Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-118).

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Advertising has been around for thousands of years and has proven to be a valuable asset to company revenue. The methods used in advertising have been examined closely more recently, specifically from a psychological standpoint. The human brain reacts to advertisements in different ways. Low and high involvement advertisements stimulate the brain in the subconscious and conscious state effectively. While each of these advertising methods are useful, complex messaging techniques seem to stimulate recall more effectively than simple messaging. In the age of digital advertising, sponsors look to put new resources to use to ensure paid advertisements are doing their job. With data mining and location based services available, advertisers are getting more in touch with the consumer than ever before. The bombardment of advertising is changing the consumer’s eye for low and high involvement and the advertising industry will be forced to adjust yet again.

abstract: This study compared a stimulus fading (SF) procedure with a constant time delay (CTD) procedure for identification of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense words for a participant with autism. An alternating treatments design was utilized through a computer-based format. Receptive identification of target words was evaluated using a computer format and the researcher conducted a generalization probe for expressive identification evaluation. Neither treatment condition resulted in consistent gains on the receptive identification measure. Both treatment conditions resulted in gains on the expressive identification assessment. The SF treatment condition was more efficient due to 1) accuracy in identifying all of the SF target words in fewer sessions than the CTD target words and 2) incidental learning that occurred as a result of exposure to additional SF words as distracter choices and in receptive identification assessments. Implications are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Special Education 2011

The area of perceptual decision-making research seeks to understand how our perception of the world affects our judgment. Laboratory investigations of perceptual decision-making concentrate on observers' ability to discriminate among stimuli and their biases towards reporting one stimulus more frequently than others. Choice theories assume that these performance measures are determined by generalization of reinforcement along both stimulus and response dimensions. Historically the majority of research has addressed situations in which the difference among stimuli and resulting consequences of a perceptual decision are static. Consequently, little is known about the dynamics of stimulus and response generalization. The present research investigated the dynamics of discrimination accuracy and response bias by frequently varying differences among stimuli and the outcomes for correct decisions. In Experiment 1, four rats responded in a two-stimulus, two-response detection procedure employing temporal stimuli (short vs. long houselight presentations). Sample stimulus difference was varied over two levels across experimental conditions. A rapid acquisition procedure was employed in which relative reinforcer frequency varied daily. Shifts in response bias were well described by a behavioral model of detection (Davison & Nevin, 1999). Within sessions, bias adjusted rapidly to current reinforcer ratios when the sample stimulus difference was large, but not when the difference was small. In Experiment 2, three rats responded in a five-stimulus, two-response detection procedure employing temporal stimuli. Relative reinforcer frequency was again varied daily. Control by current session reinforcer ratios increased rapidly within sessions in a nearly monotonic fashion. Furthermore, response bias following each sample stimulus was observed within the first few trials of an experimental session. The speed of changes in response bias, especially following an unreinforced probe stimulus, provide strong support for an effective reinforcement process and suggest that this process may operate at a trial-by-trial level. In Experiment 3, three rats responded in a six-stimulus, two-response classification procedure. A repeated-acquisition procedure was employed in which the relationship between classes of short and long sample stimuli and their respective correct comparison locations reversed every 15 sessions. After several reversals, the probabilities of reinforcement for correct classification were also manipulated. In the majority of conditions across subjects, response bias reached half-asymptotic levels more rapidly than did discrimination accuracy. These findings provide some support for a backward chaining account of the acquisition of signal detection performance. An attention-augmented behavioral detection model accurately described the acquisition data; however parameter estimates expressing the probability of attending to sample and comparison stimuli differed widely among subjects. The results of these experiments support the adaptation of dynamic research methodologies to the study of learning in perceptual decision-making tasks. Furthermore, discrimination performance and response bias adapt rapidly to frequent changes in reinforcement contingencies. Quantitative models formulated to describe static performance in detection procedures can be extended to predict dynamic performance. Some theoretical assumptions of these models were supported and others were violated. Overall, this research supports a renewed emphasis on learning in signal detection procedures and suggests that stable behavioral endpoints are at least as much a function of contingency variables as they are of sensory variables.

