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1,199 Matching Results
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Lines by Someone Else: the Pragmatics of Apprompted Poems
Over the last sixty years, overtly intertextual poems with titles such as “Poem Beginning with a Line by John Ashbery” and “Poem Ending with a Line by George W. Bush” have been appearing at an increasing rate in magazines and collections. These poems wed themselves to other texts and authors in distinct ways, inviting readers to engage with poems which are, themselves, in conversation with lines from elsewhere. These poems, which I refer to as “apprompted” poems, explicitly challenge readers to investigate the intertextual conversation, and in doing so, they adopt inherent risks. My thesis will chart the various effects these poems can have for readers and the consequences they may hold for the texts from which they borrow. Literary critics such as Harold Bloom and J. H. Miller have described the act of borrowing as competitive and parasitic—“agon” is Bloom’s term for what he sees as the oedipal anxiety of poets and poets’ texts to their antecedents, but an investigation of this emerging genre in terms of linguistic pragmatics shows that apprompted poems are performing a wider range of acts in relation to their predecessors. Unlike Bloom’s theory, which interprets the impulse of poetic creation through psychoanalysis, I employ …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Gibson, Kimberly Dawn
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
First Principles Study of Metastable Beta Titanium Alloys
The high temperature BCC phase (b) of titanium undergoes a martensitic transformation to HCP phase (a) upon cooling, but can be stabilized at room temperature by alloying with BCC transition metals such as Mo. There exists a metastable composition range within which the alloyed b phase separates into a + b upon equilibrium cooling but not when rapidly quenched. Compositional partitioning of the stabilizing element in as-quenched b microstructure creates nanoscale precipitates of a new simple hexagonal w phase, which considerably reduces ductility. These phase transformation reactions have been extensively studied experimentally, yet several significant questions remain: (i) The mechanism by which the alloying element stabilizes the b phase, thwarts its transformation to w, and how these processes vary as a function of the concentration of the stabilizing element is unclear. (ii) What is the atomistic mechanism responsible for the non-Arrhenius, anomalous diffusion widely observed in experiments, and how does it extend to low temperatures? How does the concentration of the stabilizing elements alter this behavior? There are many other w forming alloys that such exhibit anomalous diffusion behavior. (iii) A lack of clarity remains on whether w can transform to a -phase in the crystal bulk or if it …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Gupta, Niraj
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Cognitive Performance as a Function of Sleep Disturbance in the Postpartum Period
New mothers often complain of impaired cognitive functioning, and it is well documented that women experience a significant increase in sleep disturbance after the birth of a child. Sleep disturbance has been linked to impaired cognitive performance in several populations, including commercial truck drivers, airline pilots, and medical residents, though this relationship has rarely been studied in postpartum women. In the present study 13 pregnant women and a group of 22 non-pregnant controls completed one week of actigraphy followed by a battery of neuropsychological tests and questionnaires in the last month of pregnancy (Time 1) and again at four weeks postpartum (Time 2). Pregnant women experienced significantly more objective and subjective sleep disturbance than the control group at both time points. They also demonstrated more impairment in objective, but not subjective cognitive functioning. Preliminary analyses indicated increased objective sleep fragmentation from Time 1 to Time 2 predicted decreased objective cognitive performance from Time 1 to Time 2, though small sample size limited the power of these findings. Implications for perinatal women and need for future research were discussed.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Wilkerson, Allison K.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Everyday Performances in U.S. Household Kitchens
BMA Innovation Consulting is committed to serving consumers products that can play a more meaningful role in household cleaning. So far, their innovation department has used psychology-based principles and approaches that have helped them understand consumers’ preferences, attitudes and claimed needs in household cleaning. That said, little information has been collected on the active role that products play or could play as participants in the everyday dynamics of US consumers. An anthropological approach to the study of U.S. kitchens, as an important center of family interaction in U.S. households, should yield important insights to the design and development of products that can more effectively and more actively participate in those dynamics. With this project I am fundamentally proposing a new approach to the identification of critical product design requirements. Figure on the right shows the key differences between the psychology-derived principles the organization is mostly using today vs. the anthropological lenses through which I will be conducting my research. Overall, I will be leveraging existing knowledge in the “individual desires” realm, connecting it to the collective situation & cultural context within which “cleaning action” emerges.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Rosado-Bonilla, Mireilly Ann
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Instruction on the Singing Ability of Children Ages 5-11: a Meta-analysis
The purpose of the meta-analysis was to address the varied and somewhat stratified study results within the area of singing ability and instruction by statistically summarizing the data of related studies. An analysis yielded a small overall mean effect size for instruction across 34 studies, 433 unique effects, and 5,497 participants ranging in age from 5- to 11-years old (g = 0.43). The largest overall study effect size across categorical variables included the effects of same and different discrimination techniques on mean score gains. The largest overall effect size across categorical moderator variables included research design: Pretest-posttest 1 group design. Overall mean effects by primary moderator variable ranged from trivial to moderate. Feedback yielded the largest effect regarding teaching condition, 8-year-old children yielded the largest effect regarding age, girls yielded the largest effect regarding gender, the Boardman assessment measure yielded the largest effect regarding measurement instrument, and song accuracy yielded the largest effect regarding measured task. Conclusions address implications for teaching, research pedagogy, and research practice within the field of music education.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Svec, Christina L.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Contributions to Descriptive Set Theory
