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The present study used a multiple baseline across skills design to evaluate use of an adapted LIFE skills curriculum (Dixon, 2021) to teach various cooking tasks to a young adult diagnosed with ASD, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The participant learned and completed recipes and related vocational tasks. Results showed efficient task acquisition for all recipes and maintenance of vocational tasks during follow-up probes. Results have implications for the LIFE program, suggesting that it is a viable method for teaching LIFE skills to neurodivergent young adults.
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The present study sought to evaluate a sequence of training procedures on the emergence of foundational relational responses that underly more complex distinctive (i.e., difference) and hierarchical (i.e., categorical) relational frames. In a multiple baseline design, an initial baseline period with three children with autism showed that the participants did not select nonidentical stimuli from an array when presented the contextual cue "different." Simple discrimination training was efficacious in establishing this response and the skill transferred to a novel set of stimuli without reinforcement. In a second baseline period, participants did not demonstrate conditional identical/nonidentical relational responses when provided the contextual cues "same" and "different." Conditional discrimination training with all three participants was again efficacious in establishing the conditional reflexive and distinctive responses and the skill transferred to untrained stimuli. In a third baseline period, participants did not demonstrate correct conditional categorization/sorting. Like in the prior two training conditions, training was efficacious in establishing the target response with a generalized transfer to untrained stimuli.
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We sought to evaluate the efficacy of an equivalence-based instructional program to teach vocational information to a young adult. This work has the potential to aid in workplace or vocational programming to teach declarative information about employment settings. We directly reinforced a subset of relations [Employee names (A) to job titles (B) (A-B) and a job titles (B) to a job responsibilities (C) (B-C)] and tested for the untrained emergence of other relations [Employee names (A) to job responsibilities (C) (A-C) and job responsibilities (C) to employee names (A) (C-A)]. In a multiple baseline across employment settings, mastery was observed across trained and derived relations with implications for vocational training. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00814-z.
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Relational frame theory and extensions (e.g., relational density theory; Belisle & Dixon, 2020a, 2020b) provides a behavioral model for top-down attentional processing, where attention is oriented in terms of arbitrarily applicable verbal relations through the transformation of stimulus function. Children's games may provide a strategy for testing transformations of stimulus function when developing new language skills, such as when working with children with autism. Three children with autism underwent relational training to establish lean and dense arbitrary classes. Prior-to relational training, participants were more likely to locate familiar words over unfamiliar words within a word-search task. Following relational training, participants were more likely to locate words that participated in high-density relational classes over neutral or low-density relational classes. These results support the use of common games to supplement relational training with children with autism and provide evidence that top-down attentional processing may involve transformations of stimulus function and can be predicted and influenced through relational training to establish high-density relational classes.
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The present study was a preliminary analysis of college students' willingness to self-isolate and socially isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic analyzed through a probability discounting framework. Researchers developed a pandemic likelihood discounting task where willingness to isolate from others was measured in days as a function of the perceived probability of the escalation of a virus to pandemic levels. Experiment 1 was conducted immediately prior to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate when the perceived probability of reaching pandemic levels was high and when there was a guarantee that others in the community would do the same. Experiment 2 was conducted with a subset of participants from Experiment 1 with the same discounting task, and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate 2 months following the onset of the pandemic, supporting the view that willingness to isolate from others is a dynamic process. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated willingness to socially distance and introduced a hypothetical timescale to evaluate common trends with the real-world temporal dynamics observed in Experiments 1 and 2. Results showed similar trends in the data, supporting the use of hypothetical scenarios within probability discounting tasks in future behavior analytic research related to public health.
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Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and its counterpart, relational frame theory (RFT), represent emerging areas of research and professional interest for behavior analysts. We extend traditional RFT approaches by emphasizing relational framing as a dynamic pattern of behavior with implications for ACT-based strategies implemented by behavior analysts in practice and in research. We borrow from emerging approaches within affective dynamics, relational density theory, and the hyper-dimensional multilevel model to develop some immediate considerations for practitioners. We then extend an approach grounded in relational dynamics to the six core processes of the ACT hexaflex not only to influence negative affective patterns of relational behavior but also to promote greater psychological flexibility and well-being. Finally, we turn this account inward to discuss our own rigidity as a field and the necessity to engage more flexibly with our own science, ultimately to improve the lives of clients whom we serve.
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The Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge (PEAK) Relational Training System provides a comprehensive language and cognition training strategy for use with children with disabilities. In the present study, we conducted PEAK within a special education classroom over the course of 3 months, and language and cognitive skills were assessed using the PEAK Comprehensive Assessment (PCA). On average, each of the five participants mastered 11.2 target programs across PEAK modules with an average of 186.4 new verbal behaviors or supporting behaviors. All participants showed an increase on the PCA following the intervention, with an average increase of 39.6 correct responses, and parents and staff reported improvements in participants' use of language at home and at school relative to prior semesters. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-021-00657-6.
