Psychosocial characteristics of preschool siblings of handicapped and nonhandicapped children

This project examined psychosocial characteristics of 24 preschool-aged siblings of handicapped children in relation to a control group of 22 siblings of nonhandicapped children. Subjects were matched on family size and income, sibling age, birth order, sex, age spacing, and marital status of their parents. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between groups of children on measures of perceived self-competence and acceptance, understanding of developmental disabilities, empathy, and child care responsibility. Significant group differences were found where brothers of handicapped children were rated by their mothers as being more depressed and aggressive than brothers of nonhandicapped control children. Sisters of handicapped children were rated by mothers as being more aggressive than sisters of nonhandicapped children. Sisters of handicapped children and brothers of nonhandicapped children had significantly fewer privileges and more restrictions on their home activities than other groups. Results are discussed in relation to previous research on older silbings of handicapped children and the general literature on family stress and childhood disability and disease. The importance of examining sibling functioning via multiple measures of child behavior is stressed.The authors are grateful to the children and families who participated in the project. The assistance of Dr. Ricardo Barrera, Christine DiBlasio, Lisa Kaye, Paola Bellabarba, Jeanne Logozzo, Donna Motley, Jennifer Harter, and Tina Meisell is also gratefully acknowleged. This project was funded by Grant Number G008300345 from the U.S. Department of Education.     

Data transfer concepts and strategies in a psychological research environment

In this paper, we discuss the importance and problems of data transfer in psychological research environments. Discussion includes how simple text file transfer systems meet researchers’ needs. The systems’ shortcomings are also analyzed. Strategies for customizing systems, using pre-prepared software packages, point-to-point systems, and “networked” systems, are carefully analyzed.     

The substitutability of reinforcers

Substitutability is a construct borrowed from microeconomics that describes a continuum of possible interactions among the reinforcers in a given situation. Highly substitutable reinforcers, which occupy one end of the continuum, are readily traded for each other due to their functional similarity. Complementary reinforcers, at the other end of the continuum, tend to be consumed jointly in fairly rigid proportion, and therefore cannot be traded for one another except to achieve that proportion. At the center of the continuum are reinforcers that are independent with respect to each other; consumption of one has no influence on consumption of another. Psychological research and analyses in terms of substitutability employ standard operant conditioning paradigms in which humans and nonhumans choose between alternative reinforcers. The range of reinforcer interactions found in these studies is more readily accommodated and predicted when behavior-analytic models of choice consider issues of substitutability. New insights are gained into such areas as eating and drinking, electrical brain stimulation, temporal separation of choice alternatives, behavior therapy, drug use, and addictions. Moreover, the generalized matching law (Baum, 1974) gains greater explanatory power and comprehensiveness when measures of substitutability are included.     

The differential validity of hyperactivity/attention deficits and conduct problems among mentally retarded children

The independence of hyperactivity, attention deficits, and conduct problems among mentally retarded children was addressed using factors of the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale-39 (CTRS-39) and the more recently developed IOWA Conners' inattention/overactivity (IO) and aggression (A) subscales. CTRS-39 ratings were obtained for children of normal intelligence and for mentally retarded children. Differences between the groups were examined as were intercorrelations of the Conners' factors and IOWA subscales. Conduct problems proved to be less strongly associated with hyperactivity and attention deficits among mentally retarded children compared to children of normal intelligence. However, attention problems and conduct problems may be associated with mental retardation in general. Implications of these data and CTRS scoring system recommendations for mentally retarded children are discussed.     

The Patient Self-Determination Act and Advance Directives: Snapshots of Activities in a Tertiary Health Care Center

This study describes the results of a retrospective review of patients' charts who had an advanced directive (AD) and who were hospitalized in a tertiary, acute care teaching hospital. The purpose of the review was to understand from clinical, sociological, ethical and legal perspectives the nature and utility of ADs. Findings and implications of the review are discussed in terms of: patient demographics; diagnoses; quality of ADs; influence of ADs on clinical decisions; and legal aspects of ADs.     

Some correlates of health locus of control among multicultural individuals

The relationship of locus of control to depression, anxiety, hostility, and physical health was assessed in a sample of multicultural college students (N = 162). Powerful Others Health Locus of Control was correlated with depression, anxiety, hostility, and recent physical symptoms while Chance Health Locus of Control (CHLC) was correlated with all of the above as well as chronic physical symptoms and major health problems. When controlling for a variety of health risk factors (viz., age, sex, body mass, exercise, smoking, salt, alcohol, and caffeine), only CHLC remained significant in the physical health models. Results support the cognitive model of mental health which emphasize the importance of adaptive beliefs. Specifically, they suggest that issues about control are related to negative affect and indicate that the often-cited relationship of an external locus of control to depression and anxiety also holds for hostility. The findings do not, however, support the view that anxiety and depression are associated with different types of external locus of control but rather suggest a unified set of locus of control beliefs underlying the three types of negative affect. In addition, evidence is provided for the external validity of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales with respect to mental health. Further, the results indicate that belief about one’s health may play a significant role in one’s physical health and that the health behavior model of the relationship between locus of control and physical health is insufficient to explain the relationship. As the Chance and Powerful Others MHLC scales were not related to health habits in this sample but were related to mental health (viz., depression, anxiety, and hostility), locus of control beliefs may be related to physical health via their relationship with mental health.     

CLASSWIDE PEER TUTORING: AN INTEGRATION STRATEGY TO IMPROVE READING SKILLS AND PROMOTE PEER INTERACTIONS AMONG STUDENTS WITH AUTISM AND GENERAL EDUCATION PEERS

A multiple baseline design across subjects with a reversal was used to examine the effects of classwide peer tutoring relative to traditional reading instruction on reading skills and social interaction time for 3 high-functioning students with autism and their typical peers in integrated, general education classrooms. Traditional reading instruction consisted largely of teacher-led instruction with individual student participation and seat work. Classwide peer tutoring consisted of 25 to 30 min of well-specified instruction in which tutor—learner pairs worked together on a classwide basis on reading fluency and comprehension skills. All students participated in 15- to 20-min unstructured free-time activities immediately following reading instruction. Results of reading assessments demonstrated that classwide peer tutoring increased reading fluency and correct responses to reading comprehension questions for students with autism and their peers. The procedure further increased the total duration of free-time social interactions for students with autism and typical peers, with individual variation in performance.     

DOUBLE DISSOCIATION BETWEEN MEMORY SYSTEMS UNDERLYING EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT MEMORY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

Abstract— Amnesic patients have impaired explicit memory that is evident in poor recall and recognition of words, yet can have intact implicit memory for words as measured by repetition priming, the enhanced efficiency for reprocessing those word's. The dissociation between explicit and implicit memory for words is a fundamental characteristic of normal cognition that could reflect two different functional architectures of the human brain two separate processing systems or two levels of operation of a single system with implicit memory less demanding of that system. We present a patient who has a lesion in the right occipital lobe and who showed intact explicit and impaired implicit memory for words. The deficit was specific to visual priming. The double dissociation between explicit and implicit visual memory for words indicates that separate processing systems mediate these two forms of memory, and that a memory system in right occipital cortex mediates implicit visual memory for words.