A comparison of the reliability and validity of the standard MFF and MFF20 with learning-disabled children

A direct comparison was made of the reliability and validity of the standard Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF) to a recent longer version of the task (MFF20). Subjects comprised two samples of learning-disabled children, matched on age, sex, IQ, and SES. The Salkind and Wright (1977) formulation was used to generate continuous data, and IQ was statistically controlled. Internal reliability estimates showed the MFF20 to be more consistent that the standard version on both error and latency scores. Validity was addressed by comparing the two versions of the task in their ability to predict cognitive and behavioral skills of conceptual relevance to impulsivity. Results indicated that the MFF20 is a more sensitive predictor of academic achievement and attention as observed in a natural setting than is the standard version of the task.This study was supported by a contract (300-77-0495) from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, Office of Education, for the University of Virginia Learning Disabilities Research Institute. The authors would like to express appreciation to the school officials who generously assisted in the present study: Elizabeth Bailey, Thomas Cox, Charles Dempsey, Julian King.     

Attitudes Toward Male Oral Contraceptives: Implications for Models of the Relationship Between Beliefs and Attitudes1

Four factors (effectiveness, health risks, cost, and convenience) were orthogonally manipulated in a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to determine their relative importance in influencing attitudes toward and intentions to use male oral contraceptives. The experimental design also permitted a test of the assumption of additivity underlying expectancy-value models of attitude and the assumption of absence of context effects. Results were consistent with expectancy-value models of the relationship between beliefs and attitudes. In addition, it was found that health risks and effedtiveness, in that order, were the most important factors influencing receptivity to male oral contraceptives, with the effects of cost and convenience being mediated by these two factors. Sex differences in attitudes toward male oral contraceptives were also observed.     

The role of perceptual and semantic elaboration in high- and low-imagery sentence recall

Sentence imagery effects in recall are predicted by both perceptual and semantic elaboration models. The former attributes superior recall of high-imagery sentences to the addition of perceptual network components to an existing semantic network; the latter claims that additions of semantic components are involved. In order to identify the responsible components, free associates were generated to otherwise similar high- and low-imagery sentences in a short-term memory task. In accordance with the perceptual elaboration model, associates differed in rated imagery, but not in number. In a second study, the causal role of perceptual elaboration in recall was investigated by using high- and low-imagery sentence associates as recall cues. Differential effects of cue imagery were found for high-imagery sentences, indicating that perceptual codes are in part responsible for superior high-imagery sentence recall. Evidence is presented that perceptual and semantic network components are involved in a processing trade-off, and the adequacy of present network models to explain it is discussed.     

Vicarious and operant experiences in the etiology of illness behavior: A replication with healthy individuals

The purpose of the present investigation was to replicate a previous study of diabetic patients on the role of parental modeling in the etiology of illness behavior. A random sample of healthy individuals were assigned to an avoidant model (AM) (i.e. parent reported to have avoided work. chores etc. when ill) or non-avoidant model (NAM) group. Subjects subsequently provided retrospective and current information concerning their illness-behavior experiences. The results indicated that individuals with an AM reported more responsibility avoidance when ill currently and as a child compared to the NAM subjects. Additionally. AM subjects reported receiving more positive reinforcement for current illness compared to NAM subjects. It was concluded that the process by which individuals learn to respond to illness may be similar in healthy and chronically-ill individuals but that positive reinforcement for illness may be more likely to be received by healthy individuals during acute illness than by chronically-ill individuals. The present study provides further preliminary support for the learningtheory model of illness behavior.