Utilization of college students to improve inner-city school children's academic behavior

A program using college students as tutor/counselors with low-achieving, inner-city, junior high school students is described and evaluated. The college students, who were primarily ethnic minorities, played a multifaceted role as tutors, counselors, and role models of academic achievement. The evaluation assessed program effects across groups (program versus control), two schools and two program administrations, using analysis of covariance. Results supported positive program impact in the students using teacher ratings of classwork effort, quality, and attitude, and in the students' self-reported attitudes toward education, educational aspirations, and expectations.     

An empirical test of the covariation analysis in causal attribution

The present investigation was designed to reveal the cognitive inference processes associated with both detection and utilization of covariation information in causal attribution. Male undergraduates were (a) informed that a test was easy or difficult and shown a videotape in which (b) the test-taker's performance was high or low, and (c) covariation between the test-taker's effort expenditure and trial-by-trial outcome was present or absent. High performance was attributed to the test-taker's effort and ability, whereas low performance was attributed to the difficulty of the test. However, recognition of the covariance relationship decreased the attribution of high performance to ability and of low performance to test difficulty and increased the attribution of low performance to effort. Effort attribution in the high performance condition was independent of covariation information. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between covariation information and typical beliefs about the causes of achievement outcomes.     

A theoretical reconciliation of competing views of time perception.

The time-perception literature is oriented around two opposing traditions, one of which, set forth by Ornstein in 1970, views time estimation as linearly and positively related to stimulus complexity, while the other, as published by Priestly in 1968, sees time as essentially linearly but negatively associated with the experiential complexity with which given intervals are filled. However, careful reading of the literature suggests that, contrary to the Ornstein and Priestly models, a linear correlation between stimulus complexity and time perception should not be expected to fully describe the range of possible relationships. What researchers appear to have ignored is the interrelated impact on time perception of the widely reported inverted-U effects of stimulus complexity and the conceptually related dimension of extroversion. With these latter considerations, comparative time perception thus becomes not a linear but rather a curvilinear, U-shaped function of both personality and stimulus complexity dimensions. The conceptual reconciliation growing out of the present literature review thus offers an explanation for previously reported empirical inconsistencies and suggests the redirection of future comparative time perception research.     

Delayed matching in the pigeon: Effect on performance of sample-specific observing responses and differential delay behavior

Pigeons were trained on a delayed matching-to-sample task with a 0-sec delay and then transferred to a 1-sec delay (Experiment 1) or were trained with mixed 0-sec/1-sec delays and then transferred to longer mixed delays up to 28 sec (Experiment 2). Four groups were distinguished by the nature of the observing response required to each sample color (red and blue). For Group NN pecks were allowed to neither color. For Group PcPc pecks were required to both colors. For Group PcN pecks were required to red but were not allowed to blue. For Group PcPt pecks were required at the center key in the presence of red, but at a key located directly above the center key in the presence of blue. The results of both experiments indicated significant effects of both Pecking vs Not Pecking, and Sample-Specific vs Sample-Independent Responding. At the longer delays individual differences in sample-specific delay behavior were a better predictor of performance than the behavior required in the presence of the sample.     

Mediating factors in the arousal-performance relationship

The arousal-performance relationship was investigated within a social facilitation experiment, in which two major task dimensions (cognitive-motor and difficulty) were manipulated and two arousal measures (palmar sweat and self-reports) were taken. Subjects (75 male and 75 female introductory psychology students) were randomly assigned to one of five audience conditions and one of three task difficulty levels. Each subject performed three tasks, which varied as to cognitive and motor requirements, under a uniform difficulty level. No significant differences were found on any arousal or performance measure due to the audience manipulation. Females were found to be more aroused by the audiences than males, on both arousal measures. When self-reported arousal scores were quintiled to create five post hoc arousal conditions, significant interactions between these conditions and task difficulty level were obtained for both the cognitive and motor tasks. (No significant differences were found using quintiled palmar sweat scores.) On the basis of the similar pattern of these interactions, it was concluded that the inverted-U function was obtained only on high-difficulty tasks.     

Got Those PL 94–142 Blues

The implementation of PL 94–142 has made a definite impact on the school counselor. The demands on a counselor's time and energy were not anticipated. This article discusses what is actually happening and why it is happening. Some suggestions are given about what can be done to help the counselor in a local setting.     

Toward a differential testing approach: Testing-the-limits employing the Raven matrices

Various testing-the-limits procedures were employed in administering the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices Test to 203 second grade and 230 fourth grade children. Tests of impulsivity, neuroticism, extroversion, intelligence and school achievement were also given. The main results showed that testing-the-limits procedures which involved verbalization and feedback were efficacious in maximizing performance on the Raven. The puzzle form of the test generally led to higher scores than the picture version for the second but not fourth graders. Differential analyses were carried out to establish how construct, concurrent and predictive validity of the Raven were affected by the salient testing-the-limits procedures involved. Analysis was also done with the personality variables and revealed how their effect interacted with various test administration procedures. The results were discussed in theoretical and practical terms.     

Item level validity of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale

Using a random sample of children in grades one through six as well as a sample of children referred for social or emotional problems, the item level validity of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale was assessed. Results indicated that Devereux responses for normal children tended to be skewed, with the item means falling near the positive end of the response continuum and with narrow standard deviations. Item means in the referred sample were closer to the center of the distribution and tended to have larger standard deviations. When item-to-subscale correlations were considered, the Devereux items, in general, were significantly correlated with their home subscale. Thirty-two of the 45 items on the scale had home scale correlations that were significantly higher than any other subscale correlation for that item. K-R 20 coefficients for subscales ranged from .74 to .89. Because the 9 items that had very poor subscale correlations were clustered on 4 of the 11 original subscales, it was recommended that these subscales be eliminated. The result would be a 31-item scale that measures seven different factors.Authorship is equal.     

Effects of positive and negative adult-child interactions on children's task performance and task preferences

In individual sessions, an adult directed three boys to work on each of three different tasks. Within a given session the on-task behavior for one task was praised, the off-task behavior for another task was verbally reprimanded, and all behavior was ignored with the third task. Using a multielement baseline design, the manner in which the adult interacted with the children on a given task varied from day to day. Across 18 sessions, verbal reprimands produced the highest task rates, with praise producing only a slightly higher rate of responding than noninteraction. After each session the children were given the choice of which of the three tasks they wished to work on when the adult left the room for a few minutes. Tasks associated with verbal reprimands of off-task behavior were never chosen. The first and second choices were always the task associated with praise for on-task behavior or the task where the children were ignored. These preferences generalized to similar tasks.     

Short-term proactive inhibition in the pigeon

Proactive inhibition in the pigeon was studied using a delayed-color-matching-to-sample task, with and without presentation of stimuli prior to the sample. Interference theory predicts that, relative to control performance, the disruptive effects of a prior stimulus should increase over a retention interval, while decay theory predicts that such disruptive effects should decrease over time. Results supported decay theory when performance was at a low level and interference theory when performance was at a high level. With performance at an intermediate level, parallel functions were obtained, an outcome supporting neither theory. It was concluded that the results supporting interference and decay theories were artifactually produced by floor and ceilling effects, respectively, and it was suggested that the results of earlier experiments using the present paradigm may well have been influenced by similar artifacts. Inserting a nondisruptive stimulus between a prior disruptive stimulus and the sample virtually eliminated the disruptive effects of the prior stimulus when tested immediately, but not when tested after 1 sec. The results of the present experiments and related findings can best be explained by either a modified decay theory (Grant, D. S. Proactive interference in pigeon short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1975, 104, 207–220) or a modified temporal discrimination theory.