Punishment and reward feedback during motor learning tasks appear to have some beneficial impact on learning and retention, respectively. Therefore, it is possible that combining punishment and reward feedback would benefit both learning and retention. Within the sports coaching domain, a combination of punishment and reward feedback schedule has been suggested to improve performance. According to the coaching literature, the most effective approach is providing reward-to-punishment feedback. However, transitioning from punishment-to-reward feedback may be more effective based on the motor learning literature. The present study examined the utility of combining punishment and reward feedback through a transition schedule approach during a serial reaction time task. To test the competing predictions about feedback order, half the participants received punishment-to-reward feedback and the other half received the reverse order. Our results revealed that training response time significantly improved with no significant difference between the order of feedback. However, both types of feedback order did not improve retention during the same-day and delayed post-tests. Yet, the non-significant equivalence test indicates that these findings remain inconclusive. Finally, within-subjects analysis of the punishment and reward conditions found that training significantly improved response time with no difference between them. In this case, the equivalence test was significant, revealing that the estimated effect was surprisingly small. Overall, the current study failed to find conclusive evidence that the order of a transition feedback schedule matters for learning and retention. However, the difference between punishment and reward conditions may be smaller than previously assumed by motor learning studies. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / An important part of learning any skill is receiving information that helps us recognize mistakes and improve our performance, known as feedback. In fact, feedback presented as a punishment or reward has been shown to improve an individual's ability to learn and retain skills, respectively. Therefore, can combining punishment and reward feedback benefit both learning and retention? One way to deliver both types of feedback is using a transition schedule. Some have recommended that transitioning from punishment to reward feedback would be most effective, while others have suggested the reverse order. The current study examined whether the order of receiving punishment and reward feedback affected learning and retention. To test this, subjects either received punishment-to-reward feedback or reward-to-punishment feedback during a key-pressing task. Our results did not find conclusive evidence that the order mattered for learning and retention. Furthermore, the difference between punishment and reward feedback overall was smaller than previously thought. These findings highlight that more studies may need to be conducted to get a better understanding of whether the order of punishment and reward feedback can benefit both learning and retention.

The question of the quality of life, such as the ability to complete the routine skills independently has been widely debated in the special education field. However, perspectives have not adequately addressed the various outcomes of electronic visual activity schedule via iPad (First Then App) on assisting the individual with severe disabilities completing routine skills independently. This study aims to investigate the effects of using electronic visual activity schedules with special attention to learning routine skills and communication skills for students with severe disabilities. The following questions will be examined during the research period: What is the effect of visual activity schedules via an iPad First Then App, on the percentage of steps completed for routine tasks for students with severe disabilities? 2. What is the level of perceived student engagement when using the app vs. typical instruction? 3. What is the effect of the First Then App on the communication skills when completing daily life skills and school routines? 4. What value do the teacher and students place on the use of an electronic VAS to teach daily life and school routines? The study will take place in a suburban elementary classroom for a student with significant disabilities, and who match the inclusion criteria.The data will be collected via single-subject multiple baselines across skills (ABAB design). Participating student will be asked to complete routine skills without (baseline data) and with (intervention data) the technology-based intervention. The least to most intrusive prompts will be consistent with the First Then the application, and the positive reinforcement will be included to prevent behavioral challenges. A member of the research team will collect the interobserver agreement and procedural fidelity. As a result, the researchers will expect to see the independent variable, the app with systematic instruction, to have an impact on the dependent variable, overall skill acquisition of the targeted life skill and increases in overall communication. Also, We expect to have a functional relation between the independent variable and dependent variable. This paper sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of using electronic visual activity schedules for students with severe disabilities to learn routine skills and communication skills.

Tolerating transitions between activities and locations is an essential daily-living skill, as transitions are inevitable in most typical settings. However, for some individuals, requests to transition may occasion problem behavior which can interfere with daily routines and result in a more restrictive lifestyle. The unpredictability of transitions is often assumed to be aversive and functionally related to transition-related problem behavior. As a result, advance notice procedures are often recommended to reduce problem behavior during transitions. However, Brewer et al. (2014) found mixed results for the use of advance notice highlighting some studies where advance notice procedures reduced problem behavior and others where the procedures were inefficacious. In this study, we reviewed the relevant literature between 1994 and 2020, including studies reviewed by Brewer et al. (2014) and extended Brewer et al.’s (2014) review in a number of ways. We first summarized the current literature, including new studies published since Brewer et al.’s (2014) review, which included a total of 28 applications of advance notice published in 14 papers. Next, we identified key features of each study, including the presence or absence of demonstrated functional relations, inclusion of additional antecedent or consequent interventions, and evaluation and control of the effects of pre- and post-transition reinforcers on responding. Then we identified gaps in current knowledge regarding predictability and made research recommendations for addressing these gaps. Finally, we discuss practice recommendations for transition-related problem behavior based on current research.

Wireless sensor network (WSN) technology has gained significant importance due to its potential support for a wide range of applications. Most of the WSN applications consist of a large numbers of distributed nodes that work together to achieve common objects. Running a large number of nodes requires an efficient mechanism to bring them all together in order to form a multi-hop wireless network that can accomplish some specific tasks. Even with recent developments made in WSN technology, numbers of important challenges still stand as vulnerabilities for WSNs, including energy waste sources, synchronisation leaks, low network capacity and self-configuration difficulties. However, energy efficiency remains the priority challenging problem due to the scarce energy resources available in sensor nodes. These concerns are managed by medium access control (MAC) layer protocols. MAC protocols designed specifically for WSN have an additional responsibility of managing radio activity to conserve energy in addition to the traditional functions. This thesis presents advanced research work carried out in the context of saving energy whilst achieving the desired network performance. Firstly the thesis contributes by proposing Overlapped Schedules for MAC layer, in which the schedules of the neighbour clusters are overlapped by introducing a small shift time between them, aiming to compensate the synchronisation errors. Secondly, this thesis proposed a modified architecture derived from S-MAC protocol which significantly supports higher traffic levels whilst achieving better energy efficiency. This is achieved by applying a parallel transmission concept on the communicating nodes. As a result, the overall efficiency of the channel contention mechanism increases and leads to higher throughput with lower energy consumption. Finally, this thesis proposed the use of the Adaptive scheme on Border Nodes to increase the power efficiency of the system under light traffic load conditions. The scheme focuses on saving energy by forcing the network border nodes to go off when not needed. These three contributions minimise the contention window period whilst maximising the capacity of the available channel, which as a result increase network performance in terms of energy efficiency, throughput and latency. The proposed system is shown to be backwards compatible and able to satisfy both traditional and advanced applications. The new MAC protocol has been implemented and evaluated using NS-2 simulator, under different traffic loads and varying duty cycle values. Results have shown that the proposed solutions are able to significantly enhance the performance of WSNs by improving the energy efficiency, increasing the system throughput and reducing the communication delay.

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