Digital Commons Network^™

Masculine Desire And Feminine Imitation: Contextualizing Heterosexual Relationships In Sister Carrie, Jennifer L. White

Master of Arts in Classical Studies

Theodore Dreiser is generally considered one of the greatest American naturalist authors across the genre. His depiction of life is gritty and harsh, his characters at the mercy of their natural impulses and their unforgiving environment. However, there is also a sentimental element to Dreiser’s work, especially in his portrayal of romantic relationships. In the face of unrelenting adversity, there is a glimmer of possibility in the longing for meaningful human connection, if only under different circumstances. While Dreiser’s naturalistic approach suggests that such relationships can never be truly fulfilling due to either the innate frailty of the participants or …

Increasing Social-Emotional And Friendship Making Skills In Preschool Children, Maria Y. Meza

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper addresses the importance of including social-emotional and friendship-making skills in preschool children curriculum planning. Through social interactions and observations, children could learn different social skills that they can incorporate into their lives. Children who have not to jet developed social-emotional skills can have difficulty making friendships, lack social competence, and develop aggressive behaviors. If children are able to develop those skills they might be more able to create positive relationships with others.

The Imitation Of Ecuadorian Assibilated Rhotics By Naïve Andalusian Speakers From Seville, Maria De La Esperanza Ruiz-Peña

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the present thesis is to establish whether Flege’s “equivalence classification” (Flege, 1995, p. 239) operates in the same way in auditory imitation of an unfamiliar dialect as it does in second language (L2) acquisition of speech. In order to do so, this study investigates how Andalusian Spanish speakers imitate assibilated rhotics produced in Ecuadorian Spanish. Despite substantial growth in interest in D2 phonological acquisition in later years (e.g., Babel, 2009; Nielsen, 2011), little research has been done to determine whether the mechanisms that underlie the production of L2 are also responsible for the auditory imitation of an …

The Body Makes No Sound Against Glass, Mj Bond

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

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 …

Conquering Esl Students' English Listening Barriers, Dan Wu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) have some English pronunciation barriers in their listening and speaking, consisting of incomplete explosion, liaison, weak forms. The project aims to help ESL students find effective ways to conquer these common English pronunciation barriers in listening comprehension. At the same time, ESL students will learn the standard pronunciation habits of English sentences. This project is designed to use specific listening practice to assist in conquering ESL students’ English listening barriers of incomplete explosion, liaison and weak forms. By using the materials in this project, ESL students can learn to find their …

Increasing The Echoic Repertoire Of A Child With Autism Using An Imitation And Echoic Sequence, Rose Bridges

Honors Theses

A prerequisite to many things in life is the ability to communicate. Although this may mean many different things, such as verbal language, sign language, written language, and even icons, there must be some form of communication that may be utilized to get needs across. Many young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are non-verbal, however there are also many children with ASD who have the ability to say words but are still not independently speaking. Reinforcing approximations to word sounds has been previously used as an effective way of increasing the child’s verbal repertoire (Shane, 2017). The present study …

Mass Murderers: A Case Study Analysis Of Social Media Influence And Copycat Suicide, Stephanie Ann Mckay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The frequency of mass murder has increased over the past decade, with nearly half of all mass murderers committing suicide. Previous researchers have found imitations of mass murderers which relate to suicide contagion, media contagion, and copycat effects; however, there remains a gap in the literature pertaining to the connection between copycat suicides of mass killers and the influence of social media. The purpose of this study was to provide a greater understanding of U.S. public mass murderers who commit copycat suicides based on the influence of social media. The constructivist conceptual framework guided the examination of a purposeful sample …

Compositional Modeling: A Classical Imitative Pedagogy For The Modern Era, Robert Harris Jeter

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Students of composition develop two skills simultaneously: craft and creativity. Since students are more naturally inclined to focus on one of these skills over the other, finding the proper balance is an educational challenge. An effective pedagogical system for composition cultivates both of these necessary skills.

