Children typically acquire language rapidly during their first few years of life. Their rates and levels of proficiency vary, but it is clear that the development of one’s language repertoire impacts academic outcomes and future success across many domains. There are both genetic and environmental factors that affect and contribute to one’s development. For children whose vocal verbal behavior is less well developed, it is imperative that we continue to develop and implement tactics and procedures to intervene in order to accelerate their language development. Researchers have identified Naming as a critical verbal developmental capability that allows one to learn language incidentally. Are there different types of Naming capabilities? Do properties of stimuli affect language acquisition? Does the Naming repertoire relate to children’s level of curiosity about the world around them? In the 3 experiments that follow, I examined the effects of 2 types of Naming experiences and varying properties of visual stimuli on measures of Naming. In Experiments 2 and 3, I also conducted measures of curiosity to assess the possibility of a relationship between Naming and question asking. In my first experiment there were 31 participants. I investigated the effects of match-to-sample and exclusion Naming experiences on incidental acquisition of listener and speaker responses in both adults without disabilities and youth with disabilities. I examined the differences between the 2 age groups and Naming experiences. The adult means of listener and speaker responses were greater than the youth means. All adults met criterion for Naming with the match-to-sample experience, and 9 of 14 adults also achieved criterion levels with the unfamiliar stimuli following the exclusion Naming experience. The adult group’s results showed that the group’s Naming repertoire was fairly balanced for listener responses across the Naming experiences with minimal variability, and its speaker repertoire was not as balanced. The youth group’s results demonstrated similar levels of variability across both topographies. The effect of the Naming experience was significant for speaker responses. In the second experiment, I implemented an intervention to try to establish unfamiliar stimuli as reinforcers to test its effects on the 2 types of Naming probes and curiosity measures in 6 elementary age children with disabilities. There were some effects from the treatment, but following 2 intervention conditions none of the participants met criteria for Naming. The participants’ numbers of accurate listener responses were greater than their speaker responses. In Experiment 3, I conducted tests for curiosity and Naming with sets of stimuli that had varying levels of familiarity and complexity for 9 preschool age children with and without disabilities. As with the first 2 experiments, the numbers of listener responses for participants were greater than their speaker responses, and there was more variability in the speaker responses compared to the listener responses. The results suggested that the type of Naming experience or the familiarity level of the visual stimuli alone did not appear to influence the dependent variables, but rather that there may be an interaction among the independent variables. The means of responses were greater with more familiar stimuli following match-to-sample experiences whereas the means were greater with less familiar stimuli following the exclusionary Naming experiences. The results of the 3 experiments affirmed the independence of the listener and speaker components of Naming and suggest that the demonstration of Naming with unknown, unfamiliar types of stimuli may be a type of Naming capability that may not be present in all individuals who demonstrate Naming with unknown, familiar stimuli.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2017-12-13T18:25:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 André Vasconcelos da Silva.pdf: 407291 bytes, checksum: c022b4064ab7bf7e5390618234452130 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-13T18:25:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 André Vasconcelos da Silva.pdf: 407291 bytes, checksum: c022b4064ab7bf7e5390618234452130 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001-08-31 / Skinner outlined the conditions to inquire into private events in 1945. Two experiments were conducted to determine the efficacy of experimental procedures, which set up correlations between private events and verbal responses, and to dispose of usage conditions of the term “private event”. The aim of the Experiment 1 was to investigate the mutual relations between verbal reports indicating private events and public behaviors (description of contingencies and problem solving). Eight undergraduate students without any previous experimental history were exposed to three experimental conditions: Baseline, Training and Extinction. The contingencies description reports and problem solving responses were recorded in each experimental condition. Nevertheless, in the Training condition, the responses indicating privacy (informative responses) were registered as well. Correlation between informative responses and description responses was established. In spite of it, any correlation involving problem solving responses could not be observed. The purpose of the Experiment 2 was to verify the effect of previous reinforcement contingencies upon the inter-relation between public behaviors and informative responses. Five undergraduate students without any previous experimental history of instrumental conditioning were exposed to two experimental sessions. In the Session 1, correlation between contingencies description responses and problem solving responses was established. The Session 2 was similar to Experiment 1, but the contingencies