Behavioral expectations of retarded and nonretarded children

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the mental retardation (MR) label on impression formation among retarded and nonretarded children and adolescents. The first experiment, conducted with nonretarded children in a mainstreamed school, indicated that they have pessimistic expectations of retarded children with regard to cognitive and ability-related behaviorsand, to a lesser extent, social behaviors (i.e., getting married). However, their reactions were not as pessimistic nor as “patronizing” as were those demonstrated by college students in previous research. In the second experiment, mentally retarded adolescents indicated that they also have negative behavioral expectations of retarded children, however, their self expectations were negative only for social behaviors. The results suggest that, among retarded persons, the expectations associated with the MR label are negative for social behavior, but apparently less pessimistic for cognitive and ability related tasks.     

Behavioral weight reduction program for mentally retarded adult females

Behavioral treatment approaches to obesity in 17 mild-to-moderate retarded female adults were assigned to one of two experimental conditions, (a) behavioral self-control along with a physical activity component and (b) behavioral self-control. No significant differences were noted between groups on the indices of body weight and tricep skinfold thickness. A one-way analysis of variance with a repeated measure yielded a significant main effect of time for change in weight for both groups at the end of the 8-week treatment. Questions were raised about the possible role of nonspecific motivational factors versus cognitive factors in behavioral-weight reduction programs.     

Behavioral engineering: two apparatuses for toilet training retarded children

Daytime incontinence is a major problem for retarded children. A training procedure for eliminating this problem should be facilitated by an apparatus that provided the trainer with an immediate signal when the child voided so that the trainer could react immediately. Two apparatuses were developed for this purpose: a toilet-chair apparatus to signal proper toileting and a portable pants-alarm apparatus to signal wetting of the pants. A reprimand was given when pants wetting occurred whereas positive reinforcement was given for proper toileting. Results with four profoundly retarded children indicated the reliability of the apparatuses in practice and the effectiveness of a toilet training program that used the two apparatuses.     

Controlled forgetting in the retarded

Three experiments investigated selective rehearsal by retardates in a serial memory task which was an adaptation of Bjork's (1970) paradigm involving instructions to forget a subset of the material presented. Since previous research indicated that retarded children do not selectively rehearse, and since Bjork's paradigm requires the use of a selective rehearsal strategy, it seemed likely that retardates would fail in this task. Experiment 1 showed that retardates could perform this task, and there was substantial evidence for cumulative rehearsal. The possibility of an averaging artifact in the data of Expt 1 was eliminated in Expt 2 by showing evidence of primacy and facilitation due to the forget instruction for individual Ss. Experiment 3 indicated that the facilitation due to the forget instruction was likely due to the effective use of a selective rehearsal strategy. These results contrast with other findings of no rehearsal in retarded children. It is suggested that response biases may be involved in previous studies of rehearsal.     

Conceptual organization and memory in nonretarded, mildly retarded, and moderately retarded adults

Moderately retarded, mildly retarded, and nonretarded adults learned a list of 12 items from three categories to a criterion of 75% correct recall in a free-recall learning paradigm. Retention was measured 1 week later. The moderately retarded took more trials and had lower retention and clustering scores than the others. The mildly retarded took more trials and had lower retention than the nonretarded. The results violate Murdock's total time hypothesis (Cooper & Pantle, 1967) but support Mandler's (1967) contention that learning is enhanced by the mental capacity for organization.     

Religious competence and individuality: three studies in the Roman Empire

Abstract

The theme of individuality and individualisation in religious contexts in the fairly remote past is perhaps best viewed as a heuristic device whose main value, at least in the context of Graeco-Roman history, is to question the excessive dominance of a model of religious action as essentially collective, which is perhaps proximately Durkheimian but in the Classical field goes back ultimately to early scholarship on ancient Judaism. Terminology is a basic problem in this context. Religious individuality can be defined as the construction of personal religious achievement or the practice of mastery defined by sui generis rules. In the case of the Roman Empire, five types of such achievement have been suggested: pragmatic; moral; competitive; representative; or exemplary/ reflexive. All these distinguishable types of individuality are linked, at least indirectly, to the complex and highly differentiated social, political, economic and moral structures of the Empire. Specifically religious individuation emerges only with the development of religion as a distinctive field of (social) action and thus the possibility of specifically religious distinction. If sustained over the long term, any such achievement is to be seen as individualisation under ancient conditions. This article briefly explores three types of religious distinction based on a conviction and lived practice of such individualised competence: the figure of the Weberian mystagogue in his Mediterranean forms; the figure of the practitioner skilled in Graeco-Egyptian ‘magic’; and the idealised figure of Pythagoras as projected by Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean life (c.300 CE).     

Recognition memory in mentally retarded persons

The continuous recognition memory of retarded and normal subjects was assessed. The stimuli were magazine pictures, arranged so that lags of up to 250 pictures occured. The overall performance of the retarded subjects was poorer, in terms of hit rate or d′. However, the differences were present at 0 lag and the slopes of the forgetting curves were similar in both groups. It was concluded that differences between these subjects were due to a perception related process and not to memory.     

Individual differences in relatedness and individuality: An exploration of two constructs

Sociotropy and autonomy are two personality dimensions that relate to an individual's vulnerability to depression. Independent and interdependent self-construals are two distinctive cognitive formulations of the self derived from cross-cultural research. Both of these sets of constructs reflect self and other orientations. The purpose of the present study was to empirically examine the various factors that emerge when these two constructs are integrated. 652 participants responded to the Personal Style Inventory [Robins, C. J., Ladd, J., Welkowitz, J., Blaney, P. H., Diaz, R. & Kutcher, G. (1991). The Personal Style Inventory: Preliminary validation studies of new measures of sociotropy and autonomy. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 16, 277–300.], the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale [Clark, D. A. & Beck, A. T. (1991). Personality factors in dysphoria: A psychometric refinement of Beck's Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 13, 369–388.] and the Self-Construal Scale [Singelis, T. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 580–591.]. Four factors emerged from a factor analysis conducted on the items of the three scales measuring sociotropy-autonomy and independent and interdependent self-construal. These four factors are discussed in the context of vulnerability to depression.     

Patterns of imitation in mentally retarded children

Abstract.— In this report, the interchange theory of imitation was extended to mentally retarded children. Retardates were expected to observe and copy adults, using external cues and internal controls as aids. In Experiment I external cues were studied. Twenty-four speaking and 24 non-speaking retardates were paired with adults who gave half the children instructions to copy and the other half additional verbal and gestural cues. Non-speaking retardates receiving frequent cues attended and copied better than those getting initial instructions, gestural cues being equally or more effective than verbal ones. Speaking retardates getting repeated cues finished copying sooner than those getting only instructions, verbal and gestural cues being equally effective. In Experiment II internal controls over appropriate imitation were studied. Twenty-two retardates were trained to sit, observe and copy their teachers in a two-month program. Training was evaluated in situations where copying or playing was signalled. Overall, children attended and copied more in the appropriate situation. However, sitting, attention, and copying increased non-specifically in both situations, and initial situational differences in copying were not observed after treatment. The interchange theory was revised, and implications for attention-deficit and verbal self-control theories were discussed. Notions of "generalized imitation" were criticized.