Explaining the adult careers of dyslexic boys: Variations in critical skills for high-level jobs

Several hundred boys who were diagnosed as dyslexic (specifically reading disabled) in adolescence and who attended a private college preparatory school for dyslexics were followed up in adulthood. The occupations of these men, who were above average in both intelligence and socioeconomic background, were compared to those of both a control group and the general white male population. As hypothesized, the dyslexic men had higher level jobs than the average man but they were much less likely than the controls to become professionals. They rarely entered jobs such as physician, lawyer, or college teacher which require higher degrees; instead most became managers or salesmen. The occupational differences between the dyslexic and control men were related to, but not completely accounted for, by their large differences in educational attainment. Data on the competencies rated as critical to good job performance in different occupations were consistent with the hypothesis that dyslexic men would establish themselves in relatively high-level jobs emphasizing nonacademic rather than academic on-the-job skills. Nondisabled professionals rated getting information through reading among the most critical of the skills required on their jobs. In contrast, managers and salesmen rated reading as less important than nonacademic competencies such as taking initiative and responsibility or being persuasive. The results illustrate the value of knowing more about the particular competencies required in different jobs in order to help members of special groups, particularly those such as dyslexies who have specific and enduring handicaps but who are otherwise intellectually normal.     

The eating behavior of obese and nonobese women

Sixty-one obese, normal weight and thin women were observed for 30 minutes as they consumed a free-choice lunch in a quasi-naturalistic setting. Their behavior was unobtrusively quantified in terms of microbehavior (mouthfulls, chews, drinks and pauses) and of the macrobehavior (type and amount of food consumed and total active eating or drinking time). Information on subject and environmental variables are also reported. Observed behavior was analyzed as comparative group totals and as patterns of behavior over time. Comparison of group totals showed that: (a) there were no differences in types of food or number of calories consumed between the three groups, (b) no differences were found between the eating behavior of the normal weight and the obese and (c) the obese women spent less time actively eating, less time chewing and more time drinking than did the thinnest group. Pattern analysis revealed a decrease in all responses over time but showed no significant pattern difference between groups.     

On the formation of personal space and self-boundary structures in early human development: The case of infant stranger reactivity

Personal space and self-boundary are, respectively, sociological and intra-psychological concepts that refer to a complex of behavioral and subjective events between and within individuals. While there are large bodies of literature concerned with each of these concepts, literature that cuts across many disciplines of study, there has never been an integration of these concepts around specific human developmental issues. The present article focuses upon human infancy as a period in which both personal space and self-boundary phenomena can be observed. Developmental links between personal space and self-boundary phenomena in infancy and adulthood are outlined and discussed.     

Alcoholic drinking: suppression by a brief time-out procedure

Volunteer chronic alcoholics were given daily access to substantial quantities of alcohol within a residential research setting. Drinking was suppressed to an average of approximately one-half of Baseline levels when 10 or 15 min of physical and social isolation was required as an immediate consequence to receiving each one-ounce drink of 95-proof ethanol. This time-out procedure suppressed the drinking of nine out of ten subjects. Drinking returned to high levels when brief contingent time-out was discontinued. The relevance of such reversible controlling relationships to the treatment of alcoholism is discussed.     

Depression in aphasic patients: Frequency, severity, and clinical-pathological correlations

Twenty-five hospitalized nonfluent, fluent, and global aphasic patients who were several months past the onset of their illness were compared for presence and severity of depression based on four psychopathological measures. The nonfluent aphasic patients had both greater frequency and severity of depression than the other two groups. CT scans showed that the global aphasic patients had the largest lesion size (volumetric) and showed a strong correlation between lesion size and degree of depression. In contrast, patients with fluent aphasias showed an inverse correlation between severity of depression and lesion size; among the nonfluent aphasic patients there was no significant correlation. Depression appears to be common in this population of hospitalized aphasic patients with chronic illness and nonfluent patients are the most depressed group within this population. The increased frequency and severity of depression in the nonfluent patients did not appear to be related to their overall physical or cognitive impairment; two possible mechanisms are discussed.     

