Digital Commons Network^™

Young Adults With Disabilities Acquire Vocational Skills With Video Modeling, Carly Schroeder-Mackay

Dissertations

Students with disabilities often require substantial support to acquire the skills needed to secure work experience and paid employment. Special education transition programs have an obligation to utilize evidence-based practices to facilitate the acquisition of such skills. In the present project, three studies were conducted to examine the effects of video modeling on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of job-related tasks taught in a classroom setting to young adults with developmental disabilities. In Study 1, a multiple baseline across behaviors experimental design with four participants was used to assess the effects of video prompts on the percentage of correctly completed …

Evaluation Of Telehealth Training To Teach The Stimulus Identification Questionnaire And Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement, Andrea Perez

Dissertations

The field of behavioral gerontology has seen a paucity in literature within the past 15 years focused on updating training technology and teaching best practice skills to staff. Specifically, there is a need to expand the breadth of training research focus areas could more broadly the elderly population (e.g., increasing engagement), to ensure that trainings are designed to equip caregivers with the skills to be independent, and finally, given the frequent staffing challenges experienced by aging settings (Harrington et al., 2020), to explore effective and efficient training techniques that are alternatives to lengthy, in-person training modalities. Given the personnel challenges, …

Using A Video Modeling Treatment Package To Teach Imitation To Children With Autism, Sofia F. Peters

Dissertations

Imitation is a critical skill that allows individuals to learn through less restrictive prompting methods and may allow access to less restrictive learning environments, such as typical classrooms, where instruction is often delivered by modeling. Many individuals with autism learn to imitate with interventions that utilize live models and least-to-most prompting strategies; but, for some, these methods are not successful or efficient. While video modeling has been used to teach a variety of skills to individuals with autism, there is limited research using video modeling to teach imitation. This study investigated the effectiveness of using a video modeling treatment package …

Behavioral Skills Training And Literacy: Supporting Reading Instructors In Adult Education Centers, Mya L. Hernandez

Dissertations

The present study evaluates the effects of a behavioral skills training package (BST) on training adult literacy tutors to implement the steps of BST when teaching parents with low literacy. Four adult literacy tutors participated in the study along with one parent with low literacy. The primary dependent variable was the percentage of steps of the BST package implemented correctly during tutor training probe measures. Secondary measures were taken on the parent’s performance of each step of the literacy activities on which they were trained. In baseline, all tutors were provided with instructions for performing two literacy activities and tutors …

Functional Analysis Of Excessive Crying In Infancy: Two Empirical Case Studies, Jamie L. Hirsh

Dissertations

Excessive crying and infantile colic account for a significant percentage of caregivers’ calls and visits to the pediatrician early in infancy. Despite myriad research studies across medical and psychological disciplines over the years, there is no conclusive evidence regarding a cause for excessive crying in early infancy; as a result, there is no gold standard for treatment. The goal of this study is to develop and test an experimental functional analysis methodology to determine a cause for excessive crying in infants. The study involves the development of an interview and paper-based functional assessment tool for excessive crying in infancy, as …

The Effects Of Decoding Instruction On Oral Reading Fluency For Older Students With Reading Delays, Gaige J. Johnson

Dissertations

Struggling older readers often have difficulty with early decoding skills (Tolman, 2005; Toste, Williams, & Capin, 2017). If they are unable to master decoding, they may have difficulty with more complex skills, such as passage reading fluency. The current study extends research on reading fluency for older students by evaluating the combined effects of a phonics procedure and a fluency-building strategy on their reading fluency. Participants were older students with below grade level reading performance who had deficits in oral reading fluency and decoding. Dependent variables were the number of correctly sorted word patterns and the number of correct words …

Teaching Matching-To-Sample To Low-Performing Children With Autism, Blaire E. Michelin

Dissertations

Matching-to-sample is a basic procedure used in most programs for pre-school children with autism. However, a few children fail to acquire this skill with standard matching-to-sample procedures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate an alternative method for teaching matching-to-sample to those children when the traditional methods are likely to fail. First, simple discriminations with the matching materials were taught, then the discriminations were made more complex across successive sessions. Initially, all discriminations were taught using bins to separate the comparison stimuli. All three children acquired matching-to-sample, which generalized to matching novel two-dimensional stimuli, not placed in bins.

Mixing Matching And Sabermetrics: Combining Advanced Analytics And The Generalized Matching Law In Nfl Football Play-Calling, Jacob Bradley

Dissertations

The fields of advanced analytics in sports and quantitative analysis of behavior as it applies to sports have developed independently over the last several decades. Both fields share the common goal of using a quantitative approach to describe and predict behavior within sports beyond the common traditional verbal accounts. To date, the two fields have not directly intersected. The current study provides an overview of advanced analytics and quantitative analysis of behavior in sports, demonstrates how the two fields can be combined to better account for the behavioral processes involved in decision-making in sports, and identifies several possible ways the …

Teaching Students Who Have Difficulty Mastering Lmitation, Jennifer Mrljak

Dissertations

Some children with autism are unable to acquire imitation despite receiving early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) meant to teach that and other important skills. Many EIBI programs use physical-prompting hierarchies either as a component of the discriminative stimulus or the correction procedure following an error (Lovaas, 1981; Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996). But even after lengthy exposure to these teaching techniques, some children still do not acquire imitative repertoires. In the present study, working with students who were not acquiring imitative repertoires, we started with shaping the initial imitative responses as a method to gain stimulus control and then introduced …

