The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the outcomes of a model program that was designed to train current teachers of children with autism. Nine certified special education teachers participating in an intensive 5-day summer training program were taught a relatively large number of specific skills in two areas (preference assessment and direct teaching). The teachers met the mastery criteria for all of the skills during the summer training. Follow-up observations up to 6 months after training suggested that the skills generalized to their classrooms and were maintained for most teachers with brief feedback only.

Nonautomated or tabletop procedures are widely used in derived stimulus relations research. These procedures offer several advantages to the researcher, not least of which is the interactive format of the task. However, this feature is often criticized because of the possibility of experimenter cuing and imprecise experimental control over task presentations. These limitations, combined with the considerable procedural differences that exist between studies, suggest that a review of nonautomated procedures in derived stimulus relations research is warranted. The present paper will consider some of the methodological features of nonautomated procedures including experimental setting and sessions, task format, experimenter training, response definition, reinforcer delivery, intertrial intervals, and interobserver reliability. Basic methodological safeguards will be proposed to ensure that experimental control is rigorously maintained in future research with nonautomated procedures. Ever since Sidman's (1971) pioneering study, research on derived stimulus relations has grown to become the most studied research area in the experimental analysis of human behavior (Dymond & Critchfield, 2001). The basic outcome of a study on derived stimulus relations is as follows. For instance, on hearing the spoken word "car, " typically developing young children may be taught to point to an actual toy car. This training episode may be described as 'hear name, see and point to object. ' Next, when presented with a picture of a toy car, a child may be instructed to point to the actual toy car ('see picture, point to object'). Following a training history like this, novel or emergent relations among the stimuli can be tested. That is, a child may produce the spoken word "car " and point to a picture when shown the actual toy car (called mutual We are grateful to Paul Smeets and Bill Dube for providing helpful comments on an earlier version. Address correspondence to Simon Dymond, Department of Psychology,

This journey was made easier by the knowledge that I shared my successes with my family each step of the way. My parents, who modeled an enviable work ethic and who supported me in my educational pursuits. I am especially thankful that my mother modeled resiliency, resourcefulness, and the pursuit of what one desires. And to my father, who taught me about honesty, tenacity, and the utility of having a good plan. Also, I must thank Matt for the most incredible conversations over coffee, and of course, his love over the years. I remain in awe of my advisor, Dr. Mark O ' Reilly, from whom I have learned so much about doing research, writing, and teaching. His support and sound advice is greatly valued. I also extend my deepest appreciation to my

The goal of this paper is to analyze different approaches to acquir-ing new knowledge. We analyze what means of knowledge acquisi-tion are used by entrepreneurs, such as formal education process, one andmore day professional development workshops, professional coun-selors, professional literature and information on the world wide web. When making a decision on what means to use in order to increase one’s knowledge, entrepreneurs employ different assessment criteria: time and money investment as well as pedagogical techniques used. Time shortage is the most frequently cited reason that entrepreneurs do not invest more personal resources into knowledge acquisition pro-cesses. The main hypothesis we test, postulates that entrepreneurs who invest more time and money into knowledge acquisition processes are more successful. Success is measured with an average annual degree of growth of sale, profits and number of employees in the last four years and with entrepreneur’s opinion concerning success of the company’s business. Finally, we develop the implication for public policy and ed-ucational institutions on the means that need to be employed so that entrepreneurs would invest more resources in knowledge acquisition processes.

The purpose of this study was to develop and examine the effects of enhanced training and performance management methods for an autism coordinator who managed several paraprofessional therapists providing in-home behavior therapy for young children with autism. Intervention included task clarification, targeted skill development, and improved feedback from the coordinator to the therapists. Results showed that service delivery performance of in-home trainers increased and/or became more consistent after the intervention was implemented. The intervention provided the autism coordinator with an empirically validated training and feedback system that can be successfully utilized in a sporadically supervised environment. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to thank Dr. Cloyd Hyten for his time and dedication to this project. I appreciate that you mentored me, even from 2,000 miles away. I’d like to also thank my fiancé, Chris, for always supporting my dream to become a behavior analyst and moving all around the country with me while I pursued my dream. Thank you to my

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