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Consumer behavior is impacting Earth's climate, and solving the climate change crisis will necessarily involve influencing the anthropogenic causes of behavior. The present study evaluated relational frames involving comparative climate relations on consumer choices in a simulated purchasing task. In baseline, participants selected among common household commodities that differed along three dimensions: color, an unfamiliar symbol (Y and Z), and price. Price was sequentially increased for the product with the Z symbol. All participants showed maximum sensitivity to price in baseline, where any increase for Z led to selection of Y across commodities. Relational training involved selecting among climate related stimuli in the presence of the symbols Y and Z, where correct responding occurred when participants selected the more harmful stimulus in the presence of Y and the less harmful stimulus in the presence on Z. A generalization test showed that correct responding transferred to novel stimulus arrangements based on climate impact. In the post-training purchasing phase, six of the seven participants showed reduced sensitivity to increases in price, where price and symbol appeared to interact to influence purchasing. These results have implications for a science of consumer behavior related to climate change from an RFT account.
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We evaluated the development of mutually entailed arbitrary hierarchical relations and associated transformations of stimulus function across 3 children with autism in a game of I Spy. Top-down hierarchical relational training was efficacious in establishing 4 relational categories (A) containing a total of 5 stimuli (B), where 3 of the stimuli were contained in 2 different categories. Following relational training, all participants demonstrated a transformation of function by identifying the stimuli when provided a multiple verbal stimulus with two category names during I Spy. The procedures were adapted from the PEAK Relational Training System.
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Sociological researchers have made immense strides in understanding systemic racism, privilege, and bias against Black people. Relational frame theory provides a contemporary account of human language and cognition that intersects within complex external contingency systems that may provide a provisionally adequate model of racial bias and racism. We propose a reticulated model that includes nested relational frames and external contingency systems that operate at the level of the individual (implicit), communities (white privilege), and system policies (systemic racism). This approach is organized from within the framework of critical race theory as an area of sociological scholarship that captures racial disadvantages at multiple levels of organization. We extend this model by describing avenues for future research to inform anti-racism strategies to dismantle this complex and pervasive sociobehavioral phenomenon. At all levels, police violence against the Black community is provided as a case example of negative social impact of racism in our society.
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We conducted an empirical examination of derived relational responding as a generalized operant and concurrently evaluated the validity and efficacy of program items contained in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge - Equivalence (PEAK-E) curriculum. A first study utilized a multiple-baseline across-skills experimental arrangement to determine the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction guided by PEAK-E, replicated across 11 children with autism. A total of 33 individualized skills were taught, and the subsequent emergence of untrained relations was tested throughout the investigation. The mastery criterion was achieved for 29 of the 33 instructional targets. Additionally, for 3 participants, results were again replicated with a novel set of stimuli. A second study evaluated the degree to which multiple-exemplar equivalence-based instruction led to the emergence of derived relational responding as a generalized operant. The organized nature of the PEAK curriculum allowed the impact on derived relational responding to be compared to that produced by earlier PEAK models that are focused on the direct training of traditional verbal operants. PEAK-E instruction was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across two participants, with a third staying in a training baseline throughout. Increases in derived relational responding using novel, untrained stimuli were only observed when multiple-exemplar equivalence-based instruction was introduced. Taken together, these results provide support for derived relational responding as a generalized operant and demonstrate the utility of conducting larger scale evaluations of higher order behavioral phenomena in single-case experimental arrangements.
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Remote delivery of language and cognitive training is becoming increasingly prevalent within special education settings, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many providers to pivot to telehealth models. This technical article outlines a procedure for developing computerized discrete-trial training programs using commonly available software, as well as a description of how to adapt this strategy to teach chained tasks remotely. Within this article, we describe how to establish unidirectional and bidirectional remote interfaces to work directly with learners. Finally, we conducted a field test of these approaches with programs adapted from two standardized curricula: PEAK and PRISM. We conclude the article by discussing barriers and potential solutions that we observed while field-testing these procedures within special education settings in response to the wide-scale emigration to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-020-00544-6.
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The scientist-practitioner model necessitates embedding experimental designs within applied practice. This technical report describes a procedure for embedding a multiple-probe experimental design within the PEAK Relational Training System across all four PEAK modules. Baseline probes provide a direct test of target skills negatively endorsed within the PEAK assessment battery and can provide an estimate of skill acquisition in the absence of direct training. Temporal staggering of the probes maintains the fidelity of the experimental design and allows for the design to evolve along with learner skill acquisition. Achievement of mastery criteria demonstrates the efficacy of programming, and failure to achieve mastery can be remedied through programming adjustments that can be captured within the design. We additionally conducted a field test of the design with a child with disabilities, supporting the viability of this procedure within applied settings.
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The paper by Hayes and Fryling (2019) seeks to inform readers that the Kantorian system of Interbehaviorism has been misunderstood and misrepresented by contextual behavior scientists. Furthermore, these authors suggest that much is to be gained by embracing the system developed by Kantor, most importantly that being large scale system building efforts. We disagree with this position, and find the Kantorian system to be of questionable relevancy and at risk of potential extinction within the behavioral community. We also have concerns that perhaps the insights provided by Hayes and Fryling will fail in recruitment of additional members to the Interbehavioral cause. Although the overarching theme of Interbehaviorism is present within emerging dynamical approaches to behavior science, adopting the vernacular of Kantor may be unnecessary to continue his tradition. We recommend allowing empirical selection to run its course in determining the eventual fate of Kantor's Interbehaviorism.
