Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis

Simplified intensive tact instruction and bidirectional and incidental naming in autistic children

Isabelly Costa Bastos — 2025-12-03

The consolidation of Bidirectional Naming (BiN) as the generalized behavioral relation of Incidental Bidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN) is considered fundamental for effective language development. Previous research has shown that Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI), consisting of 100 trials per day implemented three times a week, induced BiN and Inc-BiN in two autistic children. This study evaluated the effects of ITI with 50 daily trials, administered three times per week, on the induction of BiN and Inc-BiN in three autistic children. Participants underwent pretests for BiN and Inc-BiN, ITI sessions, posttests for BiN and Inc-BiN, as well as generalization and maintenance tests for BiN and Inc-BiN. Results showed that, following ITI with up to three stimulus sets, only one participant demonstrated the emergence of BiN, and none demonstrated the emergence of Inc-BiN. The need for further investigation into parametric variations in the implementation of ITI is discussed (e.g., the number of daily or weekly trials and stimulus sets), also considering factors such as the participants' initial verbal repertoire, the reinforcing functions of antecedent and social consequence stimuli, the reinforcing function of observation responses to stimuli, and the impact of requiring or restricting echoic responses.

Social regulation of restrictive eating behavior: A within-subject study

Luz Jimena Galindo de Luna — 2025-12-03

Food restriction is a common practice among young people, aimed at modifying body weight through strict dieting, food avoidance, and/or prolonged fasting. This behavior is influenced by social norms of dietary appropriateness, which indicate when it is suitable to eat less (inhibitory norm) or more (augmentative norm), depending on the eating behavior of others. Experimental evidence suggests that restrained eaters are particularly sensitive to these norms; however, methodological limitations have been identified that constrain the generalizability of findings. This study examined the effect of both dietary norms on the eating patterns of male and female university students using a mixed within-subject ABCA′ design, with four experimental groups and both male and female confederate models. Within-subject comparisons allowed the analysis of the effect of each norm, while between-group comparisons assessed differences by experimental condition. The results confirmed the influence of both norms on the amount of food intake, but not on the selection of food type. Differences were observed in the effect of the model depending on the sex of the participant. This study provides relevant evidence on the impact of social modeling on eating patterns, a topic still emerging within behavioral science.

Impact of reward type on rule following

Oscar García Arreola — 2025-12-03

This study examined how the type of reinforcer (hypothetical or real) influences rule-governed behavior (RGB) and sensitivity to programmed contingencies. Two experiments were conducted using a decreasing earnings procedure with young adult participants. In Experiment 1, which involved hypothetical rewards, three behavioral patterns emerged: rule followers, rule breakers, and flexible followers. Greater variability in change points and lower adherence to instructed rules were observed, suggesting increased contact with contingencies. In Experiment 2, which involved real monetary rewards, all participants were classified as rule followers, exhibiting greater stability in change points and predominant adherence to the instructed pattern, even when it was suboptimal. The results suggest that real rewards more effectively reinforce rule-following behavior while reducing sensitivity to programmed contingencies. Additionally, real rewards enhance the ecological validity of experimental tasks and promote adherence to imprecise rules. Reinforcement history and the precision of initial rules emerge as key factors in understanding the insensitivity to contingencies observed in both experiments.

Remote behavioral skills training for physicians on COVID-19 death notification

Nadia Alejandra Domínguez-Vieyra — 2025-12-03

Death notification is a frequent and stressful task in critical care. During COVID-19, the number of deaths increased significantly, and health personnel had to deliver this news remotely without preparation. In international research, training protocols have been described that improve physician’s communication skills and self-confidence, as well as remote communication suggestions to COVID-19. However, these recommendations are subjective and ambiguous, which can hinder their replicability. This research adopts the principles of Applied Behavioral Analysis to implement a Behavioral Skills Training to identify, validate, and train the behaviors required to properly communicate a remote death notification for COVID-19 in three pilot participants. Nineteen operational definitions of the behaviors were generated and trained on three intensive care residents. Two participants demonstrated strong effect sizes following training, while the third participant did not complete the training. These preliminary results suggest that implementing a remote death notification behavioral skills training program might be feasible and effective, and could also be useful in face-to-face settings.

