People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty responding vocally with intraverbals and physically with motor imitation during conversations. Not responding with an appropriate word coupled with an absence of body language could compromise social opportunities. The literature lists scores of studies implementing human video modeling to increase skills of people with ASD but not much research has been conducted using animated video modeling (Kellems et al., 2020). This study compared human video modeling to animated videos to teach vocal intraverbal responding along with motor imitations of facial expression and body language to eight children with ASD. Seven of the eight participants acquired the target behaviors with one or both methods to some degree. Two participants demonstrated more of the target behaviors with the human video, three demonstrated more with the animated, and little difference in learning was observed for three participants. One participant only demonstrated target behaviors following the human video and another only demonstrated target behaviors following the animated video, suggesting that both methods could be effective and neither was conclusively superior.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive behavioristic conceptual analysis of acts of translation and interpretation (ATIs) by analyzing the role of historical and current context in shared meaning/understanding among parties involved in ATIs: speakers/writers, interpreters/translators, and listeners/readers. The conventional nature of verbal behavior, and the importance of and challenges inherent to ATIs are considered first. Next, B. F. Skinner's analyses of ATIs, understanding, and meaning is summarized as a starting point for an analysis of ATIs and meaning in terms of the situations in which verbal stimuli occur. A technical definition of context is provided, and we suggest that shared meaning/understanding depends upon the extent to which the historical and current contexts in which writers/speakers and readers/listeners encounter specific topographies of verbal behavior are similar. This is then applied to ATIs, focusing on the different contextual circumstances under which translation (involving written stimuli) and interpretation (involving spoken/gestural stimuli) occur, and the implications of these for shared meaning/understanding between writers/speakers and readers/listeners in different languages in ATIs.

Healthcare professionals frequently ask individuals to use numerical rating scales to rate their pain intensity, yet individuals often find it challenging to accurately report sensations. The present study explored the efficacy of procedures to teach adults to report the intensity of tactile sensations-rough, heavy, and temperature (hot/cold)-on a numerical rating scale within a multiple baseline design across stimulus sets. The participants felt the stimuli, which were concealed from the participants' view, by inserting their hands into a stimulus box. The participants mastered the taught intensity tacts and generalized the tacts to novel body parts. One participant also generalized tacts to untaught intensities, and the other participant generalized responding to novel stimuli, untaught intensities, and untaught intensities in novel stimulus sets. These findings are discussed in the context of Skinner's analysis of how humans learn to talk about private events.

The primary purpose of the present experiment was to explore the extent to which repeated probing contributes to the establishment of incidental bidirectional naming (Inc-BiN). Whenever repetitive probes alone did not suffice to establish Inc-BiN, we investigated whether mixed-operant instuction (MOI)––the rapid rotation of operants within each of a series of trial blocks––improved Inc-BiN. Nine children with autism or language delays aged 3–6 participated. Three of nine participants were exposed to an extended-baseline condition, while the remaining six were exposed to one of two brief-baseline conditions before MOI. We used a multiple probe design across three novel stimulus sets, to isolate the effects of repeated probing. During post-MOI Inc-BiN probes, all participants across conditions demonstrated the emergence of Inc-BiN. Repetitive probes sufficed to establish Inc-BiN in two of three participants who were assigned to the extended-baseline condition, while for the third, Inc-BiN improved after MOI. In addition, we examined the extent to which the probe sequence impacted Inc-BiN skills. Three participants, P1, P2, and P3, were exposed to speaker (tacts) probes first, while the remaining six were exposed to listener probes first. During generative Inc-BiN probes, when testing speaker responses before listener responses (P1–P3), only listener responses emerged for two of them. In contrast, when testing listener before speaker responses, both repertoires were observed for three (P4, P5, and P7) of six participants. A one-month follow-up Inc-BiN probe demonstrated maintenance of listener responses for seven of eight participants, and tacts were maintained for three of them.

The research literature has revealed mixed outcomes on stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) as a potential procedure to promote vocalizations. In this procedure, the experimenter's specific vocalizations are paired with the delivery of conditioned or unconditioned stimuli and it has been used to increase vocalizations in individuals with language delays. Some studies demonstrate an increase in participants' vocalizations, while other studies demonstrate a partial or zero increase in participant's vocalizations. The current study extends the systematic literature review conducted by Shillingsburg et al. Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 31, 215-235, (2015). We included 12 experimental studies, including published peer-reviewed studies, theses, and dissertations, from 2015 and 2024 that investigated SSP to increase vocalizations in participants with language delays. The studies were analyzed according to participants' characteristics and specific features of the SSP procedures. A multilevel meta-analysis was conducted for a portion of the studies reviewed to calculate the effect sizes across cases and studies. Overall, we found a significant effect of the SSP procedure on increased rates of vocalizations of individuals with language delays. Directions for future research are discussed.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-025-00215-z.

Rules can enable individuals to effectively bypass some of the unavoidable outcomes associated with delayed reinforcers. This exploratory study analyzes how varying levels of rule explicitness affect instructional control under immediate and delayed contingencies. Through four studies, the impact of rule explicitness on verbal antecedent control over responses was explored. The initial study established a baseline of behavior controlled by immediate contingencies for all participants. The second study introduced an implicit rule, which did not modify the behavioral patterns found in the previous study. Conversely, in the third study, an explicit rule substantially influenced behavior toward long-term contingencies for most participants. The fourth study confirmed these findings. Results show that explicit rules more effectively influence behavior, although this effect was not consistent across all participants. These preliminary results should be seen as an early step toward a deeper analysis of immediate and delayed contingencies in rule-governed behavior.