Imitation was a preferred pedagogical approach during the Classical period. In his 1848 book School of Practical Composition, Carl Czerny instructs his readers to apply the extensive rules of composition by strictly following a compositional model. Although this methodology lost favor during the nineteenth century, the imitative techniques presented by Czerny are flexible enough …

Joint Attention And Imitation: How Early Social Skills Relate To Language, Social Behavior, And Overall Responsiveness To Early Intervention In Children With Autism, Claire E. Karlen

Theses and Dissertations

Joint attention, the ability to coordinate one’s attention with that of another person (Dawson et al., 2004), and imitation, the ability to copy another person’s behavior (Sevlever & Gillis, 2010), are two of the initial methods by which children learn from and interact with the world around them (Trevarthan, 1979). These two skills are related to the development of language, social skills, and play. Further, they seem to come naturally in typically developing children. For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, these skills are often delayed or entirely absent, thereby potentially leading to significant impediments in the acquisition of …

Edo In The Manga World: Appare Jipangu! And Early Modern Japanese Literature, Parker Christian Cassidy

Senior Projects Spring 2019

This project offers a complete translation of the first volume of the Japanese manga Appare Jipangu! by Yuu Watase. An essay that examines the relationship between the manga's own content and the literature of the Edo period, and an exploration the author’s intentions behind having her story set in that particular time follows the translation. With the historical content in the manga and the general format of manga, the translation of Watase’s work created more intense challenges in naturalizing the original Japanese, some requiring new methods of translation to be utilized. Watase calls her manga an “Edo-style” comedy, and many …

La Influencia De Boccaccio En La Literatura Catalana Medieval (1390-1495). Un Estudio De La Imitación Literaria En Bernat Metge, Bernat Hug De Rocabertí Y Joan Roís De Corella, Pau Cañigueral Batllosera

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies the impact of the works by Giovanni Boccaccio on Catalan medieval literature. The influence of Italian literature in medieval Iberian writing is traditionally understood as a key component of a wide-ranging cultural process of transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the tre corone, played a crucial role in that process. Boccaccio, in particular, became a model for the writing of a variety of literary genres, from misogynistic poetry to chivalric romances. His works, both in Latin and Italian, featured in the most remarkable libraries of the period …

Adapted Dance Class And Autism Spectrum Disorder, Lindsay Gutting, Carly O'Brien, Kelsey Moggie

Pediatrics

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral symptoms. Although a variety of interventions for those with ASD are available, Adapted Dance Class (ADC), also called Dance Movement Therapy (DMT), is a relatively understudied intervention that has the potential support social skill development for this population.

Method: This is a descriptive, exploratory case study in which researchers aimed to discover whether DMT is effective in promoting social and communication skills in adolescents with ASD. We viewed 16 videos of four students who participated in two DMT classes and procedurally documented social …

Constructing An Early Modern Queen: Posturing, Mimicry, And The Rhetoric Of Authority, Megan K. Mize

English Theses & Dissertations

As the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, a woman executed for treason, Elizabeth Tudor stood at the center of discourses that often sought to contain or even destroy her. Early on, Elizabeth understood that constant re-invention, performance, and mimicry were key strategies for survival. When she finally ascended the throne in 1558, Elizabeth continued to use these rhetorical methods to retain her autonomy, as far as possible, garnering public support and the loyalty of her court. Although Elizabeth has long been acknowledged as a historical icon and has received considerable scholarly attention, particularly from feminist and feminist-leaning …

Effects Of Generalized Imitation Training On Functional Speech Acquisition During Picture Exchange Communication System (Pecs) Training, Mindy K. Newhouse-Oisten

Dissertations

The current literature regarding the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) demonstrates that some individuals diagnosed with autism acquire speech or gain increases in speech during PECS training; however, the current research base has several limitations. There is a lack of research regarding possible explanations for those speech gains, including possible pre-requisite skills for speech acquisition or procedures that can account for speech acquisition. Some research suggests a link between imitation (both motor and vocal) and language acquisition. The current study examined whether individuals with a generalized motor imitative repertoire are more likely to develop speech during PECS training than individuals …

For The Sake Of The Intellect, Let Them Have Art: A Possible Reconciliation For The Value Of Mimetic Arts In The 'Republic', Breanna Liddell

