UNT Theses and Dissertations - 34 Matching Results

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Examining the Relationship between Variability in Acquisition and Variability in Extinction

Description: Using the "revealed operant" technique, variability during acquisition and extinction was examined with measures of response rate and a detailed analysis of response topography. During acquisition, subjects learned to emit four response patterns. A continuous schedule of reinforcement (CRF) for 100 repetitions was used for each pattern and a 30 min extinction phase immediately followed. One group of subjects learned the response patterns via a "trial-and-error" method. This resulted in a wide r… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Neff, Bryon (Bryon R.)
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The Effects of Modeling, Roleplaying and Feedback on the Performance of Teachers of Children with Autism

Description: Teachers providing treatment to children with autism are responsible for implementing numerous procedures. Teacher training has not been addressed extensively in the literature. This study employed a multiple baseline design to evaluate the effects of a training package incorporating modeling, roleplaying and feedback on teacher performance. Results indicated that the teacher implemented correct teaching episodes following training. Changes in teacher performance were only observed when the tra… more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Edwards, Carla Ward
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A Comparison of Points Versus Sounds as Reinforces in Human Operant Research

Description: Research shows that human operant behavior typically differs from non-human operant behavior on schedules of reinforcement. These differences in performance may be related to differences between the experimental preparations used to study human and non-human operant behavior. One such difference is the type of reinforcer used. This experiment analyzed the differential effects of points alone, points backed up by money, and sounds on schedule performance of human subjects. Results show that soun… more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Rouse, Susan L.
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Assessment and Treatment of Multiple Topographies and Functions of Self-injury

Description: Results of a functional analysis indicated that the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of an adult female with profound mental retardation occurred primarily in the alone and demand conditions. Graphs of the separate topographies (head slaps and head bangs) showed that head banging occurred in the alone condition and that both head banging and head slapping occurred in the demand condition. A data analysis procedure to identify within-session trends across sessions and fluctuations in rates of SIB b… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Gonzalez, Angela M. (Angela Maria), 1970-
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Experimental Analysis of Self-injury With and Without Protective Equipment

Description: Outcomes of experimental analyses during which protective equipment (PE) was placed on three participants were compared to those during which PE was not provided to them. Experimental analysis conditions were presented using a multielement format, and the effects of PE were evaluated using a withdrawal design. Results of experimental analysis without PE suggested that self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by negative reinforcement for two participants and nonsocial mechanisms for the thi… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Le, Duy D. (Duy Dang)
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The Role of a Point Loss Contingency on the Emergence of Derived Relations in the Absence of Original Relations

Description: The role of point loss for symmetrical relations introduced simultaneously with probe trials in the absence of original relations on all probe trial performances was evaluated. Training was completed after six conditional discriminations were established in two contexts. Point loss was introduced simultaneously with probe trials in the absence of original relations in the first context. Probe trials with no point loss in the absence of original relations were introduced in the second context. T… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Michniewicz, Leslie (Leslie A.)
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Elasticity of Money as a Reinforcer: Assessing Multiple Compositions of Unit Price

Description: Behavioral economics is the integration of concepts from micro-economics into behavior analysis. Most of the research in behavioral economics has been done with non-human subjects and with drugs as reinforcers. This study represents an extension of previous research to assess money as a reinforcer with humans as subjects. The participants in this study solved math problems to earn money at various unit prices. Results indicate that demand of money adhered to the law of demand in that consumptio… more
Date: December 1999
Creator: Viken, Kjetil
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The Effects of Shaping and Instruction-based Procedures on Behavioral Variability during Acquisition and Extinction

Description: This study examined effects of two response acquisition procedures on topography of responding using the revealed operant technique and compared results to previous experiments on this topic. Subjects emitted 100 repetitions each of 4 response patterns on a continuous schedule of reinforcement. A 30-min extinction condition followed acquisition. One group of subjects learned the first response through a series of shaping steps designed to reduce acquisition variability. Another group of subject… more
Date: December 1999
Creator: McCary, Donald
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The Effects of a Tactile Prompting Device on the Requesting Behavior of a Child with Autism

