Further evaluation of the effects of motivating operations on skill acquisition

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2017

First Committee Member

Graff, Richard B.

Second Committee Member

Dube, William

Third Committee Member

Pinkston, Jonathan

Abstract

"Previous research has demonstrated that satiation and deprivation can influence preference rankings and response rates on simple tasks, but little research has evaluated the effects of motivating operation manipulations on the rate of skill acquisition. Three participants with autism served as participants in this study. First, preference assessments were conducted to identify a high-preference edible item for each participant. Then, reinforcer assessments were conducted, to confirm that the high-preference item functioned as a reinforcer for a simple maintenance task. Finally, acquisition rate was assessed using simple discrimination tasks. On each trial participants were presented with 3 arbitrary stimuli, one of which was designated as S+. No prompting was used, and participants were given the reinforcer identified in Phase 2 for correct responses; no reinforcement was provided for incorrect responses. Simple discrimination sessions were conducted under satiation and deprivation conditions. In the satiation condition, immediately prior to presenting the task, participants were given 5 min of free access to the reinforcer. In the deprivation condition, the participant did not have access to the reinforcer for 24 hr prior to teaching sessions. All participants learned the simple discriminations faster under deprivation conditions when compared to satiation conditions."

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