Date of Award:

5-1981

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Sebastian Striefel

Committee

Sebastian Striefel

Committee

William Dobson

Committee

Michael Bertoch

Abstract

Ten subjects ranging from 9 to 16 years in age with IQ's ranging from 23 to 62 were randomly selected as contingent or noncontingent subjects for two experiments. Five subjects received contingent access to two electronic games for performance within a specified learning session, while five subjects received noncontingent access to the games. These experiments were designed to determine the effect on performance, attending, and compliance skills in the classroom, when contingent access to the electronic games was based on performance. The development of fine motor skills and/or eye-hand coordination skills as a result of game usage was examined. The generalization of any effect to the remainder of the classroom day was also evaluated.

The experimental design for these experiments was a single subject multiple baseline design for data on performance with the additional collection of attending and compliance data in a multiple baseline fashion. Probes were utilized to assess generalization effects.

A change in performance related to experimental manipulation was noted in three of five of the contingent subjects, while support for subsequent change in attending and compliance was demonstrated by fewer subjects (one subject in regard to attending; three subjects in regard to compliance). No changes in performance, attending, or compliance related to experimental manipulation were demonstrated by subjects receiving noncontingent access to the games. Nine of ten subjects (contingent and noncontingent) demonstrated gains in age equivalencies on the Upper Limb Coordination subtest of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency in excess of the duration of the experiment. In addition, six of ten subjects demonstrated gains on the Fine Motor Composite of this test.

Checksum

0231e8aac7503624730ce33e2c976217

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .