One way for students with disabilities to receive instructional support from someone other than the lead classroom teacher is through paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals who are not trained properly, however, can negatively impact student success rates. One intervention that has been explored has been the use of video modeling to train staff on various instructional and behavior management strategies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using video training to teach paraprofessionals how to implement errorless learning strategies with students. The participants within this study were three female paraprofessionals that were of Caucasian, Latino, and Ukranian descent and had worked in a classroom for at least one year. The dependent variables within this study were evaluated by use of a single subject, multiple baseline design across participants. Results of this study revealed that video training with a focus on errorless learning was effective in increasing paraprofessional percent correct implementation of the strategy, as indicated by an increase in exhibition of the strategy throughout observation and generalization sessions. Paraprofessional implementation of errorless learning procedures increased from a mean of 12.5% accuracy during baseline to 84% accuracy during intervention sessions. Generalization probes maintained high accuracy rates as well, with a mean of 88% accuracy across all three participants. The social validity results provided to the participants at the end of the study indicated that all participants prefer video training over in person training.

Equivalence based instruction (EBI) has been demonstrated as an effective method for teaching various skills to a wide range of clinical and non-clinical populations. Recent research suggests deictic framing, or perspective switching skills, can be taught to typically and atypically developing children using an EBI teaching paradigm, however the protocols for teaching deictic framing tend to be very long. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a brief EBI and errorless learning program to teach deictic framing to a young woman with learning disabilities. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine if training on one deictic framing program would improve responding on skills that involve other deictic frames. The participant completed a pre and post-test before and after mastering one of four tested EBI programs. Results indicate that EBI is effective in teaching deictic frames, as derived relations emerged following training. The participant’s performance on other skills did not improve. These results also lend support to multiple exemplar teaching. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of a constant time delay procedure to teach core content words in braille to a student with a visual impairment. A multiple probe (conditions) across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and follow-up sessions. The results showed the procedure was effective in teaching core content braille words within a resource setting and the student was able to generalize the information to an inclusive setting.

This study investigates the use of response guidance for errorless learning of a perceptual motor task in normal elderly. It provides normative data for a study with stroke patients using this technique for cognitive rehabilitation. While errorless learning has been shown to be more effective on most tasks than trial and error learning for people with memory impairments, its use with normal individuals has received limited attention. The questions of interest were whether errorless training of the perceptual motor task was more effective for improving and retaining accuracy; and whether both accuracy and response speed were more resistant to the effects of increased cognitive demands. A sample of 43 normal elderly in the United Kingdom, ranging in age from 60 to 77, completed an assessment of intelligence, memory, and attention. They then received training, over two sessions one week apart, to mark the midpoint of Judd Arrows presented on a computer screen using a cross cursor moved by an active force feedback joystick (AFF). During training the errorless group received AFF guidance to the correct midpoint, while the errorful group received none, and both received auditory and visual knowledge of results. There was no AFF during baseline or post test measures. Training was to criterion in each session with a discontinue rule if accuracy did not improve. At the end of session two both groups were given a cognitively challenging task concurrent with the arrow bisection. Results revealed that both groups improved their accuracy through training with the errorless group being significantly more accurate and tending to be faster in the final post tests of both sessions. The errorless group was significantly faster than the errorful group under the cognitive challenge, without sacrificing accuracy. These results suggest not only that AFF is an effective means of implementing errorless perceptual motor learning, but elderly individuals trained in this manner do not sacrifice accuracy for speed. Implications of these results are discussed.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LEANA VILMAR BERNARDES.pdf: 2954760 bytes, checksum: b4204bf0d486719e5425f40e2bff4408 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / The study bellow is a sysmatic replication, magnified by the researcher of the reading program proposed by Iñesta (1980), based on methods of choosing by the gradual fading visual aid, colors of the stimulus e reinforcement, providing errorless learning, with the purpose of verifying your effect in the aquisition of the textual behavior of kids with autism diagnosis. Two kids in ages of 10 and 11 years, with autism diagnosis took part of the study and the behavior of reading was not part of their repertory. For the program application, file folders with A4 paper with printed stimuli, registration protocols, Sodré Primer, e revision texts were used. The program was applied in 5 steps, in all of them, baselines were applied to follow the participants performances. The data was analyzed and was verified that both kids learned to read. Four months after the program application finished, a follow up session was performed, confirming the learning conservation and generalization, and the increase of the textual behavior learned from the baseline 1. The hypothesis that the people with autismo learn when the learning proceedings are appropriate for the disorder features, was confirmed. / O presente estudo é uma replicação sistemática, ampliada pela pesquisadora, do programa de leitura proposto por Iñesta (1980), baseado nos métodos de escolha de acordo com o modelo com esvanecimento gradual de ajuda visual, cor dos estímulos e reforço, proporcionando uma aprendizagem sem erro, com o objetivo de verificar seu efeito na aquisição do comportamento textual de crianças com diagnóstico de autismo. Participaram do estudo duas crianças, 10 e 11 anos, com diagnóstico de autismo e o comportamento de ler não fazia parte do repertório delas. Para a aplicação do programa foram utilizadas pastas fichário, com folhas A4 com os estímulos impressos, protocolos de registro, Cartilha Sodré e texto de revisão. O programa foi aplicado em 5 etapas, em todas foram aplicadas linhas de base para acompanhar o desempenho dos participantes. Os dados foram analisados e verificou-se que as duas crianças aprenderam a ler. Depois de 4 meses de terminada a aplicação do programa, foi realizada uma sessão de follow up, confirmando a manutenção e generalização da aprendizagem e aumento do comportamento textual aprendido em relação à linha de base 1. É confirmada a hipótese de que as pessoas com autismo aprendem quando os procedimentos de ensino são adequados às características do transtorno.

