We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S-deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a…

Basic and retrospective translational research has shown that the magnitude of resurgence is determined by the size of the decrease in alternative reinforcement, with larger decreases producing more resurgence. However, this finding has not been evaluated prospectively with a clinical population. In Experiment 1, five participants experienced a…

Prior studies on treatment relapse have typically examined the prevalence of resurgence or renewal of target behavior (e.g., destructive behavior) in isolation. This study analyzed both types of relapse during 25 consecutive treatments involving functional communication training during worsening reinforcement conditions for alternative behavior…

Inappropriate mealtime behavior (IMB) is a type of feeding challenge within the broader class of food refusal. The purpose of this study was to critically analyze the efficacy of interventions for the treatment of IMB through a meta-analysis of research using single-case experimental designs. We examined the extent to which different interventions…

Awareness training can produce decreases in nervous habits during public speaking. A systematic replication of Montes et al. (2020) was conducted to evaluate the independent and additive effects of awareness training components (i.e., response description, response detection) on speech disfluencies during public speaking. We extended prior…

This study replicated and extended previous research on the effectiveness of brief habit reversal, consisting of awareness training and competing response training (silent pause) in reducing the rate of speech disfluencies during public speaking. Nine university students, divided into 3 groups, delivered short speeches on a novel topic. Brief…

Behavior analysts and educators often recommend using praise, particularly descriptive praise, despite mixed empirical findings to support this recommendation. We evaluated the effectiveness of praise as a reinforcer during a reinforcer assessment using known tasks with preschoolers in Experiment 1. Praise functioned as a reinforcer for 2 of 6…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate preference for and reinforcing efficacy of a therapy dog to increase verbal statements across different contingencies. Five children with autism spectrum disorder ages 3-8 years participated. Alternating treatments and reversal designs were used to compare conditions in which (a) a therapy dog was not…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often lack symbolic play skills. Attribution of pretend properties (APP) is a type of symbolic play in which a child tacts pretend properties of an object (e.g., smelling a toy flower and saying, "It smells like a rose!"). Three Chinese boys (5-6 years of age) with ASD served as participants.…

Functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985) is a common function-based treatment in which an alternative form of communication is taught to reduce problem behavior. FCT has been shown to result in substantial reductions of a variety of topographically and functionally different types of problem behavior in children and adults…

This study evaluated behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) to teach a response to bullying (RtB) to four adults with intellectual disabilities who were victims of bullying. The RtB consisted of refraining from retaliating, stating disapproval, walking away, and telling a staff member. In situ assessments were conducted in the…

Progressive delay training (PDT) has been used to promote self-controlled choices (i.e., selecting a larger, later reward over a smaller, immediate reward) for people with a variety of developmental characteristics. However, the efficacy of PDT has not been evaluated in children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), who often have…

Deposit contracts involve participants depositing their own money and earning it back contingent on behavior change. Deposit contracts are empirically supported treatments for promoting health behavior, but they have a history of poor uptake. We compared the effectiveness and acceptability of technology-based versus in-person deposit contracts for…

This study examined if listener behavior and responding by exclusion would emerge after training 3 participants with autism to tact stimuli. Tacts for 2 of 3 stimuli were directly trained using discrete trial training methodology and were followed by an auditory-visual discrimination probe in which auditory-visual discrimination by naming (i.e.,…

We compared rates of academic responses and problem behavior during mathematics with distributed and accumulated reinforcer arrangements for 3 students with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who engaged in chronic, severe problem behavior. All 3 students engaged in more academic responding and less problem behavior when reinforcers…