A recent focus of our Program for the Study of Infancy is the extent to which lab assistants retain fidelity when implementing experimental protocols. Dixon et al. showed that experimenters’ implementations of some aspects of standardized protocols can be influenced by infants’ temperaments. Ellefson and Oppenheimer further found that procedural deviations reduce effect sizes and lead to heterogeneity of findings. In this project, we evaluated archival videos involving experimenters’ implementations of two elicited imitation tasks, “Feed Bear” and “Make a Rattle.” In both tasks, experimenters were assumed to adhere to a narrative script and procedure, which included familiarizing infants with experimental stimuli for 60 seconds prior to infants engaging the tasks. Experimenters were also expected to adhere to a standardized narrative script that accompanied the modeling of “feeding the bear” or “making a rattle.” In this study we explored whether they did so, independent of infants' temperament characteristics. Ten experimenters guided sixty-one 15-month-olds through the experimental procedure. We examined two types of dependent measures reflecting 1) whether experimenters adhered to the 60 second familiarization time protocol, and 2) whether experimenters adhered to the standardized scripts. We also tracked experimenter infant-directed speech (IDS) before the model (prologue IDS) and after the model (epilogue IDS), to see if experimenters’ speech was potentially influenced by infant temperament. Infant temperament was measured by parent-report using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ). For familiarization times in the Feed Bear task, experimenters granted significantly longer times to the infants than they were supposed to [M = 68.72, SD = 17.14; t(28) = 2.74, p = .011]. But there were no differences among the experimenters in familiarization time. For Make a Rattle, experimenters were on-target with their familiarization times (M = 67.64, SD = 21.38). Infant temperament was not associated with familiarization times in either task. In terms of IDS, experimenters used more words in the standardized narratives of both tasks than they were supposed to [M = 123.90, SD = 18.03; t(28) = 7.73, p M = 109.00, SD = 9.52; t(27) = 15.01, p < .001] respectively. There was no association between IDS during the narrative phase and infant temperament. However, there were associations between infant temperament and IDS during the prologue and epilogue phases; namely for effortful control (prologue r = .29, p p < .05), impulsivity (prologue r = .23, p p

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Given the rising prevalence of children diagnosed with autism and the emergence of evidence-based autism interventions, schools are now faced with the challenge of delivering high quality instruction to this unique population. Comprehensive packaged curricula have been developed to address this growing need and to allow educators to transport research-based instruction into their classroom settings. However, there is a dearth of research examining the factors associated with intervention effectiveness with children with autism in public schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between school level factors, the fidelity of interventions, and student outcomes within autism support classrooms. Data were gathered from 171 students with autism spectrum disorders in kindergarten-through-second grade classrooms across 40 schools in the Philadelphia School District. Correlational analyses and linear regression with random effects analyses indicated that school level factors were not associated with and were not moderators of intervention fidelity and student outcomes. The findings suggest that autism support classrooms are like islands within the school building, such that the practices and outcomes within these classrooms were unrelated to the school context. This study indicates that when transporting an evidence-based practice into a public school classroom, it may be more necessary to focus on the classroom context rather than the school building. Future research is needed to fully delineate these relationships between school building level factors and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices for children with autism within a classroom setting. / School Psychology

