Applied Behavior Analysis Commons^™

An Exploration Of Task Independence For High School Students In A Self-Contained Classroom Using Structured Work Systems, Lorinda Rene Otto

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of a method to support higher levels of independent performance and generalization of skills using a structured work system with a visual schedule when teaching online task completion skills to high school students with ASD and intellectual disabilities. Students with ASD and intellectual disabilities are typically deficient in independent skills. They often struggle to initiate and complete tasks on their own. By learning to complete tasks independently, high school students with ASD and intellectual disabilities gain essential life skills needed for employment. Structured work systems, along with visual schedules, have shown to be useful in …

Police Officer Trauma In Rural Minnesota: A Narrative Study, John J. Littlewolf

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

We call on police officers to respond to all of society’s tragedies. Whether in our metropolitan areas or our rural communities, law enforcement will respond when called upon. The culture of law enforcement is laden with traits of masculinity. These cultural traits can inhibit the processing of traumatic experiences in the individual. While the nature of law enforcement has remained the same, our scientific knowledge regarding trauma has grown. Trauma has a biological impact which can manifest as stress symptomology or PTSD. Our systematic response to trauma in law enforcement has not kept pace with the body of knowledge on …

Efficacy And Efficiency Evaluation Of Real-Time Feedback For Caregiver Training, Elizabeth J. Preas

Theses & Dissertations

Children with an autism spectrum disorder often have deficits in completing activities of daily living skills independently, which then falls on the responsibility of caregivers to assist their child. Behavioral skills training is an efficacious method to train caregivers to implement various behavioral interventions that includes several training components, which can be time intensive. Alternative caregiver training methods that are effective and efficient are needed to train caregivers to implement activities of daily living skills with their child. The present study used two concurrent multiple-baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of real-time feedback and behavioral skills training to …

Evaluating The Use Of Competing Items In A Multiple Schedule During Reinforcement Schedule Thinning, Scott A. Miller

Theses & Dissertations

Multiple schedules are schedules of reinforcement that are often used to facilitate more manageable rates of a replacement behavior such as a communication response following functional communication training as an intervention for destructive behavior. Commonly, reinforcement schedule thinning involves multiple fading steps that can take more than 100 sessions to achieve therapeutic goals. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate a method for rapidly achieving fading steps in a multiple schedule by including competing items during the extinction interval. Four children diagnosed with autism successfully reached the terminal extinction interval with a ≥80% reduction in problem behavior. Two of …

Personalized Detection Of Anxiety Provoking News Events Using Semantic Network Analysis, Jacquelyn Cheun Phd, Luay Dajani, Quentin B. Thomas

SMU Data Science Review

In the age of hyper-connectivity, 24/7 news cycles, and instant news alerts via social media, mental health researchers don't have a way to automatically detect news content which is associated with triggering anxiety or depression in mental health patients. Using the Associated Press news wire, a semantic network was built with 1,056 news articles containing over 500,000 connections across multiple topics to provide a personalized algorithm which detects problematic news content for a given reader. We make use of Semantic Network Analysis to surface the relationship between news article text and anxiety in readers who struggle with mental health disorders. …

How Actresses Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer And Reese Witherspoon Are Fighting Pay Disparity One Project At A Time, Abbey M. White

Capstones

While working on Steven Spielberg's 2005 miniseries "Into the West," Indigenous-Latina actress Tonantzin Carmelo achieved pay parity with her white male co-stars thanks to a contract clause called "favored nations. Now 15 years later, and in the height of Hollywood's gender parity movement, Hollywood actresses are strategically using the very same clause to chip away at the pay gap. This 7000-word narrative feature explains the historical use of this clause, identifies how actresses are leveraging its power to achieve pay parity on their projects and answers why it's not a one-size-fits-all fix for Hollywood pay inequity.

http://abbeymwhite.com/capstone/how-actresses-like-jennifer-aniston-jessica-chastain-and-lupita-nyongo-are-fighting-pay-disparity-one-project-at-a-time/

