ABA Student Research in Auckland: Illustrations of a
Scientist-Practitioner Approach
Oliver Mudford, PhD, BCBAAngela Arnold-Saritepe, PhD, BCBADennis Rose, PhD
ABA International, Sydney - August 13th 2007
Research Opportunities in ABA Postgraduate Programme
• Year 1Coursework projects– Preference and Reinforcer Assessment– Functional Assessment
• Year 2– Master’s thesis (Full-time 1 year research)
• Year 3– Scientist-practitioner research in supervised
fieldwork settings (across 12 months)
• Post-BCBA – PhD research
Research with adult populationsThree examples supervised by Oliver Mudford
Katrina Phillips, MSc, PGDipAppPsych Residential intellectual disability service
Erika Ford, MA, PGDipAppPsychResidential ABI/TBI rehabilitation facility
Janine Locke, MSc Dementia care residential unit
Comparison of Interventions to Decrease Grabbing by a
Man with Intellectual Disabilities
Katrina PhillipsABA Programme Graduate 2007
• Function of behavior – Social Positive Reinforcement
• Decreasing problem behavior over two time periods using– NCR– Engagement– Extinction– Combinations of the above
Programme
Figure 1. Frequency of BN’s grabbing during the morning shift (90 mins). Graph shows four different interventions: baseline (no intervention), task engagement and extinction, task engagement, extinction and NCR, or extinction and NCR.
Outcome
Grabbing of other residents reduced to zero with a combination of providing engaging activities for BN, non-contingent attention on a FI-5 min schedule, and attending minimally to instances of grabbing
Staff maintained intervention beyond the data shown.
Teaching Face Recognition to an Adult with Brain Injury
Erika Ford ABA Programme Graduate 2007
Matching to Sample Task
• Female with Acquired Brain Injury
• Deficit in name-face matching
• Matching to Sample procedures implemented to teach face matching– Within-stimulus prompting strategy – Photo quality of comparison pictures
systematically ‘faded in’
Matching to Sample Results
Figure 1. The percentage of correct responses emitted during a matching-to-sample task of photos of identical faces. Level 1-3 indicate the level of within-stimulus prompt.
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Discussion
• Matching to Sample procedures were unsuccessful at teaching face matching
• Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) conducted
– Visual discrimination, visual matching-to-sample and auditory-visual discrimination difficult to learn via standard prompting and reinforcement procedures
• Further research required on the predictive value of the ABLA for teaching adults with brain injury
Reduction of Non-social Vocalisations for a Man with
Dementia: Serendipitous Intervention
Janine Maari LockeFinal year ABA student
Aim
To investigate the influence of music
on LS’s non-English (and non-Thai)
chanting and repetitive speech-like
vocalisations that were annoying
other residents of a dementia care
unit
Method• Alternating treatments design
• 4 Conditions- baseline, music out loud, headphones with music, and headphones without music
• During each session the 4 conditions ran for 5-mins each, one after the other (the conditions were randomly ordered)
• Recorded 10s whole intervals of quiet
• IOA on 30% of trials 90-100%
Discussion• Music may be effective for this
automatically reinforced behaviour for this man because it provides alternative auditory stimulation
• The data do not reveal the type of noise LS made while listening to music with headphones, it was often only a slight ‘mm’ or ‘ah’ rather than the loud chanting that was observed during baseline
• Data collection is continuing
ABA Research for Children
Angela Arnold-Saritepe, BCBA
Research with child populationsThree examples supervised by Angela Arnold-Saritepe
Sheree Adams, MA, PGDipAppPsych Residential Children’s ID Service
Rachel Pearce, MSc, PGDipAppPsychMainstream Primary School
Katrina Phillips, MSc, PGDipAppPsych Special School
The Use of a Shaping Procedure to Teach PECS to
a 14-yr-old Boy with Cerebral Palsy and an Intellectual Disability
Sheree Adams ABA Programme Graduate 2007
Picture Exchange Communication
• An augmentative communication system developed by Bondy and Frost (1994).
• Influenced by Skinner’s description of the verbal operants (1957).
• Focus on student initiated communication.
• Participant and setting– CM lived in a fully staffed residential facility
• Objectives– Increase the distance travelled to exchange
an icon for a preferred item– Increase the distance travelled to obtain the
icon.
• The experimental design was changing criterion.
Phase II (Distance and persistence)
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Figure 2 : Distance travelled in metres to communication book to retrieve picture of preferred item to exchange for the item from communication partner for CM during training in Phase IIb Picture Exchange Communication system with listener. F/U are follow-up sessions.
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Criterion distance
• Shaping with reinforcement was used to teach CM to travel towards a communication partner and to a PECs book to make an exchange.
• The intervention was over three months, follow up at two months indicated that gains had been maintained.
Results and conclusion
A Comparison of Two Methods for Teaching
Sight Words toPrimary School Children
Rachel PearceABA Programme Graduate 2007
Reading acquisition program
• Compared Cover Copy Compare and Response Repetition methods for teaching high frequency sight words.
• Participants = three students (one with a diagnosis of ASD); ages 9 & 10 years; mainstream primary school.
• Benefit = mastered words may give access to other reading sources & their associated reinforcers sooner than other methods
Method
• Alternating treatments design
• 15 min intervention per day per child until 20 words mastered; additional words taught using most successful method for that student
• Reinforcement Token economy system, correct response = sticker, full sticker chart = prize
Discussion points• Generalisation testing conducted across tasks
(reading words on flash cards, in sentences, & spelling), maintenance of mastered words over time.
• Superiority of one method over other not clear – learning histories of students or procedural differences?
• Processes of enhanced stimulus control & negative reinforcement may increase correct responding, but difficult to determine contribution of each.
Using Shaping to Increase Swimming Pool Access by a
12-year-old Boy with Autism
Katrina PhillipsABA Programme Graduate 2007
Shaping Programme
• Highly preferred item– Twiddling shoelace
• Initial behaviors – No approach or approaching edge of pool.
• Terminal behavior– Moving out into pool
Point of last reinforcer in session
No reinforcer available
Reinforcer available but never received
Point of first reinforcer in session
Figure 1. Level of access to the pool both within and across sessions.
Outcome
• The boy appeared to enjoy being in the pool instead of cowering away from it
• His parents were pleased with the effects of intervention
• Teachers at the school were delighted also• This project showed the school that ABA can
have real functional value
The End