Study objective: To examine whether praise could be established and maintained as a conditioned reinforcer for the behavior of children with developmental disabilities for whom praise had not been established as a conditioned reinforcer. Design: ABCB design (hand clapping) or AB design (touching a supporter’s hand). Setting: A playroom at a university. Participants: 2 children with developmental disabilities. Measures: Frequency of hand clapping and touching the supporter’s hand. Intervention: 80 rounds of contingent pairing of praise (as a neutral stimulus that they had rarely heard in their daily lives) and food (as a reinforcer). Results: Both participants’ hand clapping occurred more frequently during the praise period after contingent pairing than before the pairing. Moreover, 1 child’s hand clapping occurred with a high frequency during the praise period after contingent pairing and was maintained for 6 blocks. Touching the supporter’s hand without contingent pairing also occurred more frequently for 1 child during the praise period than during the cessation period. Conclusion: The results of the present study support the efficacy of 80 rounds of contingent pairing for establishing and maintaining praise as a conditioned reinforcer.

Study objective: To investigate the preferences of children who exhibited stereotyped behavior for toys that might produce sensory stimuli similar to their self-stimulatory behavior and hence might serve as a reinforcer comparable to the self-stimulatory behavior. Experimental design: In Study I, a preference assessment was carried out in order to identify a toy that might serve as a reinforcer. In Study II, a progressive ratio schedule was used to examine a preferred toy’s reinforcer value by comparing it to candy. The type of candy used was chosen based on interviews with the children’s parents and preference tests with the children. Setting: A playroom at a university. Participants: 3 boys with autism spectrum disorder and 1 boy with intellectual disabilities. The age range of the children was from 4 years 7 months to 6 years 10 months. Measures: In Study I, questionnaire scores and the number of times a toy was selected. In Study II, the number of times the button was pressed, and the progressive ratio break point. Independent variables: In Study I, the various toys; in Study II, the manner of delivery of the preferred toy and candy. Results: In Study I, 3 of the 4 children preferred 1 of the toys offered. In Study II, the results showed that the candy was a more powerful reinforcer for the children’s behavior than the preferred toy. Conclusion: It is possible that a toy can be used as a reinforcer with children who exhibit stereotyped behavior. However, in the present Study, the preferred toy’s reinforcer value was lower than that of the candy. Further research should evaluate toys’ ability to serve as reinforcers in other tasks.

Study objective: Effects of a diary-type receipt book on the filing behavior of the clients of a local accounting firm were examined. Design: Multiple-baseline design across groups of clients. Setting and participants: Clients were supposed to file their receipts when they submitted them to the accounting firm once a month. Clients (N=24) who had failed to do so were selected as participants. Intervention: A diary-type receipt book was developed, consisting of blank pages for each day of the month, so that the client needed only to glue a receipt on that day’s page when the receipt was issued. Measure: The number of clients in each group that filed receipts each month. Results: Of the 24 clients, 17 started using the receipt book to file receipts and continued doing so. The cost-benefit analysis showed that the accounting firm gained 3,238 yen per month per client. A follow-up after 6 years showed that most of the clients had maintained the filing behavior. Conclusion: Reducing the response effort needed for filing receipts might have worked as recovery from punishment and thus helped in changing and maintaining the clients’ cooperative behavior.

Study objectives: To evaluate the performance during a university class of a device for measuring handwriting that was developed by Yoshioka & Fuji (2019, in Japanese), and to examine influences of different lecture modes on a lecturer’s behavior and the students’ note-taking behavior, as well as the relationship between those two. Design: Experiment 1: between-subjects design; Experiment 2: within-subjects design. Setting: A medium-size classroom at a university. Participants: 26 students (10 men, 16 women) participated in Experiment 1, and 24 in Experiment 2 (6 men, 18 women). Independent variables: The use of handouts (Experiment 1) and of a whiteboard and slides (Experiment 2). Measures: Measures included the number of writing responses during note-taking that were recorded by the device, the number of letters spoken per minute by the lecturer, and the cross-correlation between the lecturer’s use of the whiteboard and the students’ note-taking. Results: Students’ writing responses during the lecture could be recorded with the device for all but 1 of the participants in Experiment 1. The cross-correlation showed that 18 of the participants in Experiment 1 took notes within 60 s after the lecturer wrote on the whiteboard. No specific changes in the measures were found to be associated with the use of handouts in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, the pace of note-taking changed depending on the lecturer’s speaking rate. Conclusions: The device enabled feasible and reliable measurement of the students’ note-taking. Also, for the first time with this device, the relationship between a lecturer’s speaking, writing on the whiteboard, and use of slides, and the students’ note-taking behavior could be quantified.

Study objective: Using functional assessment (FA) to shape appropriate refusal behavior in a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who displayed inappropriate refusal behavior at lunchtime, in order to examine changes in and factors related to the frequency of inappropriate and appropriate refusal behavior. Design: Chaining conditions design. Setting: The functional assessment and interventions were conducted during lunchtime in a classroom of a special school. Participant: A 6-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder who could not use expressive language. Interventions: The functional assessment had indicated that the participant’s refusal behavior comprised an escape or avoidance from unappealing food and a request for attention from the teacher. In Intervention 1, a small portion of food preferred by the participant was presented. In Intervention 2, instructions pertaining to the selection of appropriate refusal behavior for handing a plate to the teacher were provided based on the behavior repertory of the child before the intervention. In addition, a supporter was present to provide physical guidance. In Intervention 3, the physical guidance was removed, in order to promote spontaneous appropriate refusal behavior. Measures: Frequency of inappropriate and appropriate refusal behavior. Results: The frequency of inappropriate refusal behavior decreased and appropriate refusal behavior increased during Interventions 2 and 3. Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that it was important that a functional assessment was used to choose an alternative behavior already in the behavior repertory of the participant; after the shaping intervention, the participant and his teachers took turns appropriately. Choosing alternative behaviors based on a functional assessment, and developing intervention procedures that participants and teachers can adopt, were discussed.

Study objective: To evaluate the effects of an intervention involving exposure and response prevention (ERP) that was used with an elderly woman who had a fear of harming others by passing germs on to them. Behavioral measures were used to manage the frequency of behavior that was related to her shopping. Design: Multiple baseline design across behaviors. Setting: A counseling room at a mental health clinic and nearby stores. Participant: A 72-year-old woman who was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Intervention: The client participated in 21 sixty-minute counseling sessions, 1 session every 2 weeks. The total duration of her participation was 309 days. During the sessions, the client went to a convenience store and a drug store with the author, and was encouraged to touch the products. After that, she was encouraged to walk by cars that were parked on the street. Measures: Frequency of going into stores such as supermarkets, number of goods purchased, number of newspaper pages read, frequency of going to stores by herself, and frequency of making confirmatory phone calls. Results: The frequency of going into stores, number of goods purchased, number of newspaper pages read, and frequency of going to stores by herself increased. The frequency of making confirmatory phone calls decreased. Conclusion: The intervention appeared to be effective for increasing the positive behavioral repertoire of the client.