Comparison of simultaneous prompting and constant time delay procedures in teaching sight words to elementary students with moderate mental retardation

Simultaneous prompting (a type of antecedent prompt and test procedure) and constant time delay were compared with four students with moderate mental retardation learning expressive sight words. A parallel treatments design across word sets and replicated across students was used. For acquisition, the simultaneous prompting procedures required fewer trials, sessions, and training time to criterion and resulted in fewer student errors during daily probe and training sessions. However, maintenance data indicated mixed results across the two procedures. Reliability data (both dependent and independent variables) revealed no differences between the two procedures in terms of the teacher's accuracy in recording student responses and implementing each procedure. Future research issues are discussed.     

The utilization of genetic counselors within a newborn screening program

Genetic counselors have participated in the Michigan Newborn Screening Program on a contractual basis since 1988. Their role includes newborn screening education and training, newborn nursery site visits, and monitoring newborn screening in hospitals. Their impact has been to improve the quality of newborn screening services by reducing errors and increasing completion of data fields on newborn screening cards, improving hospital nursery cooperation and problem solving, and enhancing health department response to specific problems.     

Reflections on human pavlovian decelerative heart-rate conditioning with negative tilt as US: Alternative approaches

The negative-tilt preparation that has been reported since the late seventies is a specific form of Pavlovian conditioning that is of scientific interest and has potential applications. In this paper I reflect on the usefulness, to the development of this preparation, of two approaches to Pavlovian conditioning. One approach is the older S-R learning, stimulus-substitution paradigm exemplified by learning texts of the sixties. The other is the modern, Tolman-like view, according to which the phenomenon of Pavlovian conditioning is “now described as the learning of relations among events so as to allow the organism to represent its environment.” The three assumptions encapsulated by this approach are: (a) that only CS-US contingency relations are learned; (b) that teleological modes of explanations are adequate; (c) that the representational theory of knowledge is sound. Concerning Pavlovian conditioning in general, questions been raised in the literature for all three assumptions; they have not been adequately answered. Regarding the specific problem of developing the human Pavlovian heart-ratedecelerative conditioning with negative tilt as the US, I suggest that the cognitive approach has been much less helpful than the older, S-R, stimulus-substitution paradigm. Nevertheless, other literature clearly indicates that the cognitive, S-S approach has generated considerable interest and research, especially in preparations like the conditioned emotional response (CER), which are CS-IR ones in the sense that the effects on the CR are assessed indirectly through measuring an indicator or instrumental response (IR). Finally, even in CS-CR preparations like human GSR conditioning, it is important to study the cognitive, S-S learning process through using such dependent variables as continuously assessed subjective CS-US contingency.     

Generativity and Erikson's “belief in the species”

Generativity is the concern for guiding and promoting the next generation through such creative behavior as parenting, teaching, mentoring, leading, and generating products and outcomes that benefit others. Erikson (1963) has argued that in order to be generative in adulthood, people must have a fundamental “belief in the species” or a faith that human progress is possible and worth working toward. The present study focuses on hope and trust concerning the self and others (Erikson's “belief in the species”). In addition, however, the study examines the relation between generativity and personality traits, in this case, dominance, leadership, self-absorption, and nurturance. A sample of 70 adults was administered (1) a series of self-report questionnaires converging on Erikson's idea of belief in the species, (2) a self-report scale assessing generativity, (3) measures of personality traits, and (4) two open-ended measures of generativity requiring subjects to describe life commitments and creative endeavors. The results provide modest support for Erikson's claim of a link between belief in the species and generativity, with significant positive correlations obtained (1) between self-report generativity and two measures of belief in species and (2) between generativity assessed through life commitments and one measure of belief in the species. In addition, the personality trait of nurturance was positively related to all three generativity measures. Problems and issues in the assessment of generativity are discussed.