Assessing observational learning with video models in children diagnosed with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2016

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Second Committee Member

MacDonald, Rebecca

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel H.

Abstract

"Observational learning is a complex repertoire of behavior that may be critical for learning in social and educational settings. Catania (2013) defined observational learning (OL) as learning from observing the behavior of another organism and subsequently emitting behavior based upon the consequences that followed the model’s behavior. Research has found that although OL occurs early in typically developing children, OL may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This deficit in performance may limit the opportunities for learning in social and educational settings for children with an ASD. MacDonald and Ahearn (2015) developed an assessment to test for OL performance across a variety of play and academic skills. If OL was deficient, MacDonald and Ahearn sought to teach it through training specific skills (i.e., attending, imitation, delayed imitation, and consequence discrimination) to children with ASD. The purpose of this project was to replicate the assessment and treatment procedures in MacDonald and Ahearn (2015) and to examine whether OL would occur following video models. Following an initial OL assessment, we identified deficits in performance for three participants diagnosed with an ASD. A multiple probe design across OL tasks was used to examine performance of OL skills across multiple exemplars. Following training in OL skills, three participants diagnosed with an ASD performed all OL tasks from video models. Generalization of OL performance occurred within-tasks and across tasks for all participants."

This document is available upon request to Western New England University faculty, students, and staff. Please contact D'Amour Library at for access.

Share

COinS