Teaching students with ASD: Does teacher enthusiasm make a difference?

There is a general belief that students perform better in an environment in which teachers exude enthusiasm. In elementary, secondary, and college settings, the display of teacher enthusiasm is associated with positive attitudes toward teachers, recall of information, and improved classroom behavior. Although the assumption that students perform better when teachers are enthusiastic is frequently extended to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is currently no published research on the topic. Research on social avoidance suggests that individuals with ASD may have no reaction or even respond negatively to teacher enthusiasm and thus perform better in conditions of low teacher attention. The current study was conducted to examine the effects of teacher enthusiasm on task performance for 12 students diagnosed with ASD. For each participant, performance on a matching task was measured during a high attention condition and during a low attention condition. Inspection of performance data indicated that out of 12 participants, only one demonstrated better performance under high teacher attention and one demonstrated better performance under low teacher attention. Interestingly, when experimenters who served as teachers in the study were asked to judge student performance, they stated that all students performed better with high teacher attention. Based on the findings of the current study, educators and parents of children with ASD are cautioned against attributing differences or changes in student performance to type and intensity of social attention provided during task instruction in the absence of conducting a functional analysis. Implications from the current study serve as a reminder to avoid oversimplifying the complex learning challenges of children with autism and reiterate the importance of obtaining continuous objective performance data. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solving the $100 modal logic challenge

We present the theoretical foundation, design, and implementation, of a system that automatically determines the subset relation between two given axiomatizations of propositional modal logics. This is an open problem for automated theorem proving. Our system solves all but six out of 121 instances formed from 11 common axiomatizations of seven modal logics. Thus, although the problem is undecidable in general, our approach is empirically successful in practically relevant situations.     

Hemispheric differences in temporal resolution

A review of the relevant clinical and experimental literature gives the conclusion that the cerebral hemispheres differ in temporal resolution of input, with the language-dominant hemisphere showing finer acuity. This conclusion is supported by evidence from performance of patients with unilateral brain damage on tests of temporal resolution, performance of developmental dyslexics on similar tasks, and left-right sensory field differences in temporal acuity in normal human subjects. While it is unlikely that a hemispheric difference in temporal resolution is sufficient to give a complete account of lateralized functions, such attempts to show more primitive physiological differences between the hemispheres are more likely to be fruitful than attempts which differentiate the hemispheres in terms of higher-order psychological functions.     

Data on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale from a British clinic population

Conners Teacher Rating Scales were completed on 124 boys aged between 5 and 11 years who attended the child guidance clinics of a large southeast London psychiatric hospital. Comparisons were made with the data provided by Conners (Am. J. Psychiat., 1969,126, 884–888) in which the factor structure of the scale was first identified. This was in response to a reported failure to replicate the scales factor structure in a clinic population despite a number of confirmatory studies on large numbers of children in general populations. Of the scale's five original factors, three were clearly identified. The other two, labeled Hyperactivity and Inattentive-Passive, comprised a single factor. A fifth weaker factor not identified by Conners (1969) was found, consisting principally of antisocial conduct items. The results are seen as providing further evidence of the scales robustness in this, the only other reported clinic study and one in which British children were used for the first time.     

Book reviews

The Culture of Religious Pluralism Richard E. Wentz, 1998 Boulder, Colorado & Oxford, UK: Westview Press 130 pp., £50.00 (hb), £10.50 (hb) ISBN 0–8133–2644–3 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2644–3 (pb)

Religious Diversity and Human Rights Irene Bloom, J. Paul Martin & Wayne L. Proudfoot, eds., 1997 New York: Columbia University Press 355 pp., US$57.00, £40.00 (hb), US$21.00, £15.00 (pb) ISBN 0–231–10416–2 (hb), ISBN 0–231–10417–0 (pb)

New Religions as Global Cultures: Making the Human Sacred Irving Hexham & Karla Poewe, 1997 Boulder, CO: Westview Press xiv + 194 pp., £45.50 (hb), £13.00 (pb) ISBN: 0–8133–2507–2 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2508–0 (pb)

Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader Penny Edgell Becker & Nancy L. Eiesland, eds., 1997 Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira ress 272 pp., £19.99 ISBN 0–7619–9196–4

Sacred Tensions: Modernity and Religious Transformation in Malaysia Raymond L. M. Lee & Susan E. Ackerman, 1998 Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press ix + 172 pp., US$29.95 (hb) ISBN 1–57003–167–3

Does Christianity Cause War? David Martin, 1997 Oxford: Clarendon Press x + 226 pp., £30.00 (hb) ISBN 0–19–829267–8