Very few behavior-change programs with canines produce effects that persist beyond the training condition. The present study is an experimental demonstration of a constructional program that established calm patterns of behavior as alternatives to hyperactive ones. Three dogs that exhibited hyperactive patterns were chosen as subjects. Seven conditions common to canine-caretaker relationships were used to determine which factors resulted in the hyperactive patterns. Then, sitting and lying down were taught as beginning points using touch as a reinforcer. The final behavior, maintained by naturally occurring reinforcers, was established errorlessly. The study used a control-analysis strategy of behavior change with a changing-criterion design. The intervention resulted in an immediate reduction in hyperactivity and an increase in sitting and lying down for all dogs.

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<p>When learning a new motor skill, how we choose to go about the learning process can influence how quickly and how well we learn the task. In particular, the role of learner involvement during the acquisition period can be manipulated through how practice is scheduled. Two separate sets of literature (progression of task difficulty and self-controlled practice) which discuss learner involvement during acquisition were reviewed. The motivation behind this thesis is to examine the effects of progressive and self-controlled practice on measures of retention, transfer and dual-task performance as well as to attempt to determine the underlying factors responsible for any benefits of each of these schedules. We examined the influence of practice scheduling during acquisition of a fine-motor skill within the context of the minimization and facilitation of learner involvement through a series of four experiments and one review paper.</p> <p>The findings of the four experiments suggest that an easy-to difficult progression through versions of a task, whether prescribed or chosen, does not always induce implicit learning processes and is also not always beneficial to performance under a secondary task load. The only manipulation that was found to have an effect on dual-task performance was, not the minimization of learner involvement but the proximity of the version of the task first practiced in acquisition to the tested version of the task. Participants that began practice using versions of the task most similar to the test version performed a novel task well under dual-task conditions and maintained this performance over time.</p> <p>The overall difficulty of versions of a task practiced in acquisition appears to have an influence on participants’ ability to perform well on immediate transfer tests and to maintain that performance on delayed transfer tests. These results suggest that learner involvement can be beneficial to performance on transfer tests.</p> <p>The possible benefit of cognitive involvement for learning of motor tasks found in the studies that examined the progression of task difficulty is consistent with one of the main explanations of the benefits of self-controlled learning summarized in the review paper. Interesting motivational implications found in study four, where motivational factors may have overridden the cognitive effort involved are also consistent with the findings summarized in the review paper from the perspective of the self-determination theory.</p> <p>The results and information presented in this thesis present implications for anyone responsible for organizing a practice of motor skills. The most beneficial organization of versions of a practiced task is dependent upon the goals of the testing context.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Feral and fearful cats and kittens in animal shelters are not likely to be adopted as companion animals because they emit fearful or aggressive behaviors in the presence of humans. The purpose of the fearful to friendly (F2F) research was to investigate a shaping procedure to increase friendly behaviors of feral and fearful domestic cats and kittens with the goal of achieving animal shelters’ adoptability criteria. The results showed the F2F procedure was a safe and very effective procedure to quickly tame feral kittens deemed unadoptable. The day after implementing F2F, three out of four kittens approached me and accepted petting and holding without any additional training.