Description: In the present experiment, a remote control tactile prompting device (RCT) was utilized to prompt a child with autism to recruit teacher models and play suggestions. A multiple baseline and reversal was used to assess the effects of the RCT across three play contexts. The results showed increases in the number of requests for models and suggestions as well as increases in the duration of interactive play between the child and therapist, the number of contextual statements emitted by the child, … more
Date: December 1999
Creator: Russo, Lori A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Improving the Quality of Hotel Banquet Staff Performance: a Case Study in Organizational Behavior Management

Description: The banquet staff at a north Texas hotel were responsible for setting up 11 different functions (e.g., buffet dinners) for conferences and meetings. The functions were often set up late and items were often omitted. An analysis suggested that performance problems were the result of weak antecedents, inefficient work procedures, inadequate training and a lack of motivating consequences. An intervention consisting of task checklists, feedback, goal setting, monetary bonuses, training and job aids… more
Date: May 1994
Creator: LaFleur, Tobias C. (Tobias Christopher)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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An Experimental Analysis of Preference Problems in a Self-Control Choice Procedure by Adults with Mental Retardation

Description: The original purpose of this study was to determine if Tegretol has an effect on the impulsive behavior exhibited by people with mental retardation. This was to be accomplished through a replication of the self-control choice procedures used by Ragotzy, Blakely, and Poling (1988). The procedure involved three stages. First, subjects chose between stimuli that provided either one or three edibles. Then the stimuli associated with the smaller and larger edibles were reversed. Following this, the … more
Date: December 1993
Creator: Koppekin, Amy L. (Amy Lynn)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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The Evocative and Repertoire-Altering Effects of Contingency-Specifying Stimuli

Description: The effects of deadlines in contingency-specifying stimuli among nine 4 to 5 year old children were investigated. Each child was given verbal statements differing in the specified deadline, the delivery of the reinforcer, and the opportunity to respond. The results indicated: (a) statements not specifying deadlines or reinforcers failed to control the children's behavior reliably, (b) specifying deadlines, either immediate or delayed, and immediate reinforcers exerted reliable control over the … more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Mistr, Kathryn N. (Kathryn Noel)
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The Effects of Interresponse Intervals on Behavioral Variability in Humans

Description: The present experiment studied the relationship between interresponse intervals and behavioral variability. Subjects emitted sequences of 4 keypresses on two keys on a variability schedule that delivered points when the current 4-response sequence differed from the previous 5 sequences. Three experimental conditions were studied; no interresponse interval, 4-s interresponse interval and 8-s interresponse interval. Interresponse intervals followed each of the first three responses in each sequen… more
Date: December 1993
Creator: Reilly, Mark P. (Mark Peter)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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The Effect of Verbal and Graphic Feedback on Direct Care Trainers' Data-Tecording Behavior

Description: This study investigated the effects of verbal and graphic feedback alone and in combination with praise on the data-recording behavior of 12 direct care trainers (DCTs) who recorded their reinforcer deliveries as they interacted with mentally retarded clients. An additional variable examined was the effect of time of delivering feedback on subsequent data-recording behavior. Feedback was delivered by the experimenter. Correspondence checks were conducted and a three-phase multiple condition exp… more
Date: May 1994
Creator: Morris, Timothy Jewlon
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Effects of Single VI History on Human Concurrent VI VI Choice

Description: Two groups of human subjects pressed buttons on five different variable-interval (VI) reinforcement schedules presented for seven minutes each for 15 sessions. At session 16, the same VI schedules were programmed concurrently in each session either with or without a 5 s changeover delay (COD). The same schedule-correlated stimuli were employed in single and concurrent conditions. Two other groups responded on concurrent VI VI conditions from the first session with or without the COD. Response a… more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Madden, Gregory J. (Gregory Jude)
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The Function-Altering Effects of Contingency-Specifying Stimuli

Description: Three children between the ages of 3 and 3 1/2 were asked to choose a colored object from an array of 5 colors in a baseline condition. After color preferences were established, stickers, small toys and praise were made contingent on choosing the least preferred color. After the first experimental condition resulted in consistent choosing of the least preferred color, a second experimental condition was implemented. At the beginning of each session a contingency-specifying stimulus (CSS) was pr… more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Ford, Victoria L.
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The Physiological Control of Verbal Behavior