Behavior Skills Training To Improve Parent Treatment Fidelity And Generalization In A Feeding Program, Melissa Stiffler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Feeding problems are five times more likely to occur in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than in typically developing peers (Sharp, et al., 2013). Though behavior analytic protocols have demonstrated efficacy, less research has investigated methods to transfer technology to non–professional caregivers. This study utilized a behavioral skills training (BST) procedure to increase generalization of treatment methods from the clinic to the home environment for three parent-child dyads. Meal observations were conducted prior to treatment to determine baseline rates of behavior, specifics of the child’s food refusal, oral motor deficits, and nutritional needs. Baseline observations were used to develop …

Equivalence-Based Instruction To Teach Single-Subject Designs In Higher Education, Griffin Decuir Williams

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

With the increasing prevalence of online courses and instruction, advanced methods to teach technical concepts for students in higher education are of value. Equivalence-Based Instruction (EBI) is an effective, efficient, and empirically validated teaching methodology. This study developed a match-to-sample EBI protocol embedded in CANVAS to teach four common single-subject designs to graduate students. Results were compared between an equivalence group receiving a reduced-intensity EBI protocol and a group receiving a traditional video lecture to serve as the control. The ability of the participants to generalize the trained relations to novel stimuli was also evaluated. Results indicate that the EBI …

Evaluating Correspondence Between Preference Assessments Requiring Motor And Vocal Responses, Marie Gilbert

Thesis Projects

Current practice is for reinforcers to be determined through systematic preference assessments prior to incorporating those items as reinforcers for behavior change programs. Historically, preference is typically determined by these assessments via a non-vocal response (i.e., subjects touch the item they prefer). It is possible in clinical settings, however, therapists simply ask an experienced learner what he or she “would like to work for” prior to commencing discrete trial training. It is unclear whether answers to these questions would align with subjects’ non-vocal responses in a more formal assessment. The current study compared subjects’ responses during two multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (MSWO) preference …

‘‘The Greatest Teacher, Failure Is’’: Handling Failure In Military Parachute Training, David Bergman

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

The present study examined failure in an extreme setting within a military parachute training course used to better prepare individuals for combat. A grounded theory analysis of interviews and observations led to four interdependent reasons for failure, three mediating factors of how failure was perceived, and eight ways of coping in how individuals handled failure. Two overarching master themes were established of decision aversion where individuals tend to avoid making decisions regarding their own failure in order to minimize guilt and shame, and externalization where attribution is made primarily to causes outside the self in order to maintain a positive …

You’Re The Boss: The Stereotype Content Model As A Predictive Behavioral Tool In Résumé Evaluation Processes, Caylin M. Faria

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Extensive literature has confirmed that hiring discrimination is a persistent problem; less research has focused on the social cognitive mechanisms of prejudicial hiring and its effects on résumé evaluations. The present study evaluated how stereotyped evaluations of minority candidates could be predicted with the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) dimensions of warmth and competence. No published research has demonstrated how SCM group ratings may predict evaluations of individuals and their qualifications for employment. Participants evaluated two résumés for each of five listed job positions and completed a survey packet. One résumé in each pair suggested membership in a minority group: Muslim, …

Childhood Trauma And Early Adult Engagement In Deviant Behavior: A Measure Of Experiential Avoidance And Impulsivity Association, Angelene Green

Honors Theses

Childhood trauma (CT) has been associated with early adult behavioral deviance (BD), as maintained by previous research. The current study examined experiential avoidance (EA) and impulsivity (IMP) as mechanisms through which childhood trauma and resulting behavioral deviance are related. Participants for the study included 588 students of Western Michigan University, comprised of both males and females. The participants ranged between the ages of 18 and 35. For data collection, participants completed an online survey through an online platform. Participants were directed to select responses in accordance with the variables of interest. For the purpose of identity preservation, the survey responses …

I Saw That: Being Observed Reduces Race-Based Shoot Decisions, Sarah S. Kramer, Kaitlin M. Lewin, Allison S. Romano, Brian P. Meier

