This was a single-case study which evaluated the effects of PEAK-T on two children with Autism. A total of 6 programs were trained between the two participants using a Multiple Baseline Design across skills. This evaluation was conducted using the subtest materials provided in the PEAK-T modules and through full assessments. The assessments were used to identify the appropriate skill level of each participant and they were used to evaluate whether the skills were maintained. The participants had no prior exposure to any of the PEAK-T programs as demonstrated by the participants baseline scores. The results of the study showed that programming of multiple exemplars resulted in acquisition of novel skills in both participants and that the skills were maintained. Both Participants demonstrated mastery of their programs and a total of 4 programs between two participants were added to the participants repertoire.

Human valuing is a topic of study in many disciplines concerned with the behavior of humans in terms of its relationship to individual as well as group behavior. Many disciplines provide a theory of how values effect behavior, however a behavior analytic approach may demonstrate utility in terms of both understanding the formation of values as well as procedures that incorporate valuing into interventions for common psychological problems. Relational Frame Theory (RFT), a psychological account of human language and cognition, which has its foundation in behavior analysis, may provide an empirically-valid account of the formation of values and the mechanisms though which it effects behavior. Language processes including hierarchical, or categorical, relational responding, the transformation of consequential stimulus function, and rule-governed behavior may contribute to the act of human valuing. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a clinical derivative of RFT, incorporates values as a central component of treatment. This series of three studies sought to add to the empirical understanding of human valuing through two basic and one translational study. Study 1 examined the transformation of consequential stimulus functions in accordance with hierarchical networks, completed in a multiple baseline design. Results of this study suggest that, given sufficient strength of derived relations, the transformation was demonstrated by five of six participants. Study 2 evaluated the motivative effect of stimuli in a hierarchical relational network, completed in a multiple baseline design. The results suggest that in the presence of directly trained stimuli the motivative augmentals did not influence responding for four of four participants, however they did in a novel context for three of three participants. Study 3 sought to measure the effect of an arbitrary symbol related to a values-focused hierarchy as a motivative augmental for academic performance with a sample of undergraduate university students in a classroom setting. Together, these studies reflect a number of the languages processes necessary if an RFT-focused conceptualization of human valuing is accurate.

The study assessed how stimuli that contradict pre-experimental histories affect the formation of new relations. The study also assessed whether social variables such as race would influence college students’ perceptions of people of different races and job types. Twenty-six college students at a Midwestern University participated in the study. During the pre-test, participants rated the degree of “Good” or “Bad” of various pictures of African American males, police officers, and random objects on a Likert-type scale. Next, based on their pre-test results, participants completed a match to sample task that paired pictures of African American males and police officers opposite of their initial perceptions. Afterward, all participants again completed the Likert-scale rating task. Pre-test results revealed that some participants demonstrated strong negative pre-experimental biases toward police officers and that the race of the participants influenced their pre-test ratings. Individual data showed that 22 out of 24 participants changed their perceptions for at least one stimulus. Match to sample and post-test results revealed that participants with strong pre-experimental biases took more trials to complete the task, scored less accurately when conditions included socially loaded stimuli, and were less likely to change mean ratings for police officers during the post-test rating scale.

A well-researched line showing equivalence performances in a wide variety of areas has been conducted in the field of Behavior Analysis (BA). One area demonstrates that relating relations is a behavioral account of analogical thinking. Relating relations may have implications for the development of analogical training given that analogical reasoning is seen as the foundation of intelligence yet research in this area is limited. A protocol by Stewart, Barnes-Holmes, and Weil (2009) was developed to train children in analogical reasoning using equivalence-equivalence relations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an equivalence-equivalence training protocol based on Stewart et al. (2009) and test whether the protocol was effective in training equivalence-equivalence responding to 7 and 8-year-old children. A secondary purpose was to test whether training in equivalence-equivalence responding increased performances on analogical tests. All five participants were dismissed throughout the study. Participant 1 was dismissed during the pre-assessments and all other participants were dismissed during intervention. Because none of the participants passed the equivalence-equivalence training, increases in performance in analogical testes were not analyzed. Individual performance data from training are examined and analyzed to provide an account of the failures to pass the equivalence-equivalence protocol.

