Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of A Self-Monitoring Program To Increase Treatment Integrity Of Behavior Intervention Plans, Lela E. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing number of school-aged children displaying challenging behavior has increased the need for effective interventions. School-based consultants (SBC) report using behavioral consultation to assist teachers in designing behavior intervention plans (BIP) that help students engage in appropriate behavior in the classroom. Research indicates that direct training methods increase teacher's implementation of the BIP. One commonly used direct training method, performance feedback (PF), is used to assess teachers' treatment integrity. Research also indicates that checklists (non-direct measures) are more cost efficient methods. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate a direct training method used to train teachers to self-monitor …

Goal Attainment On Long Tail Web Sites: An Information Foraging Approach, James A. Mccart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation sought to explain goal achievement at limited traffic “long tail” Web sites using

Information Foraging Theory (IFT). The central thesis of IFT is that individuals are driven by a

metaphorical sense of smell that guides them through patches of information in their environment.

An information patch is an area of the search environment with similar information. Information

scent is the driving force behind why a person makes a navigational selection amongst a group

of competing options. As foragers are assumed to be rational, scent is a mechanism by which to

reduce search costs by increasing the accuracy on …

Portraits Of Online Teaching And Learning: The Experiences Of An Instructor And Six Graduate Students In A Course Entitled Educating Students With Autism, Sarah R. Semon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the last decade (1999-2009) Florida's Bureau of Exceptional Education Student Services, in partnership with Institutions of Higher Education created the Florida Virtual ESE program to develop and deliver online professional development courses. The state also provided tuition support for teachers to participate in online professional development coursework to earn credentials necessary to be considered Highly Qualified. Online course delivery is thought to be a cost-effective approach to the provision of professional development for in-service teachers. However, there is a need to examine what it takes to create meaningful online learning experiences that facilitate the goals and objectives particular to …

The Effects Of Professional Development Efforts On Educator Beliefs And Perceptions Of Competency Within A School-Based Response To Intervention Model, Joshua Nadeau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand relationships between educators' perceived skills, observed practices, and stated beliefs - as well as the impact of evidence-based professional development upon those relationships - during the first year of ongoing school-based implementation for Florida's Statewide Problem- Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) Project. The PS/RtI model is conceptualized as providing a data-based template to drive student service delivery decisions; as providing a tiered framework of assessment and evaluation to maximize efficiency of allocated school funds; and as defining the determination of eligibility for special education services to be based solely upon a …

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Ecological Validity Of A Performance-Based Assessment Of Attention, Eun- Yeop Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Executive functions impact everyday functioning. An individual’s ability to adapt

to and navigate their physical and social environments is largely determined by the ability

to organize oneself, to plan and to coordinate activities. Despite the wide variety of

cognitive tests that assess various aspects of executive function, there has been little work

to validate the use of these measures in predicting real world functioning (Sbordone,

Seyranian, & Ruff, 2000), particularly in children where characterization of executive

function is less specified. Evaluating the ecological validity of neuropsychological tests

has become an increasingly important topic over the past decade (Chaytor & Schmitter- …

Literary Bodies: The Novel As Experience, Britt Dienes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For my MA thesis I propose to examine a series of novels that combine motifs of the body with structural and linguistic experimentation that parallels the state of the bodies within the text. Using Tsitsi Dangarembga's 1988 "bodybildungsroman" Nervous Conditions, Sherley Anne Williams' 1986 neo -slave narrative Dessa Rose, Samuel Beckett's 1938 existential novel Murphy, Vikram Seth's 1986 poetic novel Golden Gate, and Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 poetic novel Pale Fire, I will argue that these texts portray the body as a readable space of culture, a legible site of conflict or creation.

I contend that these novels …

Neoliberalism And Dependence: A Case Study Of The Orphan Care Crisis In Sub-Saharan Africa, Christine Concetta Gibson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have examined the impacts of neoliberal policies on women, children, small farmers and more, but little attention has been paid to the impact of these policies on orphans. The issue of orphan care is crucial now, and will become increasingly more urgent in the future. Even as HIV/AIDS rates are on the decline, more and more children are being orphaned by the disease. This paper examines the policies, positions and language of the World Bank and I.M.F. regarding orphans in order to understand the biases and assumptions within neoliberalism about orphans, and who is responsible for providing care for …

Nursing Advocacy And The Accuracy Of Intravenous To Oral Opioid Conversion At Discharge In The Cancer Patient, Maria L. Gallo R.N., O.C.N.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pain is a common problem for cancer patients at home and when hospitalized. Pain interferes with all aspects of a patient's life including sleep, appetite, sexual desire, emotion and productivity. The under-prescribing of opioids can lead to uncontrolled pain in cancer patients. This study examined nursing advocacy related to pain management and the accuracy of the intravenous (IV) to oral (PO) opioid conversion at discharge in cancer patients.

