Applied Behavior Analysis Commons^™

Examining The Function Of Stone Wrapping Behavioral Pattern In Balinese Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca Fascicularis), Patricia Mitchell

All Master's Theses

Long-tailed macaques (LTMs, Macaca fascicularis) have multiple stone handling (SH) patterns that vary in form and complexity across different populations, but little is known about the group of Balinese LTM’s motivation to wrap stones in the Monkey Forest of Ubud, Indonesia. This study focuses on whether the SH pattern, wrap (WRP), is an object play behavior with the potential of becoming a more functionally complex behavior (e.g., tool use). SH sequences were collected using all-occurrence and focal sampling and examined using the program Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS). In total, 322 minutes of footage were reviewed for both stones …

The Effects Of Reversing Safmeds Presentation On Learning And Generalization, Emily Nordlund

All Master's Theses

Say All Fast Minute Each Day (SAFMEDS) is a flashcard procedure that is effective in producing fluency, but not necessarily generalization, of a content area. One possibility for the lack of generalization is the direction of the SAFMEDS training. Most learners are presented with a definition (the longer side) and have to say the term (the shorter side). Elements of single-case and between-groups designs were used to examine the effects of reversing the direction of training on acquisition and fluency of SAFMEDS content, as well as generalization. Within this study, the control group was presented with a book or paper …

The Effects Of Therapy Balls On In-Seat And On-Task Behavior In Young Children, Ariel Ching

All Master's Theses

This study utilized an alternating treatment design to study the effects of therapy balls, chairs, and the element of choice on the in-seat and on-task behaviors of three, preschool-aged children. Participants were between 4 and 5 years old, typically developing, and were selected based on their ability to make a choice between two different stimuli. This study was conducted at a table, with the participant engaging in a fine-motor activity that they had shown preference to, based on a paired-stimulus preference assessment (Play-Doh, coloring, magnetic blocks, etc.). It was hypothesized that the participants would show higher rates of in-seat and …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Verbal Feedback Versus Acoustical Feedback Within A Behavior Skills Training Package When Teaching Beginning Yoga Postures To Novice Yoga Practitioners, Molly Rauschl

All Master's Theses

Behavior skills training (BST), composed of modeling, instructions, rehearsal, and feedback, is an efficient and commonly used training package that has been proven effective in fostering behavior change in a variety of learners and with a multitude of behaviors, including those related to health and fitness. Feedback has been deemed a critical component of BST and there are various ways in which feedback can be administered. This study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of providing verbal feedback versus acoustical feedback within a BST package when teaching beginning yoga postures to participants who have never before practiced yoga. No feedback method …

The Effect Of A Lag Schedule Of Reinforcement On Variability In Toy Play In Children With Autism, Cloie Cornell

All Master's Theses

Variability is a dimension of behavior that is altered and learned through reinforcement contingencies (Neuringer, 2002). The lag schedule of reinforcement is one way to establish contingencies in order to increase variability in block formations built by children diagnosed with autism. Napolitano, Smith, Zarcone, Goodkin and McAdam (2010), and Miller (1012) found that a lag schedule of reinforcement increased the variety of block formations built by children diagnosed with autism, both studies used the discriminative stimulus (SD) “build differently,” during intervention phases. The current study used a lag schedule of reinforcement along with the SD “build something,” throughout each phase. …

Derived Textual Control In Recreational Activity Schedules With Children With Autism, Holly Kolb

All Master's Theses

Activity schedules are commonly used with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The primary advantage of activity schedules is that they help the learner complete tasks independently. One child with autism, who was familiar with using pictorial activity schedules, participated in this study. This study was done to examine the use of a conditional discrimination procedure for helping children with autism transfer from the use of a pictorial activity schedule to the use of a textual activity schedule. The participant was exposed to a conditional discrimination training procedure before being tested for the ability to follow a textual activity …

Emergence Of Stimulus Equivalence And Topography-Based Responding Following Lecture Instruction, Justin Dale Krzmarzick

All Master's Theses

The present study examined the emergence of stimulus equivalence using both selection-based and topography-based tests following a lecture or control condition. This study also evaluated generalization to novel stimuli in both selection-based and topography-based response formats, and evaluated the social validity of the instructional procedure. Twenty undergraduate students who were at least 18 years of age were assigned to a lecture or control condition. Participants in the lecture condition were exposed to a lecture on the topic of generalization. Participants in the control condition watched the video Martin Seligman: The New Era of Positive Psychology that did not relate to …

The Effects Of A Lag 5 Schedule Of Reinforcement On Toy Play Response Variability, Holly Lynn Sutton

