Instrument considerations in measuring fast eye movements

The dynamic limitations of eye movement recorders can distort the measurement of fast eye movements such as saccades and nystagmic quick phases. In this paper, the effects of the bandwidth and noise of recording methods and the problems incurred by digital sampling are discussed theoretically with respect to the measurement of peak velocity and duration of fast eye movements. As a practical example, a TV-based infrared corneal reflex system is examined and a method for calibrating it for peak velocity measurement is described.     

Psychiatric referrals by a Juvenile court

A psychiatric service for children has attempted to make effective use of its limited resources by specialising in conjoint family therapy and in the establishment of consistent links with the network of other agencies and services working with parents and children. Since involvement with the law is seen as a point of crisis by a family and by the professionals already involved with it, the Juvenile Court is an important focal point in the network. The referral of a particular adolescent 'patient' to a child psychiatrist is described in detail, and the wider implications are discussed.     

Developing and maintaining social interaction in profoundly retarded young males

Social interaction was increased in five profoundly retarded males using formal training, stimulus control, and rewarded generalization procedures. Seven behaviors were monitored for each boy to determine whether correlated changes occurred in maladaptive behaviors as social interaction varied over the several phases of a withdrawal design that included multiple-baseline features. All five boys increased their social interaction and reduced unoccupied and self-stimulatory behavior. These changes were maintained as continuous reinforcement was reduced to a single response-contingent reinforcer per 15- minute session. Four follow-up probes showed the stability of the changes.This study was conducted with the excellent cooperation of the staff of Little Boys Ward and the Foster Grandparent Program at Colin Anderson Center, St. Mary's, West Virginia, and with the continued support of W. E. Richards, superintendent.     

Temporal coordination of phonation and articulation in a case of verbal apraxia: A voice onset time study

A study of voice onset time (VOT) in stop production was undertaken in order to investigate the hypothesis that the voicing feature errors in the speech of an apraxic patient (Sands, E. S., Freeman, F. J., & Harris, K. S. 1978. Brain and Language, 6, 97–105) were related to deficits in temporal coordination of phonation and articulation. Results demonstrated that the VOTs of the apraxic subject differed markedly from those of normal subjects. The apraxic productions did not include voicing lead for voiced stops. Lag times for voiced stops were longer than normal, while those for voiceless stops were shorter than normal, yielding a compression of the two categories and a marked overlap.     

Another look at personal validation

Students' ability to validate the results from their own psychological tests was examined in two experiments. In Experiment I, sophomore, senior, and graduate students were presented with their actual and inverted profiles from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the Students were asked to select their actual profiles. The senior and graduate students could reliably select their own profiles while the sophomore students could not. In Experiment 2, sophomore students were presented with their actual and inverted profiles from the CPI and the Differential Aptitudes Test (DAT) and the students were asked to select their actual profiles. The students were able to reliably select their actual profiles for both tests. The students were much more likely to select their own DAT profile than CPI profile, and they were more confident in their selection of the actual DAT profile.     

Personality characteristics of androgynous and sex-typed females

Personality characteristics of androgynous and sex-typed females identified by the gem Sex-Role Inventory were studied using the California Psychological Inventory. The results indicated that sex-typed females showed personality characteristics associated with traditional sex-role stereotypes while androgynous females showed both masculine nd feminine characteristics. There was an indication that androgynous and masculine females were better adjusted socially than feminine or undifferentiated females.     

Disruptive effects of disconfirmed expectancies about crowding.

The experiment utilized a 2 (high vs. low room density) X 2 (forewarning of a crowded room vs. no forewarning) X 2 (simple vs. complex task) design to examine the effects of anticipation of crowding on task performance. More tasks were attempted and efficiency was higher when expectancies about the crowd were confirmed. Subjects not told to anticipate a crowd who actually worked under high density and subjects warned about a crowd that did not materialize performed most poorly. These differences were largest for the complex task. Baum and Greenberg's results were replicated with the performance data. Perceptions of the experimental room also differed as a function of anticipation, but failure to obtain a Crowding X Anticipation interaction did not support their hypothesis that anticipating a crowd induces identical perceptions to those obtained under actual crowding. The results are discussed in terms of disconfirmed expectancies being disruptive of performance, particularly complex task performance.     

TEACHING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM TO SEEK INFORMATION-ACQUISITION OF NOVEL INFORMATION AND GENERALIZATION OF RESPONDING

A time delay procedure was used to teach 3 children with autism to ask the question “What's that?” when novel stimuli were presented during an instructional task. Once the ability to ask the question was acquired, the children's ability to learn novel information by asking the question was assessed. The children were then taught to ask the question within a less structured context. All three studies used a multiple baseline across participants. Generalization was assessed in a different room, to a new person, and to novel stimuli. All of the children learned to ask the question within the instructional context, while on a walk in the school building, and to request information about three-dimensional objects. The acquisition of novel information was consistent for receptive and expressive tests for 2 of the children, with varied results for the 3rd. These studies indicate that children with autism can be taught to ask questions that lead to the acquisition of new information.