Exploring factors that influence the efficacy of functional communication training

Understanding factors that influence the efficacy of functional communication training has both practical and conceptual benefits. The current study extended research in this area by exploring data from 95 consecutive applications of functional communication training with extinction across two independent clinics. We selected candidate predictor variables based on conceptual analysis, conducted preliminary exploratory analyses, and then selectively applied quantitative methods that are used in precision medicine to examine their accuracy and predictive utility. Treatment outcomes were better when challenging behavior was maintained by a single function than they were when it was maintained by multiple functions; however, these differences were most apparent among cases with an escape function. We also analyzed within-session responding to explore the potential influence of unprogrammed establishing operations on decrements in treatment efficacy. Our within-session measure only distinguished responders from nonresponders when escape was one of the multiple functions. Additional research is needed to validate these findings with an independent sample and to address a number of clinical conceptual issues.

Examining resurgence in rats following expanded-operant treatments

Resurgence of previously reinforced behavior represents a challenge to otherwise successful interventions based on differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA). Expanded-operant treatments seek to increase the number of functional alternative behaviors through DRA, thereby potentially mitigating resurgence. However, the few studies that have directly examined these methods as a tool for resurgence mitigation have provided limited and unclear results. Thus, the present experiments were designed to investigate the effect of expanded-operant DRA methods on resurgence of previously reinforced behavior using rat subjects. In two experiments, following a baseline phase in which a target response was trained, groups of rats experienced concurrent (i.e., five simultaneous alternative responses), serial (i.e., five sequentially available alternative responses), or single DRA interventions arranging similar rates of alternative reinforcement in order to examine potential differences in resurgence. Both experiments showed that neither serial nor concurrent DRA expanded-operant treatments reduced resurgence compared with single DRA regardless of whether stimuli associated with previously reinforced alternative responses were removed (Experiment 1) or remained present (Experiment 2) for the serial-DRA group. Further, a primacy effect in resurgence was obtained for the serial-DRA group in both experiments. Overall, these results suggest that expanded-operant treatments may not help to reduce resurgence.

Resurgence of destructive behavior following differential rates of alternative reinforcement

Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) suggests that resurgence of destructive behavior may be at least partly determined by the rate of alternative reinforcement, with lean schedules of reinforcement producing less resurgence than dense schedules. Findings from basic and translational studies have been mixed, and the effects of alternative reinforcement rate on resurgence remain unclear. In the current study, we conducted a within-subject evaluation of resurgence during extinction with four children following functional communication training using dense and lean (BMT-informed) schedules of alternative reinforcement. We observed no reliable differences in resurgence across the dense and lean conditions. We discuss implications of these findings in relation to future research using quantitative analyses to evaluate the relative effects of alternative reinforcement rate and other BMT-based strategies for mitigating resurgence in applied settings.

Relapse and its mitigation: Toward behavioral inoculation

Relapse following the successful treatment of problem behavior can increase the likelihood of injury and the need for more intensive care. Current research offers some predictions of how treatment procedures may contribute to relapse, and conversely, how the risk of relapse can be mitigated. This review describes relapse-mitigation procedures with varying levels of support, the quantitative models that have influenced the research on relapse mitigation, different experimental methods for measuring relapse mitigation, and directions for future research. We propose that by viewing the implementation of relapse-mitigation procedures as a means of producing behavioral inoculation, clinicians are placed in the proactive and intentional role of exposing their client's behavior to an array of reinforcement and stimulus conditions during treatment with the goal of decreasing the detrimental impact of future treatment challenges.

Primacy and recency effects in hierarchical renewal in rats

Previous studies on hierarchical resurgence produced mixed results regarding the order and magnitude of recurrence of responses trained initially (primacy effect) or more recently (recency effect). Although changes in contextual stimuli could explain such differences, in resurgence procedures contextual stimuli are not commonly presented, thus their effects on multiple operants trained sequentially remain unclear. Renewal procedures, in contrast, have been useful to determine the effects of exteroceptive contextual stimuli on response recurrence. Thus, primacy and recency effects were studied using a renewal procedure in which three contexts were presented sequentially. Lever presses by rats were reinforced on a different lever under each training context and were then exposed to extinction in a different context. Presses on a fourth lever were never reinforced. During renewal testing, the three training contexts were presented in the same or inverse order relative to training. A strong primacy effect was found in rats exposed to the original training order. Both primacy and recency effects were found when the rats were exposed to contexts in inverse order. These results suggest that the magnitude of renewal of hierarchically trained responses is affected by training order and order of presentation of contextual stimuli during testing.