All Master's Theses

Variability in behaviors is a necessary part of living and thriving. Variability allows a person to adapt to new settings, problem solve, and survive. Individuals with an autism spectrum diagnosis lack response variability in their behavioral repertoire, which leads to a lack of problem solving and adaptive skills. Rigid toy play is a common symptom of autism spectrum disorder and shows a larger lack of overall response variability. A lag schedule of reinforcement requires the organism to vary their current response from previous responses in order to receive reinforcement. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect …

Identification Of Preference Categories, Katrina Brooks

All Master's Theses

A 16-item paired stimulus (PS) preference assessments was utilized to identify preference categories. A single item from both the highly-preferred (HP) and less preferred (LP) categories as well as two categorically similar but untested items were then utilized during a reinforcer assessment. An alternating treatments design with an initial baseline and final best treatment phase was implemented to assess the comparative effectiveness of the tested versus untested stimuli to act as reinforcers. The reinforcer assessment involved implementation of discrete trial teaching methods to instruct four separate but similar tasks. Each task was paired with an edible item. During treatment, correct …

Derived Textual Control In Activity Schedules Using A Stimulus Pairing Observation Procedure, Grace Felling

All Master's Theses

Activity schedules are commonly used with individuals with developmental disabilities. These schedules have been found to be highly beneficial because they help the learner complete activities independently without additional prompting and support of others. Two young adults diagnosed with Down syndrome, who used pictorial activity schedules, participated in the current study. This study examined an intervention, called stimulus pairing observation (SPO), for helping adults with Down syndrome transfer from use of a pictorial activity schedule to use of a textual activity schedule. Previous research on derived textual control has shown that matching-to-sample (MTS) can be an effective instructional procedure. The …

The Use Of A Visual Aid To Facilitate Transitional Periods For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Stevi Barrio

All Master's Theses

Transitioning is described as moving from one activity or place to another and has been often recognized as an event that can provoke problem behaviors in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (Sainato et al., 1987). Past research has concentrated on facilitating transitions by using both functional behavior assessments and visual aids. A type of functional behavior assessment is the Questions About Behavioral Function, which is a measurement system designed to determine the function of a given behavior and the environmental stimuli that surround that behavior. This questionnaire rates how often the individual engages in the behavior for situations …

The Effects Of Question-Present Versus Item Present Conditions On Acquisition Of Mands, Paige M. Thornton

All Master's Theses

A mand, often referred to as a request in lay terms, is a verbal operant that is under the control of an establishing operation and maintained by a specific reinforcer. Children with autism spectrum disorder often have difficulty learning mands and need supplemental training to learn this skill. The purpose of the present study was to extend the study by Bowen, Shillingsburg, and Carr (2012) and compare two mand training procedures to determine if a question-only or item-present condition would result in more rapid acquisition of mands. A multiple baseline design across participants, with an embedded alternating treatment design, was …

Manding In Children With Autism: Transfer Of Control From Adults To Peers, Michael Layne Miller

All Master's Theses

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit significant delays, regression, and deficits. One deficit area is that of communication and social skills with peers. The present study assesses whether children diagnosed with ASD can learn to transfer the skill of producing mands for familiar items from an adult to a typically developing peer. This study replicates previous research and extends it with three additional manipulations: (a) reduction of prompt dependence, (b) transfer of manding control from an adult to a trained typically developing peer, and (c) a generalization test to a novel but trained typically developing peer. Results demonstrate …

Peer Tutoring To Teach Children To Seek Help When Lost, Andrew J. Arellano

All Master's Theses

There are many programs that are designed to teach children safety skills. Skills such as gun safety, first aid, and abduction prevention have all been taught using a method called Behavioral Skills Training (BST). However, BST only teaches a few children at a time and is often taught by an expert. This study aimed to test whether young children (5 year olds) can learn from older peer trainers (11 & 12 year olds) who have been taught to use BST. The safety skill targeted for the current study was the behavior of seeking help when lost in a store because …

An Evaluation Of Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Assertiveness Skills To College Students, Savannah Warrington

All Master's Theses

Assertiveness skills are related to a variety of life factors including stress levels, social relationships, social fears, and anxiety. The previous research has shown that engaging in nonassertive behavior can have negative effects, and assertive behaviors can lead to a healthier life (Eldeeb, Enstar, & Eldosoky, 2014; Elliot & Gramling, 1990; Larijani, Aghajanie, Baheiraei, & Neiestanank, 2010; Morgan, 1974). The purpose of the current research was to determine if behavioral skills training (BST) was effective in teaching assertiveness skills to college students and if the skills would generalize to novel situations. BST is a method for teaching skills that uses …

Using Behavioral Skills Training And Videotaped Vignettes To Teach Accurate Recording Of Behavior To In-Service Teachers Of Children With Autism, Nicole Marie Hoffman

