Applied Behavior Analysis Commons^™

A Rat Model Of Gambling Behavior And Its Extinction: Effects Of "Win" Probability On Choice In A Concurrent-Chains Procedure, David N. Kearns, Maria A. Gomez-Serrano

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Two experiments examined the effects of varying the probability of “wins” within a rat model of gambling. On a concurrent-chains procedure, rats could choose between a “work” lever on which a fixed 20 responses produced a food pellet or a “gamble” lever, where on some trials (“wins”) only one response was required for reinforcement while on other trials 40 responses were required. Despite the fact that the work lever was always associated with the higher overall reinforcement rate, rats frequently chose to respond on the gamble lever. The frequency with which rats chose the gamble lever varied as a function …

The Contingencies Controlling Gambling Behavior: A Preliminary Cultural Analysis In American Indian University Students, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Research on pathological gambling has suggested that the disorder afflicts American Indians at a greater frequency than the majority population. The present study investigated whether potential pathology and/or contingencies maintaining gambling behavior differed between 29 American Indian undergraduate students and 29 Caucasian students who were matched to the American Indian students in terms of sex, age, and grade point average. The American Indian participants scored lower on all dependent measures of gambling than did the Caucasian students, although several of the differences approached, but did not reach, statistical significance. The present results suggest that the increased rates of pathological gambling …

Do Scores On The Gambling Functional Assessment-Revised Predict Discounting Of Delayed Gains And/Or Losses In A University Sample, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study investigated whether participants’ scores on the Gambling Functional Assessment – Revised (GFA-R) would be predictive of their level of discounting of delayed hypothetical monetary gains and losses. One hundred twenty eight university students completed the GFA-R and a discounting task involving two hypothetical monetary amounts that were framed either as gains or losses. Participants endorsed gambling for positive reinforcement significantly more than gambling for negative reinforcement. They discounted losses significantly more than gains and displayed a magnitude effect for losses (the effect was not statistically significant for gains). GFA-R scores were significant predictors of discounting for only …

As Good As It Gets: A Review And Consideration Of "Healing Prayer", Its Theological And Ministry Implications, And The Hope For Change It Evokes., Henry Kranenburg

Master of Theology (ThM) Theses

If healing is possible, and Christian prayer is a means to achieve it, how do Christians 'make it happen'? The answer to this question has had renewed and increasing interest for Christians in Reformed circles (Chapter I). While different healing 'ministries' have claimed to unlock (some aspect) of healing, there has been limited assessment of these ministries in both their methodologies and their claims. This paper reviews four of these ministries, first looking at aspects of their teaching and methodology (Chapter 2). It then reflects on these from a behavioural-psychological perspective by asking a number of questions (Chapter 3) before …

Editorial Comment: Turning The Corner At Analysis Of Gambling Behvaior, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.

Comparing Three Strategies Of Motivating Gambling Behavior In The Laboratory Environment, Jeffrey M. Peterson, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study compared three methods of motivating participants’ gambling behavior in a laboratory environment. Thirteen university students played in three sessions of video poker, which differed in whether participants were 1) asked to play “as if” gambling real money, 2) staked with real money, and 3) in competition with other participants for a gift card. Also measured was whether participants’ reported annual income would influence their gambling behavior under these conditions. Results showed that the number of hands played and the accuracy of game play did not differ across the different sessions. The number of credits bet, which is …

Discounting By Problem And Non-Problem Gambers When The Hypothetical Context Is Manipulated, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The majority of the previous research on delay discounting in pathological gamblers has found that these individuals discount monetary consequences more steeply than do nongamblers. The present study attempted to replicate this effect, as well as determine whether changes in the context in which the discounting decision was made would differentially influence the discounting of non-gamblers and problem/pathological gamblers. Participants discounted $1,000 after being informed that their hypothetical annual salary was a certain amount. Participants then completed the discounting task a second time after being informed that their hypothetical annual salary remained the same, had been halved, or had been …