arrangement was not the same used in the Session 1. Data analysis showed correlation between informative responses and description and problem solving responses in the Session 1, when the participants responses were not under contingency control of the Session 2. Moreover, when the responses were under contingencies control of the Session 2, they were related to them. The experiments 1 and 2 provide empirical evidencies of the correlation between observable events and private events. The results of both experiments also give consent for the establishment of experimental usage conditions of the term “private event” by means of controlling variable detection. / Skinner em 1945 estabeleceu condições para se investigar os eventos privados. Na tentativa de se verificar a eficácia de procedimentos e experimentações que estabelecem correlações dos eventos privados com respostas verbais e dispor condições de uso do termo evento privado, realizou-se dois experimentos. O Experimento 1, objetivou verificar a correlação dos relatos verbais públicos indicativos dos eventos privados, Resposta de Informação, com comportamentos públicos: Descrição das Contingências e Resolução do Problema. Participaram do experimento oito alunos universitários sem história experimental que foram submetidos a três fases experimentais: Linha de base, Treino e Extinção. Na fase de Treino os participantes foram distribuídos em duas condições que disponibilizavam diferentes possibilidades de descrição das contingências: a) condição Grupo Relato a Cada Sim e b) condição Grupo Relato ao Final. Nas fases Linha de base e Extinção registrou-se as respostas de descrição das contingências e de resolução do problema e, na fase Treino, adicionou-se o registro das respostas indicativas dos eventos privados. Observou-se que as Respostas de Informação correlacionavam-se às Respostas de Descrição, porém não foi possível detectar correlação com as Respostas de Resolução. Não foi possível inferir neste experimento quais os eventos privados participaram da cadeia comportamental, devido a impossibilidade de se verificar correlações. O Experimento 2 objetivou verificar o efeito de contingências prévias de reforçamento sobre a correlação existente entre as Respostas de Informação e os comportamentos de descrição e resolução. Participaram cinco alunos universitários sem experiência prévia em experimentos de condicionamento operante. Os participantes foram expostos a duas sessões: a Sessão 1, que estabeleceu correlação entre Respostas de Descrição da contingência e as Respostas de Resolução; e a Sessão 2, semelhante ao Experimento 1, incluindo na distribuição dos participantes nas condições de relato. A Sessão 1 diferiu da Sessão 2 basicamente nas contingências, em que na Sessão 1 os estímulos discriminativos utilizados foram letras e na Sessão 2 foram palavras. Os resultados permitem observar que as respostas de informações correlacionaram-se à descrição e resolução da Sessão 1, quando os participantes não estavam sob o controle da contingência da Sessão 2, e posteriormente passaram a se correlacionar às contingências da Sessão 2, quando ficaram sob controle destas mesmas contingências. Isso para condição do Grupo Relato a Cada Sim. Para a condição Relato ao Final se inferiu acerca da relação de comparação estabelecida entre os desempenhos de Descrição e Resolução dos participantes de ambas as condições. Com isso, os experimentos possibilitaram inferir sob quais condições podem-se detectar correlação entre eventos observáveis e os eventos privados.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2018-02-07T18:14:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 UELITON DOS SANTOS GOMES.pdf: 681227 bytes, checksum: aa39200339444f538faecb90562fa738 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-07T18:14:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 UELITON DOS SANTOS GOMES.pdf: 681227 bytes, checksum: aa39200339444f538faecb90562fa738 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-31 / The goal of the present work was: to investigate the relations between the independent variables, which in this study were verbal (instructions) and non-verbal (figures and images of objects) contexts and their effects in the dependent variable, which was the descriptive behavior of OBJECTS and ACTIONS in a total verbal episode. We had also a secondary goal: the development of a software for the collect and analysis of data. An experiment was conducted as a systematic replication of the work by Simonassi, Tizo, Gomes e Alvarenga (2010) in order to verify: 1) if verbal and non-verbal contexts exert control over verbal responses in a total verbal episode. This experiment was conducted with ten (10) participants with ages varying from 19 to 25 yeas. Each participant was exposed to 4 different experimental conditions (CONDITIONS 1, 2, 3 and 4) in a singlecase design. During the CONDITIONS 1, 2 and 3 the following instructions was presented: “BURNING THIS TIP HAS BEEN”, being that in the CONDITIONS 2 and 3 the following non-verbal stimuli were presented: MATCHES and a STRING (figures and images) and in the CONDITION 3: MATCHES and a CANDLE (figures and images). In the CONDITION 4 the instruction presented was “BURN IT ON THIS TIP. CALM SIR, STILL ENDING STRUCTURING CLOTHES”. In each condition the participant was asked to write his answers. A categorization of the textual responses as referent to OBJECT or ACTION was used for analysis. We verified a considerable frequency of textual verbal responses that made reference to the related objects (figures/images) and actions. The results were similar to those found by Simonassi & Cols. We concluded that both the verbal (instruction) and non-verbal (objects) contexts, when altered, controlled changes in the participants’ responses across the experimental conditions in a