The effects of parent-presented models and praise on the vocal behavior of their children

The combined and separate effects of parent-presented models and praise on specific vocalizations of three children (15, 17, and 20 months old) were investigated. The frequency of a specific vocalization was higher when parents modeled and praised it than when they did not. In addition, modeling and praise, when used in combination, had a greater effect on the frequency of specific vocalizations than when used separately. Three additional parents were asked to attempt, by any means they wished, to increase the frequency of a specific vocalization by their children. These parents used modeling almost, exclusively, and the children did not exhibit the specific vocalizations as frequently as did the children whose parents were instructed both to model and praise specific vocalizations.     

The development of sex typing: Themes from recent research

A conceptual framework for organizing the constructs and content areas included in research on sex typing is presented in this review of recent research on the development of sex typing. Two major themes are discussed. First, sex-typed play activities and interests emerge clearly in the first few years of life. Both play activities and peer preferences are sex typed earlier and more definitely than are personality traits and social behaviors such as aggression or dependency. It is suggested that researchers have underemphasized the importance of interests, activities, and peer associations while overemphasizing personality attributes as the core of sex typing. The second theme is that cognitions and concepts about sex typing are important in the acquisition of gender typing, but they are not sufficient by themselves for understanding the process by which sex-typed behavior is acquired. Children's sex-role concepts are sometimes related to their behavioral preferences, but other factors are also important influences on behavior.     

An experimental analysis of impulsivity and impulse control in humans

In choosing between small, immediate and large, delayed reward, an organism behaves impulsively if it chooses the small reward and shows impulse control if it chooses the large reward. Work with nonhumans suggests that impulsivity and impulse control may be derived from gradients of delayed reinforcement. A model developed by Ainslie and by Rachlin suggests that preference for the rewards should be a function of when the choice is made: small reward with no delay may be preferred to large reward with delay X, but adding delay T to both alternatives should shift preference to the large reward. Three experiments investigated this preference reversal in humans, using termination of 90 dba white noise as the reinforcing event. Experiment 1 showed that under some instructional conditions 90-sec noise off with no delay was preferred over 120-sec noise off after a 60-sec delay, but that preference shifted to the large reward when a 15-sec delay (T) was added to both alternatives. Experiment 2 replicated this preference reversal under two conditions of large, delayed reward, and with three rather than two values of T. Experiment 3 confirmed this effect of T and showed that some humans committed themselves to the large reward when commitment could be made some time before presentation of the reward alternatives. These data support the Ainslie-Rachlin model and extend it to human choice behavior.     

Stimulus context and infant orientation discrimination

In three experiments, the effect of additional "contextual" elements on the discrimination of the orientation of linear and curvilinear segments was investigated with 4-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, paired visual matrices (one which contained some irregularity in orientation of internal elements, vs one which contained no irregularities) were presented. Infants detected irregular matrices significantly better than chance, but such detection was not aided by contextual elements. Discrimination of orientation in Experiment 2 was assessed with a paired-comparison familiarization-novelty paradigm. It was found that the addition of elements here significantly aided discrimination of linear segment orientation, but not curvilinear segment orientation. Experiment 3 investigated why this effect was not found for curvilinear segments; after equating the curvilinear stimuli to linear ones used in Experiment 2 with respect to the closedness of figure, discrimination of curvilinear orientation was observed.     

The role of television in language acquisition

The conventional view among developmental psychologists is that television viewing does not contribute to a young viewer's language acquisition. That assumption is challenged. Evidence is presented that suggests that children can learn about language as they view television: (1) From age 2, children attend to television and view in an active, purposeful manner. (2) Some programs present dialogue in an attention-getting, content-redundant context. (3) Children can learn word meanings when viewing. (4) Children draw upon television as a source of verbal routines for their own play interactions.     

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.     

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.     

