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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Florida Institute of Technology

Theses and Dissertations

Autism

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effects Of Presession Conditions On Behavior During A Brief Functional Analysis, Dung Haylie Le Jul 2022

The Effects Of Presession Conditions On Behavior During A Brief Functional Analysis, Dung Haylie Le

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that patterns of responding during a no-interaction condition of a functional analysis (FA) may predict FA outcomes. Thus, behavior analysts may use an initial no-interaction condition to identify problem behavior maintained by social reinforcement when time and resources are limited. However, in a clinic setting, most functional analyses are conducted in between or immediately after instructional sessions or structured play. Therefore, the proposed study was designed to examine the differential effects of presession conditions of naturally occurring activities (work versus play) at a clinic setting during a modified brief functional analysis. Results showed that presession conditions …


Teaching Children With Autism To Tact Private Events Based On Common Properties, Madisyn Quidort Jul 2022

Teaching Children With Autism To Tact Private Events Based On Common Properties, Madisyn Quidort

Theses and Dissertations

Skinner (1957) proposed that people learn to talk about private events in several ways. This study sought to examine the plausibility of one of those mechanisms: common properties. Skinner asserted that children learn tacts for public stimuli through normal interaction with their caregivers. When a child experiences a private stimulus that shares some feature with a previously learned public stimulus, the child generalizes the tact to the private sensation because there is a common property between the two stimuli. Three children with autistic disorder were taught 6 to 9 sensation tacts (e.g., prickly, cozy, tight) depicted in videos (e.g., a …


Evaluating Matrix Training To Teach Children With Autism To Tact Private Events, Abbi Dell Lee Jul 2021

Evaluating Matrix Training To Teach Children With Autism To Tact Private Events, Abbi Dell Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The research on teaching tacts has primarily focus on visual stimuli, with relatively little attention to teaching tacts of nonvisual stimuli. The present study extended the literature to different types of tactile stimulation by teaching 2-component tacts of body-part sensation combinations in the presence of tactile stimulation. Multiple objects were used to produce the sensations to encourage generalization. Two additional exemplars for each sensation were probed for generalization to novel objects. The experimenters used matrix training, in which target responses were arranged in such a way as to facilitate recombinative generalization to untrained combinations. We arranged 6 body part targets …


Teaching Individuals To Tact The Intensity Of Sensations, Sandhya Rajagopal Jul 2021

Teaching Individuals To Tact The Intensity Of Sensations, Sandhya Rajagopal

Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare professionals frequently ask individuals to use numerical rating scales to rate their pain intensity; therefore, reporting the intensity of private sensations is an important skill. Yet individuals with autism often have difficulty reporting sensations. Using a multiple baseline design across stimulus sets in the pilot experiment and Experiment 1, a multiple probe design across participants in Experiment 2, and a multiple probe design across stimulus sets in Experiment 3, the present study investigated a method of teaching typically developing adults and children and one child with autism to report the intensity of tactile sensations rough, tight, heavy, and temperature. …


The Effects Of Reinforcer Absence And Availability Of Alternative Activity On Delay Of Gratification In Children With Autism, Hailey Rose Prechtel Jul 2021

The Effects Of Reinforcer Absence And Availability Of Alternative Activity On Delay Of Gratification In Children With Autism, Hailey Rose Prechtel

Theses and Dissertations

An increase in delay tolerance can help individuals obtain more preferred items, activities, and interactions. There are also many situations in a young child's daily life in which they cannot have immediate access to items, activities, or attention that they might be seeking. This can often lead to problem behavior and a longer time to wait for the desired item. Strategies that increase self-controlled responding may help individuals make choices and respond appropriately to receive a better outcome. This study examined the effects of self-control techniques such as removing an item, and interaction with an alternative activity on a child’s …


Effects Of Instructive Feedback On Gustatory Relations, Natàlia Arasa Bonavila Jul 2021

Effects Of Instructive Feedback On Gustatory Relations, Natàlia Arasa Bonavila

Theses and Dissertations

Differentiating tastes is important for safety reasons; being able to discriminate flavors could prevent an individual from eating unsafe items. The association of taste, color, and texture of different foods is important for safety reasons as it provides a base knowledge of safe foods. As some people with autism have problems communicating what they see, hear, touch, feel, or taste, the association of color, texture, and taste will promote healthy choices. Most of the research on tact acquisition has focused on visual stimuli. However, this study attempted to teach children to tact gustatory stimuli and evaluated the effects of instructive …


The Effects Of Training On Parent-Implemented Multiple Stimulus Preference Assessments Without Replacement, Marlene Hernandez Correa Jul 2021

