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The Effect Of Stimulus Choice On A Discrimination Task: Pictures Vs. Objects, Kristen Abbondante
The Effect Of Stimulus Choice On A Discrimination Task: Pictures Vs. Objects, Kristen Abbondante
LSU Master's Theses
The effect of the type of stimuli, pictures vs. objects, on discrimination behavior, specifically noun discrimination, was examined with a single-subject multi-element design. A multiple probe across behaviors was used for two participants. The type of stimulus, picture or object, was the alternating treatment. Two autistic children were trained in six noun discrimination tasks utilizing a discrete trial training model counterbalancing the type of stimuli across participants. Generalization of object to pictures and pictures to objects was also examined. Results showed that type of stimuli, picture or object, did not affect treatment. Generalization data was idiosyncratic.
Intellectual Ability In Children With Anxiety: A Replication And Exploration Of The Differences, Melissa S. Munson
Intellectual Ability In Children With Anxiety: A Replication And Exploration Of The Differences, Melissa S. Munson
LSU Master's Theses
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of anxiety on the intellectual functioning of children. Specifically, the current researchers sought to replicate previous findings that children with higher levels of anxiety have significantly lower scores on tests of intelligence. A second goal was to examine possible reasons for these deficits, including possible deficits in working memory and/or attention. Participants were divided into two groups with high and low anxiety, based on a self-report measure, though none of the children reported clinically problematic anxiety. The participants were 19 children (10 males, 9 females) who were recruited from the …
The Efficacy Of Positive Peer Reporting Procedures For Use With Neglected-Status Students In General Education Classrooms, Lisa Libster
The Efficacy Of Positive Peer Reporting Procedures For Use With Neglected-Status Students In General Education Classrooms, Lisa Libster
LSU Master's Theses
Children who are neglected or rejected by their peers may require social skill interventions in order to develop the social competencies needed to establish satisfactory interpersonal relationships. One promising social skill intervention is Positive Peer Reporting, which has been shown to produce increases in positive social interaction and peer acceptance for these groups of children. As most previous investigations were conducted in residential or special education settings, further research is needed to support the use of this intervention in general education settings. Therefore, the present study examined the efficacy of Positive Peer Reporting with two neglected-status children in general education …
Comorbid Psychopathology In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Intellectual Disabilities, Santino Vincent Lovullo
Comorbid Psychopathology In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Intellectual Disabilities, Santino Vincent Lovullo
LSU Master's Theses
While there has been an abundance of research investigating Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in children, very little emphasis has been placed on ASD in adults, especially in regards to comorbid psychopathology. This is of great concern considering that ASD often co-occurs with intellectual disability (ID), and that both may serve as risk factors for additional psychopathology. While instruments exist that measure comorbid psychopathology in adults with ID, these scales are not targeted to the unique expression of comorbidity in adults with ID and ASD. The Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbidity for Adults (ASD-CA) was devised for this reason. This paper begins with …
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Women After Hurricane Katrina: Predictors And Symptom Endorsement, Julia E. Thompson
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Women After Hurricane Katrina: Predictors And Symptom Endorsement, Julia E. Thompson
LSU Master's Theses
Hurricane Katrina devastated areas of New Orleans and caused the evacuation of most of the city’s residents. Many people were exposed to dangerous storms and flooding and lost many of their possessions. One of the most common psychological disorders following a disaster is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. This study describes the PTSD symptom endorsement of a sample of women who experienced Hurricane Katrina. In addition, many of these women had previous trauma histories which are also described. Participants included 287 women from New Orleans, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge Parish recruited for a larger study on mother’s and children’s psychological functioning …
Supporting Decision Making In A Complex World, Jonathan Tall
Supporting Decision Making In A Complex World, Jonathan Tall
LSU Master's Theses
Recent research has questioned whether explicit thinking is necessary or even useful for complex decision making (Gladwell, 2005; Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006; Newell, Wong, Cheung, & Rakow, in press). The present research approaches this issue by examining how different types of decision support facilitate/hinder performance in a diagnostic medical task. The results from 3 experiments indicate that providing an external memory aid improves performance in complex tasks. Additional support in the form of a coding procedure improved awareness of the magnitude of drug effects, but did not improve detection of negative side effects. The results suggest that while performance is …
