Classroom behavior of reflective and impulsive children

Seventy-nine children, nine or eleven years old, classified as reflective or impulsive by the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test, were observed in public school classrooms. A total of 15 behavioral categories were selected to capture activities often labeled “reflective” or “impulsive” in the literature. Children were observed in each of three classroom settings—Individual Work, Large Group instruction, and Small Group instruction. Thirty minutes of observational data on each child revealed substantial differences in the behavior of older and younger children and across the three settings. By contrast, there was only a minor difference in the behavior of reflective and impulsive children. These results suggest that the concept of reflection-impulsivity, as operationalized by the MFF, should be limited to tasks that involve response uncertainty, and should not be used to imply differences in the typical classroom behavior of children classified as reflective or impulsive by the MFF.     

Minor illness and social behavior of infants and caregivers

Fourteen infants attending day care were observed during the first year of life when well and during acute minor illnesses. Comparisons of behavior during 46 afebrile illnesses and a like number of well observations revealed no differences in infant or caregiver behavior. During 24 febrile illness observations, however, infants moved less, contacted toys less, were in closer proximity to teachers, cried more, and looked at teachers more. During a subset of these febrile illnesses, in which teachers recognized that infants were ill, teachers vocalized, gave toys, looked at, touched, held, and fed infants more than when infants were well. Analysis of teacher behavior during infant crying demonstrated that infant cries played an important role in eliciting social responses from teachers during febrile illness. These results suggest that both caregiver perception of illness state and illness-induced changes in infant behavior contribute to increased sociability by caregivers during acute febrile illness.     

Test-retest reliability of the test of nonverbal intelligence (TONI)

Test-retest reliability of the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI) was investigated. Fifty students randomly selected from first and second grades were administered Form A and Form B of the TONI on two occasions 3 weeks apart. Test-retest correlation coefficients were calculated for all 50 subjects. The results showed high test-retest reliability: Correlation coefficients were .89 (Form A) and .83 (Form B). Parallel form reliability was also high: Form A correlated with Form B .88 on the first administration and .86 on the second administration.     

Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences in Precollege Women: Prevalence and Risk Factors

The authors of this study examined the prevalence of nonconsensual sexual experiences in dating situations among a sample of 330 incoming female college students. Results indicated that 38.5% of women reported experiencing at least one form of sexual victimization in dating, ranging from unwanted sexual contact to rape. Victimization was related to history of childhood sexual abuse as well as previous consensual sexual activity. Discussion focuses on the need for education and prevention programs during the secondary school years and counseling assistance for college-age victims.     

A motor-driven feeder for operant training in song birds

Conventional pigeon feeders can make noise, spill food, and injure birds in applications using small song birds as subjects. We developed a motor-driven feeder based on the principle of the piston to address these concerns.     

THE USE OF WRIST WEIGHTS TO REDUCE SELF-INJURY MAINTAINED BY SENSORY REINFORCEMENT

The participant in this study was a boy with a long history of self-injurious face slapping. Following a functional analysis indicating that face slapping was maintained by sensory consequences, the participant was given soft wrist weights to wear for progressively longer periods. Data on the frequency of face slapping were collected 5 min before the weights were put on, while the weights were on, and 5 min after the weights were removed. At all other times a protective helmet was placed on the participant's head for 30 min contingent on face slaps. When weights were worn for 30 min each day, face slapping decreased during 5-min observation periods before and after wearing the weights. The use of protective headgear was eliminated by the end of the study. Face slapping did not occur during a follow-up check conducted 5 months after completion of the study.     

Functional analysis and etiology

Cummins (1982) argues that etiological considerations are not onlyinsufficient butirrelevant for the determination offunction. I argue that his claim of irrelevance rests on a misrepresentation of the use of functions in evolutionary explanations. I go on to suggest how accepting anetiological constraint on functional analysis might help resolve some problems involving the use of functional explanations.Thanks to Bill Wimsatt, Greg Mikkelson, Dan McShea, Robert Cummins and the editor and referees of this journal for their comments on earlier drafts.     

Imagery,concreteness, goodness,and familiarity ratings for 500 proverbs sampled from theOxford Dictionary of English Proverbs

Partly in order to facilitate research on the relation between some standard psychological variables, we gathered normative data on 500 proverbs sampled from theOxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (Wilson, 1970). The scales for which we gathered data are imagery, concreteness, goodness , and familiarity. These norms may be of value to researchers who wish to sample linguistic units larger than the word from a set that contains an extensive number of unfamiliar and familiar items. To illustrate the possible uses to which these data may be put, we presented a causal model of the relation between the four variables mentioned above.