CREATING SINGLE‐SUBJECT DESIGN GRAPHS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL™ 2007

Over 10 years have passed since the publication of Carr and Burkholder's (1998) technical article on how to construct single‐subject graphs using Microsoft Excel. Over the course of the past decade, the Excel program has undergone a series of revisions that make the Carr and Burkholder paper somewhat difficult to follow with newer versions. The present article provides task analyses for constructing various types of commonly used single‐subject design graphs in Microsoft Excel 2007. The task analyses were evaluated using a between‐subjects design that compared the graphing skills of 22 behavior‐analytic graduate students using Excel 2007 and either the Carr and Burkholder or newly developed task analyses. Results indicate that the new task analyses yielded more accurate and faster graph construction than the Carr and Burkholder instructions.     

A methodology for the capture and analysis of hybrid data: A case study of program debugging

This article describes a methodology for the capture and analysis of hybrid data. A case study in the field of reasoning with multiple representations—specifically, in computer programming—is presented to exemplify the use of the methodology. The hybrid data considered comprise computer interaction logs, audio recordings, and data about visual attention focus. The capture of the focus of visual attention data is performed with software. The software employed tracks the user’s visual attention by blurring parts of the stimuli presented on the screen and allowing the participant to see only a small region of it at any one time. These hybrid data are analyzed via a methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. The article describes the software tool employed and the analytic methodology, and also discusses data capture issues and limitations of the approach.     

Predictors of Risky and Precautionary Sexual Behaviors Among Single and Married White Women1

Risky and precautionary sexual behaviors were examined in a community sample of 260 single and married/cohabitating White women. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the ability of age, socioeconomic status (SES), marital status, religiosity, and 9 health belief constructs to predict risky sexual behavior with one's partner, using a barrier method of birth control, unintended pregnancies, and number of sexual partners in the past year. The pattern of results suggests that single White women appear to feel more vulnerable to HIV and STD infection and more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior than do married White women. The discussion focuses on the importance of sociocultural factors in understanding risk behaviors within the social context of relationship status, the complexity of the concept of risk reduction, and the need for going beyond the health belief model in order to develop different HIV prevention strategies for single and married White women.     

Can low-cost motion-tracking systems substitute a Polhemus system when researching social motor coordination in children?

Functionally stable and robust interpersonal motor coordination has been found to play an integral role in the effectiveness of social interactions. However, the motion-tracking equipment required to record and objectively measure the dynamic limb and body movements during social interaction has been very costly, cumbersome, and impractical within a non-clinical or non-laboratory setting. Here we examined whether three low-cost motion-tracking options (Microsoft Kinect skeletal tracking of either one limb or whole body and a video-based pixel change method) can be employed to investigate social motor coordination. Of particular interest was the degree to which these low-cost methods of motion tracking could be used to capture and index the coordination dynamics that occurred between a child and an experimenter for three simple social motor coordination tasks in comparison to a more expensive, laboratory-grade motion-tracking system (i.e., a Polhemus Latus system). Overall, the results demonstrated that these low-cost systems cannot substitute the Polhemus system in some tasks. However, the lower-cost Microsoft Kinect skeletal tracking and video pixel change methods were successfully able to index differences in social motor coordination in tasks that involved larger-scale, naturalistic whole body movements, which can be cumbersome and expensive to record with a Polhemus. However, we found the Kinect to be particularly vulnerable to occlusion and the pixel change method to movements that cross the video frame midline. Therefore, particular care needs to be taken in choosing the motion-tracking system that is best suited for the particular research.     

Physical activity, sedentary leisure, short sleeping and childhood overweight

In this study, using the path analysis, the relation between physical activity, non-regulated activity, sedentary leisure, hours of sleeping, and the body mass index (BMI) was analyzed. The sample was made up of 103 students, 59 girls and 44 boys, aged between 9 and 10 1/2 years. An individual interview was performed in which the children were asked about the TV programs they watched each day of the week; the time they played with the console and the computer; the time dedicated to sports, games and other activities. The results showed that sedentary leisure (number of hours of TV, computer and console) maintains a significant and inverse relation with the hours of sleeping, non-regulated activity (games and others activities), and physical sport activity. The difference between the results of this study and the previous one is discussed, taking into account the recruitment procedure of the participants.     

