Wood has followed the Ph.D. programme at Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences.
- Trial lecture starts at 10:15
- Public defence starts at 12:30
Title of trial lecture: «Operant Variability»
Disputation chair:
Professor Stephen Seiler
Assessment committee:
- First opponent: Associate professor Christopher Podlesnik, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, USA
- Second opponent: Professor Ricardo Pellon, School of Psychology, Universidad Nacionale de Educación a Distancia, Spain
- Chair of assessment committee: Associate professor Sofie Wass, Department of Information Systems, University of Agder
Supervisors in the doctoral work:
- Main supervisor: Professor Carsta Simon, Department of Psychosocial Health, University of Agder
- Co-supervisor: Associate researcher William Baum, University of California, Davis, USA
Summary of thesis
An extended body of research suggests that the signalling perspective offers an alternative explanation of an organism’s interaction with the environment to the traditional strengthening view. The signalling perspective considers reinforcers as signposts that guide an organism to where and how more reinforcers can be obtained. So far, the signalling properties of reinforcers have predominantly been studied in operant labs with non-human subjects. This dissertation extends these findings using two applied experiments with neurotypical and neuroatypical children and a literature review of other applied studies.
A literature review examined five studies that evaluated interventions using stimulus control applied behaviour analysis techniques to broaden the repertoire of socially significant behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results show that the behaviour change observed in the studies is better understood from a signalling perspective rather than the strengthening perspective.
Study 2 aimed to understand the mechanisms that control behaviour during transitions between activities in children with ASD. In Condition 1, where the upcoming reinforcer context was predictable, the resulting transitions to the leaner context were longer than transitions to the richer context. In Condition 2, where the reinforcer context was unsignalled, the differences in transition times between different reinforcer contexts disappeared. These results suggest that transition times were controlled by extended reinforcer patterns rather than the most recent reinforcer. Study 3 replicated outcomes from Study 2 and extended findings to neurotypical children. A reversal design was introduced to validate the results further. It supported the claim that transition time can be reduced if transitions to the leaner context are unsignalled. Both experiments highlighted the importance of translational research, which can serve as a bridge between basic and applied research.
All studies supported the usefulness of the signalling perspective in applied settings, which suggests a benefit to the broader population of behaviour analysts. Therefore, the present dissertation helps to establish the generality of the signalling perspective and is a step towards a more comprehensive understanding of this framework in the applied context. I encourage further translational research on the usefulness of the signalling framework beyond the interpretation of findings from basic experiments.
What to do as an online audience member
The disputation is open to the public. To follow the trial lecture and the public defence online, register on Zoom.
We ask online audience members to join no earlier than 10 minutes in advance. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time.
Opponent ex auditorio:
Deadline for the public to pose questions is during the break between the two opponents. Questions ex auditorio can be submitted to isputation chair professor Stephen Seiler. Copy PhD-adm: Turid Årdal Ervik.