Student Publications

The shooter bias effect reveals that individuals are quicker to “shoot” armed Black (vs. White) men and slower to “not shoot” unarmed Black (vs. White) men in a computer task. In three studies (N = 386), we examined whether being observed would reduce this effect because of social desirability concerns. Participants completed a “shooting” task with or without a camera/live observer supposedly recording behavior. Cameras were strapped to participants’ heads (Studies 1a/1b) and pointed at them (Study 1b). In Study 2, a researcher observed participants complete the task while “filming” them with a smartphone. We replicated the shooter bias, …

Healing Through Creativity And Creation: Drama Therapy As Treatment For Individuals With Eating Disorders, Hayley Werner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

For those living with eating disorders, intervention and effective treatment can mean the difference between life and death. Conventional treatments, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, forms of talk therapy, and Nutritional Counseling, focus solely on the psychological patterns or nutritional science of eating disorders. Though these treatments are effective for some individuals, there is a gap in treatment options that address both the mind and body as one and appeal to the humanity of patients outside of their disorder(s). Herein lies the power and potential of integrating drama therapy as a widely available treatment. Drama therapy …

Functional Analysis In The Home Setting Of An Older Adult With Neurocognitive Disorder, Emily Norton

Masters Theses

Currently within the behavioral gerontology literature there are no published studies that include a functional assessment in the home setting. The primary goal of the present study was to address this gap by conducting a functional analysis on a challenging behavior of an older adult with neurocognitive disorder in the home. This study occurred in two phases. During phase one, researchers conducted an antecedent functional analysis on the bizarre speech of an 81-year-old female with suspected dementia across four conditions (television on, no interactions initiated; television on, interactions initiated; television off, no interactions initiated; television off, interactions initiated). Results from …

Components Of Mindfulness Training: Impacts On Attention And Affect, Maximilian Fey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The literature on mindfulness supports a distinction between two components of non-judgmental acceptance and directed attention. The present research analyzed whether there are distinct differences in attentional capabilities or affect between mindfulness inductions which differed in either including only directed attention or directed attention and non-judgmental acceptance. I hypothesized that the acceptance component of mindfulness would increase participants sustained attentional capabilities relative to a control condition; furthermore, I hypothesized that the non-judgmental acceptance component of mindfulness would lead to significant increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect relative to control. Lastly, I hypothesized that an individual difference measure …

The Effects Of The High Probability Instructional Sequence On Compliance With Multiple Low Probability Instructions, Ma Krishna Francisco Rosales

Theses and Dissertations

The high-probability (high-p) instructional sequence is an antecedent intervention often used to improve compliance with instructions. It typically consists of multiple high-p instructions followed by a single low-probability (low-p) instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the high-p instructional sequence on compliance with multiple low-p instructions and the first low-p instruction in the sequence. More specifically, this study investigated the effects of three to five high-p instructions on compliance with 1, 2, and 3 low-p instructions. Three individuals diagnosed with ASD participated. Results showed that the high-p instructional sequence was only effective for 1 out …

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: …

Perceptions Of Just Deserts In The Context Of Type Of Offense, Kyle Gamache, Matt Zaitchik, Judith Platania

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Preventive detention laws are intended to protect the community while providing continuing offender rehabilitation. The concept of preventive detention frequently challenges the notion of ‘just desert’. With respect to civil commitment, defendants are held involuntarily for treatment beyond their sentencing. In a criminal context, defendants may be held in lieu of a criminal conviction. In the current study, we assessed the public’s level of tolerance for preventive detention. We were interested in evaluating whether and to what extent a “crime hierarchy” exists for preventive detention; i.e., a perception that certain crimes are deserving of preventive detention compared to others. The …

An Evaluation Of The Utility Of The Performance Diagnostic Checklist - Human Services (Pdc-Hs): A Comparison Of Formal And Informal Assessment Strategies, Cherish Chalk

Theses and Dissertations

The PDC-HS is a performance assessment tool that assists in the identification of variables contributing to performance problems among human service employees. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of the PDC-HS as a formal assessment strategy. Specifically, the PDC-HS was compared to an informal assessment strategy consisting of a single open-ended interview question and a single structured interview question. Participants included 40 supervisors in varying positions in the human services industry. Descriptive statistics were used to compare participant responses to the open-ended and structured questions to the results indicated by the PDC-HS. Results suggest that the …