The development of visual information processing skills related to reading

Literate adults can use their familiarity with specific words and their knowledge of English orthography to facilitate word recognition processes. The development of word superiority effects in visual perception was investigated in the present study using a search task with kindergarten (5.7 years old), second (8.0 years old), and fourth grade children (10.0 years old), and college students. The search task consisted of the visual presentation of a target letter followed by a three-, four-, or five-letter display. The target letter was included in the display on half the trials, and the displays were common words, orthographically regular pseudowords, and irregular nonwords. Although response times decreased with age, the three oldest groups showed similar effects for the size and structure of the displays. That is, response times increased linearly with the number of display letters, and responses were faster for word and pseudoword displays than for nonwords. The data for the kindergarten children showed evidence for the use of a different search strategy, and they did not respond differentially to the three types of displays. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for developmental models of visual search and word superiority effects in visual perception.     

Sex-typed play of toddlers in a day care center

By the age of 3, boys prefer gross motor and vehicle play and girls prefer doll and housekeeping play. The present study was an attempt to define the age at which these sex differences first appear by observing the play behavior of one- and two-year-olds in a day care center. We observed use of stereotyped toys in children 15 to 35 months old during free play. Boys played more with the masculine toys than with either of the other types, whereas girls showed almost equal use of all three types. Choice of sex-typed toys was more prevalent among older boys, while older girls showed less play with feminine toys than younger girls.     

Social elicitation of infant vocal behavior.

The time course and the nature of social elicitation of vocalizations in 3-month-old infants were analyzed. Adult stimulation produced an immediate and significant increase in both the rate and the percent of bursts of vocal sounds of eight infants (Experiment 1). Both response-independent and response-dependent social stimulation were effective in producing increased rates of vocalizations, but only when each of four infants could see the eyes of the adult who delivered the social stimulus (Experiment 2).     

Effect of CS-US pairings on shock-elicited aggression as a function of US intensity

In two experiments with paired rats, the effect of superimposing CS-US pairings on a baseline of shock-elicited aggression was studied. Baseline shocks (3.0 mA, 0.125-sec duration) occurred at a rate of 20 shocks per min throughout each session. In Experiment I, each independent group of two pairs of subjects received (in addition to baseline shocks) US shocks of 1.0, 3.0, or 5.0 mA and 5-sec duration, each shock signalled by a 1-min CS. At all three US intensities, aggression increased during the CS. In Experiment II, pairs of subjects received each unconditioned stimulus intensity in a within-subjects design. This procedure revealed a direct relationship between rate of responding and unconditioned shock intensity.     

Preference as a function of the correlation between stimuli and reinforcement outcomes

Pigeons' preferences for stimuli that were to varying degrees correlated with outcomes were studied in two experiments using a concurrent-chain procedure. The pigeons chose between two terminal links, each ending with food reinforcement and with blackout on half of the trials. In the first experiment, one terminal link (nonpredictive or unreliable link) provided stimuli completely uncorrelated with the outcomes while the other terminal link (predictive or reliable link) provided stimuli that were, to varying degrees, correlated with these outcomes. All pigeons showed increasing preferences for the predictive link as the reliability of the stimuli in that link increased. In the second experiment, stimuli in both terminal links were differentially correlated with the outcomes. The pigeons again preferred the more reliably correlated terminal link. The relation between these results and the delay-reduction hypothesis and conditioned reinforcement account is noted. The behavioral value of predictive stimuli may lie in their permitting the organism to more effectively apportion its time between interim activities and terminal responses.     

Socialization and career orientation among black and white college women

In a study of career orientation among black and white college women, support was found for hypotheses derived from postulates of Rotter's Social Learning Theory. Compared to whites, (1) blacks were less likely to expect the level of work involvement preferred; (2) blacks expected more employment; and (3) blacks were more likely to prefer less employment than they realistically expected. Antecedents of career expectation were categorized as internal, external, or neutral. As hypothesized, variables expressive of external control predicted level of career expectation among blacks, whereas variables expressive of internal control predicted high career expectations among whites.     

