In Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) suggested that each verbal operant has independent response functions, in which acquiring one does not automatically result in the other, unless transfer between the verbal operants is directly trained. Although several researchers have shown that mands and tacts are functionally independent, more recent research has demonstrated that mands may emerge following tact training. However, this research has not clarified the influence of establishing operations on the emergence of pure mands following tact training. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of tact training on the acquisition of impure and pure mands in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) when conditioned establishing operations (CEO) were manipulated during mand probes. Three children diagnosed with ASD were taught to tact the utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles and then were assessed on their ability to mand for those utensils during CEO absent versus CEO present pure mand probes using a multiple baseline design across participants. It was hypothesized that children would be able to mand for the missing utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles only when the food items were present (CEO present, pure mand probes), but not when they were absent (CEO absent, pure mand probes). Results showed that responses taught as tacts failed to transfer to mand responses until direct training was implemented for two of the three participants. However, once a mand response was learned, all participants exhibited the mand in the CEO present condition but not in the CEO absent condition.

Celestial Bodies Jared C. White ABSTRACT The following is a collection of original poetry written over a span of three years while attending the University of South Florida. The poetry is divided into five numbered sections, marking the major thematic divisions. Preceding the poetry is a critical introduction to the work that outlines the author's developing thematic ideology.

Abstract Guided notes and response cards have individually been found effective at increasing student performance and active participation, however, no known studies have compared the effects of response cards with the effects of guided notes to determine if one is more effective than the other at increasing student performance and on-task behavior. In order to evaluate the efficacy of these two teaching methods, two different teaching conditions were examined: guided notes and response cards for in-lecture review. An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of these two conditions on post-lecture quiz scores, competing academic behaviors and academic responding in two university level behavior analysis courses. The results of this research demonstrated that both guided notes and response cards were effective at maintaining high student academic performance. Guided notes appeared to be more effective at decreasing student's competing academic behaviors while response cards were more preferred by both students and teachers.

In spite of decades-long development programs, Lesotho faces an ongoing problem of water insecurity with far- reaching individual and social impacts. The purpose of this research was to understand how women in Lesotho are impacted by the synergistic epidemics, or syndemics, of water insecurity and HIV/AIDS and how they respond to these forces. Little has been done to address how water insecurity, defined in terms of both sufficient amount and quality of water, catalyzes the syndemic impact on the people of Lesotho. Access to safe and reliable sources of water is crucial for all individuals, particularly those who have been affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. First, water is essential for adequate nutrition since it is required for the growing of agricultural products and for the preparation of adequate foods needed to maintain the nutritional health of those already infected with the virus. Second, food and water security is essential for the treatment of AIDS, as the complex drug regimes of anti-retroviral (ARV) medications require reliable and constant access to safe water and nutritious foods to facilitate compliance with medications. This research was also concerned with understanding the psycho-emotional experience of water insecurity. Water insecurity constrained people's ability to effectively care for their families and, as a result, created additional work and stress. Indeed, quantitative findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between water insecurity and psycho-emotional distress, and that water insecurity predicted higher scores on the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-25), holding constant socio-economic variables and food insecurity. Water security is dependent on many dimensions from adequate availability, secure access, and having enough water for one's daily needs. However, worry about water safety emerged as an important focus in both the qualitative and quantitative data. Water safety was a noted stress in people's daily lives, and significantly predicted increased scores on the HSCL-25. More broadly, this research theoretically informs critical medical anthropology and development anthropology. While this research was conducted in three villages in the Lesotho lowlands, this research must be contextualized within larger anthropological theory regarding international development and women in relation to it. This research combines several theories used in anthropology, international development, and social geography including political economy and structural violence, post-structuralism and governmentality, and theorizations about space and place to understand how women in Lesotho respond to globalization. Despite the proliferation of the terms participation and participatory development nearly 20 years ago, these constructs remain important in international development. While the ideology of participation originally stems from activist understandings of the role of communities in development, the use of participation has become depoliticized. As opposed to grassroots mobilization and the foregrounding of local realities, participation often means little more than a method for facilitating project implementation. Furthermore, respondents routinely discussed programs coming into communities and leaving without notice or explanation. It is imperative for donor organizations to consider the ethics of sustainability when planning and implementing new programs. In terms of community programs and grassroots organizing, findings from this research indicate that there are many material and social barriers to participation. Understanding not only women's other responsibilities but also the support they may receive from family and friends is important in any discussion of community participation. Many feminist critics of development argue that gender and class considerations have not been meaningfully addressed in policy and development programs. As global feminists argue that development aims should understand the heterogeneity of women worldwide, more research on women's perceptions of their vulnerability and their position in society is needed to inform development. Women in the global South are not passive victims and their views are important in delineating the goals and methods of development plans. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that participation may not always be in women's, or men's, best interest and that often activism and collective organizing may be more subtle than expected. In short, neither globalization nor resistance are complete power is contingent and negotiated, and thus this research reaffirms the importance of ethnography in uncovering the lived experience of globalization, or a critical ethnography of globalization.

