Applied Behavior Analysis Commons^™

Developmental Dyslexia And Creativity: A Meta-Analysis, Nadyannam M. Majeed, Andree Hartanto, Jacinth J. X. Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite difficulties in reading and writing, some research suggests that dyslexia may be related to higher levels of creativity. However, this pattern is not consistently observed. The current research sought to ascertain whether individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia exhibit higher creativity than controls through a meta-analysis. Fourteen studies that assessed the creativity of 397 individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia and 453 controls were reviewed. Random-effects meta-analysis revealed an overall non-significant difference in creativity scores between those with dyslexia and controls. Additionally, method factors such as the type of creativity task and whether intelligence was controlled for, as well as sample-related …

The Effects Of A Process Analysis Diagnostic Tool On The Accuracy Of Identifying Process Level Disconnects, Vincent Alexander Bello

Theses and Dissertations

Research in the area of Organizational Behavior management (OBM) has demonstrated the effectiveness of behavior analytic interventions on performance in workplace settings. Despite the utility of these procedures, functional assessments used to identify variables maintaining performance deficits have been underutilized and underreported in the OBM literature. Research on functional assessment has been particularly scarce in the area of behavioral systems analysis (BSA), a subfield of OBM that focuses on changing organizational performance through the individual, process, and organizational levels. Without empirical validation of preintervention assessment in BSA, it is unclear to what extent these assessments contribute to the effectiveness of …

Algorithms For Algorithms: Teaching Problem-Solving In Computer Science, James Riswick-Estelle

Theses and Dissertations

Increased demand from society for computer scientists and software engineers has placed considerable stress on university-based computer science and engineering programs. Given technology's central role in society, the education of those developing and maintaining that technology is critical. Behavior-based teaching methods may assist in addressing increased demand on universities and improve the quality of education they provide. The present study included two experiments of non-concurrent multiple baseline design. The experiments included 29 total participants to evaluate different algorithm-writing teaching methods at the undergraduate level. Algorithms describe a problem's key features and outline the step-by-step process required for solving that particular …

Increasing Transgender-Inclusive Behaviors Via Self-Monitoring, Abigail Kaylyn Petronelli

Theses and Dissertations

Within behavior analysis there is an increasing demand for research to create inclusive organizational cultures. To create a culture of inclusion, it is necessary to engage in inclusive behaviors towards individuals of varying race, gender, and sexual orientation. Despite the rising social demand and call for diversity in research, there are still few studies which apply an intervention to improve inclusive behaviors. One target of inclusive behaviors is proper pronoun use towards individuals who are transgender or gender non-conforming (TGNC). To date, there is only one published article regarding TGNC topics, which explored a TGNC-inclusive tool (Leland & Stockwell, 2019). …

The Impact Of Mindfulness On Healthy Food Choices, Kaylea Hopfer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The practice of mindfulness has a long history in research, particularly psychological studies. In this paper I examine the effects of a short mindfulness intervention on healthy food purchases. Specifically, I developed an online survey and recruited 634 participants via Prolific between July 24 - July 27, 2020. I randomly assigned participants to either a mindfulness manipulation or a control condition. Following treatment (or control) participants completed a food choice task and various other control. Following the survey, I analyzed data using R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22) and R-Studio. I estimated three different regression models, ordinary least squares (OLS), Poisson, and …

Facts From Fiction: Packaging Misinformation, Angel Ray Houts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research established that readers learn both accurate and inaccurate information from fictional stories. The current study explored factors that might moderate the impact of misinformation. Participants read fictional stories that contain three assertions; the first two were labeled as set-up assertions, and the last were labeled as the critical assertion. First, there was a manipulation of plausibility of information within the stories by presenting either assertions with truthful information, assertions with small lies (plausible misinformation), or assertions with big lies (implausible misinformation). Second, there was manipulation of reliability of the fictional stories by presenting big lies or truthful information …

Distress Tolerance As A Potential Target For Change: The Relationship Between Distress Tolerance, Craving, And Alcohol Consumption In A Lab-Based Experiment, Isabel F. Augur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Distress tolerance (DT) has recently been studied as a potential catalyst for the development ofalcohol use disorder (AUD). Research exploring the relationship between DT and craving is limited and has primarily focused on nicotine craving. Furthermore, there are no current studies examining the relationship between DT and alcohol consumption. This study was designed to fill this gap in the literature, which may shed light on a potentially important target for alcohol use treatment. Additionally, the role of mindfulness was explored in the context of the relationship between DT and alcohol craving and consumption, with the intention of expanding on the …

