The importance of multiple exemplar instruction in the establishment of novel verbal behavior

Comparison of teaching methods for the emergence and maintenance of untaught relations in foreign language vocabulary acquisition: A systematic replication

In a replication of Daly and K. Dounavi (2020), the researchers evaluated the effect of foreign tact and bidirectional intraverbal teaching on the emergence of untaught relations. Three university students learned three stimulus sets through three types of teaching: native-foreign intraverbal teaching (vocalizing Spanish words that refer to a Japanese textual stimulus), foreign-native intraverbal teaching (reversed relation of native-foreign condition), and foreign-tact teaching (tacting a picture in Spanish). The researchers used an adapted alternating-treatments design to assess the differential effect of each teaching condition on the emergence of untaught relations in a foreign language and collected data on response maintenance. The results replicated previous findings that native-foreign intraverbal and foreign-tact teachings were more effective than foreign-native intraverbal teaching despite previous reporting that the maintenance outcomes may be a result of carryover effects.

The Use of Multiple Exemplar Instruction to Induce Emergent Listener Discriminations and Emergent Intraverbal Vocal Responses in Autistic Children

This study tested for the emergence of listener discriminations and intraverbal vocal responses following tact training with four autistic children. All participants were trained to tact the name and the favorite food of two contrived cartoon monsters in the presence of a picture of the monster (e.g., "What is the name of this monster?" - "Max" and "What food does the monster eat?" - "Sweets") to evaluate the effects of emergent listener discriminations and emergent intraverbal vocal responses. Once criterion was met on the tact training, participants were tested for emergent listener discriminations (e.g., "Who eats sweets?" And "Who is Max?") and emergent intraverbal vocal responses (e.g., "What food does Max eat?" - "Sweets" and "Who eats sweets?" - "Max" in the absence of the picture). After training, all four participants engaged in emergent listener responding but only one participant engaged in emergent intraverbal responding. Multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) was used to teach those who could not engage in emergent intraverbal responding, and it was demonstrated to be effective. These findings are educationally significant because efficiency of instruction is important to maximize instructional impact, and to reduce the time and resource-intensive nature of behavior-analytic programming.

Effects of Serial Multiple Exemplar Training on Bidirectional Naming in Children with Autism

This study examined the effect of a serial multiple exemplar training (S-MET) procedure on bidirectional naming (BiN) in four preschool children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of training listener and speaker behavior for one stimulus at a time until BiN occurred. When BiN occurred, probes were conducted to measure whether generalization occurred across settings and people. Three out of four participants' responding met the mastery criterion for BiN, while the fourth participant improved her performance. The results of this study suggest that S-MET may be a promising intervention and contribute to our knowledge about learning histories required for BiN.

The Impact of Morphological Intervention on Literacy Knowledge and Reading Motivation: A Cluster-Randomized Comparison Trial in Diverse Socioeconomic Status Kindergartens

PURPOSE

This study investigated the effectiveness of a storytelling-based morphological intervention program on the language and literacy knowledge and reading motivation of kindergarten children from low and mid socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. It also explored how these groups compared in change scores against a non-intervened high SES group.

METHOD

Employing a cluster randomization approach, this study included 158 kindergarten children, comprising intervention and comparison groups from low and mid SES backgrounds, as well as a non-intervened high SES group. Assessments were conducted on morphological awareness (MA), print concepts, vocabulary, and reading motivation.

RESULTS

Children in the intervention groups showed better performance in MA and print concept scores than those in their respective comparison groups. The mid SES intervention group also displayed significant improvement in vocabulary and motivation scores compared to its counterpart. When examining the effects of SES on change scores, the low SES intervention group achieved superior results in vocabulary and print concept scores compared to both the mid SES intervention and the non-intervened high SES groups. For reading motivation, the mid SES group outperformed the low SES group.

CONCLUSIONS

The morphological intervention program using storytelling positively impacts both the literacy skills and reading motivation of kindergarten children, especially those from low and mid SES backgrounds. This study emphasizes the significance of designing interventions that cater to the distinct educational needs of children from different SES backgrounds.

Reviewing manuscripts for behavior-analytic journals: A primer

The peer-review component of the editorial process is designed to facilitate quality control, legitimize scientific research, and self-regulate scientific communities. Even though serving as a reviewer undoubtedly has direct and indirect benefits, the peer-review system and the methods of teaching scholars to conduct reviews are nascent and relatively underdeveloped. This article describes the peer-review process and provides recommendations for writing reviews for scientific journals. The recommendations were developed based on the expertise and preferences of editors in chief and associate editors for behavior-analytic journals (Cengher & LeBlanc, 2024), and they include honoring your responsibility, knowing your audience, being constructive and kind, and carefully evaluating the merits of the study or review. These guidelines may serve as a primer for scholars who want to conduct reviews for scientific journals in behavior analysis.

