Establishing initial auditory‐visual conditional discriminations and emergence of initial tacts in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impaired listener skills, and few studies have evaluated procedures for establishing initial auditory‐visual conditional discrimination skills. We developed and evaluated a treatment package for training initial auditory‐visual conditional discriminations based on the extant research on training such discriminations in children with ASD with at least some preexisting skills in this area. The treatment package included (a) conditional‐only training, (b) prompting the participant to echo the sample stimulus as a differential observing response, (c) prompting correct selection responses using an identity‐match prompt, (d) using progressively delayed prompts, and (e) repeating trials until the participant emitted an independent correct response. Results indicated all participants mastered all listener targets, and the two participants for whom we tested the emergence of corresponding tacts showed mastery of most tacts without direct training. We discuss these results relative to prior research on listener skills and tacts.     

Randomized controlled trial of an applied behavior analytic intervention for food selectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder

Food selectivity is a common problem for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Schreck, Williams, & Smith, 2004). Behavior‐analytic interventions have the most empirical support for feeding disorders (Sharp, Jaquess, Morton, & Miles, 2011). However, there are no randomized controlled trials that have evaluated its effects with a well‐defined cohort of children with ASD. In the current investigation, we randomly assigned 6 young children with ASD and food selectivity to either an applied behavior analytic intervention or a wait‐list control. We used a crossover randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent applied behavior analytic intervention on independent acceptance and mouth clean of 16 novel foods. We subsequently exposed the wait‐list control group to the intervention. We also evaluated the effects of the intervention on individual participants with single‐case designs. The percentage of independent acceptance and mouth clean increased for the applied behavior analytic intervention group, but not for the wait‐list control group until we implemented the intervention.     

Evaluating the effects of physical reactions on aggression via concurrent‐operant analyses

Under naturally occurring conditions, the individual who is the target of aggression is likely to physically react to evade the aggressor and avoid physical harm. Like other forms of attention that occur following problem behavior, physical reactions may maintain problem behavior. However, evaluating the effects of physical reactions is complicated by issues related to therapists' ability to consistently and safely control their reactions, which may prove difficult to achieve in functional analyses. We evaluated the utility of a concurrent‐operant analysis to test behavioral sensitivity to physical reactions. The results suggest that the concurrent‐operant analysis may be useful when therapists cannot consistently refrain from responding contingent on problem behavior in the control condition of a more typical functional analysis.     

The Impact of Social Threat on Worldview and Ideological Attitudes

Research has shown that social threat correlates with ideological authoritarianism, but the issues of causal direction and specificity of threat to particular ideological attitudes remain unclear. Here, a theoretical model is proposed in which social threat has an impact on authoritarianism specifically, with the effect mediated through social worldview. The model was experimentally tested with a sample of undergraduates who responded to one of three hypothetical scenarios describing a future New Zealand that was secure, threatening, or essentially unaltered. Both threat and security influenced social worldview, but only threat influenced authoritarianism, with differential effects on two factorially distinct subdimensions (conservative and authoritarian social control attitudes) and with the effects of threat mediated through worldview. There was a weak effect of threat on social dominance that was entirely mediated through authoritarianism. The findings support the proposed theoretical model of how personal and social contextual factors causally affect people's social worldviews and ideological attitudes.     

The meaning of indifference in choice behavior: Asymmetries in adjustments embodied in matching

Measuring and assessing people’s preferences is an intricate task that can be realized by different methods. Evidently, the different methods do not necessarily yield consistent results. In the present paper we examine the matching procedure and demonstrate inconsistencies within the method itself. It is shown that the inconsistencies stem from: (1) asymmetry in upward and downward matching (i.e., matching options by increasing or lowering values do not yield the same tradeoffs) and (2) participants’ tendency to match (adjust) the options such that they become more similar, eventually facilitating the choice process. Matching is the most straightforward method of eliciting indifference. Hence, the observed inconsistencies, encapsulated in the matching procedure, have direct implications for the construction of indifference curves (equal-utility contours) that are examined in the final section.     

Train‐the‐trainer: Methodology to learn the cognitive interview

Research has indicated that police may not receive enough training in interviewing cooperative witnesses, specifically in use of the cognitive interview (CI). Practically, for the CI to be effective in real‐world investigations, police investigators must be trained by law enforcement trainers. We conducted a three‐phase experiment to examine the feasibility of training experienced law enforcement trainers who would then train others to conduct the CI. We instructed Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement trainers about the CI (Phase I); law enforcement trainers from both agencies (n = 4, 100% male, mean age = 50 years) instructed university students (n = 25, 59% female, mean age = 21 years) to conduct either the CI or a standard law enforcement interview (Phase II); the student interviewers then interviewed other student witnesses (n = 50, 73% female, mean age = 22 years), who had watched a simulated crime (phase III). Compared with standard training, interviews conducted by those trained by CI‐trained instructors contained more information and at a higher accuracy rate and with fewer suggestive questions.     

Effects of spatial context during acquisition on the recall of attributive information

We found that learners were sensitive to the spatial context in which various information was obtained and that they could use it symbolically to aid recall even when spatial cues were not available during testing. In three experiments, televised and purely aural statements made by various speakers were presented at distinct locations in the recipient's immediate surroundings. This was found to increase attributive recall compared to (a) all information sources in a single place, (b) information sources in several places but with place not consistently linked with information sources, and (c) use of a nonspatial stimulus context consistently associated with information source, such as the physical appearance of announcers. Theoretically, we conclude, with Hasher and Zacks, the place provides especially privileged cues and that not all content-correlated background stimuli are equipotent cues in associative learning. Practically, we recommend that in order to remember who said what, it helps to have speakers in separate and distinct places.     

Predictors of repeat hospitalizations in children with asthma: the role of psychosocial and socioenvironmental factors.

This study examined relationships between psychosocial factors and asthma rehospitalization patterns in 115 children (ages 4-15) who had > or = 1 hospitalization during the study period. Lifetime history of hospitalizations and new hospitalizations during a 1-year follow-up period were measured, controlling for baseline asthma symptoms and medications. Prospectively, caretaker characteristics (lower sense of mastery, being less emotionally bothered by asthma) predicted greater likelihood of future asthma hospitalizations. Lifetime history of hospitalizations was associated with family impacts (greater family strain and family conflict greater financial strain) as well as caretaker characteristics (greater personal strain, beliefs about not being able to manage one's child's asthma). These findings could help guide future interventions targeted at the subgroup of children who represent a high proportion of asthma hospitalizations.