Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 145 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-98).

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--University of Toledo, 2008. / Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Doctor of Education Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision." Bibliography: leaves 114-120.

In a series of three experiments, I investigated the emergence of conditioned seeing, defined as delayed drawing responses, as a potential component of bidirectional naming (BiN) for unfamiliar stimuli, which was defined in this study as the emergence of untaught listener and speaker responses following a naming experience with school-aged participants diagnosed with autism. Following exposure to incidental naming opportunities (stimulus-stimulus pairing), participants demonstrated BiN responses to non-contrived stimuli but did not demonstrate BiN responses to unfamiliar stimuli. In Experiment I, I assessed BiN and delayed drawing responses to unfamiliar stimuli following a naming experience in which attending to auditory stimuli, or names of the symbol, was paired with reinforcing stimuli for 6 participants. Participants were matched for level of verbal behavior and subsequently assigned to an experimental multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) or control group. A multiple probe design with a simultaneous treatment condition was utilized. Participants in the MEI group were exposed to listener, speaker, and drawing (transcription) responses with teaching sets of stimuli, while the control group experienced the school curriculum only, Direct Instruction. Participants in the control group were also exposed to a repeated probe condition during which they experienced a matched number of probe sessions with participants in the MEI-experimental group. Results of the first experiment indicated the presence of BiN with unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing repertoires for participants in the MEI-experimental group following the intervention, however BiN and delayed drawing responses were not present for participants in the control group. Based on the results of Experiment I, I hypothesized that BiN and conditioned seeing behaviors may be evoked as a function of the establishment of a history for conditioned reinforcement for simultaneously observing a visual and auditory stimulus while engaging a drawing response. Two participants were selected for Experiment II as they demonstrated the presence of unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli and delayed drawing responses during probe sessions; participants included in Experiment I did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli. Utilizing a multiple probe design, Experiment II tested whether the presence of unidirectional naming and drawing responses would evoke multiple stimulus control across speaker responses following exposure to a learn unit procedure. The learn unit procedure implemented in Experiment II required participants to emit an echoic for the name of the target stimuli while simultaneously attending to the visual and auditory stimuli, as well as drawing the stimuli. Results of the study indicated that BiN repertoires were present for unfamiliar stimuli following the intervention. In Experiment III, I again implemented the learn unit procedure but eliminated requirement of the echoic. Participants in Experiment III did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli or delayed drawing responses before the learn unit intervention. Three of these participants included in Experiment III had been assigned to the control group in Experiment I and a fourth participant was added. Results of Experiment III indicated that the learn unit procedure evoked BiN for unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing for all four participants, indicating the presence of multiple stimulus control for verbal behavior. The source of this learning may be the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for observation of unfamiliar stimuli.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Psychology Dept., 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 79 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-59).

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This study focused on specific conceptual, methodological and developmental issues pertinent to investigating the role of attention in global-local processing among high-functioning children with autism (average verbal mental age (MA) of 89 months and nonverbal MA of 116 months) as compared to their verbal and nonverbal MA matched peers. Two experiments were conducted to assess separately basic processing; focal attention that is drawn by the physical properties of the stimuli and higher-order processing associated with strategically directing attention in accordance with the observer's priorities within a given task. These components of attention are implicated in the typical development of global-local perceptual organization. / In Experiment 1, a visual search task was used to explore the role of basic focal attention to perceptually group dots at either a long or short spatial range. In Experiment 2, a visual search and target identification task was used to assess higher-order voluntary control of attention to the global or the local level of a hierarchical geometric pattern. To assess changes in voluntary attending to a specific target level, an implicit manipulation of increased probability of the target appearing at the global or local level or equally at both levels was included. / The main finding was that high-functioning children with autism and their verbal and nonverbal MA matched peers showed comparable focused attention to perceptually organize stimuli over a short or long spatial range but different higher-order attentional processing of hierarchical global-local targets. In all groups, search efficiency for long range targets decreased as a function of display size but the search for short range targets was efficient regardless of display size. Long range grouping performance involves goal-driven, focused attention that is constrained by serial inspection whereas the short range grouping performance implicates a sensory-driven, preattentive spatial-indexing mechanism. At higher levels of attentional control, high-functioning children with autism show a preference for using a local attentional strategy whereas their typically developing peers rely on a global attentional strategy to search for hierarchical global-local targets among distractors. The particular style of visual processing used to search for targets was not influenced by implicit changes in the probability of a target appearing at the local or global level. The findings support the interpretation that a perceptual disturbance in global-local processing in persons with autism may be associated with different higher-order strategy-based processing rather than an enhanced ability to integrate features.

Individuals with autism experience specific deficits in the area of executive function. A differentiated view of executive function was recently described by Metcalfe and Mishel, in which a distinction was made between hot, affective components and cold more purely cognitive, non-affective components. The "Hot/Cold" distinction of executive function was examined in a group of children with autism in relation to a group of typically developing children matched on verbal, pattern and Leiter mental ages. Two hot (Gamble and Delay of Gratification) and two cold tasks (DCCS and SOP) were administered. Children with autism successfully completed fewer trials of the SOP, irrespective of the matching variable, and experienced more difficulty switching rules on the DCCS in relation to typically developing children when matched on non-verbal and performance mental ages. No differences were found on the hot executive function tasks, except for the group matched on VMA. These findings underscore the importance of using multiple matching groups in the study of persons with autism, and provide evidence for cold rather than hot executive function deficits as a primary in autism.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Early Intervention Research program (EIRP) for children with Autistic Disorder (AD) at the Flinders University of South Australia. Although based on traditional ABA programs, the EIRP differs in that each child's program is individualised and targets core deficit-linked behaviours (eg., imitation & joint attention), rather than targeting dominant secondary behaviours (i.e., stereotypic rituals & routines). Children underwent a 2 week 10x3 hour clinic-based intervention followed by an 18 week home-based intervention. It was hypothesised that by intensively targeting the core deficit-linked behaviours, these behaviours may be reduced or ameliorated to a point where one can minimise the onset of secondary behaviours. / Eighty-seven children (71 males and 16 females) with a mean age of 42 months participated. A within subjects quasi experimental staggered baseline repeated measures design was used (initial, pre-intervention, 2 week intervention and 20 week final). Analysis of test scores from initial to 20-week follow up assessments showed a general trend towards improvement of autistic symptom severity and an increase in adaptive functioning, beyond that which would have been predicted from baseline measures. / Thesis (MPsy(Clinical))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-91)