Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Heather McGee, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Jonathan Baker, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Cynthia Pietras, Ph.D.

Fourth Advisor

Catherine Williams, Ph.D.

Keywords

Maintenance, procedural fidelity, skill acquisition, treatment integrity

Abstract

Procedural fidelity refers to the extent to which procedures are implemented as intended. Engaging in procedural fidelity errors can lead to detrimental outcomes during skill acquisition and maintenance. The purpose of this study was to parametrically evaluate and compare two commission errors during prompting procedures using an arbitrary tacting task taught to college-aged students. Participants learned to tact four sets of arbitrary pictures and names. Prompting errors consisted of either providing the correct letters for a name in an incorrect order (i.e., an error within a component of the name) or providing the correct name for another picture (i.e., an error for the entire name). A between-groups design was used to compare skill acquisition and maintenance outcomes across two groups. Within groups, an adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate skill acquisition of target stimuli across 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% fidelity conditions. Participants completed one follow-up session for each condition once per week for four weeks. Results indicated no differential effects of procedural fidelity percentage on skill acquisition within or across groups. During follow-up, participant responding across fidelity conditions was highly variable, and no consistent patterns of responding were observed within or across groups.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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