Toby L. Martin

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN REINFORCER EFFICACY AND PREFERENCE

Most research on stimulus preference and reinforcer assessment involves a preference assessment that is followed by a reinforcer assessment. Typically, the most and least preferred stimuli are tested as reinforcers. In the current study, we first quantified the reinforcing efficacies of six food items and then assessed relative preference for each item. Relative preference ranking and reinforcer efficacies showed almost perfect concordance for 1 participant and partial concordance for the other. Discordance tended to occur with the weakest reinforcers.

Signal classification through multifractal analysis and complex domain neural networks

This paper describes a system capable of classifying stochastic self-affine nonstationary signals produced by nonlinear systems. The classification and the analysis of these signals are important because these are generated by many real-world processes. The first stage of the signal classification process entails the transformation of the signal into the multifractal dimension domain, through the computation of the variance fractal dimension trajectory (VFDT). Features can then be extracted from the VFDT using a Kohonen self-organizing feature map. The second stage involves the use of a complex domain neural network and a probabilistic neural network to determine the class of a signal based on these extracted features. The results of this paper show that these techniques can be successful in creating a classification system which can obtain correct classification rates of about 87% when performing classification of such signals without knowing the number of classes.

Making the Most of PSI with Computer Technology

Publisher Summary This chapter describes Computer-Aided Personalized System of Instruction (CAPSI), an approach to higher education that grew out of this line of reasoning. The most dramatic change computer technology has brought to college and university teaching has been in the use of e-mail. Direct applications of computer technology in higher education have largely been devoted to an attempt to import standard classroom activities into a web environment. However, these applications do little to address problems that exist in many standard classroom activities. A course taught by CAPSI starts out in design like a traditional Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) course. A text covering the course material is chosen, the course material is broken down into study units, and study questions are written that define what the student is expected to have learned as a result of reading the text. Although the computer itself as one component of the system may not be able to provide adequate feedback, it can locate the requisite knowledge and understanding within the system as a whole. Less abstractly, the computer knows each students level of mastery in the course at any given instant.

Reactions of young children to the MRI scanner environment.

Seventy children aged 2 to 7 years were exposed to the MRI environment through a series of steps typical of a research study. Their willingness to proceed through the process was used to estimate the prevalence of fear. Thirty‐seven children (53%; 95% confidence interval [41%, 65%]) completed the approach sequence. Although the correlation of child age in months (Mean (M) = 60.1, standard deviation = 16.5, N = 70) and highest successful step (M = 5.8, standard deviation = 2.6, 95% confidence interval [5.2, 6.4]) completed was not statistically significant at the 0.05 level, r (68) = 0.21, P = 0.08, 95% confidence interval [−0.03, 0.42], the proportion of children aged 6‐7 years who successfully completed all steps (14 of 21, 67%, 95% confidence interval [50%, 84%]) was significantly different from the proportion of children aged 2‐3 years who completed all steps (six of 23, 26%, 95% confidence interval [11%, 41%]) (Fishers exact test, two‐tailed P = 0.0148). A failure rate of at least 50% should be included into group size calculations when performing studies with young children (2‐7 years), in addition to motion and other experimental factors. Magn Reson Med, 2010.

Visual--Visual Nonidentity Matching Assessment: A Worthwhile Addition to the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities Test.

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test (ABLA) is a useful tool for choosing appropriate training tasks for persons with developmental disabilities. This test assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons are able to learn six hierarchically positioned discrimination tasks. A visual-visual nonidentity matching prototype task was examined to assess its (a). relation to the ABLA hierarchy, (b). predictive validity, and (c). test-retest reliability. Results from 23 participants with developmental disabilities suggest that visual-visual nonidentity matching is a worthwhile addition to the ABLA test and is positioned in the ABLA hierarchy above Level 4 (visual-visual identity matching) and below Level 6 (auditory-visual discrimination). The prototype visual-visual nonidentity matching task also demonstrated high predictive validity and test-retest reliability.

Predicting Learning Ability of People With Intellectual Disabilities: Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities Test Versus Caregivers' Predictions

Two sets of predictions were compared concerning the ability of 20 adults with profound, severe, or moderate intellectual disabilities to learn 15 everyday tasks. Predictions were made by caregivers who had worked with the participants for a minimum of 24 months and consideration of participant performance on the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) test. Standardized training procedures were used to attempt to teach each task to each participant until a pass or fail criterion was met. Ninety-four percent of predictions based on ABLA performance were confirmed, and the ABLA was significantly more accurate for predicting client performance than were the caregivers. The utility of these results is discussed.

Establishing motion control in children with autism and intellectual disability: Applications for anatomical and functional MRI

Excessive motion makes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) extremely challenging among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The medical risks of sedation establish the need for behavioral interventions to promote motion control among children with ASD undergoing MRI scans. We present a series of experiments aimed at establishing both tolerance of the MRI environment and a level of motion control that would be compatible with a successful MRI. During Study 1, we evaluated the effects of prompting and contingent reinforcement on compliance with a sequence of successive approximations to an MRI using a mock MRI. During Study 2, we used prompting and progressive differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) to promote motion control in a mock MRI for increasing periods of time. Finally, during Study 3, some of the participants underwent a real MRI scan while a detailed in-session motion analysis informed the quality of the images captured.

Does ABLA Test Performance on the ABLA Test Predict Picture Receptive Name Recognition with Persons with Severe Developmental Disabilities

Research has shown that performance on the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) test correlates with language assessments for persons with developmental disabilities. This study investigated whether performance on ABLA Level 6, an auditory-visual discrimination, predicts performance on a receptive language task with persons with severe developmental disabilities. Five participants who passed ABLA Level 6, and five who failed ABLA Level 6, were each tested on five 2-choice discriminations that required them to point to pictures of common objects after hearing their names. Four of the five participants who had failed ABLA Level 6 failed all of the receptive name recognition tasks. All five participants who had passed ABLA Level 6 passed all of the name recognition tasks. The practical implications of these results are discussed.

Causes of Behavioral Processes: An Interview with Mario A. Bunge

Mario A. Bunge is one of the most prominent philosophers and humanists of our time. His vast record of publications has covered, among others, episte -mology, ontology, ethics, philosophy of natural and social sciences, philoso -phy of technology, and philosophy of mind. A topic that intersects many of these areas and is recurrent in Bunge’s work is causality. His analyses of the causal principle, and the redefinition of determinism into near-determinism have been applied to different philosophical issues that range from the causal role of neuronal functioning to the laws of social phenomena. Bunge has criticized functionalism, cognitivism, computationalism, behaviourism, and idealism in their attempt to explain human and non-human behaviour. This article results from an extensive interview held with Dr. Bunge in which we discussed a variety of conceptual issues related to the notions of causality and explanation in psychology.