Psychology Commons^™

The Use Of Vouchers To Negatively Reinforce Number Of Weeks Compliant Among Clients In A Mental Health Court, Michele Nicole Murdock

Dissertations

The literature is sparse on the use of contingency management procedures in a mental health court (MHC). The purpose of this study was to examine the use of negative reinforcement for behavioral changes in a MHC. Specifically, the present study explored whether a voucher-based contingency management intervention improved the number of weeks compliant on MHC probation and whether participants were more externally than internally motivated to comply with MHC probation requirements. Vouchers were given for compliance with MHC probation requirements. The vouchers allowed participants to miss a future court date. It was hypothesized that participants who received the voucher would …

Subtyping Stereotypy And Delineating Effective Type-Based Treatment, Katherine Therese Haggerty

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often engage in automatically reinforced stereotypic behaviors. These behaviors are often repetitive in nature, lack variability, and persist over time with no identifiable social function. This research used an adapted subtyping procedure to categorize stereotypy based on behavioral patterns in a pairwise functional analysis. Following subtyping, experimenters exposed participants to up to two treatment procedures to determine whether the subtyping procedure is predictive of the efficacy of different treatments. Results from this research showed that stereotypy can be categorized into different subtypes and that those with behaviors categorized into Subtype 1 were responsive …

Behavioral And Psychophysiological Effects Of Near-Miss Outcomes In A Game Of War, Erin Wylie

All NMU Master's Theses

Within the gambling literature, the misidentification of outcomes has been shown to affect gambling behaviors in players. A notably salient stimulus frequently cited as leading to the misidentification of wins is near-misses. Near-misses occur when the outcome of an event closely resembles a winning outcome, even though it is a loss. The current study intended to further investigate the effects of near-misses relative to wins and losses on player’s inter-trial latencies and the presence of the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 event related potentials (ERPs) in a game of war card game. FRN is a negative fronto-central ERP component occurring …

An Evaluation Of A Culture Interview Checklist For Behaviorally-Oriented Clinicians, Joshua Hursel Addington

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there have been calls from within the field for behavior analysts to develop awareness of the impact of client culture on treatment. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a checklist as a tool for increasing the frequency of questions about client culture asked by behavioral clinicians during mock intake interviews. A multiple baseline across question types (diet, communication and reward/discipline) was used to evaluate the effects of a vague prompt and the Culture Interview Checklist (CIC). When instructed to ask questions about culture, none of the participants increased the number of questions asked …

An Evaluation Of Behavior Analytic Jargon On Parents Of Children With Autism, Ruth Beatrice Whipple

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that profession specific jargon can be perceived negatively by individuals outside of that profession perhaps due to a lack of understanding. Much of the current research has focused on the social validity of utilizing technical terminology with laypersons and has shown that overall there is a preference for nontechnical terminology according to public opinion. Yet, little research has been done in the area of parent training to assess the effects of jargon on more direct measures of performance such as a parent’s accuracy with implementing a treatment procedure. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate …

Effects Of Choice On Multiplication And Division Fluency Acquisition For Third Grade Students, Terri Tammelin

All NMU Master's Theses

Students with the most pronounced behavioral needs are the ones missing the most instruction. A three-tiered system of intervention that is data driven and uses evidence based interventions is used within schools to meet the needs of all students. Within this tiered system, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), founded in the sciences of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), are used. Of the many PBIS interventions, instructional choice at Tier I has been established as an effective, low intensity, teacher delivered support that aims to reduce challenging behaviors and increase academic engagement. Instructional choice involves two parts: selection in response to …

Training Technicians To Conduct Trial-Based Functional Analyses Via Telehealth, Kacie Mcgarry

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have supported the use of trial-based functional analysis performed by teachers in classroom settings. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of training technicians to conduct trial-based functional analyses via telehealth. Telehealth-based training was effective for producing high-integrity implementation by technicians and that using Trial-Based Functional Analyses in classrooms resulted in an efficient means of conducting functional analysis in areas with limited resources.

The Effects Of Performance Feedback On Behavioral Self-Monitoring, Noell Jankowski

Theses and Dissertations

Self-monitoring is a process in which an individual observes and records their own behavior. In the field of behavior analysis, there is limited research on behavioral self-monitoring (BSM) and the components that are necessary to maintain its effects. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to identify effects of implementing a feedback intervention with BSM on participants’ compliance in completing BSM tasks. Participants were three undergraduate students at a southeastern university who self-monitored their own safe driving behaviors in their personal vehicles. The independent variable was the implementation of a feedback intervention and the dependent variable was compliance with …

Behavioral Skills Training For Active Shooter Scenarios: Human Service Staff, Jacqueline Marie Noto

Theses and Dissertations

Active shooter scenarios have become increasingly prevalent in school and healthcare settings. Unfortunately, little information is available on training for active shooter scenarios when a staff member is also responsible for a client. Behavioral skills training has been shown to be an effective way to train safety skills in prior research. We found that behavioral skills training was more effective than an informational video at increasing correct responses to three different active shooter scenarios among three behavioral clinicians. These findings may impact how active shooter training is conducted.