systematic way. / O presente trabalho teve como objetivo investigar as relações entre as variáveis independentes, que neste estudo foram os contextos verbais (instrução) e não-verbais (Figura/imagem de objeto) e seu efeito na variável dependente, que foram os comportamentos que descreviam respostas referentes à OBJETOS e a AÇÃO em um episódio verbal total. Teve ainda como objetivo secundário o desenvolvimento de um software para a realização da coleta e análise de dados. Foi realizado um experimento de replicação sistemática do procedimento adotado no estudo de Simonassi e colaboradores para verificar: 1) se contextos verbais (instruções) e não verbais (objetos) exercem controle sobre respostas verbais em um episódio verbal total. Este experimento foi realizado com dez (10) participantes com idades entre 19 a 25 anos. Cada participante foi submetido a 4 condições experimentais diferentes (CONDIÇÃO 1, 2, 3 e 4) em um delineamento de sujeito como seu próprio controle. Nas CONDIÇÕES 1, 2 e 3 foi apresentada a seguinte instrução “QUEIME LOGO ESTA PONTA AÍ”, sendo que nas CONDIÇÕES 2 e 3 foram apresentados os seguintes estímulos não-verbais CONDIÇÃO 2: FÓSFORO e BARBANTE (Figuras/imagens) e na CONDIÇÃO 3: FÓSFORO e VELA (Figuras/imagens). E na CONDIÇÃO 4 foi apresentado a instrução ““QUEIME LOGO ESTA PONTA AÍ. CALMA SENHOR, SENÃO ACABO ESTRAGANDO A ROUPA”. Em cada condição o participante foi solicitado a responder suas respostas por escrito. A análise foi realizada com a categorização das respostas textuais referentes a OBJETO e a AÇÃO. Verificou-se que uma frequência considerável de respostas verbais textuais que faziam referencias aos objetos relacionados (Figuras/imagens) a ações. Os resultados foram semelhantes ao do Experimento de Simonassi e Cols. Concluiu-se que tanto o contexto verbal (instrução) quanto o contexto não-verbal (objetos) quando alterados, também alteravam sistematicamente o responder dos participantes nas diversas condições experimentais.

McGreevy, Fry, and Cornwall (2014) developed an assessment within the Essential for Living (EFL) manual for clinicians to identify which communication modality should be used for each individual. This assessment identifies an AAC based on the learner’s skills, level of problem behavior, similarities between AAC and vocal community, and size of the verbal community. However, to date, no research has evaluated if this assessment identifies the communication modality that will result in faster acquisition of mands in individuals with ASD. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare acquisition of mands across a modality identified by the EFL communication modality assessment and two other commonly used modalities. A secondary purpose was to determine if participants acquire mands using the mode of AAC identified by EFL. Finally, a third purpose was to determine if the communication modality identified by EFL communication modality assessment matches the modality currently used by the individual. Findings showed that although all three participants acquired mands across the three communication modalities, mands in the modality of communication recommended by the EFL assessment were acquired faster only by 1 out of the 3 participants.

Relational Frame Theory provides an analysis of verbal behavior involving a focus on the development of relational operants which are seen as a basis for language. From this basis, a framework is provided for establishing relational networks in individuals who lack derived relational ability. Establishment of relational frames may increase the probability of responding relationally to novel instances and use of the specific relational frames during social interactions; therefore, training verbal relations in accordance with an RFT approach may enhance intraverbal responding and facilitate the emergence of untrained responses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the emergence of specific relationships in the context of intraverbal responding as a collateral effect of training on relational networks in four children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Two participants demonstrated mastery of derived relational responding (DRR) without training, one participant demonstrated mastery of DRR following training, and a fourth participant demonstrated mutual entailment and some combinatorial entailment. Increases in vocal verbal behavior during generalization probes were observed, although increased use of all target relations was not observed in all participants. Further research is needed to evaluate specific deficits in derived relational responding among individuals with ASD, as well as the correlation between DRR and language ability.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characteristically exhibit social communication and language deficits. Natural environment teaching (NET) is an intervention proven effective at improving social communication and language skills. Treatment fidelity is critical for an intervention to be effective. Research shows that training alone is often not sufficient to ensure proper implementation. Self-monitoring has shown to increase treatment fidelity, but performance feedback may be necessary to further improve the fidelity of individuals implementing interventions. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants with an ABC sequence, this study evaluated the impact of self-monitoring and video feedback on behavior therapist implementation of NET procedures and maintenance of the skills during fading. Results indicated that self-monitoring slightly improved fidelity of implementation. Fidelity improved further with the addition of video feedback. The results also indicated that implementation of NET with fidelity by the therapists led to improvement in participating children's verbal language skills.