Teaching Level-1 Braille Reading Skills Within A Stimulus Equivalence Paradigm To Children With Progressive Visual Impairments, Karen Ann Toussaint
Teaching Level-1 Braille Reading Skills Within A Stimulus Equivalence Paradigm To Children With Progressive Visual Impairments, Karen Ann Toussaint
LSU Master's Theses
Degenerative visual impairments refer to conditions that result in the progressive loss of vision; several of these conditions have their onset during childhood. Nearly 3% of the school-aged population will experience vision loss that will require specialized support, yet there has been little attempt to systematically evaluate braille-instruction programs. The current study evaluated an instructive procedure for teaching early braille-reading skills with four school-aged children with degenerative visual impairments. Following a series of pretests, braille instruction involved providing a sample braille letter and teaching the selection of the corresponding printed text letter from a comparison array. Concomitant with increases in …
Comparing Social Skills In Children With Autistic Disorder And Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Mary Elizabeth Shoemaker
Comparing Social Skills In Children With Autistic Disorder And Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Mary Elizabeth Shoemaker
LSU Master's Theses
Although in recent years there has been a large amount of research on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in general, relatively few studies have focused on Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) as a distinct category. As a deficit in social skills is said to be the primary defining feature of ASD, continued research on assessment and treatment of social skills deficits in ASD is warranted. The present study aims to examine the differences in social skills between children diagnosed with Autistic disorder and PDD-NOS using the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Youngsters (MESSY). This study extends a previous …
Factors Affecting The Efficacy Of Feedback Use During Source Monitoring, Stephanie Groft
Factors Affecting The Efficacy Of Feedback Use During Source Monitoring, Stephanie Groft
LSU Master's Theses
The current study considers how individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) affect feedback effectiveness. Participants, selected to have high and low WMC, first watched a video of a crime. Subsequently, a post-test questionnaire was administered concerning events taken from the video and additional information suggested to have occurred in the video. After a 10 minute filler task, participants were given a two-part memory test requiring them to identify the source of the information presented in the test statements. During the training portion of the test, half of the participants received feedback as to the accuracy of their source decisions. …
The Detection Of Malingered Mental Retardation In High- And Low-Cognitive Ability Individuals, Daniel Anthony Proto
The Detection Of Malingered Mental Retardation In High- And Low-Cognitive Ability Individuals, Daniel Anthony Proto
LSU Master's Theses
The detection of malingering is an area of research that has received increasing attention in recent decades. Neuropsychologists in particular are often asked to assess the validity of symptoms such as cognitive impairment due to brain injury or toxic chemical exposure. Additionally, given the decision of the U.S. Supreme court in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), incentive to feign mental retardation in order to avoid capital punishment has greatly increased. However, few measures of malingering detection have been thoroughly studied for their applicability to mentally retarded individuals, and for their ability to accurately distinguish between malingerers, normal controls, and individuals with …
The Children's Coping Behavior Questionnaire: Development And Validation, Brittany Cornell Hernandez
The Children's Coping Behavior Questionnaire: Development And Validation, Brittany Cornell Hernandez
LSU Master's Theses
Coping is defined as the actions and cognitions used to manage stressful demands. As children develop, coping becomes more refined and situation-specific. Children’s coping styles have been found to relate to distress and adjustment. Despite the importance and implications of children’s coping responses, there is no accepted standard in measuring children’s coping. Past research has had to utilize the few measures in existence, despite possible psychometric inadequacies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a psychometrically sound self-report measure of coping in children and adolescents. After initial item generation, pilot testing, and item elimination, the data were factor …
The Effects Of Community Violence Exposure On Children Affected By Hurricane Katrina, Audrey Baumeister
The Effects Of Community Violence Exposure On Children Affected By Hurricane Katrina, Audrey Baumeister
LSU Master's Theses
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most disastrous natural occurrences to ever hit the United States. It is known that increased adjustment difficulties have been found among children following a disaster. Further, community violence exposure has been linked to several areas of negative psychological functioning including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. This study examines the predictive value of level of exposure to the hurricane, level of community violence exposure, and gender, in examining PTSD symptomatology following Hurricane Katrina. Participants were 230 mother-child dyads recruited from various public and private elementary and middle schools within Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, and East Baton …
