An important variable not often examined in the literature is the relationship between target behaviors and their reinforcers. Previous research has demonstrated faster acquisition rates of simple receptive and imitative skills when the reinforcer used was part of the behavior chain that it reinforced. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a direct reinforcement contingency to teach pairs of advanced receptive skills with three children with autism. During the indirect reinforcement condition, the therapist reinforced correct responding by handing the child an edible reinforcer. During the direct reinforcement condition, the reinforcer was located under the container displaying the correct response. Results showed that no participant reached mastery criterion regardless of the reinforcement contingency, although slightly higher levels of correct responding were observed during the direct reinforcement phase for all three participants on one skill.

<p>Within the last decade, the study of individual differences in reading skill has become an active area of investigation. Much of this research has been conducted with children, and has focused on selected processes hypothesized to underlie proficient reading skill. Relatively less attention has been directed toward evaluating the effects of experience in contributing to skill differences. The experiments reported in the thesis were designed to examine multiple dimensions of reading skill, and to evaluate the effects of repeated experience in two groups of readers selected on the basis of their comprehension skill. The results indicated that difference between skilled and less-skilled readers were apparent on all measures of reading. Despite these overall group differences, the less-skilled readers were at least able to benefit from repeated experience as were their more skilled peers. The results in the first experiment indicated that the less-skilled readers were poorer at word-level processing, particularly in processing unfamiliar lexical items. The second experiment examined whether this poorer processing reflected an inability to benefit from experience over repeated trials. The results indicated that the performance of both skilled and less-skilled readers improved with repeated experience. Moreover, similar gains were observed after repetition with text in Experiment 3. The results of Experiment 4 further indicated that, although the less-skilled readers appears less sensitive to higher-order dimensions of text structure when reading for meaning, their performance across specific transfer conditions indicated that they were able to used higher order information to facilitate comprehension. The results of these experiments suggest that investigation of the role of repeated experience in contributing to individual difference may clarify factors critical to the acquisition of proficient reading skills. The implications of these findings for models of reading and for future research are discussed.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In order for foster parents to be prepared to manage problem behavior and develop a positive relationship with a child in their home, local foster care agencies require these parents to attend parent training classes. Unfortunately, even foster care agencies that offer empirically validated parent training courses are unable to prevent the parents' performance from decreasing over time (Cowart, Iwata, & Poynter, 1984; Forehand & King, 1977; Mueller et al., 2003). However, researchers have created booster training sessions to counteract this issue. Booster training sessions allow participants to attend a brief refresher course on skills they have previously learned. Another intervention that has been successful with skill acquisition is video modeling. Video modeling requires less response effort and is not as time consuming compared to other training methods like didactic teaching. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of booster training sessions using video modeling for foster parents who completed a parent training class that was based on basic behavior analysis principles. Results showed an increase in the participants' skills after they received booster training sessions using video modeling.

Physical exercise has repeatedly been shown to trigger positive effects on brain function including improved learning, memory, and executive functions. In addition, corresponding physiological changes have been observed, such as increased neurotrophic factors, changes in neurotransmitter concentrations, and increased dendritic spines. However, these changes have not been well described outside of the hippocampus, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and have not been directly compared at different points of development. Because the prefrontal cortex is one of the last brain areas to fully mature, considering the age at which intervention, such as exercise, takes place is particularly important. Additionally, in human studies the data suggest that exercise has the most profound effects on prefrontal-mediated cognitive functions, while there is considerably less evidence on how exercise affects these functions in animals. The experiments presented here draw upon several well-established methodologies to explore the behavioral and physiological changes due to exercise that take place during adulthood compared to adolescence, as well as the role of mPFC sub regions in instrumental extinction and renewal. To that end, these experiments employ conditioning paradigms using appetitive lever-pressing to assess renewal of extinguished instrumental responding following exercise or pharmacological manipulations. Additionally, because there are multiple reports suggesting that early experiences can affect prefrontal neuronal morphology, dendritic length, complexity, and spine density was examined in young or adult male rats that had access to a locked (no exercise) or unlocked (exercise) running wheel for two weeks. Furthermore, norepinephrine transporter (NET) protein expression in the mPFC was examined by Western blot. Collectively, these experiments suggest that exercise in developing, but not adult rats, reduces the expression of instrumental renewal. The precise role of the mPFC and its sub-regions (i.e., prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL)) in instrumental renewal was examined, providing evidence that the behavioral consequences of physical exercise may be due to modifications not only restricted to the mPFC, but also that exercise may have preferential effects on sub-regions, or change the balance of activation. The finding that when juvenile rats exercised they showed less ABA renewal than non-exercisers, paired with the reduction of ABA renewal when the PL was inactivated (and indeed, almost an identical reduction in the two experiments) points to the deduction that exercise is affecting the PL, perhaps more so than the IL or other mPFC regions.

