Effects of two levels of procedural fidelity with constant time delay on children's learning

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of constant time delay delivered with high procedural fidelity to constant time delay with high procedural fidelity on all variables except delivery of the controlling prompt (i.e., on a mean of 44% of the trials, the controlling prompt was not delivered when it should have been provided). Six preschool children with disabilities were taught to identify photographs in two alternating conditions (e.g., high procedural fidelity and low procedural fidelity). An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the instructional conditions on the effectiveness and efficiency of instruction. In addition, daily measures were taken of the teacher's implementation of each step of the constant time delay procedures which indicated that the two conditions were implemented as planned. The results indicate that both conditions were effective for four children; for three of these, the high procedural fidelity condition resulted in more efficient learning. For the fifth child, the high-fidelity condition resulted in criterion level responding, but the low fidelity condition did not. However, when the high fidelity procedure and trial-by-trial reinforcement were used for the low-fidelity stimuli, these also were acquired. For the sixth child, neither procedure was effective; thus, the high fidelity condition was used alone and resulted in learning. The results are discussed in terms of using the constant time delay procedure and studying the procedural fidelity of other strategies.     

Efficacy of constant time delay implemented by peer tutors in general education classrooms

We evaluated the effects of teaching 13 typically developing children to use constant time delay when tutoring three of their peers who had substantial disabilities. We measured the extent to which the tutors used the constant time delay procedure correctly and the tutees' correct performance on the skills being taught. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used. The results indicated that (a) the tutors used each step of the constant time delay with a high degree of procedural fidelity; (b) the students with disabilities acquired the skills that were taught during peer tutoring; and (c) modifications of the procedure were required for 2 of the 3 students with disabilities, and the peers tutors were able to implement the modifications. Implications for practice and future research are described.     

Determinants of pigeons' waiting time: Effects of interreinforcement interval and food delay

Four pigeons performed on three types of schedules at short (i.e., 10, 30, or 60 s) interreinforcement intervals: (a) a delay-dependent schedule where interreinforcement interval was held constant (i.e., increases in waiting time decreased food delay), (b) an interreinforcement-interval-dependent schedule where food delay was held constant (i.e., increases in waiting time increased interreinforcement interval), and (c) a both-dependent schedule where increases in waiting time produced increases in interreinforcement interval but decreases in food delay. Waiting times were typically longer under the delay-dependent schedules than under the interreinforcement-interval-dependent schedules. Those under both-dependent schedules for 1 subject were intermediate between those under the other two schedule types, whereas for the other subjects waiting times under the both-dependent procedure were similar either to those under the delay-dependent schedule or to those under the interreinforcement-interval-dependent schedule, depending both on the subject and the interreinforcement interval. These results indicate that neither the interreinforcement interval nor food delay is the primary variable controlling waiting time, but rather that the two interact in a complex manner to determine waiting times.     

Instructive feedback: A comparison of simultaneous and alternating presentation of non-target stimuli

Instructive feedback involves presenting extra, non-target stimuli in the consequent events for children's responses. Two methods of presenting instructive feedback during direct instruction were compared. These methods involved presenting two extra stimuli on all trials, and presenting the two extra stimuli separately on alternating trials. Preschool students were taught coin combinations using a constant time delay procedure with instructive feedback stimuli added to both praise and correction statements. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the two methods of presenting instructive feedback. The students were assessed to determine the extent to which instructive feedback stimuli were learned. The results indicate that students learned some of the instructive feedback stimuli and no consistent differences in the effectiveness of the two presentation methods were noted. Further, relationships between the two instructive feedback stimuli appeared to be established. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed.     

Retribution and emotional regulation: The effects of time delay in angry economic interactions

Individuals driven by negative emotions often punish non-cooperators at a cost to themselves. The current research demonstrates that, although time delays can attenuate this effect, they can also produce unintended consequences. Five experiments investigated the effects of time delays and thought patterns on punishments in direct and third party interactions. The results show that time delays decreased punishment (Experiment 1) by reducing negative emotions (Experiments 2A and 2B). However, thought patterns during a delay were crucially important (Experiments 3A and 3B): People who engaged in a distraction task punished less; people who engaged in affective rumination punished more; and people who engaged in cognitive reappraisal were unaffected by a delay. These differences meant that, after a time delay, affective ruminators administered greater punishments than cognitive reappraisers or distracted individuals. Implications of these findings for managing punitive impulses via time delays are discussed.     

