TEACHING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM TO USE PHOTOGRAPHIC ACTIVITY SCHEDULES: MAINTENANCE AND GENERALIZATION OF COMPLEX RESPONSE CHAINS

We used a graduated guidance procedure to teach 4 boys with autism to follow photographic activity schedules to increase on-task and on-schedule behavior. The multiple baseline across participants design included baseline, teaching, maintenance, resequencing of photographs, and generalization to novel photographs phases. The results indicated that photographic activity schedules (albums depicting after-school activities) produced sustained engagement, and skills generalized to a new sequence of photographs and to new photographs. The acquisition of schedule-following skills enabled these children with severe developmental disabilities to display lengthy response chains, independently change activities, and change activities in different group home settings in the absence of immediate supervision and prompts from others.     

Stimulus generalization and the response-reinforcement contingency

Generalization gradients along a line-tilt continuum were obtained from groups of pigeons that had been trained to peck a key on different schedules of reinforcement. In Exp. I, gradients following training on a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedule proved to be much flatter than gradients following the usual 1-min variable interval (VI) training. In Exp. II, the value of the VI schedule itself was parametrically studied; Ss trained on long VI schedules (e.g., 4-min) produced much flatter gradients than Ss trained on short VI schedules (30-sec; 1-min). The results were interpreted mainly in terms of the relative control exerted by internal, proprioceptive cues on the different reinforcement schedules. Several implications of the results for other problems in the field of stimulus generalization are discussed.     

Medlemsaktivitet i BTF

Abstract

EMG-biofeedback assisted relaxation training was used in the treatment of tension headache. Two groups of subjects were treated with either a “standard biofeedback” method, or a “biofeedback with generalization training” method. The latter included procedures which were aimed at maximizing voluntary control of frontal muscle activity in the absence of external feedback, as well as the ability to use the self-regulation skills in every-day life. The results indicated that only the “standard biofeedback” group showed evidence of increased relaxation abilities. However, these greater achievements were not accompanied by comparable superiority regarding headache decreases. These results are discussed and some hypothetical explanations are put forward.     

Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance?

ObjectivesIn the psychology of sport and exercise, the question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. While some researchers have identified perfectionism as a hallmark quality of elite athletes, others see perfectionism as a maladaptive characteristic that undermines, rather than helps, athletic performance. Against this background, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how different aspects of perfectionism predict performance and performance increments.MethodA study was conducted with 122 undergraduate athletes to investigate how perfectionism during training affects performance and performance increments in a series of trials with a new basketball training task. Two aspects of perfectionism were examined: striving for perfection and negative reactions to imperfection.DesignThe design was a correlational prospective design.ResultsResults showed that striving for perfection during training predicted higher performance in the new task. In contrast, negative reactions to imperfection predicted lower performance when athletes attempted the task for the first time, once the positive influence of striving for perfection on task performance was partialled out. However, negative reactions to imperfection did not undermine performance in the consecutive trials. On the contrary, athletes with both high levels of striving for perfection and high levels of negative reactions to imperfection showed the greatest performance increments over the series of trials.ConclusionThe findings suggest that perfectionism is not necessarily a maladaptive characteristic that generally undermines sport performance. Instead, when learning a new training task, perfectionism may enhance performance and lead to performance increments over repeated trials.     

Treatment of escape-maintained aberrant behavior with escape extinction and predictable routines

We evaluated the effects of two daily activity schedules on 2 participants' rates of aberrant behavior and their compliance. Functional analysis identified the operant function of the participants' aberrant behaviors to be escape from tasks. Participants were taught to use stimuli contained in daily schedules, and were tested based on a modified stimulus-equivalence model that consisted of flash cards and activity schedules comprised of words or photographs that corresponded to the participants' daily activities. On pretests, the participants demonstrated simple and conditional discriminations with the photographs but not with the printed stimuli. A time-delay procedure was used to teach the participants to name the flash cards. Following training, the printed activity schedules corresponded to lower rates of problem behavior and higher rates of compliance than the photographic activity schedules. Performance on posttests indicated the establishment of functional classes of stimuli involving the flash cards and activity schedules even though this type of correspondence was not directly trained.     

