This review of 12 research reports on modifying attitudes toward persons with hearing impairments found mixed study results and poor study quality but concluded that properly structured contact showed the most promise as an intervention to improve attitudes. (DB)

This commentary on assessing the social validity of behavior-change programs examines which groups should be included in the assessment, whether social validity assessment should be required, and whether new methods are needed. The paper notes that social validation should be an interactive process between researcher and consumer. (JDD)

This article examines the status of behavioral research on genetic mental retardation syndromes and finds that the field continues to struggle with three methodological issues: (1) how to think about control or contrast groups, (2) the interplay of behavioral phenotypes with development and other within-group variations, and (3) the efficacy of…

The purpose of this study was to critically examine the positive approaches to behavioral intervention research and young children demonstrating challenging behavior. The authors conducted a comprehensive review of articles published between 1984 and 2003 across 23 peer-reviewed journals. Each article that met the criteria for inclusion in the…

This paper offers organizational behavior management (OBM) a behavior analytically consistent way to expand its analysis of, and methods for changing, organizational behavior. It shows how Relational Frame Theory (RFT) suggests that common, problematic, psychological processes emerge from language itself, and they produce psychological…

Social stories were developed in order to support individuals with autism to better cope with social situations, an area of particular difficulty for this population. Despite its growing popularity, there is limited research evidence on the effectiveness of this approach. A review of research on social stories undertaken between 1994 and 2004 was…

These five papers present a compact summary of current biological, behavioral and psychosocial research on cigarette smoking behavior. They focus especially on the addictive and dependence processes related to smoking and its effects on health. While much is known, recommendations for further research are suggested on topics including: nicotine,…

Describes a successful intervention procedure utilizing operant conditioning techniques that reduced the high frequency of inappropriate behavior of a retarded girl in a residential facility. Three teachers, in three different instructional settings, mildly punished each incident of hand-mouthing while concurrently teaching more functional…

Organization development consultants (N=75) asked to list the 10 "most important" diagnostic questions they would want answered before accepting the contract. These were seen as a function of the change agent's organizational model and predictive of the interventions these consultants would plan. (Author)

The 54 sources of information on mental retardation that are provided cover historical aspects, causes of mental retardation, delivery of services, education for the mentally retarded, new approaches to the problem, rights of the mentally retarded, research and prevention, resources for parents of the mentally retarded, and library resources. (EJS)

Presents multivaried strategies for intervention which integrate major behavioral and family systems treatment techniques. A discussion of the development of family rules from a behavioral point of view is presented as an example of conceptual integration. (Author)

Reviews laboratory research on behavioral momentum conducted with pigeons and summarizes its findings and their generality to people, including those with mental retardation. Discusses the high-probability procedure used to establish compliance in clinical settings and based in part on an extension of the momentum metaphor. (CR)

This commentary discusses John Nevin's article on establishing compliance via behavioral momentum involving high-probability procedures, and questions whether applications of behavioral momentum can be derived from the theory, whether applications could have been developed if the theory not been formulated, and whether the theory will add…

Discussion of behavioral interventions in Alzheimer's disease (AD) notes new understanding, including that memory is not a unitary phenomenon, that certain types of memory are relatively spared in AD, and that conceptual knowledge is largely intact. Intervention techniques that capitalize on spared memory systems and take advantage of principles…

Incorporating statistical process control (SPC) methods into applied behavior analysis is discussed. It is claimed that SPC methods would likely reduce applied behavior analysts' intimate contacts with problems and would likely yield poor treatment and research decisions. Cases and data presented by Pfadt and Wheeler (1995) are cited as examples.…