Evidence From Children with Autism that Derived Relational Responding is a Generalized Operant

Making Deception Fun: Teaching Autistic Individuals How to Play Friendly Tricks

Perspective taking is a critical repertoire for navigating social relationships and consists of a variety of complex verbal skills, including socially adaptive forms of deception. Detecting and being able to use socially adaptive deception likely has many practical uses, including defending oneself against bullying, telling white lies to avoid hurting others' feelings, keeping secrets and bluffing during games, and playing friendly tricks on others. Previous research has documented that some Autistic1 children have challenges identifying deception and playfully deceiving others (Reinecke et al., 1997). The current study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the use of multiple exemplar training, rules, modeling, practice, and feedback for teaching four Autistic children and adolescents to use deception to play friendly tricks on others. The procedure was successful for all participants, and generalization was achieved across novel, untrained tricks.

A biphasic relational approach to the evolution of human consciousness: Un enfoque relacional bifásico para la evolución de la conciencia humana

Background/objective

Human consciousness is arguably unique, and its features are hard to explain. Continuous and discrete accounts of consciousness are commonly viewed as incompatible, but both have limitations. Continuous accounts cannot readily account for what appears to be unique about human consciousness; discrete accounts have a hard time explaining how human consciousness could have evolved. The present position paper shows how both continuous and discontinuously elements can be combined.

Method

A biphasic model is constructed by unifying complex systems theory, the evolution of symbolic reasoning as a relational extension of human cooperation, and evolutionary science. The application of this approach to modern views of consciousness is then explored.

Results

Our analysis suggests that human consciousness may be viewed as a discontinuous event, that emerged from continuous foundations. This biphasic account contains processes that can be targeted clinically. For example, developmentally delayed children with problems in consciousness may be helped by targeting the processes the present account suggests are important at different levels of complexity.

Conclusions

This biphasic relational approach fits with the evolutionary record and with data on human cognitive development. It may be useful in guiding clinical intervention.

Description and evaluation of a function-informed and mechanisms-based framework for treating challenging behavior

Individualization and iterative design are essential components of the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior. Currently, there are few validated frameworks for engaging in iterative processes. Due to the nature of single-case design, empirically rigorous evaluations of decision-tree processes are particularly prohibitive. Notwithstanding, evaluations are needed. In this paper we first describe a function-informed and mechanisms-based (FIMB) framework for selecting treatment components employed by a university-based practicum experience designed to expose pre-service practitioners to a valid treatment process for challenging behavior. Then, we share a completed retrospective consecutive case series across a 6-year period in which we conducted a technique analysis to identify which procedures were most commonly selected in the practicum, and the impact of those choices on client outcomes. The results suggest that the model can be highly effective for some, but not all, cases. Implications are discussed.