A preliminary evaluation of two behavioral skills training procedures for teaching abduction-prevention skills to schoolchildren

Although child abduction is a low-rate event, it presents a serious threat to the safety of children. The victims of child abduction face the threat of physical and emotional injury, sexual abuse, and death. Previous research has shown that behavioral skills training (BST) is effective in teaching children abduction-prevention skills, although not all children learn the skills. This study compared BST only to BST with an added in situ training component to teach abduction-prevention skills in a small-group format to schoolchildren. Results showed that both programs were effective in teaching abduction-prevention skills. In addition, the scores for the group that received in situ training were significantly higher than scores for the group that received BST alone at the 3-month follow-up assessment.     

Hierarchical modeling of sequential behavioral data: an empirical Bayesian approach

The authors review the common methods for measuring strength of contingency between 2 behaviors in a behavioral sequence, the binomial z score and the adjusted cell residual, and point out a number of limitations of these approaches. They present a new approach using log odds ratios and empirical Bayes estimation in the context of hierarchical modeling, an approach not constrained by these limitations. A series of hierarchical models is presented to test the stationarity of behavioral sequences, the homogeneity of sequences across a sample of episodes, and whether covariates can account for variation in sequences across the sample. These models are applied to observational data taken from a study of the behavioral interactions of 254 couples to illustrate their use.     

Independence training vs modeling procedures for teaching phone conversation skills to the mentally retarded

Forty-five mildly mentally retarded adults were assessed for deficits in telephone conversational skills. They were ranked on the basis of their pretest scores and matched into triplets on skill level. One member from each of these groups was then randomly assigned to either a no-treatment control group, a modeling condition or independence training—a treatment that incorporated social reinforcement, instructions, performance feedback, modeling, shaping by successive approximations and self-monitoring and evaluation. For the two latter conditions, treatment was provided three times weekly for 2 months in group sessions (N = 5) of 1 hr duration. The dependent variable, conversational skills of subjects was assessed at pretest, posttest and at a 3-month follow-up based on verbal responses that subjects made to nine questions asked by an experimenter and related social responses during a phone call. Independence training proved to be significantly more effective than the other two experimental conditions at posttest and follow-up. In addition, modeling proved to be significantly more effective than the no-treatment controls at both of these assessment points.     

cTRAIN: A computer-aided training system developed in SuperCard for teaching skills using behavioral education principles

A computer-aided training program was developed in SuperCard and piloted with professional painters. Taking a modern programmed-instruction/behavioral-education approach, cTRAIN is structured as a series ofinformation sets. Each information set consists of a series of informationscreens (three to five recommended) followed by quiz screens (one to three recommended) structured as fourresponse multiple choice questions. Correct quiz responses produce positive feedback and continuation in the series, whereas incorrect responses result in “error“ feedback and return the student to the beginning of the information set to repeat the same information screens and the same quiz question. This report demonstrates a specific implementation, respiratory protection requirements, using the flexible cTRAIN system for developing training modules. Fifteen adults completed the respiratory protection program, demonstrating substantial and significant (p < .0001 by pairedt test) gains from baseline pretest (19.4 out of 30 questions) to the immediate posttest (28.1). Performance remained elevated (26.4) on a retest taken 1 week later.     

A cost-effective high-throughput digital system for observation and acquisition of animal behavioral data

We have designed and implemented a low-cost digital system using closed-circuit television cameras coupled to a digital acquisition system for the recording of in vivo behavioral data in rodents and for allowing observation and recording of more than 10 animals simultaneously at a reduced cost, as compared with commercially available solutions. This system has been validated using two experimental rodent models: one involving chemically induced seizures and one assessing appetite and feeding. We present observational results showing comparable or improved levels of accuracy and observer consistency between this new system and traditional methods in these experimental models, discuss advantages of the presented system over conventional analog systems and commercially available digital systems, and propose possible extensions to the system and applications to nonrodent studies.     

Parent behavioral training: An analysis of the relationship among multiple outcome measures

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship among three types of outcome measures that have been employed to evaluate parent behavioral training: observational data collected by independent observers, parent-collected data, and parent-completed questionnaires. Previous research suggests that all three measures yield positive outcome data; however, a correlational analysis has not been performed to determine if the subjects who demonstrate the largest (smallest) change on one measure demonstrate the largest (smallest) change on the other measures. The present study undertook such a correlational analysis. Subjects were 20 young clinic-referred children and their mothers. Treatment consisted of a standardized parent training program to modifly child noncompliance. All three outcome measures (observational data, parent-collected data, and questionnaire data) indicated that therapy was effective. A correlational analysis performed on the outcome measures indicated a number of significant relationships for dependent variables withinthe observational data and withinthe questionnaire data; however, there were no significant relationships acrossthe three outcome measures. Although different outcome measures may yield similar conclusions about the effectiveness of parent behavioral training, the results suggest that any one subject, relative to other subjects, does not demonstrate uniform degrees of change across the three outcome measures. Explanations for the findings, as well as their implications, are discussed.This research was supported by NIMH grant MH-28859-01.     

Improving oral reading fluency by influencing students' choice of instructional procedures: an experimental analysis with two students with behavioral disorders

Choice as an antecedent intervention has been shown to improve student behavior in a variety of ways. This investigation examined whether students could be influenced to choose whether and how to be instructed while directly measuring effects on academic performance. Using a multiple‐probe design, the reading fluency of two middle school students with Behavioral Disorders was measured repeatedly across passages. Students could earn a tangible reward for meeting a pre‐determined performance criterion in passage reading. Prior to reading the criterion passage, each student was told that he or she could choose to be instructed or not be instructed in a similar passage with high content overlap. Both students consistently chose to be instructed (as well as how they would be instructed) and stable increases in oral reading fluency were obtained. Results are discussed in terms of how motivational variables can be used to influence students' choice of instructional procedures in ways that increase their opportunities to respond and measured learning. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contrasting behavioral looking procedures: a case study on infant speech segmentation

This paper compared three different procedures common in infant speech perception research: a headturn preference procedure (HPP) and a central-fixation (CF) procedure with either automated eye-tracking (CF-ET) or manual coding (CF-M). In theory, such procedures all measure the same underlying speech perception and learning mechanisms and the choice between them should ideally be irrelevant in unveiling infant preference. However, the ManyBabies study (ManyBabies Consortium, 2019), a cross-laboratory collaboration on infants’ preference for child-directed speech, revealed that choice of procedure can modulate effect sizes. Here we examined whether procedure also modulates preference in paradigms that add a learning phase prior to test: a speech segmentation paradigm. Such paradigms are particularly important for studying the learning mechanisms infants can employ for language acquisition. We carried out the same familiarization-then-test experiment with the three different procedures (32 unique infants per procedure). Procedures were compared on various factors, such as overall effect, average looking time and drop-out rate. The key observations are that the HPP yielded a larger familiarity preference, but also reported larger drop-out rates. This raises questions about the generalizability of results. We argue that more collaborative research into different procedures in infant preference experiments is required in order to interpret the variation in infant preferences more accurately.