The following research was conducted to contribute to the greater understanding of the impact that most often utilized methods of public awareness and education have on behaviors relative to sickness and disease for the general public in terms of action toward prevention behaviors within a healthcare setting. The psycho educational approach is often considered an effective means to promote behavior change as it relates to preventative behavior, and in the clinical therapeutic setting has shown some relevance as an effective procedure. Unfortunately, no research as of yet speaks to the comparative effectiveness this approach may have over other approaches often thought to enhance preventative behavior, such as the more empirically based behavior analytic methods. This study provides such an analysis of the effectiveness each methodology has on changing the behavior of the public at large. Based on a study conducted in the academic setting to increase hand-sanitizing behavior of facility patrons (Loukus & Dixon, in review), this study utilizes the most effective form of prompting found to increase sanitizer use in a public facility. Because healthcare facilities often rely on psycho educational methodologies to influence sanitizer use amongst visitors and employees by placing "sanitizing stations" at the main entrance to the facility, this setting provides an appropriate venue for scientific manipulation of prompting variables to determine effectiveness on public preventative behavior towards sickness and disease, while a simple reversal design enhances the comparative value of effects obtained on behavior through observation and implementation of the two approaches within the setting.

The present studies evaluated the effect of training structures on the development of equivalence classes in college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two types of training structures, One-To-Many (OTM) (AB, AC, AD), and Many-To-One (MTO) (BA, CA, DA), on the establishment of equivalence classes in college students. A between group comparison was used in Experiment 1. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to two different groups. Twenty-one were assigned to the OTM group and twenty-one to the MTO group. Participants in both groups were taught 3 four-member stimulus classes. Participants in both groups were exposed to conditional discrimination training, mixed training, symmetry and equivalence test. Response accuracy and response latency were measured in both groups. The results showed that the MTO training structure was slightly more effective in establishing equivalence classes in college students. In the Experiment 2, six young adults with intellectual disabilities were taught mathematical relations using the MTO training structure which was the most effective training structure in Experiment 1. All participants were taught three 3-member stimulus equivalence classes using the MTO training structure. The experimental sequence consisted of a generalization probe and pretest followed by conditional discrimination training, symmetry test, equivalence test, and posttest. Upon the completion of the training and testing phases a generalization probe was evaluated. Five participants demonstrated equivalence relations. The results show that the MTO training was superior to the OTM in the Experiment 1. Response latencies were faster in the MTO group during the training phases and slower in the testing conditions. Experiment 2 showed that only five participants demonstrated equivalence relations and transferred untaught relations to new setting. Results and implications are discussed in light of the research on equivalence and training structures in both adults and individual with intellectual disabilities.

Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to provide a fuller description of the phenomenon Sidman (1994, 2000) described as "dropping out" of an equivalence class.

Este trabalho dedica-se à comparação de quatro tipos distintos de cemitério (Clássico, Jardim, Galeria e Contemporâneo) sob o enfoque da visitação, experiência e percepção de seus espaços. Para tanto, foi proposto um método de análise pelo qual se computam atributos capazes de desencadear diferentes percepções e emoções nos visitantes que os experienciam. Tal método baseou-se nas possibilidades de ações disponíveis nos espaços e nos estímulos ofertados aos visitantes que os percorrem na situação de visita, apoiando-se em análises da configuração do espaço físico e análises de simulações de percursos em cada um dos exemplos estudados. Os resultados obtidos pelo método derivam da comparação dos quatro tipos utilizando um modelo de sintaxe da forma e um modelo de percepção da forma para computar estímulos espaciais e visuais encontrados ao longo dos percursos. O resultado da análise demonstra que, em alguns aspectos, existe relativa similaridade entre os quatro tipos e,sob outros aspectos, notório contraste. O tipo contemporâneo caracteriza-se pelo maior número de aspectos distintivos ou singulares. / This work is dedicated to research, analyses and comparison of four different types of cemeteries under the focus of visit, experience and perception of such spaces, emphasizing the contemporary cemetery model. The method of analysis focuses on the attributes offered by the cemeteries and the different emotions and perceptions they cause on the visitors. This method was based on the available possibilities of action on the space and the stimulus information offered to the visitors, relying on global syntactic analysis of the samples and local space-visual analysis of predetermined paths in each of the samples analyzed. The obtained results come from the comparison of the different types of cemeteries based on the global syntactic calculation and the calculation of the spatial and visual stimulus found along the paths. The results demonstrate, in some aspects, similarity among the types and in other aspects contrast. But, ultimately, ensure distinction of the contemporary type of cemetery among the others.

