BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS OF MOTION CONTROL FOR PEDIATRIC NEUROIMAGING

Magnetic resonance imaging is a promising technological advance used for research and diagnosis of disease. The procedure has no risks, except when uncooperative patients require sedation. Four normal children participated in simulated scans to study the effects of (a) antecedent changes in the imaging environment and (b) operant conditioning of movement inhibition. Changing the environment can decrease movement, but operant contingencies were necessary to decrease movement to a level that, in most cases, would allow the procedure to occur without sedation.     

AUDITORY SUCCESSIVE CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION AND AUDITORY STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE CLASSES

This paper describes an experimental demonstration of stimulus equivalence classes consisting entirely of auditory stimuli. Stimuli were digitized arbitrary syllables (e.g., “cug,” “vek”) presented via microcomputer. Training and testing were conducted with a two-choice auditory successive conditional discrimination procedure. On each trial, auditory samples and comparisons were presented successively. As each comparison was presented, a response location (a rectangle) appeared on the computer screen. After all stimuli for a trial were presented, subjects selected one of the response locations. Six subjects acquired the conditional discrimination baseline, 4 subjects demonstrated the formation of three-member auditory equivalence classes resulting from sample-S+ relations, and 1 subject demonstrated equivalence classes resulting from sample-S— relations. Four subjects received additional training and subsequently demonstrated expansion of the three-member classes to four members each.     

Instructive feedback: A comparison of simultaneous and alternating presentation of non-target stimuli

Instructive feedback involves presenting extra, non-target stimuli in the consequent events for children's responses. Two methods of presenting instructive feedback during direct instruction were compared. These methods involved presenting two extra stimuli on all trials, and presenting the two extra stimuli separately on alternating trials. Preschool students were taught coin combinations using a constant time delay procedure with instructive feedback stimuli added to both praise and correction statements. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the two methods of presenting instructive feedback. The students were assessed to determine the extent to which instructive feedback stimuli were learned. The results indicate that students learned some of the instructive feedback stimuli and no consistent differences in the effectiveness of the two presentation methods were noted. Further, relationships between the two instructive feedback stimuli appeared to be established. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed.     

AIDS PREVENTION: IMPROVING NURSES' COMPLIANCE WITH GLOVE WEARING THROUGH PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK

A performance feedback procedure was used to increase glove wearing by nurses in a hospital emergency room in situations in which contact with body fluids was highly likely. Infection-control nurses provided biweekly performance feedback to staff nurses on an individual private basis to inform them of the percentage of contact opportunities in which they wore gloves. Observations made prior to (baseline) and during feedback in a multiple baseline design across 4 subjects indicated that substantial increases in glove wearing in target situations occurred after implementation of the feedback program and that increases occurred across most of the specific situations in which glove wearing was advised. Percentage increases in glove wearing ranged from 22% to 49% across subjects. The results are discussed in terms of prevention of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) by use of universal precautions.     

Use of didactic training and feedback to improve quality and acceptability of progress notes written by direct-care staff on a psychiatric inpatient unit

Writing progress notes represent a critical activity of practicing clinicians in a variety of settings. They provide a way for medical practitioners, insurance companies, and others to communicate in a timely fashion regarding ongoing clinical care. Previous research showed that intervention components like didactic training, using note templates, and feedback improved the quality of progress notes. At least two questions remain despite several studies already addressing progress note writing. First, previous research most often used multiple intervention components to improve progress notes. Thus, the relative impact of two common components of interventions, such as didactic training and feedback, is unclear. Second, previous research has not evaluated the acceptability of improved progress notes for the practitioners that actually utilize them. Thus, the purpose of the current study evaluated the components of didactic training and feedback on improved progress note writing for four direct staff employed by a psychiatric inpatient unit. A second purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of the training procedures by both (a) the direct-care staff participating in this study and (b) four members of the psychiatric treatment team that used direct-care staff progress notes to inform their clinical care. Results showed that feedback was necessary to improve the accuracy of progress notes for three of four participants. The direct-care staff reported the training procedures as acceptable and the treatment team noted improvements in the quality of the progress notes after intervention. These data will be discussed in terms of ways to arrange effective training programs to improve direct-care staff's progress notes.     