In this dissertation we study closure properties of pointclasses, scales on sets of reals and the models L[T2n], which are very natural canonical inner models of ZFC. We first characterize projective-like hierarchies by their associated ordinals. This solves a conjecture of Steel and a conjecture of Kechris, Solovay, and Steel. The solution to the first conjecture allows us in particular to reprove a strong partition property result on the ordinal of a Steel pointclass and derive a new boundedness principle which could be useful in the study of the cardinal structure of L(R). We then develop new methods which produce lightface scales on certain sets of reals. The methods are inspired by Jackson’s proof of the Kechris-Martin theorem. We then generalize the Kechris-Martin Theorem to all the Π12n+1 pointclasses using Jackson’s theory of descriptions. This in turns allows us to characterize the sets of reals of a certain initial segment of the models L[T2n]. We then use this characterization and the generalization of Kechris-Martin theorem to show that the L[T2n] are unique. This generalizes previous work of Hjorth. We then characterize the L[T2n] in term of inner models theory, showing that they actually are constructible models over direct limit of …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Atmai, Rachid
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Was There a Trumpet Sonata Before the Trumpet Sonata? an Investigation of Girolamo Fantini’s Trumpet Sonatas with Respect to Other Stile Moderno Solo Instrumental Sonatas
In 1638 Girolamo Fantini wrote eight multi-sectional trumpet sonatas. This dissertation compares these sonatas with recognized stile moderno solo instrumental sonatas by Biagio Marini and Dario Castello in order to show that Fantini’s sonatas are stile moderno trumpet sonatas. This study looks at how form, texture, motivic organization, and instrumental effects function in the works of Castello, Marini, and Fantini. This comparison shows how and to what degree Fantini uses stile moderno characteristics in his works and concludes that Fantini’s sonatas are full-fledged examples of stile moderno trumpet sonatas.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Stoltzfus, Andreas M.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Laws of Inheritance
This thesis is a collection of poems that meditates on the legacies we inherit and the legacies we leave behind.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Kilpatrick, Steven
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Racial Microaggressions: Relationship to Cardiovascular Reactivity and Affect Among Hispanic/Latinos and Non-Hispanic Whites
Racial microaggressions are a type of perceived discrimination entailing a brief pejorative message by a perpetrator, whether verbal or nonverbal, intentional or unintentional, about a target person that operates below the level of conscious awareness. Research supports a relationship between perceived discrimination and worse mental and physical health outcomes, with the literature centered mainly on non-Hispanic blacks. Less research exists on how perceived discrimination, specifically racial microaggressions, affects the mental and physical health of Hispanic/Latinos. This study examined how exposure to racial microaggressions, using an experimental design whereby a confederate delivers two types of racial microaggressions, influences affect and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) among Hispanic/Latinos and non-Hispanic whites. Results revealed that the experience of racial microaggressions did not evoke larger and longer lasting emotional and physiological arousal among Hispanic/Latinos and non-Hispanic Whites. Future directions are discussed.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Hoar, Mariana
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Foreignizing Mahler: Uri Caine’s Mahler Project As Intertraditional Musical Translation
The customary way to create jazz arrangements of the Western classical canon—informally called swingin’-the-classics—adapts the original composition to jazz conventions. Uri Caine (b.1956) has devised an alternative approach, most notably in his work with compositions by Gustav Mahler. He refracts Mahler’s compositions through an eclectic array of musical performance styles while also eschewing the use of traditional jazz structures in favor of stricter adherence to formal ideas in the original score than is usual in a jazz arrangement. These elements and the manner in which Caine incorporates them in his Mahler arrangements closely parallel the practices of a translator who chooses to create a “foreignizing” literary translation. The 19th-century philosopher and translation theorist Friedrich Schleiermacher explained that in a foreignizing translation “the translator leaves the writer alone as much as possible and moves the reader toward the writer.” Foreignizing translations accentuate the otherness of the original work, approximating the foreign text’s form and syntax in the receiving language and using an uncommon, heterogeneous vocabulary. The resulting translations, which challenge readers with their frequent defiance of the conventions of the receiving linguistic culture, create literal, exaggerated readings that better convey authors’ characteristic use of their own languages for a new audience. …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Ritchie, J. Cole
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Maintaining Web Applications Integrity Running on RADIUM
