This thesis analyzes how prospective Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) professionals are enculturated through their educational pathways at one public university in Mississippi. I surveyed 24 current and prior students of the ABA program, as well as interviewed 1 prior and 10 current ABA students. Findings captured their perceptions of the field they are entering, through their experiences within the program. Results found that the ABA field appears to be split in a dual identity, existing in both educational and clinical spaces. Results showed that external perceptions of the institution viewed the ABA program as more clinical, while the students were preoccupied with the educational applications. The implications of these findings suggest that the ABA field’s role and circumstances are variable, given that they are outsourced as consultants to provide a medical service to an educational setting. Thus, students could benefit from more explicit cultural norms and setting-tailored practicum preparation.

According to results from Aquino and Reed (study 5, 2002) and Hall and Derryberry (2010), high means and very low standard deviations of the average score for each question for both the internalization and symbolization scales of the Moral Identity Scale (MIS) are common. This study attempts to measure the extent to which a person considers morality to be a central part of his or her self-concept. Because participants may feel pressure to respond in a certain way on the MIS, the role of social desirability to respond favorably is very plausible. The current study, therefore, attempts to reduce socially desirable responding on the moral identity construct. The hypothesis of this study was that the revised Moral Identity Scale—compared to the original Moral Identity Scale—would display a reduction in skewness, a reduction in social desirability effects, and an increase in the ability to predict moral functioning. Analyses partially supported a reduction in social desirability and supported an increase in the ability to predict moral functioning. However, analyses did not support a reduction in negative skewness.

Research has found that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show significant deficits in receptive language skills (Wiesmer, Lord, & Esler, 2010). One of the primary goals of applied behavior analytic intervention is to improve the communication skills of children with autism by teaching receptive discriminations. Both receptive discriminations and receptive language entail matching spoken words with corresponding objects, symbols (e.g., pictures or words), actions, people, and so on (Green, 2001). In order to develop receptive language skills, children with autism often undergo discrimination training within the context of discrete trial training. This training entails teaching the learner how to respond differentially to different stimuli (Green, 2001). It is through discrimination training that individuals with autism learn and develop language (Lovaas, 2003). The present study compares three procedures for teaching receptive discriminations: (1) simple/conditional (Procedure A), (2) conditional only (Procedure B), and (3) conditional discrimination of two target cards (Procedure C). Six children, ranging in age from 2-years-old to 5-years-old, with an autism diagnosis were taught how to receptively discriminate nine sets of stimuli. Results suggest that the extra training steps included in the simple/conditional and conditional only procedures may not be necessary to teach children with autism how to receptively discriminate. For all participants, Procedure C appeared to be the most efficient and effective procedure for teaching young children with autism receptive discriminations. Response maintenance and generalization probes conducted one-month following the end of training indicate that even though Procedure C resulted in less training sessions overall, no one procedure resulted in better maintenance and generalization than the others. In other words, more training sessions, as evident with the simple/conditional and conditional only procedures, did not facilitate participants’ ability to accurately respond or generalize one-month following training. The present study contributes to the literature on what is the most efficient and effective way to teach receptive discrimination during discrete trial training to children with ASD. These findings are critical as research shows that receptive language skills are predictive of better outcomes and adaptive behaviors in the future.

Functional analyses (FAs) are an important component of treatment and the data gathered from FAs are often graphed in an aggregate or summary format, such as mean rate per session. Given the prevalence of undifferentiated analyses, it may be that this common method of data depiction is incomplete. In this paper, we compare the traditional aggregate method to a comprehensive second-by-second demonstration of the data including all appropriate and inappropriate responses emitted, as well as programmed and accidental antecedent and consequent variables, which may help further clarify the results of a functional analysis. We compared the functional analysis results of two participants when the data were depicted using the traditional rate aggregate method and depicted using a comprehensive second-by-second method. Although both rate and comprehensive second-by-second data depiction resulted in similar conclusions regarding the maintaining variables for the participants, comprehensive second-by-second data depiction allowed us to draw the conclusions in less time. Additional advantages and disadvantages of each method as it relates to efficiency, therapeutic risk and safety, and practicality are also discussed. Keywords: efficiency, functional analysis, problem behavior, safety, within-session second-by-second analysis.

A critical first step in addressing problem behavior is to identify the function of the problem, or reason for engaging in the problem behavior, using systematic assessment procedures known as a functional analysis (FA). The literature consistently demonstrates the effectiveness of FAs, and variations of FAs (e.g., trial-based functional analysis [TBFA]) for assessing a variety of topographies of problem behaviors across populations, age groups, and settings; however, the use of TBFAs for assessing the function of inappropriate mealtime behavior (IMB) has been documented in the literature only once. The purpose of the current study was to contribute to the research examining the efficacy of using TBFAs to identify functions of IMB. Results from the current study are mixed. TBFAs lead to the identification of functions of IMB for 1 out of 3 participants. When comparing TBFA results to traditional FA results, partial correspondence was observed for one participant, and no correspondence was observed for the other two participants. Future research should continue to evaluate the efficacy of TBFAs for IMB as well as evaluate the validity of TBFAs for IMB when results yield evidence of functional relationships.

