We taught 4 participants with autism to discriminate between the reinforced and nonreinforced responses of an adult model and evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention using a multiple baseline design. During baseline, participants were simply exposed to adult models' correct and incorrect responses and the respective consequences of…

Behavioral research to enhance sports performance has been conducted in numerous sports domains and often involves feedback from the coach to the student. One promising form of feedback is the use of an acoustical stimulus such as a clicker to provide more immediate feedback. Similar to clicker training with animals, acoustical stimuli are used…

This study investigated performance under and preference for continuous and discontinuous work-reinforcer schedules in 3 students who had been diagnosed with autism. Under continuous schedules, participants completed all work and consumed all reinforcers in contiguous units. Under discontinuous schedules, work and reinforcer access were broken up…

Each day, people encounter stimuli they find unpleasant. Some children with autism may require systematic instruction to acquire the communication skills necessary to request the termination of such aversive stimuli. We taught 2 school-aged boys with autism a mand (e.g., signing "stop") that could be used to escape a variety of aversive…

When the overall magnitude of reinforcement is matched between 2 alternative work schedules, some students prefer to complete all of their work for continuous access to a reinforcer (continuous work) rather than distributed access to a reinforcer while they work (discontinuous work). We evaluated a student's preference for continuous work by…

Although massed-trial instruction, distributed-trial instruction, and task interspersal have been shown to be effective methods of teaching skills to children with autism spectrum disorders, they have not been directly compared. In the current study, we taught 6 children to tact shapes of countries using these methods to determine which would…

We taught social responses to young children with autism using an adult as the recipient of the social interaction and then assessed generalization of performance to adults and peers who had not participated in the training. Although the participants' performance was similar across adults, responding was less consistent with peers, and a…

This study is a replication and extension of Reeve, Reeve, Townsend, and Poulson (2007) evaluating the effects of a treatment package that included multiple-exemplar training, video modeling, prompting, and reinforcement on helping of 3 adolescents with autism. Results demonstrated that all participants acquired the helping responses. Probes…

Recent literature reviews have highlighted the need to better understand the relation between speaker and listener behavior when teaching learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current paper outlines the practical implications of evaluating the emergence of tact and listener behavior during instruction for the opposite relation, as…

We evaluated the effects of the preschool life skills program (PLS; Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) on the acquisition and maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills, as well as its effect on problem behavior, of small groups of preschoolers at risk for school failure. Six children were taught to request teacher…

Previous studies have focused on whether a trial-based functional analysis (FA) yields the same outcomes as more traditional FAs, and whether interventions based on trial-based FAs can reduce socially maintained problem behavior. We included a full range of behavior functions and taught 3 teachers to conduct a trial-based FA with 3 boys with…

The current study examined the effectiveness and efficiency of presenting secondary targets within learning trials for 4 children with an autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, we compared 4 instructional conditions using a progressive prompt delay. In 3 conditions, we presented secondary targets in the antecedent or consequence portion of…

One limitation of functional communication training (FCT) is that individuals may request reinforcement via the functional communication response (FCR) at exceedingly high rates. Multiple schedules with alternating periods of reinforcement and extinction of the FCR combined with gradually lengthening the extinction-component interval can…

Advancing the education of low-income adults could increase employment and income, but adult education programs have not successfully engaged low-income adults. Monetary reinforcement may be effective in promoting progress in adult education. This experiment evaluated the benefits of providing incentives for performance in a job-skills training…

The current study examined whether monetary incentives could increase engagement and achievement in a job-skills training program for unemployed, homeless, alcohol-dependent adults. Participants (n?=?124) were randomized to a no-reinforcement group (n?=?39), during which access to the training program was provided but no incentives were given; a…