Behaviorally-based decision-making training for children

A seven-step, behaviorally based, decision-making process was taught to 17 children, age 9–10 years. Each child's decision-making ability was measured before and after training, using two audiotaped stories that described problem situations typically encountered in the school or home. The children were asked to identify the problem, generate alternative solutions, think of positive and negative consequences for each solution, and offer a personal value supporting their decision. As compared to a no-treatment control group, the children receiving the decision-making training obtained significantly greater scores on four of five dependent measures. Implications for teaching decision-making as a self-management skill are offered.     

Reinforcement magnitude and the inhibiting effect of reinforcement

In a two-key concurrent variable-interval schedule (using pigeons), if the reinforcement frequency for one response is held constant while that for the other is increased, the rate of response on the constant key decreases. The immediate reinforcement for key pecking can usually be conceptualized as the change from a condition in which the key light is on and the food hopper light is off to one in which the key light is off and the hopper light is on. The prechange condition is associated with a delay to food of one-half the average interreinforcement interval in effect during this condition. The postchange condition is associated with a delay to food of about .5 seconds. The programming of additional reinforcement results in a decrease in the delay to food associated with the prechange stimulus condition, and thus a decrease in the value of the improvement that results from the change. This would appear to be analogous to a decrease in the amount of reinforcement, and thus sufficient explanation for the decrease in the rate of the response.     

Relevant Robinson's arithmetic

In this paper two different formulations of Robinson's arithmetic based on relevant logic are examined. The formulation based on the natural numbers (including zero) is shown to collapse into classical Robinson's arithmetic, whereas the one based on the positive integers (excluding zero) is shown not to similarly collapse. Relations of these two formulations to R. K. Meyer's system R# of relevant Peano arithmetic are examined, and some remarks are made about the role of constant functions (e.g., multiplication by zero) in relevant arithmetic.This paper has been greatly influenced by the (largely unpublished) work of E. K. Meyer (cf. [7]) on relevant arithmetic, and I wish to thank him, and also N. D. Belnap, Jr. and D. Cohen for helpful advice. In fairness to Meyer it must be said that he finds my axioms 13 and 13(1) too strong (they are not theorems of his system R# - cf. §4 below). Meyer tells me be finds vindication for his view in my chief theorem of §2. For myself, I find the insights behind Meyer's work on R# to be both stable and fruitful, and if I now had to make a choice, I would follow Meyer in his rejection of my axioms. However, the systems I explore in this paper themselves have a surprising amount of internal consistency of motivation (cf. §5). Let a hundred formal systems bloom.     

Response and encoding factors in “ignoring” irrelevant information

Subjects classified either the numerosity or numeric value of elements in successive stimulus displays. In separate experiments, responses were indicated by oral naming, card sorting, manual tapping, and oral “tapping.” Incongruent levels of numeric value slowed naming and sorting, but not tapping, when numerosity was the cue for responding. Incongruent numerosity slowed tapping, but not naming and sorting, when numeric value was the cue. Changes in stimulus response mapping may thus critically alter the ability to ignore an irrelevant stimulus dimension.     

Cognitive,social, and other correlates of specific reading retardation

Children with specific reading retardation were matched with controls on the basis of age, sex, intelligence, and (less successfully) parental education. All subjects were tested on a variety of automated performance tests including the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Task, Auditory-Visual Integration, Short-Term Memory, the Continuous Performance Task (CPT), and Motor Performance. All children were assessed socially using the Conners Teacher Questionnaire, and reading-retarded children were rated on the Behavior Problem Checklist. Finally, all children were screened with the Finger Twitch Test and were assessed for left-right awareness. Statistical analysis suggested that the following performance tests discriminated between the groups in this respective order of importance: MFF (Accuracy), Auditory-Visual Integration, and the CPT. The Short-Term Memory Task, MFF Decision Time, and Motor Performance did not distinguish between the groups. Multiple regression equations suggested that scores on the performance tests could account for about 40% of the variance in reading attainment. Several factors from the rating scales (notably those pertaining to attention and anxiety) and left-right awareness also discriminated between the groups.This study was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council of New Zealand to Prof. J. S. Werry (Grant MRC 151). The author would especially like to thank John Werry, M. D., Malcolm Gill, Ph.D., and the staffs of the official Remedial Reading Clinics and Psychological Services as well as those of Epsom Normal, Mount Eden Normal, Newmarket, and Parnell primary schools for the willing support they all rendered this project.     

The structuring of interpersonal relations in schizophrenic adolescents: A decentering analysis of Thematic Apperception Test stories

This study tested the hypothesis that schizophrenics employ more developmentally immature levels of decentering in their structuring of interpersonal relations. A 9-point scale of interpersonal decentering, developed originally by Feffer, was applied to Thematic Appercetion Test stories produced by schizophrenic adolescents and a control group of psychiatrically disturbed patients equivalent in age and intellectual functioning. Results provided convincing support for the hypothesis tested and suggest the theoretical utility of viewing interpersonal deficit in schizophrenia from a cognitive-developmental perspective.     

Construction and complexity of tactual maps for the blind

Summary In this investigation, the effectiveness of tactual maps for the blind was tested. Four different pseudomaps were constructed; they differ on the one hand in type of construction (channel vs. track construction) and on the other hand in degree of complexity (low vs. high complexity).Depending on the experimental condition, blindfolded sighted Ss had to learn one of the four maps (10 Ss for each type). Afterwards they had to reproduce the maps by drawing them. The accuracy of their performance was measured in two different ways (free reproduction and reproduction with correction). In addition, the memory and spatial imagery of the Ss were measured by two psychological tests.The overall result of the study was that reproduction is better for tactual maps with channels than with tracks. This result is valid for maps with low as well as high complexity. Furthermore, maps with channels are more widely usable, since with this type of map, good memory and spatial imagery are not prerequisites.     

On Turkey Identification

As human relations skills are more widely taught and used, they are inevitably misused as well, often by some particularly fowl aggressors. This article is intended as a brief self-defense course identifying those who undergo this strange, but usually temporary, metamorphosis into “turkeys.” It provides a rough categorization of subspecies with their identifying characteristics and a proposal for return to personhood.