Risk factors tend to be negatively associated with developmental outcomes such as academic achievement and language skills. Promotive factors, on the other hand, may foster resilience in at-risk children. Some children, such as children with intellectual disabilities, experience relatively more risks than other children do. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of risks, adaptive behavior, and an intervention on the language and reading growth of children with intellectual abilities over the course of a yearlong reading intervention in which they were participants. The results suggested that, on average, risks were negatively associated and adaptive behaviors were positively associated with initial language and reading scores. Additionally, participants evidenced significant progress on their language and reading scores over the course of the intervention, but neither adaptive behavior nor risk was related to this growth, which may suggest that students from differing backgrounds and with differing levels of adaptive skill can profit from high-quality reading instruction.

Academically capable youth with disabilities often have daily functioning challenges that impact adulthood outcomes. The studies in this dissertation address this concern by focusing specifically on a particular area of challenge: the ability to take over the decision making, problem solving, and organization needed to carry out complex daily life tasks in real life contexts. The purpose of the two studies were to: (1) distinguish deficits in discrete skills from challenges organizing skills to self-manage complex tasks associated with adult roles and (2) explore the extent to which challenges in social, cognitive and behavioral factors relate to self-management of daily life tasks. In Study 1, data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach to test associations between executive functioning, behavioral health, and social communication skills and self-management of daily life tasks in youth who graduated with a high school diploma. The model findings were compared with an alternate model testing the associations of the underlying factors and discrete functional skills. Study 1 findings indicated that challenges in underlying factors in diploma-track youth with disabilities are more strongly associated with the ability to self-manage life tasks, supporting the conceptual distinction between daily task management and discrete, foundational functional skills. While this study provided a generalizable model of factors associated with management of life tasks for academically capable youth with disabilities, this study was limited in that the variables were not specifically tailored to the constructs of interest, thus providing a broad, yet possibly imprecise picture of the relationships among these variables. Study 2 expanded on Study 1, providing a more detailed investigation of the factors associated with self-management of daily life tasks by using measures that were specifically selected to represent metacognition, internalizing behaviors, and social communication skills within a sample of academically capable autistic youth (N= 46). Study findings suggested that all three factors are associated with the ability to manage complex tasks, with executive functioning partially mediating the association between social communication skills and internalizing behaviors on task management. Together, the study findings confirm self-management of daily life tasks as a distinct area of challenge for academically capable youth with disabilities and provide a more detailed understanding of what is breaking down in the process of learning to manage life tasks and participate in valued adult roles. These findings can ultimately provide guidance on how to design targeted interventions in order to enable participation in independent living and productivity for academically capable youth with disabilities as well as highlight a potential target for outcome measurement in intervention studies that aim to improve daily life functioning and participation in the community. / 2023-09-27T00:00:00Z

One objective of artificial intelligence is to model the behavior of an intelligent agent interacting with its environment. The environment's transformations can be modeled as a Markov chain, whose state is partially observable to the agent and affected by its actions; such processes are known as partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). While the environment's dynamics are assumed to obey certain rules, the agent does not know them and must learn. In this dissertation we focus on the agent's adaptation as captured by the reinforcement learning framework. This means learning a policy---a mapping of observations into actions---based on feedback from the environment. The learning can be viewed as browsing a set of policies while evaluating them by trial through interaction with the environment. The set of policies is constrained by the architecture of the agent's controller. POMDPs require a controller to have a memory. We investigate controllers with memory, including controllers with external memory, finite state controllers and distributed controllers for multi-agent systems. For these various controllers we work out the details of the algorithms which learn by ascending the gradient of expected cumulative reinforcement. Building on statistical learning theory and experiment design theory, a policy evaluation algorithm is developed for the case of experience re-use. We address the question of sufficient experience for uniform convergence of policy evaluation and obtain sample complexity bounds for various estimators. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms on several domains, the most complex of which is simulated adaptive packet routing in a telecommunication network.

As pediatric brain tumor survival rates increase, research has begun to further explore the influence of brain tumors and their treatment on functioning. The current study explored the ability of attention, learning, and memory abilities as measured by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and receptive language abilities as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test to predict adaptive functioning on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Children with tumors of the cerebellar region were hypothesized to display relative impairments in attention, whereas children with tumors of the third ventricle region were hypothesized to display relative impairments in learning and memory. The cognitive measures also were hypothesized to be differentially predictive of adaptive functioning performance. No significant differences were found between the groups on cognitive performance, but attention was the best predictor of adaptive functioning in the cerebellar group, whereas receptive verbal knowledge was the best predictor for the third ventricle group.

