VARIANT AND INVARIANT HIGH-PROBABILITY REQUESTS: INCREASING APPROPRIATE BEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN WITH EMOTIONAL-BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

This study examined the effects of variant versus invariant high-probability (high-p) request sequences on the performance of requests to initiate a social bid by young children with emotional-behavioral disorders. In the initial phases of the investigation, a multiple baseline design showed that the delivery of invariant sequences (i.e., high-p requests delivered in the same sequence) produced initial increases in compliance to requests to initiate a social bid to a peer. However, increases were not maintained across the invariant condition. The delivery of variant high-p sequences produced increases in compliance to requests to initiate social bids that were maintained across the variant condition. In a follow-up condition, the number of requests within the pool of the variant and invariant high-p requests were controlled. Results of the follow-up condition replicated those found in the initial condition. Implications for applied use and future research are discussed.     

Fact and fantasy: The effects of internally generated events on the apparent frequency of externally generated events

As John Locke pointed out, there are at least two sources of the contents of the mind: events that occur in the world and events that originate in the mind. Memory, as a record of experience, should contain information from both sources. The present studies investigated memory for the frequency of externally and internally generated events. Individual items were presented to subjects varying numbers of times and tested varying numbers of times. Later, subjects were asked to estimate the frequency of both types of events. Experiment 1 showed that internally generated events influenced the judged frequency of externally generated events and vice versa. The first of these was called the IFE effect and the second the IFI effect. Experiment 2 indicated that the IFE effect was greater when tests consisted of overt, as compared to covert, recall trials. The results were discussed in terms of a model for storing and using occurrence information which would account for both our ability to discriminate between and our tendency to confuse internally and externally generated memory representations.     

Naming and locating simultaneously and sequentially presented letters

Two letters varying in level of confusability were presented either simultaneously for 75 msec or sequentially for 75 msec each in adjacent retinal locations. The retinal locus of presentation varied from trial to trial, and subjects both identified and located the presented letters. Identification accuracy was higher on nonconfusable than on confusable letter pairs in the simultaneous condition, but not in the sequential condition. This result is interpreted as support for the notion that inhibition between similar or identical features shared by confusable letters occurs only when letters are presented simultaneously. A relative position effect, with performance on the peripheral letter higher than on the central letter, was found for simultaneously and second sequentially presented letters, but not for first sequentially presented letters. This result is interpreted in terms of the assumption that feature perturbations, with foveal perturbations more likely than peripheral perturbations, affect simultaneously and secondpresented letters, but not first-presented letters. The pattern of results for relative location accuracy showed many of the same effects as identification performance. A model assuming location errors reflect feature transpositions is outlined and is able to account for the absolute and relative location results and the correlation between relative location and identification accuracy.     

A role theoretical interpretation of personality scale item responses

This paper proposes that test-taking behavior can be regarded as a kind of self-presentation formally identical to that which goes on in most social interaction. It follows from this analysis that the success of such self-presentations should be affected by the actor's role-taking ability or empathy. Evidence is presented that supports this conjecture; the paper then suggests that role-taking ability may limit in a systematic manner validity coefficients in much assessment research.     

Psychological androgyny and personality adjustment in college and psychiatric populations

In two separate studies, 106 female and 84 male undergraduates and 48 female and 48 male psychiatric inpatients were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Faschingbauer Abbreviated Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated groups identified from the BSRI differed on a variety of personality scales in both normal and clinical populations. Androgynous females were significantly lower on the Depression (D) and Social Introversion (Si) scales than feminine females, and, in the college sample, were also lower on the Schizophrenia and Mania scales than masculine females. In the hospitalized male sample, this pattern was partially sustained, with androgynous and masculine subjects being significantly less deviant than feminine on the Si scale, and tending to score lower on the D scale. In the group of college males, androgynous males scored lower on the Si scale than feminine males. Hypotheses concerning the relationship of sex-role flexibility (androgyny) to mental health appear to be supported for females in both college and psychiatric populations by these results. These results also indicate that sex-role conformity may relate differently to personality development and psychological functioning for males and females.     

Children's understanding of natural language hierarchies

Three experiments examined young children's ability to evaluate the relationship between concepts as one of inclusion. In Experiment 1, the same group of 4-to 7-year-old children were given three tasks: one in which they made judgments about whether “all” or “some” members of a category were included in another category, and two tasks in which they made inferences based on knowledge of inclusion relations. The majority of children succeeded on at least one of the tasks, thereby implying that they could evaluate inclusion relations. Two further experiments provided more evidence for this hypothesis: Experiment 2 confirmed that nursery children could answer quantitative questions about conceptual interrelationts; Experiment 3 demonstrated that nursery schoolers could solve certain inference problems involving the construction and evaluation of hierarchies.     

Effects of peer presence on sex-typing of children's play behavior

Effect of peer presence on the sex-typed toy choices of 3- and 4-year-olds was investigated in a repeated measures experimental design. Twenty-six girls and thirty-six boys were tested under three conditions: (a) alone; (b) in the presence of a same-sex peer; and (c) in the presence of an opposite-sex peer. Amount of time spent playing with three feminine- and three masculine-stereotyped toys was recorded. For both boys and girls, play with “sex role-inappropriate” toys was significantly lower in the presence of an opposite-sex peer than in the solitary condition. Across conditions boys exhibited less play with opposite-sex-typed toys than girls. Rate of play with opposite-sex-typed toys increased in successive trials for both sexes. These results indicate that the presence of an opposite-sex peer functions as a discriminative stimulus for avoidance of “sex role-inappropriate” play in preschoolers and suggests that preschoolers may have a history of differential reinforcement for sex-typed play in the presence of peers.     

Abrupt changes in visual stimulation enhance processing of form and location information

Two experiments investigated the role that abrupt changes in stimulation play in the processing of visual information. In both experiments, the prestimulus field contained a linear array of alternating characters and the target field contained a single target character in one of the positions of the prestimulus array. The target character was either identical to the character in the prestimulus array in that position (no-form change) or was a different character (form change). In the first experiment, the duration of the prestimulus array was 500 msec, and judgments about both the target’s form and location were found to be more accurate in the form-change condition. In the second experiment, the duration of the prestimulus array was varied from 10 to 320 msec. A general decrease was found in performance (in both form and location judgments) as the duration of the prestimulus array was increased. The detrimental effect of increasing the duration of the prestimulus array was larger for no-form-change than for form-change trials. These results are accounted for by a quantitative model that assumes that a stimulus onset initiates a brief period of rapid information processing, followed by a period with reduced rate of processing.     

Hubris in the family

This paper elaborates the Palazzoli group's idea of hubris in family systems using two case examples. The first case illustrates the symmetry in a couple who are too richly cross-joined and the escalating hubristic position of each partner. The intervention that unbalanced the system was based on the Milanese group's theory. The second couple shows what the author calls reverse symmetry. They have a somewhat greater capacity for transformation than the first, which suggests a higher level of psychosexual development. In both cases, the theory behind the intervention is outlined and there is an attempt at rapprochement between systems theory and some aspects of individual psychology. For example, homeostasis and the need for safety, symmetry, projection and the repetition compulsion are shown to be common to both. Pathological narcissism which pervades the psychotic family is defined as the hubristic action itself. The form that the narcissism takes within the family in turn determines the hubristic position of its members; three forms are described.