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Despite the efficacy of functional analyses in identifying the function of challenging behavior, clinicians report not always using them, partly due to safety concerns. Understanding how researchers employ safeguards to mitigate risks, particularly with dangerous topographies like self‐injurious behavior (SIB), is important to guide research and practice. However, the results of a scoping review of functional analyses of self‐injurious behavior conducted by Weeden et al. (2010) revealed that only 19.83% of publications included protections. We extended the work of Weeden et al. to determine whether reporting has improved. We observed increases in all but two types of protections reviewed by Weeden et al. Additionally, we included new protections not reported by Weeden et al. In total, 69.52% of the studies included at least one protective procedure and 44.39% specified that the protections were used for safety. It appears that reporting has increased since Weeden et al. called for improved descriptions of participant protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in a large national sample of 203 individuals with Down syndrome, 6-25 years old, to determine the association of ASD risk with age, sex, IQ, adaptive behaviors, and maladaptive behaviors. We used a two-pronged approach by (1) considering ASD symptomatology continuously across the sample of individuals with DS and examining associations with each characteristic, and (2) dichotomizing our sample into high and low ASD risk groups and comparing groups on each characteristic. The pattern of results was largely similar across both types of analyses. ASD symptomatology/risk was negatively associated with IQ and adaptive behaviors and positively associated with certain types of maladaptive behaviors. Clinical implications for screening and therapeutic purposes are discussed.

We evaluated preference for and efficacy of distributed and accumulated response--reinforcer arrangements during discrete-trial teaching for unmastered tasks. During the distributed arrangement, participants received 30-s access to a reinforcer after each correct response. During accumulated arrangements, access was accrued throughout the work period and delivered in its entirety upon completion of the work requirement. Accumulated arrangements were assessed with and without the use of tokens. In Experiment 1, four of five participants preferred one of the accumulated arrangements and preference remained unchanged across mastered and unmastered tasks for all five participants. Four individuals participated in Experiment 2 and we conducted replications with new target stimuli with three of these individuals (for a total of seven analyses). Target stimuli were mastered more quickly and session durations were, on average, shorter in one of the accumulated arrangements in six of the seven analyses. Partial correspondence between preference and measures of efficacy and efficiency was obtained for two of the three individuals for whom both experiments were conducted. These results support prior research, indicating that many learners with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities prefer accumulated reinforcement and that accumulated arrangements can be as effective and as efficient as distributed arrangements in teaching new skills.

The cause of the high degree of variability in cognition and behavior among individuals with Down syndrome (DS) is unknown. We hypothesized that birth defects requiring surgery in the first years of life (congenital heart defects and gastrointestinal defects) might affect an individual's level of function. We used data from the first 234 individuals, age 6-25 years, enrolled in the Down Syndrome Cognition Project (DSCP) to test this hypothesis. Data were drawn from medical records, parent interviews, and a cognitive and behavior assessment battery. Results did not support our hypothesis. That is, we found no evidence that either birth defect was associated with poorer outcomes, adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Implications for study design and measurement are discussed.

Discrete‐trial teaching (DTT) is an arrangement used in skill acquisition. The components that comprise DTT vary widely across applications, and previous reviews evaluating its efficacy have largely reported on DTT as part of a comprehensive intervention package. The purpose of this scoping review was twofold: to describe the component variations of DTT (descriptive analysis) and to evaluate the general efficacy of DTT in teaching new skills to individuals with disabilities (efficacy analysis). One hundred and thirty‐four studies were included in the descriptive analysis of DTT and 82 were included in the efficacy analysis. Results indicated that many of the components of DTT align well with best practice recommendations, including that reinforcers be delivered continuously and immediately following correct responses. Overall, DTT was efficacious in teaching new skills; however, there were limited evaluations of the maintenance, generality, and social validity of the findings. The outcomes are discussed in light of best practice recommendations and as a guide for future practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how the amount of effort required to produce a reinforcer influenced subsequent preference for, and strength of, that reinforcer in 7 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Preference assessments identified four moderately preferred stimuli for each participant, and progressive-ratio (PR) analyses indexed reinforcer strength. Stimuli were then assigned to one of four conditions for 4 weeks: fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedule, escalating FR schedule, yoked noncontingent (NCR) delivery, and restricted access. Preference assessments and PR schedules were then repeated to examine changes in selection percentages and PR break points. Selection percentages decreased for all NCR stimuli but increased for most of the restricted stimuli. There were no systematic changes in selection percentages for either of the contingent stimuli. Break points increased, on average, for all conditions, but the increase was highest for the restricted stimuli and lowest for the NCR stimuli. These results are discussed in relation to recent basic research addressing the influence of effort on stimulus value. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

