Adults’ strategy choices for simple addition: Effects of retrieval interference

Simple addition (e.g., 3 + 2, 7 + 9) may be performed by direct memory retrieval or by such procedures as counting or transformation. The distribution of associations (DOA) model of strategy choice (Siegler, 1988) predicts that procedure use should increase as retrieval interference increases. To test this, 100 undergraduates performed simple addition problems, either after blocks of simple multiplication (high-interference context) or after blocks of simple division problems (low-interference context). Addition took longer and was more error prone after multiplication; in particular, there were more multiplication confusion errors on the relatively easy, small-number addition problems (e.g., 3 + 2 = 6, 4 + 3 = 12), but not on the more difficult, large-number additions. Consistent with the DOA, participants reported greater use of procedures for addition after multiplication, but more so for small addition problems. The findings demonstrate that adults’ use of procedural strategies for simple addition is substantially influenced by retrieval interference.     

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF OPPOSITIONAL CHILD TREATMENT WITH MOTHERS AS THERAPISTS AND THERAPIST TRAINERS

The follow-up data reported represent a long-term (3 to 9 years out of treatment) evaluation of 40 children who were clients of the Regional Intervention Program (RIP) from 1969 to 1978. As 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds, these youngsters exhibited severe and prolonged tantrums, continual opposition to adults' requests and commands, and physical aggression toward parents. Each child and mother participated in a standardized intervention package modeled after Wahler's Opposition Child Treatment. Results from school and home-based follow-up showed that: (a) commands, demands, or requests made by parents were likely to be followed by former clients' compliance; (b) former clients' social interactions in the home were overwhelmingly positive and their nonsocial behavior was by and large appropriate; (c) parent behavior in the home was consistent with the child management skills taught many years ago; (d) there were no differences between the compliant, on-task, social interaction and appropriate/inappropriate nonsocial behaviors of former clients and randomly selected class peers; (e) there were no differences in teachers' commands, negative feedback, positive social reinforcement, and repeated commands that were directed toward either former clients or randomly selected class peers; (f) both teachers' and parents' rating of former clients on the modified Walker Problem Behavior Checklist were highly correlated; (g) there were no differences in teachers' rating of former clients and class peers; and (h) of all the studied demographic variables, only age that treatment began and family intactness were related to current levels of behavior.     

EFFECTS OF SYSTEMATIC,RESPONSE-DEPENDENT FADING AND THINNING PROCEDURES ON THE MAINTENANCE OF CHILD-CHILD INTERACTION

Previous investigations of the social behavior of handicapped preschool children (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1974, 7 , 583–590; Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 31–40; Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1977, 10 , 289–298) demonstrated that introduction of adult or peer confederate intervention agents produced substantial increases in levels of positive social behavior emitted by the subjects. In addition, it was observed that changes in rates of positive social behavior emitted by recipients of intervention tactics were accompanied by parallel changes in rates of positive social behavior emitted by interacting peers. However, with one limited exception, sudden removals of arranged intervention procedures were followed by immediate reductions in the levels of positive social behavior emitted by subjects and peers in each study. The current investigation was designed to examine the effects of response-dependent removal of intervention procedures on the positive behavior of three socially withdrawn preschool boys. Interactive effects on the social behavior of classroom peers who did not receive adult prompts and contingent attention events were also examined. A combination of withdrawal of treatment and multiple baseline procedures was employed. The three target subjects received fixed numbers of prompts and contingent attention events during Intervention I and Intervention II, Phase 1 conditions. During Intervention II, Phase 2 conditions, prompts and contingent attention events were reduced on a response-dependent basis for two subjects and on a response-independent basis for the third subject. The results suggest that: (a) the intervention procedures produced marked increases in positive social behavior emitted by each subject; (b) response-dependent fading and thinning, contrasted with response-independent tactics, maintained levels of positive social behavior equivalent to those observed during Intervention I and Intervention II, Phase 1 conditions; (c) changes in positive and negative behaviors emitted by peers paralleled changes in positive and negative behaviors emitted by each subject; and (d) no “spillover” of treatment effects was noted for subjects during periods in which they were not direct recipients of intervention procedures.     

Self-of-the-Therapist Work: A Balance Between Removing Restraints and Identifying Resources

The authors propose that self-of-the-therapist work is most productive when therapists and supervisors approach family of origin issues and historical life events in a balanced way and suggest that they move to an approach that ideally liberates restraints posed by self-of-the-therapist issues, while at the same time accesses resources available to therapists because of the same issues. This is a shift from the primarily restraint focus that has dominated self-of-the-therapist work. This paper also provides personal experiences of the authors, guidelines on how to create safety and balance, as well as practical examples of self-of-the-therapist exercises.     