Comparison of simultaneous prompting and constant time delay procedures in teaching sight words to elementary students with moderate mental retardation

Simultaneous prompting (a type of antecedent prompt and test procedure) and constant time delay were compared with four students with moderate mental retardation learning expressive sight words. A parallel treatments design across word sets and replicated across students was used. For acquisition, the simultaneous prompting procedures required fewer trials, sessions, and training time to criterion and resulted in fewer student errors during daily probe and training sessions. However, maintenance data indicated mixed results across the two procedures. Reliability data (both dependent and independent variables) revealed no differences between the two procedures in terms of the teacher's accuracy in recording student responses and implementing each procedure. Future research issues are discussed.     

Instructive feedback: Effects of number and type

We evaluated the effects of presenting two instructive feedback stimuli of the same and different types for each target behavior taught. Four elementary school students with mild mental retardation were taught to name photographs of places of interest in the local community using constant time delay and instructive feedback. Initially, the four students were taught one set of photographs with one instructive feedback stimulus (name of the street on which the place was located) for each target photograph. All students learned to name all photographs, and three learned to name the street on which the place was located. The three students who learned to name the street for the place in the photograph were then taught three sets of photographs. Each set included two instructive feedback stimuli for each target photograph: Set 2 had one street name and one activity that occurred in the place; Set 3 had two activities per photograph, and Set 4 had one street name and one activity. The three students learned to name the photographs, but only learned to name the activities and not the street names that were presented through instructive feedback. These finds are discussed in terms of the factors that may control acquisition of instructive feedback stimuli and the implications for practice and future research.     

Placing inspection time, reaction time, and perceptual speed in the broader context of cognitive ability: The VPR model in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

The idea that information processing speed is related to cognitive ability has a long history. Much evidence has been amassed in its support, with respect to both individual differences in general intelligence and developmental trajectories. Two so-called elementary cognitive tasks, reaction time and inspection time, have been used to compile this evidence, but most studies have used either one or the other. Relations between speed and fluid intelligence have tended to be stronger than those between speed and crystallized intelligence, but studies testing this have confounded verbal abilities with crystallized intelligence and spatial/perceptual abilities with fluid intelligence. Questions have also been raised regarding whether speed contributes directly to general intelligence or to more specific cognitive abilities to which general intelligence also contributes. We used 18 ability and speed measures in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, assessed at approximately age 70, to construct alternative versions of the Verbal-Perceptual-Image Rotation (Johnson & Bouchard, 2005a) model of cognitive ability to test different hypotheses regarding these issues. Though differences in the extents to which our models fit the data were relatively small, they suggested that reaction and inspection time tasks were comparable indicators of information processing speed with respect to general intelligence, that verbal and spatial abilities were similarly related to information processing speed, and that spatial, verbal, and perceptual speed abilities were more directly related to information processing speed than was general intelligence. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results.     

Choice with delayed and probabilistic reinforcers: effects of variability, time between trials, and conditioned reinforcers.

In a discrete-trials procedure with pigeons, a response on a green key led to a 4-s delay (during which green houselights were lit) and then a reinforcer might or might not be delivered. A response on a red key led to a delay of adjustable duration (during which red houselights were lit) and then a certain reinforcer. The delay was adjusted so as to estimate an indifference point--a duration for which the two alternatives were equally preferred. Once the green key was chosen, a subject had to continue to respond on the green key until a reinforcer was delivered. Each response on the green key, plus the 4-s delay that followed every response, was called one "link" of the green-key schedule. Subjects showed much greater preference for the green key when the number of links before reinforcement was variable (averaging four) than when it was fixed (always exactly four). These findings are consistent with the view that probabilistic reinforcers are analogous to reinforcers delivered after variable delays. When successive links were separated by 4-s or 8-s "interlink intervals" with white houselights, preference for the probabilistic alternative decreased somewhat for 2 subjects but was unaffected for the other 2 subjects. When the interlink intervals had the same green houselights that were present during the 4-s delays, preference for the green key decreased substantially for all subjects. These results provided mixed support for the view that preference for a probabilistic reinforcer is inversely related to the duration of conditioned reinforcers that precede the delivery of food.     

Teaching Spelling of Social Studies Content Vocabulary Prior to Using the Vocabulary in Inclusive Learning Environments: An Examination of Constant Time Delay, Observational Learning, and Instructive Feedback

This study evaluated the effectiveness of using a 5 s constant time delay (CTD) procedure to teach the written spelling of social studies vocabulary words taken from the general education social studies content to students with mild disabilities. Subjects were 3 elementary students with mild disabilities. Instruction was delivered in a small group setting. Vocabulary words were different for each student, which allowed for observational learning by the other students in the group. Assessments of observational learning were conducted when each student attempted to spell their group-mate's words. Related instructive feedback (meaningful sentences containing the social studies vocabulary words) was presented in the consequent event of instructional trials. A multiple probe design across word sets was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure. Results indicated that (a) CTD was reliably implemented and all students acquired the spelling of their own sets of 12 social studies vocabulary words with 100% accuracy and maintained this accuracy over time, (b) all students generalized their target spellings across settings and instructors, and (c) some observational and instructive feedback learning occurred for all students. Additionally, long-term maintenance of observational spellings decreased over time, and minor fluctuations in long-term maintenance of instructive feedback occurred.     