Function Based Interventions Versus Non-Function Based Interventions Within A General Education Setting, Michael J. Vance
Function Based Interventions Versus Non-Function Based Interventions Within A General Education Setting, Michael J. Vance
LSU Master's Theses
Functional Behavioral Assessment is a multi-method set of strategies used to determine a particular behaviors purpose. This method, currently seen as the gold standard for creating behavioral interventions, has since 1997 been required by law for a number of special education concerns. While there is a great deal of data supporting the use of function based interventions for populations with low incidence disabilities, little has been done to analyze their effectiveness for more typically developing children. Given that functional behavioral assessment can be quite time consuming and requires prior training the purpose of this study is to compare function based …
The Effects Of Food Deprivation On Caffeine And Food Reinforcement In Females, Lauren Baillie
The Effects Of Food Deprivation On Caffeine And Food Reinforcement In Females, Lauren Baillie
LSU Master's Theses
This study examined the reinforcing value of caffeine and food in a sample of 14 normal-weight females who indicated some degree of dietary restraint, and consumed caffeine daily. Eligible individuals participated in two sessions, one of which required a 24-hour fast. During both sessions, participants completed measures assessing caffeine withdrawal symptoms, urge to drink caffeine, hunger, and a multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ) requiring them to earn points towards either snack foods or caffeinated beverages. There were no significant differences between the fasting and non-fasting conditions on MCQ scores, though the means were in the predicted direction (i.e., participants appeared to work …
A Comparison Of Feeding And Mealtime Problems In Intellectually Disabled Adults With And Without Autism, Jill Cherie Fodstad
A Comparison Of Feeding And Mealtime Problems In Intellectually Disabled Adults With And Without Autism, Jill Cherie Fodstad
LSU Master's Theses
Due to the dearth of information categorically describing feeding behaviors in those with autism spectrum disorders, the goal of this research is to examine the nature of feeding difficulties in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Feeding and mealtime behavior problems are an area of concern due to their impact on an individual’s daily functioning, as well as the potential for causing severe medical conditions (e.g., poor nutrition, choking, aspiration) that may ultimately lead to death. Due to the importance of this topic for proper diagnosis and treatment planning, a better understanding of these behaviors in …
Predictors Of Social Support Provided To Smokers, Diana Williams Stewart
Predictors Of Social Support Provided To Smokers, Diana Williams Stewart
LSU Master's Theses
Over 20% of adults in the U.S. presently smoke cigarettes. The highest rates (28.5%) are among 18-24 year-olds. Therefore, cessation interventions targeting young adults are needed. Cessation efforts and maintained abstinence in smokers have been associated with positive social support from others (i.e., “support persons”) throughout the cessation process. Support persons' attributions about smokers may affect the consistency and amount of support they provide to a smoker during a cessation attempt. The present investigation addressed the relationship between support persons' attribution style and the quality and quantity of support they provided to smokers. College students (N=244) were asked to identify …
Alcohol Use, Negative Consequences, And Readiness To Change In Mandated And Volunteer College Student Heavy Drinkers Before And After A Brief Alcohol Intervention, Meredith A. Terlecki
Alcohol Use, Negative Consequences, And Readiness To Change In Mandated And Volunteer College Student Heavy Drinkers Before And After A Brief Alcohol Intervention, Meredith A. Terlecki
LSU Master's Theses
The current study tested the efficacy of a brief intervention designed to reduce alcohol use among high-risk college students who have been mandated to treatment for an alcohol policy violation relative to a brief wait-list control group and volunteer high-risk sample. Thirty-nine mandated students and forty high-risk student volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either a brief alcohol intervention or were assigned to a brief wait-list control (WLC) group. Participants were assessed at baseline and at a 4-week post-test on measures of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and readiness to change. Of the participants who had completed follow-up (N = 39), …
Brief Alcohol Interventions For College Drinkers: How Brief Is Brief?, Magdalena Kulesza
Brief Alcohol Interventions For College Drinkers: How Brief Is Brief?, Magdalena Kulesza
LSU Master's Theses
Brief interventions for college student drinkers have been shown to be effective in reducing the amount of alcohol consumed as well as the number of alcohol-related problems. However, the duration of brief interventions varies substantially across studies. In the present study 22 undergraduate students who drank alcohol heavily were randomly assigned to a 10-minute brief intervention, a 50-minute brief intervention, or a six week wait-list control group. The content of the active interventions was based on the same concept, and both interventions incorporated motivational interviewing components. As hypothesized, there was a significant difference between participants in the two active interventions …
