While descriptive assessment outcomes show limited correspondence with experimental analysis outcomes, they are still often used in the treatment of problem behavior. The most effective way of treating problem behavior is by manipulating its controlling variables; however, if descriptive analyses are not depicting accurate environment-behavior relations, then treatments based off of descriptive analysis results have a higher chance of failing. The current study looks to replicate and extend the literature on utility descriptive assessments by analyzing three different data analysis methods. Three children with a diagnosis of autism were exposed to two types of experimental analyses. Following experimental analyses, descriptive assessments were completed and analyzed to determine correlations between the behavior and environmental events. The results from the three investigated data analysis methods were then compared to the outcomes of the experimental analyses.

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The Safety Triad proposed by Geller (1992) suggests that interventions to increase safety in the community and workplace needs to consider three causal aspects of behavior change. 1) The Person factor considers the past history of an individual as well as specific personality characteristics which may influence responsiveness to an intervention. 2) The Environmental factor considers the manipulation of the environmental antecedents 2lnd consequences of the target behavior. It also includes identifying natural contingencies which may support the behavior after the intervention is withdrawn. 3) The Behavior factor considers the response class in which the target behavior is shaped, and the interrelationships between the target behavior and other behaviors. / Ph. D.

The present study applied peer leader modeling and the use of posted feedback and goals to increase the occurrence of protective behaviors for skin cancer at two swimming pools. During the intervention phase, the models, pool lifeguards, wore sunglasses and special t-shirts and hats, used zinc-oxide and sun screen, and sat in the shade. The posted feedback was the "Percentage of pool patrons from the previous day who engaged in two or more protective behaviors. The protective behaviors measured were wearing shirts, hats or sunglasses, using zinc-oxide, and being in a shaded area. The feedback also consisted of a goal percentage to reach for that day. The results indicated that for Pool 1, substantial increases from the baseline to the intervention phase in behaviors were observed. The most dramatic increases were observed for the remaining in a shaded area measure. from 20% to 55% during intervention. Adolescents increased Adults increased from 15% to 39% during intervention. No changes occurred at Pool 2 until the intervention was introduced. / Master of Science

This study implemented two behavior management strategies, self-monitoring and monetary incentives, in a dental clinic and a private periodontal practice to explore the effects of these intervention strategies on subjects' dental flossing frequencies and to compare these strategies to standard educational procedures. Group analysis of four dependent variables generally showed minimal impact of the intervention strategies on flossing frequency. However, when the percentages of subjects within groups who improved on the dependent measures were evaluated, differential effects for some dependent variables were noted between settings and among intervention strategies. Based on those findings, the behavioral strategies of self-monitoring and monetary incentives did appear to enhance the effectiveness of education. Multimodal measures were used to assess changes in the target behavior. The general lack of covariance found among the dependent measures used in this study demonstrated that the interpretation varied with the choice of dependent variable. This finding suggested that past researchers, who used only physiological dependent measures to assess changes in the frequencies of dental flossing and brushing behaviors, should have selected more direct measures of the targeted behaviors (e.g. unobtrusive measures or direct observations). / M.S.

Reduction of noise levels in an elementary school lunchroom was examined as a function of feedback and feedback plus reinforcement using group contingency procedures. Feedback consisted of signals from a traffic light with green indicating acceptable levels, yellow indicating slightly higher levels and red indicating unacceptable levels. Other behaviors, running, hitting, pushing and kicking, were measured incidentally. Results indicate that feedback plus reinforcement was effective in reducing noise levels. Feedback alone was also effective, but to a lesser degree. No response - response relationship was found to exist between noise level and the other behaviors.

We assessed the implementation accuracy and fidelity of two board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) using the open-ended interview from Hanley. Participants interviewed a confederate using the open-ended interview, and were then asked to use information gathered from the interview to create operational definitions of target behaviors as well as test and control condition procedures for a subsequent matched test-control functional analysis as is characteristic of the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) strategy. Brief behavioral skills training (BST) was then implemented with all participants to increase the accuracy of constructing both target behavior definitions and functional analysis procedures. Preliminary results show moderate rates of accuracy of target behavior definitions and functional analysis procedures prior to BST, and high rates of accuracy following BST. The results also suggest high implementation fidelity on the open-ended interview may not be necessary to achieve high accuracy when constructing target behavior definitions and functional analysis procedures.

The present field study investigated the application of an applied behavior analysis package (consisting of Feedback and Thank You interventions) to one department of a large manufacturing plant for the purpose of increasing safe work behaviors. Safe behaviors increased following the introduction of a Feedback intervention and continued to increase somewhat following the introduction of a Thank You intervention. Safe behaviors decreased when interventions were withdrawn. Responses to a Safety Climate Survey showed employee perceptions did not change as a result of the safety interventions. Results and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science