Emergent control for play responses following instructive feedback for children with autism spectrum disorder

Play provides children learning opportunities in the natural environment to acquire communication skills. While working to establish skills that may lead to additional leisure and social opportunities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), procedures need to be both effective and efficient. One way to increase efficiency of teaching is through the use of instructive feedback (IF). Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to systematically replicate and extend previous research by examining if play behaviors emerge when using IF to teach conceptually related primary (i.e., tacts) and secondary targets (i.e., play skills). The results of the present study extend previous research by demonstrating the effectiveness of teaching tacts to individuals with ASD, and that using IF during tact training can help promote the acquisition of play skills.     

Infants’ understanding of auditory events

Infants’ reaching‐in‐the‐dark was studied in a sample of normal 7.5–11‐month‐olds to determine whether infants can use sound cues to localize and recognize the action and objects of complex events. Infants were shown an event in which a moving, sounding object rotated clockwise through the infant's reaching space in the light and dark. Infrared recorded videotapes were later coded for reaching behaviour. Results showed that infants were able to localize the object on most trials in the dark but were slower and less efficient than in the light. Infants grasped the object at first contact and contacted the object near its salient feature in the dark, suggesting recognition of the object. Further, contact time was 1.7 s less when infants grasped the object at first contact in the dark (recognition) than when they touched the object, suggesting that recognition of the object improves reaching efficiency. There were no age and gender differences. In sum, the results support the use of the reaching‐in‐the‐dark method to demonstrate auditory localization of moving sounds and to reveal infants capacity to use represented information to guide subsequent action. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of video feedback on running form

Correct running form is important for injury prevention; as such, correct form promotes continued engagement in running as a long-term form of exercise. Researchers have shown video feedback to be an effective strategy to improve athletic form for a variety of sports, but it has not been evaluated in any behavior analytic research as a method for improving running form. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of video feedback to improve running form for regular runners. During baseline, each participant was video recorded while running without any feedback (verbal or video). During intervention, the researcher recorded the participant, then showed them the video and provided feedback on correct or incorrect form, according to a 9-step task analysis. Results show that all three participants achieved 100% correct steps on the task analysis when video feedback was used to maintain their form during follow-up.     

不同感觉功能对抑郁的影响及其神经机制

大脑通过视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉和触觉等感官通道接收来自外界的信息。不同感觉功能受损涉及抑郁发生的中枢机制,而基于不同感官通道进行适当刺激以及多感官联合干预也可能发挥显著的抑郁治疗作用。笔者以症状-脑区-机制-治疗为逻辑主线,首次系统梳理了五种主要感觉障碍人群的抑郁临床症状、抑郁神经机制以及基于感觉刺激的抗抑郁治疗。结果表明,不同感觉功能障碍对抑郁相关神经机制的影响可能表征了不同的抑郁病理,涉及神经元电活动(某些神经元放电和神经环路激活等)和神经生化改变(神经可塑性和神经发生、炎症免疫和HPA轴、神经激素和神经递质等),且主要发生在边缘系统及其附近脑区,涉及岛叶、颞叶、额叶等。因此,未来研究可聚焦于机体对不同感觉信息的提取,这将为人类抑郁的病因和治疗提供新的研究视角。     

The influence of instructive feedback presentation schedule: A replication with children with autism spectrum disorder

Instructive feedback (IF) is a modification to discrete trial instruction that may increase instructional efficiency for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Several variations of IF have recently been evaluated in the literature; however, few studies have assessed the effectiveness and efficiency of presenting secondary targets on continuous versus intermittent presentation schedules. The current study evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of various presentation schedules of secondary targets during discrete trial instruction. Specifically, we replicated and extended Griffen et al. (1998) by comparing a condition in which secondary targets were presented during each trial of a session, a condition in which secondary targets were presented every other trial, and a condition in which secondary targets were presented about every 4 trials. Within-subject replications were included for both participants. One of the intermittent presentation schedules was associated with the most optimal outcomes in all 4 comparisons.