Computer security attacks take place due to the presence of vulnerabilities and bugs in software applications. Bugs and vulnerabilities are the result of weak software architecture and lack of standard software development practices. Despite the fact that software companies are investing millions of dollars in the research and development of software designs security risks are still at large. In some cases software applications are found to carry vulnerabilities for many years before being identified. A recent such example is the popular Heart Bleed Bug in the Open SSL/TSL. In today’s world, where new software application are continuously being developed for a varied community of users; it’s highly unlikely to have software applications running without flaws. Attackers on computer system securities exploit these vulnerabilities and bugs and cause threat to privacy without leaving any trace. The most critical vulnerabilities are those which are related to the integrity of the software applications. Because integrity is directly linked to the credibility of software application and data it contains. Here I am giving solution of maintaining web applications integrity running on RADIUM by using daikon. Daikon generates invariants, these invariants are used to maintain the integrity of the web application and also check the …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Ur-Rehman, Wasi
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Study of Comprehensive Reinforcement Mechanism of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Concrete
The addition of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has introduced a comprehensive reinforcing effect to the mechanical and electrochemical properties of commercial concrete, including fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC). Although this has been proven effective and applicable, further investigation and study is still required to optimize the strengthen result which will involve the exfoliation of h-BN into single-layered nano sheet, improving the degree of dispersion and dispersion uniformity of h-BN into concrete matrix. There is currently no direct method to test the degree of dispersion of non-conductive particles, including h-BN, in concrete matrix, therefore it is necessary to obtain an analogous quantification method like SEM, etc. The reinforcing mechanism on concrete, including FRC and SFRC is now attracting a great number of interest thanks to the huge potential of application and vast demand across the world. This study briefly describes the reinforcing mechanism brought by h-BN. In this study, different samples under varied conditions were prepared according to the addition of h-BN and dispersant to build a parallel comparison. Characterization is mainly focused on their mechanical properties, corrosive performance and SEM analysis of the cross-section of post-failure samples.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
He, Qinyue
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Women and the Superintendency: a Study of Texas Women Superintendents
Education remains one of the most gender imbalanced fields, with disproportionately fewer women in higher levels of leadership. Women who reach leadership positions in education experience many triumphs and tribulations during their tenures as principals, assistant superintendents, and superintendents. The experiences of these women in their various administrative levels of leadership can provide important insight into the reasons for their success as women superintendents in Texas. This research has probed the career trajectory of nine women who have successfully attained and retained superintendencies in Texas to determine what career decisions have helped them and the challenges these women have faced in their positions. A qualitative research method, open-ended interviews, yielded several findings of what women considered important in proceeding from teaching through the various levels and ending in becoming superintendents. According to nine successful women superintendents in Texas, there are specific characteristics one can bring to the table that would really make a difference: Communication, collaboration, compassion, preparedness, hard work, and passion. All nine participants overcame challenges when climbing to the higher levels of leadership in education. These women have achieved success in the superintendency, and several factors appear to have played into the success of these women who have …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Guajardo, Lesli Ann
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Health-related Quality of Life and Social Engagement in Assisted Living Facilities
This research project aims to clarify the factors that impact successful aging in Assisted Living facilities (ALFs) in Denton County, Texas. We hypothesize that social disengagement decreases physical and mental components of quality of life. This exploratory research project employed standardized questionnaires to assess residents in the following domains; HRQOL, social engagement status, level of cognition, depression, and the level of functioning. This study collected data from 75 participants living in five ALFs. The average of Physical Component Scale (PCS) and Mental Component Scale (MCS) was 35.33, and 53.62 respectively. None of the participants had five or more social contacts out of facilities, and two-third of them had two or less social contacts. On average, those participants who were more socially engaged had higher score of MCS compared with disengaged counterparts. The level of physical function significantly affects social engagement, when people with more disabilities are more likely to be socially disengaged. Social engagement and depression significantly impact MCS, when depression is a mediating factor between social engagement and mental component of quality of life. Considering the expansion in aging population in the United States within the next three decades, the demand for high quality long-term care will skyrocket consequently. …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Amini, Reza
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
An Arduino Based Control System for a Brackish Water Desalination Plant
Water scarcity for agriculture is one of the most important challenges to improve food security worldwide. In this thesis we study the potential to develop a low-cost controller for a small scale brackish desalination plant that consists of proven water treatment technologies, reverse osmosis, cation exchange, and nanofiltration to treat groundwater into two final products: drinking water and irrigation water. The plant is powered by a combination of wind and solar power systems. The low-cost controller uses Arduino Mega, and Arduino DUE, which consist of ATmega2560 and Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU microcontrollers. These are widely used systems characterized for good performance and low cost. However, Arduino also requires drivers and interfaces to allow the control and monitoring of sensors and actuators. The thesis explains the process, as well as the hardware and software implemented.
