AN ANALYSIS OF MAINTENANCE FOLLOWING FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING

The multiple and long-term effects of functional communication training relative to a common reductive procedure (time-out from positive reinforcement) were evaluated. Twelve children participated in a functional analysis of their challenging behaviors (Study 1), which implicated adult attention as a maintaining variable. The children were then matched for chronological age, mental age, and language age and assigned to two groups. One group received functional communication training as an intervention for their challenging behavior, and the second group received time-out as a contrast. Both interventions were initially successful (Study 2), but durable results were achieved only with the group that received functional communication training across different stimulus conditions (Study 3). Students whose challenging behaviors were previously reduced with time-out resumed these behaviors in the presence of naive teachers unaware of the children's intervention history. The value of teaching communicative responses to promote maintenance is discussed as it relates to the concept of functional equivalence.     

Visual hemispheric asymmetries depend on which spatial frequencies are task relevant

Observers classified sine-wave and square-wave gratings on the basis of fundamental frequency (Are the bars wide or narrow?) or on the basis of higher harmonic frequencies (Are the bars sharp or fuzzy?). Stimuli were presented in either the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual field. When the classification was made on the basis of the fundamental frequencies (1 or 3 c/deg), there was a LVF/right hemisphere advantage. However, when the classification was on the basis of a sharp/fuzzy distinction which involved searching for the higher harmonic frequencies, then a RVF/left hemisphere advantage was found.     

Environmental context-dependent eyewitness recognition

The present study helped resolve the apparent conflict between many laboratory list-learning studies, which have not found environmental context-dependent recognition memory, and staged field studies (e.g. Malpass and Devine, 1981), whose results with ‘guided memory’ techniques suggest that eyewitness face recognition should depend upon environmental context reinstatement. It was found in two different experiments that, relative to testing in a new place, returning participants to the environment where a live staged event had occurred improved performance on identification of a confederate's face (i.e., hit rate). Although physical reinstatement improved identification performance in Experiment 1, mental reinstatement instructions to subjects tested in a new environment did not improve identification performance over an uninstructed group. The environmental reinstatement effect did not interact with test delay or confederate. In Experiment 2 it was found that environmental reinstatement improved accuracy (hit rate and foil identification rate) when the correct target was present in the test line-up, and that false identifications were not significantly affected by contextual manipulations when the correct target was absent from the line-up. The results provide an empirical basis for the hypothesis that returning to the scene of an event improves eyewitness face recognition.     

An evaluation of a brief integrity test user orientation program

The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the effectiveness of a brief test user orientation program on increasing service station managers' familiarity with a few key employment testing issues, including their familiarity with theModel Guidelines for Preemployment Integrity Testing Programs. The obtained results reveal that even a brief orientation program was able to significantly increase the managers' stated degree of familiarity with testing issues.     

Parent-tutoring procedures: Experimental analysis and validation of generalization in oral reading across passages,settings, and time

A study that involved parents as reading tutors was carried out at home during the summer with four elementary children, three with learning disabilities. One purpose was to determine the effects of tutoring in the basal reader on reading rates at home. Another purpose was to determine potential generalization effects as a result of parent tutoring on different academic tasks at home and, later at school, on different and similar tasks. A combination multiple-baseline and reversal design tested for replication and generalization effects. Increases in correct rates were noted for the targeted variables across conditions. The results indicated that parents tutoring with school basal texts during the summer produced marked increases in reading rates that generalized at home to different academic tasks and at school to different and similar tasks. This suggests that parents, when using specific tutoring procedures, can increase their children's academic skills.     

Reducing problem behaviors in a residential unit using structural analysis and staff management procedures: A preliminary study

A structural analysis of the problem behaviors of 32 adults with mental retardation living together in a residential facility showed that a disproportionate number of these behaviors were associated with a period of time scheduled for leisure activities. A staff management program was implemented during this time which included activity and staff scheduling, staff inservice training, and staff performance monitoring and feedback. The results showed an 83% decrease in problem behaviors when the program was implemented during the leisure period and no decrease in problem behaviors during adjacent time periods where the program was not utilized. Follow-up assessments indicated maintenance of these decreased levels of behavior at 3 and 6 months. It was concluded that this approach of combining a structural analysis with staff management procedures was effective in reducing a high level of problem behavior in a residential setting. The results are discussed with regard to pragmatic strategies for the pretreatment analysis of problem behaviors in residential settings, and the role of organizational behavior management techniques in habilitative programing for individuals with behavior disorders.     

Convergent methods in psychomusical research based on integrated,interactive computer control

Much of what we learn from an experiment depends on what we ask of the subjects and how we ask it. Most music perception and cognition research is implemented using a single methodology. Recently, questions have been raised about the validity and generalizability of such a limited approach, particularly regarding such complicated theoretical constructs as musical tonality. We propose that a useful technique is to converge on the answer to experimental questions by applying multiple methods, in essence, simultaneously investigating the central research question as well as ancillary questions of method. Such an approach is facilitated by a computer hardware and software system that integrates experimental design, data collection, data analysis, and data dissemination, linking off-the-shelf components through standard file formats and data-exchange protocols. The list-based system, using an IBM-type PC running Windows 3.0, handles real-time natural sound sampling and playback, signal synthesis and analysis, MIDI input and output, digitized picture display, and various subject-response mechanisms. On the basis of graphical icons, the integrated system can be used to build custom experimental designs. Examples of convergent psychomusical experiments that were designed, implemented, and analyzed using the system are discussed.     

The putative role of free radicals in the loss of neuronal functioning in senescence

One of the hallmarks of the aging process is a loss of sensitivity in central neuronal receptors to agonist stimulation. This appears to be especially true in central (hippocampal, striatal) muscarinic cholinergic systems and in the striatal dopamine systems. For these two systems, any decline in their sensitivity can be of extreme importance in determining the behavioral capabilities of the organism. Decrements in the striatal dopamine system may be reflected as motor behavioral deficits, while the central cholinergic systems play a major role in the processing of memory through the activation of muscarinic receptors (mAChR). Declines in the function of these receptors appear to be at least partially responsible for the marked deterioration of cognitive function in normal aging and, more notably, in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous work has indicated only minimal success in improving performance in tasks that assess memory in senescent animals or humans with pharmacological agents which enhance cholinergic functioning. The present review describes research that indicates that two of the factors involved in this decline in receptor sensitivity include: (a) decreased receptor concentrations and (b) age-related decrements in signal transduction pathways. Studies are reviewed that indicate that the oxidative neural damage that occurs via kainic acid or ionizing radiation parallel those seen in aging. It is suggested that the common mechanism that may exist among all of the age-, disease-, excitatory amino acid- or radiation-induced deficits in neuronal transmission may involve free-radical-mediated alterations in membrane integrity through lipid peroxidation.