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Dissertation Information for Sue McCullough

NAME:
- Sue McCullough
- (Alias) Carolyn Sue McCullough

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Educational Psychology

SCHOOL:
- Ball State University (USA) (1981)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: CONTINGENT OBSERVATION AND DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF ALTERNATIVE BEHAVIOR IN A DAYCARE SETTING: A MULTIELEMENT/MULTIPLE BASELINE COMPARISON

Abstract: "One purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two classroom management procedures, contingent observation (CO) and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (Alt-R), in decreasing inappropriate naptime behavior of three to five year old children in a public daycare setting. A second purpose was to determine the effectiveness of the combined Multielement/Multiple Baseline Design in controlling for condition change interactions, specifically contrast and induction effects. Concommitant to the study, a third purpose was to determine the effectiveness of CO and Alt-R in decreasing negative teacher attention to inappropriate naptime behavior and increasing positive teacher attention to appropriate naptime behaviors.

Four daycare caregivers within a public daycare center were trained in the CO and Alt-R procedures following baseline observations. Fifty regularly enrolled three to five year old children in two classrooms participated as subjects. Treatment conditions in Classroom A involved multielement manipulations of three treatment conditions, contingent observation, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior and baseline. During the regular naptime session one of the three conditions was implemented. To control for sequence effects, the three conditions were presented in a random order.

The contingent observation procedure consisted of five steps. Contingent upon an occurrence of inappropriate naptime behavior (e.g. out of cot, talking out, physical contact with another child, etc.) the caregivers were instructed to (1) describe both inappropriate and desired appropriate behavior to the target child; (2) separate the child from the group and place him/her at the edge of the setting where peer models could be observed doing the appropriate behavior, (i.e. napping appropriately); (3) reinforce peer models displaying appropriate naptime behavior and instruct the target child to visually attend to these models; (4) return the target child to the group when verbal indications were given to the caregiver that he/she ""understood"" what was expected (i.e. the child verbally described the behavior desired or gave a verbal affirmative response to caregiver questioning); (5) prompt (if necessary) and immediately praise subsequent appropriate naptime behavior in the target child.

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior involved reinforcing appropriate naptime behavior that was incompatible with the existing inappropriate behaviors and ignoring the inappropriate behaviors (e.g. lying quietly on a cot was incompatible with out-of-cot behavior). Baseline conditions consisted of no teacher attention to appropriate behavior and negative teacher attention to inappropriate naptime behaviors.

The combination multielement/multiple baseline design was unique to this study. Multielement manipulations randomly alter different treatments within the same time phase relatively rapidly. The combination design allowed a simultaneous replication in a second setting of the strongest treatment found within the multielement manipulations and established a control for condition change interactions. Induction effects were evident in the concommitant data on teacher behavior. Teacher rate of praise increased and negative teacher attention decreased to zero under multielement baseline conditions.

Under contingent observation conditions (1) the rate of inappropriate naptime behaviors decreased (from 95% to 29% of the observed intervals, from 16 to 1 misbehavior per minute); (2) the type of inappropriate behaviors observed changed significantly to non-disruptive head-raises; and (3) appropriate naptime behaviors were maintained for significantly longer intervals."

MPACT Scores for Sue McCullough

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:33:32

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