Patterns of interactive behavior in a multicultural school context

This paper is an empirical research based on observational methodology. It is an idiographic research with a mixed observational design of low intervention, of the following type: monitoring/nomothetical/multidimensional. We used a tool created in situ for the systematic multidimensional register of the complex occurrence of several types of behavioural events in real time, which combines the format of field investigation with the system of categories. The reliability of the observation tool is obtained through the researcher-observer's agreement with him- or herself. Our aim is to study the social relationships between first-grade peer students in a multicultural context. We present some structures of seeking social closeness, help and cooperation among children of similar and different cultures, which were discovered through the detection and analysis of temporal patterns of the interactive situation of boys and girls who were observed during their academic and leisure activities in the natural context of their school.     

Personality, cognitive appraisal and adjustment in chronic pain patients

This study investigated the relationship between clinical personality patterns and cognitive appraisal as well as their repercussions on adjustment to chronic pain in a sample of 91 patients. It was predicted that clinical personality patterns would be related to adjustment and cognitive appraisal processes, whereas cognitive appraisals would be related to anxiety, depression and levels of perceived pain. The instruments used were as follows: the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, the Cognitive Appraisal Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann Whitney U-test were used to analyse the data obtained. The results show that certain clinical personality patterns were associated with poor adjustment to chronic pain. The use of cognitive appraisal of harm predicted higher anxiety levels and greater perceived pain in chronic pain patients. The use of cognitive appraisals of challenge predicted lower depression levels.     

Treatment of co-occurring child maltreatment and substance abuse

Despite high prevalence and severe negative consequences of child maltreatment (e.g., Brown, G. R., & Anderson, B., (1991). Psychiatric morbidity in adult inpatients with childhood histories of sexual and physical abuse. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 55–61; Jaudes, P. K., Ekwo, E., & Van Voorhis, J.V., (1995). Association of drug abuse and child abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect, 19, 1065–1075; Murphy, J. M., Jellinek, M., Quinn, D., Smith, G., & Goshkom, M., (1991). Substance abuse and serious child mistreatment: Prevalence, risk, and outcome in a court sample. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15, 197—211), the treatment of perpetrators and victims of child abuse and neglect remains grossly understudied (Behl, L. E., Conyngham, H. A., & May, P. F., (2003). Trends in child maltreatment literature. Child Abuse and Neglect, 27, 215–229). More than half of parentes founded for the abuse and neglect of their children have evidenced drug abuse, yet no treatments have been validated that concurrently address these problems. The reciprocal interaction between substance abuse and child maltreatment supports the need to concurrently treat these problems. This article illustrates the relationship between child maltreatment and parental substance abuse and proposes a behavioral model to explain the reciprocal influence of drug abuse and child maltreatment. A behavioral treatment plan that is designed to concurrently address drug abuse and child abuse is proposed and suggestions are made for future directions in this area.     

Simple mechanisms for gathering social information

Social contexts are notoriously complex, yet decisions are nevertheless made by using simple strategies. We argue that the concept of fast and frugal heuristics provides a promising framework for understanding how we gather social information to make decisions in social environments. That is, we assume that under limitations of time, energy, and computational resources people use cognitively based shortcuts that rely on information from social environments to solve different types of real problems. We review three successful applications of heuristics to the social arena. We first introduce some commonly faced social inference problems (e.g., selecting a mate or deciding whether to cooperate with someone) and then discuss how individuals can use simple strategies to solve such problems. For each problem, we consider how social environments are structured, and how we take advantage of this structure when using heuristics to make inferences and decisions.     

Training paraprofessionals to use behavioral strategies when educating learners with autism spectrum disorders across environments

Although the use of paraprofessionals in the education of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a common practice, research on effective training procedures is scarce. The following study used a multiple‐baseline design across settings replicated by five paraprofessionals to evaluate their use of behavioral strategies with young children with, or at risk for, autism spectrum disorder. A training package consisting of a workshop and performance feedback by their supervising special education teacher served as the intervention. Results revealed that even though the paraprofessionals demonstrated skills in the use of behavioral strategies at the workshop, there was either no transfer or generalization to the preschool or home environments where they worked, or their use of skills decreased over time. When performance feedback was provided to all participants, their correct use of strategies increased. The training model evaluated in this study provides an example of one that could be employed in a typical public school classroom or early intervention program. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.