Comparison of Ámselin and RFC-Extinction schedule effects on frustration responses

Felipe de Jesús Patrón Espinosa — 2025-12-03

This paper aimed to compare the performance of the participants in front of Ámselin in its original version and an alternative version that simulates continuous reinforcement (RFC) and extinction conditions in laboratory procedures. Ámselin was administered to 120 university students and four groups were formed and exposed to different phases of each version in the following order: Group 1 Phase 1: original and Phase 2: original, Group 2 Phase 1: RFC and Phase 2: Extinction, Group 3 Phase 1: RFC and Phase 2: original, Group 4 Phase 1: original and Phase 2: Extinction. The results revealed nine differences between the two versions of Ámselin, but 28 had to be found to accept the disparity hypothesis. Therefore, this hypothesis was rejected. Furthermore, Ámselin showed effectiveness in producing frustration responses in participants, confirming results from previous studies.

Variation in task criteria achievement in reading and writing skills of university students

Jamné Saraid Dávila Inda — 2025-12-03

Recent research indicates that university students face some limitations related to reading and writing skills. To provide empirical evidence about the teaching-learning conditions that could facilitate the development of these skills, a study to evaluate the effect of varying the level of achievement of two types of tasks on reading and writing skills of university students was conducted. Thirty-six students enrolled in the bachelor’s degree in psychology participated. A pretest-posttest design with a control group was used. In the pre-test and post-test, participants were asked to read an empirical article, complete 13 identification tasks, and write a conclusion. The experimental phase consisted of completing identification and elaboration tasks based on three criteria: 1) behavioral requirements linked to the article, 2) linked to hypothetical cases and unrelated to the article, and 3) unrelated to hypothetical cases and to the article. The results show a facilitating effect on reading performance based on criterion 1 and on writing performance based on criterion 2 tasks. These findings are discussed considering the relationship between task type, achievement criterion, and functional aptitude level.

Editorial

Mario Serrano — 2025-12-03

The second issue of volume 51 of the Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis (MJBA) is divided into two sections. The first section comprises the seven articles that make up this issue and are described below. The second section is a supplement to the first, in which several authors collaborated to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of “Teoría de la conducta: Un análisis de campo y paramétrico” [Behavior theory: A field and parametric analysis], authored by Emilio Ribes and Francisco López. The MJBA editorial team hopes that both sections will not only be well-received by readers but will also meet the disciplinary standards that the journal has historically strived to uphold.

Forty years after the publication of “Behavior theory: A field and parametric analysis”

Mario Serrano — 2026-02-25

With our younger readers in mind, this presentation must begin by noting that the publication of the work that the “Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis” (MJBA) deemed worthy of celebration is no small matter in the history of Mexican psychology, nor in the history of psychology in general. In the former case, we are speaking of what is surely the only unifying theory on psychological phenomena developed within our own academic circles. This theory aims not only to offer a fruitful conceptual, organizational, and research framework for understanding such phenomena from a scientific perspective, but also to contribute to the technological application of the knowledge thus generated. This aims both to preserve the dignity of professional practice and to redistribute the potential benefits of this transformation of knowledge in a manner befitting an academic project historically supported by the public university.

Experimental analysis of behavioral adjustment

Mario Serrano — 2026-02-25

This manuscript summarizes the history and experimental studies of a research project focused on the empirical testing of some of the assumptions that characterize the taxonomic proposal of Ribes and López (1985); specifically, those related to the progressive complexity and inclusiveness of the behavioral functions recognized by these authors. It was considered that behavioral adjustment should be quantified differentially depending on the complexity of the contingencies that give rise to one or another functional type of behavior, but similarly among them if the quantification focused on measuring a function X^-1 included within a function X or X⁺¹. It was expected that: a) the different adjustment indices would follow developmental rhythms and reach terminal states inversely proportional to the complexity of the behavior they supposedly quantify; and b) the same adjustment index would progressively decrease among increasingly complex functions. The results showed that both “hypotheses” were correct in the case of intrasituational functions.

