Orientador: Kester Carrara / Banca: José Antônio Damásio Abib / Banca: Gerson Aparecido Yukio Tomanari / Resumo: O "prestar atenção" é um conceito que vem sendo estudado desde a fundação do primeiro laboratório de psicologia até hoje e é comumente entendido como um processo cognitivo que seleciona os estímulos aos quais um organismo deve responder. A Análise do Comportamento de B. F. Skinner (AC) é conhecida por negar o status casual atribuído às instâncias cognitivas, mas tem, ao mesmo tempo, que lidar com o fato dos organismos não responderem a todos os elementos presentes no mundo que os cerca. Este trabalho pretendeu avaliar as propostas interpretativas de autores da AC quanto ao fenômeno do "prestar atenção". Num primeiro momento, foram avaliados os padrões de publicação de artigos sobre esse tema em periódicos da AC e foi avaliado o grau de comunicação entre as áreas de pesquisa aplicada e básica. Num segundo momento, empreendeu-se uma reconstrução conceitual do "prestar atenção". Os resultados alcançados apontam uma pobre comunicação entre as pesquisas básica e aplicada, o que ganha certo apoio na reconstrução conceitual onde se sugere que as duas áreas fazem usos diferentes do termo nos textos analisados, de modo que a literatura aplicada não parece estar preocupada com o estudo de um processo psicológico básico sob o rótulo de "prestar atenção". Na reconstrução conceitual indentificaram-se duas possibilidades conceituais para a expressão "prestar atenção", ambas coerentes com o Behaviorismo Radical: o "prestar atenção" poderia ser entendido como (a) o componete comportamental encoberto precorrente que facilita/possibilita o controle de estímulos ou como (b) uma classe ampla de processos comportamentais que compreende desde a simples verificação de existência de controle de estímulos... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: "Paying attention" is a concept which has been studied from the fundation of the first experimental psychology laboratory to today and is usually understood as cognitive process which selects stimuli that organisms must respond to B. F. Skinner's Behavior Analysis (BA) is well known for neglecting the casual status attributed to that cognitive instances, however, it needs to deal with the fact that organisms do not respond to every element of the world that surrounds it. This work intent to evaluate the interpretative proposals of BA to the "paying attention" concept. In a first moment, the articles publishing patterns about this subject matter in BAS journals and the degree of communication between basic and applied research fields were evatuate. In a second moment, a conceptual reconctruction of "pay Attention" was made. The results reached point to a poor communication between basic and applied fields, what receives some support in the conceptual reconstruction where it is suggested that the two areas use the expression diffrenty in the analised texts, in a way that the applied literature seems not to do any reference to "paying attention" as basic psychological process. In the conceptual reconstruction were identified two possibilities of conceptualization for "pay attention", both coherent whit Radical Behaviorism: The "paying attention" can be understood as (a) a covert precorrent behavioral component that improve/allows the formation of stimulus control or as (b) a large class of behavioral process which includes from the simple verifcation of stimulus to observation of the emission of precorrent responses that improve/allows the formation of stimulus control, to the inference of the ocurrence of these behaviors but in a covert level. It is suggested that the second posibility is more adequate given the politic role... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This present study evaluated the use of conditional discrimination training and a self-control procedure to increase task compliance, task preference and self-control in three participants. All three participants were previously diagnosed with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Using a multiple baseline design, participants were first exposed to a preference assessment, a naturalistic baseline and a choice baseline. A relational responding task was then introduced, which attempted to alter the functions of contextual cues associated with `more than' and `less than'. A choice baseline was re-administered to support the transformation of functions and the larger, delayed reinforcer was thinned within a second choice baseline. A final preference assessment was completed that showed an increase in preference of a previously least-preferred task. Results of the procedure showed an increase of self-control, task compliance and task preference. Suggestions for future research and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Events that occur early in the life of birds greatly influence social and sexual preferences throughout the course of life. Traditionally, this is explained by a learning process known as imprinting. Young birds are thought to imprint to early stimuli, causing the development of permanent preferences for those stimuli. In the present study, imprinting is examined with respect to behaviors of an adult human-reared pigeon in several conditions. The subject was either presented with no stimulus, a conspecific stimulus, a novel stimulus, a human stimulus, or the human and novel stimuli simultaneously. Several phases within these conditions were employed to pinpoint the variables that produced the most social and sexual behavior. The results showed that while some conditions produced unclear behavior, other conditions produced very clear indications of sexual preference for humans and fear of conspecifics. The results suggest that the concept of imprinting may not be needed to explain the sexual preference of the subject, and that operant contingencies may play a large role in sexual behavior.

