Physical activity is important for children as many children are considered overweight or obese. The benefits of exercise have been demonstrated in empirical studies across all age ranges (Horne, Hardman, Lowe, & Rowlands, 2009; Kelly et al., 2004; Louie & Chan, 2003; Southard & Southard, 2006). In the current study, a multiple baseline design across participants was used to assess the effectiveness of goal setting, reinforcement contingencies, and pedometers that provide feedback to increase step count of 5 participants. During baseline each participant wore a sealed pedometer to assess the average steps the participants took per day. After baseline, each participant, researcher, and parent set a reasonable goal of steps to achieve per day in order to receive a specific reinforcer chosen by the parent and participant. A behavioral contract stated the specific goal number of steps for the day and the specific reinforcer they would receive. At the end of each day before the child went to bed, the parent recorded the number of steps and provided the child with feedback about whether reinforcement was earned. Data collection for four of the five participants showed a mean increase in steps taken per day during intervention 1 in comparison to baseline levels. Participants met their goal step counts during intervention 1 on 12%, 35%, 50%, 71% and 76% of days. All three participants that participated in intervention 2 increased their mean count from both baseline and intervention 1 levels. Participants met their goal step counts during intervention 2 on 62%, 100%, and 100% of days. Two participants participated in the follow up phase of the study; both participants maintained their goals from intervention 2 and completed their goal step count on 100% of days.

The current study sought to add to the literature on applying interdependent group-oriented contingency systems with randomized components to academic performance. This study expanded previous work, which has only examined effects on elementary classrooms and students with disabilities, by implementing a similar intervention within a general education, secondary classroom. Given the restricted time that teachers have to learn and implement interventions, while simultaneously carrying out all their additional responsibilities in the classroom, it is necessary for school psychologists to consider these limitations when recommending interventions. In previous work involving interdependent group-oriented contingencies, the delivery of reinforcement has been relatively immediate. While this is an ideal arrangement, it may be infeasible for middle and high school teachers to ensure reinforcement of academic performance occurs immediately within the class period. This study examined whether the delivery of reinforcement can be delayed within an interdependent group-oriented contingency system and still improve the academic performance of students in the classroom, which will allow the teacher more time for evaluating the quality of student work and, in turn, impact the acceptability of the intervention. One middle school, general education classroom served as the setting for this study. Academic performance data, including in-class work completion and accuracy rates, were collected class-wide and data on social behavior variables were gathered for 3 students exhibiting moderate to high levels of off-task behavior, based on teacher perception. An alternating treatments design was employed with two intervention conditions: one condition included immediate reinforcement and the other involved delivering reinforcement to students a day later. The interdependent group-oriented contingency intervention implemented included procedures for randomly selecting target behaviors, criteria, and reinforcers.

Although cannabis is widely consumed by humans for the intoxicating effects that are mediated by delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), pre-clinical models of THC self-administration have been difficult to establish. We hypothesized that THC may have reinforcement enhancing effects comparable to other drugs (e.g., nicotine and caffeine), which are also widely consumed by humans but difficult to establish as primary reinforcers in non-human animals. To investigate whether THC is a reinforcement enhancer, male (M, n=8) and female (F, n=8) rats were shaped to self-administer a reinforcing saccharin (SACC) solution (0.2% w/v) in standard operant chambers equipped with infrared beams to monitor locomotor activity. At baseline, we found a significant sex difference for active lever responses and reinforcers earned (F

To teach operant behaviors to individuals with severe disabilities, stimulus preference assessment (SPA) methods have been developed to accurately identify stimuli that may function as reinforcers. Previous researchers have used multiple-stimulus preference assessments without replacement (MSWO) effectively over a short time period to teach target behaviors to individuals with disabilities. The present study investigated the long-term effects of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments into the instructional routine for students with severe disabilities on individualized education plan reading goal/objective progress. This was done by investigating the effectiveness of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments by comparing reading goal progress when a random reinforcer is available, teacher- selected reinforcer is available, or a student-selected reinforcer (via a brief MSWO preference assessment) is available over several weeks for students with severe disabilities in a secondary public school classroom setting.

No description available.