‘It’s not a diet,it’s a lifestyle’: a longitudinal,data-prompted interview study of weight loss maintenance

Objective: To advance understanding of the individual and environmental factors underpinning weight loss maintenance. Design: Semi-structured, data-prompted interviews were conducted with twelve overweight adult participants (three men, nine women) who had lost over 5% of their body weight in the year before baseline. Participants gathered daily data through wireless scales, activity monitors (Fitbit?), ecological momentary assessment and experience sampling (taking photographs, writing notes). They were interviewed at 3- and 6-months post baseline. Interview stimuli included personal data of weight and activity graphs, correlations of psychological factors, and self-generated notes and photographs. Interview data were analysed using the Framework Method, applying pre-specified maintenance-relevant theoretical themes. Results: The theoretical Framework provided a good fit for the narratives, with five main themes underpinning successful weight loss maintenance: sustained motivation, effective self-regulation, plentiful resources, habit formation and a supportive environment. Additionally, participants reported an identity shift from being a dieter to accepting a new healthy lifestyle. Goal prioritising and allowing for occasional controlled lapses enhanced weight loss maintenance. Conclusions: This study successfully used the novel method of data-prompted interviews to explore weight loss maintenance experiences with new explanations emerging from the data. Future research should further develop behaviour change maintenance theory and data-prompted interview method.     

Some effects on generalization gradients of tandem schedules

The relationship between training conditions and stimulus generalization gradients was examined using tandem schedules of reinforcement. Schedules were selected so that frequency of reinforcement and rate of responding were varied somewhat independently of each other. A peak-shift in the generalization gradient was obtained when extinction had been associated with one of the stimuli. No comparable peak shift was obtained when there were equal response rates in the training stimuli even with dissimilar frequencies of reinforcement. The data imply that response rates at the end of training, rather than reinforcement frequency per se, determine the characteristics of the generalization gradient.     

Using perceptual home-training to improve anticipation skills of soccer goalkeepers

ObjectiveThis study aims to test the effectiveness of a perceptual training concerning the anticipatory skills of soccer goalkeepers, by assessing their performances while engaged in predicting the direction of penalty kicks.DesignForty-two skilled goalkeepers were randomly assigned to three training groups: Experimental, placebo, and control. All the groups were tested at the beginning of the experiment and re-tested after a period of eight weeks.MethodThe pre-test consisted of the presentation of temporally occluded videos of penalties recorded from the goalkeeper's perspective, and participants had to predict the direction of the ball. The experimental group practiced with an interactive home-training, based on video analogous to those of the test, with the addition of both positive and negative feedback. The placebo group viewed television footage of penalty kick shoot-outs. Participants of both groups were free to schedule their own training/placebo sessions. Finally, the control group did not receive any treatment.ResultsThe results demonstrated the effectiveness of the home-training protocol, evidencing significant accuracy improvements between pre-test and post-test only for the experimental group.ConclusionsThe outcomes indicate that skilled athletes can benefit from perceptual training, which was not investigated before among soccer goalkeepers. Indeed, all the previous training studies concerning soccer penalty predictions were run on participants with either recreational or no goalkeeping experience at all. Moreover, the present training protocol is innovative because learners can schedule training sessions on their own. Finally, its usability suggests numerous potential applications.     

