The Student Guided Functional Assessment Interview: An Analysis of Student and Teacher Agreement

Functional assessment strategies are used to guide the treatment of problem behavior with individuals who have severe disabilities. Also, researchers have extended functional assessment applications to individuals with emotional and behavioral disabilities. One such extension is the use of students as informants in the functional assessment process. The present study assessed an interview tool designed to elicit information directly from students regarding their problem behaviors. We examined agreement between students and their teachers. Results showed high agreement on the causes and functions of problem behavior with mixed agreement on support plan recommendations.     

Exploitation of pointing as a referential gesture in young children, but not adolescent chimpanzees

The ability of adolescent chimpanzees and 2- and 3-year-old children to use pointing gestures to locate hidden surprises was examined in two experiments. The results revealed that although young 2-year-old children appeared to have no difficulty extracting referential information from a pointing gesture (independent of gaze or distance cues) and spontaneously using it to search in specific locations, adolescent chimpanzees appeared to rely on cueconfiguration and distance-based rules. Thus, although these chimpanzees were trained to respond appropriately to the pointing gestures of a human by searching in a particular location, this ability did not easily generalize to situations in which the distance between the pointing hand and the location were more distal. Furthermore, even those chimpanzees that were able to generalize in this fashion appeared to use distance-based cues, not ones based on an appreciation of the internal attentional focus or mental referent of the experimenter as indicated by his pointing gesture.     

Evaluating the relative effects of feedback and contingent money for staff training of stimulus preference assessments

Performance feedback has facilitated the acquisition and maintenance of a wide range of behaviors (e.g., health-care routines, seat-belt use). Most researchers have attributed the effectiveness of performance feedback to (a) its discriminative functions, (b) its reinforcing functions, or (c) the combination of the two. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the relative contributions of the discriminative and reinforcing functions of performance feedback by comparing a condition in which the discriminative functions were maximized and the reinforcing functions were minimized (i.e., performance-specific instructions without contingent money) with one in which the reinforcing functions were maximized and the discriminative functions were minimized (i.e., contingent money with no performance-specific instructions). We compared the effects of these two conditions on the acquisition of skills involved in conducting two commonly used preference assessments. Results showed that acquisition of these skills occurred primarily in the condition with performance-specific instruction without contingent money, suggesting that the delivery of performance-specific instructions was critical to skill acquisition, whereas the delivery of contingent money had little effect.     

The effects of circumferential air-splint pressure on flexor carpi radialis H-reflex in subjects without neurological deficits

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of circumferential pressure on flexor carpi radialis (FCR) H-reflex in subjects without neuromuscular deficits and to evaluate the skin's contribution to this effect. FCR H-reflex was assessed in 43 subjects by measuring the peak-to-peak amplitude change before, during, and after circumferential pressure was applied to the forearm. Twelve H-reflexes (H/M ratio: M = 25%, SD = 14) were recorded before pressure application to obtain a baseline value (H(baseline)) to which all data were compared. A pneumatic 15 to 20-cm air splint inflated to 51-60 mmHg provided the pressure around the forearm. H-reflex recordings were taken at 1, 3, and 5 min. during (H(pressure)) and after pressure application. A second smaller study (placebo), in which the air splint was inflated to 0 mmHg, was conducted in 5 subjects to ensure that changes in reflex amplitudes were not a result of cutaneous effects. Two types of responses were observed in the FCR H-reflex following pressure application. One group of subjects significantly increased in H-reflex amplitude while another group decreased in H-reflex amplitude when compared to H(baseline). Regression analysis found that H(max) explained 37.2% of the variance when controlling for H(baseline). Subjects with larger H(max) showed an increase in H(pressure) while subjects with lower H(max) showed decreases in H(pressure) The placebo study revealed no differences in H-reflex amplitude from baseline values, implying that skin stimulation from the air splint has no role in the effects observed. The dichotomous result indicates that pressure influences the upper extremity differently than it does the lower extremity in certain individuals. Clinicians, using circumferential pressure as a therapeutic modality to lower muscle activity of the upper extremity, need to be cognizant that pressure may have contrasting effects on their patients.     

Predicting the Stability of Conduct Problems in Children with and Without Callous-Unemotional Traits

We tested predictors of persistence in conduct problems for children with and without callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Participants were 79 children of an original 98 children recruited from a community-wide screening to oversample children with conduct problems and to ensure equal numbers of children high and low on CU traits. The sample was reassessed at four yearly intervals and the 79 children (81%) were those with data at all four assessments. Children within each conduct problem group were divided into those with more and less stable patterns of conduct problems based on structured interviews with parent and child. Stability in conduct problems for children without CU traits was more strongly related to level of impulsivity and socioeconomic status, whereas children high on CU traits showed more stable conduct problems if they experienced higher rates of life stressors.     

Implementing a differential reinforcement of low rates schedule to alter vocal stereotypy and task engagement in two adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Vocal stereotypy (VS) is often observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which at high rates can interfere with socialization or functioning in structured settings. There are multiple effective interventions available; yet, many procedures target the complete omission of the behavior or are only assessed at short intervals, making it unclear how they will generalize in applied settings. One intervention yet to be assessed as an individual intervention for automatically reinforced VS is differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior (DRL). In the present study, a functional analysis determined that the VS of two female adolescents with ASD was maintained by automatic reinforcement. A DRL procedure was implemented which incorporated: (a) a specified interval for reinforcement; (b) the behavioral expectations; (c) the permissible instances of VS within the interval; (d) learner feedback; and (e) the reset/non-reset aspect of the schedule. As the targeted behavior decreased across sessions, the DRL interval was systematically increased in order to thin out the schedule of reinforcement. The intervention reduced VS and increased untargeted task engagement for both participants. Applied and theoretical implications of the study as well as social validity, limitations, and future research are discussed.     

The effects of social vigilantism and masculine honor beliefs on perceptions of confrontation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Varying opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic inspire different behaviors (e.g., mask-wearing), and confrontation may result between people with differing viewpoints. Individual differences associated with belief superiority (e.g., Social Vigilantism; SV) and/or pride (e.g., Masculine Honor Beliefs; MHB) likely related to third-person perceptions of pandemic confrontations. In this study (N = 237; US sample), we used vignettes in a 2 (Mask: Yes/No) ×  2(Confrontation Response: Vocal Defense/Walked Away) between-groups design to examine how SV and MHB predict perceptions of (1) responses to public confrontation about (not) wearing a mask and (2) the person being confronted. In general, mask-wearing and walking away from confrontation were perceived more positively. Higher SV was associated with more positive perceptions of seemingly morally-justified responses to confrontation (e.g., walking away when confronted for not wearing a mask, vocally defending oneself when confronted for wearing a mask). Contrarily, higher MHB were associated with more positive perceptions of non-mask-wearing. This research provides insight about how individual differences in SV and MHB relate to nuances in pandemic confrontations, and responses to confrontations, about (non)mask-wearing.     

A little help from my friends: Lack of social interaction predicts greater boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic

Were people bored during the pandemic, and if so why? One possibility is lack of social interaction due to restrictions on social activity intended to slow the spread of communicable disease. In a 3-week daily diary study (n = 438; international community sample) social interaction predicted boredom and its consequences. People felt more bored on days when they engaged in less social interaction than usual (in-person or virtually), largely driven by a lack of meaning. In turn, boredom predicted lower well-being concurrently, and more virtual interaction the next day; people dispositionally higher in trait boredom also reported more solitary (but not partnered) sexual activity. In conclusion, this study suggests that maintaining social connections, even during a pandemic, may be important to mitigate boredom and improve overall well-being.