedures as methods of increasing relational responding in children with developmental disabilities. We compared one procedure that presented test probes for combinatory entailment and transformation of function probes throughout the acquisition of directly trained A-B and B-C relations. In the second procedure test probes were withheld until the learner achieved mastery criteria for the directly trained A-B and B-C relations. Results show that all three participants achieved mastery criterion across both procedures and demonstrated the emergence of mutual entailment, combinatory entailment, and transformation of stimulus function. The presentation of entailed and transformation probes resulted in faster acquisition of directly trained and test relations. An account of current research and implications of these findings is provided.

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.

Individuals with autism are largely taught using direct contingency learning, limiting their already potentially limited relational repertoire. A multiple baseline design across skills with an embedded multiple probe design was implemented to demonstrate the efficacy of training procedures used to established nonarbitrary relations in the context of block design. The PEAK – Transformation module (PEAK-T) is a curriculum designed to develop the relational repertoire of individuals with and without developmental disabilities, from which procedures were adapted. Training phases were each preceded by test probes of each of the target relations. Transfers of stimulus function were tested by presenting a novel context in which the trained and derived relations were used in completion of a task. The entailment probes across each of the programs showed transfers of function across three relational stimulus classes. All three directly trained relations across three frames resulted in mastery level responding. The results support the efficacy of the PEAK-T curriculum such that complex relational responding can be taught to a child with intellectual disabilities.

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.

Mindfulness meditation is a growing area of interest for both mental health professionals and the general public alike. Beneficial outcomes are associated with these practices, although the variety of measurement techniques makes research difficult to interpret. Definitions of these constructs are varied, and anecdotal accounts point to the idea that many people hold misconceptions about mindfulness and meditation, even when meanings are made clear. Still, no formal research has been published on misconceptions of mindfulness – or, if they exist, how such misinformation affects acquisition of related skills. Furthermore, mindfulness has been incorporated into therapeutic modalities without much consideration for context, including the client's learning history. The current analogue study examined how the presentation of mindfulness meditations (i.e., inaccurate rationale/meditation and accurate rationale/meditation) affects an individual's practice. Specifically, self-reported mindfulness and meditation skills, mood questionnaires, a matching-to-sample task, and qualitative measurements were used to assess acquisition. Although primary hypotheses did not yield significant findings, results from both preliminary and exploratory analyses demonstrate significant findings with regard to teaching, learning, and measurement related to mindfulness meditation. The results, future directions, and limitations are discussed.

Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to provide a fuller description of the phenomenon Sidman (1994, 2000) described as "dropping out" of an equivalence class.

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.