Falling For Falsehoods: A Diet For Prevention, Wei Teck Ong, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Consuming information in a discerning manner can help us resist dubious claims.

Why And How Public Trust Matters, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

To build high trust cities, governments need to better understand the relationships linking people, leaders and the cities they inhabit. Behavioural scientist Professor David Chan explains the psychology of public trust.

Using Video-Based Feedback And Self-Monitoring To Improve Athletic Coaching Interactions, Kayce Lee Nagel

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined if video-based feedback combined with self-monitoring will improve the quality of specific feedback statements delivered by coaches. The study involved four collegiate softball coaches. The primary dependent variable was the quality of coaching interactions delivered by the coaches as measured by items completed from a checklist of feedback characteristics. The coaching interaction was defined as any feedback statement that is referencing behavior relevant to task performance. The secondary dependent variable was the athlete’s performance. The independent variable was video feedback combined with self-monitoring. The results showed an improvement in all four participant’s coaching interactions. The group …

Using An Elicited Orienting Response And Respondent Conditioning To Increase Eye Contact In Response To A Name Call In Children With Autism, Nicole Adriaenssens

Theses and Dissertations

One of the earliest and most noticeable characteristics of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is impaired eye contact. Difficulty with making eye contact presents concerns for children regarding academic, social, and safety skills—for instance, failing to respond to a teacher calling a child’s name to give instructions, looking at a peer during play, or orienting toward an adult speaker warning the child of a risky situation. Currently published research on increasing responding to name with eye contact has primarily involved separate and combined procedures such as physical prompting, visual prompting, differential reinforcement, and overcorrection. The current study evaluated the …

Effects Of Progressive Ratio Schedules On Responding Following Exposure To Varying Economies, Laura Perry Senn

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of behavior analysis, access to reinforcement is generally referred to as being either an open or a closed economy. However, little research exists on the varying degrees of reinforcer exposure that may occur between the parameters of “open” and “closed.” The current study compares varying degrees of economies utilizing closed, 33% open, 66% open, and open economy conditions with three participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Prior to analysis, all participants completed an evaluation to determine whether their preferences remained stable over multiple sessions and whether they were sensitive to a satiation operation. Results are evaluated in …

The Effects Of Feedback Statements Versus Coaching Questions On Athlete Performance, Cledia Machado Caberlon

Theses and Dissertations

Coaching is a term used frequently in behavioral and non-behavioral literature, yet often with a lack of clarity on form and function. One component of coaching is feedback, which is the most common intervention in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) and has shown to be an effective treatment when implemented correctly. However, the use of questions rather than statements to improve performance has not yet been evaluated in the coaching system. The current investigation used a coaching system to separately compare the effectiveness of both interactions (feedback statements and coaching questions) to contribute to the coaching literature. Five Mixed Martial Arts …

The Effect Of Varying Durations Of Noncontingent Access To A Preferred Item On Compliance, Ashley Patricia Shuler

Theses and Dissertations

The high-probability (high-p) sequence is frequently used to increase compliance. It involves presentation of a series of instructions with which a participant has historically complied immediately before the presentation of an instruction that has a lower probability of compliance (i.e., a low-p instruction). To date, the high-p sequence has received mixed support in the literature. Thus, researchers have begun to investigate alternatives to the sequence, one of which involves omission of the high-p instructions and noncontingent access to preferred items immediately before the delivery of the low-p instruction. In the current study, the effect of varying durations of noncontingent access …

A Meta-Analysis Of Procedures To Change Implicit Measures, Patrick S. Forscher, Calvin K. Lai, Jordan R. Ast, Charles R. Ebersole, Michelle Herman, Patricia G. Devine, Brian A. Nosek

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using a novel technique known as network meta-analysis, we synthesized evidence from 492 studies (87,418 participants) to investigate the effectiveness of procedures in changing implicit measures, which we define as response biases on implicit tasks. We also evaluated these procedures’ effects on explicit and behavioral measures. We found that implicit measures can be changed, but effects are often relatively weak (|ds| < .30). Most studies focused on producing short-term changes with brief, single-session manipulations. Procedures that associate sets of concepts, invoke goals or motivations, or tax mental resources changed implicit measures the most, whereas procedures that induced threat, affirmation, or specific moods/emotions changed implicit measures the least. Bias tests suggested that implicit effects could be inflated relative to their true population values. Procedures changed explicit measures less consistently and to a smaller degree than implicit measures and generally produced trivial changes in behavior. Finally, changes in implicit measures did not mediate changes in explicit measures or behavior. Our findings suggest that changes in implicit measures are possible, but those changes do not necessarily translate into changes in explicit measures or behavior.