Description: The current study sought to investigate whether physiological responses, such as the electrodermographic response (EDG) and/or the frontalis muscle electrical potential (EMG) could be developed as a source of control over verbal responses. Discrimination training procedures using points exchangeable for money were employed to condition verbal responses occasioned by minute interoceptive events with 2 adult human subjects. Specific verbal responses were reinforced in the presence of changes in E… more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Field, Douglas Preston
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The Effects of Different Percentages of Incentive Pay to Base Pay on Work Productivity

Description: This experiment investigated how different percentages of incentive pay affected performance on a number-entering task. It was hypothesized that the critical factor in incentive pay systems was the absolute amount of money that could be earned in an incentive pay paradigm. A counterbalanced single-subject reversal design was employed to examine effects of incentives on performance. Twelve subjects were used in the experiment with three subjects assigned to one of four experimental paradigms. Tw… more
Date: December 1992
Creator: Gruenberg, Joel S. (Joel Sanborn)
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The Role of Fluency in the Emergence of the Derived Relations of Stimulus Equivalence

Description: Fluent component performances may be more readily available for recombination into more complex repertoires. This experiment considered the stimulus equivalence preparation as a laboratory analog for the co-adduction said to occur in generative instruction. Seven adults received minimum training on 18 conditional discriminations, components of 9 potential stimulus equivalence classes. Training was interrupted periodically with tests to determine whether fluency of original relations predicted e… more
Date: December 1995
Creator: Burkett, Leslie Stewart
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Effects of a Remote-Controlled Tactile Prompt on the Initiation Skills of a Child with Autism

Description: A 4-year old child with autism was taught to make a social initiation statement following a remote-controlled tactile prompt (RCT). The RCT prompt was taught by using a time-delay procedure with written script cards containing initiation statements. Training trials occurred in 6 different play locations in the child's room. Restricted Trial training consisted of allowing the child to play independently, activating the RCT prompt and playing with the child based on any initiation until a warning… more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Bingham-Watts, Kera L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Physiological Effects of Monetary Consequences

Description: Electrodermal responding (EDR) and heart rate (HR) were assessed for seven subjects participating in a reaction time task consequated with monetary bonuses (250, 100, and 10), monetary penalties (250,100, and 10), and a monetary neutral value (00). Unlike previous research employing group designs and a tonic measure (i.e., mean over long periods of time), this study utilized a single-subject design and a phasic measure (i.e., mean over 2-s intervals). Heart rate data was too variable for meanin… more
Date: May 1998
Creator: Kessler, Jeffrey C. (Jeffrey Charles)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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The Effect of Decreasing Defect Probabilities on Quality Control Inspection

Description: This study was a follow up to P. C. Dams' (1996) unpublished University of North Texas masters thesis, The effect of defect probability during training on inspection accuracy in a quality control simulation. Graphics of computer circuit boards were presented in dyads with an error free sample on the left and a comparison on the right. Comparisons had either a rotation or transposition defect, or were error free. Subjects had 10-s to accept or reject the comparison as identical to the sample. Th… more
Date: May 1998
Creator: Segal, Jo Ann
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The Use of an Applied Task as a Test of Stimulus Equivalence

Description: Four college student subjects were trained to match graphic figures (A stimuli) to other figures (B stimuli), and then to match the B figures to numerals (C stimuli). Then in a test of application subjects answered simple math problems, presented as novel sample stimuli, by selecting one of the A figures, presented as comparisons. The application test was an analog for the academic task of answering math problems with newly learned Spanish number names. Three subjects performed accurately in th… more
Date: August 1997
Creator: Luby, John M. (John Martin)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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The Effects of Forms, Reports, and Consequences on Homework Completion

Description: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of (1) training the accurate completion of an assignment form, (2) providing feedback on accurate reporting of homework completion, and (3) consequences for completion or non-completion of homework. All students exhibited highly accurate recording of information on assignment forms and reports of what homework had been completed or not completed. Delivering consequences for completion or non-completion of assignments had a modest effect on ho… more
Date: August 1998
Creator: Piland, Jill A. (Jill Anjanette)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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