Laughter As A Priming Agent For Change, Linnea M. Heintz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the importance of laughter as a factor in influencing employee job satisfaction ratings. The Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985, 1997) and pulses of laughter were used in this study. To explore the relationship between laughter and job satisfaction, results of the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1994) were collected quarterly (four times a year) for three consecutive years, beginning six months prior to the start of the two-year study and six months post. The study sample was composed of 545 employees (34% male, 66% female) operating out of 10 employee-owned retail chain locations …

Black-Capped Chickadee (Parus Atricapillus) Food Preference, Isabelle Gilbert

Thinking Matters Symposium

All animals must make decisions on where to find, select, capture, and eat food. These factors contribute to a species’ food preference, such as making decisions on what food to eat based on calories. Optimal foraging theory predicts how an animal behaves when searching for food, including optimization of food type, patch choice, time spent in patches, and movement. All animals also make decisions based on predation risk by avoiding predators and making trade-offs on time spent searching for, pursuing, and handling food. The objective of my study is to examine food preference of black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus). Birds may …

Assessing Rat Behavioral Response To Novelty, Neha Mathew

Honors Scholar Theses

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in memory and navigation. Neurons in the hippocampus, known as place cells, fire in specific locations within this region of the brain as the subject navigates through their environment. As these cells fire, they create a map-like representation of this environment. However if the environment is altered in any way, the place cell firing pattern is adjusted to incorporate this new information. This adjustment will inevitably cause subjects to take more time to complete their task. The goal of our testing was to assess how various manipulations, both spatial …

Observation And Detection Of Adhd Malingering In College Students, Zoe Tenner

Honors Theses

The rate of college students attempting to obtain Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses in order to gain access to prescription stimulant medications has shown a large increase over the past 20 years. Research has also shown that college students are frequently able to convincingly present themselves as meeting clinical criteria for ADHD with relative ease, meaning that the barrier to false presentation for the purpose of obtaining inappropriately prescribed medication is minimal. There is a need for more concise, accurate tools to detect these efforts in clinical settings, which is an area of research pursued by members of the University of …

Evaluation Of A Vocal Mand Assessment And Vocal Mand Training Procedures: A Systematic Replication, Toni O'Connell

Thesis Projects

Numerous mand training procedures have proven effective in developing mand repertoires in children with developmental disabilities, but selection of treatments is usually arbitrary. Bourret et al. (2004) created and tested a vocal mand assessment to systematically determine an effective mand training procedure, thereby reducing the likelihood of implementing ineffective treatments. However, because a comparison between treatments was not completed, the validity of the assessment requires further investigation. This study sought to replicate and extend the findings of Bourret et al. (2004) by including a comparison between two treatments. Study 1 consisted of a replication of the vocal mand assessment and …

Partnering With Patients To Design A Prehabilitation Program For Optimizing The Patient Experience Through General Surgery, Jacqueline Francis-Coad, Dale Edgar, Caroline E. Bulsara, Alix Barrett-Lennard, Kristine Owen, David Fletcher, Fiona Wood, Anne-Marie Hill

Patient Experience Journal

The objective of this study was to explore patients’ experiences when preparing for and undergoing general surgery at a large tertiary hospital. Findings aimed to inform the development of a prehabilitation program to empower patients to optimize their recovery and enhance their experience of general surgery. A qualitative exploratory research approach was utilized. Patients (>18 years) attending for elective general surgery between May and July 2018 were invited to participate. Four focus groups (n=18) and an interview were conducted to reach saturation. Deductive content analysis was used to map responses against theoretical determinants of health behavior change. Patients described …

Everyday Memory In People With Down Syndrome, Yingying Jennifer Yang, Zachary M. Himmelberger, Trent Robinson, Megan Davis, Frances Conners, Edward Merrill

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Although memory functions in people with Down Syndrome (DS) have been studied extensively, how well people with DS remember things about everyday life is not well understood. In the current study, 31 adolescents/young adults with DS and 26 with intellectual disabilities (ID) of mixed etiology (not DS) participated. They completed an everyday memory questionnaire about personal facts and recent events (e.g., school name, breakfast). They also completed a standard laboratory task of verbal long-term memory (LTM) where they recalled a list of unrelated words over trials. Results did not indicate impaired everyday memory, but impaired verbal LTM, in people with …

