Differential facilitation by pictures of children’s retention of written texts: A review

Investigation of the role of pictures in children’s comprehension and retention of written texts has produced reports of very different levels of facilitation. This article reviews the literature with respect to a proposed explanatory model that relates the differential pictorial facilitation to the type of material used and the children’s strategy in approaching it. It is suggested that the reported enhancement of factual texts results from the utilization of pictorial adjuncts to promote encoding of a distinct and unique conceptual unit, the subsequent retrieval of which is thereby improved. With story text, the effectiveness of pictures as encoding aids is limited by the predominance of the story schema in determining encoding and retrieval.     

RESPONSIBLE AGENCY: A HUMAN DISTINCTIVE?

While agent responsibility appears to be one of the clearest examples of a human distinctive, practices of holding responsible are bound up with social expectations and emotional reactions, many of which are shared with other social animals. This essay attends to the ways in which what Peter Strawson first identified as the reactive emotions, including notably anger, resentment, and indignation, are key to making sense of both the shared and distinctive features of responsible human agency. Like human beings, other social animals express a range of reactive emotions in response to others’ conformity with or violation of implicit social expectations and norms; human beings sometimes reflect on these reactive attitudes and their justifiability, asking whether and when it is appropriate to hold others accountable, blame, and/or punish them. We should recognize that we often praise and blame others for attitudes and desires which they have not chosen and over which they have no direct control, and that this is appropriate.     

Systematic review of interruption and redirection procedures for autistic individuals

Interruption and redirection (IR) procedures involve systematically disrupting an undesirable behavior and prompting an individual to engage in an alternative behavior. These procedures have been frequently assessed for reducing repetitive behaviors for autistic individuals. The primary purpose of this review was to assess IR interventions to determine whether outcomes vary according to intervention characteristics, dependent variable types, design quality, or publication status. A secondary purpose was to assess the extent to which generalization and maintenance outcomes were measured and whether characteristics of these conditions were related to outcomes. IR interventions were moderately successful for reducing repetitive behaviors but less effective for improving corollary variables such as appropriate vocalizations and functional engagement. Generalization and maintenance outcomes, when measured, were poor. Results indicate the need for alternative or augmentative procedures that focus on engagement in meaningful interactions and activities.     

Lifespan normative data (18–89 years) for Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Set I

Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) Set I is a validated and brief test of fluid intelligence, ideal for use in busy clinical settings. However, there is a dearth of normative data allowing an accurate interpretation of APM scores. To address this, we present normative data from across the adult lifespan (18–89 years) for the APM Set I. Data are presented in five age cohorts (total N = 352), including two older adult cohorts (65–79 years and 80–89 years), which allows age-standardized assessment. We also present data from a validated measure of premorbid intellectual ability, which was absent from previous standardizations of longer forms of the APM. In line with previous findings, a striking age-related decline was noted, beginning relatively early in adulthood and most marked amongst lower-scoring individuals. Older adults did not demonstrate difficulty with specific test items or make an increased proportion of specific errors. Sex was not a significant predictor of performance. The data set is of particular use in the neuropsychological assessment of older adults, given the known susceptibility of fluid intelligence to both the effects of normal ageing and acquired brain injury in older age. The results are discussed in light of theories of neurological ageing.     

On the processing of arguments

This paper is concerned with the processing of informal arguments, that is, arguments involving probable truth. A model of informal argument processing is presented that is based upon Hample's (1977) expansion of Toulmin's (1958) model of argument structure. The model postulates that a claim activates an attitude, the two components forming a complex that in turn activates reasons. Furthermore, the model holds occurrence of the reason, or possibly the claim and the reason, activates values. Three experiments are described that provide support for the model.This research was supported by the Mellon Foundation and by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the Department of Education via an award for the Center for the Study of Learning to the Learning Research and Development Center. The contents of the paper are not necessarily the position of any of these organizations.     

Nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in adolescents

To determine the frequency and correlates of nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in 12–14 year olds, a two stage epidemiologic survey with a self-administered questionnaire (N=3283) followed by a psychiatric interview of a subsample of the adolescents and their parents (N=444) was used. Prevalence estimates of interview validated nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts were 2.46% in males and 2.79% in females. Significant relationships were found between nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts and suicidal ideation, major depression and undesirable life events. Data suggest that physically self-damaging acts occur at substantial rates during early adolescence. The strong correlation between nonsuicidal self-destructive acts and both suicidal ideation and major depression clarifies prior conflicting reports in the literature and suggests that a history of self-damaging acts should be taken into consideration when evaluating for possible depression and suicide risk.     

Direct observation of quality of care in residential settings

Direct-observation procedures were used to objectively and efficiently assess several classes of service provided for individuals residing at two state facilities for the developmentally disabled. Time samples were taken of the condition of the clients' physical environment and of the clients themselves. The ongoing behavior of both clients and staff also was recorded. Each residence was observed at least three times during both regular work hours and evening/weekend hours. Results showed that both facilities scored high in the categories regarding the physical condition of the living areas, as well as the categories concerning the condition of the clients. Greater variability was seen in the data on client and staff behavior. More generally, the results indicate that time-sampling procedures can be used efficiently to collect data on multiple aspects of service delivery for large numbers of individuals.     

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND TREATMENT OF MULTIPLY CONTROLLED SELF-INJURY

A functional analysis of the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of 3 adults with profound developmental disabilities showed that each engaged in SIB in more than one assessment condition. Such outcomes may result from a failure to isolate the variable maintaining SIB, or they may reflect multiple sources of control over SIB. In order to identify more clearly the determinants of SIB, each subject was exposed to a series of treatments appropriate to one or both of the apparent functions of SIB. These treatments, applied sequentially on baselines appropriate to each behavioral function, identified the maintaining variables for SIB through differential outcomes across baselines. Results indicated that the SIB of 2 subjects was multiply controlled, confirming the outcomes of the functional analysis. However, the SIB of the 3rd subject was eliminated using a treatment designed for a single function, suggesting spurious results of the original assessment. Alternative interpretations of undifferentiated assessment data are discussed, as are analysis and treatment issues related to multiply determined behavior disorders.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

The stroop effect and the myth of automaticity

A widespread view in cognition is that once acquired through extensive practice, mental skills such as reading are automatic. Lexical and semantic analyses of single words are said to be uncontrollable in the sense that they cannot be prevented. Over the past 60 years, apparently convincing support for this assumption has come from hundreds of experiments in which skilled readers have processed an irrelevant word in the Stroop task despite explicit instructions not to, even when so doing would hurt color identification performance. This basic effect was replicated in two experiments, which also showed that a considerable amount of semantic processing is locally controlled by elements of the task. For example, simply coloring a single letter instead of the whole word eliminated the Stroop effect. This outcome flies in the face of any automaticity account in which specified processes cannot be prevented from being set in motion, but it is consistent with the venerable idea that mental set is a powerful determinant of performance.