Evaluation of multiple schedules with naturally occurring and therapist‐arranged discriminative stimuli following functional communication training

Many studies have shown that (a) functional communication training (FCT) is effective for reducing problem behavior, and (b) multiple schedules can facilitate reinforcer schedule thinning during FCT. Most studies tha have used multiple schedules with FCT have included therapist‐arranged stimuli (e.g., colored cards) as the discriminative stimuli (S^Ds), but recently, researchers have evaluated similar multiple‐schedule training procedures with naturally occurring S^Ds (e.g., overt therapist behavior). The purposes of the current study were to compare the effects of arranged and naturally occurring S^Ds directly during (a) acquisition of discriminated functional communication responses (FCRs) and (b) generalization of discriminated FCRs when we introduced the multiple schedules in novel contexts in which the naturally occurring stimuli were either relatively easy or difficult to discriminate. Results showed that (a) 2 of 3 participants acquired discriminated responding of the FCR more rapidly with arranged than with naturally occurring stimuli, (b) 2 of 3 participants showed resurgence of problem behavior , and (c) 2 of 3 participants showed greater generalization of discriminated responding to novel contexts with arranged stimuli than with naturally occurring stimuli. We discuss these results relative to the conditions under which naturally occurring and arranged S^Ds may promote rapid and generalized treatment gains.     

Dimensional stimulus control following brief wavelength training

Pigeons with extensive training pecking a key illuminated by a white line then had brief training with the key illuminated by 555 nanometers. This was immediately followed by a wavelength generalization test in extinction. Dimensional stimulus control about the training wavelength increased with the duration and number of reinforcements given on variable-interval 30-sec and variable-interval 10-sec schedules in Experiment I. In Experiment II, dimensional stimulus control was obtained after only 4 min of wavelength training from birds with prior and independent discrimination training. Experiment III provided groups equated in number of reinforcers with groups in Experiment I and two 8-min duration groups. Analyses, which included results from both Experiments I and III, showed that dimensional stimulus control increased: (a) more rapidly as a function of the duration of variable-interval 10-sec than variable-interval 30-sec reinforcement; (b) at the same rate across variable-interval reinforcement schedules, as a function of the number of reinforcers available during brief wavelength training.     

Equivalence‐based instruction to establish a textual activity schedule in an adult with Down syndrome

Transfer of control from picture to text‐based activity schedules has been shown to occur following conditional discrimination training in children with autism. This study extended this research by evaluating if conditional discrimination training could promote transfer of control in an adult with Down syndrome. The participant was taught to select photographs and pictures of kitchen tools when provided with dictated names. Then, he completed a text‐based activity schedule, matched printed words to photographs, and orally named printed words without direct training.     

Psychoanalysis in the Netherlands during World War II

To understand what happened in the psychoanalytic world in Holland during the German occupation (1940-1945) we must have knowledge of the conflicts within the Dutch Society of Psychoanalysis in the nineteen-thirties. Those conflicts mainly deal with the subject of lay analysis, the compulsory training analysis and in general if compliance with foreign, with IPA rules was advisable. These differences of opinion reached their peak when four Jewish psychoanalysts arrived from Germany in 1933. The Dutch Society broke up in two parts, but was reunited in 1938. During the German occupation the training was finally regulated according to the IPA rules. This lead to a new splitting in the world of Dutch psychoanalysis that has not been healed to date.     

Getting Everybody Involved

Abstract

This paper describes a creative approach for training counselor and counselor educators that provides collaborative interactions among students and faculty in several university training programs. Structured around a problem-solving activity and self-reflection questionnaires, undergraduate teachers-in-training were given an opportunity to receive one-to-one consultative counseling from the master's level counselors-in-training, who in turn received structured problem-solving supervision from the doctoral level students. Finally, the doctoral level students received faculty support to facilitate the development of their supervisory skills. The goal of this training approach is to provide students at all three levels with experiences similar to those they will encounter as professionals following graduation from the university, but within the context of scaffolding from faculty and more advanced students.     