An Integration-To-Bound Model Of Decision-Making That Accounts For The Spectral Properties Of Neural Data, Ramón Guevara Erra, Marco Arbotto, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Integration-to-bound models are among the most widely used models of perceptual decision-making due to their simplicity and power in accounting for behavioral and neurophysiological data. They involve temporal integration over an input signal (“evidence”) plus Gaussian white noise. However, brain data shows that noise in the brain is long-term correlated, with a spectral density of the form 1/fα (with typically 1 < α < 2), also known as pink noise or ‘1/f’ noise. Surprisingly, the adequacy of the spectral properties of drift-diffusion models to electrophysiological data has received little attention in the literature. Here we propose a model of accumulation of evidence for decision-making that takes into consideration the spectral properties of brain signals. We develop a generalization of the leaky stochastic accumulator model using a Langevin equation whose non-linear noise term allows for varying levels of autocorrelation in the time course of the decision variable. We derive this equation directly from magnetoencephalographic data recorded while subjects performed a spontaneous movement initiation task. We then propose a nonlinear model of accumulation of evidence that accounts for the ‘1/f’ spectral properties of brain signals, and the observed variability in the power spectral properties of brain signals. Furthermore, our model outperforms the standard drift-diffusion model at approximating the empirical waiting time distribution.

Bound By Silence: Psychological Effects Of The Traditional Oath Ceremony Used In The Sex Trafficking Of Nigerian Women And Girls, Jennifer Millett-Barrett

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Nigerian women and children have been trafficked to Italy over the last 30 years for commercial sexual exploitation with an alarming increase in the past three years. The Central Mediterranean Route that runs from West African countries to Italy is rife with organized crime gangs that have created a highly successful trafficking operation. As part of the recruitment process, the Nigerian mafia and its operatives exploit victims by subjecting them to a traditional religious juju oath ceremony, which is an extremely effective control mechanism to silence victims and trap them in debt bondage. This study explores the psychological effects of …

Examining Protective Factors That Promote Resilience Among Children With An Incarcerated Parent, Celeste A. Jackson

Dissertations

Children of incarcerated parents (CIP) represent one of the most vulnerable, at-risk populations in the United States (Johnston, 1995). Best estimates suggests there are 2.7 million children with an incarcerated parents and African-American children are disproportionately represented at a figure of 1 in 9 children (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). Much of the research attempting to understand this population and guide intervention efforts has employed a deficit-based approach, highlighting the plethora of adverse risk factors and negative outcomes associated with being the child of an incarcerated parent. This approach fails to acknowledge the presence of resilience inherent in these youth. The …

Training Functional Analysis Skills With Instruction With Video Modeling And Video-Self Monitoring, Haley Ciara Hughes

Masters Theses

When developing plans to reduce a challenging behavior, Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) have an ethical obligation to first conduct a functional assessment (PECC, 2014, 3.01a), the goal of which is to identify the controlling variables for such behaviors and to use that information in training more appropriate replacement behaviors (PECC, 2014, 4.08b). It is important to train aspiring behavior analysts to implement an experimental functional analysis (FA) as it yields more accurate results than other types of functional assessment (Iwata & Dozier, 2008). Despite being considered a gold standard for training a variety of skills, behavioral skills training (BST) …

I Want To Be Busy: Instrumental Regulation Of Busyness Among Conscientious Individuals, Brandon Koh

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

A sense of busyness, the subjective feeling of having a long and effortful work schedule, is increasingly prevalent in today’s societies. Although people commonly feel busy because of externally imposed work pressures, the motivated self-regulation perspective suggests that people might intentionally put themselves in a busy state for instrumental reasons. Grounded in the instrumental emotion regulation framework, this research theorizes that people instrumentally regulate themselves to experience busyness – a negative affect – to facilitate a performance motive. In other words, people might desire to feel busyness despite its unpleasant hedonic tone in order to attain higher performance. Results from …