Domestic Violence In The World Of Athletics, Abbigayle L. Gesler

ONU Student Research Colloquium

There is an ongoing debate whether athletics is linked to domestic violence in professional athletes or individuals who were athletes for a long period of time. The purpose of this research is to see if being an athlete leads to domestic violence, and if so, to find ways to decrease the numbers. Professional athletes with a history of domestic violence will be researched and this could help determine if there is a link between the two. To get an idea on aggression levels in athletes, the Buss & Perry Survey was sent out via email to all Ohio Northern students, …

Corticospinal Excitability During A Perspective Taking Task As Measured By Tms-Induced Motor Evoked Potentials, Elizabeth Murray, Janet Brenya, Katherine Chavarria, Karen J. Kelly, Anjel Fierst, Nathira Ahmad, Caroline Anton, Layla Shaffer, Kairavi Kapila, Logan Driever, Kayla Weaver, Caroline Dial, Maya Crawford, Iso Hartman, Tommy Infantino, Fiona Butler, Abigail Straus, Shakeera L. Walker, Brianna Balugas, Matthew Pardillo, Briana Goncalves, Julian Keenan

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Only by understanding the ability to take a third-person perspective can we begin to elucidate the neural processes responsible for one’s inimitable conscious experience. The current study examined differences in hemispheric laterality during a first-person perspective (1PP) and third-person perspective (3PP) taking task, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were asked to take either the 1PP or 3PP when identifying the number of spheres in a virtual scene. During this task, single-pulse TMS was delivered to the motor cortex of both the left and right hemispheres of 10 healthy volunteers. Measures of TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) of the contralateral abductor …

Analysis Of Reading Patterns Of Scientific Literature Using Eye-Tracking Measures, Gavindya Jayawardena, Sampath Jayarathna, Jian Wu

College of Sciences Posters

Scientific literature is crucial for researchers to inspire novel research ideas and find solutions to various problems. This study presents a reading task for novice researchers using eye-tracking measures. The study focused on the scan paths, fixation, and pupil dilation frequency of the participants. In this study, 3 participants were asked to read a pre-selected research paper while wearing an eye-tracking device (PupilLabs Core 200Hz). We specified sections of the research paper as areas of interest (title, abstract, motivation, methodology, conclusion)to analyze the eye-movements. Then we extracted eye-movements data from the recordings and processed them using an eye-movement processing pipeline. …

Examining The Efficacy Of An Intervention Package Delivered Via An Online Learning Tool To Improve Prerequisite Algebra Skill Fluency, Nicole Bricko

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation study investigated the efficacy of a multi-component intervention package delivered via an online learning tool on math fluency for prerequisite algebra skills for three 6^th-grade students. Students were referred by their math teacher due to concerns with academic performance. Target skills were individualized for each student based on screening assessments and measured continuously during both baseline and intervention. The multiple-probe across skills design demonstrated that students increased their math fluency on prerequisite skills. A staggered pattern of increases across skills for two participants indicated experimental control was achieved and student’s performance improved. The Quizlet^® intervention …

The Effects Of Carry-On Baggage On Aircraft Evacuation Efficiency, Sang-A Lee

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The most frequent obstacle of an aircraft evacuation is the passengers carrying baggage while evacuating. Passengers who insist on taking their carry-on baggage during an emergency evacuation not only slow down the evacuation process but also act as a significant risk to the safety of other passengers. This study investigated the factors that affect passengers’ behavioral intention to evacuate with carry-on baggage and the effects of evacuating with carry-on baggage on the total evacuation time. Overall, two studies were conducted to provide an outline of the factors that affect and affected by carry-on baggage.

Study 1 used an agent-based model, …

Assessing The Efficacy Of Training Parents Via Telehealth To Administer Natural Environment Training, Olivia Laforest

All NMU Master's Theses

Telehealth has recently emerged as a not only a potentially effective means of preparing parents and educators as interventionists for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but for many in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the only way of safely delivering behaviorally analytic services to clients during this time. Due to these recent changes in Behavior analysis service providing, the transition to Telehealth was considered essential for many clinicians to continue providing services to their clients. With little research supporting the use of telehealth for providing Behavior Analysis services to clients, expansion on literature in this area …