The purpose of the study was to examine how four different high schools within one school district implemented the AVID program. The researcher used a comparative case study model to examine the different sites' programs and how the program and program implementation varied by site. The research questions answered how the AVID program was implemented by site, whether the program was implemented with fidelity, and if there were factors that impacted program implementation. The AVID district coordinator, site administrators and site coordinators were surveyed to gauge the understanding of the AVID program, program implementation, and how AVID implementation impacts the program fidelity by site. AVID research suggests that the program works to address the needs of students from underserved populations and aims to help them access advanced academic classes and achieve more success within those college prep courses and school overall. This study may help school districts, school administation and AVID personnel better understand how site implementation impacts overall program success and to see how barriers impact the implemenation process at school sites. Findings included, some school-based administrators and site coordinators did not feel they implemented the AVID program with fidelity, site administrators' involvement with the AVID implementation was inconsistent, most site administrators knew nothing about the specific rating of the AVID Coaching and Certification Instrument (CCI) or the measurement overall. Other findings were AVID site coordinators completed the AVID CCI and coordinated all aspects of the process and AVID implementation at the sites, site coordinators perceived that they implemented the AVID program with the most fidelity possible within their respective "means" but not with fidelity. Further, schools implemented the AVID Domains with varied degrees of fidelity according to the AVID CCI and each site had a unique implementation of the AVID program. / Doctor of Education / Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is an educational program that aims to help underserved students learn how to successfully access classes that helps prepare them for college. The AVID program is offered in some schools to aid students in the academic middle through instruction, tutoring, and structures to learn how to be successful in honors courses within the middle and high school levels. School leaders need to understand how well AVID programs are being implemented within their school to ensure that the program can be the most successful to reach the students well. This research study looked at four AVID schools to see how well they implemented the AVID program in comparison to how it should be done, the role school administration had in the implementation, and how implementation differed at schools. The study used information from the AVID Coaching and Certification Instrument (the AVID report card), to see how the school scored and each AVID site administrator (building principal) and AVID site coordinator (the person who runs the AVID program at the school) were interviewed and asked several questions to better understand the program at each school, the role the site administrator and site coordinator played in running the program and how well the AVID staff understood how well the school did with the program at their school. The study found that schools implemented their programs differently, that the AVID principals did not feel they ran the program as it should be, and that most of the AVID principals did not know what the AVID CCI was or how their school scored. The AVID site coordinator was responsible for running AVID at the school, they ran the AVID program as well as they could but not as it should be.

Problem behavior has been increasing in classrooms and has significantly contributed to teacher burnout. Students in special education settings have been found to demonstrate problem behaviors more than their general education peers. Schools have a responsibility to implement evidence-based behavioral support to assist students with their behavioral needs, decrease problem behavior, and increase desired behavior in the classroom. There is a relationship between the level of implementation fidelity and the effectiveness of an intervention. If there are not high levels of fidelity, the results are not expected to mimic what has been found in the research. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify, analyze, and synthesize the current evidence surrounding implementation fidelity interventions for behavioral supports. A systematic method was used to identify relevant studies and 11 studies met the inclusion criteria. Each study was then coded to identify the quality of the evidence and the findings. The data was then reviewed and synthesized according to the research questions. The results indicate that direct implementor training paired with performance feedback is the most researched intervention and has been shown to be effective. Additional research is needed to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of other implementation fidelity interventions.