Cross-Cultural Media Effects Research, Jinhee Kim, Kimin Eom

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite the substantial development of media effects research, one critical dimension, cultures, has not been actively examined. Most of the theoretical accounts have been derived from Western thought systems, and relevant empirical studies have been conducted mostly in the U.S. or Western Europe. Except for the areas of advertising and health campaigning, very little media effects research has used a cross-cultural framework. In this chapter, we review scholarly work that compares and contrasts portrayals of media messages and their uses/effects/processes of one culture with those from a different culture. Cultures are often equated with national groups, but concept of cultures …

The Relationship Between Justice Perceptions, Conscientiousness And Workplace Behaviors Among Old And Young Employees, Martha P. Blanco Villarreal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research addressed the influence employee age has on organizational justice perceptions (OJPs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) through conscientiousness. Given the valuable contributions of older employees in the workforce, the aim of this study was to investigate the processes by which age affects justice perceptions, the expression of conscientiousness traits, and workplace behaviors. Additionally, a theoretical framework was provided where the conservation of resource, equity, fairness, socioemotional selectivity, and conscientiousness at work theorieshelp explain the linkages from the integrative model. A total of 179 MTurk workers participated in this study, which required participants to answer questions about their workplace …

Functional Assessment And Treatment Of Elopement Occasioned By Transitions, Denice Rios Mojica

Dissertations

Elopement is a dangerous behavior in children with developmental disabilities because it greatly increases the risk of accidents that lead to serious injury or death. The dangers of elopement are especially high during transitions because these situations increase the chance that a child will gain unsupervised access outside, where the most serious accidents typically occur. Despite its severity, assessment methodologies that specifically evaluate the contextual variables found during transitions are not available. Additionally, treatment for elopement during transitions typically involves antecedent interventions which do not address function. Continued research on effective and efficient means for the assessment and treatment of …

A Ulysses Pact With Artificial Systems. How To Deliberately Change The Objective Spirit With Cultured Ai, Bruno Gransche

Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings

The article introduces a concept of cultured technology, i.e. intelligent systems capable of interacting with humans and showing (or simulating) manners, of following customs and of socio-sensitive considerations. Such technologies might, when deployed on a large scale, influence and change the realm of human customs, traditions, standards of acceptable behavior, etc. This realm is known as the "objective spirit" (Hegel), which usually is thought of as being historically changing but not subject to deliberate human design. The article investigates the question of whether the purposeful design of interactive technologies (as cultured technologies) could enable us to shape modes of …

Dance/Movement Therapy As A Tool To Improve Social Skills In Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review, Holly Berlandy

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed by the presence of social communication and interaction deficits present in their day to day. The deficits present in this disorder appear within the first three years of life and lead to problems with connecting and interacting with other individuals including their own family members. As a result, children and adolescents with Autism spectrum disorder often experience negative self-image and lack the proper skills to interact with others. Autism spectrum disorder is becoming more commonly diagnosed and yet there remains a gap in interventions and treatment due to the individualized appearance …

Are Menstrual Cycles A Biological Determinant Of Well-Being Amongst Sierra Leonean Schoolchildren?, Ashwini Shridhar

Master's Theses

The influence of hormones and biology on behavior is a topic that is rife with controversy, especially when it comes to sexual hormones. There is even more murkiness when it comes to the topic of menstruation and knowledge about women’s menstrual cycles. Recent research on this topic have seen a link between the hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and various behavioral implications on competition, cooperation, and risk behavior. This study tries to expand existing knowledge by examining whether there is a link between hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and risk preferential behavior using economic experiments in the largely understudied context …

How Internalized And Externalized Behaviors In Adolescents Impact Academic Achievement In Faith-Based Institutions, Subira Brown, Chioma Tait, Jade Callahan, Deyana Cox

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The purpose of this literature review is to address how internalized and externalized behaviors in adolescents impact academic achievement in faith-based institutions. This research intends to bring awareness to the prevalence of mental health concerns faced by adolescents, as well as the need for mental health services in the education system. This research will also identify the relationship between internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and academic achievement. Based on the findings, the next steps will be to evaluate the deficits within the Adventist school system and begin developing programs and resources necessary to support the mental health needs of children and …

Its Skin Is My Skin, Bryan Page

Graduate School of Art Theses

This text examines the complexity of attempting to empathize with bodies that are vastly othered from my own. This broad yet nuanced subject crosses epistemological boundaries and complicates the dualities between both the mind and body, and between the corporeal and the virtual. My desire to better understand the conditions of another’s experience originates from a painful traumatic loss which caused me to feel isolated and incomplete. In response to this suffering, I long to emotionally connect with other beings and create artwork that attempts to bridge the qualia of individual experience.

I am interested in the capacity (or lack …