Verbal regulation of behavior: A review from the Behavior theory of Ribes and López (1985)

María Elena Rodríguez Pérez — 2026-02-25

This paper critically examines the concept of verbal regulation of behavior based on the seminal work Theory of Behavior by Ribes and López (1985), in order to illustrate its usefulness as a conceptual framework for addressing psychological phenomena. This work constituted the first formal effort to recognize different types of functional organization of behavior beyond the verbal–nonverbal dichotomy. Consequently, it made it possible to outline an alternative interpretation of the research area known as say–do–say correspondence and to design an empirical strategy to test it. It is argued that research on say–do–say correspondence has implicitly adopted a series of conceptual misunderstandings regarding verbal regulation as conceived within the early twentieth-century Soviet materialist tradition. In the alternative conception derived from the Theory of Behavior, say–do–say correspondence is understood as a case of functional dominance. Although this concept does not appear explicitly in the work of Ribes and López (1985), functional salience highlights the fact that, in the organization of organism–environment interdependencies, certain elements play a decisive role in structuring a particular qualitative form of behavior.

From contingency substitution to contacts by extension and transformation: A 40-year review

Ricardo Pérez-Almonacid — 2026-02-25

This article critically reviews the historical and conceptual development of contingency substitution, initially proposed by Ribes and López (1985). It analyzes how this concept emerged as a critique of the Skinnerian model, which relied on reflex-based logic insufficient to account for complex human behavior. It also examines how initial reliance on Kantor’s interbehavioral theory introduced conceptual ambiguity regarding fundamental terms. From this standpoint, the four most significant formulations of the concept (1983, 1985, 2012, & 2018) are systematically compared, discussing their philosophical and scientific backgrounds as well as the controversies arising from their interpretation and empirical operationalization. The paper illustrates how the proposal evolved from an initial notion of communicative reference toward a more refined concept of intentional reference, culminating in the current formulation of a molar model based on contact by extension and transformation. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting avenues for theoretical and empirical advancement, including the possibility of developing an alternative proposal.

Research on interactive styles: Findings, issues and some future trends

Everardo Camacho Gutiérrez — 2026-02-25

The experimental research carried out in the field of interactive styles is reviewed, based on the theoretical proposal of Ribes and Sánchez (1990) and Ribes (1990b), since the first work published to date. In this account, the empirical knowledge that has been produced in seventeen research papers written as articles or postgraduate theses is identified, to have a global appreciation of the progress in this field: What have been the purposes, methodological strategies, problems and limitations that have been faced and what possible future trends are glimpsed. It is concluded that the experimental results demonstrate intra-subject consistencies as a function of individual history, however, in some studies, certain participants do not show intra-individual consistency, which are not explained by the authors. The implementation of procedural controls and variations in the contingency structures to be studied is suggested, as well as in the measurement parameters and characteristics of the participants under study. The need to increase experimental production, particularly of the little styles researched, is also pointed out as criteria to guide future research in this field.

The analysis of social behavior from Ribes and López’s Behavior theory

Nora Rangel — 2026-02-25

Forty years after the publication of the book “Behavior theory: A field and parametric analysis” by Emilio Ribes Iñesta and Francisco López Valadez, the impact of this work is discussed, not only in the confirmation of the object of study of psychology previously proposed by J. R. Kantor (1924, 1926) but also in the proposal of a taxonomy that organized, in five levels of different quality and complexity, the behavior of organisms. To the extent that the work above recognized the logical-conceptual existence of different types of contact media as enablers of differential interactions (i.e., physicochemical, ecological, and conventional), it has clarified the analytical phenomena specific to the psychological discipline, the distinction between individual and social behavior —the latter being exclusively human— as well as the points of contact and collaboration with bordering disciplines (i.e., biology and social-historical science). From a critical perspective on operant conditioning, this paper examines how the assumptions of TC have contributed to the understanding of social behavior, culminating in the emergence and development of a multidisciplinary area of collaboration between psychology and social-historical science: sociopsychology.