It is often assumed that more realism is always desirable. In particular, many techniques for locomotion in Virtual Reality (VR) attempt to approximate real-world walking. However, it is not yet fully understood how the design of more realistic locomotion techniques influences effectiveness and user experience. In the previous VR studies, the effects of interaction fidelity have been coarse-grained, considering interaction fidelity as a single construct. We argue that interaction fidelity consists of various independent components, and each component can have a different effect on the effectiveness of the interface. Moreover, the designer's intent can influence the effectiveness of an interface and needs to be considered in the design. Semi-natural locomotion interfaces can be difficult to use at first, due to a lack of interaction fidelity, and effective training would help users understand the forces they were feeling and better control their movements. Another method to improve locomotion interaction is to develop a more effective interface or improve the existing techniques. A detailed taxonomy of walking-based locomotion techniques would be beneficial to better understand, analyze, and design walking techniques for VR. We conducted four user studies and performed a meta-analysis on the literature to have a more in-depth understanding of the effects of interaction fidelity on effectiveness. We found that for the measures dependent on proprioceptive sensory information, such as orientation estimation, cognitive load, and sense of presence, the level of effectiveness increases with increasing levels of interaction fidelity. Other measures which depend more on the ease of learning and ease of use, such as completion time, movement accuracy, and subjective evaluation, form a u-shape uncanny valley. For such measures, moderate-fidelity interfaces are often outperformed by low- and high-fidelity interfaces. In our third user study, we further investigated the effects of components of interaction fidelity, biomechanics and transfer function, as well as designers' intent. We learned that the biomechanics of walking are more sensitive to changes and that the effects of these changes were mostly negative for hyper-natural techniques. Changes in the transfer function component were easier for the user to learn and to adapt to. Suitable transfer functions were able to improve some locomotion features but at the cost of accuracy. To improve the level of effectiveness in moderate-fidelity locomotion interfaces we employed an effective training method. We learned that providing a visual cue during the acclimation phase can help users better understand their walking in moderate-fidelity interfaces and improve their effectiveness. To develop a design space and classification of locomotion techniques, we designed a taxonomy for walking- based locomotion techniques. With this taxonomy, we extract and discuss various characteristics of locomotion interaction. Researchers can create novel locomotion techniques by making choices from the components of this taxonomy, they can analyze and improve existing techniques, or perform experiments to evaluate locomotion techniques in detail using the presented organization. As an example of using this taxonomy, we developed a novel locomotion interface by choosing a new combination of characteristics from the taxonomy. / Ph. D. / Virtual Reality researchers have been trying to develop natural travel techniques to allow users to physically walk and move in virtual environments rather than using unnatural methods such as joysticks. Using such techniques, the user can physically move or perform actions similar to walking to navigate through virtual environments. More natural travel methods can improve various parameters such as sense of presence and spatial understanding. However, the effects of increasing naturalness of walking on the user experience have not been known for years. In this dissertation, we have run four user experiments, performed a meta-analysis on the literature and developed a taxonomy to contribute a better understanding of how increasing levels of walking naturalness can affect user experience in Virtual Reality. Our findings can benefit designers and researchers in designing novel travel techniques, improve existing techniques or more in-depth understating of what to expect when employing a certain travel technique.

Detta examensarbete har bestått av utvecklingen av en konceptuell mobilapplikation som ska uppmuntra barn till fysiskt aktiv lek. Arbetets involverade frågeställningar bestod av hur en mobilapplikation kan utformas för att uppmuntra barn till fysisk aktivitet, samt hur en mobilapplikation kan samverka med ett aktivitetsarmband för att förhöja användarupplevelsen. Utvecklingsarbetet har bestått av en produktutvecklingsprocess tidiga del, och har gått från förundersökning fram till skapandet av en high fidelity prototyp med tillhörande användartester. Produktutvecklingen har inkluderat human-centered design vilket har inneburit ett flertal tillfällen där barn, mellan 6 och 10 år gamla, har inkluderats i arbetet. Detta har påverkat de involverade metoderna samt resultatet. Arbetet resulterade i en konceptuell mobilapplikation där användaren kan ta hand om en figur med hjälp av poäng som samlats med fysisk aktivitet. Konceptet innehåller flera olika funktioner så som en affär där insamlade aktivitetspoäng kan spenderas, en garderob med ägda accessoarer, minispel i form av exergames och statistik över utförd fysisk ansträngning. För att förhöja användarens upplevelse av aktivitetsarmbandet skapades ett samband mellan detta och den konceptuella mobilapplikationen. Detta samband innebar att konceptets poäng samlas in med hjälp av armbandet för att sedan överföras till spelet med en synkroniseringsfunktion.

The purpose of this study was to make use of indicators of level of implementation collected during the enactment of Oregon Reading First in order to examine whether variation of implementation of the components of the Schoolwide Reading Program predicted better outcomes for students and schools. In particular, the aim of this study was to determine the extent to which each of three different types of measures of implementation fidelity, as well as a combined index of these measures, explained school-level variance in student improvement in 34 schools participating in the Reading First program. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to predict reading performance and growth on oral reading fluency and overall measures of reading performance. Mixed results, at best, were found when analyzing this association. In both second and third grades, one of three implementation indices and a composite total of all three measures were statistically significant but small predictors of oral reading fluency growth. However, this relationship was offset with the removal of one outlier school. Implementation threshold effects are discussed as a possible cause of nullification. No statistically significant relationships were found between implementation fidelity measures and overall reading outcomes directed at reading comprehension. Although not a focus of the study, school-level demographic characteristics including special education status and limited English proficiency appeared to explain significant differences between schools despite the use of evidence-based practices and strong support for implementation of these practices.