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.     

Free recall and retrieval speed of categorized items by kindergarten children

Kindergarten Ss were presented with 16 pictorial items in four category sets or a partially random ordem with one item from each category composing the four presentation sets. The pictures were presented either on conceptually related background pictures or on white backgrounds. The categorically grouped presentation facilitated free recall performance, both in terms of number of items recalled and the speed with which the items were recalled, and increased the amount of clustering in recall. Categorical clustering in recall was associated with shorter within- than between-category intervals and for those Ss who recalled items from each of four categories successively, the over-all temporal pattern in recall closely approximated that found with adults. No background effects were found.     

Job-finding club: A group-assisted program for obtaining employment

Although joblessness is a major problem, no method of job-counseling has been demonstrated to be superior to usual job-finding practices. The present study describes a new type of program, which has now been evaluated experimentally in a matched-control design. The new program was conducted in a group and stressed such distinctive techniques as mutual-assistance among job-seekers, a ‘buddy’ system, family support, and sharing of job leads. In addition, the program arranged special ways of using such common practices as searching want-ads, role-playing, telephoning, motivating the job-seeker, constructing a resume and contacting friends. Within 2 months 90 per cent of the counseled job-seekers had obtained employment vs. 55 per cent of the non-counseled job-seekers. All clients who attended the program regularly obtained employment. After 3 months, 40 per cent of the non-counseled job-seekers were still unemployed. The average starting salary was about a third higher for the counseled job-seekers. The present procedure appears to be an effective method of assisting a greater proportion of the unemployed to obtain jobs and more quickly, and at a higher salary than they could obtain when they used the usual job finding procedures.     

Response stereotypy without automaticity in pigeons

Previous research has shown that when pigeons are required to peck each of two keys four times in any order for reinforcement, stereotyped response sequences develop though they are not demanded by the task. The present experiment explored whether the functional value of sequence stereotypy was that sequences became automatized, freeing cognitive resources for other activities. Pigeons were exposed to variants of the task requiring four pecks on each key that differed in the degree of task stringency. Concurrent with the sequence task, pigeons were required to process the color of the keys in order to complete successfully either a matching or a conditional discrimination task. The delay between sequence execution and matching or discrimination choice was varied between 0 and 10 sec. Matching and discrimination accuracy were decreasing functions of delay, but the stringency of the concurrent sequence task had no effect on choice accuracy, suggesting that stereotyped sequences were automatized. However, the matching and discrimination tasks produced substantial disruptions of sequence performance, suggesting that stereotyped sequences were not automatized. The data were taken to suggest that response stereotypy need not imply automaticity.     

Stimulus control and delayed reinforcement

Pigeons were tested for generalization along the line-orientation dimension, after being trained on various two-component multiple schedules. The first component contained either a variable-interval 1-min schedule of immediate reinforcement or an extinction schedule and was associated with a plain white key (S1). The second component contained a variable-interval 1-min schedule of delayed reinforcement and was associated with a black line on a white background (S2). The major results showed that (a) decremental gradients were obtained around the stimulus associated with the delayed reinforcement component when S1 was associated with extinction, but that incremental gradients were obtained when S1 was associated with immediate reinforcement, (b) the subjects' pretraining did not affect the generalization gradients if sufficient training on the terminal multiple schedule was provided, and (c) changing the S1 schedule from immediate reinforcement to extinction produced behavioral contrast if reinforcement was delayed for 10 sec during S2, but not if it was delayed for 20 sec.     

A test of causal sequences in two models for development of career-orientation in women

To evaluate the tenability of two causal orderings of variables in the development of career-orientation, responses of 92 college senior women to Need Achievement, Dating Frequency, and Career-Orientation items were analyzed. The postulated orderings were derived from two models: a compensatory model implying that failure in a woman's heterosexual affiliation leads to high nAch which, in turn, produces high C-O; an enrichment model suggesting that a woman's high nAch may lead to high C-O which, in turn, decreases heterosexual affiliation. Criteria for temporal sequences as per the Simon-Blalock correlational procedures rendered the enrichment model more tenable.     

