Caleb R. Stanley

Derived Equivalence Relations of Geometry Skills in Students with Autism: An Application of the PEAK-E Curriculum.

The present study evaluated the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) as described in the PEAK-E curriculum (Dixon, 2015) for promoting the emergence of derived geometry skills in two children with high-functioning autism. The results suggested that direct training of shape name (A) to shape property (B) (i.e., A-B relations) was effective for both participants. Following A-B training, both participants demonstrated emergent relations that are consistent with symmetry (B-A), as well as emergent shape name (A) to shape picture (C) relations that are consistent with transitivity (A-C). The results expand on existing literature by demonstrating the emergence of an A-C relation when neither A nor B stimuli were ever trained to C stimuli and illustrate the efficacy of EBI for training geometry skills.

Establishing derived categorical responding in children with disabilities using the PEAK-E curriculum

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a procedure to generate derived categorical responding by three children with disabilities and to promote the emergence of untrained intraverbal categorical responses. In the study, three 4-member equivalence classes including three stimuli (A, B, and C) and a category name (D) for each class were trained using a match-to-sample procedure. Test probes were conducted for categorical responding, including both a trained (D-A) and two derived (D-B, D-C) relational responses, as well as the emergence of untrained intraverbal categorical responding (D-A/B/C) throughout the study. Relational training was effective at promoting the emergence of categorical responding, and two of the three participants demonstrated the emergence of additional intraverbal responding without prior training. The results provide further evidence supporting the practical utility of stimulus equivalence as well as the PEAK-E curriculum.

Teaching foundational perspective-taking skills to children with autism using the PEAK-T curriculum: single-reversal "I-You" deictic frames.

We taught basic perspective-taking tasks to 3 children with autism and evaluated their ability to derive mutually entailed single-reversal deictic relations of those newly established perspective-taking skills. Furthermore, we examined the possibility of transfers of perspective-taking function to novel untrained stimuli. The methods were taken from the PEAK-T training curriculum, and results yielded positive gains for all 3 children to learn basic perspective taking as well as for 2 of the 3 to derive untrained single-reversal I relations following direct training of single-reversal You relations. All participants demonstrated a transfer of stimulus function to untrained stimuli after the single-reversal deictic relations had been mastered.

Evaluating emergent naming relations through representational drawing in individuals with developmental disabilities using the PEAK-E curriculum.

Naming has been described behavior analytically as the ability to engage in both speaker and listener behavior as they relate to stimuli in the real world, where speaker behavior is often demonstrated in the form of tacting and listener behavior in the form of selection-based responding. The present study sought to evaluate representational drawing as an alternative to selection-based listener responding where the listener behavior is unprompted. A multiple-baseline with an embedded multiple probe design was conducted across 3 individuals with developmental disabilities, and tact/drawing stimuli included unfamiliar animal blends. The results suggested that, following tact training, all of the participants demonstrated the untrained emergence of representational drawing of the blended animal pictures. The procedures and stimuli in the present study were taken from the PEAK-E curriculum, allowing for potentially easier replication by practitioners and researchers.

Teaching metaphorical extensions of private events through rival-model observation to children with autism

The study evaluated the efficacy of observational learning using the rival-model technique in teaching three children with autism to state metaphorical statements about emotions when provided a picture, as well as to intraverbally state an appropriate emotion when provided a scenario and corresponding metaphorical emotion. The results provide a preliminary evaluation of how an observational teaching strategy may be effective in teaching children with autism to correctly tact emotions when given metaphors.

Establishing Derived Equivalence Relations of Basic Geography Skills in Children with Autism

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a stimulus-equivalence training procedure in teaching basic geography skills to two children with autism. The procedures were taken directly from a standardized training curriculum based in stimulus equivalence theory called Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Equivalence Module (PEAK-E). Results suggest that the procedures were efficacious in directly training several geographical relations, as well as promoting the derivation of several untrained relations for three countries and their corresponding continents. In addition, responding generalized from selecting countries on a tabletop paper map to selecting countries on an interactive touchscreen map.

Equivalence-Based Instruction of Academic Skills: Application to Adolescents with Autism.

This study evaluated the efficacy of three equivalence-based instruction procedures on the acquisition of novel academic skills by 3 adolescents diagnosed with autism in a school setting. The skills targeted for instruction were related to topics in history, science, and mathematics, and were taught using different training structures from the PEAK-E curriculum. All participants demonstrated mastery of the trained relations and the tested derived relations following all variants of equivalence-based instruction.

Teaching Children with Autism to Identify Private Events of Others in Context

Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have difficulties identifying and labeling emotions of others. Three adolescent males all diagnosed with ASD participated in the study. In a multi-element design, the participants were trained to tact private events of others in context using novel video-based scenarios. Two of the three participants were able to increase and maintain their responding for all trained, derived, and transformation of stimulus function relations. The third participant required multiple-exemplar training of novel stimuli to increase his responding for all the video-based scenarios. The results of the study support the utility of relational training for teaching children with autism to identify private events of others in context.

The Mediating Effects of Derived Relational Responding on the Relationship Between Verbal Operant Development and IQ

Dixon, Belisle, and Stanley, (2018) demonstrated a strong, significant relationship between derived relational responding and intelligence in individuals with autism. We extended these results by evaluating the degree to which participant results on the PEAK Equivalence Pre-assessment (PEAK-E-PA, a direct assessment of derived relational responding) mediated the relationship between the PEAK Direct Training Assessment (PEAK-DT-A, a Skinnerian-based assessment of verbal development) and intelligence. Results support strong, positive correlations between both assessments (PEAK-DT-A and PEAK-E-PA) and IQ; however, the relationship between PEAK-DT-A and IQ could be explained in terms of participant results on the PEAK-E-PA alone. This finding corresponds with Relational Frame Theory, suggesting that derived responding can provide a behavioral interpretation of intelligent behavior, as well as Skinner’s elementary operants.

Establishing auditory-tactile-visual equivalence classes in children with autism and developmental delays

The current study sought to evaluate the efficacy of a stimulus equivalence training procedure in establishing auditory–tactile–visual stimulus classes with 2 children with autism and developmental delays. Participants were exposed to vocal–tactile (A–B) and tactile–picture (B–C) conditional discrimination training and were tested for the emergence of vocal–picture (A–C) and picture–vocal (C–A) responses. The results demonstrated that, following training, both participants responded successfully on both the training stimulus arrangements and the test probes that were never trained, illustrating emergence of cross-modal transitive and equivalence relations.