This thesis compares two methods for studying the problem-solving processes of mechanical design engineers. The first method, verbal protocol analysis, was applied by L. Stauffer to construct a problem-solving model of mechanical design. The second method, timing analysis, measures the time intervals separating drawing or speaking actions during the design process. Timing analyisis was applied by the author to the verbal/video design data collected by Stauffer. This thesis demonstrates that the two methods are statistically related, and hence, that employing two different study techniques enhances the reliability of both methods. The two methods have complementary strengths: protocol analysis reveals the content of the design process, while timing analysis is much more complete. Hence, a combination of protocol and timing analysis provides a stronger measure of the design process than either method alone. / Graduation date: 1992

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 90 pages, / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: English language learners are traditionally behind in academics such as reading, math and science. Hispanics, who make up the vast majority of English language learners, tend to not enroll in pre-school or higher education, have higher dropout rates and as adults earn less than whites. Common instructional strategies used in public schools are not meeting the needs of these students. The field of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) has typically offered a wide variety of poorly defined teaching strategies that are not based on empirical research. Within public schools, assessment tends to serve the purpose of qualifying students for ESOL services rather than being used to guide instruction. / ABSTRACT: The present study examined using the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) with three English language learners in an elementary public school setting to discern its usefulness for teachers and students. Results showed that the ABLLS could be used for English language learners, and teachers generally liked the assessment information, although the current assessment may be too lengthy and time intensive to be practical for regular education settings. Also, it did not appear that reviewing the ABLLS assessment had much effect on teacher behavior in terms of changes in instructional strategies used for the three students, although teachers did indicate that they would target different skills as a result of viewing the assessment. Suggestions are made for developing a modified version of the ABLLS for use with English language learners. / ABSTRACT: Possible trends in student data are examined, as well as possible teaching strategies that may be suggested by the ABLLS. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In Verbal Behavior, Skinner (1957) suggested that each verbal operant has independent response functions, in which acquiring one does not automatically result in the other, unless transfer between the verbal operants is directly trained. Although several researchers have shown that mands and tacts are functionally independent, more recent research has demonstrated that mands may emerge following tact training. However, this research has not clarified the influence of establishing operations on the emergence of pure mands following tact training. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of tact training on the acquisition of impure and pure mands in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) when conditioned establishing operations (CEO) were manipulated during mand probes. Three children diagnosed with ASD were taught to tact the utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles and then were assessed on their ability to mand for those utensils during CEO absent versus CEO present pure mand probes using a multiple baseline design across participants. It was hypothesized that children would be able to mand for the missing utensils needed to consume their preferred edibles only when the food items were present (CEO present, pure mand probes), but not when they were absent (CEO absent, pure mand probes). Results showed that responses taught as tacts failed to transfer to mand responses until direct training was implemented for two of the three participants. However, once a mand response was learned, all participants exhibited the mand in the CEO present condition but not in the CEO absent condition.

Studies have shown that increasing eye contact can be accomplished by using reinforcement, prompting, shaping, functional movement training, punishment, and self-monitoring. However, there is a lack of research that evaluates the use of technology as a way to increase eye contact. This study tested the effectiveness of a tablet application at increasing eye contact in children diagnosed with autism. The application requires the child to look at a picture of a person's face and identify the number displayed in the person's eyes in order to receive reinforcement. Data was collected immediately after training, one hour after training, and in the natural environment. The tablet application was not effective at increasing eye contact for any of the three participants. Once the tablet application was shown to be ineffective, the researcher used differential reinforcement to increase eye contact. All three participants showed an increase in eye contact once the differential reinforcement training was implemented.