The current set of experiments examined the utility of implementing the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge (PEAK) Relational Training System (Dixon, 2014a, 2014b), an empirically validated assessment and intervention guide developed for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), within Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI). Experiment 1 examined the relationship between scores on the commonly used Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Second Edition (VABS-II) (Sparrow, Cicchetto, & Balla, 2005) and scores on the PEAK Direct Training (PEAK-DT) (Dixon, 2014a) and PEAK Generalization (PEAK-G) (Dixon, 2014b) program assessments to examine additional psychometric properties suggesting the potential utility for use within IBI services. Experiment 2 examined the extent to which the PEAK manual (Dixon, 2014b) or additional staff training increased PEAK discrete trial training (DTT) procedural integrity of staff providing IBI to children diagnosed with ASD. Experiment 3 examined the effects of PEAK-G curriculum and instruction on the advanced language skills of children with ASD receiving IBI services. Results suggest that PEAK may be a valid assessment tool and effective intervention guide for use in IBI. Also, the manual and other effective staff training procedures (e.g., feedback, behavioral skills training) effectively enhance PEAK-G DTT procedural integrity. Lastly, the set of experiments in the current paper contributes to the dissemination of empirically based, behavior-analytic research that contributes to practical assessments and advanced interventions for children diagnosed with ASD. Specifically, PEAK-G enhances the language repertoires of children diagnosed with ASD through direct contingencies and programming for generalization across generalization gradients.

Within the last 5 years, researchers have given increased attention to preschool assessment. One test, the Battelle Developmental Inventory, has become increasingly popular for use with preschool-age children. Despite its frequent use by early intervention programs, few researchers have studied the technical adequacy of the Battelle. The predictive validity of the Battelle was examined, using 154 children with disabilities. Scores on the Battelle for children 3 to 5 years of age were compared with scores on the Scales of Independent Behavior administered to the same children 2 to 3 years later. Moderate to strong relationships were found between the scores. Scores on the Battelle motor domains appeared to correlate the strongest with the Scales of Independent Behavior Total score. In general, the Battelle appeared to be a useful measure for predicting future performance on the Scales of Independent Behavior

Within the last 5 years, researchers have given increased attention to preschool assessment. One test, the Battelle Developmental Inventory, has become increasingly popular for use with preschool-age children. Despite its frequent use by early intervention programs, few researchers have studied the technical adequacy of the Battelle. The predictive validity of the Battelle was examined, using 154 children with disabilities. Scores on the Battelle for children 3 to 5 years of age were compared with scores on the Scales of Independent Behavior administered to the same children 2 to 3 years later. Moderate to strong relationships were found between the scores. Scores on the Battelle motor domains appeared to correlate the strongest with the Scales of Independent Behavior Total score. In general, the Battelle appeared to be a useful measure for predicting future performance on the Scales of Independent Behavior.

Despite shifts toward a more collaborative approach to emergency management, little scholarly attention has focused on the roles of local public organizations and nonprofits that do not have explicit emergency management missions in disaster response. Scholars and government officials call for identifying key local actors and developing a more collaborative emergency preparedness approaches prior to disaster situations. In practice, emergency officials seldom recognize post-disaster efforts of these local actors. Efforts to anticipate the potential decisions and actions of organizations that do not routinely deal with disasters necessitate a better understanding of how managers perceive their post-disaster related roles and what may account for such perceptions. Focusing on public libraries in the U.S., this study draws on information gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews with library managers and directors operating in Hampton Roads, Virginia. To further investigate variations in willingness to engage in emergency response among local jurisdictions, the study explores context-related characteristics such as organizational arrangements and features of the policy environment in which library managers operate as well as factors related to individual managerial practices. The study finds that library officials' perceptions vary across libraries. Variations range from a more defensive approach to a more proactive approach. Efforts to account for the extent to which officials would be willing to engage in a more proactive approach should consider both the emergence of individual-managers' entrepreneurial spirit and their involvement in community-based disaster planning. / Ph. D. / This study examines how public managers in organizations that do not routinely deal with emergencies perceive the role of their organizations in responding to natural disasters and explores what may help explain such perceptions. Focusing on public libraries in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, I found that managers’ entrepreneurial spirit combined with their sense of recognition and inclusion in the local emergency preparedness network were associated with willingness to engage in a more proactive approach to disaster response.

