SOLITARY TOY PLAY AND TIME OUT: A FAMILY TREATMENT PACKAGE FOR CHILDREN WITH AGGRESSIVE AND OPPOSITIONAL BEHAVIOR

The behavior of four boys, 5 to 8 years of age, who were referred for a number of oppositional, rule violating, and aggressive behaviors, was assessed by direct observation and parent reports. Following baseline measurement, several interventions were successively applied to each child's behavior. Use of a social play contract to reduce problem behaviors by teaching appropriate social behaviors resulted either in no improvement or in worsening of the problem behaviors in observations made when the contract was not in effect. Changing the contract behavior to solitary toy play resulted in reduced oppositional behavior during the observation sessions, fewer reports from the parents of low-rate problem behaviors, and improvements in the parents' attitudes toward the children. However, these changes during the observation sessions were shortlived, because the data on these measures began to show a reversal during later sessions. Inclusion of a time-out contingency with the solitary play contract recovered the earlier improvements in the children's behavior during observation sessions and the parents' reports. These results gave support to the view that for children whose behavior is severely oppositional and aggressive, a treatment approach emphasizing productive, solitary behaviors may be superior to one stressing appropriate social interaction. However, a combined strategy of reinforcement for solitary play and punishment for problem behaviors appears necessary to ensure more durable treatment effects.     

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.     

An olfactometer for small rodents

An olfactometer that captures and delivers biological odors at experimenter-controlled times, without dilution, is described. The apparatus is quiet, efficient, versatile, animal-safe, and fairly inexpensive. Tests indicate that the device is successful in isolating transitory odors.     

Physicians' values and their career stage

Professional values of 241 practicing physicians were determined from factor analyzing their responses to 25 questionnaire items dealing with an ideal medical school in their vicinity. The seven factors (values)—(1) Academic, (2) Professional Separatism, (3) Support, (4) Social Welfare, (5) Research/Specialization, (6) Status/ Prestige, and (7) Convenience—were examined for their relationship to background characteristics (e.g., training) and practice (e.g., specialty). Few differences were found. However, when values were analyzed by age and career stage, significant fluctuations were found. Levinson's adult development theory was able to account for a sizeable portion of the observed variations. Practical and theoretical consequences are discussed in connection with physician stress at critical career stages.     

Effects of noise similarity and redundancy on the information processed from brief visual displays

When a target letter form is presented tachistoscopicalfy and embedded in a matrix of irrelevant letter forms (noise), correct detections of the target at a given matrix size can be used to estimate indirectly the amount of information processed from the display, according to a model developed by Estes. In three experiments, the physical similarity between noise and target letters and noise-letter redundancy were varied to determine if the detection mechanism was responsive to these variables. It was found that increases in the physical differences between noise and target letters and increases in redundancy facilitated detection. It is argued that these data support a detection model that assumes parallel rather than serial information processing.     

Binocular rivalry and reciprocal inhibition

Any explanation of binocular rivalry based on a reciprocal inhibition mechanism would require that unilateral increases in the stimulus strength of the rivalry target in one eye produce increases in the mean nonsuppression duration of that eye and concommitant decreases in the mean nonsuppression duration of the contralateral eye. To test that hypothesis, the stimulus strength (in this case, contrast) of one rivalry target was varied (0.1, 1, 10, and 100 ft-L) while the strength of the target in the other eye remained constant. The data, obtained from six experienced Ss, indicate that variations in stimulus strength do not alter the mean nonsuppression duration of the recipient eye. This outcome offers a fundamental difficulty for the reciprocal inhibition concept. A model that assumes partially independent suppression and dominance mechanisms is suggested as a more adequate alternative.     

UCSD PASCAL with a VAX as a floppy disk

The increasing sophistication of laboratory microcomputers has brought an attendant need for efficient programming systems. One such system, UCSD PASCAL, has been made commercially available as an adaptable package for many popular microcomputers. This paper addresses the implementation of UCSD PASCAL and describes a powerful extension of the package to use a host timesharing system as a virtual floppy-disk facility.