Testing the hypothesized effect of dysgenic fertility on intelligence with existing reaction time data: A comment on Woodley,te Nijenhuis,and Murphy (2013)

Dysgenic fertility has supposedly resulted in a decline in general intelligence (g) over time. In light of evidence that simple visual reaction time (RT) is inversely related to IQ, Woodley et al. (2013) tested the hypothesized dysgenic effect by subjecting to a meta-regression simple visual RT data collected over 100 years in 15 studies. This analysis found that RT had significantly increased according to a linear function over this time period. Woodley et al. then used this result to estimate the rate at which g had declined over the same period. The present comment points out that there are large gaps in the distribution of RTs analyzed by Woodley et al. with respect to year tested, and that RT in males did not vary as a function of year in the 13 studies published from 1941 on. It is concluded that although existing data are consistent with the idea that g has been adversely affected by dysgenic fertility, it cannot be determined at what rate g has fallen over time.     

Reaction time and established risk factors for total and cardiovascular disease mortality: Comparison of effect estimates in the follow-up of a large, UK-wide, general-population based survey

Higher cognitive function is associated with faster choice reaction time (CRT), and both are associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, comparison of the predictive capacity of CRT, an emerging risk factor, with that for established ‘classic’ risk factors for mortality, such as smoking, hypertension or obesity, is lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative impact of CRT with a range of established risk factors for all-cause and CVD mortality. The UK Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS) is a national sample survey of adults in England, Scotland, and Wales. In 1984/85, data on lifestyle factors, socioeconomic status, and health were collected for 9003 individuals. CRT data were available for 7414 individuals. With different predictor variables having differing coding structures, we used the relative index of inequality (RII) to explore the relation of a range of risk factors with mortality by computing the risk in disadvantaged (high risk; e.g., smokers) relative to advantaged (low risk; e.g., non-smokers) persons. During an average of 20 years of follow-up, there were 1289 deaths (568 ascribed to CVD). In age- and sex-adjusted models in which all-cause mortality was the outcome of interest, CRT mean (RII = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.98, 3.33) was the second most important predictor of death after smoking (RII = 3.03, 95% CI = 2.45, 3.75). For death from CVD, CRT mean (RII = 2.31, 95% CI = 1.55, 3.43) was again the second most important risk factor for death, behind systolic blood pressure (RII = 4.37, 95% CI = 3.03, 6.29). These analyses suggest that CRT, a moderately high correlate of intelligence, is an important risk factor for death from all-causes and CVD.     

The effect of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on two important predictors for accidental falls: Postural balance and manual reaction time. A randomized, controlled pilot study

Accidental falls in older individuals are a major health and research topic. Increased reaction time and impaired postural balance have been determined as reliable predictors for those at risk of falling and are important functions of the central nervous system (CNS). An essential risk factor for falls is medication exposure. Amongst the medications related to accidental falls are the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). About 1-10% of all users experience CNS side effects. These side effects, such as dizziness, headaches, drowsiness, mood alteration, and confusion, seem to be more common during treatment with indomethacin. Hence, it is possible that maintenance of (static) postural balance and swift reactions to stimuli are affected by exposure to NSAIDs, indomethacin in particular, consequently putting older individuals at a greater risk for accidental falls. The present study investigated the effect of a high indomethacin dose in healthy middle-aged individuals on two important predictors of falls: postural balance and reaction time. Twenty-two healthy middle-aged individuals (59.5 ± 4.7 years) participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized crossover trial. Three measurements were conducted with a week interval each. A measurement consisted of postural balance as a single task and while concurrently performing a secondary cognitive task and reaction time tasks. For the first measurement indomethacin 75 mg (slow-release) or a visually identical placebo was randomly assigned. In total, five capsules were taken orally in the 2.5 days preceding assessment. The second measurement was without intervention, for the final one the first placebo group got indomethacin and vice versa. Repeated measures GLM revealed no significant differences between indomethacin, placebo, and baseline in any of the balance tasks. No differences in postural balance were found between the single and dual task conditions, or on the performance of the dual task itself. Similarly, no differences were found on the manual reaction time tasks. The present study showed that a high indomethacin dose does not negatively affect postural balance and manual reaction time in this healthy middle-aged population. Although the relatively small and young sample limits the direct ability to generalize the results to a population at risk of falling, the results indicate that indomethacin alone is not likely to increase fall risk, as far as this risk is related to abovementioned important functions of the CNS, and not affected by comorbidities.