A Practitioner’s Guide for Selecting Functional Communication Responses

Functional communication training (FCT) is an effective and widely used procedure to reduce problem behaviors. The purpose of FCT is to replace a problem behavior with a socially appropriate and communicative behavior - the functional communication response (FCR), which produces the same reinforcer as the problem behavior. Recent reviews of FCT have focused on providing overall recommendations for how the procedure should be implemented. A relatively small body of literature has been devoted to the selection of the FCR. The purpose of this article is to propose a set of considerations for practitioners in selecting FCRs.

Resurgence Increases with Repetition

Resurgence refers to a behavioral process in which a recent response is extinguished (or reinforcement conditions worsen) and a previously extinguished response recurs. In previous research, resurgence has been reliably produced when the resurgence procedure is repeated. Changes in the degree of increase of the resurging response across iterations of the procedure have been inconsistent, however, with some studies showing increases and some showing no changes or decreases in resurgence magnitude. The present study examined the nature of resurgence across repeated iterations of the conventional resurgence procedure by exposing four pigeons to the resurgence procedure six times in succession. In the first condition of the resurgence procedure, pecks on one key (e.g., the left) were reinforced under a variable-interval (VI) 30-s schedule. In the second condition pecks on that key were extinguished, and pecks on another key (e.g., the right) were reinforced under the same schedule. In the final condition there were no programmed consequences for either response. Resurgence was observed in 21 of 24 opportunities (87.5%). Iteration-over-iteration increases in resurgence were observed in 15 of 20 opportunities (75.0%), and this increase was found to be statistically significant. These findings demonstrate that, under certain conditions, resurgence generally increases in magnitude with repeated exposure to the procedures that generate it.

Phase duration and resurgence

Resurgence, the recurrence of responding due to a worsening of reinforcement conditions for current behavior, is a prevalent form of treatment relapse. Resurgence as Choice in Context predicts that increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for target responding during Phase 1 will increase resurgence magnitude, whereas increasing the duration of exposure to reinforcement for alternative responding and extinction for target responding during Phase 2 will decrease resurgence magnitude. We conducted an experiment evaluating these predictions with human participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. We varied Phase 1 and Phase 2 durations across 4 experimental groups. Resurgence as Choice in Context successfully predicted the differences in resurgence magnitude across these groups, and fitting the quantitative model to the obtained data yielded an exceptional coefficient of determination. We discuss the implications of these results for using Resurgence as Choice in Context to inform experiments with human participants and the feasibility of using human-operant preparations to evaluate resurgence.

Extending functional communication training to multiple language contexts in bilingual learners with challenging behavior

Little research has highlighted how evidence-based practices (e.g., functional communication training [FCT]) might be adapted for bilingual learners with disabilities. In the current study, we served 2 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and challenging behavior whose parents primarily spoke Spanish at home, and whose teachers primarily spoke English at school. Following traditional FCT (i.e., 1 language only), we systematically replicated the findings of Neely, Graber et al. (2020) by demonstrating that mands in the untrained language (i.e., English) did not emerge when trained mands (i.e., Spanish) contacted extinction in alternative-language contexts. Simultaneously, challenging behavior consistently resurged. After children received explicit training with both languages and were taught to change the language of request when initial attempts were unsuccessful (i.e., "repair the message" training), these same children successfully obtained high rates of reinforcement in both language contexts, and challenging behavior rarely occurred.

Some Dimensions of Mand Variability and Implications for Research and Practice

Since Skinner's conceptualization of the mand, applied behavior analysis researchers have used the concept to develop stimulus control transfer procedures effective for addressing manding deficits. More recently, researchers have explored the clinical utility of reinforcing mand variability during mand training and functional communication training. However, limitations in the conceptual analysis of mand variability may have limited the kinds of questions addressed in this research and our understanding of the findings. The current article reconceptualizes mand variability as consisting of eight distinct dimensions and provides operational definitions of the dimensions that may be useful for more precisely characterizing the effects of reinforcement on mand variability in future research. The article concludes with a brief discussion of potential clinical and research implications.

A Proposed Process for Risk Mitigation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Recent executive orders have led some applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers to interpret themselves as "essential personnel" during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we argue against a blanket interpretation that being labeled "essential personnel" means that all in-person ABA services for all clients should continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe this argument holds even if ABA providers are not in a jurisdiction currently under an active shelter-at-home or related order. First, we provide a brief description of risks associated with continued in-person ABA service delivery, as well as risks associated with the temporary suspension of services or the transition to remote ABA service delivery. For many clients, continued in-person service delivery carries a significant risk of severe harm to the client, family and caregivers, staff, and a currently overburdened health care system. In these situations, ABA providers should temporarily suspend services or transition to telehealth or other forms of remote service delivery until information from federal, state, and local health care experts deems in-person contact safe. In rare cases, temporary suspension of services or a transition to remote service delivery may place the client or others at risk of significant harm. In these situations, in-person services should likely continue, and ongoing assessment and risk mitigation are essential.

