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If a subject is involved in a task requiring strict temporal control and the timing demands of the task are going to change, the allocation of attention is crucial. In each experiment, subjects were required to perform a series of taps so as to produce one goal time and then tap so as to produce the same or another goal time. Experiment 1 used a visual presentation of the stimuli. This presentation provided subjects with an implicit representation of the time intervals to be produced and an explicit representation of the serial position at which to switch from the first goal time to the second. The results indicated subjects had no problems switching from one goal time to the other at the correct serial position. However, tapping performance not only became more variable but performance virtually came to a halt when subjects changed from one goal time to another. One explanation is that subjects did not prepare for changes until the first interval following the required switch. A second is that the results were partly due to subjects trying to map the visual presentation of the stimuli to the times to be produced by tapping. Experiments 2 and 3 used an auditory presentation of the stimuli to address these alternatives. This presentation provided subjects with an explicit representation of the time intervals to be produced and an implicit representation of the serial position at which to switch from one goal time to the other. The results of Experiment 2 indicated subjects did not always switch at the correct serial position. In Experiment 2, the sequence could not be hierarchically organized. However, the tapping sequence used Experiment 3 was hierarchically organized and subjects were instructed to use a counting strategy to aid in correct parsing of the sequence. However, the effect of switching at the wrong serial position was still present. A model that relies on the intimate relationship of attention and timing control are presented. Further, the role of the representation of the task variables are addressed in relation to the parsing errors found in Experiments 2 and 3.

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No description available.

No description available.

This study examined the effectiveness of the Power Card strategy in increasing social commenting of three children with ASD to their peers while playing a game. The Power Card strategy is an antecedent strategy, which incorporates the child’s special interest into a script and steps to show her or him how to engage in the appropriate target behavior. Previous studies have shown that the Power Card strategy is effective when used to teach social skills. However, there have been mixed findings on the impact the Power Card strategy has on commenting during gameplay. Therefore, additional research is needed to evaluate if the Power Card strategy can increase social commenting. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Power Card strategy on the frequency of comments three children with ASD made to peers during a game. Results can be interpreted to support the Power Card strategy as effective in increasing the frequency of comments made to peers while playing a game. Additionally, response generalization and stimulus generalization occurred across all three participants. Behavioral staff and participants’ parents reported that the Power Card was an effective strategy and noted an increase in independent commenting in other environments. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Total communication (TC) involves the teaching of a manual sign language response while simultaneously presenting the corresponding vocal stimulus. TC procedures have been shown to increase the acquisition of vocal responding for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study attempted to systematically replicate the findings in Carbone et al. (2006), who found TC training to have a superior advantage over vocal alone (VA) procedures in the acquisition of vocal tacts. An alternating treatments design with initial baseline was implemented to compare two conditions in teaching vocal mands to children with ASD. In the VA condition, the researcher presented a vocal prompt to evoke vocal behavior. In the modified total communication (MTC) condition, the researcher presented the vocal prompt along with the corresponding manual sign. Participants were only required to vocally respond to produce reinforcement in both conditions. Sign language responses also produced reinforcement. Four children diagnosed with ASD and varying speech delays participated in this study. A multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment (DeLeon & Iwata, 1996) was used to identify each participants’ preference to 15- 20 different stimuli. Following baseline, one to two highly preferred target stimuli were assigned to each condition. Four sessions were conducted during the intervention phase, two sessions of the VA condition and two sessions of the MTC condition. Conditions were counterbalanced by alternating each session with no more than two consecutive sessions of the same condition introduced first to control for sequential confounds. Sessions included three trial presentations of each stimulus. Sessions took place one to three times a week. Previous research suggested MTC to have an advantage in higher acquisition rates of vocal responses than the VA condition. The study outcome led to mixed results; three participants demonstrated slightly better acquisition of vocal mands in the MTC condition compared to the VA condition. The MTC condition also yielded slightly better acquisition of full word vocalizations and independent vocalizations for two participants. Results of this study were marginal and inconsistent but could suggest MTC training to have a slight advantage in the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with speech delays. It also appears that teaching sign language to individuals with communication delays does not hinder natural speech development. Keywords: Vocal alone, total communication, modified total communication, manding, vocal prompt, alternating treatments design, autism spectrum disorder / Applied Behavioral Analysis

