Behavioral Allocation and Choice Processes in MR

描述(由申请人提供)： 这些P01项目通过共同关注涉及智障人士行为分配-选择-做出的行为过程而统一。他们还受到一项共同努力的约束，即将广泛的基础实验室研究成果转化为对智障人士的有效、个性化的激励支持。通过将量化方法应用于行为分配，我们的目标是促进对智障人士做出的选择类型背后的变量的理解。一个长期目标是开发一种用于教学选择的技术，使个人、家庭和更大的社会背景受益。为此，每个项目都将包括对与精神发育迟滞相关的问题的高级量化方法的基础研究，以及在生态有效的教学环境中验证所产生的技术的应用研究。 这些主题在四个项目中得到探讨，并得到三个核心的支持。项目1强调严重智障人士在行为分配和坚持方面的基本选择过程。项目2采用行为经济学的方法来管理智障人士的动机变量。项目3利用信号检测理论对激励变量进行了量化分析。项目4将行为选择的量化分析应用于涉及社会增强者(由另一个人中介的情况)和社会背景(以社会增强者的线索标记的情况)的情况。这些项目由三个研究中心进一步统一，这些研究中心提供基本的、成本效益高的服务。技术支助核心集中并更有效地满足方案的共同技术支助需求(例如，计算机编程、数据库建设和管理、统计分析、仪器维护)。在所有这些项目中，参与者服务核心协助受试者招募、诊断和心理测量评估、日程安排和参与的连续性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): These P01 projects are unified by a shared focus on behavioral processes involved in the allocation of behavior - choice-making - among individuals with intellectual disabilities. They are also bound by a common effort to translate extensive basic laboratory research findings into effective, individualized motivational support to individuals with intellectual disabilities. Through application of quantitative approaches to behavioral allocation, our goal is to advance understanding of the variables that underlie the types of choices made by persons with intellectual disabilities. A longterm goal is to develop a technology for teaching choice-making that benefits the individual, the family, and the larger social context. Toward this end, each project will include both basic research on advanced quantitative methods to problems relevant to mental retardation and applied research to validate the resulting techniques in ecologically valid teaching settings. These themes are explored in four projects and supported by three cores. Project 1 emphasizes basic choice processes in behavioral allocation and persistence in persons with severe intellectual disabilities. Project 2 adopts a behavioral economics approach to the management of motivational variables for persons with intellectual disabilities. Project 3 utilizes signal detection theory in the quantitative analyses of motivational variables. Project 4 applies quantitative analyses of behavioral choice to situations that involve social reinforcers (those mediated by another person) and social contexts (those marked by cues for of social reinforcers). The projects are further unified by three research cores that provide essential, cost-effective services. TheTechnical Support core centralizes and renders more efficient the common technical support needs of the program (e.g., computer programming, database construction and management, statistical analysis, apparatus maintenance). Throughout these projects, the Participant Services core assists in subject recruitment, diagnostic and psychometric evaluation, scheduling, and continuity of participation.