"Stimulus over-selectivity" describes a phenomenon in which an individual responds only to a subset of the stimuli present in the environment and, thus, may restrict learning. This study aimed to develop understanding of the nature and role of over-selectivity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by analyzing the relationship of…

Research has consistently shown that difficulties in facial emotion recognition (FER) are associated with peer problems and internalizing symptoms during middle childhood. However, no longitudinal research has investigated the direction of effects, that is, how these constructs influence each other across time. In this preregistered three-wave…

Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have shown deficits in switching between rules governing their behaviour, as have high-functioning children with ASD. However, there are few studies of flexibility in lower-functioning children with ASD. The current study investigated this phenomenon with a group of low-functioning children with ASD…

This study examined the use of an antecedent-based intervention to reduce the vocal stereotypy of a student diagnosed with Autism within the general education classroom. The student displayed frequent nonfunctional speech and disruptive vocal sounds. An antecedent-based intervention, involving the use of qualitatively different cards--to cue the…

Visual inspection is the primary method used to analyze graphed behavioral data produced by functional analyses of problem behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine rater reliability of functional analysis graphs using visual inspection. Forty-three participants responded to a one-time anonymous survey (N = 454) mailed to graduate…

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends vision screening of all children between 3 and 5 years of age, and states have mandated vision screening for all school children. Participants were three 4-6-year old school children with either a developmental delay or autism who scored "could not test" on the state required vision screening.…

This study was designed to explore the placebo-controlled effects of risperidone on cognitive-motor processes, dyskinetic movements, and behavior in children receiving maintenance risperidone therapy. Sixteen children aged 4-14 years with disruptive behavior were randomly assigned to drug order in a crossover study of risperidone and placebo for 2…

Four experiments investigated time-delay discrimination training in improving the visual discrimination performance of 16 impulsive kindergarten children. Time delay of distinctive-feature prompts without self-monitoring did not produce learning. The added requirement of self-monitoring nonwait responses led to dramatically improved performance,…

The current study examined the reinforcing effects of choosing among alternatives in a four-part evaluation. In the first study, initial-link responses in a concurrent-chains arrangement resulted in access to terminal links in which the completion of an academic task resulted in (a) the choice of a reinforcer (choice), (b) the delivery of an…

Conducted study on Alzheimer's unit to test seven different visual barrier conditions for reducing patient exits. Findings indicated that exiting was eliminated under two conditions. Results suggest visual agnosia, the inability to interpret what the eye sees, may be used as tool in managing wandering behavior of Alzheimer's patients. (Author/NB)

Two factors of predicted learning disorders were investigated: (1) inability to maintain appropriate classroom behavior (BEH), (2) perceptual discrimination deficit (PERC). Three groups of first-graders (BEH, PERC, normal control) were administered measures of impulse control, distractability, auditory discrimination, and visual discrimination.…

This study found that teachers' ratings of their 8 severely mentally handicapped pupils' (ages 9-18) classroom behavior were correlated with children's performance on a discrimination learning task. The factors of attention/distractibility and responsivity to consequences correlated significantly with number of errors and number of trials to…