Biomedical subjects

Tom Randell

Publications and source records attributed to Tom Randell.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

DTkid: interactive simulation software for training tutors of children with autism.

Discrete-trial training (DTT) relies critically on implementation by trained tutors. We report three experiments carried out in the development of "DTkid"--interactive computer simulation software that presents "SIMon", a realistic virtual child with whom novice tutors can learn and practise DTT techniques. Experiments 1 and 2 exposed groups of participants either to DTkid training or to a control task. Participants in the former groups demonstrated significantly greater procedural and declarative knowledge of DTT. Experiment 3 confirmed this finding, further demonstrating that observation of DTkid training trials alone was sufficient to enhance participants' declarative and procedural knowledge of DTT. Results indicate that DTkid offers the potential for an effective means of teaching DTT skills to novice tutors of children with autism.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Equivalence relations, contextual control, and naming.

This paper reports two experiments that investigated the role of verbal behavior in the emergence and generalization of contextually controlled equivalence classes. During both experiments, participants were trained with two different combinations of the same easily nameable, yet formally unrelated, pictorial stimuli. Match-to-sample baselines for eight four-member classes were established under the contextual control of two colors. In the presence of one color, conditional relations were established between stimuli whose normative names rhymed. In the presence of the other color, conditional relations were established between stimuli whose normative names did not rhyme. Although, during Experiment 1, all participants demonstrated equivalence classes involving rhyming stimuli, none demonstrated the formation of nonrhyme equivalence classes. To investigate this finding, Experiment 2 evaluated whether participants would demonstrate both rhyme and nonrhyme equivalence classes given more extensive exposure to the experimental contingencies. All participants demonstrated contextually controlled rhyme and nonrhyme equivalence classes, although rhyme classes were demonstrated with greater facility than nonrhyme classes. Results indicate that visual stimuli are named, that verbal bases for stimulus classification can affect the emergence of contextually controlled equivalence classes, and that untrained contextually controlled conditional discriminations involving novel stimuli can emerge on the basis of participants' verbal behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Attention to primes modulates affective priming of pronunciation responses.

In studies on affective priming of pronunciation responses, two words are presented on each trial and participants are asked to read the second word out loud. Whereas some studies revealed shorter reaction times when the two words had the same valence than when they had a different valence, other studies either found no effect of affective congruence or revealed a reversed effect. In the present experiments, a significant effect of affective congruence only emerged when filler trials were presented in which the prime and target were identical and participants were instructed to attend to the primes (Experiment 2). No effects were found when participants were merely instructed to attend to or ignore the primes (Experiment 1), or when affectively incongruent filler trials were presented and participants were instructed to ignore the primes (Experiment 2).

Adult↗