Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Tablet Application To Increase Eye Contact In Children Diagnosed With Autism, Tricia Jeffries

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies have shown that increasing eye contact can be accomplished by using reinforcement, prompting, shaping, functional movement training, punishment, and self-monitoring. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates the use of technology as a way to increase eye contact. This study tested the effectiveness of a tablet application at increasing eye contact in children diagnosed with autism. The application requires the child to look at a picture of a person's face and identify the number displayed in the person's eyes in order to receive reinforcement. Data was collected immediately after training, one hour after training, and in the …

A Comparison Of A Matrix Programming And Standard Discrete Trial Training Format To Teach Two-Component Tacts, Emily Braff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teaching using matrix programming has been shown to result in recombinative generalization. However, this procedure has not been compared to more standard discrete trial training formats such as DTT. This study compared acquisition and recombinative generalization of two-component tacts using each procedure. Matrix training was found to be more efficient than the DTT format. Half the amount of teaching was required to teach roughly the same number of targets using matrix training as compared to DTT.

Verbal Operant Transfer With Mands And Tacts Using Multiple Exemplars, Jessica Lauren Shea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on the functional independence of tacts and mands is mixed. The conditions under which tact training transfers to mands are unclear. The current study evaluated whether multiple exemplars of tact training followed by mand training would result in the independent transfer from tacts to mands. It was shown that all three participants started manding for the item independently during tact training after one sequence of tact training followed by mand training.

Comparison Of Acquisition Rates And Child Preference For Varying Amounts Of Teacher Directedness When Teaching Intraverbals, Victoria Lynn Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The intraverbal is argued to be the most socially significant verbal operant and yet it is the least studied. Heal and Hanley (2011) suggest that different teaching strategies will lead to different rates of acquisition and child-preference with the tacting operant. This study continued this research into the realm of intraverbals, with focus on whether the embedded teaching strategy could be punishing on play or engaging in learning opportunities. The teaching strategies of discovery teaching, embedded prompting, and direct teaching were compared to see which strategy correlated with higher rates of acquisition and higher child preference. The study utilized a …

Evaluation Of Using An Interrupted Behavior Chain Procedure To Teach Mands To Children With Autism, Blair Nichole Jacobsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Interrupted behavior chain procedures have been shown to be an effective way to teach individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism to mand for missing objects and information concerning missing objects. Research has shown that an interrupted behavior chain procedure is more effective than traditional mand teach trials, which occur at the onset of a behavior chain or in a massed trial format. However, there is a lack of research evaluating the use of interrupted behavior chain procedures to teach vocal mands for missing items and the possible generalization effects thereof. This study evaluated the acquisition of vocal mands for …