All Master's Theses

Research on staff training demonstrates a need for better training of service providers in applied settings (Frazier, 1972; Love, Carr, LeBlanc, & Kisamore, 2013; Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid, 2012). Well-trained staff members increase the likelihood that instructional programs are implemented with a high degree of procedural integrity (Catania, Almeida, Liu-Constant, & Reed, 2009), that is, all people implement a given procedure exactly as designed. Four in-service teachers of children with autism observed several You Tube TM videos and were asked to record instances of a given target behavior using three interval recording strategies. The three interval recording strategies that were …

Punishment-Free Toilet Training For Children With Autism: Silent Urine Alarms, Joy Mayer Gulseth

All Master's Theses

The current study aimed to examine the effects of punishment-free toilet training procedures on successful toilet training in two children with autism. The participants had no previous experience with any toilet-training procedures. This study employed the use of scheduled sits, positive reinforcement for sitting and for successful in-toilet urinations, and use of silent urine alarms that signal accidents to parents or caregivers, but not to the child. Toilet-training procedures were conducted across the participant's home and school settings by the principal investigator, research associates, parents, and teachers. One participant made significant progress toward becoming toilet-trained. The other failed to show …

Behavioral Relaxation Training: A Stress Management Tool For Graduate Students, Natalie Anne Juhlin

All Master's Theses

Stress can have maladaptive effects on health and academic performance. This study examined the effectiveness of teaching Behavioral Relaxation Training (BRT) as a stress management technique for graduate students. BRT is a form of relaxation training that teaches individuals 10 relaxed behaviors to use when experiencing distressing emotions. A concurrent multiple probe design across four participants was used in conjunction with pretest and follow-up scores from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Following baseline probes, participants received two BRT training sessions focusing on acquisition and proficiency of relaxed body postures. Results revealed that after BRT training all participants achieved greater than …

The Effects Of Anxiety And Depressive Symptoms On Working Memory In Children, Rachel Lee Liudahl-Carr

All Master's Theses

The study analyzed archival data of 38 elementary and middle school students from special education records. Scale scores from the Behavioral Assessment System for Children-Second Edition-Teacher Rating Scale (BASC-2-TRS), were used to measure Anxiety, Depression, Attention Problems and Learning Problems. These scale scores were used as predictor variables for Working Memory and Full-scale IQ scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition. It was hypothesized that BASC- 2-TRS scores would be negatively correlated with Working Memory scores, but not IQ. Only the inverse relationship between Learning Problems and Working Memory scores was found to be significant.

A Punishment-Free, Toilet-Training Protocol For Children With Developmental Disabilities, Chelsea Lynn Pearsall

All Master's Theses

The present investigation adapted a behaviorally-based toilet-training protocol for use with two male children with developmental disabilities. Positive practice and verbal reprimands were eliminated, and reinforcement, scheduled sits, and a urine alarm were utilized. Data were collected on the number of intoilet urinations, urinary accidents, and self-initiations. Results show that both participants exhibited significant improvement in their toileting skills and met the final success criteria rapidly. These results were maintained through follow-up. Implications for the elimination of punishment procedures in future toilet training protocols are discussed.

A Comparison On The State Dependent Effects Of Electroconvulsive Shock And Physostigmine On A Choice Task, Candace Susanne Brown

All Master's Theses

Two experiments compared the state-dependent effects of electroconvulsive shock (ECS) and physostigmine relative to a normal state (saline or no injection). Rats were trained in a water T maze using a discrimination-training paradigm. In Experiment 1, discrimination was found between the ECS- and normal state. However, response control was strongest in the ECS-0 treatment-training order and on non-ECS training sessions. In Experiment 2, dissociation also occurred but was more pronounced in the P-0 (physostigmine-saline) treatment-training order and on the saline training sessions. Results from both experiments indicate learning is most rapid in the treatment-no treatment training order and that a …

The Generalizability Of Learned Helplessness, Ian J. Grabenhorst

All Master's Theses

While it has been experimentally demonstrated that "learned helplessness" can be conditioned in a number of species, the subjects commonly employed have been dogs. This paper presents an attempt to investigate "learned helplessness" in rats (a variant of the Long-Evans strain), and examine the question of its generalizability from shock as an aversive stimulus to noise. It also explores the possible generality of "helplessness" to exploratory behavior in an open field. The results demonstrated that the Ss were susceptible to "helplessness" conditioning across shock conditions; however, "helplessness" did not generalize across shock to noise conditions. The present study also showed …

The Relationship Of Verbal And Symbolic Mediation To Induced Meaning, Dennis G. Groome

All Master's Theses

Four experimental groups were presented nine induced-meaning training trials with 20 CVC stimuli and either abstract or concrete noun, picture alone, or picture plus noun responses. Two control groups received no training trials. Two experimental groups were required to learn associations and the other two simply viewed S-R pairings. Half the groups in each condition generated images and the other half generated word associates to 12 nouns and 20 CVCs. No evidence of induced meaning or of active versus passive learning differences was found. Suggestions for more effective experimental procedures are made.