Video-Poker Play In The Laboratory: The Effect Of Information And Monetary Value On Rates Of Play, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Kevin S. Montes, Chase Rost, Daniel Larrabee

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Previous research has found that participants will risk more credits across a video-poker session when they are required to play the optimal cards than when they have complete control over the game, a finding that would seem at least partially inconsistent with the illusion of control (Langer, 1975). Forty-two participants were recruited to play video poker in two sessions, one in which the game informed them of the optimal cards to play and one in which it did not. The session length for some participants was limited by time and for other participants by the number of hands played. Some …

Altering Probability Discounting In A Gambling Simulation, Benjamin N. Witts, Patrick M. Ghezzi, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In gambling, our decisions regarding what gambles to take and how much we are willing to wager might, in part, be influenced by our histories with respect to gambling outcomes. Given a less temporally-distant history with gambling that favors losses, wins, or breaking even may create alterations in one’s discounting pattern, albeit most likely temporary. Given the topographical similarity between gambling procedures and probabilistic discounting tasks, probability discounting was used to assess potential changes in discounting resulting from a gambling task designed specifically for this study. Probabilistic discounting patterns for 38 undergraduate students before and after exposure to a simulated …

When A Promotion Is Denied: The Effects Of Decision Stage On Perceptions Of Promotion And Price Fairness, Monika Kukar-Kinney, Lan Xia, Kent B. Monroe

Marketing Faculty Publications

Marketers frequently use promotions to enhance sales and increase consumers' perceptions of value. However, most promotions usually come with restrictions, such as time expiration, quantity or product model restriction, etc. In the present research, the effect of the stage in the purchase process when the consumer finds out about the restriction is investigated. The findings indicate that the later in the purchase process the consumer discovers the restriction, the greater is the perception that the effort invested into the purchase is wasted, consequently resulting in lower promotion and price fairness. This effect is mediated through the feeling of entitlement to …

Foreword Advances In The Behavioral Analysis Of Law: Markets, Institutions, And Contracts, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

The collection of articles in this Special Issue is based on an international conference on Advances in the Behavioral Analysis of Law: Markets, Institutions, and Contracts that took place on December 8, 2009 at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law in Israel. The conference addressed cutting edge legal issues at the intersection of law, economics, and psychology from a diverse set of viewpoints, bringing together scholars engaged in both theoretical and experimental behavioral analyses of law.

The behavioral analysis of law—the application of empirical behavioral evidence to legal analysis—has become increasingly popular in legal scholarship in recent years. This …

Evaluating The Effects Of Camera Perspective In Video Modelingfor Children With Autism: Point Of View Versus Scene Modeling, Courtney Cotter

Dissertations

Video modeling has been used effectively to teach a variety of skills to children with autism. This body of literature is characterized by a variety of procedural variations including the characteristics of the video model (e.g., self vs. other, adult vs. peer). Traditionally, most video models have been filmed using third person perspective (i.e., scene models), where the viewer is watching the actor perform in a scene. Recently, studies have successfully incorporated the use of first person perspective into video models (i.e., point of view models), where the view is directly from the actor's point of view. Currently, no studies …

Attitudes, William A. Cunningham, Ingrid J. Haas, Andrew Jahn

Faculty Publications: Political Science

This chapter reviews social neuroscience research that links social psychological attitudes and evaluative processes to their presumed neural bases. The chapter is organized into four parts. The first section discusses how attitude representations are transformed into evaluative states that can be used to guide thought and action. The next two sections address the related processes of attitude learning and change. The final section discusses applications of these concepts for the study of prejudice and political behavior.