Toward establishing a qualifying autoclitic repertoire in children with autism spectrum disorder

Autoclitics are secondary verbal operants that are controlled by a feature of the conditions that occasion or evoke a primary verbal operant such as a tact or mand. Qualifying autoclitics extend, negate, or assert a speaker's primary verbal response and modify the intensity or direction of the listener's behavior. Howard and Rice (1988) established autoclitics that indicated weak stimulus control (e.g., "like a [primary tact]") with four neurotypical preschool children. However, generalization to newly acquired tacts was limited. In Experiment 1, we addressed similar behavior as in Howard and Rice but with autistic children while using simultaneous teaching procedures, and we observed generalization across sets and with newly acquired tacts. In Experiment 2, we evaluated the effects of multiple-exemplar training on generalization of autoclitics across sets of naturalistic stimuli. Across participants, gradual increases in the frequency of autoclitics occurred with untaught stimuli after teaching with one or more sets.

The Establishment of Incidental Bidirectional Naming through Multiple Exemplar Instruction: a Systematic Replication

Although many neurotypical children acquire untaught word-object relations incidentally from naturally occurring environmental experiences, many children with and without developmental disabilities require specific intervention. This study examined the effects of rotating listener (match and point) and speaker (tact and intraverbal-tact) responses with added echoics during multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) with training sets of stimuli on the acquisition of Incidental Bidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN). Listener-speaker MEI procedures reported in Hawkins et al. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 10(2), 265-273, (2009) were replicated with procedural modification, new instructors, and new participants (four preschoolers with and without disabilities). The listener-speaker MEI with added echoics consisted of rotating across four response operants: match-with-echoics, point-with-echoics, tact, and intraverbal-tact responses. We measured the establishment of Inc-BiN through the number of the correct untaught listener (point) and untaught speaker (intraverbal-tact) responses for untaught stimuli during the listener-speaker MEI with added echoics. We found that listener-speaker MEI with added echoics was effective in establishing Inc-BiN for 3 of 4 participants.

A Systematic Review of Derived Relational Responding Beyond Coordination in Individuals with Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

As interest in derived relational responding has increased, so have the number of investigations evaluating interventions to promote the emergence of derived responding for individuals with autism, as well as other intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, much of the literature has focused on the relation of sameness, and less is known about interventions to facilitate derived responding in other relations. Systematic searches identified 38 studies contained in 30 articles that met inclusion criteria. These studies were analyzed according to their participants, assessment methods, experimental design, content taught, setting, teaching procedures, derived responses, outcomes, and reliability measures. The quality of the studies was measured using the Single Case Analysis and Research Framework (SCARF). The results of the current review indicate that many learners with autism spectrum disorder and other intellectual and developmental disabilities demonstrate derived relational responding beyond the relation of coordination across varied instructional content and teaching methodologies, but the quality and rigor of the published literature requires the results be interpreted with caution, leading to recommendations for future research.

A Tutorial for Implementing Matrix Training in Practice

Matrix training consists of arranging targets for instruction to promote fine-grained stimulus control resulting in the establishment of skills without direct training. Recent reviews of the matrix training literature (Curiel et al., 2020a, b.; Kemmerer et al., 2021) highlighted the efficacy and efficiency of the approach with learners with and without disabilities. These reviews noted substantial variations in procedures across studies, suggesting the approach may be flexibly deployed across content areas and teaching procedures. This outcome is positive for practitioners as they may customize matrix training to meet the unique needs of their clients. However, it also necessitates decision making to sort through the variations in the literature. This tutorial was developed to help practitioners weigh various considerations when using matrix training. Tools and resources are provided to illustrate and accelerate adoption into practice settings.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-022-00733-5.

A translational evaluation of component skills for the establishment of multiply controlled intraverbals

Intraverbal behavior is a type of verbal behavior in which the response form has no point-to-point correspondence with its verbal stimulus. However, the form and occurrence of most intraverbals is under the control of multiple variables. Establishing this form of multiple control may depend on a variety of preestablished skills. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to evaluate these potential prerequisites with adult participants using a multiple probe design. The results suggest that training was not required for each putative prerequisite. In Experiment 2, probes for all skills were conducted following convergent intraverbal probes. The results showed that convergent intraverbals only emerged when proficiency of each skill was demonstrated. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated alternating training of multiple tact and intraverbal categorization. The results showed that this procedure was effective for half of the participants.

A Systematic Review of Emergent Learning Outcomes Produced by Foreign language Tact Training

This systematic review evaluated the effects of foreign tact training on emergent learning outcomes in ten published studies. We also conducted a meta-analysis of aggregate data from seven studies comparing outcomes of foreign tact training with other verbal operant procedures. The preliminary findings indicated foreign tact training produced criterion-level responses in 84 of 106 (79.2%) post-test probes across 37 learners and 55 evaluations of foreign tact training. The meta-analysis results revealed significantly higher within-subjects mean levels of emergent responding following foreign tact training than foreign-to-native intraverbal, native-to-foreign intraverbal, and foreign listener training. Emergent outcomes for adults were not significantly greater than for children. Finally, foreign tact training was slightly more efficient than the other verbal operant procedures, although most of the differences were not statistically significant.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-022-00170-z.

