Isolating the evocative and abative effects of an establishing operation on challenging behavior

Establishing operations (EO) influence operant responding by altering the reinforcing effectiveness of consequences (reinforcer establishing or abolishing effect) and changing the frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by those consequences in the past (evocative or abative effect) (Michael, 1982 , 1993 ). In this study we attempted to isolate the evocative and abative effects of an EO for positively reinforced challenging behavior with a person with autism and developmental disabilities. The study consisted of three phases. First, an analogue functional analysis identified attention as maintaining challenging behavior. Second, access to attention was systematically controlled (continuous access versus no access) immediately prior to functional analysis sessions in which the participant received attention on an FR1 schedule. Results of this phase indicated that challenging behavior occurred at higher levels during the functional analysis sessions when access to attention was restricted immediately prior to sessions (i.e., no access appeared to function as an EO). In the third phase, prior access to attention was again controlled as in the second phase of the study, however the participant was then placed on extinction. The results of this final phase seem to indicate that no access to the reinforcer prior to extinction had an evocative effect (produced high levels of responding) whereas access to the reinforcer had an abative effect (produced lower levels of responding) during extinction sessions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complexity effects on the children's gambling task

The children's gambling task (CGT [Kerr, A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2004). Development of “Hot” executive function: The children's gambling task. Brain and Cognition, 55, 148–157]) involves integrating information about losses and gains to maximize winnings when selecting cards from two decks. Both cognitive complexity and control (CCC) theory and relational complexity (RC) theory attribute younger children's difficulty to task complexity. In CCC theory, identification of the advantageous deck requires formulation of a higher-order rule so that gains and losses can be considered in contradistinction. According to RC theory, it entails processing the ternary relation linking three variables (deck, magnitude of gain, magnitude of loss). We designed two less complex binary-relational versions in which either loss or gain varied across decks, with the other held constant. The three closely matched versions were administered to 3–5-year-olds. Consistent with complexity explanations, children in all age groups selected cards from the advantageous deck in the binary-relational versions, but only 5-year-olds did so on the ternary-relational CGT.     

Predictors of online information seeking by international students when disaster strikes their countries.

This study explores factors influencing international students' likelihood of using the Internet to seek disaster-related information should a disaster affect their countries. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two universities in America between August 1 and September 30, 2005. Two hundred twenty-nine (n = 229) students completed the self-administered questionnaires. ANOVA analyses found that respondents' Internet self-efficacy had no significant impact on their intentions to seek disaster-related information on the Internet. However, respondents' Internet dependency and attitude toward seeking information online were found to have a significant effect on such intentions.     

Trait Stability and Continuity in Childhood: Relating Sociability and Hostility to the Five-Factor Model of Personality

We investigated the continuity of personality constructs in the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project, a cohort-sequential study encompassing development from early childhood to adolescence with five annual or biennial assessments. Sociability and Hostility, assessed by teachers' ratings of children's behaviors at each assessment, were related to the traits comprising the Five-Factor model assessed by teachers' ratings at the fifth assessment. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that Sociability and Hostility were reliably measured at each assessment, and these constructs were relatively stable over time (mean rank-order stability coefficients over intervals of 1-5 years were .50 and .43, respectively). Sociability was most strongly associated (positively) with Extraversion, and Hostility was most strongly associated (negatively) with Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability. No differences were found for younger versus older children. Implications for measuring childhood personality traits using teachers' reports of early childhood behavior are discussed.     

Conscientiousness, perceived risk, and risk-reduction behaviors: a preliminary study.

Participants (N = 343) from an Oregon community completed surveys at baseline, 3 months, and 12 months to assess personality, the perceived health risk of radon in combination with smoking, and changes in smoking behavior. Conscientiousness predicted instituting a more restrictive household smoking rule (p < .01), and perceived risk predicted reduction in cigarettes smoked per day for men (p < .001). Perceived risk predicted a reduction in the proportion of cigarettes smoked in the home for those who had high (p < .05) but not low or moderate levels of Conscientiousness, a dimension in one personality model. The results demonstrate the importance of Conscientiousness in the prediction of health behavior, particularly behavior that affects others as well as oneself.     

Women helping chewers: partner support and smokeless tobacco cessation.

Data from 363 male smokeless tobacco users and their romantic partners were analyzed to discern the role of support in cessation. Women reported playing a part in enrollment (71%), and more than half examined program materials or discussed cessation activities with the chewers. Women's reports of delivered support correlated substantially with men's experience of received support. Men's received positive support predicted abstinence at 6-month follow-up (odds ratio = 1.29, confidence interval = 1.03-1.61) and more than 24 hr of abstinence for those still using tobacco at 6 months (odds ratio = 1.75, confidence interval = 1.30-2.36) and moderated the effect of baseline depression and addiction on abstinence. Women played a major role through all stages of cessation.     

Implementing a long-term computerized remedial reading program with synthetic speech feedback: Hardware,software, and real-world issues

This paper discusses hardware choices, software developments, implementation issues, and preliminary results from an ongoing long-term remedial reading study. Reading-disabled children read books on microcomputers linked to speech synthesizers, obtaining speech feedback on difficult words at whole-word, syllable, or subsyllable levels of segmentation. Word-recognition ability and attitude about reading improved for children using the system. In addition, segmented feedback especially benefited phonological word-decoding skills for most of the children.