Working memory allows us to hold specific pieces of information in an active and easily retrieved state, but what happens to that information during an unexpected interruption between study and test? To answer this question, we used a surprise trial paradigm in which an unexpected event precedes a probe of the observer's memory for a search…

While much has been written about how principals motivate their teachers, there is a surprising paucity of research on what motivates principals themselves. Because a principal significantly impacts the academic achievement of students and because principal turnover disproportionately impacts low-income schools, it is imperative that we find a way…

In today's autistic-support classrooms, paraeducators are tasked with working with our neediest students yet report that they are unprepared for their roles despite attempts at training. The special education teachers who are tasked with coaching and supervising several paraeducators at a time in their classrooms report that they too are…

Video modeling (VM) is an intervention that may be implemented to improve the daily living skills of students with autism. A multiple probe across behaviors design was employed to examine the effects of VM and VM plus prompting and reinforcement (VM+P&R) on the daily living skills of one elementary student with autism. The percentage of…

We describe a project focused on training parents to facilitate their treatment-resistant adolescent's treatment entry and to manage their child after entry into community-based treatment. Controlled studies show that Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) is a unilateral treatment that fosters treatment entry of adults; however,…

Every community has individuals or groups who manage to find better solutions to problems than their peers, although everyone has access to the same resources and challenges. Those are the positive deviants.

This paper examines the experiences of a group of female drug offenders who successfully completed a county drug court program in northeast Pennsylvania. Using the constant comparative method, we analyzed interviews with these women for thematic patterns in order to provide an evaluation of this program based on participants' subjective…

Over the past 20 years, there has been a debate on the effectiveness of virtual reality used for learning with young children, producing many ideas but little empirical proof. This empirical study compared learning activity in situ of a real environment (Real) and a desktop virtual reality (Virtual) environment, built with video game technology,…

This study evaluated a contingency management (CM) program in a drug court. Gift certificates for compliance were delivered at 4- to 6-week intervals (total value = $390.00). Participants in one condition earned gift certificates that escalated by $5.00 increments. Participants in a second condition began earning higher magnitude gift…

Traditionally, student-recognition programs have included honor rolls, academic letters, athletic awards for students who excel. Such programs should also reinforce positive behavior and motivate students to try harder. Pennsylvania middle school launched good behavior program involving prizes from local businesses. Staff members handed to be…

The efficacy of three behavior management techniques used in a Head Start classroom was examined. The three techniques included: (a) techniques currently used by the teacher, (b) response cost, and (c) the Level System (token economy). The current study used an ABACA single subject withdrawal design with follow-up where all conditions were…

Universal interventions are designed to systematically teach and reinforce consistent behavioral expectations. The purpose of this study was to provide an example of a group contingency classwide intervention called "Anchor the Boat" that operationally defined behavioral expectations, taught those expectations using teacher-directed…