Study objective: The present study examined effects of 4-panel comic strips on the expression of emotional words by elementary school students with autistic spectrum disorder. Design: Non-concurrent multiple baseline. Setting: Training was carried out in a room at the university. Participants: 4 boys (8–11 years old) with autistic spectrum disorder. 2 of the boys participated in Experiment 1; the other 2, in Experiment 2. Intervention: The intervention consisted of 2 conditions: (a) training using a word list that included some emotional words, with vocal feedback about the number of emotional words in the participant's expressions (Intervention 1); (b) training using the list of emotional words and feedback with a graph (Intervention 2). Measure: The dependent variable was the number of emotional words in 1 story about a 4-panel comic strip. Results: The number of emotional words increased compared to baseline in a probe test (Experiment 1), and in an assessment of maintenance after 1 month and an assessment of generalization (Experiment 2). Conclusion: These results suggest that this training using 4-panel comic strips may be effective with elementary school students with autistic spectrum disorder for increasing the number of their spontaneous tacts that include emotional words.

Study objective: The present study examined effects of an interdependent group-oriented contingency on inappropriate behavior in a regular classroom at the outset of the morning meeting and in classes. Design: Multiple baseline design across settings and changing criterion design. Setting: The outset of the morning meeting, third period, and fifth period in a regular classroom in a public elementary school. Participants: 21 second-grade students. Interventions: An interdependent group-oriented contingency intervention using a token economy system. Verbal and visual prompts by the homeroom teacher. Measures: The homeroom teacher counted and recorded the number of students who were not in the classroom, not seated, or had things unrelated to the morning meeting or the class. Results: The number of students who engaged in the target inappropriate behaviors decreased with the intervention. Conclusion: The interdependent group-oriented contingency intervention was effective in reducing inappropriate behavior in a regular classroom at the outset of the morning meeting and in classes. The responses on questionnaire given to the participants and the homeroom teacher suggested the social validity of the intervention.

Study objective: To examine effects of a classwide intervention combined with individual support on the academic preparation behavior of all the students in a regular classroom, including students with developmental or intellectual disabilities. Design: Multiple baseline design across 3 classrooms. Setting: A kanji test taken in regular classrooms. Participants: 102 students in 3 fifth-grade classrooms, including 7 students with developmental or intellectual disabilities, in a regular elementary school. Independent variables: A package program consisting of an interdependent group-oriented contingency for academic preparation behavior, tootling procedures, self-recording, and line-graph feedback. Before the group contingency intervention, individual support was provided to those students whose disabilities were related to writing. For 1 participant with disabilities, who did not show positive behavioral change, the classwide intervention was combined with an individual contingency. Measures: The percentage of students who showed academic preparation behaviors. Results: Academic preparation behaviors increased in all 3 classrooms. Conclusion: This classwide intervention, combined with individual support, was followed by improved academic preparation behavior in all students.

The copyist model accounts for both the response-rate difference between variable-ratio and variable-interval schedules that provided the same reinforcement rate (VR-VI rate difference) and the phenomenon of matching in choice (matching law) from the viewpoint of differential reinforcement of response sequences. The present tutorial describes details of mechanisms, simulated predictions, and conceptual implications of the copyist model as an example of modeling work in behavior analysis. How well the model of differential reinforcement (simplicity) fits the data of both the VR-VI rate difference and the matching law (accuracy and generality) is evaluated. The success of the model provides 2 conceptual suggestions: a molecular view of the time-window in operant conditioning and a shaping view of reinforcement. Although Skinner's 1950 paper was entitled “Are theories of learning necessary?”, he did not reject this kind of modeling work. The present paper concludes that modeling work, like the copyist model, can contribute to the advance of behavior analysis.