The zone of potential development: implications for intelligence testing in the year 2000

The emphasis of this paper is the practice and interpretation of intelligence testing of educable retarded children. The current and future state of intelligence testing are in terms of three criteria: their predictive, diagnostic and remedial functions. In the first section we consider individual testing formats within a framework of Vygotsky's theory of potential development and the underlying assumptions of that theory concerning task analysis and transferring of training. In section two, we consider the social nature of the testing situation and the degree of contextual support provided for the learner. In the final section we consider Neisser's distinction between academic intelligence and everyday thinking with particular reference to the life adjustment of mildly retarded citizens     

Temporal organization of pattern structure

Two pattern reproduction experiments examined the relations among the figural goodness of a pattern, the organization of two parts within the pattern, and the interpart interval (ISI), which ranged from 40 to 200 msec. If the parts contained connected line segments, performance was slightly better (3%-5% gain in accuracy) at a 40-msec ISI than at a 200-msec ISI. If the parts contained unconnected line segments, reproduction accuracy of the first part declined sharply between 40 and 200 msec. These results were interpreted by assuming that the parts were perceived as a single whole pattern at a 40-msec ISI but as two separate patterns at a 200-msec ISI. One surprising finding, the lack of an interaction between figural goodness and ISI, was explained in terms of a response bias in favor of figural good patterns. A secondary manipulation revealed that a part was more accurately reproduced in a good figure context than in a poor figure context but was most accurately reproduced when it appeared alone.     

Interactive effects of cognitive involvement and response topography upon differential eyelid conditioning to conceptual discriminanda

The purpose of the experiment was to determine some cognitive differences underlying the superior differential conditioning of voluntary-form (V) over conditioned-form (C) responders. Two cognitive activities were hypothesized to be jointly necessary for the superiority of Vs: first, an active development of reinforcement contingency awareness by the subject himself, and, second, an active use of acquired contingency knowledge in predicting UCS occurrences. The first variable was manipulated by asking half of the subjects to "figure out" the contingencies, while the other half were fully informed of them at the start. The second variable was assessed by requiring half of the subjects to engage in a button-pressing US prediction task on each trial. Conditioned discrimination indicated that, as predicted, both of these cognitive activities were required for good performance by Cs, supporting the hypothesis that Cs are normally deficient in these respects. An unpredicted deterioration in discrimination for Vs when both task manipulations were imposed suggested that competition between the Vs' spontaneous cognitive activities and the experimentally imposed ones developed in the high external demand situation.     

An examination of secondary reinforcement,operant conditioning,and status envy hypotheses in relation to sex-role ideology

A series of predictions concerning adult sex-role ideology was derived from three theoretical approaches commonly applied to the sex-role development of children: secondary reinforcement, operant conditioning by peers, and status envy. Relevant data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered to 635 students at two regional state universities and to nonstudent adults in the surrounding communities. Of these, 226 were classified as having a distinctive contemporary or traditional sex-role ideology by means of a short test developed and validated by the authors for this purpose. Discriminant analyses indicated that each theoretical approach differentiated between contemporary and traditional subjects at levels significantly better than chance. However, the status envy approach, as modified by social learning theory, was most effective and correctly classified 85% of the females and 93% of the males according to their sex-role ideologies. Alternative explanations of results are discussed and an eclectic model is advocated.The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Dr. Barbara Wallston for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Jan Curley for computer assistance.     

Toward a theory of intelligence: Contributions from research with retarded children

One approach to the understanding of intelligence is through research with retarded children and adults. Any characterization of the way(s) in which they differ from nonretarded individuals results in a specification of important components of intelligence. In this paper, we deal with two general areas of research. In one, centering on the role of control processes in memory and problem-solving situations, we argue that research with the retarded has succeeded in identifying a major component of intelligence. The results from a large number of experiments lead us to the conclusion that a hallmark of intelligence is the ability to generalize information from one situation to another, and that this ability in turn depends upon effective “executive control.” In areas where less research with retarded individuals has been doen, we suggest that comparative/developmental work is necessary to gain a better understanding of the processes in question. We illustrate this point by discussing some work aimed at locating individual differences in parameters representing basic components of general information-processing systems.     

Microcomputers big and little: Selecting a low-cost laboratory computer network

Characteristics of microcomputers are described affecting suitability for low-cost laboratory network use. Assuming a network of small microcomputers with interfaces for applications and a larger one for program development, 6502-based hobbyist computers appear cheapest at this time, while microcomputers imitating minicomputers have the best hardware and software support.     

Bilingualism and Lexical Representation

Forty-eight Hindi-English bilinguals completed two blocks of trials where each trial involved presentation of a letter string requiring a lexical decision. In the first block subjects were exposed to 22 words and 11 non-words in either English or Hindi. In the second block the original words were repeated in either the same language or in the alternative language. In this block the old (repeated) words were mixed with 22 new words, and 22 non-words. Twelve subjects were included in each of the four groups given by the factorial combination of blocks and languages. Reaction time in the lexical decision task was facilitated when words were repeated in the same language (109 and 125 ms in the English-English and Hindi-Hindi groups respectively), but little or no facilitation was observed in the inter-lingual conditions (-22 and 23 ms in the Hindi-English and English-Hindi conditions respectively). The results support the view that lexical representation in bilinguals is language-specific.     

Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII): development, reliability, and validity of a scale to assess suicide attempts and intentional self-injury

The authors describe the development of the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII), an instrument designed to assess the factors involved in nonfatal suicide attempts and intentional self-injury. Using 4 cohorts of participants, authors generated SASII items and evaluated them with factor and content analyses and internal consistency statistics. The final measure was assessed for reliability and validity with collateral measures. The SASII assesses variables related to method, lethality and impulsivity of the act, likelihood of rescue, suicide intent or ambivalence and other motivations, consequences, and habitual self-injury. The SASII was found to have very good interrater reliability and adequate validity.