Faith and Doubt: Religion and Secularisation in Literature from Wordsworth to Larkin R. L. Brett, 1997 Macon, GA: Mercer University Press 261 pp., £25.00, US$40.00 ISBN: 0 86554 544 8

The Search for Common Ground: What Unites and Divides American Catholics James D. Davidson, Andrea S. Williams, Richard A. Lamanna, Jan Stenftenagel, Kathleen Maas Wiegert, William J. Whalen, Patricia Wittberg, S.C., 1997 Huntington Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press 287 pp., US$24.95 (plus shipping)

The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience Benjamin Beit‐Hallahmi & Michael Argyle, 1997 London: Routledge xii + 318 pp., £40.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–12330–5 (hb), ISBN 0 415 12331 3 (pb)

God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission R. Marie Griffith, 1997 Berkeley, CA: University of California Press xi + 275 pp., US$24.95 (hb) ISBN 0–520–20764–5

Restoring the Kingdom: The Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement Andrew Walker, 1998 Guildford: Eagle 416 pp., £9.99 (pb) ISBN 0–86347–160–9

The Faith of the Managers: When Management Becomes Religion Stephen Pattison, 1997 London & Washington: Cassell 188 pp., £14.99 (pb) ISBN: 0–304–70144–0

Jerusalem: What Makes for Peace! A Palestinian Christian Contribution to Peacemaking Naim Ateek, Cedar Duaybis & Marla Schrader, eds., 1997 London: Melisende xxix + 241 pp., £12.50 (pb) ISBN 1–901764–00–1

Western Scholarship and the History of Palestine Michael Prior, CM, ed., 1998 London: Melisende xvi +111 pp., £8.50 (pb) ISBN 1–901764–02–8

Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between Christian and African Traditional Religions James L. Cox, ed. Series: Religion in Contemporary Africa Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998 259 pp., £15.95 (pb) ISBN 1–899025–06–5

Between Cultures: Continuity and Change in the Lives of Young Asians Muhammad Anwar, 1998 London: Routledge 212 pp., £47.50 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–04647–5 (hb), ISBN 0–415–04648–3 (pb)

Historical Dictionary of Hinduism Bruce M. Sullivan, 1997 Lanham, Maryland & London: The Scarecrow Press xvii + 345 pp., US$49.00 ISBN 0–8108–3327–1

Religious Education: An Interpretive Approach Robert Jackson, 1997 London: Hodder & Stoughton 156 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0–340–68870‐X

The Division of Consciousness: The Secret Afterlife of the Human Psyche Peter Novak, 1997 Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company 258 pp., US$14.95 ISBN 1–57174–053–8

Religion Without Beliefs: Essays in Pantheist Theology, Comparative Religion and Ethics Frederic Lamond, 1997 London: Janus Publishing 184 pp., £7.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85756–341–7

Hiding Mark C. Taylor, 1997 Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 354 pp., US$29.95 ISBN 0–226–79159–9     

Judgment in a dynamic task: Microburst forecasting

The major goals of this research are to (a) study professionals engaging in dynamic, representative task conditions, (b) apply lens model theory to these conditions, (c) learn how judgments are changed in response to changing conditions, and (d) utilize a hierarchical judgment model to investigate the judgment process from perception of data to final judgment. The results indicate that (a) agreement regarding inferred cue values is modest, not because of differences in perception of proximal, directly observed cue values but because of differences in inferences drawn from them, (b) agreement in probability judgments is higher when inferred cue values are specified, (c) little change in judgments occurred over time, and (d) confidence increased over time. The results regarding agreement and accuracy over time were ambiguous.     

CNS prophylaxis of childhood leukemia: What are the long-term neurological,neuropsychological, and behavioral effects?

Current medical treatments for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have improved the outlook to where more than 50% can be expected to survive five years or more. The use of CNS prophylaxis has contributed in a significant way to these improved survival statistics by reducing the likelihood of CNS relapses. The literature relating to the potential adverse psychological consequences of CNS prophylaxis, which include cranial radiation therapy (CRT), is reviewed and analyzed. The majority of published papers of children in first remission report that CNS prophylaxis, which include both CRT and intrathecal methotrexate, results in a variety of learning problems in many children who were younger than age 5 when treated. The available literature on the social, emotional, and educational sequelae of childhood ALL is also reviewed.Contributing Childrens Cancer Study Group investigators, institutions, and grant numbers are given in the Appendix. Address reprint requests to the Childrens Cancer Study Group, 440 East Huntington Drive, Suite 300, P.O. Box 60012, Arcadia, California 91066-6012.