The effect of punishment on a factor I stuttering behavior

On each of five days the subject of this experiment read aloud different material during an 18-min A₁ (base rate), B (experimental), and A₂ (extinction) period. No stimulation was delivered during the first three days. On the fourth day, the nonsense word “norg” was presented noncontingently during the experimental period. There was no statistically significant difference between the A₁ and B periods on any of these four days. On day five, “wrong” was made contingent on Factor I prolongations during the experimental period. As a result, there was a statistically significant increase in their frequency. When the response consequence was removed in the A₂ priod, there was a reliable reduction in prolongations and the frequency closely approximated that found in the A₁ period. These data suggest that response-contingent negative stimulation is contraindicated as a clinical tactic for use with Factor I prolongations. It not only failed to suppress them, it increased their frequency.     

Stuttering adaptation under distributed and massed conditions

An identical-subject-repeated-measures design, involving two counterbalanced conditions, was employed to investigate adaptation when the presentation of a 100-word list is distributed and when it is massed. In Condition I, the entire list was read aloud during each of five successive trials. Since a specific word reoccurred only after all of the others were displayed, the presentation may be said to be distributed. In contrast, the Condition II presentation was massed. Only after a word was read five times was the next one presented. The results indicate that significant adaptation occurred in both conditions. However, adaptation plateaued in the distributed condition. This was not the case when massing was employed. The among-condition analyses revealed that significantly more adaptation occurred in the massed than in the distributed condition.     

A comparative investigation of the speech-associated attitude of preschool and kindergarten children who do and do not stutter

The data of recent research studies have shown that by 3 years of age children show an awareness of dysfluency and that by at least the age of six, youngsters who stutter have a speech-associated attitude that is more negative than that of their peers. These findings led to the present study in which the KiddyCAT, a self-report measure, was used to compare the attitude toward speech of 45 children, between the age of three and six, who stuttered with that of 63 who did not. The data of this investigation showed that, as a group, the preschool and kindergarten children who stuttered had significantly more in the way of a negative attitude toward their speech than was found among their nonstuttering peers of the same age and gender. This finding is not consistent with the classically held position that the reactive aspects of stuttering do not generally develop until well after its onset. It suggests the need to measure, by standardized means, the speech-associated attitude of incipient stutterers and, when appropriate, to make the assessment and treatment of negative attitude toward speech a meaningful aspect of therapy.

Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe the difference in the speech-associated attitude of preschoolers and kindergartners who do and do not stutter; (2) summarize what we currently know about self-report tests used to assess speech-related attitude among children as young as 3; and (3) evaluate the usefulness of assessing the belief system of children whose fluency is considered problematic.     

Predicting interpersonal competence in young adulthood: The roles of family,self, and peer systems during adolescence

The present investigation examines the impact of family, self, and peer systems, evaluated during early adolescence, on the development of interpersonal competence in young adulthood. The participants were 110 Caucasian individuals, their mothers, and one of their teachers. At the first assessment, the participants ranged in age from 11.5 to 15.1 years old. Approximately six years later, the participants completed a second evaluation involving assessment of interpersonal competence. Increased interparental conflict and parental divorce predicted decreased self-esteem. Decreased self-esteem predicted poorer peer-adolescent relationships, which, in turn, forecasted poorer adult interpersonal competence. The results suggest that living in a distressed family leads to diminished self-esteem which can influence the quality of peer relationships and place an adolescent on a trejectory toward difficulties in interpersonal competence during adulthood.     

Functionalism and Causal Exclusion

Abstract: Recent work by Jaegwon Kim and others suggest that functionalism leaves mental properties causally inefficacious in some sense. I examine three lines of argument for this conclusion. The first appeals to Occam's Razor; the second appeals to a ban on overdetermination; and the third charges that the kind of response I favor to these arguments forces me to give up "the homogeneity of mental and physical causation". I show how each argument fails. While I concede that a positive theory of mental causation is desirable, there is no reason to think that functionalism renders such a theory unattainable.     

Factors that influence search termination decisions in free recall: an examination of response type and confidence

In three experiments search termination decisions were examined as a function of response type (correct vs. incorrect) and confidence. It was found that the time between the last retrieved item and the decision to terminate search (exit latency) was related to the type of response and confidence in the last item retrieved. Participants were willing to search longer when the last retrieved item was a correct item vs. an incorrect item and when the confidence was high in the last retrieved item. It was also found that the number of errors retrieved during the recall period was related to search termination decisions such that the more errors retrieved, the more likely participants were to terminate the search. Finally, it was found that knowledge of overall search set size influenced the time needed to search for items, but did not influence search termination decisions.     

The dynamic nature of the stress appraisal process and the infusion of affect

Very little is known about the process in which people reappraise a stressful environment or the factors that may influence this process. In the current study, we address the several limitations to previous research regarding stress reappraisals and explore the role of affect on this process. A total of 320 participants (mean age = 20 years, 60% male) completed an increasingly demanding team-based coordination task. Mood and stress appraisals were assessed at three time points using self-report surveys during four different waves of data collection. The longitudinal design enabled us to assess primary and secondary reappraisals (change in appraisals during the experiment), task-irrelevant affect (affect assessed prior to experiment participation), and task-relevant affect (change in affect experienced during the experiment). Guided by the Transactional Theory of Stress, we argue that the relationship between primary reappraisal and secondary reappraisal is an accurate representation of a dynamic stress appraisal process. We found that participants were more likely to engage in the stress appraisal process when they experienced less task-irrelevant positive affect and greater task-relevant positive affect. Both task-irrelevant and task-relevant negative affect were not found to influence the stress appraisal process.     

The Universal Principles of Evolution

Here we identify the core properties of genetic evolution with the intention of providing a unified definition of evolving systems that applies unequivocally in the natural and social sciences. Our definition is: evolution sustains organized systems through high fidelity replication of information. This definition can be broken down into five essential components: (1) high fidelity replication of information with 0% < survival rate < 100%; (2) expendable replication technology distinct from the replication information; (3) inert information that provides no kinetic energy to the replication process; (4) demonstrates a quantifiable resistance to entropy; (5) demonstrates intentionality.