Reversal Shift Performance By Young Children As A Function Of Stimulus Presentation Mode, Beverly Faye Miller

All Master's Theses

The present study required three groups of Ss (gifted preschoolers, average preschoolers, and first graders) to solve a reversal shift (R). It was hypothesized that greater verbal competency among any of the three groups would lead to superior performance on the R shift. The results indicated that first graders performed significantly better than the average preschool children on the R shift. Also the performance of the first graders was reliably superior to the gifted children on one postshift phase analysis; on the remaining postshift comparisons a visual trend in the same direction was observed. Three separate stimulus presentation modes were …

The Effects Of Pattern Of Extraneous Auditory Stimuli And Sex On Vigilance Performance, Paul G. Fisher

All Master's Theses

Eighty introductory-level psychology student volunteers performed a sweep-clock perceptual vigilance task. Each subject was exposed to one of four noise conditions: 65-dB constant noise, 100-dB constant noise, 100-dB regularly-intermittent noise and 100-dB variable intermittent noise. No overall effects of pattern of presentation schedule of noise on performance were found. Time-related changes in three measures, correct detections, reaction times, and incorrect detections plus sex differences in reaction times, were found. In the regularly-intermittent condition females showed a greater time-related decrement in correct detections than males and made fewer incorrect detections. With intermittent background stimulation the time-related change in incorrect detection rates …

Reality Conceptualization As A Factor In Socialization And Adjustment, Glen A. Frese

All Master's Theses

Forty-four high school students were involved in one of three separate classes. The target class received a conceptual framework and practice in identifying assumptions and evaluating their consequences. The object was to teach a process of self-evaluation. The other students received their regular class work. The POI was administered before and after to measure changes in values. The results were not significant but raised a question involving the structure through which behaviors and values are learned and internalized.

Spatial Orientation Of Children In Dyads With Female Adults, Susan Menig Karstetter

All Master's Theses

Subjects were requested to enter the experimental setting, choose a chair, and sit while speaking to an adult female who listened to the child for two minutes. The distance and angle of seating were measured and studied with regard to the age, sex, grade level, height, handedness, academic achievement, size of chair used, and the listener.

The results indicated that seating distance was influenced by the sex, age and height of the subject and size of chair chosen. The angle of seating chosen was influenced by the sex and height of the subject and the size of chair chosen. It …

The Role Of Memory In Rule Learning Problems, Alan S. Kertes

All Master's Theses

Thirty-six college subjects who had taken a memory test from the Wechsler series were chosen from an introductory psychology class and divided into three memory levels (high, medium, and low). Twelve subjects from each of the memory groups were required to categorized geometrical stimulus patterns into positive and negative instances according to an unknown conceptual rule that prescribed a relationship between two known attributes. Each subject was assigned to one of three postfeedback delay intervals of 1.5, 20, or 30 seconds. Performance among the three memory levels was not statistically different even though differences from best to worst were apparent …

The Role Of Postfeedback Intervals In Rule Learning Problems, Donald E. Lloyd

All Master's Theses

Subjects classified bidimensional stimulus patterns of variable colors and shapes into positive or negative instances of the concept, according to one of three conceptual rules (Disjunctive, Conditional, or Biconditional). Four postfeedback intertrial intervals were used: 1.5, 5, 20, or 30 seconds. Performance on the Dj rule was significantly higher than either the Cd or Bd rule and there was no reliable difference between the later two rules. The postfeedback delay was not a reliable source of variance among all rules, but did yield significant differences within the Bd rule. Inconsistent performance trends in the Cd and Bd rules as the …

Low Intensity Footshock Examined As A Possible Reinforcer For Sensory Deprived Rats, Ron J. Madesh

All Master's Theses

Two experiments were performed, first to test the footshock threshold for rats reared in the Central Washington State College rat colony and second to test for reinforcing effects of low level footshock for sensory deprived subjects. The threshold study consisted of an active avoidance situation with a low intensity footshock as the conditioned stimulus. Using the method of limits, thresholds were established (using 200k. ohms resistance in series) at 19.10 Vac and 22.60 Vac for sensory deprived and control subjects respectively. The second study tested for preference for footshock versus no footshock in an open shuttle box situation. No significant …