Familial factors have an important influence on risk for pathological gambling behavior. The increasing access to legalized gambling is likely to result in a higher prevalence of pathological gambling behavior among individuals who are more vulnerable because of familial factors.

The current study investigated the effectiveness of stating and modeling contingencies in increasing food consumption for two children with food selectivity. Results suggested that stating and modeling a differential reinforcement (DR) contingency for food consumption was effective in increasing consumption of two target foods for one child, and stating and modeling a DR plus nonremoval of the spoon contingency was effective in increasing consumption of the remaining food for the first child and all target foods for the second child.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) on the emergence of basic music reading and piano playing skills. Six female college students learned to identify three musical chord notations given their respective dictated names. Participants also learned to play chords on the piano following the dictated name of the chord, and to play the chords to a song on a keyboard. Results are consistent with past research, in that stimuli became substitutable for each other and acquired a common behavioral function. Data suggest that EBI was an effective and efficient procedure to teach adults to read musical notation, as well as play chords and a song on a piano keyboard.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) on learning to play individual notes and simple songs on the piano. Participants were 4 typically developing children and 4 children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They were exposed to a series of auditory-visual matching-to-sample procedures using musical stimuli. Following training, participants were tested on the emergence of novel untrained relations and generalization in the form of playing two songs on a keyboard. Results suggest that the EBI was effective in teaching piano playing skills with both typically developing children and children with ASD. The success of this procedure is indicative of the wide-ranging applications of EBI to novel and creative domains.

Rapid eating, a potentially dangerous and socially inappropriate behavior, has received relatively little attention in the literature. This study sought to extend the research in this area by further evaluating the effectiveness of a vibrating pager combined with a rule for increasing inter-response time between bites in one adolescent female diagnosed with autism. Results indicated that inter-response time increased from baseline only after a vocal prompt to "wait" was introduced across clinic and home settings. Implications for promoting autonomy in individuals with developmental disabilities are discussed.This antecedent-based intervention can easily be generalized to caregiversThe unobtrusive nature of the intervention allows for implementation in inclusive settingsThere are implications for promoting social skills in naturalistic environmentsThe intervention can promote independence through teaching self-management.