Establishing generalized verb-noun instruction-following skills in retarded children

A transfer of stimulus control procedure was used to establish generalized verb-noun instruction-following skills in two severely retarded boys. Each of 12 verbs was trained, in a multiple baseline order, to criterion with each of 12 nouns in the form of verb-noun verbal instructions. Throughout training, reinforced probes were conducted on both trained and untrained verb-noun combinations. As training progressed, both subjects began to respond correctly to untrained verb-noun instructions. Eventually, a verb needed to be trained in combination with only one noun before generalization occurred to the as-yet-untrained 11 verb-noun instructions involving that verb.     

Noticing and responding in a discrimination based on a distinguishing element

In learning a successive go/no-go discrimination between a positive display consisting of the elements A and B, and negative display consisting of A-alone, pigeons first trained to peck A shift to pecking the distinguishing B element. In order to learn whether or not the shift to B is facilitated by B's function as a signal of the reinforcer, apart from the direct reinforcement of B responses, six arrangements of the elements with respect to the food reinforcer were used. Discrete trials were terminated by a single peck or after 4 sec. The A and B elements were dots of different color. The most critical comparison was between two groups, both of which received no reinforcement for a response directed to B. In one case, B signaled the reinforcer: An A response was reinforced when B was present but not when A appeared alone. In the other, B signaled the absence of a reinforcer: An A response was nonreinforced when B was present, while the response to A-alone was reinforced. During training and in extinction many more reponses were made to B when it signaled the reinforcer than when it signaled its absence. It is concluded that in a discrimination between AB positive and A negative the shift from pecking A to pecking B is facilitated by B's role as a signal for the reinforcer even on trials in which the peck is not made to B. Results from certain other groups showed that, unless pecks shifted to B within the positive display, pecks to A continued on the negative, A-alone trials as well as on the positive AB trials.     

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.     

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.     

Training strategic study time apportionment in educable retarded children

Two groups of educable retarded children differing in functioning level served as subjects. One group, the High group, consisted of 31 children drawn from the upper two classes of a five-class stream. The Low group consisted of 39 children drawn from the lowest two classes. During pretesting, on each trial but the first of a multitrial free recall procedure, subjects were allowed to select half of the to-be-remembered items to see if they would strategically select missed items for extra study. Following pretesting, subjects were divided for training into three groups for which the experimenter selected items for study: in the Standard group, missed items; in the Creeping group, recalled items plus one missed item; and in the Random group, half missed and half recalled items. Children in the High group improved in the Standard condition, and those in the Low group benefited from Creeping training. There was no evidence of maintenance of training in the Low group, but children in the High group given training in the standard strategy selected missed items for recall on the posttests. The results are discussed in terms of the stability of trained strategies in retardates, and the question of what constitutes an optimal strategy is considered.     

An analysis of programming DRL schedules in educational settings

Three methods for programming the differential reinforcement of low rate were explained, labeled, illustrated by research studies, and analyzed, but not compared. Spaced Responding DRL, the first and most common method in laboratory studies, was illustrated through the reduction of the inappropriate questioning by three behaviorally disturbed children. Full Session DRL, the most common method in applied studies, was illustrated through the reduction of talk-outs by an EMR male. Interval DRL, not previously presented in either applied or laboratory literature, was illustrated through the reduction of talk-outs by a 6-yr-old first grade girl. All methods proved effective, and an analysis of their differences and similarities was discussed.     

Social control by adult preference in operant conditioning with children

During daily sessions four institutionalized retardates and four normal, first-grade children each played a two-choice marble dropping game while an adult experimenter sat beside and watched. When one of two colored lights was presented, two tokens were dispensed as soon as the subject dropped a marble, and when the other light was on, one token was dispensed. During choice trials that were interspersed among single-colored trials the subject was required to choose one of the two different colored holes. After the subject developed a preference for the color that earned two tokens, the experimenter stated a preference for the response that earned only one token (i.e., “I like it better when you put it into the —colored hole.”) Six of the eight subjects immediately switched to the response that earned low magnitude reinforcement when the experimenter stated his preference. Only two subjects switched back to the response that earned high magnitude reinforcement when the experimenter left the room. Subjects complied with the experimenter's preference statement regardless of whether or not it also included a negative component (i.e., what the experimenter did not like). There were no systematic differences between mentally retarded and normal subjects.