The generality of overselectivity in developmentally disabled children

A growing body of research suggests that low Mental Age (MA) autistic and retarded children show a unique stimulus control deficit, one that may cause many or most of their behavioral deficiencies. This problem, stimulus overselectivity, is evidenced when a child responds only to a restricted portion of the stimulus environment when compared with normal children. The purpose of this study was to assess whether this overselectivity is general across situations or whether it is restricted to certain stimulus/task conditions. Eight autistic children, who evidenced overselectivity on a preassessment task, and 8 normal children with similar MA levels participated. All children were trained on 3 tasks to determine if overselectivity varied as a function of different stimulus conditions. Each of the 3 tasks involved training a child to respond to (i.e., touch) a card containing a circle (S +) and to avoid a blank (S ?) card. In each case, the circle comprised a series of dots. The difference between the 3 circles (tasks) was the distance between the successive dots making up each circle. Also, in the minimal separation condition the dots were smaller in size and greater in number than in the larger separation conditions. Of concern was whether autistic children learned about the gestalt (i.e., the circle), which required attention to multiple cues, or whether children would overselect and respond to the dots. The results showed that (1) stimulus overselectivity was found not to be a generalized deficit in autistic subjects; instead, it varied as a function of the stimulus variables; and (2) the stimulus variables manipulated in this study similarly influenced the responding of both normal and autistic children. The implications of these data for a theory of overselectivity are discussed.     

Creative thinking and juvenile delinquency: a study of delinquent and nondelinquent youth on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.

Using the T.T.C.T. this study examined the creative thinking of 32 delinquent and 32 nondelinquent adolescent males. The delinquent group was composed of juveniles on parole status. The nondelinquent group was composed of public school students. On the variables of IQ, age, and socioeconomic class, t-test results indicated no significant differences, except on socioeconomic class, between the groups. Analysis of variance procedures were performed to determine the possibility of an interaction between levels of intelligence and delinquent status with regard to verbal and figural creativity test scores. There were no significant main effects or interaction between IQ and adjudication status with respect to figural creativity. There was a significant main effect due to adjudication status for the dependent variable of verbal creativity scores, respectively while blocking on the intelligence variable. The results were parallel to the ANOVAS which did not specifically control for the intelligence variable between the two groups.     

The role of the church in the community based care of the chronically mentally disabled: Reclaiming an historic ministry

The perplexing circumstance of the chronically mentally disabled in the community poses both a challenging ministry and significant learning opportunity for the church. Historically the church once served as a primary resource in their community life. When care shifted to the hospital in the nineteenth century, chaplains then ministered on behalf of the church. The institutional setting later spawned the clinical training and pastoral care movement, the mental patient an essential teacher and beneficiary. With the locus of care having recently returned to the community, the church can now provide social, pastoral and spiritual resources, collaborate in deinstitutionalization with the mental health delivery system, and return to a ministry of learning with the less resourceful.The Reverend Anderson serves as Chaplain Supervisor, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Box 1842, New Haven, Connecticut 06508, and as a Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at Yale Divinity School. The author wishes to thank Dr. Donald H. Williams and Fr. Henri Nouwen for their advice and encouragement during the preparation of this article.     

Cardiovascular responses to avoidance conditioning in the dog: Effects of alpha adrenergic blockade

Laboratory dogs were trained to press a response panel to postpone shocks during daily one-hour avoidance conditioning periods. Each dog was also confined in the experimental environment for 5 hours prior to the avoidance periods. Blood pressure and heart rate were monitored continuously during these experiments from chronically indwelling arterial catheters. Extended training resulted in the emergence of a cardiovascular response pattern during the pre-avoidance interval characterized by gradual increases in blood pressure together with decreases in heart rate. Elevations in both blood pressure and heart rate were sustained during the avoidance periods. During sessions in which alpha adrenergic activity was suppressed by phenoxybenzamine, absolute levels of blond pressure were found to be lower than during control (non-drug) sessions, but a progressive rise in blood pressure continued to be observed during pre-avoidance. These results suggest that sustained cardiovascular responses during avoidance periods are associated with activation of the sympathetic nervous system, but that the gradual rise in blood pressure during pre-avoidance is due to other factors.     

Technical standards and performance standards in the pursuit of quality

The concept of standards lacks clarity because it is applied both to concrete specifications and to the assessment of quality. Confusion is reduced by introducing the notion of interchange expectancy. distinguishing transfer, coupling, and market success as components. Transfer expectancy depends upon the products to be transported or exchanged, but when there is a need to estimate transfer expectancy, a combination of technical standards and performance standards must be applied. Though performance standards are intended to produce quality, the quality of the instrumentation to measure performance standards is often neglected. The development of high-quality performance standards first requires the delineation of the relevant dimensions of performance quality. The process of giving precision to performance standards may lead to the emergence of more acceptable technical standards. To illustrate some of these points, data is presented from the CONDUIT system for quality evaluation of computer-based curriculum materials. The performance quality of these products includes the dimension of transfer expectancy, as well as educational and scientific merit. Increased specification and impact of technical standards may provide greater incentives to authors and hence lead to the invention of products which have higher educational and scientific quality.     

Cognitive and Behavioural Attention in Children with Low-Moderate and Heavy Doses of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Attention problems are thought to be a hallmark feature of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Despite decades of research however, these findings have never been pooled to...