Jei stebimoje ar iš dalies stebimoje aplinkoje galioja būsenų kaitos dėsniai, nusakomi deterministiniu Markovo sprendimo procesu, tai agentas, sąveikaudamas su aplinka ir neturėdamas jokių pradinių žinių, gali šiuos dėsnius atrasti loginės ir konstrukcinės indukcijos metodais (išmokti aplinkos ir tikslo modelius), gali išmokti tiksliai prognozuoti savo veiksmų pasekmes ir taikyti šias žinias, kad greičiau pasiektų savo tikslus naujose nematytose situacijose. Disertacijoje siūlomas adaptyvus agentas nuo literatūroje pristatomų panašių darbų skiriasi trimis naujomis galimybėmis, nes: geba spręsti vienoje aplinkoje išmoktų žinių perkeliamumo į naujas aplinkas problemą, kai aplinkoms galioja tie patys dėsniai; tikslo stebėjimų apibendrinimo problemą; stebėjimų daugiareikšmiškumo problemą dalinai stebimoje aplinkoje. Tyrimų metu nustatyta, kad adaptyvus agentas, naudodamas sukurtą aplinkos modelį, žinių perkeliamumo į naujas aplinkas uždavinius sprendžia geriau nei kiti alternatyvūs agentai (grindžiami Q-mokymu ir ADP metodais); tikslo stebėjimų apibendrinimo uždavinius, naudodamas sukurtą tikslo modelį, sprendžia teisingai aproksimuodamas atlygio funkciją ir prognozuodamas pastiprinimo reikšmes naujose aplinkose; stebėjimų daugiareikšmiškumo problemą sprendžia pertvarkydamas deterministinį n-tos eilės Markovo sprendimo procesą į 1-os eilės ir jam sukurdamas aplinkos modelį, atitinkantį baigtinį Muro automatą. / If the laws of percepts change, which are described by deterministic Markov decision process, exist in the observable or partially observable environment, then the agent by interacting with the environment and having no initial knowledge is capable to discover those laws using the methods of logical and constructive induction (i.e. is capable to learn environment and goal models); it is capable to learn predicting precisely its own consequences of actions and apply this learned knowledge in order to achieve its own goals in the new unseen situations. Adaptive agent proposed in this dissertation differs from other similar works presented in the literature in three novel potentials that enables this agent to solve the problem of knowledge transferability from one environment into another, when the same laws are valid for the environments; to solve the problem of goal percepts generalization; and to solve the problem of perceptual aliasing in the partially observable environment. During the investigations it was discovered that adaptive agent using created environment model solves the tasks of knowledge transferability into new environments better than other alternative agents (based on Q-learning and ADP methods); using created goal model solves the goal percepts generalization tasks by correctly approximating the reward function and predicting its values in the new environments; solves the problem of perceptual aliasing by transforming the deterministic nth order Markov... [to full text]

<p>This thesis aims to evaluate four artificial neural network architectures, each of which implements the sensory-motor mapping in an embodied, situated, and autonomous agent set up to reach a goal area in one out of six systematically varied T-maze environments. In order to reach the goal the agent has to turn either to the left or to the right in each junction in the environment, depending on the placement of previously encountered light sources. The evaluation is broken down into (i) measuring the reliability of the agents' capacity to repeatedly reach the goal area, (ii) analyzing how the agents work, and (iii) comparing the results to related work on the problem.</p><p>Each T-maze constitutes an instance of a broad class of problems known as delayed response tasks, which are characterized by a significant (and typically varying) delay between a stimulus and the corresponding appropriate response. This thesis expands this notion to include, besides simple tasks, repeated and multiple delayed response tasks. In repeated tasks, the agent faces several stimulus-delay-response sequences after each other. In multiple tasks, the agent faces several stimuli before the delay and the corresponding appropriate responses. Even if simple at an abstract level, these tasks raise some of the fundamental issues within cognitive science and artificial intelligence such as whether or not an internal objective world model is necessary and/or suitable to achieve the appropriate behavior. For such reasons, these problems also constitute an interesting base for evaluating alternative ideas within these fields.</p><p>The work leads to several interesting insights. Firstly, purely reactive controllers (as represented by a feed-forward network) may be sufficient, in interaction with the environment, to solve both simple and repeated delayed response tasks. Secondly, an extended sequential cascaded network that selectively replaces its own sensory-motor mapping achieves significantly better performance than the other networks. This indicates that selective replacement of the sensory-motor mapping may be more powerful than both modulation (as represented by a simple recurrent network) and replacement in each step (as represented by a standard sequential cascaded network). Thirdly, this thesis demonstrates that even reactive controllers may contribute to behavior, which, from an observer's point of view, may seem to require an internal rational capacity, i.e. the ability to represent and explore alternatives internally.</p>