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Caraballo, Ginna
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Full Range Advising Experience: an Assessment of College Academic Advisors’ Self-perceived Leadership Styles
The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to identify the self-perceived leadership styles of college academic advisors and to explore the variance in the perceived leadership styles based on demographic information such as academic advising approaches, institutional type, age, years of experience, and gender. Participants were 225 college advisors from among 5,066 members of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) during the 2013-2014 academic year who met study criteria and whose email invitation to complete an online survey was presumably delivered, rendering a 4.44% response rate. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Version 5X (MLQ 5X) with five supplemental questions was used for data collection The composite score for leadership style served as the dependent variable, and advising approach, institutional type, age, years of experience, and gender served as the independent variables for the study. Descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and a factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. The descriptive statistics for this study revealed that college academic advisors represent all points along the entire spectrum of the Full Range Model of Leadership continuum employing different leadership behaviors based on the situation. The descriptive data were supported by the frequency distributions per case which identified transformational leadership as …
Date:
August 2015
Creator:
Davis Jones, Chrissy L.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Evaluating a Sustainable Community Development Initiative Among the Lakota People on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
This thesis details my applied thesis project and experience in the evaluation of a workforce development through sustainable construction program. It describes the need of my client, Sweet Grass Consulting and their contractual partner, the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, in the evaluation of Thunder Valley CDC's Workforce Development through Sustainable Construction Program. My role involved the development of an extensive evaluation package for this program and data analysis of evaluation materials to support Thunder Valley CDC's grant-funded Workforce Development Program. I place the efforts of Thunder Valley CDC in the context of their community, the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota People, and within an historical and contemporary context to highlight the implications of the efforts of Thunder Valley CDC. Using the theoretical frameworks of cultural revitalization and community economic development, I attempt to highlight two important components of Thunder Valley CDC's community development efforts - cultural revitalization for social healing, and development that emphasizes social, community and individual well-being. Thunder Valley CDC's Workforce Development through Sustainable Construction Program is still in its early stages, and so this first year of implementation very much represented a pilot phase. However, while specific successes are difficult to measure at this point, …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Mosman, Sarah A.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Megachurches and Economic Development: A Theoretical Understanding of Church Involvement at the Local Level
Why do megachurches participate in economic development, and who benefits from their participation? Frumkin's framework for understanding nonprofit and voluntary action and extra-role behavior are theories tested to answer these questions. My research employs a mixed-methods research design conducted in two phases. In phase one, I analyze 42 responses to an online survey to provide data about the prevalence and nature of economic development activities offered by megachurches in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Phase two involved 23 semi-structured telephone interviews with megachurch leadership to provide data that explains the rationale for why megachurches offer economic development activities and who benefits. Evidence from this research demonstrates that megachurches are participating in economic development for reasons consistent with both demand-side and supply-side arguments. Findings also show that megachurches take on extra-role behaviors for in response to community expectations and the values of members and staff. Implications for understanding partnership decisions and collaborations between faith-based organizations and local governments are discussed.
