Is there a monotonic criterion for measures of vocational maturity in college students?

Career development has been expected to proceed in a continuous fashion. Tests of vocational maturity, then, are expected to show higher scores with increases in grade level or meet a monotonic criterion (Crites, J. O. Psychological Monographs, 1965, 79, 25–41). Data collected with the Career Development Inventory (Super, D. E., et al. Career Development Inventory Preliminary Manual. Unpublished test manual, 1972.) by its authors showed systematic increases in scores for eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade-level students. For this study, college-level students were partitioned into two groups, career-specific and social sciences and humanities based on the findings of A. S. Bisconti and I. L. Gomberg (The Hard to Place Majority. Bethlehem, Pa.: College Placement Council, 1975.) and they were administered the college version of the CDI. Scores failed to show systematic increases with college-grade level for either group. Both the findings and related theoretical positions of Ginzberg and Super provide evidence that the process of career development may be discontinuous in the post high school years. Data gathered for this study may help advance the notion that career development in college students is discontinuous and call into question the application of the monotonic criterion to tests of vocational maturity at the college level.     

Young children's use of temporal and spatial order information in short-term memory

Encoding and retrieval of temporal and spatial order information was investigated in the free recall and probed recognition performance of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds. In both tasks, three line drawings of familiar objects were presented successively in different spatial locations, so that temporal order was not confounded with spatial order. Subjects of all ages revealed an organization for the stimulus display based on the temporal sequence of presentation. With increasing age, subjects began recall more often with the first item so as to take advantage of this sequential organization. In the probed recognition task, subjects were asked questions requiring the use of temporal or spatial order information. Performance by the older subjects indicated that information about temporal and spatial order could be simultaneously encoded. The results are discussed in terms of a context theory derived from Estes's hierarchical association model.     

RESEARCH ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE IN EXTRA-THERAPY RESPONDING1

Many authors have reported that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change. In Experiment I, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings. The results showed that one child did not generalize to the extra-therapy setting, but that other children did. However, for the children who generalized, extra-therapy responding was not maintained. Therefore, in Experiment II two variables affecting the durability of extra-therapy responding were assessed and found to be influential: (a) the use of partial reinforcement schedules in the original treatment environment; and (b) the presence of noncontingent reinforcers in the extra-therapy environment. The results suggest that there are two distinct parameters of extra-therapy responding: generalization and maintenance. A technology for producing durable extra-therapy responding is discussed in terms of different treatment procedures required for different deficits in extra-therapy responding.     

SOME DETERMINANTS OF THE REINFORCING AND PUNISHING EFFECTS OF TIMEOUT1

Some determinants of the reinforcing and punishing properties of timeout were investigated in two experiments. Experiment I began as an attempt to reduce the frequency of tantrums in a 6-yr-old autistic girl by using timeout. Unexpectedly, the result was a substantial increase in the frequency of tantrums. Using a reversal design, subsequent manipulations showed that the opportunity to engage in self-stimulatory behavior during the timeout period was largely responsible for the increase in tantrums. Experiment II was initiated following the failure of timeout to reduce the spitting and self-injurious behavior of a 16-yr-old retarded boy. Using a multiple-baseline design, the nature of the timein environment was shown to be an important determinant of the effects of timeout. When the timein environment was “enriched”, timeout was effective as a punisher. A conception of timeout in terms of the relative reinforcing properties of timein and timeout and their clinical implications are discussed.     

Classroom treatment of autistic children: II. individualized instruction in a group

This study was designed to assess the feasibility of providing individualized instruction in a classroom of autistic children. In particular, we investigated whether students' unsupervised responding was a variable which would influence the effectiveness of individualized instruction procedures. Initially, one teacher attempted to teach different academic behavior to four autistic children simultaneously. During these sessions the teacher rotated from child to child, providing individualized instructions and reinforcers to each. We found, however, that each child stopped responding whenever the teacher rotated to a different child and, further, no academic progress occurred for any of the children during these sessions. In a multiple baseline design, treatment procedures were then introduced (prompt fading, chaining, and programmed instructional materials) to teach each student to continue working for an extended period of time after each instruction from the teacher. After treatment, sessions of individualized instruction in a group were reintroduced for each child. The results showed that unsupervised responding was an important variable influencing the effectiveness of individualized instruction. Specifically, the data show that (1) unsupervised responding, acquired during treatment, generalized to the group setting; (2) after treatment, each child began to make progress on his assigned tasks; and (3) programming instructional materials in small steps appeared to be necessary in order to ensure the maintenance of unsupervised responding across changes in instructional materials. By the end of this study it was possible for one teacher to simultaneously teach four autistic children — with each child learning at his own rate, on his own task, with minimal supervision from the teacher. It is suggested that the generalizability of these results, to other settings where continuous supervision is difficult, may be an important concern of future research.     

The question-answer exchange between mothers and young children

Investigated associations between the questioning and answering behaviour of mothers and children in a design that allowed analyses within as well as between social classes. Thirty-two six-year-old children volunteered their knowledge and asked questions of their mothers about a variety of objects in a natural context. Social class differences in the children were found in the quality of questioning and the amount of knowledge displayed, but for the latter there were differences between tasks, and the incidence of questioning confounded the predictions made. Class differences in mothers' behaviour likewise differed by task. An index of the mothers' provision of cognitive meaning and of feedback was shown to correlate highly with children's rates of questioning and knowledge revealed both within and across classes.     

An evaluation of reality orientation therapy

An evaluation was made of reality orientation therapy utilizing 14 male patients with dementias of various types. The therapy is designed to improve memory and reduce confusion in elderly and demented individuals. Utilizing a group comparison with crossover design, it was found that the patients improved significantly over sessions on orientation items actually taught during those sessions. However, no significant improvement was found on a series of generalization items consisting of orientation-related questions that were not asked during sessions. Furthermore, there was no generalization to ward activities. It was noted that individual responses to the treatment were quite varied, and so three cases reflecting highly different responses are presented.Indebtedness is expressed to the Veterans Administration for support of this research.     

Adaptive behavior in young children of emotionally disturbed women

Children of mentally-ill parents are population at increased risk for psychiatric disorder, and recent research has focused on the psychological development of these individuals. The Rochester Adaptive Behavior Inventory (RABI) was developed to measure the adaptive behavior of such high-risk children based upon a parental interview. Scales defining specific behavior spheres were reproduced in four samples of 30- and 48-month-olds. These scales differentiated high-risk children along dimensions of maternal psychopathology and social status. Global measures of maternal illness, such as severity of symptoms, proved to be more powerful than specific diagnosis. Race and socio-economic status also had a major impact on adaptive behavior. Implications of the data for high-risk theories of schizophrenia are discussed.