TRAINING TEACHERS IN GENERALIZED WRITING OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROGRAMS FOR MULTIHANDICAPPED DEAF CHILDREN

In contrast to previous studies where teachers were instructed how to implement behavior modification programs designed by an experimenter, teachers in the present experiment were taught how to write as well as implement behavior modification programs. The generalized effects of two training conditions on teacher and pupil behaviors were assessed by a multiple baseline design where, following baseline, two teachers of multihandicapped deaf children were taught to set objectives and measure pupil performance (measurement training). Later, through a training manual, they learned a general problem-solving approach to writing behavior modification programs (programming training). After both training conditions, experimenter feedback was given for teachers' application of training to a target behavior for one pupil and generalization was measured across target behaviors for the same pupil and across pupils. It was found that measurement training had little general effect on either teacher behavior or pupil behavior. However, after programming training, teachers increased their program writing and correct use of behavior modification procedures and generalized this training across pupils and target behaviors. Along with these effects, there was improvement in pupil behaviors. Possible explanations for generalized effects of teacher training were considered.     

WHY NO GUIDELINES FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION?

This paper reviews the guidelines for behavioral programs published by the National Association of Retarded Children. The review discusses a number of reasons why guidelines should not be enunciated for behavior modification, e.g., the procedures of behavior modification appear to be no more or less subject to abuse and no more or less in need of ethical regulation than intervention procedures derived from any other set of principles and called by other terms. The review recommends alternative methods for protecting the rights of clients who participate in behavioral programs. Specifically, behavioral clinicians, like other therapists, should be governed by the ethics codes of their professions; also, the ethics of all intervention programs should be evaluated in terms of a number of critical issues.     

A Survey of Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Consultation Courses in School Psychology: Implications for Training School Psychologists

All 216 doctoral and specialist level school psychology training programs were mailed a seven question survey to determine how much behavioral consultation and behavior analysis course work school psychology students are offered. One hundred and twenty-eight surveys were returned, yielding a return rate of 58.26%. The results indicated that almost all programs offer didactic courses in consultation (98.79%) and behavior analysis/behavior modification (91.52%). The percentage of practicum devoted to behavioral consultation and behavior analysis/modification was considerably less (about 25% for each) than other subject areas. The results are discussed within the context of training needed to meet the needs of practitioners in the areas of behavioral consultation and behavior analysis/behavior modification.     

“ Time,” a time-sharing moniter for the DEC LINC-8, PDP-8, and PDP-12

A system is available for an 8K, or larger, Linc-8, PDP-8, or PDP-12 with RF/RS08 disk(s), to allow virtually simultaneous execution of any mix of PDP-8 and/or Line programs. The programs need little or no modification to run within “Time,” and up to eight may be in the mix at a given time. “Time” also incorporates a file system with access and write protection. The system is intended to be used with conversationally oriented programs. “Time” is in the public domain.     

Changes in Rorschach Teaching

To investigate recent changes in Rorschach instruction, a double postcard questionnaire was distributed to all APA-approved doctoral programs in clinical psychology asking for information about the number and type of Rorschach courses. The data were compared with 1961 and 1966 surveys. A trend toward fewer Rorschach courses per university and a decrease in courses specifically on the Rorschach is evident. Changing views toward projective techniques may be a contributing factor, but the addition of areas such as behavior modification and community psychology into the training programs is also compressing the more traditional courses.     

A case series of attention modification in clinically anxious youths

Research in the last fifteen years suggests that anxious individuals selectively attend towards threatening information. Attention modification interventions for internalizing adults have been developed to target cognition at this basic level; these programs have demonstrated initial efficacy in attention bias and anxiety symptom reduction. To date, there have been no published studies of attention modification in youths with clinical levels of anxiety. The current case series examined the initial efficacy of a four-week (12 sessions) attention modification program (AMP) designed to train attention away from threat in 16 children and adolescents (ages 10 to 17) diagnosed with DSM-IV anxiety disorders. Overall, youths experienced a significant decrease in anxiety and depression symptoms, and 12 of 16 youths no longer met criteria for any anxiety diagnosis at post-treatment. AMP was feasible with youths, and all youths and parents deemed the program acceptable. These findings provide support for further research on the use of cognitive bias modification interventions with clinically anxious youths.     

A survey of state policies regarding the use of restrictive/aversive behavior modification procedures

A survey was conducted of the state policies regarding the use of restrictive/ aversive behavior modification procedures with mentally retarded persons. Policies varied substantially with respect to both scope and length; however, the overwhelming majority required that behavior modification programs be developed through the interdisciplinary planning process. No consistent pattern emerged with respect to the review and approval process for the use of aversive procedures. Approximately 75% of the states appear to permit the use of restraint as a treatment modality. Policies direct only minimal attention to the issue of training staff to implement aversive procedures. From the results of the survey, a model for the use of aversive procedures was developed and is presented.     

Self-directed weight control through eating and exercise

A weight control program using a written contract and other self-control behavior modification techniques for changing eating habits was compared with a similar program concentrating on both eating and exercise behavior and with an attention-placebo control condition. Participants in all three programs lost weight during the 12 week program, with no significant differences between groups. A seven-month follow-up revealed that Ss in the two behavior modification groups lost more than those in the control group and that those in the eating plus exercise group lost more than those in the group dealing only with eating behavior.     

ActSds and OdfSds: Programs for converting INTERACT and The Observer data files into SDIS timed-event sequential data files

In this article, we describe programs for converting Mangold International's INTERACT and Noldus Information Technology's The Observer data files to sequential data interchange standard (SDIS) timed-event sequential data files. Users who convert their INTERACT or The Observer data files can then take advantage of various flexible and powerful data modification and computational procedures available in the Generalized Sequential Querier, a program that assumes SDIS-formatted files.     