The Effects Of Training On Parent-Implemented Multiple Stimulus Preference Assessments Without Replacement, Marlene Hernandez Correa

Theses and Dissertations

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit restricted interests and communication deficits; hence, identifying potential reinforcers can be challenging. Using multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessments is a practical way for practitioners working with this population to identify potential reinforcers. Previous research has found that inexperienced staff can learn to implement preference assessments using enhanced instructions only (i.e., detailed written information, diagrams, and pictures) without needing feedback (Graff and Karsten, 2012b). However, researchers have yet to examine whether enhanced instructions alone impact other populations' repertoires, such as parents, similarly, or if this training is effective across cultures. Incorporating …


A Quantitative Analysis Of Errors During Conditional Discriminations: Changing Sample-Stimuli Disparity In Delayed Matching-To-Sample Task With Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Tiara Rahadian Putri Dec 2019

A Quantitative Analysis Of Errors During Conditional Discriminations: Changing Sample-Stimuli Disparity In Delayed Matching-To-Sample Task With Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Tiara Rahadian Putri

Theses and Dissertations

Conditional discrimination skill is foundational in teaching many other functional skills in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and error occur during training. Antecedent- and consequence-based intervention are commonly used without the understanding of underlying behavioral mechanism responsible for these errors. A quantitative framework based on choice- and signal-detection analyses (Davison & Tustin, 1978) was used to quantify and categorize errors. Three children diagnosed with ASD participated. The current study used an automated 0-s delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) procedure on an iPad Pro® 9.7”. Four experimental conditions were arranged successively, wherein each corresponded with a level of sample stimuli disparity: …


Training Caregivers To Implement A Structured Meal Protocol To Decrease Food Selectivity Among Young Children With Autism, Ronald Joseph Clark May 2019

Training Caregivers To Implement A Structured Meal Protocol To Decrease Food Selectivity Among Young Children With Autism, Ronald Joseph Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated a method of training caregivers to implement the Structured Meal protocol to treat children with autism who exhibit food selectivity. A treatment package consisting of written instructions and video modeling as well as in-vivo prompting and feedback (when necessary) was used to teach participants to conduct the protocol. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of training. In addition to the primary dependent variable (i.e., correct caregiver implementation of the Structured Meal protocol), data on three secondary dependent variables (i.e., child bite acceptance, mouth cleans, and inappropriate mealtime behavior) were collected. Results …


Discrimination Training To Produce Emergent Relations Of Pre-Algebraic Math Skills, Jeanine Rinda Tanz May 2019

Discrimination Training To Produce Emergent Relations Of Pre-Algebraic Math Skills, Jeanine Rinda Tanz

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have deficits with respect to generalization of skills. Procedures designed to induce stimulus equivalence have been shown to promote generalization. This study used a modified multiple probe design with an embedded multiple schedule to: (a) compare one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) training structures to determine which structure results in more positive equivalence outcomes when all variables are held constant, and (b) determine the extent to which children with ASD demonstrate stimulus equivalence and stimulus class mergers when using educationally relevant stimuli. Four children with ASD were taught two classes of stimuli (Class …


A Comparison Of Verbal And Standard Selection-Based Preferences Using The Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement Method For Children With Developmental Disabilities, Devon Mcmahon Nov 2018

A Comparison Of Verbal And Standard Selection-Based Preferences Using The Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement Method For Children With Developmental Disabilities, Devon Mcmahon

Theses and Dissertations

Since DeLeon and Iwata (1996) published their seminal study on multiple stimulus preference assessments, the research surrounding preference assessments utilizing multiple stimuli has grown immensely. This has led to many variations of DeLeon and Iwata’s (1996) original preference assessment. Variations have included preference assessments conducted with videos, pictures, and activities. We compared the results of a standard tangible multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment (MSWO) to a verbal multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment with four individuals with developmental disabilities. A reinforcer assessment was conducted following each preference assessment to assess accuracy. Idiosyncratic results were found across participants. For two …


An Evaluation Of Static Versus Dynamic Instructional Stimuli On Generalization Of Action Tacts, Shana Renee Fentress Jul 2018

An Evaluation Of Static Versus Dynamic Instructional Stimuli On Generalization Of Action Tacts, Shana Renee Fentress

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have noted that children with autism have difficulty generalizing responses to stimuli outside of those used in training. Some studies have analyzed ways to promote generalization such as using concurrent training or using stimuli that would be most similar to those found in the natural environment. Little research, however, has investigated strategies for promoting generalization of action tacts. The current study investigated two different types of stimulus delivery forms: static (i.e., pictures), which are typically used during instruction, and dynamic (i.e., videos), which may provide stimulation closer to that which a child would encounter in a natural setting. Findings …