An Examination Of Behavior Analysts' Treatment Selection Behavior For Escape-Maintained Problem Behavior, Rebecca Eldridge

Dissertations

The advent of functional analysis procedures has helped identify reinforcers for problem behavior; however, the behavior analyst is then faced with the task of selecting an appropriate treatment for problem behavior. When selecting treatments, in addition to behavioral function, behavior analysts also need to consider contextual variables, such as current client repertoires, setting conditions, time and resources of current caregivers, as well as client and caregiver goals (Benazzi, Horner, & Good, 2006). Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) must consider these factors when developing treatment according to their ethical code (Behavior Analyst Certification Board [BACB]’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code [PECC], …

Self-Management As A Class-Wide Intervention: An Evaluation Of The “Self & Match” System Embedded Within A Dependent Group Contingency, Andrew J. Bulla

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education (2015) indicated that about 95% of students with special education eligibility receive some form of education in the general education setting. Students with disabilities tend to engage in more disruptive behaviors than their non-disabled peers (e.g., Murphy, Beadle-Brown, Wing, Gould, Shah, & Homes, 2005). If teachers are spending more time managing disruptive behaviors, time allocated to instruction is lost. Self-management is one evidence-based intervention that has shown consistent effects on increasing on-task behavior and decreasing disruptive behaviors. Although feasible at the individual level, previous research has identified that class-wide self-management interventions may be efficacious but …

The Effects Of Punishment On Resistance To Change And Reinstatement, Tomesha A. Manora

Dissertations

Resistance to change (RTC) refers to the persistence of behavior when environmental changes disrupt responding. Studies have shown that RTC varies as a function of the reinforcement associated with the context, with higher rates and magnitudes of reinforcement generating greater response persistence. Resistance to change has been shown to be related to reinstatement, or the increase in responding during extinction when responses are followed by noncontingent reinforcement. Little research has investigated whether punishers have equivalent yet opposite effects as reinforcers on response persistence and reinstatement. The present study investigated the effects of electric shock punishment on resistance to change and …

Piloting A Screening Tool For Eating And Eating-Related Behavior, Michael N. Reynolds

Dissertations

Obesity is a common medical condition associated with negative health and social outcomes. Obesity has a primary malleable behavioral cause, eating more calories than are metabolized. While metabolic rate is malleable with exercise, eating can more quickly add calories than exercising can subtract them. In the past, behavioral weight-loss treatment studies relied on multi-component package interventions that have shown reliable patterns of participant weight-loss during treatment and weight-regain in follow-up. Those findings could be conceptualized as an ABA withdrawal design, eating behavior returns to baseline after the prosthetic contingencies of the treatment study are withdrawn. We must develop ways to …

Memory Deficits In Older Adults: Evaluating Spaced Retrieval With Multiple Probe Techniques, Christopher Walmsley

Dissertations

Difficulties in recognizing and remembering the names of individuals are a common behavioral symptom of major neurocognitive disorder. A number of behavioral strategies have been proposed to improve memory deficits, including spaced retrieval, an intervention that emphasizes delayed recall of target information. Unfortunately, many of the studies that report beneficial effects of spaced retrieval use a very limited range of outcome measures, thus calling into question the magnitude and generality of any reported memory improvement. This study reports on the impact of spaced retrieval using four older adults with cognitive impairment living in an assisted living facility. All participants demonstrated …

Behavior Analysis Program To Improve Habits Of Physical Activity, Eating, And Sleeping, Ivan Noe Martinez Salazar

Dissertations

An Internet-based five-week duration program to improve “health habits” using behavior analysis principles and eHealth technology was developed and evaluated. The “health habits” include recurring behaviors that impact health status such as eating, sleeping, and physical activity.

Ten adult participants were recruited online from Mexico. A multiple baseline design was used and participants were randomly assigned into two different groups (i.e., ABBAA and AABBA groups). Participants received online training using videos describing the characteristics of the program and its components. Each participant recorded selected health behaviors using a Microsoft Excel® tool designed specifically for this program’s goal achievements. Participants reported …

An Attempt To Establish Approval As A Learned Reinforcer, Kelly T. Kohler

Dissertations

Approval does not function as a powerful reinforcer for many children with autism, making it difficult to reinforce appropriate behavior in a functional and consistent manner. The current study first assessed the effects of establishing approval (“Nice,” accompanied by a smile and nod) and nonsense words as discriminative stimuli, with the intent that they might also become learned reinforcers. We conducted several experiments to assess the effectiveness of approval as a reinforcer, including tests on learning new responses (receptive, expressive, freeoperant, and simple simultaneous discriminations) and tests on the performance of previously mastered responses (receptive and expressive responses). Despite the …

Comparing The Effects Of Simulated, Intelligent Audible, Checklists And Analog Checklists In Simulated Flight, Bryan Hilton

Dissertations

This study examined the effect of using a simulated intelligent audible checklist in simulated flight as compared to a standard analog (paper) checklist. Participants were three Western Michigan University students in the College of Aviation. All participants were licensed pilots with instrument ratings. The main dependent variable was the number of checklist errors or omissions committed by the pilots in simulated flight. During each flight, each participant could make up to 42 errors. The error count would initiate at the appropriate time to perform the “before-take off checklist” and would end one minute after parking the plane, the logical time …