Increased number of responses may account for reduced resurgence following serial training

Abrupt discontinuation of functional communication training can cause resurgence of challenging behavior. Teaching multiple alternative responses in sequence (serial training) may reduce resurgence, relative to teaching a single alternative. However, previous evaluations of serial training included a different number of response options across comparison conditions. In Experiment 1, we varied both training type (single and serial) and number of response options, and replicated previous findings showing that more resurgence occurred following single training relative to serial training. In Experiment 2, we varied the training type while holding the number of alternative responses constant and obtained no consistent differences in resurgence. In Experiment 3, we varied the number of alternative responses while holding training type constant (i.e., single). More resurgence occurred in the condition with fewer response options, suggesting that the number of available alternative responses, and not explicit serial training of alternatives, was critical to outcomes.

Hierarchical resurgence

In resurgence, conventionally a target response is trained and then extinguished while some alternative response is reinforced. In the most common procedure, when the latter is extinguished, the former resurges. The present experiments examined resurgence after two responses were trained sequentially and subsequently extinguished. In Experiments 1 and 2, keypecking to one key was trained and then extinguished as keypecking to a different key was trained then later extinguished. In both experiments, regardless of the spatial location of the different keys, the last-trained response resurged before the first-trained one. The results were replicated in Experiment 3 where reinforcement rate of the first-trained response was four times that of the second-trained response. The results in conjunction with earlier experiments suggest that resurgence occurs hierarchically, although whether more or less recently trained target responses resurge first or later may depend on both current and historical variables. The results also raise questions about the interpretation of responding on a control key that sometimes is included in resurgence experiments to isolate resurgence from extinction-induced responding.

Resurgence when challenging alternative behavior with progressive ratios in children and pigeons

Resurgence is defined as the recurrence of a previously reinforced and then extinguished target response when reducing or eliminating a more recently reinforced alternative response. In experiments with children and pigeons, we evaluated patterns of resurgence across and within sessions through decreases in reinforcer availability by challenging alternative responding with extinction and progressive-ratio schedules. In Phase 1, we reinforced only target responding. In Phase 2, we extinguished target responding while reinforcing an alternative response. Finally, Phase 3 assessed resurgence by (a) extinguishing alternative responding versus (b) introducing a progressive-ratio schedule of reinforcement for alternative responding. In both children and pigeons, resurgence of target responding occurred in both conditions but generally was greater when assessed during extinction than with progressive ratios. Importantly, within-session patterns of resurgence did not differ between testing with progressive ratios and extinction. Resurgence with progressive ratios tended to be greater with longer durations between reinforcers but we observed similar findings with only simulated reinforcers during extinction testing. Therefore, the present investigation reveals that the events contributing to instances of resurgence remain to be understood, and presents an approach from which to examine variables influencing within-session patterns of resurgence.

Decreasing Food Stealing of Child with Prader-Willi Syndrome Through Function-Based Differential Reinforcement

Challenging behaviors involving food are common for individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and often lead to obesity and other chronic health conditions. Efforts to decrease these behaviors, such as isolation during meals and strict monitoring of food consumption, can be stigmatizing. To decrease the food stealing of a 7 year-old girl with PWS, therapists conducted a latency-based functional analysis in a clinic setting before implementing a function-based intervention to facilitate her inclusion at the family dinner table. Intervention components entailed differential reinforcement procedures which incorporated a token board and schedule thinning. The intervention successfully generalized to the home setting and across food preferences and implementers.

Assessing Mand Topography Preference When Developing a Functional Communication Training Intervention

Functional communication training (FCT) is a common function-based behavioral intervention used to decrease problem behavior by teaching an alternative communication response. Therapists often arbitrarily select the topography of the alternative response, which may influence long-term effectiveness of the intervention. Assessing individual mand topography preference may increase treatment effectiveness and promote self-determination in the development of interventions. This study sought to reduce arbitrary selection of FCT mand topography by determining preference during response training and acquisition for two adults with autism who had no functional communication skills. Both participants demonstrated a clear preference for one mand topography during choice probes, and the preferred topography was then reinforced during FCT to reduce problem behavior and increase independent communication. The implications of the results for future research on mand selection during FCT are discussed.