Thesis (M.S.)--Villanova University, 2009. / Psychology Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Sciences. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR51510

The current study evaluated the methods outlined in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System Transformation Module (PEAK-T). Researches evaluated the validity and efficacy of the PEAK-T assessment at identifying skill deficits as well as its ability to identify appropriate intervention to target those deficits. Additionally, the current study evaluated the efficacy and validity of the methods as outline by the PEAK-T curriculum at teaching target skills. The PEAK-T assessment was conducted to identify three programs for each of the participants. Baseline probes of three boys with autism suggested that programs identified by the PEAK-T assessment were not in their repertories prior to treatment. Following treatment each of the participants was able to achieve mastery of all three programs this included directly trained as well as derived relations. The PEAK-T assessment was run following the intervention, all participants exhibited an increase in total PEAK-T score.

The present experiment investigated the application of Green and Swets (1966) signal-detection theory to undesirable behavior as a method of reducing unwanted behaviors using reinforcement and extinction. This experiment investigated the use of this stimulus control technique to reduce undesirable behaviors using a multiple-baseline design. Once the cue for a target behavior was established and maintained, the use of the verbal cue was reduced in frequency and the rate of unprompted undesirable behavior was recorded. Generalization was tested across multiple people. Data for this experiment showed that undesirable behavior could be reduced by altering the stimulus control that maintained it.

<p> This thesis is concerned with the systematic variation of stimulus movement and complexity in order to investigate developmental changes in visual fixation. It was shown that there is a developmental transition in the way in which infants extract visual information from the environment, with younger infants responding primarily through length of fixation, and older infants through the number of fixations. It was demonstrated that the faster a stimulus moves, the more fixation it elicits from infants; that older infants appear to be more responsive to differences in speed than younger infants; and that the more complex the stimulus, the greater the visual response to it. Percent measures were found to be more reliable than absolute measures in making age comparisons. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> At least five different uses of the term "attention" can be detected in the literature on animal discrimination learning. One of these predicts "blocking": decreased learning about one of two covarying cues, resulting from prior training to discriminate on the basis of the other cue. In Experiment 1, four groups of 6 pigeons received different sorts of training in Phase 1; in Phase 2 all groups received go/no-go discrimination training in which positive trials (tone; pale red key) and negative trials (noise, pale green key) differed on both an auditory and a visual dimension. A group that received Phase 1 training to discriminate on the basis of the visual cue alone showed less stimulus control by tone-noise on a test given after all training than did a control group that received no Phase 1 training. It is concluded that acquisition of control by the auditory cue in Phase 2 was blocked by prior training to discriminate on the basis of the visual cue. Results for the two remaining groups and a detailed analysis of the test data rule out certain alternative explanations of the reduced auditory control, including the possibilities that it resulted from (a) the occurrence of any Phase 1 training, (b) partial reinforcement received during Phase 1 discrimination training, (c) training with an auditory value present but not predicting reinforcement during Phase 1, or (d) an interaction on the test for stimulus control. </p> <p> Three subsidiary experiments involving a total of 20 pigeons show that blocking the acquisition of visual control by prior training on an auditory discrimination may also occur, but do not conclusively demonstrate it. In a concluding discussion it is argued that, although the results of the first experiment are evidence for "blocking" as defined here, the results do not require a two-stage model of learning for their explanation. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The effects of intensity of the unconditioned stimulus (US) on the acquisition and extinction of the conditioned emotional response (CER) in rats were investigated. The US intensities studied were 0.28, 0.49, 0.85, 1.55, and 2.91 ma. Both acquisition and extinction of the CER were found to be monotonic functions of US intensity, with the higher US intensities producing more rapid acquisition and more resistance to extinction. The lowest shock intensity failed to produce suppression. The 0.49 ma. subjects typically showed a partial recovery of normal operant behavior after development of a fairly profound CER. The results were interpreted as consistent wth the supposition that the CER is acquired in accordance with Pavlovian laws of classical conditioning. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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This thesis is concerned with the effects of varying the intensity of one element of a compound stimulus while holding the other constant in an experiment employing Kamin’s (1964) design for showing the “perceptual or associative block" in the conditioned emotional response situation. The question of whether Pavlovian "overshadowing” or Hullian "summation” usually obtains during classical compound conditioning is examined. The major findings were (1) that the degree of blocking is a monotonic function of the intensity of the first conditioned element; (2) that rate of conditioning to a compound stimulus is a monotonic function of the intensity of the varied element; and (3) that Hullian summation is the usual case in compound conditioning but that Pavlovian overshadowing occurs when one element is relatively much weaker than the other in terms of speed of conditioning. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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