Studies have shown that increasing eye contact can be accomplished by using reinforcement, prompting, shaping, functional movement training, punishment, and self-monitoring. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates the use of technology as a way to increase eye contact. This study tested the effectiveness of a tablet application at increasing eye contact in children diagnosed with autism. The application requires the child to look at a picture of a person's face and identify the number displayed in the person's eyes in order to receive reinforcement. Data was collected immediately after training, one hour after training, and in the natural environment. The tablet application was not effective at increasing eye contact for any of the three participants. Once the tablet application was shown to be ineffective, the researcher used differential reinforcement to increase eye contact. All three participants showed an increase in eye contact once the differential reinforcement training was implemented.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate TAGteach as a training procedure to increase the fluency of three dance movements in a multiple baseline across behaviors design with 4 students of dance. Target behaviors included a pirouette/turn, kick, and a leap/jump, respective of the level of the class. A dance instructor was trained to implement the TAGteach procedure by the primary researcher. The targeted dance movements remained at a stable level during baseline and improved sequentially for each participant following the introduction of the TAGteach training. Implications for future research are discussed.

Hand washing has been proven to be effective in preventing many serious diseases World Health Organization (WHO, 2009). Nonetheless, both the general public and many healthcare professionals fail to wash their hands. Very little research has been conducted outside of healthcare settings to evaluate the adherence of hand-washing procedures. This study investigated if hand washing adherence in a residential setting can be improved with the use of verbal and graphical feedback a probabilistic bonus. Results suggested that the probabilistic bonus had a substantial impact on hand washing performance: more so than signs, educational in-service, and verbal-graphical feedback alone. Reactivity data were collected and showed performance was weak to non-existent throughout all phases until the probabilistic bonus. This final phase improved performance when staff did not know they were being watched, however, performance was only moderate and variable both within- and between-staff

The intraverbal is argued to be the most socially significant verbal operant and yet it is the least studied. Heal and Hanley (2011) suggest that different teaching strategies will lead to different rates of acquisition and child-preference with the tacting operant. This study continued this research into the realm of intraverbals, with focus on whether the embedded teaching strategy could be punishing on play or engaging in learning opportunities. The teaching strategies of discovery teaching, embedded prompting, and direct teaching were compared to see which strategy correlated with higher rates of acquisition and higher child preference. The study utilized a multi-element design by rapidly alternating teaching strategies while evaluating rate of acquisition and number of learning opportunities within the teaching strategies. Child preference was also demonstrated through card selection of associated teaching strategies in a concurrent chains agreement design. The teaching strategies differed in the amount of teacher directedness and taught intraverbal "Wh" questions. It was found through this study that embedded prompting did not punish play or the engagement in learning opportunities. The three participants preferred the three strategies differently and all participants were responding correctly the highest percentage of the time during the direct teaching contingencies by the end of the teaching sessions.

Research has investigated staff management procedures that produce treatment adherence and maintenance over time. Treatment integrity is one of the most important aspects of staff management; without adequate treatment adherence, behavior analysts are unable to determine whether treatment is effective, function has been identified, or intervention revisions are needed. The literature on staff management procedures has demonstrated that performance feedback and self-monitoring are effective procedures for increasing treatment integrity of behavior plans in the presence of the observer, however, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of these procedures when the observer is absent. This study evaluated the effectiveness of performance feedback and self-monitoring procedures and the level of reactivity to the presence of an observer exhibited by staff trained to implement individualized behavior plans. The results showed that staff performance increased with the intervention almost exclusively in the conspicuous observation condition.

Exercise has many physical, cognitive, and social benefits, but the majority of older adults do not meet the recommended level of physical activity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). TAGteach, which combines elements of both behavioral coaching and acoustical feedback, has been demonstrated as an effective way to teach athletic skills (Fogel, Weil, & Burris, 2010; Quinn, Miltenberger, & Fogel, 2015; Stokes, Luiselli, Reed, & Fleming 2010). However, none of the current research on teaching athletic skills targeted an older population. This study evaluated TAGteach in a multiple baseline across behaviors design as a method of teaching 4 basic baton twirling skills to 3 women aged 62-73. Performance accuracy was low in baseline but improved substantially following the implementation of TAGteach. Participants also rated the intervention positively on a social validity survey. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.