This investigation evaluated the use of conditional discrimination (CD) instruction and multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) to establish derived relational responding in accordance with hierarchical frames with school aged children. The first experiment used a multiple probe design to evaluate the effectiveness of MEI to teach participants to correctly respond to BELONGS TO and INCLUDES relations between academically relevant stimuli in the target hierarchy. The protocol was presented via an automated computer program. Written and oral intraverbal pre and posttest were administered to determine if CD instruction and MEI were sufficient for academically relevant behaviors to emerge. Transformation of stimulus functions was assessed using a property inheritance task. A retrospective protocol analysis was used to evaluate the covert verbal behavior the participants were engaging in when responding to the CD across the hierarchy task. The second experiment also used a multiple probe across participants design to assess hierarchical responding. An ABABCB withdrawal design was used to assess the functional relation of covert verbal behavior and the CD across the hierarchy task. The target stimuli and procedures for Experiment 2 were identical to the first experiment with the exception of using a concurrent protocol analysis as opposed to the retrospective protocol analysis to assess the role of the participants' covert verbal behavior on task performance. That is, the second experiment used the silent dog method (Hayes, White, & Bissett, 1998) to assess if self-talk is functionally related to the transformation of stimulus function task.

Submitted by Bruna Rodrigues (bruna92rodrigues@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-09-28T14:06:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLAB.pdf: 1245408 bytes, checksum: ac0874f547e5f477048936330c37d4be (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-10T19:06:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLAB.pdf: 1245408 bytes, checksum: ac0874f547e5f477048936330c37d4be (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-10T19:07:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLAB.pdf: 1245408 bytes, checksum: ac0874f547e5f477048936330c37d4be (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-10T19:07:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLAB.pdf: 1245408 bytes, checksum: ac0874f547e5f477048936330c37d4be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-11 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Theory of Mind is conventionally defined as the ability to understand and make inferences about one’s own mental states (i.e., desires, intentions and beliefs) and those of other people, and based on this repertoire, one can predict and explain human behavior. Recent research, supported by Relational Frame Theory (RFT), has emphasized the role of perspective taking in the development of Theory of Mind. Results suggest that children who undergo perspective-taking training show improved performance in Theory of Mind tasks. The goal of the present study was to administer the Perspective Taking Protocol, used in these previous studies, in Brazilian children with low performance in theory of mind tasks. Three studies were conducted, two of them being pilot studies, which revealed the need for adaptations to the original procedure. Study 1 aimed to test the original protocol with one child aged 4 years and 9 months. The protocol consisted in the presentation of blocks of simple verbal trials and trials including reversal and double reversal of roles with the experimenter. Trials included the deictic frames I-YOU, HERE-THERE and NOW-THEN. The protocol, however, proved to be incompatible with the child’s repertoire, that is, he did not meet the learning criteria established in the original study. In order to test the difficulty level of the protocol, in Study 2, two young university students received the same training. Data suggested that the two adult participants succeeded in completing the protocol, having met criteria; however, they did face difficulties during the procedure. In Study 3, four participants, aged 4 and 5, were administered an adapted version of the protocol. In order to train reversed trials, physical tips (i.e., cards) and gestural signs were used and were gradually withdrawn until participants could respond without any assistance. Participants were also evaluated in three tasks of Theory of Mind, before and after the teaching procedure. During training, children were able to respond correctly on the reversed trials, even after removal of physical tips. All four participants showed improved performance in Theory of Mind tasks after training, with scores 1 or 2 points higher (scores could vary from 0 to 3), in comparison to pretest. Results suggest that, despite the evidence showing that the Perspective Taking Protocol is effective, it should be altered in order to be consistent with the repertoire of children with quite distinct characteristics from those who participated in the original study. In the case of