This current study was an extension of Persicke et al. (2014) and was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of clicker training on increasing the amount of heel-to-toe strides for three children with Autism Spectrum (ASD). Persicke et al. assessed the effectiveness of TAGteach™ procedures in combination with a correction procedure. This current study used only the clicker training phase. The results of the current study suggest that clicker training can serve as an effective intervention to increase heel-to-toe strides, thereby decreasing toe walking. Baseline levels of all participant’s heel-to-toe strides were below 30% of steps. All three participants increased their heel-to-toe steps above 80% following the implementation of clicker training, and results maintained throughout all fading trials. Social validity measures indicated that clicker training was easy to use and understand. Future research should investigate delivering an auditory stimulus through a device other than a clicker to increase the treatment fidelity and social validity due to a clicker being associated with animal training. This research demonstrated that clicker training can be a viable intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder who exhibit toe walking. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Background: Obesity is a significant threat to the health of millions of Americans. The disease is strongly associated with a number of conditions that increase the risk of premature mortality, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, and certain cancers. Bariatric surgery, specifically Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and vertical sleeve gastrectomy (SG), produce significant and durable weight losses. Third-party payers require that patients complete a number of preoperative consultations, typically including a medical assessment and mental health evaluation, as well as medical weight management (MWM), which typically consists of 3-6 months of in-person visits with a primary care provider or registered dietitian (RD). The number of visits and duration of the preoperative consultation and MWM process is often dictated by the patient’s third-party payer. Few studies have investigated if these contacts are associated with greater postoperative weight loss. Further, the relationship of these preoperative contacts to postoperative follow-up, which is associated with weight maintenance, is unknown. Objective: To determine if the frequency of preoperative contacts, and the duration of the preoperative assessment period (and duration of MWM in particular), is associated with percent weight loss in the first two years following bariatric surgery. The relationship between preoperative contacts with postoperative attrition also was explored. Methods: One thousand five hundred bariatric surgery cases from 2009-2014 from a single institution were analyzed. Preoperative contacts were abstracted from the electronic medical record and categorized by type. Weight was collected from postoperative visits with the surgical practice or primary care physician records. Generalized linear mixed models were used to assess the relationship between the frequency of preoperative contacts and duration of preoperative care with the bariatric surgery team and weight loss in the first 24 months after surgery. Logistic regression models were used to assess the association between the number of preoperative contacts and the duration of the preoperative assessment period with completion of postoperative follow up visits. Results: The frequency of preoperative contacts (including individual visits, education sessions, support groups, psychology visits, telephone calls, and electronic messages) and duration of preoperative care were not associated with postoperative percent weight loss. A greater number of individual visits with the bariatric surgery team was associated with 0.26% smaller postoperative weight loss (95% CI -0.47%, -0.05%; P = 0.02). Additional contacts with the psychologist also were associated with 1.46% smaller postoperative percent weight loss (95% CI -2.79%, -0.12%; P = 0.03). Number of preoperative contacts and duration of preoperative care were not associated with postoperative follow up. Conclusion: The frequency of preoperative contacts with the bariatric surgery team, and the duration of preoperative care, were not associated with weight loss in the first two years after bariatric surgery. More individual visits with the bariatric team and additional visits with the psychologist prior to surgery were associated with smaller postoperative weight loss. These results suggest that the intensity and length of the preoperative assessment period, which is often mandated by third party payers, is unrelated to early postoperative weight loss. More extensive preoperative assessment by the multidisciplinary team, and mental health professional, however, may be identifying patients who are at risk for smaller postoperative weight losses. Further research should attempt to determine an appropriate recommendation for MWM in respect to duration and frequency, while also considering the quality and content of these clinical visits. / Public Health

<p>ABSTRACT An Intervention to Change Attitudes and Physical Activities of Adult Foster Care Home Workers in Hawaii by Edna J. Smith Insufficient information is available in the medical literature to describe the physical activity habits of adult foster care home workers. Healthcare workers are notorious for lack of self-care. Being a health care worker is a mentally and physically demanding job. It stands to reason that physically fit health care workers are less likely to suffer injury or become ill. This study questions whether attitudes towards physical activity outside the workplace can be influenced the recommended downloading of a smartphone application (smart-phone app). The intervention of the smart phone application provides a free standardized way to manage physical activity. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires survey attitudes and thoughts towards physical activity. Each participant was provided access to these questionnaires prior to downloading the smart phone application. Approximately six weeks after the initial questionnaires were returned from the study participants, the questionnaires were given again. The data analysis for this study reveals the responses of the 21 study participants to preand post-questionnaires. Interestingly, 19 of the 21 voluntary study participant identified as being of Filipino ethnicity. Filipinos are the second largest ethnic group in Hawaii (Inouye, Matsuura, Li, Castro, & Leake, 2014), where the study took place. Key Words: adult foster care homes, physical activity, exercise, Filipino healthcare workers