The use of positive reinforcement in acquisition programming is a hallmark of Applied Behavior Analysis; however, the Precision Teaching literature reveals a lack of reporting on the use of reinforcement. The present study utilized a groups design and single case analyses to investigate the effect of programming systematic tangible reinforcement on acquisition performance, retention and endurance of academic skills with 10 typically developing students ranging from 5-7 years of age. Results indicate that for both control and experimental participants, an increase in accuracy on both See/Say sight words and math problems occurred; however, the experimental group performed better on See/Say sight words and both groups performed the same with See/Say math problems.

Auditory feedback has been shown to be highly effective at teaching new skills to athletes in a variety of sports. This method consists of targeting a routine, breaking down the specific skills required to complete the routine, and training an individual on those skills using an auditory device to provide feedback on correct responses. This study evaluated the effectiveness of auditory feedback for improving a judo technique. One set of techniques taught in judo are standing throws, which require a partner to receive the technique (uke.) These throws require specific skills to successfully implement the technique. Auditory feedback was evaluated within a multiple baseline across participants design to increase skills for one specific standing throw, ippon seoi nage (one armed shoulder throw.) The skills were scored on a seven item checklist. All participants improved their performance on ippon seoi nage at a quicker pace than what was observed during baseline.

Toxic leaders are a serious problem, but shockingly, there is no standard detection tool that is both efficient and accurate. Compounding the problem are the various definitions and descriptions used to operationalize toxic leadership. This research sought to align the literature, offer a concise definition, and assess the domains indicative of toxic leadership through two conceptually compatible studies. Study 1 involved development of a toxic leader threat detection scale. Results using a variable-centered approach indicated that follower perceptions (n = 357) of leader empathy (4-item scale; α = .93) and the need for achievement recognition (4-item scale; α = .83) significantly predicted the egoistic dominance behaviors (5-item scale; α = .93) employed by toxic leaders (R2 = .647, p < .001). Using a person-centered approach, the scale scores also revealed latent clusters of distinct behavioral patterns, representing significantly different toxic leader threat levels (low, medium, and high). Study 2 assessed whether followers (n = 357), without access to behavioral information, would infer toxic characteristics simply from a leader’s physical appearance. Participants perceived images of male leaders (η2 = .131) with masculine facial structures (η2 = .596) as most likely to behave aggressively, while feminine facial structures (η2 = .400) and female images (η2 = .104) created the highest perceptions of empathy. The subjects also selected male leaders with masculine faces (η2 = .044; η2 = .015) as more likely to desire recognition, but with an inverse relationship (η2 = .073) such that feminine looking males earned the lowest scores. Overall, these results supported the idea that empathy and the need for achievement recognition create an “ego gone wild” condition and, not only can we measure the behavioral tendencies of toxic leaders, but perhaps we can “see” them as well.

Behavioral coaching procedures have been evaluated and enhanced over the years to find the most effective interventions for athletic performance in a variety of sports settings. Different types of feedback have been evaluated for effectiveness in teaching and improving skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of video modeling and video feedback to improve technique for three novice individuals in a fitness program incorporating Olympic weightlifting. Two weightlifting events, the clean and jerk and snatch, were targeted for intervention. Each lift was broken down into a task analysis, and trainers used the task analysis to score each lift. Video modeling and video feedback was effective in improving all three participant's lifts from baseline. Annie's lifts improved from 37% in baseline to 79% in intervention for the clean and jerk, and 24% to 75% for the snatch. Rich's lifts improved from 79% in baseline to 95% following intervention for clean and jerk, and 58% to 89% for the snatch. Fran improved from 60% to 87% on the clean and jerk, and from 51% to 84% on the snatch.

Abstract Over the past few years there has been an increasing number of people practicing yoga. There also have been reports of injuries as a result of practicing yoga. Many injuries have been attributed to poor teaching which can result in improper alignment. This study utilized a teaching technology, TAGteach to aide in skill acquisition of novice yoga practitioners. The current study focused on teaching three beginner asanas (poses) to novice practitioners. The intervention included the asanas being broken down by task analysis and the steps tagged one by one. The intervention was assessed by a multiple baseline across behaviors design. All targeted yoga postures improved upon the implementation of TAGteach and the results maintained after reinforcement was no longer provided and generalized to the yoga class setting. Keywords: Feedback, performance feedback, acoustical guidance, auditory stimulus, fitness, sports

Abstract Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social and communicative behaviors. These impairments can impact an individual's ability to obtain employment. The rates of unemployment for individuals with ASD are much higher than those of their peers without ASD. This study used a multiple baseline design across three participants diagnosed with ASD to determine the effectiveness of video feedback in improving eye contact duration during mock job interviews. After video feedback sessions, eye contact duration increased across all participants. On average, participant's eye contact duration was at 30.2% during baseline. These percentages increased to an average of 72.8% after video feedback was implemented.