What Are We Studying? Student Jurors, Community Jurors, And Construct Validity, Stacie R. Keller, Richard L. Weiner

Faculty Publications, Department of Psychology

Jury researchers have long been concerned about the generalizability of results from experiments that utilize undergraduate students as mock jurors. The current experiment examined the differences between 120 students (55 males and 65 females, mean age = 20 years) and 99 community members (49 males and 50 females, mean age = 42 years) in culpability evaluations for homicide and sexual assault cases. Explicit attitude measures served as indicators of bias for sexual assault, defendant, and homicide adjudication. Results revealed that student and community participants showed different biases on these general explicit attitude measures and these differences manifested in judgments of …

A Research Study Examining Forgiveness, Empathy, Commitment, Trust, And Relational Satisfaction Among Adult Friends After Relational Transgressions, L. Lori Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project examined how forgiveness was managed by adult friends after relational transgressions. It studied how the emotion of empathy promoted the act of forgiving and why the construct of commitment related to trust and relational satisfaction among friendship dyads. Isolating the specific emotion empathy in regards to forgiveness heightened the understanding of what emotional behaviors were used to maintain friendships once a relational transgression was experienced. Measuring and analyzing the interaction between commitment, trust, and relational satisfaction helped to determine how these constructs promoted forgiveness among adult friends.

Becoming Happier Takes Both A Will And A Proper Way: An Experimental Longitudinal Intervention To Boost Well-Being, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Rene Dickerhoof, Julia K. Boehm, Kennon M. Sheldon

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

An 8-month-long experimental study examined the immediate and longer term effects of regularly practicing two assigned positive activities (expressing optimism and gratitude) on well-being. More important, this intervention allowed us to explore the impact of two metafactors that are likely to influence the success of any positive activity: whether one self-selects into the study knowing that it is about increasing happiness and whether one invests effort into the activity over time. Our results indicate that initial self-selection makes a difference, but only in the two positive activity conditions, not the control, and that continued effort also makes a difference, but, …

Leadership Development In Financial Institutions In South Dakota: A Slow Growth State, Stan Wayne Vinson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation asks the question, “What are the challenges of developing a leadership program in community banks in South Dakota, a slow growth environment?” The research looks at the intersection of leadership development, transformational leadership, and context—against a backdrop of community banking, corporate social responsibility, and demographic trends in South Dakota. The objective of the study is to provide theoretical and practical understanding of leadership development activities in South Dakota community banks. Using quantitative methods, seven hypotheses were created and tested using insights gained from reviewed literature and informational interviews that framed the study. The hypotheses were built looking to …

Using Environmental Sounds To Initiate Receptive Language Training For Children With Autism, Woan Tian Chow

Dissertations

A pre-test showed that three pre-school children with autism had difficulty learning to match spoken words to objects (receptive identification). Therefore, they were first taught to match environmental sounds to objects (e.g., to touch a tambourine, when they heard the sound of the tambourine) and then to match spoken words to other objects while continuing to match the mastered environmental sounds to the original objects.

For all three children, simply learning the environmental-sound/object matching did not facilitate learning spoken-word/object matching; however intermixing the training of spoken-word/object matching with the previously mastered environmentalsound/ object matching did result in the mastery of …

Testing The Effectiveness Of An Interactive Multimedia System To Train Clinicians In Behavioral Activation, Suzanne E. Decker

Dissertations

Although many treatments for mental health disorders have been found to be effective in research, community clinicians may not receive training in such empirically supported treatments, and therefore, individuals suffering from disorders may not have access to empirically supported treatment in the community. This study examined the use of an interactive multi-media computerized therapy program, Building a Meaningful Life through Behavioral Activation, as a training tool for mental health clinicians (N=21) using a pre-post study design. Participating clinicians were invited to complete this computer program over the course of several weeks, and to complete knowledge quizzes and written responses …

Subsidized Housing, Public Housing, And Adolescent Violence And Substance Use, Tamara Leech

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines the separate relationships of public housing residents and subsidized housing residence to adolescent health risk behavior. Data included 2,530 adolescents aged 14 to 19 who were children of the National the Longitudinal Study of Youth. The author uses stratified propensity methods to compare the behaviors of each group—subsidized housing residents and public housing residents—to a matched control group of teens receiving no housing assistance. The results reveal no significant relationship between public housing residence and violence, heavy alcohol/marijuana use, or other drug use. However, subsidized housing residents have significantly lower rates of violence and hard drug use, …