ACQUISITION AND GENERALIZATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH COMPLEX FIVE-COMPONENT INSTRUCTIONS1

A 7-yr-old bilingual boy of normal intelligence, judged by his school to be deficient in carrying out complex requests, was trained to comply with five-component instructions, e.g., “Give me/the chip/behind/the block/on blue”. Three interchangeable words or phrases were used for each component. Training proceeded in stages. First, the child was trained to identify all individual objects and actions; then to carry out requests involving only the first component, then the first two, then three, etc. On every trial, the visual setting permitted every possible response in the set. A test for generalization to nonreinforced instructions was given at each stage by giving no feedback for all instructions that included one preselected phrase. The phrase selected at each stage was one of the three that was introduced at that stage. As a further test for generalization, nonreinforced instructions were also given that included one additional component: the next to be trained (Probes Ahead). As a test for generalization across settings and instructions, several five-component instructions were presented each session in an unused classroom. These instructions used phrases, most of which were different from those being trained, and which referred to familiar classroom objects. Results showed: acquisition occurred for each stage of training, including the full five-component instruction; almost complete generalization of responding occurred to the subset of nonreinforced instructions; little or no generalization occurred to the Probes Ahead, where an additional untrained component was included; and little or no generalization was seen to the five-component classroom instructions, until training began on the five-component instructions in the training sessions. Performance was also examined for each component. Results showed that when a new component was introduced, correct performance to previously trained components declined, and was little if any superior to performance on the new component. In summary, transfer was found to untrained sentences of the same form as those being trained, even in another setting, where most of the components were different; but poor transfer was found to more complex sentences, and performance declined for previously trained components during training of a more complex sentence. Some features of the training procedure that may have affected the degree and form of transfer were discussed: the necessity for prior training in an appropriate response to the component phrases, the importance of intermixing of reinforced and nonreinforced trials, and the effects of the abruptness with which more complex sentence forms were introduced.     

Controversies and Conflicts in the Institution of "Open" Psychoanalysis: Cases from the History of the Therapeia Foundation

The institution of psychoanalysis has included controversies, dissensions and expulsions at both the theoretical-methodological and personal-organizational levels. There have also been several intra- and intergroup conflicts in the history of psychoanalysis, and in constructing and patterning the future of psychoanalytic knowledge. In the context of Finnish psychoanalysis, the Therapeia Foundation (founded in 1958) met from the start with resistance from official psychiatry and also from the IPA. For example, in the mid-1960s, D. W. Winnicott, as the President of the IPA, supported the orthodox Finnish psychoanalytic study group (later to become the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society), and pronounced that the Therapeia group was too loose and was not strictly able to use the IPA-recognized designation "psychoanalytic." The Therapeia Foundation and its Training Seminar combined classical psychoanalysis and its new versions with existentialphenomenological views, anthropological medicine, research on "social pathology" and even modern theological research. On the basis of their Swiss analytic training, three Finnish psychiatrists, Martti Siirala, Kauko Kaila and Allan Johansson, organized Therapeian training to incorporate sciences and arts, and skills involving the therapeutic "carrying" of burdens. The multifacted nature of open psychoanalysis was seen to find its proper organizational expression when the Training Seminar of the Therapeia Foundation became, in 1974, a Member of the IFPS.     

An evaluation of photographic activity schedules to increase independent playground skills in young children with autism

We used photographic activity schedules to increase the number of play activities completed by children with autism during unstructured time on the playground. All 3 participants engaged in more playground activities during and after training, and they continued to complete activities when novel photographs were introduced.     

Assessment of role-play generalization across qualitatively different situations

Role-play generalization of newly acquired assertive behavior was assessed across different response situations in a clinical outpatient sample. Prior to assertive training, subjects completed two paper-and-pencil inventories and a series of role-play situations. Behavioral role-play scenes included four response forms: making requests, expressing affection, standing up for rights, and expressing displeasure. Subjects were randomly assigned to treatment or test-retest conditions and the treatment subjects received six 2-hr sessions of assertion training using modeling, behavior rehearsal, instruction, positive reinforcement, assignedin vivo homework, bibliotherapy, and daily recordings of assertive behavior. Posttreatment, subjects completed the paper-and-pencil measures, trained role-play scenes, and a set of dissimilar untrained scenes requiring different response forms (giving compliments, receiving compliments; refusing unreasonable requests and expressing justified anger). Videotapes were rated blindly and in random order at the conclusion of the study by trained judges. Treatment and test-retest subjects were equivalent prior to training. Posttreatment for the two groups differed in self-report, role-play behavior in trained situations, and role-play behavior in untrained dissimilar situations (allp<.001). MANOVA with repeated measures confirmed that trained and generalization role-play scenes were quantitatively, as well as qualitatively, different, confirmed that treatment and test-retest subjects exhibited different performance levels posttreatment on both trained and generalization scenes, and revealed four significant interactions (allp<.001). Implications of the interactions are discussed. Canonical correlation revealed that subjects displayed significant commonality in their behavioral profiles across different response forms. The findings indicate that complex training resulted in generalization from trained situations to untrained and dissimilar generalization scenes for the clinical outpatient sample.     

