We provide an empirically updated Skinnerian-based

We report 2 experiments that tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across training sets on the emergence of productive autoclitic frames (suffixes) for 6 preschoolers with and without language-based disabilities. We implemented multiple exemplar tact instruction with subsets of stimuli whose "names" contained the suffix "-er" denoting the comparative form of adjectives. Subsets of stimuli included regular, irregular, and contrived tacts containing the target relational autoclitic frame in order to determine if our MEI procedure would induce the abstraction of the frame across all stimulus sets. In the second experiment, additional tasks were introduced to the participants to control for a possible sequence effect. A nonconcurrent multiple probe design was used to evaluate the functional relation between MEI and emergence of untaught tact responses containing the comparative adjective "-er." The results of both experiments showed relations between MEI and novel, untaught tact responses containing the target autoclitic frame; the second experiment showing a functional relation. The results are discussed in terms of environmental sources for productive verbal behavior.

The Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling or CABAS ® model is characterized by an organizational system of teacher training and mentoring by those with more expertise in the science of behavior analytic teaching. At the center of the system are the students, whose data drive the system. Decades of research support the CABAS ® model as a whole as well as its components, which include a fundamental unit of measure and analysis, a criterion-referenced assessment that is also a curriculum, and the incorporation of teacher training modules created to develop teachers who are strategic scientists of pedagogy. When the CABAS ® system was first analyzed in 1989, data across one school year reflected the increased effectiveness of instruction as measured by student outcomes. Twenty years later, we provide a comparative analysis of data from a similar school where the CABAS ® model has been faithfully implemented for over two decades. Our data reflect an evolution of the CABAS ® model, as a function of increased teacher expertise, more accurate and valid measurement and analyses of relevant data, and more effective assessment and teaching strategies, all of which have lead to improved student outcomes.

We report two experiments on the emission of questions to request the names of unfamiliar stimuli by preschoolers. In the first experiment, 19 preschoolers with and without disabilities served as participants. Experiment 1 was a descriptive analysis of whether or not the 19 participants asked questions about unfamiliar pictures and objects in one-to-one and group settings. These were dependent variables in the second experiment as well. Four participants, who did not ask any questions in the first experiment, served as participants in the second experiment. During the intervention, the participants observed the peer confederates (1) ask questions (e.g., “What is that?”), (2) receive information from the experimenter, and (3) receive praise and tokens contingent on asking a question. A multiple probe design across participants was used. The data showed that the participants increased the number of questions when we returned to baseline conditions. Results are discussed in terms of where the reinforcement exists for asking questions about unfamiliar things in one’s environment, and whether this truly measures the “need to know”.

We tested the effects of conditioning 3-dimensional objects as reinforcers on imitation and match to sample responses of young children with autism. Three children between the ages of 2 and 4.8 years who attended a center-based Early Intervention or preschool program participated in the study. The 3-dimensional object conditioning procedure involved the participants visually tracking preferred and nonpreferred items that were placed under transparent and opaque cups. The cups were then rotated a set number of times per phase. Results showed that for all 3 participants, the 3-dimensional conditioning procedure was functionally related to increases in generalized 3-dimensional matching and object use imitation. Decreases in instructional trials to criterion were noted for 2 of the 3 participants as well. The results are discussed in terms of observing and attending and the effects on reliable assessment and programmatic planning.