The functional analysis approach described by Iwata et al. (1982/1994) has been used widely to determine the variables evoking and maintaining challenging behavior. However, one potential concern with conducting functional analyses is that repeated exposure to contingencies may induce a novel functional relation. To examine the likelihood of these potential iatrogenic effects, we evaluated social test conditions of the functional analysis for 116 participants and searched for patterns of responding indicative of acquisition. Patterns suggestive of acquisition occurred in 13.70% of tangible reinforcement conditions; however, the prevalence was only slightly lower in the attention condition (8.75%). Much lower prevalence was observed for the escape condition (2.13%). When grouped by quotient score, a pattern of acquisition was just as likely to be observed in the attention condition as in the tangible condition. Additionally, patterns indicative of acquisition were no more likely to be observed with participants who emitted automatically reinforced challenging behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewal is a relapse phenomenon that refers to the recurrence of a previously reduced behavior following a change in stimulus conditions. Muething et al. (2022) examined the phenomenology of renewal among individuals with automatically maintained challenging behavior treated at an outpatient clinic. We replicated their findings by retrospectively examining renewal across various topographies of automatically maintained behavior treated at an inpatient hospital, and we extended their work by also examining differences across subtypes of automatically maintained self‐injurious behavior. The prevalence of renewal was comparable to that observed by Muething et al., supporting the notion that automatically maintained challenging behavior is susceptible to relapse phenomena. Furthermore, renewal was twice as likely to occur for individuals with Subtype 2 versus Subtype 1 self‐injurious behavior, providing additional evidence of behavioral differentiation between subtypes. Our findings suggest that even after apparent stability in treatment, practitioners should remain vigilant for the recurrence of automatically maintained behavior during generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder includes impairments in social interactions. This study compared the extent to which boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys "value" engaging in activities with a parent or alone. Two different assessments that can empirically determine the relative reinforcing value of social and non-social stimuli were employed: paired-choice preference assessments and progressive-ratio schedules. There were no significant differences between boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys on either measure. Moreover, there was a strong correspondence in performance across these two measures for participants in each group. These results suggest that the relative reinforcing value of engaging in activities with a primary caregiver is not diminished for children with autism spectrum disorder.

We examined autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in a large national sample of 203 individuals with Down syndrome, 6-25 years old, to determine the association of ASD risk with age, sex, IQ, adaptive behaviors, and maladaptive behaviors. We used a two-pronged approach by (1) considering ASD symptomatology continuously across the sample of individuals with DS and examining associations with each characteristic, and (2) dichotomizing our sample into high and low ASD risk groups and comparing groups on each characteristic. The pattern of results was largely similar across both types of analyses. ASD symptomatology/risk was negatively associated with IQ and adaptive behaviors and positively associated with certain types of maladaptive behaviors. Clinical implications for screening and therapeutic purposes are discussed., Author(s): Marie Moore Channell [sup.1] , Laura J. Hahn [sup.1] , Tracie C. Rosser [sup.2] , Debra Hamilton [sup.2] , Michelle A. Frank-Crawford [sup.3] , George T. Capone [sup.3] , [...]

The delivery of food contingent on 10 s of consecutive toy engagement resulted in a decrease in engagement and a corresponding increase in other responses that had been previously reinforced with food. Similar effects were not observed when tokens exchangeable for the same food were delivered, suggesting that engagement was disrupted by the contingent provision of the food, which may have functioned as a discriminative stimulus that occasioned competing responses. (Contains 1 figure.)

One of the key diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder includes impairments in social interactions. This study compared the extent to which boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys “value” engaging in activities with a parent or alone. Two different assessments that can empirically determine the relative reinforcing value of social and non-social stimuli were employed: paired-choice preference assessments and progressive-ratio schedules. There were no significant differences between boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys on either measure. Moreover, there was a strong correspondence in performance across these two measures for participants in each group. These results suggest that the relative reinforcing value of engaging in activities with a primary caregiver is not diminished for children with autism spectrum disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overjustification hypothesis suggests that extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic rewards are common in strengthening behavior in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities; we examined overjustification effects in this context. A literature search yielded 65 data sets permitting comparison of responding during an initial no-reinforcement phase to a subsequent no-reinforcement phase, separated by a reinforcement phase. We used effect sizes to compare response levels in these two no-reinforcement phases. Overall, the mean effect size did not differ from zero; levels in the second no-reinforcement phase were equally likely to be higher or lower than in the first. However, in contrast to the overjustification hypothesis, levels were higher in the second no-reinforcement phase when comparing the single no-reinforcement sessions immediately before and after reinforcement. Outcomes consistent with the overjustification hypothesis were somewhat more likely when the target behavior occurred at relatively higher levels prior to reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe problem behavior (e.g., self-injury and aggression) remains among the most serious challenges for the habilitation of persons with intellectual disabilities and is a significant obstacle to community integration. The current standard of behavior analytic treatment for problem behavior in this population consists of a functional assessment and treatment model. Within that model, the first step is to assess the behavior-environment relations that give rise to and maintain problem behavior, a functional behavioral assessment. Conventional methods of assessing behavioral function include indirect, descriptive, and experimental assessments of problem behavior. Clinical investigators have produced a rich literature demonstrating the relative effectiveness for each method, but in clinical practice, each can produce ambiguous or difficult-to-interpret outcomes that may impede treatment development. This paper outlines potential sources of variability in assessment outcomes and then reviews the evidence on strategies for avoiding ambiguous outcomes and/or clarifying initially ambiguous results. The end result for each assessment method is a set of best practice guidelines, given the available evidence, for conducting the initial assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder includes impairments in social interactions. This study compared the extent to which boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys "value" engaging in activities with a parent or alone. Two different assessments that can empirically determine the relative reinforcing value of social and non-social stimuli were employed: paired-choice preference assessments and progressive-ratio schedules. There were no significant differences between boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys on either measure. Moreover, there was a strong correspondence in performance across these two measures for participants in each group. These results suggest that the relative reinforcing value of engaging in activities with a primary caregiver is not diminished for children with autism spectrum disorder.