Psychological Record最新文献

The study replicated research on metacontingencies that used a chessboard simulating a simplified chess game, in a completely online environment, with participants in their homes. Dyads of participants had to work together moving two knights in L-shape. Each trial ended when the knights met in adjacent squares. The squares where the knights should meet (aggregate product [AP]) varied in two conditions, using an ABAB design. In conditions A, knights should meet anywhere on the chessboard, and there was no consequence. In conditions B, the matrix of reinforceable squares was gradually reduced in four phases and knights' encounters were followed by different messages when correct or incorrect (cultural consequences). In group 1, five dyads were allowed to communicate. In group 2, dyads had no access to video call. Results of group 1 corroborate the findings of the original studies that showed a decrease in APs variability from conditions A to B, when communication was allowed. Group 2 showed similar results, therefore extending to the setting that not allowed communication. The online platform XadrezWeb, developed for this study, was an important tool to program the interlocked behavior contingencies and collect data during social isolation.

Staff training is an important line of research to ensure that clinicians in the field of applied behavior analysis provide quality services. One approach to providing training involves the use of asynchronous training materials in which the trainer and trainee do not need to be physically present at the same time. This allows for training despite limited numbers of trainers or geographic restrictions. The purpose of this study was to train participants to create equivalence-based instruction (EBI) materials in Qualtrics, a commercial survey software package. In the first phase of the study, participants experienced a training package consisting of a video model and task analysis that described how to create EBI materials. Phase 2, evaluated whether the EBI materials created in Phase 1 led to equivalence-based responding. Results indicated that the training was effective for training staff and that staff found the training socially acceptable. Results also demonstrated that the EBI materials resulted in the learning of the trained and derived relations.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40732-021-00497-4.

The present study was a preliminary analysis of college students' willingness to self-isolate and socially isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic analyzed through a probability discounting framework. Researchers developed a pandemic likelihood discounting task where willingness to isolate from others was measured in days as a function of the perceived probability of the escalation of a virus to pandemic levels. Experiment 1 was conducted immediately prior to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate when the perceived probability of reaching pandemic levels was high and when there was a guarantee that others in the community would do the same. Experiment 2 was conducted with a subset of participants from Experiment 1 with the same discounting task, and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate 2 months following the onset of the pandemic, supporting the view that willingness to isolate from others is a dynamic process. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated willingness to socially distance and introduced a hypothetical timescale to evaluate common trends with the real-world temporal dynamics observed in Experiments 1 and 2. Results showed similar trends in the data, supporting the use of hypothetical scenarios within probability discounting tasks in future behavior analytic research related to public health.

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of acceptance and commitment training (ACT) plus behavior parent training (BPT), when delivered via telehealth, on parental implementation of behavioral strategies, experiential avoidance (EA), and stress. The study also examined the subsequent effects on the parents' autistic children's behaviors. A multiple baseline design was implemented across four parent-child dyads who participated in the online training. The findings showed that ACT+BPT resulted in parental implementation reaching and maintaining high levels. The training also decreased EA and stress in three parents. Moreover, the parents' ratings of their children's challenging behaviors decreased. However, such a trend was not as clearly depicted by direct measures of the children's behaviors. A social validity interview revealed parents found ACT beneficial in assisting them to learn and use the BPT strategies. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.