The autism treatment status quo was reviewed and accompanied by a narrative contextualizing past and present progress with my younger brother Jim’s journey with the condition, sharing proposed next steps for bettering the current state of affairs in the space. The impetus for this piece was to share in the lessons of Jim’s life thus far and the revelations of those who have supported him, as well as to determine ways to create more impactful, lasting change in the limited window of early intervention therapy whilst empowering individuals on the spectrum to optimize for their skills and talents rather than just simply mitigating the downsides of autism spectrum disorder. Feedback as to how to improve the prevailing course of treatment: (education and therapy) was solicited by leading experts in the fields of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Electroencephalography (EEG), and autism more generally in the context of politics, insurability, and savant syndrome and splinter skills. The advice of the various vertical experts were synthesized and distilled into a new proposed course of treatment which were submitted to all respective experts for further feedback and review prior to publication. It was discovered that there is significant feedback to suggest that the prevailing wisdom that splinter skills and savant syndrome are found in a small minority of individuals with autism spectrum disorder may not be true and that further research is warranted that would implement the new proposed course of treatment and attempt to unlock the talents and gifts of these individuals consistent with the success we encountered raising Jim. While our methods were resource-intensive and conducted manually with many hours of intensive in-home therapy, there is significant feedback to suggest that a technology-driven approach to reforming autism treatment would achieve same or greater results with far fewer resources in the near and long term. By unlocking the greatest minds of our society (the majority of savants have historically been autistic) to take on the greatest challenges of our time, we can rapidly accelerate the progress of humanity and exponentially better the trajectory of society’s future at the global scale.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / David A. Gustafson / IEDs are a prevailing threat to today’s armed forces and civilians. With some IEDs being well concealed and planted sometimes days or weeks prior to detonation, it is extremely difficult to detect their presence. Remotely triggered IEDs do offer an indirect method of detection as an insurgent must monitor the IED’s kill zone and detonate the device once the intended target is in range. Within the safe confines of a video game we can model the behavior of an insurgent using remotely triggered IEDs. Specifically, we can build a model of the sequence of actions an insurgent goes through immediately prior to detonating an IED. Using this insurgent model, we can recognize the behavior an insurgent would exhibit before detonating an IED. Once the danger level reaches a certain threshold, we can then react by changing our original course to a new one that does not cross the area we believe an IED to be in. We can show proof of concept of this by having human players take on the role of an insurgent in an online video game in which they try to destroy an autonomous agent. Successful tactics used by the autonomous agent should then be good tactics in the real world as well.

Experimental aesthetics research has been conducted since the nineteenth century. Interestingly, however, few studies have examined the perceived beauty of naturally shaped objects. In the current experiment, 204 participants were presented with a set of ten snowflake silhouettes that varied in complexity (perimeter relative to area); they were similarly presented with ten randomly-shaped, computer-generated, solid objects that also varied in complexity. For each stimulus set, the participants selected the single snowflake or object that was the most beautiful (Fechner’s method of choice). The results for the solid objects replicated the findings of earlier research: the most and least complex objects were chosen as the most beautiful. Moderately complex objects were rarely selected. The results for the snowflakes were different. For these visual stimuli, the least complex snowflakes were almost never chosen; only the complex snowflakes were perceived to be most beautiful, with the aesthetic preference increasing with increases in complexity.

For decades researchers, analysts, and organizational professionals have utilized correction equations to adjust for the effects of various statistical artifacts. However, every correction method has certain assumptions that must be satisfied to work properly. These assumptions are likely rarely satisfied for range restriction corrections. As a result, these correction methods are used in a manner that can lead to incorrect results. The current study employed a Monte Carlo design to examine the direct range restriction correction. Analyses were conducted to examine the accuracy of adjustments made with the direct range restriction correction when its assumption of perfect top-down selection was violated to varying degrees. Analyses were conducted on two datasets, each representing a population of 1,000,000 cases. The following variables were manipulated: the population correlation, the selection ratio, and the probability that the hypothetical applicant would accept the job if offered. Results of the accuracy of the direct range restriction correction equation for the optimal (all job offers accepted) versus realistic (job offers refused at various rates) conditions demonstrated small differences in bias for all conditions. In addition, small differences in squared bias were observed for most of these conditions, with the exception of conditions with both low selection ratios and low probabilities of job offer acceptance. In a surprising finding, the direct range restriction correction equation exhibited greater accuracy for realistic job offer acceptance (some job offers refused) than for optimal job offer acceptance (all offers accepted). It is recommended that researchers further explore the violations of assumptions for correction methods of indirect range restriction as well.

This study examines the effect of a short term (30 min) self-efficacy intervention on job search behavior and job search related state-anxiety then proposes a sequential mediation model. Using a sample (N = 272) college students recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 160) and a small liberal arts college in California (N = 112), participants completed a job search skills quiz and were randomly assigned to a positive feedback condition. They then immediately filled out self-report measures for self-efficacy (Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy), state anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y), and job search behavior (Proactive Career Behavior Measure). The results suggest that a positive effect of the intervention on job search behaviors is mediated by a reduction in anxiety and increase in career decision making self-efficacy. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for college career counselors will be discussed.