Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-197).

Observational learning is defined as the capacity of an organism to acquire new behaviors as a result of viewing the behavior of a model. Researchers argue that learning via observation may account for the natural acquisition of behavior. While the ability to acquire new behaviors through observation has been studied heavily in typically developing children, as well as participants with developmental disabilities, no research has directly addressed observational learning in verbal operants. The current study examined observational learning across three verbal operants: tact, listener responding by feature, function, and class, and intraverbals using a multiple probe design. Two girls diagnosed with autism served as the learner model and observer in the study. The results demonstrated that the learner was able to learn the responses to mastery through direct instruction and reinforcement while the observer learned the responses to mastery through observation. Implications for teaching children with autism are discussed.

Behavior analysis has long been a field which has rooted itself in science and observable, measurable behavior, long avoiding the subject of private events such as thoughts and emotions and largely focusing applied work with individuals with disabilities. However, the prevalence of anxiety and depression among adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD) is an issue which can hinder the development of social relationships and success in higher education. The current study used a pre- post- group design to evaluate the efficacy of implementing two components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with adolescents and young adults with ASD to change the function of verbal statements made about the self while discussing a negative thought. Additionally, participants wore a biofeedback wristband to measure their heart rate while discussing the thought before and after completing either an acceptance + defusion activity or a control activity. The findings of this study suggest that an acceptance + defusion activity was effective in increasing pragmatic statements and statistically significant in decreasing unworkable statements. Although the findings regarding the changes in heart rate were not statistically significant, future studies should continue to investigate ACT's effects of private events such as thoughts, feelings, self-rules, and physiological processes. With limited research within the field of behavior analysis focusing on using ACT with individuals with ASD and DD, the results of this study support a clinical utility of ACT to improve the lives of individuals with ASD.

The purpose of this study was to assess the amount of time spent by the clinician and client in verbalization and to make an analysis of the kind of verbalizations employed by the clinician in speech therapy sessions. Experience was given consideration as a possible variable in the study. Nine clinicians in a public school setting were used as subjects. They were divided equally into the three following categories : (a) clinicians having less than one year’s experience. (b) clinicians having 1-3 years experience. (c) clinicians having more than 3 years experience. Six therapy sessions of each clinician were tape-recorded and analyzed. It was found that experience was not a significant variable in either of the two categories under study. It was shown, however, that there was a negative correlation between the amount of verbalization of clinician and client. Eight out of nine clinicians talked more than the clients. A high correlation was noted between the amount of verbalization used by the clinicians and their use of positive and descriptive utterances. The amount of client verbalization seemed to bear little or no relationship to the kinds of utterances used by the clinician. Analysis of positive and descriptive utterances showed a high positive correlation, while most of the other categories showed evidence of a moderate negative relationship. Further study was suggested for the following: (a) a survey of the different techniques used by clinicians (b) the effect of different techniques on the amount of verbalization used by both clinician and client (c) the modification of the content of the client’s responses by the kinds of utterances used by the clinician The present study may be of most value in indicating a possible means of constructing a profile of the kinds of utterances used by each clinician.

No description available.

It has been suggested (Krasner, I958, I965; Williams, 196^; Williams and Blanton, I968) that operant verbal conditioning resembles psychotherapy in that both can be seen as belonging in a broad class of behavior influencing techniques. Krasner (I965) says that if changes in verbal behavior can be shown to have consequences for changes in other kinds of behavior, then systematic modification of verbalization itself can be called treatment. Given this point of view, the empirical question to be answered then is, "Does reinforcement of a particular response class through verbal conditioning procedures lead to changes, not only in verbal behaviors, but in other overt behaviors as well, in a variety of situations?" In other words, if this position is valid, it should be experimentally demonstrable that operant verbal conditioning, aside from simply modifying verbal behavior, can result in substantial modification of other behaviors in a variety of situations, not just in the original conditioning situation.

No description available.

Skinner (1957) suggested that verbal responses learned as mands are not necessarily emitted in tact relations and vice versa. Previous empirical research has found that newly acquired mands and tacts can be functionally independent. The present study investigated 1) whether novel responses taught in mand relations would be emitted as tacts when opportunity for tacting was presented; 2) whether novel responses taught in tact relations would be emitted as mands when opportunity for manding was presented; and 3) whether the size of pre-experimental mand and tact repertoires affected the rate of acquisition and/or transfer. Two vocal-verbal children with autism were taught three novel responses as mands and three other responses as tacts. Mand topographies transferred to tact relations and tact topographies transferred to mand relations for both participants. Overall acquisition as well as transfer of mands and tacts was faster for the participant with an entering repertoire of approximately 175 mands and 175 tacts than for the participant with a repertoire of approximately 100 mands and 100 tacts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 46 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-44).