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
English, Ashley E.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Diffraction of Nickel-Titanium Shape Memory Alloy Wires During Mechanical Deformation
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are a new generation material which exhibits unique nonlinear deformations due to a phase transformation which allows it to return to its original shape after removal of stress or a change in temperature. It shows a shape memory effect (martensitic condition) and pseudoelasticity (austenitic condition) properties depends on various heat treatment conditions. The reason for these properties depends on phase transformation through temperature changes or applied stress. Many technological applications of austenite SMAs involve cyclical mechanical loading and unloading in order to take advantage of pseudoelasticity, but are limited due to poor fatigue life. In this thesis, I investigated two important mechanical feature to fatigue behavior in pseudoelastic NiTi SMA wires using high energy synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD). The first of these involved simple bending and the second of these involved relaxation during compression loading. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed to identify the phase transformation temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were collected for the initial condition of the NiTi SMA wires and during simple bending, SEM revealed that micro-cracks in compression regions of the wire propagate with increasing bend angle, while tensile regions tend to not exhibit crack propagation. SR-XRD patterns were analyzed …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Zhang, Baozhuo
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Taking the Irish Pulse: A Revitalization Study of the Irish Language
This thesis argues that Irish can and should be revitalized. Conducted as an observational study, this thesis focuses on interviews with 72 participants during the summer of 2013. All participants live in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. This thesis investigates what has caused the Irish language to lose power and prestige over the centuries, and which Irish language revitalization efforts have been successful. Findings show that although, all-Irish schools have had a substantial growth rate since 1972, when the schools were founded, the majority of Irish students still get their education through English-medium schools. This study concludes that Irish will survive and grow in the numbers of fluent Irish speakers; however, the government will need to further support the growth of the all-Irish schools. In conclusion, the Irish communities must take control of the promotion of the Irish language, and intergenerational transmission must take place between parents and their children.
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Roloff, Donna Cheryl
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Programmed Reinforcement and Chained Mastery Criteria on Yoga Pose Performance in Two Young Children with Autism
Community exercise can offer many benefits for children, including the opportunity to engage in physical activity and interact with peers in a social setting. Children with autism do not engage in as many community activities as their typical peers. This study examines conditions to teach young children to complete yoga poses to mastery. The effects of prompting, programmed reinforcers, and a chaining criteria were evaluated using a comparison design with two baselines and one intervention condition, replicated across two children with autism. Both children mastered performance of all four targeted yoga poses. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research on the benefits of yoga.
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Nguyen, Linda N.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Limits of Arbitrage and Stock Mispricing: Evidence from Decomposing the Market to Book Ratio
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the "limits of arbitrage" on securities mispricing. Specifically, I investigate the effect of the availability of substitutes and financial constraints on stock mispricing. In addition, this study investigates the difference in the limits of arbitrage, in the sense that it will lead to lower mispricing for these stocks, relative to non-S&P 500 stocks. I also examine if the lower mispricing can be attributed to their lower limits of arbitrage. Modern finance theory and efficient market hypothesis suggest that security prices, at equilibrium, should reflect their fundamental value. If the market price deviates from the intrinsic value, then a risk-free profit opportunity has emerged and arbitrageurs will eliminate mispricing and equilibrium is restored. This arbitrage process is characterized by large number of arbitrageurs which have infinite access to capital. However, a better description of reality is that there are few numbers of arbitrageurs to the extent that they are highly specialized; and they have limited access to capital. Under these condition arbitrage is no more a risk-free activity and can be limited by several factors such as arbitrage risk and transaction costs. Other factors that are discussed in the literature …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
AlShammasi, Naji Mohammad
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Acceptance Theories for Behavior in Conducting Research: Instructors in the Rajabhat University System, Thailand
Responding to globalization and its effects on education and research development, the Thai government decided to push all public universities to become autonomous and establish a system of quality assurances. The establishment of quality assurances has had a large impact on many Thai instructors, especially in new public universities. Thai instructors are now forced to more focus on conducting research because the number of research publications is regarded as one of the main criteria for quality universities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the key factors, at the individual and university levels, which impact on the instructors' behavior in conducting research of the full-time instructors in the faculty of Management Science from the Rajabhat Universities in Thailand. The current study will help explain how and why the instructors accept or refuse to conduct research and provide insight into the salient factors motivating the instructors to produce more research by conducting HLM. Data were collected from 694 participants at 37 institutions via a questionnaire survey. The findings revealed that there was no difference among these 37 universities on behavior in conducting research. The key factors statistically influencing behavior in conducting research of the instructors were facilitating conditions, academic degree, …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Laksaniyanon, Benchamat
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Do contingency-conflicting elements drop out of equivalence classes? Re-testing Sidman's (2000) theory
Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to …
Date:
December 2015
Creator:
Silguero, Russell V.
Object Type:
Thesis or Dissertation
System:
The UNT Digital Library