The effects of a response cost treatment tactic on hyperactive children

In a pilot study, a multielement design was used to assess the effectiveness of a response cost procedure on a 7-year-old child's hyperactive behavior and academic performance across days. The procedure was effective in reducing off-task behavior and in increasing academic assignment completion. In Experiment 2, three strategies were compared to a no-treatment baseline in treating an 8-year-old hyperactive child: drug (Ritalin) alone, response cost alone, and drug plus response cost. The cost program alone and the cost program combined with medication were effective in reducing off-task behavior and in increasing academic performance. In both studies, the procedure was viewed by the teachers as practical and effective for use in a classroom setting. The subjects liked the cost system and believed that they completed more academic work when it was operative.     

Reinforcement magnitude effects in first- and second-order conditioning of directed action

Three experiments investigated the effects of reinforcement magnitude on conditioned key pecking in pigeons. Experiment 1, which included between-groups and within-subject designs, yielded significant effects of unconditioned stimulus (US) magnitude on the within-conditioned stimulus (CS) distribution of key pecks and on choice behavior, but no effect on the overall rate of key pecking. Experiment 2 employed a larger US-magnitude difference in a within-subject design. This manipulation resulted in differential rates of key pecking as well as a significant choice effect and differential within-CS key-peck distributions. A second-order conditioning procedure was used in Experiment 3, in which diffuse, visual stimuli (S1's) served as Pavlovian reinforcers for two key-light S2's. The S1 previously paired with a large US was more effective in conditioning second-order key-peck behavior to an S2 than was the S1 paired with a small US. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the associative effects of US magnitude can be expressed in the strength of CS-directed motor responding. The distinctive within-CS key-peck distributions in first-order conditioning suggests an interaction between CS- and US-directed responses.     

The development of handedness and dichotic ear listening asymmetries in relation to school achievement: A longitudinal study

To assess the development of dichotic ear asymmetries and handedness, 208 male school children were evaluated in kindergarten and at Grades 2 and 5 (ages 66, 92, and 130 months of age, respectively) with a dichotic listening task and a hand preference test. The Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) also was administered at each of the three grade levels. There was significant variability in handedness scores over time only for those subjects whose scores at initial testing, that is, in kindergarten, identified them as non-right-handers. Both right and left handers had a significant increase in dichotic listening scores over time; however, only right handers had a significant right ear advantage at each evaluation. Regression analyses showed that combined hand preference scores and ear recall scores at each probe when combined accounted for almost 44% of the variance in WRAT achievement scores at Grade 5. Ear asymmetry scores, however, were not predictive of school achievement.     

Audiences' reactions to self-enhancing,self-denigrating,and accurate self-presentations

Subjects in three experiments evaluated hypothetical actors whose claims about either an upcoming or past performance and whose performances were system-atically varied from very positive to very negative. Positive, self-enhancing claims were effective in generating favorable evaluations when either the claim was congruent with the performance or the subjects were unaware of how the actor performed. In general, accurate self-presentations were most favorably evaluated, especially when the claim occurred after the performance. The two exceptions to the preference for accurate self-presenters occurred when (a) the actor modestly underestimated a clearly superior prior performance by claiming to have done “only” well or all right, in which case he/she was evaluated more favorably than an accurate but seemingly boastful actor who claimed to have done extremely well, and (b) the actor self-deprecatingly predicted an inferior performance, in which case he/she was disliked even when accurate. Disclaimers about the importance of the performance (e.t., “I did well, but it's no big deal”) were seen as boastful rather than modest and decreased evaluations. The results mirror many of the tactics used by actor-subjects in past experiments, suggesting that people generally vary their self-presentations in optimal fashion to create the most favorable possible impression on the audience.     

Relative efficacy of different encoding structures and judgment topics in a cued-recall task

Existing research on the relative efficacy of the self as an encoding structure applies more to the self as an object than as a cognitive structure that guides the organization of incoming information. In order to provide a task that would be more directly relevant to encoding, subjects were asked to watch an interview of a resident assistant (RA) candidate by the housing department and to attend throughout to how similar the candidate's presentation was to the one they themselves or a typical RA would have given in the situation. Furthermore, judgments of similarity were divided into personality, ability, and nonverbal style. The dependent variable was a surprise cued-recall task, administered 20 min after the videotaped interview had ended. Consistent with prediction, subjects instructed to encode from a self-perspective exhibited better recall than those instructed to encode from a typical RA perspective. Also, as predicted, subjects who judged personality or ability similarity recalled more of the interview than those who judged nonverbal style similarity. Enhanced recall from the self-encoding perspective was consistent across all three types of judgments (personality, ability, nonverbal style), suggesting that the self is an efficient processing structure across a variety of diverse judgment topics.     