The program for academic survival skills (pass): Effects on student behavior and achievement

The effects of the Program for Academic Survival Skills (PASS), a group behavior management program, on behavioral observation data and standardized achievement test measures were investigated. Fifty-four of the 96 selected low-achieving, low-survival-skill students of normal IQ were assigned to an experimental condition in which their teachers used PASS. The remaining 42 were assigned to a control condition. Results indicated PASS produced significant gains in survival skills during its operation and one week following program termination in both reading and mathematics periods across grades 1–3. Findings for achievement indicated a significant gain for first-grade experimentals only in reading, with a similar but nonsignificant gain for first-grade mathematics.     

Grouping strategies, peer influence, and free time as classroom management techniques with first- and third-grade children

This study systematically investigated the effects of different procedures on classroom behaviors ranging from teacher designated seating groups and seating groups based on sociometric data to peer encouragement and free time reinforcers. Subjects were first- and third-grade children in classrooms using a Follow Through program model. Data were taken on the attending behavior of the children in small groups arranged by the teacher. The level of appropriate attending behavior was low and did not increase when the groups were restructured based on sociometric data. The introduction of instructions to the peer groups to help the child with his or her work brought about a major increase in the third-grade subjects' appropriate behavior. Appropriate attending behavior for the first-grade children did not increase to the predetermined acceptable level until a free time period for each peer group was made contingent upon the appropriate behavior of the subject in each group. Frequencies of verbal interactions suggested peer attention has an effect on the appropriateness of peer interactions.     

Quasireinforcement: Control of behavior by second-order interval schedules

Pigeons were trained on a variable-interval 66-sec schedule of reinforcement that was segmented into either fixed- or variable-interval 10-sec components. Three-second access to food followed some components according to the overall VI 66-sec schedule, but 3-sec periods of nonreinforcement followed the other components. With both FI 10-sec and VI 10-sec segments, overall response rates were generally higher when the completion of unreinforced segments was signaled by a red key (never paired with food) than when it was unsignaled. Response rates during the red-key periods dropped to zero. Brief presentations of the red key engendered the distinctive (FI or VI) patterns of responding which would be expected if each segment were followed by food. These data demonstrate behavioral control by brief stimuli which are not paired with primary reinforcement and show that such control may develop even when the sequences of behavior required to produce food or brief stimuli are variable in duration.     

Response discriminative and reinforcement factors in stimulus control of performance on multiple and chained schedules of reinforcement

Discriminative control of the response rates of two groups of rats was equated by training them to cease bar pressing in light-out no-tone ( + ) and to respond during tone and light. Multiple-schedule subjects received food at the same rate for responding during tone or light as for nonresponding in + . For the chained-schedule subjects responding in tone or light only produced + where food was received for nonresponding. In extinction tests multiple-schedule subjects emitted approximately twice the responses to tone-plus-light as to tone or light presented individually (additive summation). The rats trained on the chained schedule, in which the tone and light each controlled substantial response rates but were never paired with food, showed no summation when the tone and light were presented together. The results indicate that discriminative control of response rates and reinforcement differences between schedule components determine stimulus control.     

Reinforcement rate and force proportional reinforcement

The research examines the consequences of making two reinforcement contingencies simultaneously available for the same bar-pressing response. Specifically, two experiments are described which concern the effects of reinforcement rate upon force proportional reinforcement (FPR). In Experiment 1, reinforcement rate was constrained by combining differential reinforcement of low rate with a force-proportional reinforcement contingency. The group of rats exposed to this regimen eventually showed a significant increase in response force compared to control groups. Experimental vs control response rates were not significantly different. In Experiment 2, reinforcement rate was affected through the expedient of relating the probability of obtaining a single pellet to the response force. The group for which the probability-force relationship was discontinuous came to exert higher forces than either a group for which the relationship was fairly continuous or an ordinary variable ratio control group. Response rate was significantly higher for the control group.     

Speech acquisition in a nonverbal isolate child

The present study attempted to evaluate experimentally the relationship between two response classes: cooperative play and speech. One child was observed in a preschool free-play setting. Base rates of speech and play with peers indicated that the child never spoke to or played with peers during free-play periods. Base rates of teacher attention were observed to fluctuate directly with the child's isolate play. When differential attention and extinction operations were presented, removed and presented again, the frequency of cooperative play with peers increased, decreased and increased accordingly. Moderate fluctuations in verbal behavior also correlated with the presence and absence of the differential attention and extinction operations, even though the operations were applied only to cooperative play. The results suggest that some nonverbal isolate children may begin producing speech when play behaviors with peers are reinforced by teachers.