The preschool behavioral classification project: An initial report

The Behavioral Classification Project (BCP), previously developed for children from 6–13 years of age, was extended to the preschool ages, the goal being to establish factorial dimensions of problem and nonproblem behaviors of children from 4 to 6 years of age. Initially, behavioral items on the BCP form not applicable to preschoolers were eliminated and replaced with new items. When completed, the Preschool Behavioral Classification Project (PBCP) form contained 268 behavioral items and 5 demographic variables. Forms were administered to 1,350 parents of 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds, and 668 usable forms were returned. Analysis of the data was done by means of the principal components method in which the data were rotated first to orthogonal simple structure and then to oblique simple structure. Twenty-two clearly delineated factors which made nosological sense were obtained. Five additional factors were extracted and although they were not clearly defined dimensions, they contained important behavioral items.     

The initial standardization of the adolescent behavioral classification project instrument

An instrument has been developed through the Adolescent Behavioral Classification Project for assessing an adolescent's problems and for establishing a taxonomy of behaviors and of persons. Standardization has initially consisted of collecting from many sources 482 statements of problem behaviors and 30 positive behaviors, which can be observed by nonprofessional as well as professional persons; administering these behavior statements to 156 institutional and 94 noninstitutional mental health center adolescents and 376 of their parents; carrying out principal components analyses on the behavioral items and 3 demographic items, followed by Varimax and Promax rotations. Twentyfive factors scored on 410 items resulted from these procedures. Internal consistency coefficients for the factors range from .47 to .86. Test-retest reliabilities on a sample of 10 youths ranged from .24 to .94, with an average r_tt of .71. Factor scores for different classes of respondents were fairly well correlated from one set to another. The different classes of respondents did not differ significantly from one another on caution items. Similarities are noted, by inspection, between these factors and those derived from the Children's Behavioral Classification Project and between those other authorities have set forth and the ABCPAcknowledgements are gratefully extended to the ABCP team: Dr. Robert P. Baker, Greg Bennett, Dr. Millard J. Bienvenu, Sr., Dr. Ronald F. Boudreaux, Robert L. Compton, MSW, Dr. Thomas E. Deiker, Dr. M. K. Distefano, Dr. James R. Gay, Charles Granger, Dr. Wayne A. Greenleaf, Allison Hulse, Cathy Knighton, James Moss, Dr. Ronald S. Pryer, Dr. Felicia Pryor, Dr. Edith Schulhofer, Mrs. Annie A. Smart, Dr. T. T. Stigall. Special thanks go to Doctors Boudreaux, Greenleaf, and Pryer for permission to employ their patients from the Adolescent Unit of Central Louisiana State Hospital, and to Dr. Deiker for his provision of the listing of abnormal subjective perceptual experiences. Above all, many thanks are given to the necessarily unnamed adolescents and their parents who took part in the project at considerable inconvenience to themselves, and to the numerous personnel in the mental health centers who cooperated in the project.     

The WISC-R and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement: correlations for exceptional children

The present study concerns correlations of scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement with those on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC--R). Correlations between WISC--R Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQ and the Reading Aptitude Cluster, the Mathematics Aptitude Cluster, and the Written Language Aptitude Cluster of the Woodcock-Johnson were expected to be high and support the contention that conventional measures of ability do predict achievement for children. Results confirm the hypothesis. The Verbal IQ was the best one-variable predictor of each aptitude cluster, with R s ranging from .32 to .78.     

The effects of classification structure on organized free recall in children

A sorting presentation procedure was used to study the effects of three classification schemes (self-generated, thematic, or taxonomic) on the organized free recall of second and fifth graders. Recall and clustering were significantly higher for subjects who used self-generated organizations than for subjects given the experimenter-prescribed taxonomic classification. The results indicated that memory performance benefitted when the organization of stimulus materials was consonant with children's personal classification structures.     

Minor physical anomalies in exceptional children: A review and critique of research

The study of the relationship between physical characteristics and behavior is placed in historical context. Current research concerned with the implications of minor physical anomalies is reviewed. Anomalies, measurement considerations, relationship between anomalies and selected characteristics, methodological issues, and underlying assumptions are examined. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The counselor and exceptional pupils: a critical review

Elementary and secondary school counselors seem to neglect certain students while providing services to others, without knowing the results. This article suggests that school counselors do not deal systematically and consistently with exceptional children's needs. It appraises counselors' work with mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, and gifted students.     