Retrospective chart audits were done on 50 cancer patients. The physicians in the charts surveyed who prescribed the discharge medications consisted of a mix of hematologist/oncologists, surgeons and internists/hospitalists in a southwest …

Martian Modules: Design Of A Programmable Martian Settlement, Craig A. Trover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of human beings is marked

by adaptation. The ability to adapt to and

manipulate our environment is one definer of

intelligence, and ours is unique among life

on Earth. Since moving off of the African

Continent, humans have migrated to inhabit

every part of the Earth. Human existence

and perpetuity in the universe depends upon

the success of this adaptation, and inevitably,

migrating off of this planet. The technological

advances being developed today will change

our way of life, and enable people to travel to

and live permanently on the Moon and Mars.

This study involves the architectural …

A Randomized Trial Of A Dissonance-Induction Intervention To Decrease Tanning Behaviors Among College Females, Sari R. Chait

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sun exposure is implicated in the majority of skin cancer cases so it is important to identify interventions that successfully decrease young people's tanning behaviors and increase their sun protection behaviors. Research suggests that interventions that focus on the more immediate appearance related effects of tanning, rather than on future health risks, may be more effective in altering UV-related behaviors. Dissonance induction is a strategy that has been used to successfully alter other health-related behaviors. This study sought to determine if a dissonance induction intervention might be similarly successful in changing UV-related behaviors. The study yielded mixed findings. Relative to …

Interrelationships Among Personality, Perceived Classmate Support, And Life Satisfaction In Adolescents, Devon Renee Minch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships among personality factors and life satisfaction in high school students. High school students (

N = 625) completed self-report measures of personality characteristics (namely, extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) and global life satisfaction. Results include the specific contribution of each of these personality dimensions as they relate to life satisfaction, gender differences, and the role of perceived classmate support in relationships between personality factors and life satisfaction. Specifically, findings revealed that about 45% of the variance in adolescents‟ life satisfaction scores was accounted for by their self-reported measures of …

Hunger Of The Body, Hunger Of The Mind: The Experience Of Food Insecurity In Rural, Non-Peninsular Malaysia, Elizabeth Elliott Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supplementary feeding continues to be a widespread strategy for child health promotion though its efficacy remains contested. The long-standing, Malaysian national food assistance program for children - Program Pemulihan Kanak-Kanak Kekurangan Zat Makanan (PPKZM) - fits this pattern, receiving severe criticism for its limited impact on child nutritional status. Still, the program remains, producing a seeming paradox and prompting questions of how it fits into (1) the larger political context of national health policy and (2) more localized village and clinic environments. This research combines historical inquiry with the in-depth, ethnographic study of two predominantly Malay coastal villages in Malaysian …

College Students' Use Of Science Content During Socioscientific Issues Negotiation: Impact Of Evolution Understanding And Acceptance, Samantha R. Fowler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. Specific research questions were, (1a) what specific evolutionary science content do college students evoke during SSI negotiation, (1b) what is the depth of the evolutionary science content reflected in college students' SSI negotiation, and (2) what is the nature of the interaction between evolution understanding and evolution acceptance as they relate to depth of use of evolution content during SSI negotiation? The Socioscientific Issues …

Adolescent Response To Peer Substance Use, Haley Ann Snodgrass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Substance use during adolescence is of particular concern because it is known to be associated with many undesirable outcomes. When an adolescent discovers that a peer is using substances, he or she is faced with a decision regarding the response to be taken (e.g., use substances with the peer, report it to authorities, tell the peer to stop). Available literature has given little consideration to this issue; therefore, the current study sought to examine the response of adolescents to discovering that a peer is using substances, within an ethnically diverse sample of 139 students from a public high school located …

Humor And Attitude Toward Homosexuals: The Case Of Will & Grace, Heather Cribbs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Data collected from a survey questionnaire disseminated to college students was used to examine the relationship between humor in the mass media on audience attitude. This research study attempted to link the comedic nature of media with a heightened tolerance toward unpopular messages by looking specifically at the show Will & Grace. Results supported the hypothesized positive relationship between humor on attitudes toward the show, as well as attitudes toward real life homosexuals. In addition, distraction and interpersonal communication served as mediators between humor and attitudes. Results supported positive relationships between humor and both distraction and interpersonal communication, and supported …

