Generation of contextually relevant stimulus control for initiation of leisure activities

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2018

First Committee Member

Bancroft, Stacie

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Third Committee Member

Karsina, Allen

Abstract

"Adults with developmental disabilities can experience a significant amount of unstructured downtime (Rynders & Schleien, 1988). Even when leisure activities are taught to fill this time, initiation of the activity is often left under the stimulus control of vocal directives. In contexts with limited caretakers or staffing resources, clients may be left without the proper discriminative stimuli (SD s) to occasion initiation of leisure activities during downtime. Transferring stimulus control from vocal directives to natural cues may be necessary for independent initiation of leisure. Participants in this study included 5 adolescents diagnosed with autism. During Phase 1, we used behavior chaining to teach three participants use of a leisure menu under the control of a vocal directive. For the remaining participant we demonstrated that vocal directives occasioned initiation of engagement with nearby leisure materials. During Phase 2, employing a multiple probe design across 2 pairs of structured and unstructured contexts, we used a prompt hierarchy to transfer stimulus control from the vocal directive to naturally occurring cues such as being alone in a room with no activities in process. For all four participants, we successfully transferred stimulus control from a vocal directive to natural environmental cues. Generalization and maintenance were also demonstrated. Interobserver agreement was collected in 39% of all sessions with agreement scores above 90%. Implications for leisure repertoires and quality of life are discussed."

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