THE FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL FOOD COLORS AND HYPERACTIVITY

The presence of a functional relationship between the ingestion of artificial food colors and an increase in the frequency and/or duration of selected behaviors that are representative of the hyperactive behavior syndrome was experimentally investigated. Two eight-year-old females, who had been on the Feingold K-P diet for a minimum of 11 months, were the subjects studied. The experimental design was a variation of the BAB design, with double-blind conditions. This design allowed an experimental analysis of the placebo phases as well as challenge phases. Data were obtained by trained observers on Out of Seat, On Task, and Physically Aggressive behaviors, as they occurred in the subjects' regular class setting. Results indicated (a) the existence of a functional relationship between the ingestion of artificial food colors and an increase in both the duration and frequency of hyperactive children.     

Instructions and decision times of size-constancy responses

The current study investigated the effect of instructions and stimulus discriminability on size-constancy responses and decision times in a task allowing separate evaluation of the effects of instructions and of dimensional choices by the subjects in the size-constancy task. Objective, perspective, or distance matches were influenced both by the instructions given the subject and by the relative discriminability of the stimuli in each dimension, so that subjects did not always successfully follow their instructions. Decision times were found to be fastest with perspective rather than objective or apparent instructions, but times taken to produce objective and perspective matches did not differ. Apparently, both objective and perspective judgments are available to the perceiver before a response is made, but instructions affect postperceptual response times.     

An observational case study of failure in social problem-solving

An observationally based assessment of social problem-solving skill was contrasted with more traditional testing methods. A preschool child with low social success was chosen for a demonstration profile analysis. The relative frequencies of the social goals, strategies, and targets shown by this child during free play were plotted in relation to that of his same-sex peer group. Parallel profiles of his relative success with specific goals, strategies, and targets were also constructed and compared to relevant group means and standard deviations. Specific social problem-solving strengths and weaknesses were identified from these profiles, using both intra- and interindividual analyses. The benefits and limitations of this approach for measurement and treatment of social problem-solving deficits were discussed.     

Dimensions underlying Holland's hexagon: Missing link between interests and occupations?

Holland uses a hexagon to model relationships among his six types of vocational interests. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the nature of the interest dimensions underlying the hexagon. Two studies are reported. Study 1 examines the extent to which two theory-based dimensions—data/ideas and things/people—fit 27 sets of intercorrelations for Holland's types. Three of the data sets involve the mean scores of career groups (total of 228 groups and 35,060 individuals); 24 involve the scores for individuals (total of 11,275). Study 2 explores the heuristic value of the data/ideas and things/people dimensions by determining whether they contribute to the understanding of why interest inventories work. Two data sets covering a total of 563 occupations are used to calculate correlations between the vocational interests of persons and the tasks which characterize the persons' occupations. Each occupation's principal work tasks are determined from job analysis data obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor. Study 1 results provide substantial support for the theory-based dimensions. Study 2 results suggest that interest inventories “work” primarily because they tap activity preferences which parallel work tasks. Counseling and research applications of the data/ideas and things/people dimensions are suggested and implications for interest assessment are noted.     

Prediction of success or failure in birth planning: An approach to prevention of individual and family stress

Following the view that individual future time perspective is an outcome of the socialization process, it was hypothesized that good contraceptors would display significantly longer future time extension than poor contraceptors. In a Planned Parenthood agency, 25 subjects from each group, constituting nearly the whole clinic population in these categories for a 3-month period, were given the Future Events Test during their clinic visits. The major hypothesis was confirmed, and also a significant tendency towards viewing future events more negatively was found among the poor contraceptors. Demographic data did not discriminate clearly between the two groups, though the poor contraceptors were somewhat younger and had a somewhat higher weekly family income. Use of personality variables in predicting birth-planning success or failure seems more promising than continued reliance solely on the sociocultural approach. Implications for screening and prevention in the interest of the individual, the family, and the community are discussed.     

“Honey,Won't You Please Stay Home”

The mass return to campus by the mature woman has become commonplace at colleges and universities across the country. According to the Bureau of the Census, almost 800,000 adults 35 years of age and over were enrolled in or attending college in October 1972 and “over half (53 percent) were women” (Young 1973, p. 39), the overwhelming majority of whom were going to college part-time. Many of these women find that their decision to return to school after an extended interruption of their formal education is both serious and significant, changing not only their own values, perceptions, and self-images but also giving rise to stress and change in their relationships with their families. The 1973 report of the National Advisory Council on Extension and Continuing Education concludes with the statement, “Perhaps most importantly, continuing education programs for women have revitalized the idea that the most important kind of learning results in changes in life styles and in self-image and often requires long and difficult struggle” (Mulligan 1973, p. 17). These changes and the consequent long and difficult struggle often prove to be disturbing, disrupting, disabling, or even disastrous.     

Changes in step variability of new walkers with typical development and with Down syndrome

Models of human gait are based on adult locomotion. C. E. Bauby and A. D. Kuo (2000) proposed that adults rely on passive mechanisms at the spinal level to control motion in the anteroposterior direction and rely on direct monitoring of postural control in the lateral direction. The authors' purpose in this study was to determine if that model applies to control at the onset of walking in typically developing toddlers (n = 9) and in toddlers with Down syndrome (n = 6). Their longitudinal data suggested that toddlers control gait in a distinctly different manner than adults do. An adult pattern of control emerges with experience. In addition, the effect of experience on the emergence of that pattern is magnified by task-specific early intervention. The present data support the emergence and discovery of efficient patterns of control in this fundamental human behavior.