Whole-word units are used before orthographic knowledge in perceptual development

A visual search task for target letters in multiletter displays was used to investigate information-processing differences between college students and presecond-grade children (mean age = 7 years, 4 months). The stimulus displays consisted of single words, pronounceable pseudowords, and unpronounceable nonwords varying in length from three to five letters. The mean response times for indicating whether or not a target letter occurred in the display increased with the number of display letters for both groups, although there were apparent differences between groups in the rate of search and type of search strategy used. Pre-second-grade children responded faster to word displays than to pseudoword and nonword displays, indicating that familiar letter strings could be processed faster than unfamiliar strings regardless of whether or not the latter were consistent with rules of English orthography. In contrast, college students processed words and pseudowords about equally well, and both resulted in faster responses than nonwords. As reading skills develop, children apparently come to process familiar words differently from other letter strings. Only after a significant sightword vocabulary is established do children seem to recognize the regularities of standard English orthography and make use of this knowledge to facilitate perceptual processes.     

Learned taste aversions in rats as a function of delay,speed, and duration of rotation

Rats fed a saccharin solution and then rotated on a turntable showed an aversion to the saccharin solution on later testing. In the first experiment, the rats learned to avoid saccharin with delays of as much as 9 hr between drinking the saccharin and the start of rotation. The second experiment showed that the critical determinant of aversiveness of rotation was number of rotations. The rats avoided saccharin as much after rotation at high speeds for short durations as after rotation at low speeds for long durations.     

Effects of instructions, biofeedback, reward, and cognitive mediation on the control of heart rate and the application of that control in a stressful situation

Subjects in Phase 1 of this experiment were (a) instructed to try to either increase or decrease their heart rate, (b) with or without the use of biofeedback, and (c) with or without the promise of money for successful performance, whereas no-treatment subjects were given no instructions, no biofeedback, and no promise of reward. Results indicated that (a) when simply instructed to do so, subjects could increase but not decrease their heart rates relative to no treatment controls, (b) the promise of money for good performance aided subjects in increasing but not decreasing heart rate, and (c) biofeedback did not aid subjects in either increasing or decreasing heart rate. Various cognitive strategies employed by subjects in controlling their heart rates are discussed.In Phase 2, subjects in a stress condition were told that they would receive a series of painful electric shocks, whereas subjects in a no stress condition were not told about shocks. All subjects were instructed to try to decrease their heart rates during the “shock” period. Heart rate and self report data revealed that (a) the manipulation was successful in increasing stress, and (b) previous training in decreasing heart rate, with or without biofeedback, did not aid subjects in decreasing their heart rates in the face of the stress.     

A model of cognitive development across the life span

A model of cognitive development across the life span was proposed. A distinction was drawn between an individual's unexercised potential, which refers to the level of performance that would be expected if the individual had no exercise and/or training on the ability in question, and an individual's optimally-exercised potential, which refers to the level of performance that would be expected if the individual had optimal exercise and training. Both unexercised and optimally-exercised potential levels were proposed to increase with age up to early adulthood and decrease gradually thereafter. The region between the two types of potential, which was also suggested to increase during childhood and decrease during later adulthood, indicates the extent to which exercise and/or training can affect performance. This model was shown to be consistent with a number of different types of empirical findings.     

The effects of exemplary and cognitive models and self-rehearsal on children's interrogative strategies

Children aged 6, 8, and 10 years were exposed to three types of training procedures aimed at increasing their use of constraint-seeking questions and enhancing their problem-solving efficiency. One group observed an exemplary model who merely illustrated several constraint-seeking questions. Another group observed a cognitive model who, prior to asking each of her constraint-seeking questions, verbalized her strategy for formulating constraint-seeking questions and integrating the information gained from such questions. A third group received a combination of cognitive modeling and self-rehearsal training in which the children repeated statements representing key features of the constraint-seeking strategy before asking questions on a series of training items. Cognitive modeling alone was the most successful training procedure, effecting changes in both constraint-seeking questioning and problem-solving efficiency for children of all three age groups. Differences between cognitive and exemplary models were most notable among the youngest children, who appeared to require the additional guidance afforded through the verbalizations of the cognitive model.