Animal trainers working in scent detection programs are responsible for arranging training contingencies as well as for observing and recording animal behavior. We provided behavioral skills training (BST) to animal trainers working with scent detection rats to improve the treatment integrity of scent-detection research sessions. We evaluated the…

We evaluated the emergence of untaught second-language skills following directly taught listener and intraverbal responses. Three preschool children were taught first-language (English) listener responses (e.g., "Point to the horse") and second-language (Welsh) intraverbal responses (e.g., "What is horse in Welsh?" [ceffyl]).…

We taught 4 participants with autism to discriminate between the reinforced and nonreinforced responses of an adult model and evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention using a multiple baseline design. During baseline, participants were simply exposed to adult models' correct and incorrect responses and the respective consequences of each.…

Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may play with limited objects or toys, making it difficult for teachers to identify reinforcers to use in teaching new skills. The goal of this study was to alter children's preferences from highly preferred toys to toys that were originally less preferred using an observational pairing procedure.…

Most treatments for stereotypy involve arrangements of antecedent or consequent events that are imposed entirely by a therapist. By contrast, results of some studies suggest that self-recording, a common component of self-management interventions, might be an effective and efficient way to reduce stereotypy. Because the procedure typically has…

We measured changes in physical activity in 2 obese preschool children when a package intervention was evaluated in a reversal design. Physical activity was measured via direct observation and pedometers. Although the intervention produced only modest increases in activity, the results provide preliminary concurrent validation for the dependent…

Packing is a problematic mealtime behavior that is characterized by pocketing or holding solids or liquids in the mouth without swallowing. In the current study, we examined the effects of a chaser, a liquid or solid consistently accepted and swallowed by the child, to decrease packing of solid foods in 3 children with feeding disorders. During…

We tested the effects of an observational intervention (Greer & Singer-Dudek, 2008) on establishing children's books as conditioned reinforcers using a delayed multiple baseline design. Three preschool students with mild language and developmental delays served as the participants. Prior to the intervention, books did not function as reinforcers…

We evaluated the effects of immediate, personalized performance feedback on adherence with hand hygiene by health-care staff in the context of a multiple baseline design across participants. Target behaviors reached mastery levels and were maintained near 100% throughout 2 months of maintenance probes. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

We assessed the impact of checklist-based training on teaching teams' use of the zone defense schedule. Three teaching teams (lead teacher plus 2 assistant teachers) in an inclusive early childhood program participated. A multiple baseline design across teams was used to determine whether accurate implementation of the zone defense schedule…

A limitation associated with communication-based interventions for problem behavior is the potential for requesting reinforcement at high rates. Multiple-schedule arrangements have been demonstrated to be effective for controlling rates of responding (Hanley, Iwata, & Thompson, 2001). In the current study, we extended previous research by teaching…

One child with developmental disabilities was taught to mand for attention by saying "excuse me." Treatment effects were extended to multiple training contexts by teaching the participant to attend to naturally occurring discriminative stimuli through differential reinforcement of communication during periods of the experimenter's nonbusy…

This study extends previous work on the use of differential observing responses (DOR) to remediate atypically restricted stimulus control. A participant with autism had high matching-to-sample accuracy scores with printed words that had no letters in common (e.g., "cat," "lid," "bug") but poor accuracy with words that had two letters in common…

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of percentile schedules as a method of quantifying the shaping procedure in an educational setting. We compared duration of task engagement during baseline measurements for 4 students to duration of task engagement during a percentile schedule. As a secondary purpose, we examined the influence on…

We evaluated the effects of an intervention designed to increase the variety of positions experienced by infants in a child-care setting. Six student teachers were trained, using a multicomponent intervention, to reposition infants according to a chart. The intervention was successful in increasing the mean percentage of correct position changes…