Theses

This paper explores the possibility of a cohesive philosophy that recognizes both Plato’s concern about art as a moral danger in the Republic and the aesthete’s—a worthy adversary—position of art as something worth preserving. Plato understood the arts as mimêsis, or imitative and representational. Additionally, this paper suggests that Plato’s take on art extends beyond the limited realm of the performative arts that depict the misguided actions of Greek heroes and gods and how those arts positively or negatively impact the educational development of a citizen of the Republic. Rather, I assert that what he means by “art” is …

Using Graduated Guidance To Teach Imitation Of Manual Signs To Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Jacqueline Horsman

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of graduated guidance procedure on teaching imitation of manual signs to students with moderate to severe disabilities. Sessions began with student initiation and were embedded across already established reinforcement routines across the student’s day. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate these effects.

Studies In Words: Laborious Ben Jonson's Lexicon, Steven Hrdlicka

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines significant words in Ben Jonson’s poetic lexicon that the poet inherited, borrowed, and shaped from antiquity and through the Middle Ages. Jonson used etymology as a means to rhetorical inventio, a common practice in the Renaissance. Etymology comprehended more than mere word derivation in the Renaissance but also notably included philological study. Ben Jonson’s extensive knowledge of language, history, architecture, the plastic arts, and philosophy is well known, but the extent to which Jonson’s knowledge of these subjects contributed to his understanding and use of poetic language is not. Thus this dissertation seeks to explore the intellectual …

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 …

Parents’ Perspectives: How They Use Behavior Modification Techniques With Toddlers Aged 1-3, Diana H. Solt

Theses

Role-models, most often parents, are vital in the process of teaching children how to communicate and resolve conflicts. Children, specifically toddlers just learning to speak, may present unique disciplining challenges. This study examined the various methods of conflict management strategies parents use to try and change their toddler children’s behaviors. The main parental strategies studied include: verbal, imitative, physical, and no-action. Using a snowball sampling approach, 28 men and women participants were interviewed. The findings show that parents most often used verbal or imitative techniques to discipline their children. However an overwhelming majority agreed that verbal techniques do not work …

Psychopathy And The Effect Of Imitation On Empathetic Pain, Emily N. Lasko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Psychopathy is a disorder largely characterized by a marked deficit in empathy, however, the specificity and extent of the deficit is currently unclear. While it has been well-established in the literature that individuals higher in psychopathy tend to have intact Theory of Mind abilities and exhibit a deficient ability for affective empathy (Blair, 2005), the contribution of motor empathy to these abilities, particularly in regard to empathy for pain, has yet to be experimentally examined. Additionally, the possibility of imitation increasing motor empathic abilities has not been tested in this capacity. The goal of the current study was to further …

Video Based Intervention And Backward Chaining: Teaching Children With Autism, Philip Ross Richard

LSU Master's Theses

As we move further and further into the digital age, interventions that make use of advances in technology will become increasingly relevant. One example of the application of technology is Video Based Interventions (VBI). VBIs include interventions that utilize pre-recorded video footage to assist acquisition of functional life skills, social and play skills, and adaptive behaviors, among others (Rayner, Denholm, & Sigafoos, 2009). Due to the breadth of the term, there are many different types of VBIs that have been examined in research and practice. This study examined one type of VBI, video prompting, and its effectiveness when combined with …

Sounding Sacred: The Adoption Of Biblical Archaisms In The Book Of Mormon And Other 19th Century Texts, Gregory A. Bowen

Open Access Dissertations

The Book of Mormon is a text published in 1830 and considered a sacred work of scripture by adherents of the Latter-day Saint movement. Although written 200 years later, it exhibits many linguistic features of the King James translation of the Bible. Such stylistic imitation has been little studied, though a notable exception is Sigelman & Jacoby (1996).

