Olivia successfully defended her thesis, which examined the extent to which teachers implement student Behavior Intervention Plans. Along the way, we learned important lessons about how to create feasible behavior plans and possible barriers to measuring fidelity. Congratulations Olivia!
Abbie successfully proposed her thesis!
Abbie successfully proposed her Master’s thesis in December. Abbie’s thesis will examine potential differences in resurgence following histories of negative reinforcement or positive reinforcement, using a translational approach. We hope to begin data collection early in the spring semester.
Marisela Aguilar successfully defended her thesis!
Marisela successfully defended her Master’s thesis, which addressed the extent to which Board Certified Behavior Analysts collect accurate procedural fidelity data on a behavior-reduction procedure when the rates of errors and therapist appearance varies. Congratulations Marisela!
Congratulations to our presenting undergraduate students!
Undergraduate research assistants Ashton Hollen, Tristen Hudson, and Alexis Pantalone successfully presented their work at the 2023 fall Undergraduate Research Symposium. Particular congratulations to Alexis, who was a runner-up for the Social and Behavioral Research category!
New publication: Fidelity data are collected less accurately when implementers make frequent errors
Many congratulations to Marisela Aguilar and Abbie Cooper, who published their first paper from their work at WVU. In this study, just published in Education and Treatment of Children, we systematically varied the fidelity with which a DRO procedure was implemented, and measured the extent to which novices collected accurate fidelity data from the videos. When implementation errors were frequent, participants had more trouble accurately collecting data. The full article can be accessed here: https://rdcu.be/desX8
Cooper wins prestigious Bijou award!
Congratulations to Abbie Cooper, who received the prestigious Bijou Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis. Abbie’s grant-funded project will examine environmental factors associated with caregiving behavior related to abusive head trauma. We’ll get to create new laboratory equipment, including robot babies!
Award-winning lab members
Several lab members won awards this year!
Eberly College Outstanding Teacher = Olivia Harvey
Philip E. Comer Award for Outstanding Teaching = Olivia Harvey
WVU Psychology Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion = Marisela Aguilar
Outstanding Senior Award = Amina Boukhris and Ashton Hollen
Each has made excellent contributions to the lab, department, and university! We’re proud to have them as Mountaineers!
Congratulations to our poster presenters!
Amina Boukhris, Ashton Hollen, and Alexis Pantalone (undergraduate research assistants) each presented posters describing projects that they’ve been working on in the lab in the Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium. All three did an excellent job, with Amina tied for first place in the poster competition!
Marisela Proposes Her Master’s Thesis!
Congratulations to Marisela Aguilar for successfully proposing her Master’s thesis. Marisela will be examining variables impacting the accuracy of fidelity-data collection.
Congratulations to our undergraduate poster presenters!
Four of our super-star undergraduate research assistants presented their work at the 2022 WVU Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Congratulations to Taylor Bell, Jessica Benevides, Amina Boukhris, and Kristian Kemp! Particular congratulations to Jessica, who won Outstanding Presenter in the Social & Behavioral Sciences, and to Amina, who got runner-up!