Reel Images: Representations Of Adult Male Prisons By The Film Industry, Melissa E. Fenwick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on the criminal justice system, punishment, and media continue to generate academic interest, particularly in the realm of social constructionism. The social construction perspective provides insight into the process through which media-controlled images are translated into social definitions of crime and justice. One new area of interest is the representations of prisons and penal culture by the entertainment media, namely the film industry. In this study, the author contributes to the area of social constructionist literature by administering a content analysis of eleven feature films on male prisons produced between 1979 and 2001. The author examines the frequency and …

The Subjective Experience Of Pms: A Sociological Analysis Of Women’S Narratives, Christiana B. Chekoudjian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The phenomenon known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) has been researched across many disciplines including Psychology, Women's Health, Women's Studies and Sociology. It has been researched as a personal issue, a health issue, a psychological issue, and a political issue. Underlying these approaches to the study of PMS are two basic paradigms: the medical model and the social constructionist model. A rather polarized debate has emerged between the two. While both approaches have contributed to research on PMS, neither paradigm has focused particular attention on what PMS is and what it means from the perspective of the women who experience it. …

Speech Recognition Software For Language Learning: Toward An Evaluation Of Validity And Student Perceptions, Deborah Cordier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A renewed focus on foreign language (FL) learning and speech for communication has resulted in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software developed with Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). ASR features for FL pronunciation (Lafford, 2004) are functional components of CALL designs used for FL teaching and learning. The ASR features available with the TeLL me More French software provides pronunciation, intonation and speaking practice and feedback. ASR features are examined quantitatively through French student performance of recorded ASR-scored speech and compared with human raters of the same produced speech samples. A comparison of ASR scores to human raters considers the validity of …

Improving Ad-Hoc Team Performance Using Video Games, Jeff David Craighead

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the effects of distributed, multiplayer training video games on the performance of distributed teams of robot operators. Two hypotheses were tested, the first hypothesis stated that online, game-based team training will improve the performance of an ad-hoc team versus an ad-hoc team formed of individually trained teammates. The second hypothesis stated that the fractal dimension of a robot's path can be used as an indicator of its operator's skill. Forty-one volunteers participated in an experiment in which they played a distributed, online training game which showed them the basics of operating an Inuktun Extreme VGTV for a …

Domestic Violence Within Law Enforcement Families: The Link Between Traditional Police Subculture And Domestic Violence Among Police, Lindsey Blumenstein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The most recent research in police domestic violence has shown that officers may perpetrate domestic violence at a higher rate than the general population, 28% versus 16%, respectively (Sgambelluri, 2000). Traditional police sub-culture has been identified, in several studies, as contributing to higher work stress, and using force on the job (Alexander et al., 1993; Drummond, 1976; Johnson et al, 2005; Kop and Euwema, 2001; Sgambelluri, 2000; Wetendorf, 2000). This research, however, has not fully examined the link between adherence to the traditional police sub-culture and officer involvement in domestic violence. This study attempts to identify whether officers who adhere …

Motivation And Instructor’S Self-Disclosure Using Facebook In A French Online Course Context, James M. Aubry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the effects of instructor's self-disclosure using the Facebook social networking online platform on students' motivation types, attitudes, and performance in the course.

The participants were 104 beginning French students enrolled in an online French course at a research one university in the southeast U.S. The participants were divided into a Facebook group, where they could access the instructor's Facebook profile throughout the semester, and a control group. Demographic data about the participants were gathered through a background questionnaire. Two instruments were used for determining respectively the types of motivation exhibited by students and their attitudes toward the …

Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children’S Skills (Hot Docs): An Investigation Of A Parenting Program To Address Challenging Behavior In Young Children, Jillian Leigh Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated outcomes of a parent training curriculum: Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children's Skills (HOT DOCS), using secondary analyses of existing data collected between May 2007 and March 2009. The evaluation studied the impact of specific components of the parent training program on both participants' knowledge and attitudes and their perceptions of target children's behavior. Caregivers (n = 334) of children between the ages of 18 months and 5.11 years of age who were participants in the parent training program were included in the study. Measures included a pre/post knowledge test, pre/post rating scales of child …

Contemporary Daughter/Son Adult Social Role Performance Rating Scale And Interview Protocol: Development, Content Validation, And Exploratory Investigation, Dana Everett Cozad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop and content validate a Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol, enabling study of the social role performance of adult daughters and sons as they fulfill the societal norms and expectations of adult children. This exploratory investigation was one of 13 contemporary adult social roles completed by the University of South Florida Social Roles Research Group to update research of Havighurst in the 1950s.