A inovação é perseguida pela maioria das empresas que buscam sobreviver no mercado e obter vantagens competitivas, portanto esse é um tema seguidamente pesquisado e que conduz ao estudo da criatividade. Assim, o presente estudo tem como tema inovação e como foco a criatividade no âmbito da administração. A inovação é tratada como estratégia competitiva para empresas, portanto a criatividade assume um papel importante, pois é ela que permitirá aos executivos tomarem decisões no sentido de adaptar e renovar suas empresas. Segundo a literatura da área, empresas líderes em inovação elaboram estratégias no sentido de estimular a capacidade criativa de todos os seus trabalhadores para alcançarem inovações. Portanto, apesar de serem questões importantes para as empresas, estudos que analisam o tema da inovação e criatividade em empresas gaúchas são poucos. Assim, este trabalho tem a pretensão de buscar respostas para a seguinte questão: de que forma as empresas gaúchas líderes em inovação estimulam a criatividade dos recursos humanos? Para responder a pergunta, foi elaborado um roteiro de entrevista baseado nas abordagens de seis autores que lidam com o tema do fomento à criatividade em empresas. Com isto, realizaram-se entrevistas com seis empresas gaúchas líderes em inovação no sentido de analisar as práticas das empresas capazes de estimular a criatividade de seus funcionários. Ao final, ainda foram realizadas análises comparativas das estratégias identificadas nas empresas gaúchas líderes em inovação com as estratégias das empresas consideradas inovadoras pela literatura acadêmica. Como resultados, percebe-se que as empresas consideradas inovadoras gaúchas adotam um número restrito de estratégias para o estímulo da criatividade e, desta forma, pouco podem ser comparáveis à grandes empresas consideradas inovadoras pela literatura. / The innovation is pursued by the majority of the companies whom search to survive in the market and to obtain competitive advantages, therefore this is a subject continuously investigated and it leads to the study of creativity. Thus, the present study takes innovation as a subject and creativity as a focus in the scope of Management. The innovation is treated as a competitive strategy for companies, therefore the creativity assumes an important role, since it is creativity who will allow the executives to take decisions in the sense of adapting and renewing its companies. According to the literature of Management, leader innovation companies elaborate strategies in the sense of stimulating the creative capacity of all its employees to reach innovations. So, in spite of being important questions for the companies, studies that analyzed the subject of innovation and creativity in the scope of Rio Grande do Sul's companies are little. Thus, this work has the pretension to search answers for the following question: of what forms, companies from Rio Grande do Sul, that are leader in innovation, stimulate the creativity of their human resources? To answer the question, a script of interview was elaborated based on the approaches of six authors who deal with the subject of creativity promotion in companies. With this, interviews with six companies had been done in the sense of analyzing the companies' practices that are capable to stimulate the creativity of its employees. To the end, it had been done a comparative analysis of the strategies identified on the leader innovation companies with the strategies of the companies considered innovative by the academic literature. As results, it is perceived that the companies from Rio Grande do Sul that are considered innovative adopt a restricted number of strategies for the creativity stimulation and, consequently, little can be comparable to the great companies considered innovative by the literature.