EFFECTS OF A VOICE OUTPUT COMMUNICATION AID ON INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SUPPORT PERSONNEL AND AN INDIVIDUAL WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES

We evaluated a means of increasing staff members' interactions with an individual with multiple disabilities through use of a voice output communication aid (VOCA). When activated, the VOCA allowed the individual to communicate through synthesized speech. Results indicated that staff members interacted with the individual more frequently when she had access to the VOCA, suggesting that VOCAs may represent an alternative to more traditional staff management programs for increasing interactions.     

Assessment of HIV counselling and social care services in a London hospital

The use of, and satisfaction with, counselling and social care services was investigated among HIV-infected clients attending HIV specialist climes at Guy's Hospital and Southwark Social Services, London. A survey of 71 clients with HIV infection was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire. The greatest demand was for advice about income support, housing, counselling for the HIV test, counselling for depression or anxiety, psychological support for coping with HIV, help with sleeping problems, mobility allowance, and help with furniture/household appliances. Overall, 57% thought the service was good or excellent; 66% of respondents thought they would use the services in the future. Over nine in ten clients had used the psychosocial support services at some stage since their HIV diagnosis, although only two-thirds anticipated that they would have need of these services in the future. The psychosocial support service will need to remain responsive to the shift in demand for this service, as well as the changing needs of clients who use it.     

THE PRICE OF EXPERTISE:

Abstract— When shown a idled container, people often fail to appreciate that the surface of the liquid contained within should remain horizontal with respect to the ground. This study investigated how amenable this bias is to experience in relevant everyday situations. Surprisingly, liquid surfaces that waitresses and bartenders considered natural deviated even more from horizontal than was the case for comparison groups. This finding is, to our knowledge, the only documented case in which performance declines with experience. We suggest that practical experience promotes a functionally relative perspective, in which the orientation of the liquid's surface is evaluated relative to that of its container as opposed to being related directly to the surrounding environment. The container-relative perspective, in turn, evokes a perceptual bias that is responsible for the systematic errors observed on this task.     

Perceiving geographical slant

People judged the inclination of hills viewed either out-of-doors or in a computer-simulated virtual environment. Angle judgments were obtained by having people (1) provide verbal estimates, (2) adjust a representation of the hill’s cross-section, and (3) adjust a tilt board with their unseen hand. Geographical slant was greatly overestimated according to the first two measures, but not the third. Apparent slant judgments conformed to ratio scales, thereby enhancing sensitivity to the small inclines that must actually be traversed in everyday experience. It is proposed that the perceived exaggeration of geographical slant preserves the relationship between distal inclination and people’s behavioral potential. Hills are harder to traverse as people become tired; hence, apparent slant increased with fatigue. Visually guided actions must be accommodated to the actual distal properties of the environment; consequently, the tilt board adjustments did not reflect apparent slant overestimations, nor were they influenced by fatigue. Consistent with the fact that steep hills are more difficult to descend than to ascend, these hills appeared steeper when viewed from the top.     

Validation of the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale

Relationships between sociometric indices and scores of 160 elementary-school children on the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale (CABS) were examined to determine whether this instrument differentiates children of varying levels of social competence. Children who obtained either high or low scores on peer nominations of friendship and admiration were identified and compared on CABS passive, aggressive, and assertive scores. Children who scored high on positive peer nominations responded in a significantly less aggressive manner than children who received low scores on such nominations. These effects were observed for the CABS format that consisted of stimulus situations involving adults but not for the form involving peers. With regard to responses toward peers, a significant interaction between sex and sociometric status emerged. These findings suggest the importance of incorporating subject variables such as race and sex as well as assessments of behavior toward both adults and children in isolating and training components of social skill.The authors wish to express their appreciation to Jean Birbilis, Gail Hammersly, Marieta Knopf, and Donna Wadley for their assistance in data collection and analysis.     

TEACHING FOSTER GRANDPARENTS TO TRAIN SEVERELY HANDICAPPED PERSONS

Five foster grandparents were taught training skills for use in their daily interactions with severely handicapped persons in an institution. Following baseline, specific teaching procedures consisting of teacher instructions, prompts, modelling, and praise were implemented. The grandparents' frequency of training three skill areas increased as the specific teaching was implemented in multiple-baseline format. The total amount of training continued as teacher instructions, prompts, and modelling were terminated and praise continued, although the grandparents spent their training time emphasizing only two of the three skill areas. Teacher presence was gradually reduced over an 11-week period, with no decrease in grandparents' frequency of training. Four of the foster grandchildren, all profoundly retarded and multiply handicapped, demonstrated progress throughout the study. Results were discussed in light of the available contributions of foster grandparents in institutional settings and maintenance of staff training.     

The order of continuous,partial and nonreward trials and resistance to extinction

In the first experiment rats were given either 16 or 48 nonrewarded or continuously rewarded trials prior to 24 continuously or partially rewarded trials, followed by extinction. Increased resistance to extinction was found for increasing numbers of nonrewarded trials when they were followed by partial reward, but not when followed by continuous reward. Similarly, more continuously rewarded trials followed by partial reward tended to increase resistance to extinction. Because of the theoretical importance of the effect of continuous reward followed by partial, a second experiment was performed where the range of the number of continuously rewarded trials was extended to 0, 48, and 96. Contrary to many theoretical predictions, resistance to extinction increased as a function of increasing amounts of continuous reward.     

Suprathreshold binocular interactions for grating patterns

Binocular interactions of suprathreshold grating patterns have been investigated using a reaction time measure of contrast detection. Simple reaction times were determined for monocular and binocular viewing conditions over a contrast range from .63 to near threshold. The results from all subjects showed binocular summation for contrast levels near threshold, but there was considerable variation across subjects for contrast levels above threshold. Some subjects showed summation over the entire contrast range, but other subjects showed either binocular inhibition or binocular facilitation for some range of contrast levels. The pattern of binocular interaction for a given subject was consistent for several spatial frequencies. The differences in types of interaction between subjects, the variation in magnitude of binocular interaction with contrast level for each subject, and the data from experiments involving stimulation of noncorresponding retinal areas show that the binocular interactions found for suprathreshold stimuli cannot be accounted for on the basis of probability, and must, therefore, result from physiological interactions between the two eyes. These interactions have been investigated further under conditions of (1) induced fixation disparity, (2) horizontal gratings, and (3) orthogonally oriented gratings.