What do we know about the effects of mental training applied to combat sports? A systematic review

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the effects of mental training applied to combat sports athletes.MethodsA systematic review was conducted, following the criteria recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, from inception up to February 2021, with an electronic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus databases. As eligibility criteria, this review included original studies that carried out any type of mental training, with or without a control group, acute or chronic, in combat sports athletes, of both sexes, age >16 and < 45 years old, from any competitive level, and evaluated the effect of these interventions on psychological measures. The quality assessment was conducted through the application of the Cochrane Collaboration tool.ResultsIn total, 1921 studies were found and after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 articles were included in this review. A total of 417 subjects were investigated from the 21 studies. As results, despite the variations in the type and characteristics of the interventions, studies showed that mental training seems to improve anxiety, mood, self-confidence, emotions, cohesion, emotional balance, and relaxation, in addition to physical and athletic performance.ConclusionsThis systematic review based on the evidence from the selected studies indicates that mental training seems to be beneficial for athletes in combat modalities, while combat sports can benefit from mental training in preparation, competition, and recovery. However, the interpretation of these findings must consider that there is limited scientific production with good quality studies investigating the effects of psychological intervention protocols in athletes of combat sports in different combat modalities.Prospero register numberCRD42020169793.     

GENERALIZATION OF NAMING RESPONSES TO OBJECTS IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FUNCTION OF TRAINING STIMULUS MODALITY WITH RETARDED CHILDREN

Picture-cards, photographs, and real objects were compared as training stimuli in order to determine which best facilitated the generalization of naming responses learned in a special training room to real objects in the natural environments of four retarded children. The amount of transfer of naming behavior between the three stimulus modes and the average amount of training time required per stimulus mode were also assessed. Three of the four children displayed considerably more generalization to the real objects in the natural environment when they were trained with real objects. The fourth child displayed substantial generalization regardless of the training stimulus mode. No particular training stimulus mode clearly facilitated the transfer of naming responses to other modes or greatly reduced training time. The results of two supplementary procedures conducted with one child showed that: (1) training in several environments facilitated generalization to real objects in the natural environment when real objects were used as training stimuli but not when picture-cards were used, and (2) transfer from picture-cards to real objects was facilitated by training other picture-cards and the real objects portrayed by them at the same time.     

Integrating technology in psychological skills training for performance optimization in elite athletes: A systematic review

ObjectivesThe aim of the current study was to systematically review the literature on the integration of technology in psychological skills training (PST) to optimize elite athletes’ performance.DesignSystematic review.MethodPublished English, Italian, and Russian language articles were identified using electronic databases. Eighteen articles (out of 3753 records) fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and their quality was assessed using the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Six papers were judged to be excellent and four to be high quality. There were significant methodological inconsistencies across eight studies. An overall score of quality assessment ranged from 20% to 100%.ResultsThe included studies implemented various technologies, in combination with PST, to identify, monitor and/or have an intervention aimed at optimizing elite athletes' performance. The results suggested that the integration covered different meanings, i.e., functional integration, integration between technologies and measures, integration between technology, theoretical framework, and psychological skills training. There was no distinct consistency between the studies with regards to the theory or model used.ConclusionsTechnology and mental training should not be viewed as interchangeable facets of performance enhancement, but rather as complementary ones – where technology integrated in psychological skills training can lead to identify and monitor optimal performance and to implement more effective interventions.