children participating in the present research, changes in the distribution of trials throughout training blocks, as well as changes in the format of those trials had a positive learning effect. We hope the results of the present study may encourage future work on the potential benefits of procedures aimed at perspective taking training, in particular, with individuals who present delays or difficulties in social cognition. / A Teoria da Mente é convencionalmente definida como a habilidade de compreender e fazer inferências sobre os próprios estados mentais (i.e., desejos, intenções e crenças) e os de outras pessoas, e com base nesse repertório, predizer e explicar comportamentos humanos. Pesquisas recentes, apoiadas na Teoria das Molduras Relacionais (Relational Frame Theory- RFT), têm enfatizado o papel da tomada de perspectiva no desenvolvimento da Teoria da Mente. Os resultados sugerem que crianças submetidas a um treinamento de tomada de perspectiva apresentam um melhor desempenho em tarefas de Teoria da Mente. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo aplicar o Protocolo de Tomada de Perspectiva usado nesses estudos em crianças brasileiras com desempenho baixo em tarefas de Teoria da Mente. Três estudos foram conduzidos, sendo dois deles estudos pilotos, que levaram a adaptações do procedimento original. O Estudo 1 teve como objetivo testar o protocolo original com uma criança de 4 anos e 9 meses. O protocolo consistia na apresentação de blocos de tentativas verbais simples e de tentativas que incluíam reversão e dupla reversão de papéis com o experimentador. As tentativas englobavam as molduras dêiticas EU-VOCÊ, AQUI-AÍ e AGORA-ENTÃO. O protocolo, no entanto, mostrou-se incompatível com o repertório apresentado pela criança, sendo que ela não atingiu os critérios de aprendizagem estabelecidos no estudo original. De forma a testar o nível de dificuldade do protocolo, dois jovens universitários passaram pelo mesmo treinamento no Estudo 2. Os dados revelaram que os dois adultos foram capazes de completar o protocolo dentro dos critérios estabelecidos, no entanto, apresentaram algumas dificuldades durante o procedimento. No Estudo 3, quatro crianças, com 4 e 5 anos de idade, foram submetidas a uma versão adaptada do protocolo. Para o treinamento das tentativas reversas, foram utilizadas dicas físicas como fichas e indicações gestuais, retiradas gradativamente até que os participantes respondessem sem ajuda. As crianças participantes foram avaliadas em três tarefas de Teoria da Mente, antes e depois do procedimento de ensino. As crianças, durante o treinamento, foram capazes de responder às tentativas reversas corretamente, mesmo depois da remoção das dicas físicas. Todos os quatro participantes apresentaram melhora no seu desempenho em Teoria da Mente após o treinamento, com escores 1 ou 2 pontos mais altos (escores podiam variar de 0 a 3), em relação ao pré-teste. Os resultados sugerem que, apesar das evidências da eficácia do Protocolo de Tomada de Perspectiva, ele deve ser modificado de forma a se adequar ao repertório de crianças com características distintas daquelas que participaram do estudo original. No caso das crianças participantes da presente pesquisa, as alterações tanto na distribuição das tentativas ao longo dos blocos de treino quanto no formato das mesmas tiveram um efeito positivo na aprendizagem. Espera-se que os resultados do presente estudo possam encorajar trabalhos futuros que investiguem os potenciais benefícios de procedimentos voltados para o treinamento da tomada de perspectiva, em especial, em indivíduos com atrasos ou comprometimentos em cognição social.

Relational Frame Theory research involves either of two protocols utilized to establish relational networks and functions for stimuli in those relational networks. Years of research indicate the most prevalent method involves first establishing a relational frame, conditioning one of the stimuli to acquire a particular function, and then providing a test to see if the function trained to one of the stimuli in the network transferred through the relational network to other stimuli. The less common method involves first training a particular function for a stimulus, entering that stimulus in a relational network with at least two other stimuli, and then subsequently providing a test to see if the function transferred. Hayes, Kohlenberg, and Hayes (1991) hypothesized that not only do both procedures work, but there is also no differentiation between the two with regards to transformation of stimulus function. Although both protocols have been used in the RFT literature, a direct comparison has never been made. The current study directly examines that comparison in a within-subject analysis to determine if there may be differentiated results in transformation of stimulus function based on the protocol used. A within-subjects analysis indicates that subsequent probes of transformation of stimulus function probes yielded similar levels of correct responding in both training protocols, and thus supporting the hypothesis put forth by Hayes and colleagues (1991).