What's happening on Music Television? A gender role content analysis

This study analyzed 40 Music Television (MTV) music videos across gender role based content categories. Videos were rated at 30-second intervals by four trained raters using a consensus model. Results included the following: (a) men appeared nearly twice as often as women; (b) men engaged in significantly more aggressive and dominant behavior; (c) women engaged in significantly more implicitly sexual and subservient behavior; and (d) women were more frequently the object of explicit, implicit, and aggressive sexual advances. Overall, MTV video content primarily included implicit sexuality, objectification, dominance, and implicit aggression. Implications of these findings with respect to sex role stereotyping and the development of negative attitudes toward women were discussed.     

The stigma of mental illness: Explanatory models and methods for change

For people with mental illness, diminished quality of life and loss of personal goals does not result solely from the symptoms, distress, and disabilities caused by their psychiatric disorder. Quality of life and personal goals are also hindered by people who embrace the stigma that accompanies mental illness and mental health care. This paper reviews evidence of the impact of mental illness stigma and strategies for seeking to ease its impact. To achieve these goals, we (a) describe the ways in which stigma harm people with mental illness, (b) summarize models that explain the development and maintenance of these stigmatizing effects, and (c) review strategies that have been shown to decrease the impact of stigma. Concerns about stigma are on the political agendas of many mental health advocacy groups. It has recently also become the focus of extensive research. Our goal in this paper is to balance the practical concerns raised by mental health advocates against data that support or contradicts specific assertions.     

The costs of target prioritization and the external requirements for using a recall-to-reject strategy in memory exclusion tasks: a meta-analysis

In event-related potential (ERP) studies, the left-parietal old/new effect is commonly considered as a neural correlate of recollection. In memory exclusion tasks, the effect is usually observed when the targeted information is identified, but it is not necessarily present when studied items are rejected as nontargets. Interestingly, both the presence and the absence of such old/new effects to nontargets have been regarded as indicator for strategic retrieval. We reviewed previous ERP studies using memory exclusion tasks to analyze the reaction time (RT) pattern in such studies, as well as the influence of task difficulty on the occurrence of nontarget retrieval. We identified 44 test conditions, reported in 24 studies, and subjected the behavioral data to a meta-analysis. The RTs to correctly rejected new items were shorter than the RTs to hits, in particular in studies that required differentiating conceptual or perceptual information at test. When the retrieval of target information was prioritized, RTs to nontargets were delayed relative to targets. Without such prioritization, no such RT differences were observed. For test conditions with nontarget retrieval, the retrieval accuracy was poorer compared with test conditions without such retrieval. The findings support previous studies that claimed that nontarget retrieval becomes more likely when target retrieval is difficult, but the strong overlap in task difficulty between conditions with and without nontarget retrieval indicates that other, partly yet to-be-identified factors contribute to the occurrence of nontarget retrieval as well.     

Domestic cats (Felis catus) do not show causal understanding in a string-pulling task

This study explored how domestic cats perform in a horizontal string-pulling task to determine whether they understand this case of physical causality. Fifteen cats were tested on their ability to retrieve an unreachable food treat in three different set-ups: (a) a single baited string, (b) two parallel strings where only one was baited and (c) two crossed strings where only one was baited. All cats succeeded at pulling a single string to obtain a treat, but none consistently chose the correct string when two strings were parallel. When tested with two crossed strings one cat chose the wrong string consistently and all others performed at chance level. There was no evidence that cats understand the function of the strings or their physical causality.     

Family functioning and eating attitudes and behaviors in at-risk early adolescent girls: The mediating role of intra-personal competencies

The relation between perceived family functioning, intra-personal competence, and eating attitudes and behaviors was examined in a sample of at-risk, ethnically diverse, early adolescents. Both family functioning and intra-personal competencies were related to eating attitudes and behavior. However, adolescent intra-personal competence, defined as self-control, negative, and positive coping, mediated the relationship between family functioning and eating attitudes and behaviors. Results suggest that by early adolescence, important aspects of family environment have consolidated into individual differences in competence and/or personality. Results are discussed within a developmental framework emphasizing the influence of the family on adolescent psychosocial development. The implications of these data for prevention and intervention with at-risk adolescent girls are also discussed. This work was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, NIH, under Grant DA 07031, to Thomas J. Dishion. Appreciation is expressed to the parents and adolescents who participated in this study, as well as the staff at the Project Alliance office in Portland.