Comorbid Psychological Disorder In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities And Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jessica Ann Boisjoli
Comorbid Psychological Disorder In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities And Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jessica Ann Boisjoli
LSU Master's Theses
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficits in three areas of functioning: communication, socialization, and restricted interests/repetitive behavior. With the rise in diagnoses of ASD in recent years, these disorders have received increasing recognition by researchers and clinicians. These efforts have largely been with young children. However, the study of ASD and comorbid disorders in adults with intellectual disability (ID) has been almost nonexistent. While there are measures available to assess comorbid disorders in people with only ID, the differences in adults with ASD and ID and adults with ID alone may also be a good deal different than …
Hierarchical Linear Modeling Against The "Gold Standard" Of Visual Analysis In Single-Subject Design, Elizabeth S, Godbold
Hierarchical Linear Modeling Against The "Gold Standard" Of Visual Analysis In Single-Subject Design, Elizabeth S, Godbold
LSU Master's Theses
Visual analysis is the “Gold Standard” for single-subject data because of two assumptions: a low Type I error rate and consistency across raters. However, research has shown it less reliable and accurate than desired. Autocorrelation, variability, trend, lack of obvious mean shift, and differences in the physical presentation of graphs contribute to inconsistencies and higher error rates. Statistical analysis has been advocated as a judgmental aid to visual analysis, but an appropriate statistic has not been found. In the present study, the accuracy of Hierarchical Linear Modeling was compared to raters’ visual analysis of previously published data using Receiver Operating …
Determining The Relative Efficacy Of Reciprocal And Non-Reciprocal Peer Tutoring For Students Identified As At-Risk For Academic Failure, Keri F. Menesses
Determining The Relative Efficacy Of Reciprocal And Non-Reciprocal Peer Tutoring For Students Identified As At-Risk For Academic Failure, Keri F. Menesses
LSU Master's Theses
The current study directly compared the academic and social gains of reciprocal peer tutoring, non-reciprocal peer tutoring, and traditional classroom instruction with elementary students. Participants included 59 students who performed below-average on class-wide screenings using curriculum-based measurement math probes. Students involved in peer tutoring were trained to tutor basic math facts using a constant time delay procedure. Both types of peer tutoring produced significantly larger academic gains than traditional classroom instruction; the two types of tutoring produced comparable academic and social results, although reciprocal tutoring resulted in marginally larger academic gains. Reciprocal peer tutoring is recommended based on the fact …
Environmental Influences On Adherence To Self-Management Behaviors And Glycemic Control In African American Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Brooke L. Barbera
Environmental Influences On Adherence To Self-Management Behaviors And Glycemic Control In African American Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Brooke L. Barbera
LSU Master's Theses
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic illness effecting approximately 20.8 million individuals in the United States. Minorities are adversely affected, with age-adjusted prevalence 1.7 times higher in African Americans than Caucasians. Type 2 diabetes is significantly affected by behavioral and environmental risk factors, including the presence of co-occurring diseases (i.e., hypertension, hyperlipidemia), obesity, age, and lack of physical activity, and each of these risk factors is more prevalent among African Americans. The treatment of diabetes is largely self-managed, with patients and their families handling 95% of their own care. Adherence to the multi-component diabetic treatment regimen requires daily care, often occurring …
Predicting Conduct Problems In Youth: The Moderating Effects Of Hurricane Katrina, Julia F. Vigna
Predicting Conduct Problems In Youth: The Moderating Effects Of Hurricane Katrina, Julia F. Vigna
LSU Master's Theses
This study explored the moderating effects of disaster exposure on the relationships between youth conduct problems and a variety of risk and protective factors in a low-income population. Specifically, the study tests the moderating roles of hurricane-related life-threatening events and loss/disruption on the relations between conduct problems and violence exposure, social support, parenting behaviors, and family routines, respectively. This study draws data from an existing dataset, comprised of 281 displaced mother-child dyads from New Orleans and 98 non-displaced mother-child dyads from Baton Rouge, a city approximately 85 miles west of New Orleans. It was predicted that heightened conduct problems would …
Grade Retention In High Stakes And Low Stakes Testing Years, Anna Elizabeth Ball
Grade Retention In High Stakes And Low Stakes Testing Years, Anna Elizabeth Ball
LSU Master's Theses
Recent political calls for an end to social promotion have led to an era in which many states are using high stakes tests to make retention decisions. Several decades of research have shown that retention is not an effective practice academically or socially. Louisiana is one state that has adopted a high stakes testing policy. This study examines a state-wide database to examine the predictors of retention in high stakes and low stakes testing years. Multiple regression analyses, discriminant analyses, and logistic regression analyses were run on data from students in grade 4 through grade 8 in Louisiana. The results …