The study applied behavior analytic principles to foreign language instruction in a college classroom. Two study methods, vocabulary banks and scripts, were compared by assessing the effects on Italian language acquisition, retention, and generalization. Results indicate that students without prior exposure to Italian engaged in more exchanges and emitted more words in script tests compared to vocabulary bank tests. Participants with at least two classes in Italian prior to the study engaged in more exchanges and emitted more words during vocabulary bank tests. Data suggest that different teaching strategies may work for different learners. More research is needed to determine efficient teaching methods and how to ascertain which approaches work best for learners with different histories.

The current study utilized a multiple baseline design to teach olfactory discrimination skills to adolescent participants with autism spectrum disorders. Relational abilities among smells and causal relations were initially probed and an intervention was implemented via training and reversal testing probes using frames of distinction between stimulus depicting clean clothing (A) and worn clothing (B), causal framing to relate those odors with specific actions stimulus depicting clean clothing (A) with wearing or hanging the clothing (C) and stimulus depicting worn clothing (B) and placing the clothing in the laundry or hamper (D). Finally, these skills were tested in an applied setting when comparing clothing items that may or may not need to be laundered through the demonstrate of transformation of stimulus function in a novel setting by testing relations between clean clothing (Y) and wearing or hanging the clothing (C) and previously worn clothing( Z) and putting them in the laundry or hamper (D). The intervention was effective at establishing these relational responses for all 4 participants throughout each phase leading to the application of these responses in an applied setting with 80%-100%. Limitations and future application are discussed involving the use of cross modal stimuli in when teaching relations and broader implications of the science.

Our brains are constantly integrating sensory and movement information as we navigate within our environment. Through millennium of evolution, human has learned to associate sensory information as cues to form motor plans. One example is that for almost all cultures, dance and music are tightly linked together an integrated form of performance and entertainment. However, it is yet unclear how our brain processes sensory information to coordinate a specific movement plan. In this Master Thesis, I investigated the brain region striatum that is known to play crucial roles in movement coordination and habit formation. To examine the effect of sensory inputs on locomotor behavior and striatal neural activities, we performed calcium imaging from the striatum of head fixed mice during voluntary locomotion. We injected AAV-syn-GCaMP7f virus into the striatum region to express the genetically encoded calcium sensor GCaMP7 in striatal neurons, and used a custom fluorescent microscope to measure intracellular calcium change from hundreds of labelled cells simultaneously. To examine how audio-visual stimulation impact movement behavior, we tracked mice’s speed using a spherical treadmill while applying sustained period of audio-visual stimulation at either 10 Hz or 145 Hz. To quantify the influence of audio-visual stimulation on different locomotion features, I developed several semi-automated algorithms in MATLAB to classify locomotion features, such as stationary periods, motion events, acceleration periods, deceleration period, and motion transitions. Furthermore, I optimized calcium imaging data processing pipelines and correlated striatal neural activity to various locomotion features. We found that audiovisual stimulation at both 10Hz and 145Hz increased locomotion, characterized as an increase in the percentage of time mice spent in motion events and a corresponding decrease in stationary period. However, only the145Hz stimulation, but not 10Hz stimulation promoted motion onset/offset transitions, and increased acceleration/deceleration probability. These results demonstrate that audiovisual stimulation can modulate locomotor activities in rodent models, and different patterns of audiovisual stimulation can selectively modulate different movement parameters. We also found that audiovisual stimulation increased the firing frequency of most responsive neurons regardless of mice’s movement state, suggesting that sensory information can further increase the excitability of some motion related striatal neurons both when the mice are moving and staying still. These results provide direct evidence that noninvasive audiovisual stimulation can modulate striatal neural activity, suggesting a basis for developing future noninvasive sensory stimulation based exercise and dance therapies for motor disorders that involve the striatum, such as Parkinson's disease. Future analysis of how audiovisual stimulation selectively modulates individual striatal neuron and striatal network during different aspects of movement will provide a more in-depth understanding of how sensory stimulation promote movement.