Behavior modification in education: Contributions and limitations

Behavior modification has been applied widely in educational settings encompassing a wide range of student populations, ages, and areas of focus. Major contributions of behavior modification include development and evaluation of a large number of techniques with extensive classroom research. As a direct consequence of technique development, behavior modification has provided teachers with a selection of classroom practices and information regarding their use. Despite the widespread application of behavioral principles in education, several limitations can be identified including the responses that are altered, the emphasis on response consequences, the focus on child performance rather than behaviors of teachers and others, and the lack of maintenance of improvements evident in many programs. Although limitations can be identified within the field, remarkable advances have been made in identifying educational practices that can improve student and teacher behavior. A major limitation in applying behavior modification to education pertains to dissemination and extension of existing techniques to a large number of settings likely to profit their use. The present paper considers various contributions and limitations of contemporary behavior modification and suggests areas for expansion to augment the progress that has been made.     

Influence of continual biofeedback on jaw pursuit-tracking in healthy adults and in adults with apraxia plus aphasia

Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a disorder of motor programming resulting from damage to premotor or anterior insula cortex. The authors used a pursuit visuomotor tracking task to test whether such a disorder interferes with development of motor programs or with modification of existing programs via integration of feedback. Healthy older adults (n = 15) and adults with AOS plus aphasia and nonverbal apraxia (n = 8) performed a jaw movement task with (a) continuous visual feedback of a target movement pattern and their jaw movement and (b) no feedback. Healthy speakers were more accurate and less variable with feedback, suggesting accurate development of a program and feedback integration. Apraxic individuals' performance accuracy and response to feedback suggested that the neurological damage impairs both development of new programs and efficient integration of feedback.     

A survey os school psychologists'' use of behavior modification procedures

A national survey of behavior modification procedures used by school psychologists is reported. Usable questionnaires were received from 148 (49%) of 300 randomly selected members of the 1982 National Association of School Psychologists directory. Each respondent was asked to indicate the type of exposure, use, and inclusion of data collection procedures for each of 18 commonly used behavioral techniques. Conditional probabilities between type of exposure and use found strong relationships between supervision and subsequent use. The implications for the field of school psychology and future directions for training programs are discussed.     

An interactive data-generating and answer-correcting system for problems in statistics

A computer-assisted instructional system is described which provides the student with extensive drill and feedback in the application of statistical methods to computer-simulated data. The system consists of three interactive programs that perform the following functions: (1) FILEMAKE creates “source” data for problems in statistics having whatever population characteristics are desired by the instructor; (2) DATASET generates unique data for each student by performing a random modification, based on sampling theory, of the source data; and (3) CORRECT corrects each student’s unique answers to the problem.     

BEHAVIORAL TRAINING FOR SIBLINGS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a program designed to teach behavior modification procedures to normal siblings of autistic children. Three sibling pairs participated in a multiple-baseline analysis of the effects of training the normal siblings to use behavior modification procedures to teach their autistic brother or sister a variety of learning tasks. Results indicated that the siblings learned to use the behavioral procedures at a high level of proficiency, they used the procedures in a generalization setting, and there were observed improvements in the behavior of the autistic children. In addition, a social validation assessment of the normal siblings' statements about their autistic sibling indicated a decrease in negative statements and an increase in positive statements after training. These results are discussed in terms of the potential for incorporating siblings into the treatment plan in intervention programs with autistic children.     

Comparison of Mothers' and Fathers' Opinions of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy

Opinions of parenting programs mostly have been obtained from mothers. Because mothers and fathers' interactions with children differ, gathering data from both parents regarding behavior modification and parenting programs is necessary. This project was part of a larger study and compared mothers and fathers' acceptability of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and its various components. Acceptability data were obtained using the Treatment Evaluation Inventory-Short Form and a modified version of this measure assessing specific PCIT components. The sample consisted of 40 community mother-father pairs of a young male child. Findings suggest gender differences in PCIT treatment acceptability and various PCIT components.     

A comparison of a self-control and a contract procedure for weight control

A self-control procedure involving the use of behavior modification techniques was compared with a contract system and an attention-placebo control group. One study revealed significant losses for both treatments after 12 weeks with the contract group losing more; however, a ten month follow-up revealed that the weight loss was not permanent. A second study found no differences between a self-control group and a control group after 16 weeks. Reasons for the poor long-term results of these and other weight-control programs were discussed.     

From multimodal programs to a new cognitive–interpersonal approach in the rehabilitation of offenders

A considerable amount of meta-analytic research supports the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral psychoeducational programs in reducing recidivism rates, in youths and adults with antisocial behavior. These same studies suggest that programs including a cognitive component are as twice as more effective in reducing recidivism rates. This paper reviews outcome studies sustaining the use of structured interventions in forensic settings. It introduces a new program, Growing Pro-Social (GPS), currently in use in several Portuguese youth rehabilitation centers and prisons. GPS is a multimodal structured group program designed for the rehabilitation of individuals with antisocial behavior. It includes 40 weekly sessions, organized into 5 sequential modules. Based on a cognitive–interpersonal theoretical framework, GPS focuses on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral change, assuming as an ultimate goal the modification of dysfunctional core beliefs underlying antisocial behavior.     

Using Self-Supervision to Maintain Counseling Skills: A Review

Counselor education literature acknowledges the difficulty of skill maintenance but offers few solutions. A review of related areas was conducted to provide direction in developing maintenance strategies. Four domains were considered: maintenance in behavior modification, behavioral self-control, the traditional maintenance mechanisms of feedback, supervision, and observational media, and self-supervisory programs. A self-supervisory program that applies the procedures of behavioral self-control to specific helping behavior that is identifiable on audiotape or videotape is advocated.