Three hypotheses are considered: that this is a feature of 19th century religious texts, and the Book of Mormon adopts the style of its genre as a religious text; that this is a feature of translations of ancient texts, and the Book …

Sweat The Technique: Visible-Izing Praxis Through Mimicry In Phillis Wheatley's "On Being Brought From Africa To America", Karla V. Zelaya

Doctoral Dissertations

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” was written in 1768, seven years after a seven or eight-year-old Phillis Wheatley arrived to British North America. Phillis Wheatley was about fifteen-years-old when she wrote the most reviled poem in Black literature. Charged with thinking white and writing white, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” would condemn Phillis Wheatley as an imitator of the white gaze. Although accused of straightening her tongue, Phillis Wheatley did not imitate the white gaze in “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” She mimicked it. To imitate means to do something the same way. To …

Learning To Repair Transgressions: Toddlers' Social Learning Of A Reparative Prosocial Act, Meghan Donohue

Psychology Theses

This study investigated children's social learning of prosocial behaviors in a transgressor context. Two-to three-year-olds (24-47 months, N = 54) saw videos of an adult help another adult in distress by performing a novel prosocial action. Children were then led to believe that they had transgressed to cause their parent's pain and sadness. It was hypothesized that children in the experimental condition who watched the video and then transgressed would be more likely to perform the novel action (imitation) and to display non-demonstrated prosocial behaviors (goal emulation) relative to children in two control conditions: (a) children who did not view …

Examining The Relationship Between Imitation, Motor Movement, And Language Skill In Young Children With Developmental Disabilities, Ani Whitmore

Psychology Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between imitation, motor movement, and language skill in 70 children with developmental disabilities. Four primary research questions were addressed: 1) What are the imitation, motor movement, and language profiles of young children with developmental disabilities?; 2) What is the relationship between imitation skill, motor movement, and language skill?; 3) What is the relationship between imitation, motor movement, and language skill, when accounting for reported spoken imitation skills?; and 4) Does motor movement skill moderate the relationship between imitation and language skill? Standardized direct assessments, parent report, and observational kinematic motion capturing was used to measure …

Social Models Influence Children's Delay Of Gratification Strategy Use And Delay Performance, Melissa Hrabic

Psychology Theses

Delay of gratification is the ability to forego an immediate indulgence in lieu of a later, greater reward. Past research has shown that using behavioral strategies may help children to delay gratification longer. The current project tests whether children can learn one such strategy, covering the eyes, through imitation. Four-year-olds saw a model delay gratification using a strategy, using no strategy, or saw no model. They then participated in an accumulation task, where they could earn an incremental sticker reward. Children who saw a strategy showed evidence of imitation by covering their eyes. Unexpectedly, however, this had an adverse influence …

Gestures As Mimetic Forms Of Identity In Post-Secondary Italian As A Foreign Language Classrooms: A Sociocultural Perspective, Ilaria Nardotto Peltier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigates the use of mimetic gestures of identity by foreign language teachers of Italian and their students in college classes as a form of meaning-making. All four of the teachers were found to use a variety of Italian gestures as a regular aspect of their teaching and presentation of self. Students and teachers also were found to mirror each other’s gestures. None of the teachers had been video-recorded before the study and all were surprised to see the degree to which they appeared to be Italian, although at the same time all believed this to be an important …

Imitation Skill Development In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Teacher-Directed Versus Child-Directed Tasks, Claire Elizabeth Karlen

Theses and Dissertations

Imitation, defined as a means by which individuals copy another person's behavior, serves as a natural method of learning for typically developing children (Sevlever & Gillis, 2010). For children with autism, imitation skills are often impaired, which may result in further social and language deficits (Ingersoll, 2008; Whiten & Brown, 1999). The current study directly examined the effectiveness of two imitation training interventions on the development of spontaneous imitation and expressive language skills in young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Results indicated that no one intervention proved equally effective across participants; however, both interventions positively impacted expressive language development, …

Children's Imitation Of The Majority In A Goal-Directed Task: Examining Number Of Demonstrators And Demonstration Modality, Anna Gonsiorowski

Psychology Theses

Children’s imitation is not random, but depends on the context of the demonstration and imitation opportunity. For example, children are more likely to copy acts modeled by multiple people versus a single individual. In this study, I investigate the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon by manipulating the number of demonstrators and mode of presentation for a goal-directed task. Children saw either one or two adults demonstrate unnecessary target acts while opening boxes to retrieve toys, and demonstrations were presented either live or on video. Children imitated the target acts at equal rates across conditions. This may reflect children’s heightened attention to …