The present study examined the relationship between invasions of personal space and measures of glancing, blocking, leaning, head-shoulder orientation, movement away from the invader, and flight latency. These behaviors have been described in previous studies as occurring in response to spatial invasions, and the equilibrium model proposed to account for their occurrence. Hypotheses consistent with this model were tested in a 2 x 2 x 3 design which varied sex of invader, sex of subject and distance of subject from invader (1 foot, 2 feet, or 5 feet). None of the predicted relationships obtained, although females blocked more frequently than males, and also exhibited a greater variety of the target behaviors than did males. A significant difference was found for variety of behaviors emitted and distance, with Ss in the 1 foot condition exhibiting more of the target behaviors than those in the 5 foot condition. No other significant results were found. An alternate model to account for these discrepancies as well as previous discrepancies was discussed and suggestions for future research were made.

For most of recorded history leadership ability has been considered a simple variable linearly related to the effectiveness of a team of workers. Everyone possessed it to some degree. When a king or corporate president had a task to be accomplished, all he needed to do to maximize the probability of the task being completed vas to locate the individual with the greatest leadership skill available. For centuries man has tried to quantify this variable so that identification of good leaders could be achieved more accurately. After years of futile attempts at quantification, leadership theorists began in the early 1900's to move away from the "one best Way to lead" posture to more complex schemas. In the last four decades, the focus of the research has centered more and more on the interaction between different types of leadership ability and particular job situations. However, it was not until Feed Fiedler provided the contingency model of leadership effectiveness that a strong theoretical structure was available (Fiedler, 1964).

This study evaluated the effects of a community workshop designed to teach community members about human trafficking prevention. Participants were trained to identify the critical and non-critical features of human trafficking and safe ways to respond to identified trafficking situations. A pre-post treatment design was used to assess the effects of a community workshop across written and verbal target behaviors. This included written responses as well as simulation assessments across five different trafficking scenarios. Results indicate that all participants engaged in more correct responding within the written assessment and asked specific relevant questions with greater confidence within the simulation assessment following training. However, social media and empathy responses following the workshop did not differ from baseline. This study is one of the first empirical studies aimed at formally evaluating the effects of human trafficking prevention workshops. Results are discussed in the context of instructional design, measurement of outcomes, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

A critical step in addressing problem behavior is identifying the function of problem behavior, or reason for engaging in the problem behavior, using functional analysis (FA). Individuals with CHARGE Syndrome engage in problem behaviors that vary across topographies and etiology (e.g., pain, anxiety, sensory concerns; Hartshorne et al., 2017). The literature has illustrated time and time again the effectiveness of these procedures across populations, settings, age groups, and topographies of behavior; however, no studies have been documented exploring the utility of FA procedures with individuals with CHARGE Syndrome. The current study completed brief functional analyses (Northup et al., 1991) with individuals diagnosed with CHARGE Syndrome who presented with problem behavior. Participants included individuals between the ages of 8 to 22 years old diagnosed with CHARGE Syndrome and presenting with problem behaviors. Results indicated that BFA procedures were successful in identifying the function of problem behavior with 4 out of 5 participants.