Empirical and conceptual advances from Behavior theory through research with basic school students

María Guadalupe Mares Cárdenas — 2026-02-25

This text presents basic research derived from the book “Behavior theory: A field and parametric analysis” conducted with elementary school children, within the research line of literacy. The material is organized into six sections intended to highlight relevant findings and thoughts aimed at achieving substitute configurations in early literacy training. 1. Description of the methodology and the unit of observation selected for studying the relationships among linguistic reactive systems. 2. Initial studies regarding the transfer of learning at referential levels. 3. Conceptualization of the functional integration of relational linguistic expressions with observation and/or manipulation skills, linked to the same group of objects and their interrelations, aimed at producing substitutive configurations. 4. Studies on the detachment and transfer of referential learning, emphasizing the role of non-literal questions. 5. Considering the functional inclusion approach, it is argued that conceptual learning does not require training at all presubstitutive levels to reach substitutive levels. This has significant educational implications, as it allows for the strengthening of tendencies to operate at presubstitutive levels. 6. Finally, contact relations among concrete objects or functionally similar stimuli are emphasized to achieve substitute interactions.

Behavior theory: Its potential in educational research and intervention

Germán Morales Chávez — 2026-02-25

This paper provides an overview of the impact of Ribes and López's (1985) “Teoría de la conducta: Un análisis de campo y paramétrico” (TC) in the context of formal education in general, and on higher education in particular. The following influences are recognized: (a) the distinction between science and technology that has allowed psychological advances to be adequately positioned in relation to theoretical and social problems. And positioning educational psychology as an interdiscipline capable of establish pertinent relationships with other disciplines and professionals; (b) proposal with heuristic potential and novelty in the current educational field; (c) encouraging the conceptual analysis and logical placement of terms used in the school setting, such as the term "learning"; (d) generation of a psychological development theory that extends the logic of TC to other non-school settings and other formative processes; (e) the configuration of a professional identity for the educational psychologist in its own right; (f) the delimitation of the psychological dimension of school education; (g) the construction of models aimed at analyzing diverse factors and processes within higher education; (h) impact on curriculum design and, consequently, on professional training. Finally, reflections are offered on the conditions that have hindered a greater impact of TC.

The Model of Individual Scientific Practice in the context of Behavior theory: Origin, characteristics and outstanding tasks

Jairo Tamayo — 2026-02-25

In the general context of Behavior theory (Ribes & López, 1985), the Individual Scientific Practice Model (ISPM) is a theoretical resource used to outline the individual dimension of scientific practice, based on the assumptions of a field logic. Traditionally, it has been proposed that scientific activity involves the deployment of specific psychological processes. However, the ISPM assumes that psychological processes are not specific to science, and that specificity resides rather in the criteria that regulate such practice. This general assumption leads to a series of assertions, most of which have not been empirically evaluated; however, they have guided the development of research training programs. This article describes the conditions under which the model emerged, its main characteristics, the factors that comprise it, and some reflections on the type of research it enables. Finally, it advances some outstanding issues that, if addressed, could favor the empirical and conceptual development of ISPM, as well as the possible recognition of new areas of research.

From Behavior theory to Theory of psychology: A conceptual evolution in three stages

Carlos Ibáñez Bernal — 2026-02-25

This article reviews the conceptual development of Emilio Ribes' scientific perspective in psychology, from its beginnings as Theory of Behavior to its current state as Theory of Psychology. Three main stages are identified through which Ribes' conceptual contributions pass, which began by trying to overcome the perceived limitations in the theory of conditioning. The article describes the main characteristics and conceptual changes specific to each of them: 1. The field and parametric perspective; 2. Conceptual analysis and extensions; 3. Psychology itself as an object of reflection.

Contributions of studying food accumulation with a parametric approach: A review

J. Daniel Gaistardo — 2025-12-03

The present paper reviews the advances achieved by studying “food accumulation” with a parametric approach. To this end, studies on food accumulation that investigated the effect of three parameters (delay of reinforcement, temporal distribution of trials, and magnitude of reinforcement) are described. These studies showed that the amount of food accumulated increases by lengthening the delay of reinforcement, and that such effect is more marked as the trials are spaced. Besides, it was found that the effect of the delay on food accumulation depends on the magnitude of reinforcement employed: with high magnitudes, lengthening the delay has an increasing effect; with low magnitudes, the typical decreasing effect of the delay of reinforcement is replicated. These findings show that the studies on food accumulation are simply a case of a study on delay of reinforcement with a high magnitude of reinforcement. Some implications from the findings obtained by studying food accumulation with a parametric approach are raised for the established knowledge on the effect of the delay of reinforcement, the temporal distribution of trials, and the magnitude of reinforcement.