Incentives and Seat Belts: Changing a Resistant Behavior Through Extrinsic Motivation

Because previously-attempted methods of increasing automobile seat belt usage have proven to be either ineffective or unworkable, a series of field experiments was carried out to test a technique of behavior influence utilizing a modest, positive incentive. In three separate studies, seat belt use of 4,745 drivers was observed as they drove out of a parking lot, after receiving one of several safety reminder leaflets. Some versions of the leaflet offered a gift certificate to a certain proportion of drivers who wore seat belts; other versions offered no incentive. The results showed that an incentive, regardless of the probability of payoff, raised belt use from about 15% to nearly 40%. Implications for future research and applications are discussed.     

TRAINING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO RECRUIT NATURAL COMMUNITIES OF REINFORCEMENT1

Four normal and four deviant children aged four-to-six years were taught to judge the quality of their academic work in a preschool classroom, and to prompt or cue their teachers to comment about the quality of that work. When these skills did not generalize spontaneously to other teachers in concurrent natural situations, generalized responding was taught by the experimenter, in multiple-baseline design across subjects. This generalization programming enabled the children to contact a sometimes dormant, but readily available natural community of teacher praise and reinforcement, i.e., to recruit an increase in cued praise and schedules of praise for their good work. These behaviors may be important to young children who find themselves bereft of attention in classrooms.     

Validity of psychologists' identification of EMR students in the perspective of the California decertification experience

The Diana (Diana v. State Board of Education, Note 1) and the Larry P. (Larry P. v. Riles, Note 2) litigations led to decertification of thousands of California EMR students and their return to the regular program. Allegations, including those of biased testing, went largely uncontested in order that change in special education could result from court mandate, but the allegations left the psychologists in a libeled state. A study of cumulative records and psychologists files in 12 representative districts permitted a comparison of the EMR placement of those later decertified (D) with matched nondecertified (EMR). Other than a small mean difference in IQ at placement, nothing was found to support various allegations. Records showed no systematic differences betweeen D and EMR groups in pre-EMR reasons for referral nor in teacher marks, discnfirming beliefs in referral of higher functioning students for deportment rather than for academic failure. Districts permitted a mean of at least two years in regular placement before assessment, attesting to class failure rather than IQ as the initial and necessary basis for EMR identification (no D-EMR difference in this either). The data permit a conclusion that the work of the school psychologists in the EMR placement was professionally competent, given the guidelines in effect at the time.     

Effect of audience reaction upon fluency rates of six stutterers

Each of six male stutterers spoke to a 14 member audience for 40 min. This speaking time was divided into eight 5-min periods during which several consequence conditions were in operation. Those consequence conditions consisted of various combinations of “good” and “stop” statements delivered by the audience following fluent and disfluent utterances, respectively. In one condition the speaker applied the consequences. It was found that while various combinations of consequences do not alter the total number of words spoken per minute, they affect the number of occasions of disfluences occuring per minute. It could not be determined which condition resulted in optimum rate changes. Suggestions are presented for maintaining fluent speech.     

The Selection of Trainees,Trainers, Facilities,and Meeting Times for In-Service Training for Teachers

If in-service training is to improve instruction, then careful planning must be done. The approach taken in assigning responsibility for the training, selection of trainees and trainers, provision of adequate facilities, and establishment of meeting times can have a tremendous influence on the success of the training.     

A deglitching circuit for the AA50 D/A converter

Switching transients or “glitches” are frequently encountered in signal processing applications involving digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion. A low-cost “deglitching” circuit is described and implemented for the Digital Equipment Corporation AA50 D/A converter option on the PDP-8/e minicomputer. Switching transients were eliminated using a noninverting, unity-gain sample-and-hold circuit (employing Datei System’s SHM-IC-1). Switching transients were reduced to below-noise levels across a wide range of output levels and sampling rates.     

A cognitive-behavioral perspective on intelligence

The present editorial has two purposes. The first purpose is to indicate a parallel trend in two seemingly disparate areas of research which upon closer examination have interesting possible ties. These research areas are information processing and cognitive-behavior modification (CBM). The second purpose is to highlight the role that affect plays in intellectual functioning, noting some of the implications which then follow for the assessment of intelligence.     

Pupillometric assessment of retrieval operations in factual long-term memory

The process involved in recall from long-term memory were studied through the use of a general knowledge questionnaire and the technique of pupillometry. Degree of processing of the components of the retrieval process was inferred from second-by-second monitoring of pupil size. Measurements were recorded during subjects' attempts to retrieve the answer to the query, or if unsuccessful, from clues of the target (first and last letters), and if still unsuccessful, to recognize the presented target word as being associated with the question (the “Of course”, or “That's it!” experience). Pupil size differed according to the nature of the three task demands. Additionally, there were differences based on the type of outcome within the question trial (e.g., between target known but blocked — feeling-of-knowing/tip-of-tongue — and target not known), and the answer trial (recognize vs not recognize the question—answer relationship). The results were related to the search and decisional processes of retrieval.