The Daughter/Son Performance Rating Scale and Interview Protocol were created through a series of panel reviews and suggestions by experts drawn from adult education, human development, gerontology, and educational …

Understanding And Improving Use-Tax Compliance: A Theory Of Planned Behavior Approach, Christopher Robert Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand specific factors that are pertinent to individuals when making a use-tax compliance decision and to test a remedy to improve use-tax compliance. This study investigates use-tax compliance using a three-step approach. The first step involved building a survey to determine potential salient beliefs that are pertinent to individuals when facing a use-tax compliance decision. Results of the initial survey reveal that the effort of complying with the use tax, potential revenue to the state if the individual complies, fairness of the use tax, monetary concerns of the individual, perceived knowledge of the use tax, and …

Dressing Psychic Wounds: Clothing As Metaphor In Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow And Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Angela D. Tartaglia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the function of dress as it relates to cultural retention in Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, drawing upon the work of fashion theorists Joanne Entwistle, Alison Lurie and Anne Hollander. My examination of the two novels is informed by several excellent scholarly works which hold that characters' well being is determined by the extent to which they connect with their folkloric roots, the central message in both Ceremony and Praisesong for the Widow. I build on this discourse by demonstrating that the novels' consistent attention to clothing is a device …

Spoken Word Recognition In Quiet And In Noise By Native And Non-Native Listeners: Effects Of Age Of Immersion And Vocabulary Size, Astrid Zerla Doty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In spoken word recognition, high-frequency words with few neighbors and less frequently occurring minimal pair neighbors (lexically easy words) are recognized more accurately than low-frequency words with many and more frequently occurring neighbors (lexically hard words). Bradlow and Pisoni (1999) found a larger easy hard word effect for non-native than native speakers of English. The present study extends this work by specifically comparing word recognition by non-native listeners with either earlier or later ages of immersion in an English-speaking environment to that of native English speakers. Listeners heard six lists of 24 words, each composed of 12 lexically easy and …

The Role Of Interference In Moderating The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity And Cued-Recall, Umit Akirmak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although much research has been done on how well working memory predicts processing of consciously activated information, research on the possible influences of working memory on automatically activated information is scarce (Barrett, Tugade, & Engle, 2004). Working memory capacity (WMC) may be related to how much information is activated automatically by either aiding ease of access to relevant information or by its role in inhibiting irrelevant thoughts and information (i.e., noise). The purpose of the present study was to examine the contribution of individual differences in WMC on implicit and explicit processes in cued recall. Participants studied target words and …

Increasing Medicaid Dollars Billed For Services By School Psychologists Using A Performance Improvement Package, Megan M. Hybza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organization Behavior Management (OBM) is a subfield within the discipline of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) involving the application of ABA principles and practices to organizational settings. One successful intervention used in OBM is the implementation of a performance improvement package. This approach has proven to be an effective problem solving strategy in a variety of settings, based on effective components such as goal-setting, prompting, and feedback. In this endeavor a performance improvement package was applied within an educational setting. In this school district, school psychologists are required to complete documentation for Medicaid reimbursement to the district, but were inconsistent in …

Robots Without Faces: Non-Verbal Social Human-Robot Interaction, Cindy L. Bethel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-facial and non-verbal methods of affective expression are essential for naturalistic social interaction in robots that are designed to be functional and lack expressive faces (appearance-constrained)such as those used in search and rescue, law enforcement, and military applications. This research identifies five main methods of non-facial and non-verbal affective expression (body movement, posture, orientation, color, and sound). From the psychology, computer science, and robotics literature a set of prescriptive recommendations was distilled for the appropriate non-facial and non-verbal affective expression methods for each of three proximity zones of interest(intimate: contact - 0.46 m, personal: 0.46 - 1.22 m, and social: …

Evaluation Of The First Year Of A Statewide Problem Solving/Response To Intervention Initiative: Preliminary Findings, Jose Michael Castillo Educational Specialist

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This program evaluation study examined the relationship between Problem Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) training and technical assistance and educator and implementation outcomes following the first year of a 3-year project. Educators from 40 pilot schools in eight districts participating in the study received ongoing professional development targeting the rationale for the initiative, systems change issues, and the steps of the PS/RtI model. Data on educator beliefs, educator perceived and demonstrated PS/RtI skills, and PS/RtI implementation were collected throughout the year from the 40 pilot schools as well as 33 comparison schools. To examine the relationships between PS/RtI training and technical …