Preference for one stimulus context over another and resistance to disruption within those contexts are a function of the conditions of reinforcement arranged within those contexts. According to behavioral momentum theory, these measures are converging expressions of the concept of response strength. Most studies have found that preference in concurrent chains and resistance to change are greater in contexts presenting higher rates or larger magnitudes of reinforcement. The present series of experiments attempted to extend behavioral momentum theory by examining whether differences in reinforcer type affect relative response strength with rats lever pressing for different types of food. In Experiment 1 of Chapter 2, several nonuniform disrupter types were examined that provided free access to a food type that was the same as one reinforcer type. Responding decreased more in the context presenting the same type of reinforcer as the disrupter, suggesting that many traditional disrupters (e.g., satiation) are inappropriate for examining how reinforcer type impacts response strength. Therefore, extinction was used throughout the remainder of the experiments to more uniformly disrupt responding across contexts. In Experiment 2 of Chapter 2, resistance to extinction was assessed when food pellets and a sucrose solution maintained responding across contexts. Moreover, relative reinforcer type was manipulated by changing the sucrose concentration across conditions. Relative response rates were systematically affected by changing sucrose concentration, but relative resistance to extinction was not. In Experiment 3 of Chapter 2, qualitative difference between reinforcers was enhanced and preference also was assessed to provide a converging measure of response strength. Preference and relative response rates were systematically affected, but relative resistance to extinction again was not. Finally, in Chapter 3, relative reinforcer rate and type were manipulated while assessing preference and resistance to extinction using the matching law. Preference, but not resistance to extinction, consistently was affected by changes in reinforcer rate and type. Systematic deviations in sensitivity and bias, however, suggested that different reinforcer types interacted with reinforcer rate. Overall, these findings suggest that the overall context of reinforcement, including interactions between different reinforcer types, should be considered when assessing preference and relative resistance to change.

No description available.

Studien är en korpusbaserad undersökning av hur bloggare vanligen förstärker adjektiv på svenska, och om förstärkningen varierar utifrån vilka adjektiv och/eller substantiv som modifieras. Tidigare litteratur belyser exempelvis hur adjektivförstärkning kan styras av semantiska och kontextuella faktorer samt hur förstärkare ofta grammatikaliseras. Undersökningen ämnar deskriptivt komplettera tidigare observationer, genom analys av större datamängder än motsvarande studier av svenska. Datan hämtades ur korpusen Swedish Blog Sentences (>6 miljarder tokens). Alla sammansatta adjektiv, adverb följda av adjektiv samt liknelser (”ADJ som en/ett N”) extraherades automatiskt. Därefter listades manuellt de 20 vanligaste förstärkande förleden, adverben och liknelserna, totalt och för 26 utvalda adjektiv. ”Förstärkning” definierades som ett uttryck för ’hög grad’ av egenskapen som adjektivet betecknar. Resultaten visade att förleden och adverben är nära Zipf-fördelade totalt sett, och ofta för enskilda adjektiv. Vidare fastslogs att adjektiv förstärks olika mycket och med olika förstärkare. Resultaten bedöms stödja teorin kring affixoider och grammatikalisering samt graderbarhet hos adjektiv. Det föreslås att framtida större studier skulle belysa skillnaden mellan lexikalt specifika och generella förstärkningar. Slutligen argumenteras för att liknelserna fyller samma förstärkande funktion som förleden och adverben. / The study is a corpus-based investigation of how bloggers usually reinforce adjectives in Swedish, and if the intensification varies according to the adjectives and nouns that are being modified. Earlier literature shows for example how intensification of adjectives may depend on semantic and contextual factors and how intensifiers often undergo grammaticalization. The study aims to descriptively contribute to earlier observations, by analysis of more data than used in comparable studies of Swedish. The data comes from the corpus Swedish Blog Sentences (>6 billion tokens). All adjectival compounds, adverbs preceding adjectives, and similes (”ADJ som en/ett N”) were automatically extracted. Then the 20 most frequent reinforcing left parts of compounds, adverbs and similes, totally as well as for 26 chosen adjectives, were manually listed. ”Reinforcement” was defined as an expression of ’high degree’ of the feature that the adjective expresses. The results showed that the left parts along with the adverbs follow a Zipfian distribution, in total and often for individual adjectives. Moreover, it was shown that adjectives are more or less reinforced, and by different reinforcers. The results are seen as supporting theories about affixoids and grammaticalization, and also gradability in adjectives. It is suggested that future bigger studies would illuminate the difference between lexically specific and general reinforcers. Finally, it is argued that similes serve the same reinforcing function as the left parts and adverbs.