Concurrent validity of the Woodcock-Johnson psycho-educational battery with regular and learning-disabled students

A comparison of the WISC-R and the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Educational Battery (W-J) was made for children with regular and learning-disabled (LD) class placement. The W-J and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) evidence low to moderate correlations and significant mean differences, indicating that the two tests are measuring somewhat different abilities to somewhat differing degrees. W-J—WISC-R correlations for the regular students exceed those of the LD students in the greater majority of the cases. Rank ordering of the WISC-R subtests and the W-J clusters indicate, as might be expected, that the LD students fare the worst in the WISC-R academic subtests (Arithmetic, Information and Vocabulary) and in the W-J academic clusters. More research needs to be conducted with the W-J before it should be adopted for use in the placement of exceptional children.     

An evaluation of the yellow brick road test through a full prediction-performance comparison matrix

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the predictive validity of the Yellow Brick Road Test (YBRT) relative to performance in reading as measured by the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT). A full prediction-performance comparison matrix was employed to compare three different cutoff scores for the YBRT for the identification of “at-risk” children. Four hundred and fourteen kindergarten-aged children were administered the YBRT, 214 of whom were followed to the end of second grade. It was concluded that the YBRT is a moderately valid instrument for predicting the level of reading achievement in a population with a different average performance level from the normative sample. However, the results of this study failed to support the utility of the test author's suggested use of a score of 120 as the cutoff score. Finally, it is recommended that a prediction-performance comparison study be considered standard methodology for the evaluation of the validity and efficiency of screening instruments.     

Induction by reinforcer schedules.

Traditional strategies for determining whether a reinforcer schedule enhances the occurrence of an activity are reviewed and critically evaluated. A basic assumption underlying these strategies is that it is possible to isolate the effect of reinforcer intermittency on schedule induction. It is concluded that this is not, in fact, possible. An alternative approach is proposed that emphasizes the inductive effects of the reinforcer schedule as a unit and the effects of particular aspects of the reinforcer schedule (e.g., interreinforcer interval, repetition of the reinforcer, reinforcer magnitude).     

Transfer of matching-to-figure samples in the pigeon

Three pigeons were trained on a modified six-key matching-to-sample procedure. The third peck on the figure-sample key (which presented a bird, hand, face, beetle, rabbit, fish, flower, or red hue, as the sample) lighted only one comparison key. Every three additional pecks on the sample lighted another comparison key, up to a maximum of five keys. Pecks on keys of matching figures produced grain. Pecks on nonmatching keys (mismatches) turned off all lights on the comparison keys and repeated the trial. Three figures were used during acquisition. The birds learned to peck each sample until the matching comparison stimulus appeared on one of three comparison stimulus keys, and then to peck that key. Later, five novel stimuli, employed as both sample and comparison stimuli, and two additional matching keys were added. Each bird showed matching transfer to the novel samples. The data suggest that the birds may have learned the concept of figure matching rather than a series of two-component chains or discrete five-key discriminations.     

Experimental analysis of individual differences and personality

In psychological studies individual differences that result in variability in data and thus mask the effects under investigation have been reduced or eliminated in two ways: (1) through the use of large numbers of subjects and statistical manipulations, or (2) through extensive and controlled studies of individual subjects. The latter, behavior-analytic, method is scientifically better because it permits identification of the variables that result in individual differences. This paper advocates the direct study of individual differences and personality rather than indirect study through experimental control procedures. Some data are presented showing that individual differences in response patterns have orderly characteristics. Extension of the experimental analysis of behavior to the study of individual differences and personality is likely to be important both scientifically and for the future growth of behavior analysis.     

Treatment of psychological distress following mastectomy: an initial report

A behavioural programme to treat psychological distress following mastectomy for breast cancer is described. The first 10 patients to be treated were randomly allocated to two treatment groups: Behavioural Programme Only or Behavioural Programme + Drugs (antidepressant medication). Both groups showed improvement over treatment, but the Behavioural Programme + Drugs group appeared to maintain their improvement better.     

Coping behavior in depression: report on a new scale

The Coping Strategies Scales (COSTS) were developed to provide a means of measuring how depressed persons cope with depression and to identify the behavior which they find to be most or least helpful. Items were rated by eight psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. Those items achieving 75% level of agreement on scale assignments were included. The COSTS was then administered to 100 depressed outpatients and inpatients currently in psychotherapy. A replication study of 64 patients was also completed. Nine of the 10 scales had acceptable internal reliability, ranging from 0.70 to 0.86. An initial factor analysis of the 10 scale scores showed there to be three primary factors. Internal reliability coefficients for these three factorially-derived scales ranged from 0.86 to 0.91.     

Time course of visual information utilization during fixations in reading

College students read short texts from a cathode-ray tube as their eye movements were being monitored. During selected fixations, the text was briefly masked and then it reappeared with one word changed. Subjects often were unaware that the word had changed. Sometimes they reported seeing the first presented word, sometimes the second presented word, and sometimes both. When only one word was reported, two factors were found to determine which one it was: the length of time a word was present during the fixation and the predictability of a word in its context. The results suggested that visual information is utilized for reading at a crucial period during the fixation and that this crucial period can occur at different times on different fixations. The pattern of responses suggested that the first letter of a word is not utilized before other letters and that letters are not scanned from left to right during a fixation.