The Use of PFA & SBT to Prepare a Learner for Face & Voice Conditioning

Description

Learn about The Use of PFA & SBT to Prepare a Learner for Face & Voice Conditioning with Victoria Beaman!

A delayed multiple baseline across participants was used in testing the use of the PFA/SBT as a tool to decrease problematic behavior that prevent a child to being successful with face and voice conditioning procedures (Maffei et al., 2014). The participants in this study were 4 years old, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and had been previously unsuccessful with conditioning procedures due to problematic behavior emitted in the presence of others/stimuli. Researchers used an extension of the FA format, the interview- informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) from the Hanley et al., (2014) article as the independent variable in this study. The dependent variable was the difference in the increase in pre and post probe scores for faces and voices before and after the PFA/SBT protocol was completed. The protocols for faces and voices as outlined in the Maffei, Singer-Dudek, and Keohane (2014) article was used in the study to condition participants to seek out human faces and voices in their environment; utilizing conjugate stimulus stimulus pairing. Post probe data shows an increase in the Observing Response probe compared to the pre and post measures for all participants.

Curious what “Face & Voice Conditioning” means?

“Researchers focusing on verbal behavior development have identified several components that appear foundational to becoming verbal. These include conditioned reinforcement for observing adult faces, listening to adult voices, and observing two- and three-dimensional stimuli in the environment. Observing people and objects in the environment provides a context for individuals to participate in verbal exchanges with one another. These observing responses are operants, selected out by their reinforcers; thus, the stimuli that are observed must be conditioned reinforcers. Therefore, it is the establishment of the reinforcer for observing that is the critical foundation for verbal development.

The observation of human faces and other observing responses meet the definition of what Rosales-Ruiz and Baer (1997) call behavior developmental cusps. These behavior developmental cusps, which include observing responses as well as behaviors such as crawling and walking, are important developmental stages that, once attained, allow children to progress in ways they could not prior to their attainment. Once established, the individual is afforded opportunities to contact new environmental contingencies, and new reinforcers, and as a result learn new skills that support the performance of more complex tasks. Therefore, children can learn things they could not before because they can contact new contingencies. Children can also learn new things faster due to accelerated establishment of stimulus-response relations, or stimulus control.

In summary, verbal cusps allow children to contact new conditioned reinforcers that subsequently lead to accelerated rates of learning; identifying and inducing missing verbal developmental cusps is crucial for the development of complex levels of verbal behavior.” Maffei, Singer-Dudek, & Doleen-Day 2014.

(Full-text article is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2007471914709706/pdf)

Participants will…

1. Gain knowledge about the protocol for conditioning human faces and voices as reinforcers for our learners.

2. Gain knowledge about the application of PFA/SBT as a protocol to increase conditioned reinforcement of adults for learners with difficult learning histories.

3. Gain knowledge about verbal behavior development theory related to pre-foundational verbal behavior foundations and how we can help induce cusps and capabilities.