Equity judgments in hypothetical,four-person partnerships

Subjects' ratings of the fairness of a set of suggested allocations in hypothetical, four-person partnerships demonstrated that an ordinal relationship between inputs and outcomes is not a sufficient definition of equity. Subjects' suggestions for fair distributions of outcomes failed to conform to G. W. Walster's (Representative Research in Social Psychology, 1975, 6, 65–67) increasing-profits and profit-sign criteria, and were better fit by R. J. Harris' (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1976, 12, 194–209) linear formula than by any other formula thus far proposed.     

Exposure to inescapable shock produces both activity and associative deficits in the rat

Interference with shuttle-box escape learning following exposure to inescapable shock is often difficult to obtain in rats. The first experiment investigated the role of shock intensity during escape training in the apparent fragility of the effect. Experiment 1A demonstrated that the magnitude of the interference effect was systematically related to shock intensity during shuttle-box testing. At .6 mA, a robust effect was obtained, whereas at .8 mA and 1.0, little or no deficit in the escape performance of inescapably shocked rats was observed. Experiment 1B demonstrated that the deficit observed in Experiment 1A depended upon whether or not rats could control shock offset. Experiment 2 suggested that preshock may suppress activity and that higher shock levels may overcome this deficit. Experiment 3 tested this as the sole cause of the escape deficit by requiring an escape response which exceeded the level of activity readily elicited by a 1.0-mA shock in both restrained and preshocked rats. In such a task, preshocked rats performed more poorly than did restrained controls. These results are consistent with the possibility that inescapable shock may, in addition to reducing activity, produce an associative deficit. Experiment 4 more clearly demonstrated that inescapable shock produces deficits in performance which cannot be expleined by activity deficits and which appear to be associative in nature. It was shown that inescapable shock interfered with the acquisition of signaled punishment suppression but not CER suppression. The theoretical implications of these data for explanations of the manner in which prior exposure to inescapable shock interferes with escape learning were discussed.     

Proportionality,linearity, and parameter constancy: Messick and Sentis reconsidered

Messick and Sentis found greater support for weak proportionality in subjects' outcome allocations (suggesting that subjects wish to maintain a constant ratio between outcomes across situations when inputs are held constant) than for constant differences between outcomes. They claimed that their data thus provided stronger support for Adams' ratio definition of equity than for Harris' linear formula. A dialogue between the two sets of authors establishes that (1) so far as their specification of fair outcomes is concerned, Adams' formula is a special case of the linear formula; (2) weak proportionality does not necessarily follow from Adams' formula and can be derived from the linear formula; (3) Adams' formula applied to subjective (rather than experimenter-defined) inputs nevertheless provides a more natural base from which to derive weak proportionality than does the linear formula in its general form; (4) excellent fits to several sets of data, including much better fit to Messick and Sentis' data than that provided by weak proportionality, are obtained if we assume that subjects use allocations which are a weighted average of those implied by Adams' formula, the Equality principle, and Komorita and Kravitz' Equal Excess Norm; and (5) a fit to Messick and Sentis' data that is almost as good as that provided by the weighted solutions model is obtained by assuming that subjects apply Adams' formula to subjective inputs and subjective outcomes that are different from the corresponding experimenter-defined values. It is agreed that the delineation of the relationships among observable properties of outcome distributions, alternative equity formulae, and different psychological processes is as important as it can be devious.     

An awareness approach to the covert symptoms of stuttering

Speech-language clinicians working with the confirmed stuttering client are often faced with the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering in addition to the more observable and measurable overt symptoms. The authors report the successful use of awareness techniques to exaggerate the subjective experience of these covert symptoms and encourage the use of these techniques as an adjunct to the counseling and desensitization procedures traditionally employed. A transcribed clinical management session in which several awareness techniques are used to aid the client in an introspective examination of “anticipation of stuttering,” is analyzed in order to reach some specific recommendations for using awareness techniques in the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering.     