Deficits In Social Skills And Feeding Behaviors Associated With Adults Diagnosed With Autistic Disorder Living In An Institutionalized Setting, Cindy Terlonge Graham
Deficits In Social Skills And Feeding Behaviors Associated With Adults Diagnosed With Autistic Disorder Living In An Institutionalized Setting, Cindy Terlonge Graham
LSU Master's Theses
Autistic disorder, a syndrome beginning in infancy and persisting into adulthood, has captured the attention of researchers and clinicians alike. Although this disorder has been studied since the mid-1940s, there is a lack of literature addressing certain adaptive skills in adults with autism. The aim of this study was to examine the differences in social and feeding skills between individuals with and without autistic disorder. Given the importance of acquiring these skills to facilitate proper adjustment and decrease potential health risks, better understanding of these behaviors in persons with autism is warranted. Participants comprised three separate groups: an autism group, …
Source Memory And The Picture Superiority Effect, Noelle L. Brown
Source Memory And The Picture Superiority Effect, Noelle L. Brown
LSU Master's Theses
Two experiments were conducted to explore whether a picture superiority effect exists in source memory. To investigate this issue, participants studied a mixed list of pictures and words. Experiment 1 tested people's memory for an organizational source where half the pictures and words were studied on the left or right side of a computer monitor. In Experiment 2 an associative source was tested. During encoding half of the pictures and words were associated with a female voice and the other half with a male voice. At test, participants' memory for the location or voice of the pictures and words was …
The Effects Of Smoking Cessation On Control Of Food Intake In Postmenopausal African-American And Caucasian Women, Amanda K. Manning
The Effects Of Smoking Cessation On Control Of Food Intake In Postmenopausal African-American And Caucasian Women, Amanda K. Manning
LSU Master's Theses
Smoking cessation leads to greater weight gain in women than men, and older and postmenopausal women are at greater risk for weight gain than younger, premenopausal women. African-American postmenopausal women may be at the greatest risk. Weight gain after smoking cessation is primarily due to increased caloric intake. Currently, the literature regarding measurement of macronutrient intake after smoking cessation is plagued with methodological problems. The Geiselman Macronutrient Self-Selection Paradigm (MSSP) significantly and systematically varies fat across other macronutrients and the Geiselman Food Preference Questionnaire (FPQ) measures the negative feedback of satiation via pre- and postprandial hedonic ratings of foods. Fifty-five …
Source Memory, Subjective Awareness, And The Word Frequency Mirror Effect, Benjamin A. Martin
Source Memory, Subjective Awareness, And The Word Frequency Mirror Effect, Benjamin A. Martin
LSU Master's Theses
The current study investigated the subjective states of recollection and familiarity in source memory. Participants studied low and high frequency words, presented in one of two sources, and were then asked to make source decisions and subjective judgments of recollection and familiarity at test. Half of participants were asked to identify the source of an item before the subjective awareness judgment (SM-first group), while the other half of participants made a source decision to an item after judging it as recollected or familiar (RF-first group). The test order manipulation affected participants’ patterns of responding. Participants in the RF-first group tended …
A Comparison Of Social Skills Profiles In Intellectually Disabled Adults With And Without Asd, Jonathan Wilkins
A Comparison Of Social Skills Profiles In Intellectually Disabled Adults With And Without Asd, Jonathan Wilkins
LSU Master's Theses
Although there has been a recent increase in research directed toward autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the study of intellectually disabled adults with ASD has gone relatively neglected as efforts have focused largely on young children. Current diagnostic and assessment procedures were created for and validated on this latter group. Many intellectually disabled adults with ASD have not been diagnosed due to the novelty of such instruments and the overlap between symptoms of ASD and severe intellectual disability (ID). A new assessment instrument, the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Diagnostic Scale for Intellectually Disabled Adults (ASD-DA) has been shown to make this fine distinction. …
The Relation Between Episodic Memory And Artificial Grammar Learning, Thomas Earl Watkins, Iii
The Relation Between Episodic Memory And Artificial Grammar Learning, Thomas Earl Watkins, Iii
LSU Master's Theses
Two artificial grammar learning experiments were conducted to study the acquisition of episodic and grammar knowledge with manipulations designed to enhance one or the other type of knowledge. The first experiment trained subjects to recognize specific exemplars (episodic emphasis) or to identify patterns of family resemblance (semantic focus), and then participants were given both an episodic (specific exemplar recognition) and grammar (valid string identification) test. The episodic emphasis training led to better episodic knowledge and equivalent grammar knowledge. The second experiment investigated the same training types over a longer training period and under presence or absence of interference from different …