Toward Efficiency and Effectiveness: Comparing Equivalence-based Instruction to Progressive Discrete Trial Teaching

Research has found equivalence-based instruction (EBI) to be effective and efficient, with recent research extending these finding to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EBI has also been compared with more traditional approaches to teaching, such as traditional lectures, reading assignments, and video lectures. However, the authors are unaware of any comparisons of EBI to other similar behavior analytic approaches such as discrete trial teaching (DTT). The purpose of the first experiment was to compare EBI to progressive DTT using an adapted alternating treatments design with typically developing adults. Experiment 2 compared the two teaching methods with children diagnosed with ASD. The teaching approaches were evaluated with respect to mastery of trained relations, emergence of untrained relations for the EBI condition, and participant preferences. Results of the two experiments found that both teaching methods were effective, progressive DTT was found to be more efficient for six participants, EBI was found to be more efficient for two participants, and overall progressive DTT was found to be more preferred by participants.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-022-00687-8.

A Systematic Review and Quality Appraisal of Applications of Direct Instruction with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Developed by Siegfried ("Zig") Engelmann and colleagues, direct instruction (DI) has been recognized as an effective and replicable teaching model for decades. Although rooted in many principles of learning that behavior analysts utilize in daily practice, DI is not a common a component of behavior analytic services for learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This may be attributed to behavior analysts' unfamiliarity with research evaluating the efficacy of DI with learners with ASD. This article synthesizes findings across studies evaluating DI with learners with ASD. The review addresses the contributions of the studies to date and identifies additional areas of research that may lead to more learners with ASD benefitting from DI.

Guidance for Behavior Analysts in Addressing Racial Implicit Bias

In the practice of applied behavior analysis (ABA) treatment, implicit bias, which can be defined in behavioral terms, needs to be addressed because it may inadvertently lead to overt forms of discrimination on the basis of race. Although little research has been conducted within the field of ABA on racial implicit bias, information gathered from related fields can provide insight as to how behavior analysts can promote positive change in this area. Drawing from existing literature, recommendations are provided regarding assessment and administration of interventions to reduce racial implicit bias for clinicians. The purpose of this article is to provide strategies that behavior analysts can implement to assess and reduce behaviors related to implicit bias exhibited by practitioners, thereby reducing racial discrimination with clients and staff.

Teaching comprehension of double-meaning jokes to young children

Various forms of humor are an important aspect of social interactions, even at an early age. Humor comprehension is a repertoire that is said to emerge between the ages of 7 and 11 years, and this is primarily attributed to a child's level of cognitive development. The behavioral literature has suggested that various forms of complex verbal behavior, including the use and comprehension of humor, are learned operants that can be taught using systematic teaching procedures. The current study used multiple exemplar training and a three-step error correction procedure to teach comprehension of double-meaning jokes to 4 children (2 females and 2 males) aged between 5 and 6.5 years old. All participants demonstrated humor comprehension and appreciation, across multiple exemplars, following training, and maintained this at follow-up. Implications for use with clinical populations are discussed.

Competing stimulus assessments: A systematic review

The current review summarizes the literature on competing stimulus assessments (CSAs). CSAs are pretreatment assessments designed to systematically identify stimuli that reduce problem behavior (PB), ostensibly through reinforcer competition or substitution. We report on the participant characteristics, outcomes, and predictive validity of published CSAs that included (a) no-stimulus control trial(s), (b) test trials during which each stimulus was available singly and noncontingently, and (c) measurement of PB and stimulus engagement or contact. Results showed that CSAs have broad utility across a variety of topographies and functions of PB. In the majority of CSA applications for which extended analyses, or validations, were performed, stimuli shown to reduce PB during the CSA produced similar reductions during extended analysis. This was the case regardless of topography or function of PB, or whether the stimuli were assumed to be "matched" to the stimulation thought to be produced by PB. Implications for future research are discussed.

The Emergence of Bidirectional Naming Through Sequential Operant Instruction Following the Establishment of Conditioned Social Reinforcers

Bidirectional naming (BiN) is the integration of speaker and listener responses, reinforced by social consequences. Unfortunately, these consequences often do not function as reinforcers for behavior in children with autism. Accordingly, the repertoire of BiN is also often limited in these children. Previous research has suggested that so-called multiple-exemplar instruction, a rotation between different speaker and listener operants, may be necessary to establish BiN. The present experiment aimed to investigate whether sequential operant instruction might also work as a successful intervention to improve BiN skills after the establishment of standard social reinforcers. Standard social reinforcers were identified and established through an operant-discrimination training procedure in 4 participating children with an autism spectrum diagnosis. In the present experiment, all participants showed increased BiN after sequential operant instruction with conditioned social reinforcers contingent on relevant operants. Two of 4 participants acquired BiN skills. Moreover, the remaining 2 participants scored within the mastery criterion on listener responses, and 1 of them also met the criterion on the tact probes. Essential characteristics of an intervention, as well as the role of the echoic in the emission of BiN, are discussed.