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Music is a pervasive cultural practice that has been present in ancient civilizations through to the present, yet its evolutionary significance has not been unequivocally determined. One position suggests that evolution favored music-related behaviors because such behaviors were linked to sexual selection and reproduction. A more recent perspective that is consistent with today's evolutionary science framework suggests that music is a cultural-level adaptation because of the survival advantages it affords members of a community. This article explores the selection mechanisms responsible for the retention and transmission of music-related behaviors. Music is proposed to be a complex symbolic inheritance system, or an advanced form of relational responding, that required cooperation to develop and further facilitated unity and affinity among groups of people. The aggregate product of this cooperation is then assigned meaning and selected by the contingencies of a particular sociocultural community. Music may thus occasion similar values-consistent behavior (i.e., within the values system of the community) across groups of people. Implications for the role of music in promoting the well-being of a culture are examined.
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We sought to evaluate the efficacy of successive matching training for establishing generalized reflexive matching across 4 children with autism. In Experiment 1, differential reinforcement with delay fading was efficacious in establishing "yes" and "no" matching and nonmatching responses in 2 participants when 2 identical or nonidentical picture stimuli were presented. In addition, emergent visual-visual reflexive relational responses were observed using novel picture stimuli in a transfer test phase. In Experiment 2, differential reinforcement alone was efficacious in establishing matching and nonmatching responses in the other 2 participants when 2 identical or nonidentical objects were presented. Transfer to identical objects presented through touch (i.e., tactile discrimination) was additionally observed for both participants. Procedures in the study were adapted from the PEAK Relational Training System to aid in clinical replication, and the translational results have implications for language training with individuals with autism.
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We propose relational density theory, as an integration of stimulus equivalence and behavioral momentum theory, to predict the nonlinearity of equivalence responding of verbal humans. Consistent with Newtonian classical mechanics, the theory posits that equivalence networks will demonstrate the higher order properties of density, volume, and mass. That is, networks containing more relations (volume) that are stronger (density) will be more resistant to change (i.e., contain greater mass; mass = volume * density). Data from several equivalence experiments that are not easily interpreted through existing accounts are described in terms of the theory, generating predictable results in most cases. In addition, we put forward the higher-order properties of relational acceleration and gravity, which follow directly from the theory and may inspire future researchers to evaluate the seemingly self-organizing nature of human cognition. Finally, we conclude by describing avenues for real-world translation, considering past research interpreted through relational density theory, and call for basic experimental research to validate and extend core theoretical assumptions.
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A fundamental assumption within radical behaviorism is that all human behavior, including the rule-governed behavior of scientists, can be understood within a functional account. I propose that models of human behavior can be best described as a set of rules that are selected by behavior analysts to solve applied challenges, rather than descriptions of nature as it "truly exists." Model dependent realism (MDR) developed within the field of physics may provide useful criteria that could allow behavior analysts to more accurately track the relative probability of success of a given model within applied contexts. As a case example, I examine dispersive models of derived relational responding in terms of the criteria outlined within MDR, and I describe a preliminary level-scaling account of derived relational responding that encompasses several models in pursuit of a unified account. The account is context dependent and adopts a pragmatic truth criterion, consistent with assumptions within functional contextualism and radical behaviorism as an overarching rule governing the behavior of our applied subfield.
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Theoretical extensions of Skinner's verbal behavior that emphasize derived relational responding (stimulus equivalence, relational frame theory, and bidirectional naming) can improve the complexity and scope of applied behavior-analytic training models with children. We evaluated the prevalence and content of empirical research on derived relational responding in children within 8 major applied behavior-analytic journals. We identified 123 empirical articles that met all inclusion criteria (i.e., they demonstrated derived relational responding in children). Whereas prior citation analyses have shown higher rates of research with adult participants, considerable research within these journals has involved child participants. In addition, 55% of the research targeted socially relevant or culturally established verbal relations, rather than culturally arbitrary relations (e.g., unknown symbols, consonant-vowel-consonant combinations) that are unlikely to affect real-world behavior. Generalization and transformation tests were also present in 47% of articles. We also conducted a content analysis of all articles that contained culturally relevant relations and demonstrated generalization or transformation of stimulus function (21% of all articles, N = 26); we argue that studies that meet these criteria are likely to be the most immediately impactful for learners. Results suggest that future research is needed to evaluate relational frames other than coordination (e.g., distinction, opposition), as well as to extend considerably the complexity of target relational classes and transformations of stimulus function with children.
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Behavior and substance use addictions are increasingly prevalent in children with increased risk for substance abuse and mental health diagnoses in adulthood. This article proposes a comprehensive model of addiction to inform research on the prevention and treatment of childhood addiction, emphasizing skills training, mindfulness training, and broader treatment strategies consistent with acceptance and commitment therapy.