A model of perceptual classification in children and adults

The developmental trend from overall-similarity to dimensional-identity classifications is explained by a quantitative model. I begin with the assumption that objects are represented in terms of constituent dimensions and that the representation of objects changes little with development. Given this assumption, the model has three major parts. First, the similarity between objects is a function of the combination of the constituent dimensional differences. I propose developmental change in the likelihood that dimensions are differentially weighted in the calculation of similarity. Second, the perceived similarities between objects are valued for the purpose of constructing classifications. I propose that similarities are valued more dichotomously with age, such that identity becomes increasingly special. Third, the valued similarities are used to choose the best classification of those possible. The model provides good qualitative fits to the extant data. Three experiments examining classifications in 2- to 8-year-olds and in adults support specific new claims of the model. The data and the model provide new insights about development, classification, and similarity.     

The Leibniz project

A language for quantum physics is derived from set theory by replacing the classical predicate algebra (Boolean) by a certain quantum predicate algebra (rational projective), time space and the Hamilton-Schroedinger dynamics by a Feynman-like graph dynamics, and the Dirac spin operators by topological switching operators on the graph. The development is described from the basic level of elementary monadic processes to the level of the free Dirac equation. Young Men's Philanthropic League Professor of Physics. Supported by the est Foundation and the National Science Foundation.     

Taxi drivers' exceptional memory of street names

In this paper, we explore the nature of taxi drivers' serial recall of street names. The main question is whether the memory of verbal material benefits from the possibility of using visuospatial associations and knowledge concerning large-scale environment. In two experiments, expert taxi drivers' recall of street names was superior to that of control groups. In Experiment 1, experts' superiority of memory was greater when the street names reflected a visuospatially continuous route than when the street names were located along a straight line across the map without spatial continuity or were presented in random order. In Experiment 2, the expert taxi drivers recalled spatially continuously organized lists much better than they recalled lists of street names belonging to the same semantic category or lists presented in alphabetical order. This result also suggests that interitem associations, which are based on spatial co-occurrence, are efficient in comparison with other mnemonics.     

The influence of irrelevant information on speeded classification tasks

Multidimensional stimuli, which could vary on one, two, or all three dimensions within a particular series, were presented to Ss who were required to classify each stimulus on the basis of its value on a specified dimension. The prior relevance of the irrelevant dimensions and the difficulty of the task were varied. Latency and error data indicated that Ss were unable to gate the irrelevant information effectively. It was further concluded that this lack of perfect gating cannot be simply attributed to competing responses learned during the experiment.     

The classification of neuropsychological deficit

The study involves classification of neuropsychiatric patients on the basis of neuropsychological and intelligence test performance. One hundred twenty-five hospitalized male neuropsychiatric patients with various diagnoses were administered the Halstead-Reitan and Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological test batteries, as well as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. A cluster analysis was performed for each of those three procedures utilizing Ward's method. It was found in all cases that clusters were determined on the basis of level rather than pattern of performance. Relationships were found between cluster membership and age, education, and presence or absence of structural brain damage but were not found for diagnoses of schizophrenia or alcoholism. Schizophrenic and alcoholic patients were found in all clusters in the case of all three test procedures. Differences in clustering among the three test procedures were noted, with the WAIS being relatively more sensitive to educational differences while the Halstead-Reitan was more sensitive to age differences. The clinical utility of classifying patients on the basis of neuropsychological and cognitive test performance was discussed.Acknowledgement is made to the Veterans Administration for support of this research.     

The perceptual classification of speech

By employing new methods of analysis to the physical signal, a number of researchers have provided evidence which suggests that there may be invariant acoustic cues which serve to identify the presence of particular phonetic segments (e.g., Kewley-Port, 1980; Searle, Jacobson, & Rayment, 1979; Stevens & Blumstein, 1978. Whereas previous studies have focused upon the existence of invariant properties present in the physical stimulus, the present study examines the existence of any invariant information available in the psychological stimulus. For this purpose, subjects were asked to classify either a series of full-CV syllables ([bi], [bε], [bo], [??], [di], [d∈], [do], [??]) or one of two series of chirp stimuli consisting of information available in the first 30 meec of each syllable. The full-formant chirp stimuli consisted of the first 30 msec of each syllable, whereas the two-formant chirps were composed of the first 30 msec of only the second and third formants. The object of the present study was to determine whether or not there was sufficient information available in either the full- or two formant chirp series to allow subjects to group the stimuli into two classes corresponding to the identity of the initial consonant of the syllables (i.e., [b], or [d]). A series of classification tasks were used, ranging from a completely free sorting task to a perceptual learning task with experimenter-imposed classifications. The results suggest that there is information available in the full-formant chirps, but not in the two-formant chirps, which allows subjects to group the sounds into classes corresponding to the identity of the initial consonant sounds.