Relationships among vocational training,income, and job complexity of high school dropouts and high school graduates

High school dropouts (N = 100) and high school graduates (N = 100), of which half of each group had received vocational training and the other half had not, were compared on data taken from the inactive employment applications of the Fort Walton Beach, Florida State Employment Office. The sample (N = 200) consisted of an equal number of males and females while 30% were minority group members. A two-way analysis of variance showed that completing vocational training was positively correlated with higher income and job complexity level. The existence or absence of vocational training was a more potent influence on income level and job complexity than was completion of high school.     

Interrater agreement for reviews for Developmental Review

Reviewer reliability is examined for the first 2 years of operation of Developmental Review. Using the statistic, Finn's r, summary recommendations on publishability are shown to be higher in reliability than previously reported for other journals. Separate rating scales are shown to be less reliable than summary recommendations. Finn's r is compared with the intraclass correlation coefficient and shown to be a better method for examining reviewer agreement across different journals. Potential causes of high reviewer agreement for Developmental Review are discussed, and the importance of the distinction between reliability and validity of reviews is noted.     

The validity of form F of the Matching Familiar Figures Test with kindergarten children

Egeland and Weinberg's contention that form F of the Matching Familiar Figures Test is inappropriate for kindergarten children was examined. White, middle-class, suburban kindergarten children were given form F of the Matching Familiar Figures Test, as well as a series of tests varying in degree of response uncertainty. It was hypothesized that tasks identified as high in response uncertainty would be the best predictors of norm-referenced composite reflection-impulsivity scores. Stepwise multiple regression analysis supported this hypothesis. The results were interpreted as supporting the construct validity of the Matching Familiar Figures Test as an index of reflection-impulsivity among kindergarten children.     

Reply to Fishbein and Ajzen

The purpose of the Songer-Nocks study was clarified, and the relationship of the predictions and results to the theoretical formulations of Fishbein and Ajzen were discussed. Results from the model-testing procedure originally performed with behavior as the criterion were presented using behavioral intention as the criterion. The findings revealed that the interactive effect of prior experience with attitude toward the act in predicting behavioral intention was not significant, and that the interactive effect of motivational set with normative belief in predicting behavioral intention was significant. In addition, a regression analysis of the BI-B relationship was performed in which the design variables were incorporated as predictors. Results showed that the inclusion of design variables aided the prediction of behavior significantly. Songer-Nocks' data were interpreted as being consistent with the overall Fishbein formulation, but as suggesting certain potentially specifiable limitations in predicting actual behavior from attitudinal components.     

Social competence as a developmental construct

The concept of social competence presents problems for conceptualization and assessment. At times researchers have tried to circumvent these problems by defining competence in terms of specific capacities or skills, with the consequence that the integrative potential of the concept is lost. On the other hand, more molar definitions (e.g., “effectiveness”), while being true to the integrative nature of the construct, provide little guidance for assessment. In this paper a developmental perspective on competence is presented which is congruent with a molar definition of competence while still guiding assessment efforts. In addition to this developmental viewpoint, certain practical guidelines are presented for assessment of competence across ages. These include the use of broadband assessments, which are tied to real-life adaptational problems, call for the coordination of affect, cognition, and behavior, and tax the integrative capacities of the child. Initial validation of the developmental competence construct and this approach to assessment is presented.     

Developmental inter-relationships among concrete operational tasks: An investigation of Piaget's stage concept

One hundred and one primary school children were tested on eight concrete operational tasks. Each child's performance on each task was classified as either preoperational, transitional, or fully operational. Cross-classification tables were constructed showing the joint classification of children's performance on all possible pairs of the eight tasks. Two models of intertask relations, Wohlwill's (The study of behavioral development. New York: Academic Press, 1973) divergent-decalage and reciprocal-interaction patterns, were evaluated for their fit to the cross-classification data using χ² goodness-of-fit procedures. Instances of both these patterns were identified in the data. The findings give some support to Flavell and Wohlwill's modification of Piaget's stage concept, in which individual groupings (e.g., seriation) are the structural basis of the interrelationships among concrete operational tasks. Tasks based on the same rule showed a degree of developmental interdependence (reciprocal-interaction patterns), while tasks based on different rules appeared to develop independently (divergent-decalage patterns). However, only one-half of the cross-classification tables were adequately described by either the divergent-decalage or the reciprocal-interaction patterns.